Linguistics & Research

Julie Wechsler is a Sophomore majoring in Psychology and Linguistics. She was awarded a Spring 2019 Conference Grant which she used to attend the National Conference on Undergraduate Research.

I had the privilege of attending the National Conference on Undergraduate Research(NCUR) at Kennesaw State University (http://www.cur.org/what/events/students/ncur/2019/). I presented research which I completed during the Fall 2018 semester in the Linguistics 485 – Field Methods in Linguisticsclass along with Seaira Lett. This class introduced me to the methods of data collection and analysis in Linguistics, and it was a great experience to learn how this type of research is conducted. Over the course of the semester, we studied a language called Lulogooli, which is a member of the Bantu language family. It is a relatively small language spoken mainly in Kakamega and Vihiga, Kenya (according to the Ethnologue, https://www.ethnologue.com/language/rag, there are only around 600,000 speakers), but it is not endangered. The purpose of our research as a class was to bring light to the mechanisms of this understudied language. 

To do that, we split into small groups, each focusing on one aspect of the language. We conducted traditional linguistic elicitation interviews with a native speaker – our consultant was born and raised in Kakamega, Kenya, but moved to Atlanta about 5 years ago. She speaks Lulogooli, Swahili, and English. For these interviews, we prepared lists of sentences and then asked the consultant how to say them in Lulogooli. Our interviews were recorded and the speaker’s utterances were transcribed in real time. The consultant came to our class a total of six times, and between each interview we examined our previous data and compiled a full database of the translated sentences from which we could analyze patterns in the language. 

Seaira and I, along with one of our other classmates, examined negation formation in Lulogooli. We were interested in learning how negative sentences are formed, so we asked how to say a variety of sentences – from simple, single-clause sentences, to sentences with relative clauses, to complex sentences with multiple clauses (some were negated and were not). We ended up finding a total of four forms of negation: a sentence-final particle, daave; a relative clause negative marker, -ta-; a prefix, si-; and the auxiliary verb -voraplus the infinitive construction. These findings were particularly interesting considering that many languages (such as English and Spanish) do not have that many grammatically permissible negation constructions. During the first session, we only found daave(which adds to the very end of a sentence and negates the overall meaning) so we were unsure of what direction our research would take next. Although we did conclude that daavewas the most preferred form of negation, upon further sessions, we discovered these other forms of grammatical negation in Lulogooli. The -ta-prefix is used in all relative clauses, and it can even combine with daaveto form negative imperatives (such as “Don’t cry”). The other two forms, si- and vora, were used mainly when we asked if there was another way to say a particular sentence, but they were occasionally produced spontaneously, as well. We did find some ambiguity in sentences with multiple negative clauses – for example, “I didn’t know that Mary bought the book” and “Mary said that Ben didn’t read a book” both have two negative clauses in a similar construction, but one has the first negated while the other has the second negated. Our consultant used the same construction (daave) for both – since it comes at the very end of the sentence, it was not clear which clause was being negated. It is possible that this was speaker error, or that the consultant was confusing sentences after having heard so many, but it would be interesting to go back and see whether this was an error or a real trend in the language by eliciting more particular multiple-clause sentences. 

We presented our work at the end of our Field Methods class last semester, and it was exciting to be able to share our work again, this time with the greater community of undergraduate researchers at NCUR. During our poster session, we spoke with several people about our work. It was an interesting challenge to translate some of the more esoteric linguistic information into language that a non-linguist could understand and appreciate, but it was also rewarding when someone familiar with linguistics spoke with us and we were able to have a more specific conversation. One particular conversation I had was with another student who listened to my short explanation, and then asked about the psychological basis of language. I am studying Psychology and Linguistics, so I was really excited to hear that other students were interested in similar topics – we had a conversation about subjects that we were both passionate about, which I thought was a really cool experience. 

Overall, I felt that NCUR was a very positive experience. I was able to present my own work to a wider audience for the first time, learn about others’ work, and affirm my desire to continue with research. I am grateful to URP and the Emory Linguistics department for supporting this research and our attendance at NCUR, as well as Seaira and the rest of our classmates for their collaboration and feedback in preparation for the conference. 

Visit the Undergraduate Research Programs website to learn more about applying for Conference Grants.