Fieldwork

Since 2008 I have been committed to the documentation, description, and analysis of understudied languages. My work with consultants of different endangered languages (especially, southern Italo-Romance varieties) is characterized by a combination of methodological sophistication and theoretical engagement, as well as a concern with community-oriented applications of research.

Collecting and analysing primary linguistic data through work with native speakers is a central part of my research, which I pursued at the University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’ , the University of Cambridge, and the University of British Columbia.

My fieldwork underlies research in a variety of areas including dialectology, language variation, historical linguistics, theoretical morpho-syntax, syntax-pragmatics interface, language and social context, and phonology. I am active in the development of descriptive and documentary materials such as corpora and descriptive grammars. Such resources often play a role with communities focused on language revitalization.

My elicitation methodologies brings together traditional descriptive linguistic fieldwork and more up-to-date fieldwork methodologies, such as the storyboard fieldwork technique (Burton & Matthewson 2015).

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

Burton, Strang and Lisa Matthewson 2015. Targeted Construction Storyboards in Semantic Fieldwork. In R. Bochnak and L. Matthewson (eds.), Semantic Fieldwork Methodology, Oxford University Press, 135-156. 

See also http://www.totemfieldstoryboards.ca