About the Case Files- Last Updated on Thursday, 09 July 2015 12:55
For each language we have studied we have established a case file that contains the research products of the Afranaph Sister Projects and other features of interest to linguists studying that particular language. Thus in addition to static (.pdf) versions of the questionnaire responses, and sketches related to the projects (e.g., anaphora sketches), we also include, as often as possible (or in the future) a select bibliography, a grammar sketch, a translated narrative and a consultant profile.
Every case file also includes a feature, ‘About This Case File,’ which should be read before any material in that file is cited or treated as raw data. ‘About This Case File’ includes information about the completeness of the questionnaire response data, the completeness of data entry into the database, the completeness of other features in the file, any orthographic issues that need to be taken account of, or any other issue about the structure of the data, the elicitation, or the analysis that needs to be taken into consideration by users. Sometimes there is also information about when we anticipate that additional features will be added to the case file.
The static questionnaire responses are stored in our case files as .pdfs. Since we provide the data we draw our conclusions from, we hope we are providing enough information so that those with different interests can pursue them, or those who think we have got it wrong can make the case that we have erred. The static questionnaires include much of our native speaker consultant commentary in the context of the section where it is introduced, and so sometimes more of this useful commentary is to be found in the static questionnaire response than in the database. It is usually the case that if there is, for any sentence, any discrepancy of form between the static questionnaire response sentence and the corresponding sentence in the database, it is the database form that is generally correct (or at least most carefully vetted). For this reason, we recommend that if you choose to reproduce examples that you use the database for this purpose. Make sure, however, that you have the right character representation, which you will be alerted to in ‘About this Case File.’
The Grammar Sketch is a short document that acts as a guide to major constructions and paradigms that will be useful background for anyone interested in the data that we have collected in more detail. The anaphora sketch is our analysis of the patterns of anaphora that emerge from the data we present and is usually a collaboration between the PI of the African Anaphora Project and the consultant for the file in question.
