ABSTRACT
Methodological process for the collection of linguistic data and texts ( corpus) of spoken language or of a language which is only orally transmitted. The selection of data and the specific way in which the field work is carried out depends upon the particular objectives of the study concerned. The most important techniques comprise the recording of conversations in ‘participatory observation’ or in structured interviews with a subsequent transcription, the questioning of informants by the investigator where all the answers are recorded or transcribed during the process of the interview, linguistic tests, language attitude tests ( matched guise technique), etc. It was primarily in sociolinguistic studies on linguistic varieties in a social context that several procedures were developed to evade the ‘observer’s paradox’ (Labor): the informal, uninhibited everyday language that the linguist wants to study and observe is only used if the speakers do not feel under surveillance.
