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CHINESE 342/442 AUTUMN 2019 Dialect Fieldwork Project Written report and recordings: Due Friday, December 6 Project: Find a speaker of a non-Mandarin dialect that no one in your group can understand. Record your speaker speaking in his/her dialect. Transcribe the speech, analyze it, and write a report on the phonological, morphological, lexical, and syntactic features of the dialect. (Follow the detailed instructions below.) Hand in both the written report and the recording. Your report should be 8-15 pages in length, double-spaced. Chinese 342 students should work in groups of 3- 4; Chinese 442 students in groups of 2-3. Other size groups require permission of the instructor. Finding a speaker: You should find a speaker whose native language is the dialect you wish to record, and who still speaks that dialect fluently. Inform the speaker that his/her name will not be associated with the recording.1 There are many speakers of Chinese dialects on campus and in the Seattle area. Use your classmates and Chinese student groups as resources to help find them. Dividing the work: Your group should equitably divide up the work involved in this project. It is up to you how to do this. One way you could do this is for each group member to separately analyze of 2 or 3 sentences: transcriptions, inter-linear glosses, and discussion. Then the group as a whole can review these analyses to suggest revisions and ensure consistency. After this is done, divide up the work of preparing the introductory sections, list of abbreviations, etc. Recording tips: If possible, make your recording at the Language Learning Center [LLC] in Denny Hall. Otherwise, try to make your recording in a quiet, echo-free room without ambient noise (like traffic, refrigerator hum, other people, etc.). Try to use a good microphone. Do not record over the telephone! Verify the quality of each sentence after it is recorded; if it is unclear or otherwise unsatisfactory, have your speaker record it again. If your recordings are unclear, you will have difficulty transcribing the sentences, and I will have difficulty grading your project. I will provide information separately about how to set up an appointment with an LLC staff person to make your recording using professional equipment in a sound booth. If possible, make a plan to go over the content with your speaker in advance of your recording session, and do a “dry run”. This will help your recording session go smoothly and quickly. Content of the Recording: Record your speaker saying (1) the numbers 1-10 (use the sound file name: “numbers”) (2) the six personal pronouns I, you (singular), he/she, we, you (plural), they. If there is more than one word for a pronoun, record all of them. For example, Standard Mandarin has two words for we: wǒmen and zánmen. If your speaker’s pronouns sound suspiciously similar to Mandarin, ask if there are other (perhaps less formal) ways to say them. (file name: “pronouns”) (3) the demonstratives (this, that). First record the speaker saying “this person” and “that person”, then identify the words for “this” and “that”, and ask your speaker to record them 1 Most linguists who do fieldwork refer to their speakers as “language consultants” or “language informants”. Recently the term “informant” has fallen out of favor; “consultant” or simply “speaker” is now preferred. CHINESE 342/442 DIALECT PROJECT ASSIGNMENT 1 separately. Be aware that there will probably be a measure word (classifier) present in these phrases. (file name: “demonstratives”) (4) negatives (is not, do not, did not, and have not yet). First record your speaker saying (a) [copular:] “I am a student”, “I am not a student” (b) [habitual:] “I eat breakfast every day”, “I do not eat breakfast every day” (c) [perfective:] “I did not eat breakfast yesterday.” (d) [imperfective:] “I have not yet eaten breakfast today” [implication: I will eat it soon.] Then identify the negatives (corresponding to the underlined parts in the English sentences above) and have your speaker record these negative words separately.2 (file name: “negatives”) (5) nine sentences: The first eight sentences are given for you below; some will be familiar from class. You will create the ninth sentence yourself, as described below. Make sure the speaker says each sentence three times: once at normal speed and at least once slowly, so that you can hear the individual syllables clearly.3 Remind your speaker that you want natural, informal speech, as free of Mandarin influence as possible, such as would be used talking casually to family members or friends. (If your speaker tells you there is an “educated/formal” and an “uneducated/informal” way of speaking, you want the latter.) It is preferable to have your speaker translate directly from English rather than from Mandarin, to avoid unwanted Mandarin influence. Use the Mandarin sentences only if your speaker’s English isn’t good enough to understand the English precisely. (file names: “sentence 1”, “sentence 2” … “sentence 9”) Format: Please submit your recording as digitized sound files (on CD, USB thumb drive; link to DropBox, Google Drive, or other cloud server; or send as attachments by email) in any standard format (WAV, AIFF, MP3, etc.). I prefer compressed file formats (smaller files) like MP3 to uncompressed WAV files. Please use the file names indicated above (modifying them as necessary if you have multiple files, e.g. “negatives 1”, “sentence 1 version b”, etc.). Divide digital recordings so that each sentence (together with all its repetitions) is a separate file or track. This will make the sentences easier to play when you give your in-class presentation, and easier for me to listen to when I grade the written project. If you hand in a recording on a CD, make sure to write your names clearly on the CD (and on the case if there is one), so that I can identify it if it gets separated from the written report. Format of the Written Report: Your report should include the following six parts: I. Introduction (1) Identify the dialect you are analyzing, and where it is spoken. If your dialect is from an area that is not well known, please provide Chinese characters with the place name, and give as precise an indication as you can of its location (e.g. “130 km southwest of Guǎngzhōu”). 2 Every dialect has several negatives. Keep in mind that your dialect may have even more than these four. Some dialects have special forms for “probably will not” (bú huì). If you discover in the course of recording your sentences that other negatives exist, try to include them here. 3 This is important. If you ask an English speaker to say “Did you go?” at conversational speed, he might say [dÔ˙gou]. A little slower, and it’s [dÈdÔ˙ gou]. Only at very slow speed do you hear [dÈd ju gou]. Ideally, each syllable should be distinct with a small amount of silence between each one. CHINESE 342/442 DIALECT PROJECT ASSIGNMENT 2 (2) Say which of the seven major dialect groups the dialect belongs to, and where that group as a whole is spoken. (3) Describe your speaker’s age, sex, language ability, and residence history. For example: “The speaker is a 57-year-old woman. She was born and raised in Changsha, Hunan Province. At age 18 she moved to Beijing where she lived for 15 years. Since then she has lived in the United States. Changsha dialect is her first language. She is fluent in Standard Mandarin and also speaks good English.” Note that it is customary NOT to give your speaker’s name in the written report, in order to protect his or her privacy.4 (4) After reading the Norman and Ramsey sections on your dialect group, describe the general features of the group, and, if possible, of your particular dialect. This will help give you and the reader an idea of what features are likely to be found in your dialect. Of course, your speaker’s dialect will not necessarily completely agree with these descriptions. You should indicate any notable points of disagreement that you have discovered. Please be careful to cite any references you use.5 For example: “Yuè dialects generally preserve all Middle Chinese endings including -p, -t, -k (Norman 1988:212); however, in the Yuè dialect that we recorded it appears that -k has become glottal stop.” You may also cite our Course Packet as a reference. A full bibliographic reference of any cited sources should be given either in footnotes or in a separate bibliography at the end of the paper. For example: Norman, Jerry. 1988. Chinese. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Handel, Zev. 2019. Unpublished course packet for Chinese 342/442 “The Chinese Language”, Autumn 2019. University of Washington, Seattle. II. Phonology Describe the phonological features you noticed about the dialect. For example: What kinds of nasal and stop endings does it have? What kinds of initials? (Tones are optional.) Illustrate these features by citing specific words that you have recorded. Your recording of the numbers 1-10 is a good place to start in identifying some of these features. How do these features compare with the features of other representatives of the dialect group that we discussed in class? III. Basic vocabulary - transcriptions and analysis Transcribe in IPA the recordings you made of the numbers from 1 to 10, the six personal pronouns, the demonstratives, and the negatives. (You needn’t transcribe the full sentences containing the demonstratives and negatives.) Compare the numbers with the chart in the Course Packet to identify which features of Middle Chinese are preserved in your dialect.
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