Fieldwork

Linguistic fieldwork refers to the activity of linguistic data collection through interaction with native-speaker consultants. Broadly speaking, it encompasses any collection of accurate data, regardless of: (1) the prior familiarity of the linguist with the language from which data are collected; (2) the whereabouts of the study—the original environment where the language is spoken or immigrant communities; and (3) the goal of the study—a comprehensive description of an entire language or an analysis of one specific phenomenon for typological and comparative purposes (cf. Hyman 2001:15, Chelliah and de Reuse 2011:7). In a more narrow sense, linguistic fieldwork refers to primary data collection on a previously undescribed language of which the linguist has no prior knowledge, in the natural environment where the language is spoken, for the purpose of documenting and describing the language (cf. Everett 2001:168; Aikhenvald 2007:5, Bowern 2008:2-7, Chelliah and de Reuse 2011:7-10). The discussion below focuses on fieldwork in this narrow sense. In the context of global language endangerment and the ever-growing urgency of language documentation, linguistic fieldwork is steadily gaining momentum and scope worldwide. With its great variety and diversity of languages, China offers outstanding possibilities for fieldwork research, with features that distinguish it from fieldwork in other parts of the world. At the same time, linguistic fieldwork in China is subject to limitations, most crucially in data access, purpose, and scope, as outlined below. General fieldwork guidelines ha l-