Metanavigation:
Bildmarke
  Max Planck Institute
for Evolutionary Anthropology
Department of Linguistics

Typological tools for field linguistics

 

A Database System for Language Typology

Description
In conjunction with the Word order Group of the Eurotyp Project, Dik Bakker and Anna Siewierska devised a general schema for a database to be used in conjunction with linguistic questionnaires. As described by the authors, "the proposed scheme is intended to facilitate computer data entry and the analysis of linguistic data by means of generally available and specially developed programs. It constitutes a powerful analytical tool which can be easily applied to any linguistic domain. In order to use the system all that is required is that the linguistic domain under investigation be structured in a particular variable - value format and transformed into a normal computer readable text file. Once this is accomplished, all the analytical procedures can be applied automatically without further technical demands on the linguist. The linguist "only" needs to apply her/his linguistic knowledge and expertise in reducing the number of possibilities open to the computer programs or alternatively in selecting from a body of potentially relevant linguistic facts those which are of actual interest."

The questionnaires
PDF Download (11MB)

Developed by
Dik Bakker & Anna Siewierska

Other Eurotypes Questionnaires