here - Linguistic Society of America

SymposiumSaturday, 5 JanuaryMultimedia Linguistic Documentation and AnalysisClarendon/Berkeley2:00 – 5:00 PMOrganizer:Sponsor:Participants:Patricia A. Shaw (University of British Columbia)Society for the Study of the Indigenous Languages of the Americas (SSILA)Jonathan D. Amith (Gettysburg College, Smithsonian Institution)Andrea L. Berez (University of Hawai’i at Mānoa)H. Timothy Bunnell (Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children, University of DelawareChristian T. DiCanio (Haskins Laboratories)Elizabeth Cadwallader (Gʷaʔsəla-’Nakʷaxdaʔχʷ School, Tsulquade, BC)Rey Castillo García (Secretaría de Educación, Guerrero, Mexico)Laura A. Cranmer (’Namgis First Nation/University of British Columbia/Vancouver Island University)Gloria Cranmer-Webster (’Namgis First Nation, BC)Steven M. Egesdal (Carlsmith Ball LLP Attorneys, Honolulu)Carl Haber (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory)Mandy Na’zinek Jimmie (Nicola Valley Institute of Technology, BC)Andrea Laforet (Canadian Museum of Civilization)Carrie Mortimer (Kwakiutl/Kwagu’ɬ First Nation, BC)Hosung Nam (Haskins Laboratories)Daisy Rosenblum (University of California, Santa Barbara)Patricia A. Shaw (University of British Columbia)M. Terry Thompson (Independent Scholar)D. H. Whalen (Haskins Laboratories/CUNY Graduate Center/Endangered Language Fund)Given the transience of language as an oral medium, the complexities of the auditory signal, and the limitations of our humanmemory and computational abilities, linguists have been eager participants in and beneficiaries of the evolution over the pastcentury of diverse technologies that create a more permanent record of language data and more intricately detailed procedures foranalysis. The availability and strategic use of technological advances in a diversity of media applications in language researchhave led to significant contributions to linguistics.Sometimes the use of alternate media or technologies enables a linguist to collect information on domains or genres of languageuse that have not commonly been included in traditional linguistic research. Or, the use of multimedia elicitation techniques mayenhance elicitation effectiveness (especially in the case of endangered languages that have undergone radical cultural orgeographic shifts), or allow investigation of linguistic phenomena that simply weren't possible before.In other cases, refinement of audio- and video-recording equipment combined with a broad array of user-friendly, yet highlysophisticated analytical software has allowed for the documentation, detection, and systematic analysis of components of speecharticulation and/or perception that have extended - sometimes even radically shifted - our focus, our frames of reference, and ourtheories. Data can now be interrogated in a multitude of ways that were simply not possible on the basis of traditionaldocumentation and transcription practice.The case studies presented here exemplify a broad diversity of exciting multimedia applications and of innovative technologicalresearch initiatives that have enhanced our effectiveness as linguists in work with endangered languages of the Americas.109