3 - Discoveries

Summary

Introduction

One of the reasons linguists do fieldwork is to discover new things. To discover new knowledge is a big reason why most academics do the research that we do. The general public, however, might associate the word “discovery” with big, monumental new findings, thought of more as “breakthroughs.” At the same time it seems that anything of more than passing significance is often said by journalists and reporters to have “astounded” scientists and experts—sensationalizing the news seems sometimes to be their main mission in life. While to linguists some of our findings do seem sensational for linguistic reasons, rarely would any of us think of them as so sensational as to astound all fellow linguists. Some discoveries in my own fieldwork have excited me—intellectually stimulating and rewarding, though not hugely sensational, not even to sensationalizing journalists. Some things that I consider to be discoveries involve just small points of analysis in languages whose names hardly anyone has ever heard of, though some other discoveries do feel somewhat grander. This chapter is about some of them. The purpose of presenting them here is to help demonstrate the value and excitement of linguistic fieldwork, of language documentation.

Several things found in the structure of the languages that I have investigated in fieldwork have significant implications that require some theoretical claims made about language in general to be abandoned or significantly modified. These are in my estimation among the most substantial discoveries that I have made. However, some of them are hard to explain without relying on linguistic terminology that may not be familiar to all readers. I try to touch more lightly on such cases. To those readers for whom the discussion of some topic presented here may seem too opaque, feel free just to skip on to the cases that are easier to follow. The main points won't be missed.

A new language

Perhaps situated at the higher end of some hypothetical significance scale when it comes to the public's sense of sensation might be the discovery of a new language. I discovered a new language, Jumaytepeque Xinka, one of four Xinkan languages in southeastern Guatemala—and that is exciting.