1

Language Sciences in the 21st Century

Prof Peter K. Austin

Endangered Languages Academic Programme

Department of Linguistics, SOAS

Universitas Mataram, July 2010

2

Definition

‘linguistics is the scientific study of human language’

Scientific Human Language

3

The standard view

Scientific Goal: develop theories of language structure Hypothetico-deductive methodology Empirical – seek data to test theory and analysisHuman Language is species-specific to humans and learnt

rapidly ‘Universal grammar’ common to all languages, genetically

specifiedLanguage focus is competence (I-language, mental representations)

versus performance (E-language, behaviour) Universal grammar reveals itself in individual languages,

therefore comparative or cross-linguistic research can be limited in scope

4

Disciplinary contrast

Core linguisticsPhonetics – sounds, production, perceptionPhonology – sound systems and processesMorphology – word structureSyntax – sentence structure (categories, constituents,

relations/functions)Semantics – meaning

Hyphenated linguisticsSocio-linguisticsPsycho-linguisticsAnthropological linguisticsHistorical linguisticsComputational linguisticsApplied linguistics

5

Another contrast

Armchair linguistsFocus on theory building and testing, data from

introspection and/or published grammars

Descriptive linguistsFocus on describing languages, data from first-hand

fieldwork (the more dangerous the better)

Arguments about who are the ‘real linguists’

6

The definition again

‘linguistics is the scientific study of human language’

Scientific Human Language

7

Over the past 10 years linguistics has seen exciting developments in …

Scientific New understanding of the role of data in linguistic research Explorations of research methodologies in new and

exciting ways Impact of powerful new digital technologies in hardware

and softwareHuman Engagement with communities of speakers of languages

in new and different ways Taking social and cultural embeddness of humans

seriouslyLanguage Shift in interest and attention to linguistic diversity and the

imminent loss of languages Language as code versus language as practice

8

Linguistic diversity

About 7,000 languages are spoken on earth today

Very few languages have been properly studied and most of them have never been recorded or written down

Around 2,000 languages have writing, most of them very recently, and so 5,000 languages have no written form

Language distribution around the world is very skewed

9

Number of languages

Africa

S/SE Asia

PNG

S America N AsiaC America

Pacific Australia N America Europe

0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

1800

2000

10

Language groups

S America

N America

PNG

Africa

Australia C AmericaN Asia

S/SE AsiaEurope

Pacific

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

11

Languages are under threat and many of them could disappear before they can be recorded from the last speakers – 96% of world’s population speak just 4% of world’s languages

An urgent task is to create a collection of audio-visual records for present and future generations

12

In language sciences

Increased significance of language typology – typology that is ‘data-driven’ and typology that is ‘corpus-driven’ and new methods for interacting with typological variables (WALS)

Move away from concern with language as a code to increased interest in ways of speaking (socio-cultural dimensions, ethnography of speaking)

13

Data in linguistic research

Questioning the role of language data and metadata in linguistic research

Language documentation – an approach that emerged in 1996 – places acquisition, curation, preservation and distribution of data and analysis tied to the data as central to linguistic research – transparency and replicability

New research methods and training to ensure high quality, enduring data and metadata (including access and usage rights)

14

Theory and methodology

Questioning linguists’ (unstated) ideologies about the nature of linguistic research

Questioning the ‘competence’ vs. ‘performance’ distinction

Questioning the ‘theoretical linguist’ doing real linguistics versus ‘descriptive (hyphenated) linguist’ doing butterfly collecting

Questioning introspection and elicitation as methodology – add naturalistic data collection, experimental methods, and reflecting on corpus structure and use

15

Example – corpus structure

Elicitations (E) (paradigms, judgements, test results, etc.)

Observed communicative events (OCE)

(conversation, narratives, etc.)

Staged communicative events (SCE) (descriptions of picture and video stimuli,

matching games, etc.)

Documentary corpus

16

Staged communicative events

Picture descriptions

Video descriptions

17

Digital technologies - 1

New professional quality portable digital recorders, cameras and microphones increases potential for high quality data capture by an order of magnitude

18

For over 100 years, linguists and anthropologists have made recordings of languages

using the latest technology

19

Equipment became smaller in the

1970s, but still researchers intruded into

people’s lives

20

Today researchers can go to where the languages are spoken and live together with the people, and learn their languages

21

The equipment we use now is digital – small, portable and robust that makes professional quality stereo recordings

22

Digital technologies - 2

Application of medical technologies to linguistic research – MRI, ultrasound

Software tools for corpus management and data analysis – eg. ELAN, Toolbox – and web as locus for distribution (publication) and collaboration (Web 2.0), eg. Facebook

23

Digital technologies - 3

Digital archives – ensuring data portability, preservation, access, replicability, training and skills development

New models of archiving are now emerging that have potential to greatly impact on research methods and outcomes

24

OAIS model

OAIS archives define three types of ‘packages’

ingestion, archive, dissemination:

Archive Dissemination

afd_34

dfa dfadf

fds fdafds

afd_34

dfa dfadf

fds fdafds

afd_34

dfa dfadf

fds fdafds

afd_34

dfa dfadf

fds fdafds

afd_34

dfa dfadf

fds fdafds

IngestionProducers Designated communities

25

A traditional archive

26

Digital storage

27

Our digitial archive at SOAS

28

‘Live Archives’ (Nathan & Wittenburg)

Users can add, update content; customise outputs

Archive Dissemination

afd_34

dfa dfadf

fds fdafds

afd_34

dfa dfadf

fds fdafds

afd_34

dfa dfadf

fds fdafds

afd_34

dfa dfadf

fds fdafds

afd_34

dfa dfadf

fds fdafds

Designated communities

IngestionProducers

29

SOAS archive - architecture

Boundary between depositors, users and archive: users add, update content; customise

outputs Archive

afd_34

dfa dfadf

fds fdafds

afd_34

dfa dfadf

fds fdafds

afd_34

dfa dfadf

fds fdafds

afd_34

dfa dfadf

fds fdafds

afd_34

dfa dfadf

fds fdafds

Users Producers

request

give access

contribute

30

Community engagement

Ethical issues Research on, for, with, by communities Training and skills transfer Mobilisation of data and analyses –

multimedia and revitalisation (eg. Gamilaraay talking dictionary)

Communicating about our work with a range of audiences

31

Research by speakers

B’alam Mateo-Toledo (left) leads a language documentation team at OKMA, Antigua, Guatemala

32

Hilter Panduro Guimac, a linguist and speaker of Iquito spoken in Peru discusses the spelling of Iquito words

33

Training courses

Organisations can run training courses to improve the quality of recordings and analysis

In 2008-2010, SOAS ran courses for documentation researchers in Japan, and in 2008, 2010 for native-speaker linguists in Ghana

34

Communicating about our work

We can help the general public better understand language issues

At SOAS we run Endangered Languages Week – displays, discussions, films, debates, showing linguists and speakers at work

35

Exhibitions

36

Mobilisation

Well recorded, structured and analysed linguistic data can serve as resources for production of multimedia products for language education and support

Multimedia involves teamwork with linguists, educators, designers, IT specialists, with special attention to interface design and functionality

37

Example

Gamilaraay (Kamilaroi), northern New South Wales, Australia

A team effort: linguist (Peter Austin), computer and multimedia specialist (David Nathan), school teacher-linguist (John Giacon), local community members

A language that was almost lost has now been recovered and is being learnt by children

A multimedia CD-ROM of stories and songs, lessons, teacher resources have been created from this collaboration

38

39

Conclusions

It is an exciting time for the language sciences with potentially important new developments emerging or starting to have an impact on the wider field of language studies

There are many opportunities to contribute to linguistic theory and practice, and develop new kinds of training and skills development, new ways of publishing and distributing research results, and new relations to speaker communities

40

End

Thank you