Questions tagged [field-linguistics]

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How do field linguists begin to study an undocumented language which they cannot speak?

When field linguists begin to study a new language with whose speakers they don't share a common language, how do they begin? I don't need the whole story, just the very start, the "bootstrapping". For some remote languages even the nearest…
hippietrail
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How does one become a field linguist?

It may be because I'm reading Daniel Everett's autobiography right now and it has me all pumped up for adventure... but it does bring up the question: How do you actually break into that field? Is going for a Ph.D. program like "Language…
Nick Anderegg
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How do I get a career in field linguistics?

I've seen a lot of posts here and elsewhere about how difficult it is to get a research career. These are quite discouraging to me. Is it really so impossible? I am a master's student now (in linguistics). What I would like to do is to get a PhD in…
Snow
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How does a linguist learn a brand new language?

This doesn't come close to a good answer. When a linguist goes out into the middle of the Amazon where no one has ever been and no one knows the language other than let's say a remote tribe, how does the linguist learn the language enough to create…
Lance
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