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Tape Recording in Dialect Geography A Cautionary Note

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 June 2016

Raven I. McDavid Jr.
Raven I. McDavid Jr.*
Affiliation:
Western Reserve University
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Extract

Rex Wilson has clearly demonstrated that tape recording is a useful technical aid for dialect field interviews, such as those for the Linguistic Atlas. In his own work, Wilson obviously and properly handles the tape as a tool, not as a substitute for the fieldworker. Nevertheless, since the New World too often assumes that the development of a gadget automatically solves a problem, one may justifiably emphasize a few of the pitfalls for the investigator who uses the tape uncritically — and this while being in substantial agreement with Wilson's position.

It is important, however, that such skepticism be not the skepticism of inexperience, which is too often evident in criticisms of tape recordings

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Linguistics/Revue canadienne de linguistique , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , March 1957 , pp. 3 - 8
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Linguistic Association 1957

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References

1 “The Implication of Tape Recording in the Field of Dialect Geography”, JCLA 2 (March, 1956): 17–21.

2 These averages, of course, are subject to modification according to the physical condition and personality of the informant. The same questionnaire has taken as long as 27 hours to complete, with a very relaxed informant — with plenty of time — who enjoyed telling stories and who insisted on telling a new anecdote after every second or third question; on the other hand, it has taken little more than two hours with a very cooperative and alert but busy young informant. I doubt if a tape recorder could have shortened the latter interview to any appreciable extent; if I had had one, I would not have wanted to shorten the former — but rather to preserve as much connected text as possible.