Fieldwork

Lecturer: Judith Tonhauser, Ohio State University / University of Stuttgart
Room: 1.402
Over the past twenty years, research in semantics and pragmatics has significantly broadened its empirical horizons by bringing evidence collected through one-on-one elicitation and experiments to bear on theorizing. This course introduces students to the methodology of collecting data “in the field”, though we will see that many of the techniques also apply to data collected in the lab. Students learn how to collect data that pertains to the hypotheses they are exploring by considering, for instance, different types of response tasks, what constitutes a piece of data, and what constitutes a minimal pair in semantics and pragmatics. The final sessions of the course highlight data elicitation on central topics in pragmatics, such as focus, presuppositions, as well as temporal and aspectual reference.
Course material

Mon Aug 5th

Tue Aug 6th

  • -

    What is fieldwork? One-on-one elicitation and experiments in the field versus in the lab

Wed Aug 7th

  • -

    Preparing a session: Connecting theory and data

Thu Aug 8th

  • -

    Pieces of data

Fri Aug 9th

  • -

    Minimal pairs in semantic/pragmatic research

Mon Aug 12th

Tue Aug 13th

  • -

    Data management

Wed Aug 14th

  • -

    Focus prosody

Thu Aug 15th

  • -

    Presuppositions and other projective content

Fri Aug 16th

  • -

    Temporal and aspectual reference