Essentials of Language Documentation

Language documentation is a rapidly emerging new field in linguistics which is concerned with the methods, tools and theoretical underpinnings for compiling a representative and lasting multipurpose record of a natural language. This volume presents in-depth introductions to major aspects of language documentation, including overviews on fieldwork ethics and data processing, guidelines for the basic annotation of digitally-stored multimedia corpora and a discussion on how to build and maintain a language archive. It combines theoretical and practical considerations and makes specific suggestions for the most common problems encountered in language documentation.

Key features

• textbook
• introduction to Language Documentation
• considers all common problems

Jost Gippert, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/Main, Germany; Nikolaus P. Himmelmann, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany; Ulrike Mosel, Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel, Germany.