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In:The Documentarist Turn: From observable linguistic behaviour to typological generalizations
Edited by Sonja Riesberg, Uta Reinöhl and Birgit Hellwig
[Studies in Language Companion Series 240] 2026
► pp. 107–133

Chapter 5
From the audible to the meaningful

The role of listener/speakers in making sense of 60 years of Dalabon recordings

ORCiD logo with link | Australian National University
 | Dalabon Aboriginal Cultural ExperiencesKatherine Gorge
This content is being prepared for publication; it may be subject to changes.
Abstract
The documentarist turn remains lopsided with respect to the form<>meaning mapping: we risk knowing what speakers said, but not what they meant.
Original recordings thus need to be supplemented by discussions with speakers that use methods more similar to traditional methods of textual hermeneutics.
Here we exemplify these problems, drawing on our own work with previously untranscribed, untranslated audio recordings in Dalabon. We examine four key issues: an unreported “reversal” construction; adding senses to known vocabulary; unearthing previously unrecorded new food-preparation vocabulary; reference of “triangular kin terms” in actual conversation.
Such interpretive discussions with later-generation community members reach beyond the audible to increase the reach of semantic interpretation.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Grammar and interpretation
  • 3.Semantic nuance
  • 4.New vocabulary
  • 5.Context, and interpretation: The case of triangular kin terms
  • 6.Concluding remarks
  • Author statement
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • Abbreviations
  • References
References (36)
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