DOCUMENTARY AND DESCRIPTIVE LINGUISTICS

Much of the work that is labeled ''descriptive'' within linguistics co mprises two activities, the collection of primary data and a (low-leve l) analysis of these data. These are indeed two separate activities as shown by the fact that the methods employed in each activity differ s ubstantially. To date, the field concerned with the first activity - c alled ''documentary linguistics'' here - has received very little atte ntion from linguists. It is proposed that documentary linguistics be c onceived of as a fairly independent field of linguistic inquiry and pr actice that is no longer linked exclusively to the descriptive framewo rk. A format for language documentations (in contrast to language desc riptions) is presented (section 2), and various practical and theoreti cal issues connected with this format are discussed These include the rights of the individuals and communities contributing to a language d ocumentation (section 3.1), the parameters for the selection of the da ta to be included in a documentation (section 3.2), and the assessment of the quality of such data (section 3.3).