112: When language become-s(3SG) linguistic example-s(PL)

About this episode

The episode discusses the process of transforming spoken language into linguistic data through various methods.

Language is all around us. This sentence right here, is language! But between the raw experience of someone saying something and a linguistic analysis of what they've said, there are certain steps that make it easier for that analysis to happen, or to be understood or reproduced by others later. In this episode, your hosts Lauren Gawne and Gretchen McCulloch get enthusiastic about how language becomes linguistic data. We talk about making recordings of language, transcribing real-life or recorded language, annotating recordings or transcriptions, archiving all those materials for future generations, restoring archival materials from decaying formats, and presenting this information in useful ways when writing up an analysis. Along the way, we touch on playing 100+ year old songs from cracked wax cylinders, the multi-line glossing format used so readers can understand examples in a language they're not already fluent in, analyzing spontaneous conversation using tapes from the Watergate Scandal, recognizing everyone who's contributed (including your own intuitions!), and Lauren's role on a big committee of linguists and archivists formalizing principles for data citation in…

People in this episode

Hosts: Gretchen McCulloch, Lauren Gawne

Topics covered

• linguistic data
• language analysis
• recording language
• transcribing language
• data citation
• archiving materials

Keywords

• linguistics
• language
• transcription
• annotation
• archiving
• data citation

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: committee of linguists and archivists

Books & works: 100+ year old songs

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