Bewilligungen im Jahr 2008 - Volkswagen Stiftung

Leipzig
- 113 -
Workshop "Potentials of Language Documentation: Methods, Analyses, and
Utilization"
03.11.2011 - 04.11.2011 in Leipzig
Ziel des Workshops ist es, aufbauend auf den in den letzten zehn Jahren entstandenen
Sprachcorpora und zum Ende der DobeSFörderinitiative neue Potenziale der
Dokumentationslinguistik auszuloten. Diese Potenziale werden in drei Bereichen ausge¬
macht: (1) Die Schnittstelle von Sprachdokumentation und Corpuslinguistik ("How do
computational methods developed for large corpora of well-known languages apply to the
usually relatively small language documentation corpora of usually less well-known lan¬
guages? What are the prospects and limitations of acrosscorpora cross-linguistic
computationally aided research?"); (2) die Entwicklung neuer Forschungsfragen aus dem
Sprachdatenmaterial ("What impact has language documentation had on analyses and
theorizing in linguistics and related disciplines and how can it make further impacts?");
(3) die Herausforderungen an das Sprachdatenmaterial durch die sich derzeit
vollziehende Medienrevolution ("How must the digital data be stored, represented, and
made accessible by the archives? What kinds of uses will evolve in the context of the
social media?"). Dabei soll in übergeordneter Hinsicht herausgefunden werden,
wie Sprachdokumentationen als 'Produkt' überhaupt definiert werden können.
Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie, Leipzig
Abteilung Linguistik
Dr. Frank Seifart
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig
Tel.: 0341 3550 325 // Fax: 0341 3550 333
Homepage: http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/staff/seifart/home.php
Max-Planck-Institut für evolutionäre Anthropologie, Leipzig
Abteilung für Linguistik
Prof. Dr. Bernard Comrie
Deutscher Platz 6
04103 Leipzig
Tel.: 0341 3550 315 // Fax: 0341 3550 333
Homepage: http://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/staff/comrie/home.php
____________
Nijmegen
The ethnolinguistic composition of southeastern Rondônia: The Aikanã, the Kwazá
and their neighbours
Bewilligung: 25.03.2011 Laufzeit: 3 Jahre
This project aims to document the linguistic, cultural, and ethnohistorical heritage of two
traditional neighbouring peoples, the Aikanã and Kwazá of southeastern Rondônia,
Brazil. The languages of the Aikanã and Kwazá are highly endangered (170 and 25
speakers, respectively), and their habitat and way of life even more so. Being neighbours
and being part of the very diverse Guaporé-Mamoré linguistic area, the Aikanã and
Kwazá languages show much evidence of contact, even though they are (probably)
genetic isolates. Apart from language documentation, the project also intends to fill a
conspicuous gap in the ethnohistorical study of the Guaporé-Mamoré region. The project
furthermore provides an opportunity to fulfil the wishes of the Aikanã and Kwaza
communities to document their cultural and ecological knowledge, and to codify their
unique languages and help preserve their use in modern times. Fieldwork will be an
important component of the project, which will involve a linguist and an anthropologist, in
addition to several native consultants.