ABSTRACT
Chapter 6 provides methods to get underway with discovering a language’s grammar. We focus on ‘formal’ elicitation as a methodology for digging deep into the structure of a language. Formal elicitation operates at the clause level, and involves testing out structures incrementally to understand the function of different parts of the grammar. In this chapter, we discuss how to establish parts of speech in a language, and then methods for elucidating the core of a grammar, including argument structure, verb and pronoun distinctions, number, possession and ways of encoding spatial relations (e.g. demonstratives, semantic case, gesture, fixed bearing systems); and other major categories such as evidentiality and gender.
