Informant (linguistics)

For other uses, see Informant (disambiguation).

An informant or consultant in linguistics is a native speaker or member of a community who acts as a linguistic reference for a language or speech community being studied. The informant's role is that of a senior interpreter, who demonstrates native pronunciation, provides grammaticality judgments regarding linguistic well-formedness, and may also explain cultural references and other important contextual information to researchers from other cultures studying the language.[1][2] Linguistic informants, especially those who frequently work with linguists, may play a greater than usual role in the researcher's work, and other titles such as consultant or coauthor may be used to acknowledge and accurately reflect that contribution.[3]

  1. ^ Newman, Paul; Ratliff, Martha (2001). Linguistic fieldwork. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-66937-5.
  2. ^ "Linguistic Informant". University of California, Irvine. Archived from the original on 2021-07-04. Retrieved 2009-12-21.
  3. ^ "Use of the Word 'Informant' in Sociolinguistics". linguistlist.org. Retrieved 2019-12-20.[dead link‍]