Field Research

Drs. Jürgen Bohnemeyer, Matthew Dryer, Jeff Good, Karin Michelson

This research speciality involves the in-depth study of languages based on field work, with a goal of detailed descriptions of these languages.

Dr. Bohnemeyer has been conducting field research on Yukatek Maya in Mexico since 1991, totalling more than two years spent in the field. His research focuses on problems of semantics, pragmatics, the lexicon-syntax interface, and semantic typology, the study of linguistic categorization. He has been continuously involved with the development and refinement of methods for the study of these problems in the field. Bohnemeyer also carries out experimental work in the field, focusing in particular on validations of the Linguistic Relativity Hypothesis.

Dr. Dryer's field research grows out of his research in linguistic typology. He has an ongoing project describing Kutenai, a language isolate spoken in Montana and British Columbia, and since 2001 has been doing joint field work with Lea Brown on two languages in Papua New Guinea: Walman, a language in the Torricelli family; and Poko-Rawo (also known as Rawo), a language in the Sko family.

Dr. Good has been conducting field research in Northwest Cameroon since 2004 as part of more general research on Benue-Congo languages. His particular focus has been on languages of the Beboid family, close relatives of Bantu languages with quite distinct surface typology from them. In addition to a descriptive interest in these languages, he is interested in how they can inform the study of comparative Benue-Congo morphosyntax and, thereby, the study of the relationship between syntax and morphology more generally.

Dr. Michelson has devoted over 20 years to research on Northern Iroquoian languages, especially Oneida, reflecting an interest in descriptive and theoretical issues in various subdisciplines, including phonology and morphology. She has recently published a 1400-page dictionary or Oneida:

Michelson, Karin E., and Mercy A. Doxtator (2002). Oneida English/English-Oneida Dictionary. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.

Our department encourages field work by graduate students. Our Ph.D. course requirements include a full year of Field Methods.

Recent Ph.D.s based on field research include:

Matthew Davidson (2002). Studies in Southern Wakashan (Nootkan) Grammar.
Sidi Facundes (2000). The Language of the Apurina People of Brazil
Eve Ng (2003). Demonstrative words in the Algonquian Language Passamaquoddy: A descriptive and grammaticalization analysis
Ardis Eschenberg (2005). The Article System of UmoNhoN (Siouan)
Todd McDaniels (2005). Establishing perspective in Comanche Narrative (Uto-Aztecan)
Lilian Guerrero-Valenzuela (2005). The syntax-semantic interface in Yaqui complex constructions, a Role and Reference Grammar Analysis (Uto-Aztecan)
Joy Wu (2006). Verb Classification, Case Marking, and Grammatical Relations in Amis (Austronesian, Taiwan)
Percy Abrams (2006). Onondaga Pronominal Prefixes (Iroquoian)
 

Ongoing Ph.D. projects involving field work include:
Robb Fried: Bonan (Mongolic, China)
Carolyn Omeara: Seri (Mexico)
Scott Paauw: A comparison of Malay dialects
Rodrigo Romero-Mendez: Grammar of Ayutla Mixe (Mexico))
Gabriela Perez Language preservation and language description in Zapotec languages