3.4 Interviews

Interviews are usually recorded one-on-one conversations between a researcher and an informant. They are the most frequent way of eliciting data in fieldwork. An interview is less structured than a questionnaire, more flexible and open ended. The greatest advantage is that syntactic and phonological features can be broadly recorded and analysed (cf. Milroy and Gordon 2001: 57; Milroy 1987a: 37ff, 57). Strategies and advice on interviews are given here. The main problem with interviews is that the language used is often very formal and non-representative of the vernacular, as the interviewee, despite the fieldworker's efforts, is usually well aware of the conversation’s fabricated nature. For advice on how to tap into the vernacular go here.

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