Abstract
This paper describes problems andpractices related to the inherent conflict between future-oriented linguistics as scientific research and past-oriented linguistics as language preservation, as relevant tofieldwork in endangered language communities. It focuses on the tension between the past, as embodied in languages that are currently endangered and the cultures that they represent, and the future — what we can and should do, as linguists, scholars, and humans at the dawn of a new Century, in order to continue to learn about linguistic structure and Variation. The concept of preserving a language as a means of giving back t o the Community is examined. Examples from sociolinguistic and descriptive fieldwork research projects (particularly my own experience as a sociolinguist who conducts fieldwork in Faetar, an endangered language, and isproducing a descriptive grammar) are discussed, and the necessity ofdrawing connections between a variety of fields is highlighted.
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