Digital infrastructure and its impacts on language work: A case study of FieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx)

Linguists need to collect, organize, analyze, and share data. Despite the variability of linguistic research in terms of inputs and outcomes, there are some common stages, including morphological parsing, lexicon creation, and textual editing. A common software tool for this work is FieldWorks Language Explorer (FLEx). In this article, we examine some of the ways that FLEx’s data structures conflict with contemporary practices in language work. These assumptions exclude key groups of users and erect barriers to theoretically and practically relevant research. Where workarounds are feasible, they are both fragile and costly. We use this example to start a broader conversation about software infrastructure for digital linguistic data analysis, and how problems with this infrastructure reflect larger issues in language documentation and linguistics.