Basic sentences for collecting field data in Indian languages
Author : Anvita Abbi
Publication date : 2001
Bibliographical references :
Abbi, Anvita. 2001. A manual of linguistic field work and structures of Indian languages. Muenchen: LINCOM.
Goals
"These sentences are designed to elicit data to give a typological sketch of a language. One has to build further on each of these sentences to get full paradigms of a verb or a noun. You might find some of these sentences funny or ungrammatical in English, however, when translated in the contact language and the target language they will appear all right." (Abbi, 2001 : 1)
Protocol summary
The questionnaire is made up of 160 sentences which the linguist should have translated into the target language. It is divided in 16 different categories aimed to elicit the following elements :
- SIMPLE: 8 sentences
- NEGATIVES : 7 sentences
- IMPERATIVES : 6 sentences
- CONDITIONAL AND COORDINATION: 9 sentences
- INCLUSIVE/EXCLUSIVE : 6 sentences
- INTERROGATIVES: 13 sentences
- RELATIVIZATION, PARTICIPIALIZATION, ADJECTIVES : 12 sentences
- CAUSATIVES, PASSIVES/INCAPABILIATATIVE: 18 sentences
- CASES, AGREEMENT, COINDEXING: 32 sentences
- COMPARATIVE/CONTRASTIVE: 5 sentences
- ECHO-FORMATIONS: 8 sentences
- CLASSIFIERS : 4 sentences
- REDUPLICATION : 18 sentences
- COMPOUND VERBS: 8 sentences
- CONJUNCT VERBS/ CONVERBS : 6 sentences
- INFINITIVES, COMPLEMENTS: 6 sentences
Development context
"The author has written a book aimed at guiding field work on Indian languages, given in the 'bibliographical references of the questionnaire' section.[...] [Its] appendix [gathers] useful questionnaires for South Asian languages and for other languages as well". (From the Typological tools for field linguistics website, https://www.eva.mpg.de/lingua/tools-at-lingboard/questionnaire/indian-languages_description.php)