The joys of working on endangered languages #2

Sometimes the discoveries seem just that much greater. When speakers use a form in exactly the way they've been professing is impossible, there is a sense of vindication for the analyst: I knew that form had that function!

In the endangered language context, the researcher has less opportunity to 'accidentally overhear' such uses to confirm their analysis. Instead, the researcher has to either generate circumstances and scenarios which *may* provoke the form and use they are interested in (though more often than not, *may not* generate the sought-after usage), or ask speakers straight-out for their judgements on usages (a somewhat fraught and sometimes empirically-questioned methodology).

So, when there is:

a) no observational data;
b) no uses in initial 'generated scenarios' and
c) speaker judgements against a particular analysis,

the researcher should probably accept that their analysis is unfounded.

Imagine then the joy upon finding exactly the sought-after token in a last-ditch attempt to find one, in another 'generated scenario'!