Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft Leibniz-Gemeinschaft

Language documentation and speaker perspective: How comparing forms across conversation genres led to the ‘discovery’ of egophoricity in Kurtöp

Vortragende(r) Gwendolyn Hyslop
Institution(en) University of Sydney & Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin
Workshop/Tagung Lecture Series "Language: Documentation and Theory (ELAR / ZAS)"
Datum 04.03.2022
Uhrzeit 16:00 Uhr
Ort Online
Link to the Vimeo video of the talk

Language: Documentation and Theory

The Endangered Languages Archive (ELAR) at the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften (BBAW) together with the Leibniz-Zentrum Allgemeine Sprachwissenschaft (ZAS) are delighted to announce the launch of a new lecture series. Our aim is to give a forum to linguistic work that advances or is based on the documentation of underdescribed languages, thus not only supporting linguistic research but also honoring the UNESCO International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032). For inquiries, please contact Mandana Seyfeddinipur (ELAR) director@eldp.net or Manfred Krifka (ZAS), krifka@leibniz-zas.de.

Due to Corona measures, participation in the lecture room of ZAS is restricted (please inform Manfred Krifka if you want to join). Participation is possible via Zoom (Meeting-ID 636 0651 0838, Meeting Link https://hu-berlin.zoom.us/j/63606150838). 

Abstract

Modern documentary linguistics can perhaps be traced back to work by Franz Boas, who first proposed the notion of ‘cultural relativism’, or the idea that a person’s framing of the world is influenced by their culture. This revolutionary idea led way to the documentation and description – first in North America – of languages according to their own categories. Over at least the past decade, many scholars have pointed to the importance of involving native speakers in the research themselves, often working double roles as consultants and investigators. Work on Kurtöp, an East Bodish language from Bhutan, has followed in this framework. In this talk I present an analysis of the epistemological system of Kurtöp at large, focussing in on the egophoric marker – a form that was only possible to analyse by comparing different conversations and excluding the outside researcher altogether.