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This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of elicitation, corpus study, and experimental study in field research. -on'n'ig-forms in Beserman Udmurt which function both as nomina loci (place names) and as converbs are described with the focus on methodology of gathering the data. It is demonstrated that in the case of productive derivation hypotheses formulated on the base of corpus study can more reliably be checked during an experiment with non-verbal stimuli than via elicitation. As for morphosyntactic properties of regular inflected forms, it is easier to study them on the base of corpora data and elicitation. However, experiments provide both natural examples and interesting data for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]