Re: CHAT: Georgian fieldwork [was: Re: vprtskvni]

dirk elzinga wrote:

> You should be extremely cautious of asking your linguistic consultants
> about theoretical entites such as "roots". Roots are for linguists to
> figure out; speakers just talk. Of course, if your consultant is a
> linguist, then it would be fine topic of discussion, but then *you*
> become superfluous. :-(
        You are, of course, perfectly right! That is the very first lesson
on the very first day of Basic Fieldwork 101! Believe it or not,
I thought I knew better. I guess, though, that after being away from
it for more than 25 years, the rust has gotten worse than I thought.  :-(

>
> Aah, fieldwork!
>
     Yeah!  :-)


Nik Taylor wrote:

< So, ask him how you would say "You are peeling it", if he changes the
< first v to something else, then you know that it did mean "I".

    Yes, I know: it was lousy fieldwork!  :-(
Although not an excuse, at least an explanation for it:
The "interview" was being held in Hebrew, in which, as a Semitic lang,
the concept of "root" is very strong. If it isn't part of basic speakers'
intuition, it certainly does get pounded in during school or Ulpan
(where speakers of other langs learn Hebrew). I didn't really want to
do a full fieldwork interview (first mistake) and thought that,
on the topic of roots I could "cheat" on proper procedure and
"cut right to the chase" (second mistake: even if my neighbor _did_
understand the concept of roots in Hebrew, Georgian is not, to
my knowledge anyway, a Semitic lang and any roots there would be
of a different sort, obviously.)


   Sorry guys;  I'll try to be more thorough next time.

Dan Sulani


--
 likehsna  rtem  zuv  tikuhnuh  auag  inuvuz  vaka'a.

 A  word  is  an  awesome  thing.