Semantic Fieldwork on TAM
Rebecca T. Cover · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2015
This chapter recommends a methodology for conducting fieldwork on the semantics of tense, aspect, and modality (TAM). Translation is argued to be an inadequate tool for teasing out the nuanced semantics of these categories, which can differ subtly across languages. Arguments are presented for weaving together three distinct but interdependent research methods: semantic elicitation, text collection and analysis, and participant observation. The three methods, and advantages of each, are illustrated with case studies from the author’s fieldwork on Badiaranke, an under-described Atlantic (Niger–Congo) language. While the examples are drawn primarily from two TAM phenomena in Badiaranke, the proposed methodology is directly applicable to semantic fieldwork more generally.