Getting the full picture: Language use and the importance of video 1

Mandana Seyfeddinidipur

This course will provide in depth video training which focuses on why video is the default recording device in language documentation and how video can be used to immerse speakers in their own production prompting much richer descriptions and deeper knowledge representations.

The course will begin with an introduction to the fundamental nature of face-to-face conversation as the basic mode of language use. Video training is often limited to the technicalities of how to use a video camera and microphones but does not provide a theoretical framework for the features of language use. What is missing is an understanding of the social, linguistic and cognitive foundation of language use so that it becomes clear what needs to be captured how. This is because language use is fundamentally multimodal. When we speak we point to places, we nod to signal our understanding, and we outline our thoughts with our hands. Moreover, we coordinate our actions with our conversational partners. The way we talk, the words we use, the information we include depend on the common ground we share with our interlocutors and different social and contextual dimensions. Language documentation projects as well as any linguistic research project documenting and investigating dimensions of conversational language use should record video.  We will provide detailed guidelines of how to video record and training involving hands-on practice. Participants will collect natural language use data of different types and learn how to use video equipment.