Targeted Construction Storyboards in Semantic Fieldwork
Strang Burton · Oxford University Press eBooks · 2015
This chapter describes, illustrates, and advocates for the targeted construction storyboard methodology for semantic fieldwork. Storyboards are pictorial representations of stories, which consultants are asked to tell in their own words. The criterial property of targeted construction storyboards is that the story is designed to include at least one targeted context that can be used to test hypotheses about the relation between linguistic forms and that context. The storyboards thus combine the advantages of spontaneous speech with the benefit of being able to test hypotheses about particular linguistic elements or constructions. The storyboard methodology is illustrated using data from Gitksan (Tsimshianic), St’át’imcets (Salish) and Blackfoot (Algonquian).