Indian Journal of Language and Linguistics
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Mimicry Matters: Postcolonial Borrowing and Backfiring
Get PDFThis article explores how postcolonial literary criticism’s borrowing of its different forms of cultural (such as poststructural and postmodern) and materialist/Marxist resistance from Europe, with which it has attempted to counter colonial and neocolonial hegemonic dominations, ultimately works as a boomerang to write back to the once-colonized people in one way or another. For this purpose, this paper will use Homi Bhabha’s theory of mimicry in which the borrowing of European language simultaneously leads to the subversion of colonial domination as well as a subversion of own self. Like Bhabha’s mimicry, postcolonial criticism often tends to focus more on its indebtedness to Europe rather than on attempts to subvert European ideologies which became complicit in colonial domination. Like Bhabha’s theory, postcolonial borrowing of ideas of resistance from Europe focuses more on once-colonized peoples’ inferiority and failure only to produce a kind of self-subversion. Bhabha’s immigrant subject attempts a self-assertion from a hybrid identity position and finally acknowledges an inescapable marginalization. This article will show when later postcolonial criticism often borrows from Europe to ironically assert cultural difference, native agency or local specificity, it turns out once again to lead to self-subversion. By using an observation of a number of recent postcolonial books and articles and with reference to a number of influential postcolonial writers, theorists and critics this paper aims to raise concern about the development of postcolonial self-subversion in certain key areas of postcolonial appropriation of European poststructural, postmodern and Marxist politics
Learners' Conceptions of Language: An Exploration of Potential Contributions from Folk Linguistics
Get PDFDespite the abundance of studies on learners' beliefs in the field of second language acquisition, very few have addressed learners' conceptions of the language itself. In this article, we argue that examining these conceptions is crucial for understanding the beliefs and attitudes students hold towards other languages and their learning processes. Specifically, we observe how a prescriptive view of language can influence students' expectations regarding the nature of the content being learned. Additionally, we note that the notion of correctness is often imprecise and ambiguous within the educational context. Furthermore, we explore how learners' conceptions about language components are intricately linked to their expectations about language learning. In particular, we observe that an emphasis on words as the primary object of learning can be detrimental to sociopragmatic factors. Moreover, we note that the folk conception of meaning as a rigid and context-independent entity can lead to a naïve universalist perspective, privileging the L1 as a means to understand and evaluate the L2. To delve into learners' conceptions of language, we propose the use of qualitative methods grounded in folk linguistics. Folk linguistics is the study of non-linguists' beliefs and ideas about language and language learning, including how they perceive and describe language use. This approach involves the study of metalanguage through discoursal data, which can be gathered both through metacognitive and contextual approaches. Additionally, we suggest that understanding the folklinguistic notions held by educators and those embedded in teaching materials is significant in this line of research, as it can help in designing and implementing educational interventions that are more closely aligned with learners' pre-existing conceptions, potentially leading to improved learning outcomes
Effect of Gender in Development of Attention in Malayalam Speaking children
Get PDFCognitive function such as attention is essential for learning, memory, daily functioning and overall quality of life. Understanding the multitude of this cognitive process, including potential gender differences, is crucial for developing tailored interventions and educational strategies. Studies that investigate the gender differences in cognitive-linguistic abilities of young children are sparse in the Indian context. Findings in this direction has revealed potential gender based differences in attention; however the findings are mixed. The current study aims to investigate these claims by exploring the impact of gender on attention development in Malayalam speaking children. 40 children between the age ranges of 4-8 years participated in the study. Equal number of males and females were included. The participants were chosen from regular schools in Thrissur district of Kerala, India. ‘Cognitive Linguistic Assessment Protocol for Children in Malayalam’, which assesses attention/discrimination, memory, and problem-solving tasks, was used for the study. The findings suggested that, there was a remarkable difference in visual discrimination task between the genders. However, no statistically significant difference was found between the attention tasks. This research supports the notion that attention development is largely influenced was not influenced by gender
The Influence of Psychology Factors on English Language Teaching
Get PDFA large number of examinations in the history of teaching of English language have encouraged a tendency to a good relationship between psychology and English language teaching. Both English language teaching and psychology are important for teaching English in order to increase the knowledge of language teachers and learners. It is fact that psychology may be used as devices to reinforce learning English and to motivate the English students. To understand what is meant by psychology factors we need to briefly consider psychological theories of language learning. This paper will consider educational psychology and approaches to psychology in the acquisition of second language. To illustrate the issue of this paper I will look at interlanguage theory in second language
Reduplication and its structures in Western Rengma
Get PDFThe research paper primarily focuses on the reduplication processes and morphological formation in Western Rengma. Western Rengma Terüpvunyu (name of the dialect and community) is one of the varieties of Rengma that falls under the Angami-Pochuri group of the Tibeto-Burman (TB) language family. This variety of Rengma is spoken in the eastern part of the Karbi Anglong district in Assam, India. Reduplication is a notable morphological feature in the grammar of Western Rengma. The current study examines the reduplicated patterns, structures, and their grammatical purposes of Western Rengma. The structure of reduplication, its variations, and its occurrences in Western Rengma would be discussed in this study. The existence of a left-base or right-base reduplication in a language is a key consideration when talking about the reduplication of any language. The current observation leads to an understanding that reduplication in Western Rengma is of the right base. Reduplication in Western Rengma is one of the crucial morphological processes that create new lexical and morphological items that can express a variety of meanings at the word and sentence levels
Human vs. Machine Translation – Benefits and Drawbacks
Get PDFWith the advances in the field of computer and information technologies (CIT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), which revolutionized the machine translation process, has become part of our lives over the last years. There has been a shift from tasks based on human intelligence to such based on AI. Living in the era of the global reach of science and technology, it was impossible for the field of translation to be left unaltered. The review focuses on the quality of Machine Translation (MT) output in terms of the complexity and diversity of Bulgarian as the source language and English as the target language. MT quality is analyzed in terms of fidelity, adequacy, lexicon and cultural uniqueness. Furthermore, the purpose of this article is to outline the drawbacks of MT in the cultural and linguistic context of Bulgarian. Some concluding remarks will be made about the dimensions and boundaries of MT. This article, however, contributes to the description of translation as the canvas on which subtle nuances and tender strokes turn into a masterpiece. Literature review was adopted as the main research method. Based on the review of 47 articles, three books and a thesis, I conclude that translation is still a domain that is a privilege to humans. Machines can only accelerate the process of human translation but they cannot serve as a universal replacement. While machine translation that operates through a computer code cannot be combined with social and cultural background, high quality translation can be stimulated through the synergy between artificial and human intelligence
The Role of Adverbs in Astrophysical Research Paper Abstracts
Get PDFIn this paper, we examine the presence of adverbs in 220 research paper abstracts published over an 11-year time span (2011–2021) in four top English-language journals in astrophysics, from both diachronic and cross-journal perspectives. Our main results reveal that, on average, adverbs account for about 3% of the total number of words, with adverbs ending in “-ly” making up approximately 40% of all adverbs and around 70% of their different variants. From a diachronic standpoint, the observed rising trend in the mean number of adverbs relative to the number of words, adjectives, main verbs, and authors may be attributed not only to the need for a thorough account of procedures and findings but also to the strategic management of discourse aimed at shaping editors’ and readers’ responses in an increasingly competitive scientific research environment. From a cross-journal perspective, the differences observed may be explained by a two-sided scenario: (1) abstracts published in journals with a more empirical and less generalist approach tend to contain more adverbs to provide a more detailed description of results and processes; (2) the use of adverbs by L2/L3 English authors varies from that of L1 English researchers, likely reflecting diverse proficiency levels in English. Our findings could benefit pedagogical studies in various fields by helping to bridge the gap between the written communication styles of L2/L3 and L1 English scientists, promoting clearer and more effective scientific discourse
Decoding Corruption: A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Language Practices in Southeast Nigerian Universities
Get PDFThis study dwells on the study of the language used to perpetuate corrupt and illegal practices in government managed universities in southeast Nigeria. The aim of this work is to unravel the linguistic expressions of corrupt practices in public offices; especially as they occur in public universities in the southeast of Nigeria by assessing their sociolinguistic features. The qualitative research paradigm is adopted for this research. The corpus for this study is elicited using participant observation method, and oral interviews of key informants. One hundred (100) informants are categorised into 10 different focused groups. Each group is made up of ten (10) members, from the ten (10) selected public universities in the southeast. The findings from this study show that the Igbo language, being the language of the immediate environment, is predominantly used as the cues. Other language patterns discovered are the use of codeswitching (admixture of Igbo and English languages/ Nigerian Pidgin), the use of the Nigerian Pidgin, English language, and other Nigerian languages. The findings further show that the cues are better understood when the expressions are studied with focus on the participants, settings, and domains of their usage, as they offer different meanings when analysed outside the context where they are used, and are adopted by the addressers. Drawing from the data analysis using Bernstein’s theory of language code, the study concludes that the participants used more restricted language codes across the different settings as a necessary means of masking corruption
Development of Test Stimuli and Assessing Acoustic Correlates of Affective Prosody in Kannada-Speaking Young Female Adults
Get PDFPurpose: Affective prosody, which conveys emotions through variations in stress and pitch, is crucial for social interactions and emotional communication. This study investigates the acoustic correlates of expressive affective prosody in Kannada-speaking young female adults. Methods: The study involved 31 Kannada-speaking young female adults performing an expressive affective prosody task (reading sentences) for four emotions: happy, sad, anger, and fear. The data collected was acoustically analysed based on a few acoustic parameters such as fundamental frequency (F0) and its range and contour; intensity (I0) and its range; and rate of speech (ROS) across the four emotions. Results: Statistical analysis revealed significant differences across emotions for all parameters, with rate of speech and I0 range showing the most variance. The frequency measures showed significant differences among almost all the comparisons. For the F0 contour, happy and anger exhibited rising and falling patterns, while sad and fear showed falling and rising patterns. The mean rate of speech was highest for anger and lowest for happy. Intensity measures showed significant differences, particularly between happy vs. sad, and sad vs. anger. These observations are consistent with previous research but also had a few contradictory findings. Conclusion: The study highlights distinct acoustic profiles for different emotions in Kannada among young female adults, aiding in the understanding of normal affective expression. This normative data on prosodic features can serve as a benchmark for identifying deviations in individuals with neuro communication disorders affecting their emotional prosody. These acoustic parameters can be used for objective assessments in clinical settings to detect early changes in emotional expression. Future research should include diverse age groups, both genders and various dialects to enhance the generalizability of findings
Thought, Language, and Communication Interplay in Persons with Aphasia and Neurotypical Individuals - A Preliminary study
Get PDFBackground: Stroke affects language, and language affects thoughts and the ability to communicate. Language has the primary function of enhancing communication, and enhancing thought as the secondary function. This explains the interlink between Thought, Language, and Communication (TLC), thus creating the need to explore TLC parameters in Persons with Aphasia (PWA) for a holistic perception of communication impairment. This study aimed to assess the TLC in PWA and to compare it with Neurotypical individuals (NTI). Method: A total of 10 participants (5 PWA and 5 NTI) were recruited for the present study. The conversational discourse samples on the neutral topic were collected and subjected to a perceptual 5-point rating based on domains of the Thought Language Communication Assessment Scale for Persons with Aphasia (TLCAS-PWA). Results and Discussion: The mean score was high in the communication domain, emphasizing that communication is affected among the domains of TLCAS - PWA. The comparison of TLC parameters between PWA and NTI was assessed using the Mann-Whitney U test, and the results showed a significant difference between PWA and NTI. The parameters of TLC exhibited by PWA were similar to Persons with Thought Disorder (PWTD), as there is an overlap of TLC. The parameters of TLC exhibited by PWA and PWTD were similar due to the linkage of TLC. Conclusion: PWAs should undergo TLC assessment in their routine clinical evaluation for a holistic perception of Communication impairment