Interdisciplinary Journal of Linguistics

Department of Linguistics

University of Kashmir

Print ISSN: 0974-3421 Online ISSN: 0974-3421

The Linguistic Immersion Program of the University of Ilorin is an adequately prepared English learning platform equipped with all the essentialities required towards effective productive and receptive skills of non-English speakers. The 37 Francophone students’ reading skills were analyzed at 3 different stages. The study aims at ascertaining whether the learner’s mother tongue enhances or inhibits their reading skills in English; investigates the types of difficulties encountered during reading using Ha and H1 as correspondences with p=0.05 as the value of measurement, and to examine the strategies used by the students in reading. Top-down theory, which gave the students the opportunity to rely on their background knowledge and experiences while learning English language, was adopted. Background knowledge helped in understanding the similarities and differences between both languages while reading. This study concluded that the significant improvement in the reading skills of the students at the end of the Immersion Programme is sufficient proof that reading can be developed through continuous practice. The study recommended that language teachers should encourage students to be more involved in the art of reading.

There is a long-standing tradition of applied linguistic and discourse analytical research on the structure, social meaning, epistemology, and functions of media language. Media language has always been the center of attention of linguists, particularly applied linguists and sociolinguists. Although text messaging is a relatively recent phenomenon, a considerable amount of research has described the patterns of written communication through electronic devices. Texting has become an efficient and immediate way to communicate with others, it has also brought many complexities and nuances in language. The impact of correct use of language in text messages, which is increasingly popular among younger generation, particularly among college going students requires investigation. The aim of the current study is to determine the efficiency and correctness of the linguistic features of text messages. Specifically, does text message reflect the linguistic features including message length, use of correct spelling, appropriate expressions, capitalization and using the specific grammatical rules? The language of the text message is asynchronous and virtually mediated discourse. It reflects the unrestricted new communication medium with an incredible speed. The study may be able to provide an understanding of expressions used in the communication process by analyzing the text messages that considered as another form of discourse.

This paper is an empirical investigation on the aspectual markers in Assamese and aims to analyze how the pragmatics plays a crucial role in determining the meaning of these markers. There are two basic form of aspects in natural languages namely perfective and imperfective but scrutinizing these basic forms with its functions and context of appearance there is an alternative view point which indicates the diverse nature of aspects and all these could be captured only by analyzing the pragmatics of its appearance in any language. Thus, the aspectual markers have become important means for organizing the pragmatic context. We are examining all the aspectual markers in an alternative view point. However, analyzing the Assamese language data; Assamese has three straightforward aspectual markers: ‘-is’, ‘-i-s’ and ‘-i-thk’ which are recognized till now. This paper is an attempt to look into these makers to describe how they convey different aspectual meanings, such as those of perfectivity and imperfectivity in different contexts.

The present work discusses the genitive-based ‘case-stacking’ phenomenon in Indo-Aryan languages. Indo-Aryan languages have a morphologically rich case system. Genitive case is one of the eight major case-forms present in the language. The present work focuses on one of the established morphological forms of genitive marker which are case-stacked with other case markers. In Eastern Indo-Aryan language Bangla, case-stacking is seen. For example: 1. (tumi) boi-gulo ama-der-ke da-o (You.NOM) book-PL.ACC 1Pl-GEN-DAT give-IMP.HON ‘(You) give us the books.’ Kolkata Bangla In (1), the DP ‘us’ has two case forms, stacked together-the genitive affix -der, and the dative case affix -ke.. 2. me-re-ku naya basta hona I-GEN-DAT new bag want.Pres “I want a new bag.” Dakkhini In (2), we see genitive-dative case-stacking in western Indo- Aryan language Dakkhini. Such constructions seem to be a problem vis-à-vis Chomsky’s (2000) Minimalist construct because it claims that a DP becomes inactive after receiving a case (Activity condition). Thus, the existence of genitive and dative case suffixes together in Indo-Aryan languages seen above poses a problem. In this paper, we explore this very problem. We ask the following question: 4. Do Indo-Aryan languages allow case stacking with genitive and accusative/dative? What does it imply about the general  Indian Institute of Technology, New Dehli  Interdisciplinary Journal of Linguistics (IJL Vol. 14) 31 understanding of grammar in relation to the tenets of minimalist program? To answer this, we claim that there are two types of genitive stacking seen in Indo-Aryan languages. One is related to lexicon and another to syntax.

Nepali language is the sub branch of eastern Pahari and it belongs to the Indo-Aryan language family. Nepali is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India, and has a significant number of speakers in the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand. This study is intended to present an introduction to the Nepali language which includes the vowel sound system of the Nepali language. To date only few studies are available for the language and its dialects. This paper will elaborate the information available on the vocalic system of the Nepali language based on the data collected from the native speakers of Nepali language. During this analysis, it was found that the Nepali vowels |a| and |i| have temporal relationship with the voiced plosives. The controversy of positioning of selective vowel sounds, VOT will be discussed and explained. The analysis of the study justified the universal tendency that the vowel duration is affected by the intrinsic temporal character of a vowel. If all the factors remain constant, the low vowels are longer than high vowels.

The Department of Higher Education undertakes the policy and planning matters on Indian Higher Education in India. In 2015-16, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) reported 49,295 research scholars (MPhil and PhDs) enrolled in the session, a notable figure in research output1. The type of research carried out in disciplines including linguistics is unified with other disciplines as interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary studies today. Jacob notes that scholars are breaking bounds from a ‘singular disciplinary’ study towards an interdisciplinary approach in higher education [2]. As per experts, India stands as the world’s third-largest academic system in line with the expansion of higher education, with 35% of Indian academics as doctoral holders and producing more qualified scholars to meet the future demands [3]. The present study identifies the trends in research in scholarly works in Indian Humanities, especially in interdisciplinary research in the past decade, which can also be helpful for linguists across India. Linguistics as a field has broken the barrier of being tagged under a pure discipline. Today several scholars are working across disciplines in linguistics, especially interdisciplinary, and this journal is a perfect example of the drift. Out of the three broad disciplines, the study looks at interdisciplinary topics chosen by research scholars in Humanities. Elsevier's SCOPUS, which maintains a rich, up-to-date database of the current research, was used to gain an insight to study the nature and choice of research topics by Indian scholars. The study looks for transitions like topics chosen in research and observes individual patterns in specific subjects. The data in this study suggests that most of the research carried out in the field of Humanities focuses on studies related to speech and language.

The present paper is an attempt to assess the pedagogical levels of the Hindi Curriculum prescribed for secondary level. The theme of the learning material comes under the ideational content of the same. The theme is composed of objects, and ideas and feelings related to different aspects of life interwoven around the objects. Thus, the theme of the lessons in a book may be identified on the basis of one or two aspects or on the basis of their combination. It is also possible that one of them may be dominant and others subsidiary, depending upon the weightage given to them. In such a case the theme may be identified and categorized under the dominant aspect of the object. Textual analysis has been adopted to analyze the Hindi Self Instructional Material of NIOS.

The present paper aims to present an alternate analysis of the process of causativisation in Assamese. Although a considerable amount of research has already been carried out to study the process of causativisation in Assamese, no explanations seem to be appropriate to address the exceptions or irregularities occurring in the language in the process of causativisation. One such exceptions would be, the /-ɑ/ morpheme which shows two different patterns semantically and syntactically. Grammarians have termed it as a direct causative in the language, however, keeping in view certain instances the term false causative appears to be more appropriate label for the morpheme /ɑ/. For example: the verb /utʰ/ ‘rise’ becomes /utʰɑ/ when the derivational suffix /-ɑ/ is added to the verb. It is considered as the direct causative form of the verb /utʰ/. However, in the derivation of /kɔtɑ/ from /kɑt/ we observe irregularities. The direct causative form /kɔtɑ/ does not bear any semantic differences from the indirect causative /kɔtuɑ/. To address such irregularities or exceptions in the language, a close analysis of the form and function of the causative verbs as well as the semantic aspects of the verbs is required. Therefore, in the present study, we would like to provide a morpho-semantic analysis of Assamese verbs in order to analyse the process of causativisation in Assamese.

The language corpus is quite an essential component for Natural Language Processing. The agreeable size of corpus which can ensure the maximum coverage of the language text is a matter of concern. Whether or not a corpus is lexically saturated determines the future prospects of NLP applications built on it and the corpus design can be redrawn. The Lexical-Closure of the corpus is highly dependent on representation, script grammar, and characteristic features of a language. For this study power regression of statistics is used on LDC-IL Assamese text corpus to find out closure predictions.

English is a global language and is used in educational institutions of English and non-English speaking countries. Its quality and its effect as a foreign language instruction at the undergraduate level in Saudi Arabia is a kind of challenge for the students as well as for the teachers. It is a fact that English is an internationally intelligible language and is used as a lingua franca in Gulf countries where Expat teachers and the students have different L1 (native language) and use English to communicate with each other. Taking EFL undergraduate students into consideration, English is the language which helps them to convey their message to the instructor and vice versa particularly in an atmosphere where Instructor is not Arabic. English is a common means of communication. Majority shows interest in learning English in order to communicate on an international, professional level. The basic function of English is communication. Speaking English allows one to opt for foreign universities, and an opportunity to work abroad where English is spoken. This piece of work focuses on the use of English as a medium of instruction in the English classes of undergraduate EFL students of Saudi Arabia, the communication problem faced by both teachers and the students. The paper also discusses the perceptions or points of view from both teachers and students towards giving preferences for using English or Arabic or both and their frustrations and positive responses in using English as a Medium of Instruction. The data was collected from 50 participants where 30 were students and 20 were teachers. Undergraduate students and their English teachers responded to a questionnaire which was administered to know their perceptions about using English as a Medium of Instruction and the effect of the Arabic on their English. The paper finally discusses some solutions according to the data perceived from teachers and students for using English as a Medium of Instruction and also gives some recommendations which will improve their English learning skill at the early stage.

Language is a medium of communication. The efficacy of communication reaches its peak when it comes to human communication. Language and Media marketing is an arena where human utilize his linguistic creativity at the best. The language employed in advertising happens to be very catchy and highly loaded in the sense that it subsumes so many extra textual considerations. Intertextuality has tremendously widened the space for creativity and for the study of the new horizons and more dynamic aspects of language. The current paper aims at analyzing the intertextuality and its various forms in advertising. The study explores how intertextuality is used to put certain effects on the readers and attract them to buy that particular product. The main goal of advertising is to gain readers’ trust and interest positively. This is achieved through such advertisements which appeal to the readers. A qualitative descriptive study is adopted to carry out the present topic. Data have been furnished from all modes and forms of advertisements. The researcher also used the dialogue of the celebrities from movies in the context of intertextuality.

Mappila Muslims of Kerala have a longtime tradition of cultural link with Arab culture. Islam reached Kerala during Prophet Muhammad’s era. They keep a distinct culture in terms of identity, dress pattern, folklore, and food habits from that of any other Muslim community in South Asia. We can see an extensive version of Islam in Kerala. Mappila Muslims have regionalised each and every aspect of their life. Extensive regionalisation extensively in art and literature can be seen. They developed their own script, namely, Malabari, for writing Arabic. This script is mainly used for writing Qur’an copies, Fiqh literature, Seera and Qaseedas. Very interestingly, Malabari script also has vernacular version, it is used to write the alphabets of local language Arabi- Malayalam. Extensive numbers of literatures are there in Arabic Malayalam version of Malabari Script. This paper is to search for the origin, development and current status of Malabari or Ponnani script of Mappila Muslims of Malabar. In order to carry out this research, mainly qualitative methods will be used, which include study of literature, Manuscripts, Articles etc. This also includes interviews with experts in the subject, field visiting etc.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) provides the foundation for every Text-To-Speech system. This technology is of great help to many applications like telecommunication services, language education, and is of great benefit to physically impaired population (like visually and vocally challenged) as it reduces the dependency, frustration and sense of helplessness among them. The development of speech processing systems is more challenging as compared to text processing. Natural language processing is a major technology that can be used to bridge the gap between human communication and digital data. The goal of natural language processing is to design and build software that will analyze, understand, and generate languages that humans use naturally, so that eventually people can address computers as though they were addressing people. NLP has many applications such as Machine. Translation, Information Extraction, Summarization, Question Answering etc. In the last decade, most of the effort in this field is inclined towards machine translation. The objective of Kashmiri Text-To-Speech system is to generate an intelligible phonetic stream from Kashmiri text. Developing a Text-To-Speech system for Kashmiri will be of great help to those who can understand Kashmiri but cannot read and write.

Kashmir valley of the Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir. It is also spoken in the Chenab valley (Jammu) and in Azad Kashmir (Pakistan). Being the mother tongue of the people of Kashmir, it has a rich cultural heritage and history. It is the identity of the Kashmiri speakers of Jammu and Kashmir. However, at present, the Linguistic scenario is a bit alarming viz-a-viz the present generation is gradually shifting to Urdu and English languages and is leaving behind their rich cultural heritage and identity which is embedded in their mother tongue, i.e., Kashmiri. The prevailing situation is an indication that the present generation has developed negative attitude towards Kashmiri and have developed more affinity towards Urdu and English languages. In this backdrop the present paper aims to throw light on the challenges being faced by the Kashmiri language in the given situation. The challenges range from the negative attitude of younger generations towards Kashmiri language, role of parents, administrative policies regarding Kashmiri language and lack of subject specific teachers in Kashmiri Language.

This paper is an attempt to give an overview of verb morphology of Pahari spoken in the Karnah area of district Kupwara, Jammu and Kashmir. An attempt has been made to analyze the verb structure with respect to the nominal categories like person, number and gender. The study is an empirical one, based on the data collected through a questionnaire framed for the purpose.The result from the analysis demonstrated that verbs in Pahari show inflection according to tense, number, gender and person while as in verb ‘to be’, the inflected forms do not appear to follow a systematic pattern and mostly show suppletion.

The paper provides stylistic analysis of Nissim Ezekiel’s Poem “The Professor”. The poem has been analysed at different levels of stylistic analysis such as phonological, lexical and morphological, syntactic, semantic and graphological. The purpose of this study is to explore and analyse the stylistic devices which the poet has exploited in the poem to make its meaning effective to the readers. The analysis of the poem revealed use of several stylistic devices in the poem which include: alliteration, assonance ,consonance, affixation, compounding, collocations, idiomatic and colloquial expressions, deviant use of interrogative sentences, parallelism, reduplication, simile metaphors, varied punctuation and capitalization at various levels of stylistic analysis. The use of such stylistic devices in the poem refers to an individual style of the poet which distinguishes him from the others.