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Fieldwork among the Goemai in Nigeria: discovering the grammar of property expressions
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Birgit Hellwig
Published/Copyright:
September 25, 2009
Abstract
This paper describes fieldwork experiences among the Goemai of Central Nigeria. It first introduces the fieldwork setting, and then focuses on one illustrative example: the investigation of property-denoting (‘adjectival’) expressions. The paper describes the different methods employed, compares them, and evaluates their results. It shows some advantages and disadvantages, and – on this basis – advocates using a combination of methods in order to benefit from each method's advantages while counterbalancing its disadvantages. In particular, the paper argues in favour of a semantics-based approach to fieldwork, illustrating the invaluable insights to be gained from it.
Keywords: Chadic languages; Goemai; adjectival concepts; fieldwork methodology; semantic-based approach to fieldwork
Published Online: 2009-09-25
Published in Print: 2007-03
© Akademie Verlag
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Keywords for this article
Chadic languages;
Goemai;
adjectival concepts;
fieldwork methodology;
semantic-based approach to fieldwork
Articles in the same Issue
- Linguistic fieldwork: setting the scene
- Field linguistics: a minor manual
- A separate and peculiar people – fieldwork and the Pennsylvania Germans
- What is a language? Documentation for diverse and evolving audiences
- Fieldwork on Konda, a Dravidian language
- Fieldwork among the Goemai in Nigeria: discovering the grammar of property expressions
- Field linguistics meets biology: how to obtain scientific designations for plant and animal names
