nqn20131003-03 Bird Interview: Wisa Sobra

The purpose of these recordings is to ascertain: (a) individual differences in bird nomenclature among Nen speakers (b) the depth of bird knowledge as assessed through an open free-listing task, carried out until there was a significant pause or the speaker said they had run out of terms. (b) was carried out first. Biographical data and self-assessments of what language is spoken are also part of each interview. For (a), speakers were taken through a powerpoint presentation, prepared by CH, containing a photo of each bird and (for most) an audio file which was played if the individual needed it to help identification. In the first three sessions we did not arrange things so that the time of showing the new prompt can be heard; from then on CH reads out the slide number. Note that, methodologically, sometimes speakers may have erred in identifying the bird from the prompt, so in cases of inter-individual difference we cannot be sure whether this was due to semantic differences or performance differences in the task. For other info see Evans‘ and Healey‘s field note books. NE2013 Keywords: Birds; Elicitation