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Ulrike Mosel
Grammatical notes also help to keep the sketch grammar to a small size
and, at the same time, enhance accuracy. To give another example from the
Teop project, at the time of writing this chapter we only have a vague idea
of the meaning and use of most demonstratives, especially when two de-
monstratives occur together in a single noun phrase. Consequently, we state
in the sketch grammar that we have not fully analyzed the demonstratives
yet and refer to the corpus where the interesting cases are identified in the
notes by the label
DEMONSTRATIVE
.
In order to make this division of labour between the sketch grammar and
the notes most efficient, the sketch grammar needs to list all the grammati-
cal category labels used in the notes so that the users know which gram-
matical categories they can search for. This list of labels can be combined
with the list of abbreviations used in the annotated corpus, the sketch
grammar, and the lexical database, and with the glossary of terms referred
to above, as illustrated in Table 1.
Table 1. Example from the index of the Teop sketch grammar
adjunct
optional constituent of the clause that refers to the particular
circumstances of the state of affairs expressed by the verb
complex and its arguments
ADV
prefix that derives adverbs from verbs > adverb
adverb
word that typically functions as a modifier within the verb
complex
AP
> adjectival phrase
APP >
applicative
applicative
particle within the verb complex that changes the valence of
a verb complex
4. Conclusion
The sketch grammar evolves in the course of the documentation work.
Starting off as a preliminary sketch that is based on the
very first elicitation
sessions, it needs to be constantly revised as the documentary work proceeds
so that the final version should be written close to the end of the project.
Chapter 12 – Sketch grammar
309
This process of continuous revision helps to keep a record of changes in the
grammatical analysis and the usage of grammatical terms and their abbre-
viations. Furthermore, it allows to successively replace or complement the
elicited examples of earlier versions by more natural examples from the
growing corpus.
Notes
1. Teop is classified as Austronesian, Oceanic, Western Oceanic, Meso-Melane-
sian, Nehan-North-Bougainville (Ross 1988: 251–253).
2. For discussions on these issues see, among others, Himmelmann 1998 and
Chapter 1; Lehmann 2001; Pawley 1986, 1993).
3. An example is Mosel’s grammar of Saliba (1994), which, on 48 pages, summa-
rizes the results of a one-semester fieldwork methods course at the Australian
National University.
4. Typical examples of introductory grammar chapters are found in PhD theses
that analyse grammatical phenomena in previously unresearched languages,
e.g. Seifart 2005.
Chapter 13
Archiving challenges
Paul Trilsbeek and Peter Wittenburg
Introduction
For many years, linguists and ethnologists have collected materials on dif-
ferent cultures and languages in the form of recordings, photos, observa-
tional notes, and the like. Traditionally, a part of this material was made
available via books and articles in which examples or, in some cases, ex-
tensive descriptions were presented. The original recordings and notes were
usually not published but remained in the private cupboards of the re-
searchers. Only a small fraction of the original material was handed over to
institutions specialized in storing and preserving it. According to an estimate
by D. Schüller (2004), about 80% of the material concerning endangered
cultures and languages which is currently available is in the hands of indi-
viduals or people working in projects with a limited duration, who treat this
material like books on shelves, storing it on inadequate storage media and in
bad environmental conditions. We can thus speak of the great risk of major
parts of our cultural memory getting lost. Furthermore, materials stored in
individual researchers’ cupboards are hardly accessible for others.
The emergence of digital technology has changed our views about stor-
ing, sharing, and accessing this type of information about cultural heritage
completely. The modern state-of-the-art is indeed revolutionizing our pre-
servation and access strategies. We understand that
– it is easy to create and distribute copies of digital material;
– it is relatively easy to give access to digital material;
– it is not relevant anymore to store the physical container such as an
original tape as the incarnation of the content and that we should store
the digital stream of information instead.
Copying content thus is the key to modern preservation. Based on this
view, there is an increasing understanding in various disciplines that it is a
good idea to hand over original materials gathered in the field or in com-