阅读包分类练习摘要填空题.pdf

ObtainingLinguisticData

A

Manyproceduresareavailableforobtainingdataaboutalanguage.Theyrangefromacarefully

planned,intensivefieldinvestigationinaforeigncountrytoacasualintrospectionaboutones

mothertonguecarriedoutinanarmchairathome.

B

Inallcases,someonehastoactasasourceoflanguagedata-aninformantInformantsare(ideally)

nativespeakersofalanguage,whoprovideutterancesforanalysisandotherkindsofinformation

aboutthelanguage(e.g.translations,commentsaboutcorrectness,orjudgementsonusage).

Often,whenstudyingtheirmothertongue,linguistsactastheirowninformants,judgingthe

ambiguity,acceptability,orotherpropertiesofutterancesagainsttheirownintuitions.The

convenienceofthisapproachmakesitwidelyused,anditisconsideredthenorminthegenerative

approachtolinguistics.Butalinguistsaljudgementsareoftenuncertain,ordisagreewith

thejudgementsofotherlinguists,atwhichpointrecourseisneededtomoreobjectivemethodsof

enquiry,usingnon-linguistsasinformants.

Thelatterprocedureisunavoidablewhenworkingonforeignlanguages,orchildspeech.

C

Manyfactorsmustbeconsideredwhenselectinginformants-whetheroneisworkingwithsingle

speakers(acommonsituationwhenlanguageshavenotbeendescribedbefore),twopeople

interacting,smallgroupsorlarge-scalesamples.Age,,socialbackgroundandotheraspectsof

identityareimportant,asthesefactorsareknowntoinfluencethekindoflanguageused.Thetopic

ofconversationandthecharacteristicsofthesocialsetting(e.g.thelevelofformality)arealso

highlyrelevant,asarethealqualitiesoftheinformants(e.g.theirfluencyandconsistency).

Forlargerstudies,scrupulousattentionhasbeenpaidtothesamplingtheoryem