Documentary and descriptive linguistics

TLDR

Descriptive linguistics traditionally focuses on collecting primary data and low‑level analysis, yet the data‑collection activity—documentary linguistics—has received scant attention from linguists. The authors argue that documentary linguistics should be regarded as an independent field of linguistic inquiry, no longer tied exclusively to descriptive frameworks. They introduce a format for language documentation and discuss practical and theoretical issues such as community rights, data‑selection parameters, and quality assessment.

Abstract

Much of the work that is labeled deseriptive within linguistics comprises two activities, the collection of primary data and a (low-level) analysis of these data. These are indeed two separate activities as shown by the fact that the methods employed in each activity differ substantially. To date, the field concerned with the first aetivity — called doeumentary linguisties here — has received very little attention from linguists. It is proposed that documentary linguistics be conceived of as a fairly independent field of linguistic inquiry and practice that is no longer linked exclusively to the descriptive framework. A format for language documentations (in contrast to language deseriptions) is presented (section 2), and various practical and theoretical issues connected with this format are discussed. These include the rights of the individuals and communities contributing to a language doeumentation (section 3.1), the parameters for the selection of the data to be included in a doeumentation (section 3.2), and the assessment of the quality of such data (section 3.3),