Seven Colleges of DU
Introduction to Linguistics
Exam – 2019
Part – One (10 Marks Questions)
- What is linguistics?
- What is the difference between language acquisition and language learning?
- Define diphthong. Mention the eight diphthongal phonemes of the English language.
- What are the differences between Langue and parole?
- What are the differences between Deep Structure and Surface Structure?
- Briefly discuss active and passive articulators.
- What is prestige in sociolinguistics?
- What do you mean by the hierarchical structure of language or hierarchy of language?
N: B: if you are able to transcribe, the above questions are enough to perform well in part in one.
Part – Two (20 Marks Questions)
- How is linguistics science?
Or, discuss linguistics as science. - Discuss the rules of word formation.
Or, discuss the major rules of word formation. - What is Assimilation? Discuss assimilation or rules of assimilation.
- Discuss English consonants according to place of articulation.
- What is sociolinguistics? Discuss different varieties of socio-linguistics.
- What is the cooperative principle? Discuss with reference to Grecian Maxims.
- What is language? Discuss the characteristics of Language.
- What is syntax? Discuss the major syntactic process with diagram.
- Discuss Noam Chomsky’s contribution to Linguist.
Or, Discuss competence performance. - What is linguistics? Analyze the scope of linguistics.
Part – One (10 Marks Questions)
- What is linguistics?
Definition of linguistics: The word ‘linguistics’ is derived from the Latin ‘lingua’ which means tongue and ‘istics’ means knowledge or science. Etymologically, therefore, linguistics is the scientific study of language. However, it is not a specific language, but the study of human language in general. It studies language as a universal and recognized part of human behavior. It tries to describe and analyze the language. The field of linguistics combines an understanding of the place of language in human life, the way it serves the way it is organized to meet requirements, and the way it performs.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, linguistics refers to ‘the scientific study of the structure and development of language in general or of particular languages’.
According to Nasr, linguistics is concerned with human language as a universal and recognizable part of human behavior and of the human abilities.
According to Ferdinand de Saussure, one of the most famous linguists, “A linguistic system is a series of differences of sound combined with a series of differences of ideas.”
2. What is the difference between language acquisition and language learning?
Introduction: Some people use the term ‘language acquisition’ for all steps including how to read and write a language fluently while others use the term ‘language learning’ for children. But there is a fundamental difference between these two terms.
Acquisition: Children acquire language through a natural, subconscious process during which they are unaware of grammatical rules. This takes place especially when they acquire their first language (s). They repeat what they listen to from others and thus get a feeling of right and wrong. In order to acquire a language, they need a source of natural communication, which is usually the mother, father, and relatives. They will repeat what they hear, use word discipline until they understand, and use it purposefully in their communication.
Learning: Language learning, on the other hand, is the result of direct instruction in the rules of language. Language learning is not an appropriate activity for very young children as the presuppositions of language learning are that the language learners must have a conscious knowledge of the new language that they want to learn.
Language learners usually possess a basic knowledge of the grammar of the first language, that they acquired. They know the differences what a grammatically correct word order is in a sentence in the language. Contrariwise, when we learn a new language we have a deductive approach to the phonology, morphology, lexicography, and syntax of the target language. It means that we carefully read the grammar of the target language and try to memorize the facts or grammatical rules which are essential.
Conclusion: However, it is transparent that acquisition and learning quite different from each other and acquisition lasts long but learning is not long lasted comparing to acquisition. Acquisition is a nature way and learning is hard way.
3. Define diphthong. Mention the eight diphthongal phonemes of the English language.
Diphthong: Diphthong is a sound formed by the combination of two vowels in a single syllable, in which the sound begins as one vowel and moves towards another (as in coin, loud, and side ).
According to Wikipedia, a diphthong is literally a “double sound” or “double tone”; also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets.
Eight diphthongal phonemes: There are eight diphthongs commonly used in English. They are: /eɪ/, /aɪ/,/əʊ/, /aʊ/, /ɔɪ/, /ɪə/, /eə/, and /ʊə/.
4. What are the differences between Langue and parole?
Le langage, la langue and la parole: Ferdinand de Saussure made a sharp distinction between three main terms – le langage, la langue, and la parole. According to Saussure, le langage means human speech as a whole consisting of two aspects such as langue and parole. Langue means the decorated language system and parole refers to the act of speaking. The conspicuous differences between langue and parole are:
| Langue | Parole |
| It means the decorated language system. | It refers to the act of speaking. |
| It is the faculty of human speech existed in all normal human beings due to heredity. | It is achieved by observations and practice. |
| It is a social code. To put it differently, it is used by the all people of a particular society. | It varies from individual to individual since the expressing quality of individuals are different. |
| It is fixed. For example, if we communicate internationally, we will have to use a fix language that is English. | It is free which is proved by the multifarious accents of English. |
| It is slow moving which is that langue gets changed over course of time. | It is ephemeral because the expression of human beings depends on moods. |
| It is psychological. In other words, it is the scientific study of human mind and behavior. | It is psycho-physical which means that human mind and behavior are expressed through art of speaking. |
Although there are some poignant differences between langue and parole, there are certainly intertwined. For example, a car cannot move without oil, likewise, language is nothing without the art of expression or speaking. So, we can say that Saussure has shown an inseparable relationship between langue and parole.
5. What are the differences between Deep Structure and Surface Structure?
Differences between Deep Structure and Surface Structure: American linguist Noam Chomsky presents the terms deep structure and surface structure as part of his work on transformational grammar.
ডিপ স্ট্রাকচার এবং সারফেস স্ট্রাকচারের মধ্যে পার্থক্য: আমেরিকান ভাষাবিদ নোয়াম চমস্কি রূপান্তরিত ব্যাকরণের উপর তাঁর কাজের অংশ হিসাবে গভীর কাঠামো এবং পৃষ্ঠের কাঠামো পদগুলি উপস্থাপন করেন।
i. According to Chomsky, deep structure refers to ideas, concepts, and feelings whereas surface structure refers to the words we use to represent deep structure.
চমস্কির মতে, গভীর কাঠামো ধারণা, ধারণা এবং অনুভূতি বোঝায় যেখানে পৃষ্ঠের কাঠামোটি গভীর কাঠামোকে উপস্থাপন করতে আমরা যে শব্দ ব্যবহার করি তাকে বোঝায়।
ii. The surface structure produces the structure. It refers to the sentence as pronounced or written. The deep structure is the abstract structure.
পৃষ্ঠের গঠন কাঠামো উত্পাদন করে। এটি উচ্চারিত বা লিখিত হিসাবে বাক্যকে বোঝায়। গভীর কাঠামোটি বিমূর্ত কাঠামো।
iii. The surface structure detects sounds, grapho-phonic systems, alphabetical principles, phonemic awareness, decoding lexical systems.
Conversely, the deep structure deeply and subtly understands the meaning of words from literal concepts.
পৃষ্ঠের কাঠামো শব্দগুলি, গ্রাফিক-ফোনিক সিস্টেমগুলি, বর্ণমালার নীতিগুলি, ফোনমিক সচেতনতা, ডিকোডিং লেক্সিকাল সিস্টেমগুলি সনাক্ত করে।
বিপরীতভাবে, গভীর কাঠামো গভীরভাবে এবং সূক্ষ্মভাবে আক্ষরিক ধারণা থেকে শব্দের অর্থ বোঝে।
iv. The surface structure usually uses the active form but the deep structure uses the passive form.
পৃষ্ঠের কাঠামোটি সাধারণত সক্রিয় ফর্ম ব্যবহার করে তবে গভীর কাঠামোটি প্যাসিভ ফর্মটি ব্যবহার করে।
6. Briefly discuss active and passive articulators.
Active Articulator
The active articulator is the part of the vocal tract that moves to create a constriction. The common active articulators, combined with their Latinate adjectives.
Passive Articulator
The passive articulator is a part of the vocal tract that comes close to the formation of active articulatory constriction. (Since most of the active articulators are part of the tongue, most passive articulators are part of the roof of the mouth)
Example
The active and the passive articulator together define the constriction’s place of articulation. It is common to express the combination by joining the active articulator’s adjective with the passive articulator’s adjective as for example “labio-dental” is a sound involving the (lower) lip as the active articulator and the (upper) teeth as the passive articulator.
7. What is prestige in sociolinguistics?
Prestige in sociolinguistics
In sociolinguistics, prestige is the degree of respect and social values associated with a particular language, dialect, or various features of a language used by members of a community.
“Social and linguistic prestige are interrelated,” notes Michael Pearce. “The language of powerful social groups usually carries linguistic prestige, and social prestige is often granted to speakers of prestige languages and varieties.”
Prestigious varieties are the family of languages or dialects that are generally considered by society to be the most “correct” or otherwise superior. In many cases, these are ideal forms of language, although there are exceptions, especially in situations of occult prestige where a non-standard dialect is extremely valuable. In addition to dialects and languages, prestige is also applied to small linguistic features, such as the pronunciation or use of words or grammatical structures, which cannot be pronounced enough to form individual dialects. The concept of prestige provides an explanation for the phenomena of change of form between speakers of a language or languages.
8. What do you mean by hierarchical structure of language or hierarchy of language?
Ans: The hierarchy of language can be represented as:
i. Phonemes (any of the perceptually distinct units of sound in a specified language that distinguish one word from another, for example p, b, d, and t in the English words pad, pat, bad, and bat.)
ii. Syllables (a unit of pronunciation having one vowel sound, with or without surrounding consonants, forming the whole or a part of a word; for example, there are two syllables in water and three in inferno.)
iii. Morphemes (a meaningful morphological unit of a language that cannot be further divided (e.g. in, come, -ing, forming incoming ).
iv. Words (a single distinct meaningful element of speech or writing)
v. Phrases (a small group of words standing together as a conceptual unit, typically forming a component of a clause.)
vi. Clauses (a unit of the grammatical organization)
vii. Sentences/Utterances Texts/discourses
Part – Two (20 Marks Questions)
- How is linguistics science?
Or, discuss linguistics as science.
Introduction: The term “linguistics” was first used in the mid-nineteenth century. It is a very broad field that encompasses grammar, phonology, and semantics. Before the middle of the nineteenth century, this field was known as philology and that is why the simplest definition of Linguistics is that it is the science of language. To put it differently, it is the scientific study of human language.
Proximity to natural sciences: The proximity of linguistics to other natural sciences such as mathematics, physics, physics, biology, zoology, etc. is proof of its scientific nature. It touches on zoology through the comparative study of physics through phonology, physiology through the structure of human vocal organs, and the communication systems of living things.
Empirical observations: The scientific way of thinking about language involves making systematic, empirical observations. All scientists make empirical observations: botanists observe how plants grow and reproduce. Chemists observe how substances interact with other. Linguists observe how people use their language.
The descriptive approach: The descriptive approach is consistent with a scientific way of thinking. Think about an entomologist who studies beetles. Imagine that scientist observes that a species of beetle eats leaves. She’s not going to judge that the beetles are eating wrong, and tell them that they’d be more successful in life if only they eat the same thing as ants. No — she observes what the beetle eats and tries to figure out why: she develops a theory of why the beetle eats this plant and not that one. In the same way, linguists observe what people say and how they say it, and come up with theories of why people say certain things or make certain sounds but not others.
Differentiating in a scientific way: There are plenty of species that communicate with each other in an impressive variety of ways, but in linguistics, our job is to focus on the unique system that humans use.
First, what we call the articulatory system: our lungs, larynx & vocal folds, and the shape of our tongue, teeth, lips, nose, all enable us to produce speech. No other species can do this in the way we can, not even our closest genetic relatives the chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans.
Second, our auditory system is special: our ears are sensitive to exactly the frequencies that are most common in human speech. There are other species that have similar patterns of auditory sensitivity, but human newborns pay special attention to human speech, even more so than synthetic speech that is matched for acoustic characteristics.
And most important of all, our neural system is special: no other species has a brain as complex and densely connected as ours with so many connections dedicated to producing and understanding language.
Static and inventive: Like any scientific discipline, linguistics to is not static. Viewpoints and theoretical methods in the field, change even in fundamental ways from time to time and different aspects come to revive primary focus at different times. Linguistics has more than its share of unresolved controversies and unsolved questions which is a part of its fascination and challenge.
Conclusion: Humans’ language ability is different from all other species’ communication systems, and linguistics is the science that studies this unique ability.
2. Discuss the rules of word formation.
Or, discuss the major rules of word formation.
Introduction: Word formation rules are very basic concept of linguistic. This is a process of forming new word. All the languages of the world possess some basic rules or processes for building up new words or phrases too. Let us now know the major word formation rules or processes of English language.
শব্দ গঠনের নিয়মগুলি ভাষাবিজ্ঞানের খুব প্রাথমিক ধারণা। এটি নতুন শব্দ গঠনের প্রক্রিয়া।বিশ্বের সব ভাষা লাভ করে কিছু বেসিক নিয়ম বা প্রক্রিয়া নতুন শব্দ বা বাক্যাংশ তৈরির জন্য।আসুন আমরা এখন ইংরেজী ভাষার প্রধান শব্দ গঠনের নিয়ম বা প্রক্রিয়াগুলি জানি।
I. Derivation (উৎপত্তি)
Derivation is one of the fundamental word formation rules in which affixes attach to the base form or root of the word. Affixes are prefixes, infixes and suffixes. Through this process, the grammatical forms of words are changed such as from noun to verb to adjective to adverb, from verb to verb, from adjective to adjective etc.
Examples:
- Nation – nationalize – national – nationally.
- Appear – disappear.
- Moral – immoral.
উৎপত্তি হ’ল মৌলিক শব্দ গঠনের নিয়ম যার মধ্যে affixes শব্দের মূল ফর্ম বা মূলের সাথে সংযুক্ত থাকে। আফিক্সগুলি উপসর্গ, ইনফিক্স এবং প্রত্যয়। এই প্রক্রিয়াটির মাধ্যমে শব্দের ব্যাকরণগত রূপগুলি পরিবর্তিত হয় যেমন from noun to verb to adjective to adverb, from verb to verb, from adjective to adjective ইত্যাদিতে পরিবর্তিত হয়।
উদাহরণ:
- জাতি – জাতীয়করণ – জাতীয় – জাতীয়ভাবে।
- উপস্থিত – অদৃশ্য।
- নৈতিক – অনৈতিক।
II. Back – formation (পিছনে – গঠন)
Back – formation is another compulsory rule of word formation. In this procedure, affixes are subtracted to create a new word. This rule is vice versa of derivation.
Examples:
- Donation – donate.
- Obsessive – obsess.
পিছনে – গঠন শব্দ গঠনের আরেকটি বাধ্যতামূলক নিয়ম। এই পদ্ধতিতে, affixes একটি নতুন শব্দ তৈরি করতে বিয়োগ করা হয়। এই নিয়মটি derivation’র বিপরীত।
উদাহরণ:
- দান – দান করা ।
2. আবেশ – আবিষ্ট করা।
III. Compounding
The process in which two or more independent words are combined to hatch new word is called compounding rule of word generation.
প্রক্রিয়া যেখানে দুটি বা ততোধিক স্বাধীন শব্দ একত্রিত করা হয় নতুন শব্দ তৈরি করতে বলা হয় শব্দ প্রজন্মের যৌগিক নিয়ম।
Examples:
- Bed + room = Bedroom
- Note + pad = Notepad
- In + to = Into
- Break + up = Breakup
IV. Blending
In blending process, parts of the words are taken to form new word.
মিশ্রণ প্রক্রিয়াতে শব্দের কিছু অংশ নতুন শব্দ গঠনে নেওয়া হয়।
Examples:
Europe + Asia = Eurasia
Biographical + picture = Biopic
Smoke + fog = Smog
V. Clipping (ছাঁটাই)
The method in which words are shortened to coin word is called clipping procedure of word formation. Though the words are shortened in this process, the meaning of the words remain unchanged.
প্রক্রিয়া যেখানে শব্দ সংক্ষিপ্ত করা হয় নতুন শব্দ তৈরি করতে বলা হয় শব্দ প্রজন্মের ছাঁটাই নিয়ম। শব্দগুলি এই প্রক্রিয়াতে সংক্ষিপ্ত করা হলেও শব্দের অর্থ অপরিবর্তিত থাকে।
Examples:
Examination – Exam
Advertisement – Ad
Mathematics – Math
Photograph – Photo
VI. Abbreviation
Abbreviation means shortened form of words or phrases. Abbreviated words are basically and widely used for writing but some are used in spoken as well.
সংক্ষেপণের অর্থ শব্দ বা বাক্যাংশগুলির সংক্ষিপ্ত রূপ।সংক্ষিপ্ত শব্দগুলি মূলত এবং ব্যাপকভাবে লেখার জন্য ব্যবহৃত হয় তবে কিছু কথ্য ক্ষেত্রেও ব্যবহৃত হয়।
Examples:
cm – centimeter
km – kilometer
Dr.- doctor
Mr.- mister
Jr. – junior
VII. Acronym (অন্য শব্দের আদ্যক্ষর দ্বারা গঠিত শব্দ)
In acronym process, an abbreviation is formed from the initial letters of several words and pronounced as a word. The difference between abbreviation rule of word formation and acronym rule of word formation is that acronym cannot be written in small letter but abbreviation can be written using small and capital letter.
অন্য শব্দের আদ্যক্ষর দ্বারা গঠিত শব্দ প্রক্রিয়ায়, একটি সংক্ষেপণ গঠিত হয় বেশ কয়েকটি শব্দের প্রাথমিক অক্ষর থেকে এবং একটি শব্দ হিসাবে উচ্চারণ করা হয়।
Examples:
UN – United Nations
WB – World Bank
SAARC – The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
VIII. Borrowing
Borrowing is the word formation process in which words of foreign languages become the asset of one language.
ধারকরা শব্দ গঠন প্রক্রিয়া হল যেখানে বিদেশী ভাষার শব্দগুলি একটি ভাষার সম্পদ হয়ে যায়।
Examples:
Algebra – Arabic
Near – Sanskrit
Murder – French
Conclusion: Without knowing the basic rules of word formation, nobody can possess prosperity in both of oral and written communication.
উপসংহার: শব্দ গঠনের প্রাথমিক নিয়মগুলি না জেনে কেউ মৌখিক এবং লিখিত উভয় ক্ষেত্রেই সমৃদ্ধি অর্জন করতে পারে না।
3. What is Assimilation? Discuss assimilation or rules of assimilation.
Assimilation
Assimilation is a phonological process in which a speech sound changes and becomes more similar to a neighboring sound by the influence of the next or previous sound. For example, in English the negative prefix appears as im- before words beginning with a bilabial stop (e.g. possible: impossible) but as in- before words beginning with an alveolar stop (e.g. tolerant: intolerant).
Etymological definition
Assimilation is a cognitive process. The term “assimilation” comes from the Latin word ‘assimilare’ meaning, “make similar to.” It is the change of sound while rapid pronunciation. Some phonemes including typically consonants or vowels change to be more similar to other nearby sounds. It is a common or canonical type of phonological process across languages of the world. Assimilation can occur either within a word or between words. It occurs in normal conversational speech, and it becomes more common in more rapid speech. In some cases. The changed sound of the word is considered to be correct and pure.
For an English example, “handbag” (canonically /ˈhændˌbæɡ/) is often pronounced /ˈhæmbæɡ/ in rapid speech. This is because the [m] and [b] sounds are both bilabial consonants and their places of articulation are similar.
Rules of assimilation: In English, the major types of assimilation are:
Regressive assimilation: In common language, assimilation in which the previous sound is influenced by the next sound to be changed is called regressive assimilation. In improved language, assimilation in which the next sound brings about a change in a preceding one is called regressive assimilation or anticipatory coarticulation.
For example:
That boy [ðæp bɔɪ]
Ten pens [tempenz], etc.
Progressive assimilation: In common language, assimilation in which the next sound is influenced by the previous sound to be changed is called progressive assimilation. In advanced language, Assimilation in which a preceding sound brings about a change in a following one is called progressive or perseverative assimilation.
For example:
Did you [didʒu], etc.
4. Discuss English consonants according to place of articulation.
Ans. Consonants are sounds that are produced with articulators more or less close. Consonants are classified according three dimensions:
- Voicing
- Place of articulation
- Manner of articulation
ব্যঞ্জনবর্ণ হ’ল শব্দগুলি যা কম বেশি ঘনিষ্ঠভাবে আর্টিকুলেটরগুলির সাথে উত্পাদিত হয়। ব্যঞ্জনবর্ণগুলি তিনটি মাত্রা অনুসারে শ্রেণিবদ্ধ করা হয়:
- বাচ্য
- বক্তৃতা স্থান
- স্পষ্ট উচ্চারণ রীতি
the place of articulation
The place of articulation refers to that area where the articulators are opposing some kind of stricture or obstacle to the passing of air. The consonants are illustrated here in accordance with place of articulation.
উচ্চারণের স্থানটি সেই অঞ্চলটিকে বোঝায় যেখানে সর্বনামীরা বাতাসের প্রবাহে কোনওরকম বাধার বিরোধিতা করছে। ব্যঞ্জনবর্ণগুলি এখানে উচ্চারণের স্থান অনুসারে বর্ণিত হল।
| classification | Articulators | Examples |
| Bilabial দুই ত্তষ্ঠবিশিষ্ট | Upper lip and lower lip. উপরের ঠোঁট এবং নীচের ঠোঁট | /p b m w / |
| Dental দন্তসংক্রান্ত | Teeth and tip of tongue. দাঁত এবং জিহ্বার ডগা | /θ/ as is “thick” and “bath “ /ð/ as in “the” and “rather” |
| Labio-dental দন্তৌষ্ঠ্য | Lower lip and upper teeth. নীচের ঠোঁট এবং উপরের দাঁত | / f v / |
| Alveolar দন্তমূলীয় | Alveolar ridge and tip and blade of tongue. দন্তমূলীয় প্রান্ত এবং জিহ্বার ডগা ও ফলক বা প্লেট | /t d s z l m/ |
| Post-alveolar | Hard palate and tip of tongue. শক্ত তালু এবং জিহ্বার ডগা। | /r/ |
| Palato-alveolar | Hard palate – alveolar and tip, blade and front of the tongue. | /ʃ/ as in “shot” or “brash” /ʒ, tʃ, dʒ/ |
| Palatal- তালব্য | Hard palate and front of tongue. | /j/ |
| Velar – ত্বক্ | Soft palate and back of tongue. | /k g ŋ/ |
| Glottal | Glottis that means vocal cords. | /h/ |
5. What is sociolinguistics? Discuss different varieties of socio-linguistics.
Introduction: Sociolinguistics is a branch of linguistics that studies the relationship between and society.
sociolinguistics
Sociolinguistics is the study of the way language that is affected by differences in social class, region, sex, etc. It is the descriptive study of the effect of any and all aspects of society, including cultural norms সাংস্কৃতিক নিয়ম, expectations, and context প্রসঙ্গ, on the way language is used, and society’s effect on language.
According to Spolsky, sociolinguistics is the study of the relation between language and society, between the uses of language and the social structures in which the users of language live.
Different varieties of socio-linguistics
In sociolinguistics, language variety—also called lect—is a general term for any distinctive form যে কোনও স্বতন্ত্র ফর্মের জন্য of a language or linguistic expression. Linguists commonly use language variety as a cover term for any of the overlapping subcategories সমাপতিত উপ শ্রেণীবিভাগ / Completed subcategory of a language, including dialect, register, jargon, and idiolect.
Dialect
The word dialect—which contains “lect” within the term—derives from the Greek words dia- meaning “across, between” and legein “speak.” A dialect is a regional or social variety of a language distinguished স্বতন্ত্র by pronunciation, grammar, and/or vocabulary. The term dialect is often used to characterize a way of speaking that differs from the standard variety of the language.
Register
Register is defined as the way a speaker uses language differently in different circumstances. Think about the words you choose, your tone of voice, even your body language. You probably behave very differently chatting with a friend বন্ধুদের সাথে গল্প করতে than you would at a formal dinner party or during a job interview. These variations in formality, also called stylistic variation, are known as registers in linguistics.
Jargon
Jargon refers to the specialized language of a professional or occupational group. Such language is often meaningless to outsiders বহিরাগতদের কাছে অর্থহীন. American poet David Lehman has described jargon as “the verbal sleight of hand মৌখিক নৈপুণ্য that makes the old hat seem newly fashionable; it gives an air of novelty and specious profundity to ideas that, if stated directly, would seem superficial, stale, frivolous, or false.”
Types of Lects
In addition to the distinctions discussed previously, different types of lects also echo the types of language varieties:
Regional dialect: A variety spoken in a particular region.
Sociolect: Also known as a social dialect, a variety of language is used by a socioeconomic class, a profession, an age group, or any other social group.
Ethnolect: A lect is spoken by a specific ethnic group. For example, Ebonics, the vernacular spoken by some African-Americans, is a type of ethnolect.
Idiolect: The language or languages is spoken by each individual. For example, if you are multilingual and can speak in different registers and styles, your idiolect comprises several languages, each with multiple registers and styles.
Conclusion: The language varieties, or lects, that people speak often serve as the basis for judgment, and even exclusion এমনকি বর্জন, from certain social groups, professions, and business organizations.
6. What is the cooperative principle? Discuss with reference to Grecian Maxims.
The cooperative principle: The cooperative principle states that you should say things that are appropriate for the kind of conversation you are having. In other words, cooperative principle stands for “Make your contribution such as it is required, at the stage at which it occurs, by the accepted purpose or direction of the talk exchange in which you are engaged.” This principle was first proposed in 1970s by the British philosopher of language Paul Grice who is famous for his theory of ‘Implicature’.
The cooperative principle in the light of Grecian Maxims
Grecian Maxims are called the rules of conversation. The conversational maxims deal specifically with communication. The cooperative principle could well be understood in the light of Grecian Maxims which can be broken into four parts which are as follows:
The maxim of quality
This rule is very basic which states that you should always speak the truth with enough evidence to backup what you are talking about. So, this rule of conversation insists on being credible.
The maxim of quantity
This rule of conversation says that you should be as informative as you need to be. To put it differently, it says that you should lay out information that you think as proper.
For example:
“I think some cookies are delicious”. Actually, this sentence bears twice meaning for the listener because this sentence states that ‘I like some cookies’ and there some which ‘I do not like’. But if you say that “all cookies are delicious” which is logically truer than “I think some cookies are delicious” that is not logical in accordance with the maxim of quantity.
The maxim of manner
This one means that you should talk in a way that is appropriate for the people when you are talking with. Now appropriate means four different things here.
- You should use words which are understandable to your listeners. For an instance: “if you say while explaining that the sky is blue or the stars are twinkling”, this will create difference while you talk with kinder gardener or third year university student.
- Avoidance of unnecessary prolixity that means you should make your point quick without wasting time.
- You should stay away from ambiguity.
- You should speak orderly that means you should finish your speech from starting to end.
The maxim of relevance
This rule is very simple, and it says you not to be irrelevant while talking.
Thus, it becomes transparent that Grecian maxims are not merely rules but more guidelines and pretty much universal.
7. What is language? Discuss the characteristics of Language.
Introduction: Language is an inseparable part of human society. Human civilization has been possible through language. Humanity has come out of the stone age only through language and has developed science, art and technology in a big way. Language is a means of communication which means that it is arbitrary and a system of systems. We know that Speech is primary while writing is secondary.
Definition of language: Language is the method of human communication either spoken or written consisting of use of words in a structured or conventional way.
According to Aristotle, “language stands for speech that human produce for exchanging their experience resulting in ideas and emotion.
According Noam Chomsky, “A language is a set of sentences, each finite in length and constructed out of finite set of elements.
Characteristics of language
According the definition of language from the perspective of different linguists, language possesses the following characteristics which are limned here.
Language is Arbitrary
Language is arbitrary in the sense that there is no inherent relation between the words of a language and their meanings or the ideas conveyed by them. There is no reason why a female adult is called a woman in English, aurat in Urdu, Zen in Persian and Femine in French. The choice of a word selected to mean a particular thing or idea is purely arbitrary but once a word is selected for a particular reference, it comes to stay as such. It may be noted that had language not been arbitrary, there would have been only one language in the world.
Language is Social
Language is a set of conventional communicative signals used by humans for communication in a community. Language in this sense is a possession of a social group, comprising an indispensable set of rules which permits its members to relate to each other, to interact with each other, to co-operate with each other; it is a social institution. Language exists in society; it is a means of nourishing and developing culture and establishing human relations.
Language is Symbolic
Language consists of various sound symbols and their graphological counterparts that are employed to denote some objects, occurrences or meaning. These symbols are arbitrarily chosen and conventionally accepted and employed.
Language is Systematic
Although language is symbolic, yet its symbols are arranged in a particular system. All languages have their system of arrangements. For example, within the grammatical system we have morphological and syntactic systems, and within these two sub-systems we have systems such as those of plural, of mood, of aspect, of tense, etc.
Language is Vocal
Language is primarily made up of vocal sounds only produced by a physiological articulatory mechanism in the human body. In the beginning, it appeared as vocal sounds only. Writing which came much later is an intelligent attempt to represent vocal sounds. Writing is only the graphic representation of the sounds of the language. So, the linguists say that speech is primary.
Language is Non-instinctive and Conventional
No language was created in a day by a group of humans. Language is the outcome of evolution and convention. Each generation transmits this convention on to the next. Like all human institutions languages also change and die, grow and expand. Every language therefore is a convention in a community. It is non-instinctive because it is acquired by human beings. Nobody gets a language in heritage; he acquires it because he has an innate ability.
Language is Productive and Creative
Language has creativity and productivity. The structural elements of human language can be combined to produce new utterances. Language changes according to the needs of society.
Others
Beside these, language has other characteristics such as duality which refers to the two systems of sound and meaning. Displacement is also trait of language which means the ability to talk across time and space. Universality, competence and performance and cultural transmutation are the noticeable features of language.
Conclusion: From the light of the above discussion, it has been transparent that the features of language is related to the change of culture and civilization. With the passage of time, new traits will produce for the language.
8. Discuss Noam Chomsky’s contribution to Linguist.
Or, Discuss competence performance.
Avram Noam Chomsky’s contribution to Linguist
Avram Noam Chomsky who is an American linguist and philosopher is considered to be the father of modern linguistics particularly for his Transformational Generative Grammar and as he is one of the major figures of analytic philosophy. He introduced the terms “Competence and Performance” in his elaboration of generative grammar.
Competence: Competence is a knowledge of the system of language. This includes a person’s ability to create and understand sentences. In other words, competence means the system of linguistics knowledge of mother tongue.
According to Chomsky, competence is the ideal language system that enables speakers to produce and understand sentences in their mother tongue and to differentiate between grammatical sentences and ungrammatical sentences. This is unaffected by ‘grammatically irrelevant conditions such as speech errors.
Performance: Performance is the actual use of the language in speaking and writing. A learner’s performance in a language is an indirect indication of his or her competence.
competence verses performance:
- In competence, errors happen because of lack of knowledge. On the other hand, in performance, errors happen due to lack of attention, excitement and nervousness. We can cite two examples to make the idea clear:
- I byued a new book yesterday. Here in this sentence the under- line error is the result of lack of competence.
- I will see you yesterday. Here in this sentence, the speaker means to say “I will see you tomorrow” but instead of tomorrow he has said yesterday. This kind of mistake is called slip of the tongue that is a mistake of performance.
- Competence is considered to be ideally psychological or mental property but performance stands for an actual event. For example: when a language learner is aware of the grammatical rule for the 3rd person singular number in English, yet utters the following sentence, “He run fast”. Here in this sentence we get competence but lack of performance because the pronunciation of the sentence should be “He runs fast”.
- Competence is universal but performance is individual.
Conclusion: Competence and performance cannot be set apart instead of having some conspicuous distinctions between them.
9. What is linguistics? Analyze the scope of linguistics.
Definition of linguistics: Linguistics refers to the scientific study of language. The word ‘linguistics’ is derived from the Latin words ‘lingua’ meaning ‘tongue’ and ‘istics’ meaning ‘knowledge’. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, linguistics refers to ‘the scientific study of the structure and development of language in general or of particular languages’. The study of linguistics comes from the natural curiosity of man about the particulars of the language by which he speaks. In linguistics, the language is evaluated through different perspectives. According to one of the most famous linguists Ferdinand de Saussure, “A linguistic system is a series of differences of the sound system combined with a series of differences of ideas.”
ভাষাতত্ত্বের সংজ্ঞা: ভাষাবিজ্ঞান বলতে ভাষার বৈজ্ঞানিক অধ্যয়নকে বোঝায়। ‘ভাষাবিজ্ঞান’ শব্দটি লাতিন শব্দ ‘লিঙ্গুয়া’ অর্থ ‘জিহ্বা’ এবং ‘আইস্টিকস’ অর্থ ‘জ্ঞান’ থেকে এসেছে। কেমব্রিজ অভিধান অনুসারে ভাষাতত্ত্ব বলতে বোঝায় ‘সাধারণ ভাষায বা বিশেষ ভাষার গঠন ও বিকাশের বৈজ্ঞানিক অধ্যয়ন’। ভাষাতত্ত্বের অধ্যয়ন মানুষ যে ভাষায় কথা বলে তার বিবরণ সম্পর্কে মানুষের স্বাভাবিক কৌতূহল থেকেই আসে। ভাষাতত্ত্বের ক্ষেত্রে ভাষাকে বিভিন্ন দৃষ্টিকোণের মাধ্যমে মূল্যায়ন করা হয়। অন্যতম বিখ্যাত ভাষাতত্ত্ববিদ ফার্দিনান্দ ডি সসুরের মতে, “একটি ভাষাগত পদ্ধতি হ’ল সাউন্ড সিস্টেমের বিভিন্ন ধারনার ধারাবাহিকতার সাথে মিলিয়ে সাউন্ড সিস্টেমের বিভিন্ন পার্থক্য” .
The scope of linguistics: Linguistics involves a vast, complex, and systematic study of language and it is connected with different core areas such as phonology, phonetics, morphology, syntax, and semantics. It is also intertwined with various other disciplines and contains fields like sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, and so on. Linguistics is being recognized as an independent discipline of study, and thus it paves the way to a lot of developments and research. In fact, linguistics is a descriptive study that describes language in all aspects, and it is not a prescriptive one. It is a subject that keeps changing, as languages change.
This is a highly dynamic domain of study. Although some aspects of the subject of linguistics have been made on the basis of historical notes and some rules, it continues to evolve from the old boundaries into new forms. Linguistics is applied in various fields of study and this makes it a very important discipline. The application of linguistics extends from anthropology to speech therapy in modern medicine. Extensive research and studies are conducted on the linguistic perspectives of each language in order to identify the characteristics of the language in order to understand the special features of literature, including prose and poetry in different languages, as well as to take advantage of linguistic opportunities.
All in all, it is obvious that the scope of linguistics is dynamic as well as inventive like other branches of science.
ভাষাতত্ত্বের ক্ষেত্র: ভাষাবিজ্ঞানের সাথে ভাষার একটি বিস্তৃত, জটিল এবং নিয়মতান্ত্রিক অধ্যয়ন জড়িত এবং এটি ফোনেোলজি, ধ্বনিবিজ্ঞান, রূপচর্চা, বাক্য গঠন এবং শব্দার্থবিজ্ঞানের মতো বিভিন্ন মূল ক্ষেত্রের সাথে যুক্ত। এটি অন্যান্য বিভিন্ন শাখার সাথেও জড়িত এবং এতে আর্থ-ভাষাবিজ্ঞান, মনোবিজ্ঞান ইত্যাদির মতো ক্ষেত্র রয়েছে। ভাষাবিজ্ঞান অধ্যয়নের একটি স্বাধীন শাখা হিসাবে স্বীকৃতি পেয়েছে, এবং এইভাবে এটি অনেকগুলি বিকাশ এবং গবেষণার পথ তৈরি করে। প্রকৃতপক্ষে ভাষাতত্ত্ব একটি বর্ণনামূলক অধ্যয়ন যা ভাষাকে সমস্ত দিক দিয়ে বর্ণনা করে এবং এটি কোনও প্রচলিত প্রথাগত নয়। এটি এমন একটি বিষয় যা পরিবর্তিত হতে থাকে, যেমন ভাষা পরিবর্তন হয়।
এটি অধ্যয়নের একটি অত্যন্ত গতিশীল ডোমেন। ভাষাতত্ত্বের কিছু বিষয় ঐতিহাসিক নোট এবং কিছু নিয়মের ভিত্তিতে তৈরি করা হলেও এটি পুরানো গণ্ডি থেকে নতুন রূপে বিবর্তিত হতে থাকে। ভাষাবিজ্ঞান অধ্যয়নের বিভিন্ন ক্ষেত্রে প্রয়োগ করা হয় এবং এটি এটিকে একটি অত্যন্ত গুরুত্বপূর্ণ অনুশাসন করে তোলে। ভাষাতত্ত্বের প্রয়োগ আধুনিক চিকিত্সার নৃতত্ত্ব থেকে স্পিচ থেরাপি পর্যন্ত প্রসারিত। বিভিন্ন ভাষার গদ্য ও কবিতা সহ সাহিত্যের বিশেষ বৈশিষ্ট্যগুলি বোঝার পাশাপাশি ভাষাগত সুযোগগুলির সুবিধা গ্রহণের জন্য ভাষার বৈশিষ্ট্যগুলি চিহ্নিত করার জন্য প্রতিটি ভাষার ভাষাগত দৃষ্টিভঙ্গিতে বিস্তৃত গবেষণা এবং অধ্যয়ন পরিচালিত হয়।সব মিলিয়ে এটাই স্পষ্ট যে ভাষাতত্ত্বের ক্ষেত্র গতিশীল এবং বিজ্ঞানের অন্যান্য শাখার মতো উদ্ভাবকও বটে।
