Masters in Japanese

Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth

Subject - General linguistics Professor - Dr. Shrikant Joshi

This is a series of general notes and a collection of all my answers from this lecture. I have numbered it date
wise, starting from 8th of July 2017, Saturday.
Saturday, 8th July 2017.
0730 hrs.
Self Introduction.
My name is Gauri Manohar Pawar. I just completed my Bachelors in French from Fergusson college. I speak
Marathi, Hindi, English, French and Japanese. I want to do my Masters in Japanese because I truly love the
language, as learning this language has significantly changed my life and given it a certain shape. I want to
further study the culture and the history behind this language and enrich my knowledge. I also plan to take up
full time teaching as my ultimate career, and thus, spread knowledge and wisdom.
What are we here to do?
We all are here to talk. To discuss. To watch movies. To listen. And mostly to study. Here, we do not learn any
language. In the Linguistics class, we do not learn a new language. We study languages. We learn how to
analyse a language from a completely objective, aloof and cool point of view. We study the etymology of words,
phonetics, phonology, the syntax, the morphology and the semantics of the language. We study the basics
required to learn any language. I think its going to be more of a linguistic retrospection. This class is going to
make me think back to all the concepts that I have learned, and start to question their history, evolution and
their real meaning in the language. I am here to study the base of any one or no one certain language. The way a
language evolves. Because I believe, as Dr. Hawkings had put it :
If you study and understand how a certain phenomena in physics works, it is likely that youll soon be
able to handle, control or manipulate it.
When I study the genealogy and certain other aspects of languages, I realise that studying the net, the
base, the blueprint of the whole language helps me approach the language with a more positive outlook.

Language and scripts are two different entities.

Language and Script are two totally independent entities. Language is spoken. Script is written.
Sanskrit is dead, and so is Latin.
The liveliness or the life of a language is determined/defined by the number of speakers of that language
present in the world. If a language does not have any speakers, the language is supposed to be dead. A certain
language might have a significant number of learners, users, researchers, coders, teachers, etc., but if she does
not have any speakers, i.e. if no man uses that language for daily communication in his community, then that
language is supposed to be dead.
For example, in India, Sanskrit, the supposed mother of all Indian languages, is now a dead language. The
language Sanskrit has a huge number of students who learn it to train their tongues to be more flexible, radio
journalists who broadcast news for a whole of 5 minutes every morning on the national radio station,
researchers who pursue their doctorates in order to study the ancient scriptures, Ayurvedas, shlokas, etc.,
priests and pundits who recite Sanskrit shlokas and mantras during traditional Indian rites and rituals, and then
there are a few of us, commoners, who recite Sanskrit shlokas as they form a significant part of our prayers.
Even as we recite a verse from the shlokas, we repeat something we have memorised in the childhood. There is
no communication at all. As there are no speakers of the language anymore, the language is considered dead.
Not even dormant or in a vegetative state.
So is Latin. Many European languages and their words trace their etymological roots to the Latin language. All
the Romance languages, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian- all these languages owe their rice
vocabulary to their mother Latin. Even English has many words borrowed from Latin. Thus, its true that the
language survives in the genes of her daughter languages, but yet isnt alive on her own. What I mean to say
here is, even if a language finds its traces in other languages, that does not mean that it is alive. It is still
considered dead. When we speak French, we speak French; even when half its vocabulary comes from Latin.
Thats why, French has speakers, Latin doesnt. And thus, French lives and survives, whereas, Latin is dead.

Scripts are useless . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . to a certain extent !

Script is the written representation of a spoken language. A language can definitely and effortlessly survive even
without its script. A script should never be a hindrance to learning a language. Sometimes, scripts make it
difficult to learn a language. Sometimes, scripts scare us. For example, Chinese. At other times, scripts deceive
us. For example, English. Not always, does a script which looks easy and simple make our life simple and sorted.
If you write laee bhaaree like this on a piece of paper and make an English gentleman read this aloud to a
Mumbaikar, the latter will definitely rejoice and feel proud at being appreciated. Reason? Language is SPOKEN.
What is spoken, is heard, understood, responded to and thus, communicated. The mumbaikar might feel that
the American speaks Marathi, but the American will swear by his third girlfriend that he doesnt, knowing fully
well that hed just read out a phrase written in roman script. He doesnt understand the meaning, the origin or
anything about the phrase. And still, if he would just learn by heart 100 of such short Marathi sentences written
in roman script, hed sure be proficient enough in Marathi to be able to survive a month in Dadar.
This is how babies, or kids pick up a language. Normal kids (like me) cannot read or write at an age as early as
three or four. But they do have teeth and all that mouth developed enough to pick up a language. Kids hear,
listen, observe, absorb and then use. In short, this is how they learn each word, its sound, its meaning, its
usage, etc. This is indeed how a human brain works. It picks up a language by listening to its sound. And sounds
is what every language is made up of.
Moral? A person does NOT need to know the script of a language to be able to speak it, proficiently. A person
can speak a language even if he is not able to read or write in that language. In other words, if a language is
completely wholesome and sufficient in its own entirety of grammar, vocabulary and expressions, in such a way,
that an entire community can survive effortlessly by using that language as a daily means of communication,
then it can be called as a developed and self sufficient language. This kind of a language is immune to death
threats caused by absence of scripts. Some of the examples are, Marwari, Garhwali, Konkani, etc. These
languages do not have a script to back them and yet they have survived perfectly over the years in their own self
sufficiency and wholesomeness. And then, we also have examples of languages like Sanskrit, Latin, Ancient
Greek, which were fully furnished with rich vocabulary sets and expressions, beautiful and detailed scripts
corresponding to their sounds, and yet, somehow died over the years, leaving behind their traces in certain
other languages. The Bible, written in Ancient Hebrew is a dead language. The Bhagwad Gita, written in Sanskrit
is a dead language too!

Then why do we learn spellings since class 1???

All said and done, a script, though, renders a language easy to express in written form. A script goes hand in
hand with the language. It completes the wholesome balance of a language by providing it a means to express
itself in written form. It ensures the survival of the language over a period of years by staying preserved in
written records. Scripts encode a language in its preserve-able form.
In order to ensure its survival, a language needs to be preserved. All her aspects, grammar, vocabulary,
expressions, etc., need to preserved and passed on to the next generation in order to keep her alive. In short,
script can also be said as a means of passing down Knowledge. Knowledge is ingrained in languages, and
languages, in scripts. Knowledge is represented in languages. And thus it passes on.
Panini a renowned Sanskrit grammarian.
Panini was a great scholar, grammarian and poet sometime during the 5th century B.C. he is also known as an
Ashtadhyayi, the author of the 8 adhyayas, the 8 basic principles of Sanskrit grammar. In this masterpiece, he is
said to have laid down some 4000 highly defined, structured and disciplined Sutras or formulae of the Sanskrit
grammar. His is the earliest work that survives. According to a top American linguist, Leonard Bloomfield,
Paninis work is the epitome of human intellect.
Patanjali vyakrana : Constructive criticism on Ashtadhyayi.
Ferdinand Sassure : Father of Modern Linguistics. He, contrary to Panini who was more of a grammarian, studied
Languages from a wholistic, objective point of view.
Rene Descartes : Linguist and Philosophe.

Translate : is to transfer information from one language to another.

Transcribe : is to transfer information from one language to another, in the latters script form.
: or even, to write the sounds of a language in the script of another.

Theres a difference between learning a language and studying one.

When you learn a language, you learn it from your teacher who teaches you in a prescriptive way. Your teacher
shows you the grammatically correct way to write, pronounce and speak a certain language. She might not
necessarily answer all your questions about why a certain word is pronounced in the way it is or the etymologies
of a particular word. She might know how the grammar rules were derived or designed and by whom she might
not be able to answer all your whys about the language. But thats not her job either.
Her job is to teach you the concepts of the language and enable you to speak it. Shell explain to you the rules
and how to go about it, she will not describe to you the reasons why the rules are so. Shell give you instructions,
what to dos, and not why to do sos.
Studying a language on the other hand, means, when you have already learnt a language up to a certain
moderately proficient level, you get quite familiar with its written and spoken rules, its script. Then you sit
down and study the language from a scientific point of view. He reads and goes through all texts and grammar
rules and notes them down. He notes down the similarities, differences, exceptions and things which perhaps
strike him inconsistent, contradictory or odd. Sometimes, he finds differences which are not consistent with
something as right by the current population. In such cases, to prove his point, sometimes he even has to take
up his objective or aim and create a hypothesis, conduct experiments and observe the results. Thus, in a
linguistic scientific manner, he conducts experiments to prove if a certain concept is right or wrong, if a certain
tendency of a language is helping it evolve. He studies the changes in a language with respect to passage of time,
or the birthing and dying of a new language. His is a very objective attitude towards all this.

Linguist Teacher
1. His is a descriptive approach towards a 1. Hers is a very prescriptive approach towards a
language. language.

2. He just describes the nature and
Characteristics of the language.
3. He performs experiments and sets rules.
4. His study is based on his experiments and
His observations.
She already knows the nature and characteristics of
a language, but what she focuses on is the
Way it is spoken and written.
She does not perform experiments nor
Does she set rules. But she focuses on
Those rules and how to teach them to her
Students.
Her knowledge is based on the stuff which the
linguists write.

A linguist studies a language objectively with the motive of discovering, inventing or proving a point or two. But
a teacher, as dictates her prescriptive approach, teaches the student the language. She shows how to
pronounce a word, what grammar to use, what syntax is good etc. A teachers job is to teach a student the
language, how to speak, write, read and the basics. The teacher instructs the students. Her job is to make the
students understand the language and enable them to learn to use it. Whereas a linguist just describes a
language with an intent to study it or write down the observations or results of his experiment.
The skill of a language teacher lies in the translating of those rules derived by the linguist, comprehending them
(because they are quite complex in nature to understand for a common man) and then teach those rules in a
comprehensive, easy and fairly logical manner to the students. This is because the teacher herself who is an
interface between the two bodies (the students and the linguist) needs to understand both the rules and how
and the why of it, only then will she be able to teach her students, convincingly.
Lastly, my prof said that a linguist cannot be a teacher, and a teacher cannot be a linguist. But I dont quite agree
with his opinion because he himself is a big ime linguist and also our teacher, and badass teacher at that, so I
feel that linguists can be good teachers too. (only if they decide to not to be crazy heads in the class)

Linguistics has many aspects in the academic and corporate world.

Computational linguistics
Socio-linguistics
Cognitive linguistics

N.L.P. : Natural Language Processing.

 15th July 2017
Lecture : 2

Polyglottis : A person who can speak multiple languages. Do not confuse a Polyglottis with a Linguist. A linguist
may not necessarily speak multiple languages. A linguist is a person who studies a language, any human natural
language. Its a person who studies, analyses and observes a language with a descriptive and objective outlook.
He studies not only the rules and grammar and syntax or pronunciations, but also the birth, evolution and
additions of a language.

Scriptology : Study of scripts.

Hieroglyphics : study of ancient Egyptian script.

Aboriginal languages : the very firsts of languages. Primitive, original, primordial and the most indigenous of all
the languages which belonged to the most ancient of civilisations. For example, Sanskrit from Indus civilisation,
Ancient Mongolian Chinese from Chinese civilisation, etc.

Pidgin and Creole

This is very important. For me it was a totally new concept I had never even heard of before. Here I go with my
interpretation of what I understood in the class of these two words.
Pidgin and Creole are not languages, they are two types of languages. Creole is a baby of pidgin.
When certain European powers went to South East Asian or African countries and set up their colonies over
there, they found it difficult to communicate with the local folks. So, they combined their own native language with that
of the local folks to give birth to a mixture of both the languages, which has common words from both the languages.
They used this new language to communicate with each other.
As time passed, the local people absorbed and accommodated this mixture language in their own native
language, and thus, slowly started treating this as their very own first language. Of course, this process must have taken
over 4 to 5 centuries to happen, and this is how we have, Mongolian Chinese, Arabic, etc.
Now here I go with the technical definition which I found in Oxford dictionary.

Pidgin: its a linguistic concept. It is an amalgamation of two disparate languages, used by two populations,
having no common language as lingua franca (common language used for communication over and across
diverse backgrounds) , to communicate with each other, lacking formalised grammar, and having a small
utilitarian vocabulary and no native speakers.
Creole: Its a cluster of lects of a language formed from two or more languages which has developed
from a pidgin to become a first language.

How do you decide the developedness of a language?

No. You cannot decide if a language is developed or not. When a language takes birth, it keeps
growing and evolving. A language, being a living entity, has different features at different stages of
life. At some stage, a language might look insufficient or incomplete. But that doesnt mean it is not
developed. It just means that that language needs to cope up with the modern vocabulary that it
lacks which perhaps originates in another language. If a language serves the purpose of permitting a
people of a community to communicate effortlessly amongst them, then it can be called as a
developed language.
So basically, if a language is developed or not, is not a valid question in itself. It is a highly politically
fuelled question. No one language can be more or less developed than another. They can be older or
tougher, but not developed than one another. We also cannot compare the developedness of a
language by comparing its richness in vocabulary.
For example, Japanese has a rich vocabulary of words related to rains.
Ame, shigure, samidare, tsuyu, yuudachi, kouu, shunu, niwakaame, etc. all mean the same ; Rains.
Whereas, Japanese language does not seem to have as many words related to culinary spices or
condiments.
This could be because of the relevance of rains in their life and culture, whereas the absence of the
latter would be because of the irrelevance of vegetables and fruits and spices in their lives.
Thus, a language is mostly completely furnished with all the words with respect to the needs of the
people who speak it. Absence of words for mango or turmeric in Japanese cannot render it under-
developed or incomplete a language.

What exactly is a language?

A language is a verbal medium of communication. It is also a means of expression. It is a highly

structured system of signs and sounds with certain assigned meanings. It is also a medium of
recording and preserving language (sometimes in the form of script). Its a medium of thought.
Language is spoken. Script is written. When a language is written, the sounds are called signs. When
a language is spoken, the signs are called sounds.

Communication happens when an individual expresses something out loud, and the other person
understands and responds. Communication can happen not only through verbal medium. There are
many other media. Non verbal communication or Higengo communication forms a major part of the
other means of communication. Entities like gestures, body language, movements, facial expressions,
pauses between the words or sentences, space between two conversing individuals, the tone and
pitch of the voice, the eye contact or the shisen of a personand so on come under Non verbal
communication. These do not form a part of language based verbal communication.

Natural and artificial languages

There are two types of languages in the world.

Languages which have been existing in the world since time immemorial are natural languages. As
the name defines, such languages are as old as Nature itself. As these are very old, ancient languages,
the creator or the inventor of these languages is not known. Natural languages are the mother
languages of all other languages. Sanskrit, ancient Chinese, Ancient Greek, Latin are a few examples
of natural languages.
Artificial languages are those which were designed by man to serve a certain purpose. I would prefer
calling them man-made languages rather than artificial languages. Because artificial sounds so
artificial and fake.
Yeah anyway, so artificial languages are those created by man to satisfy certain conditions of
communication. The creators, designers or inventors of such languages are known or traceable,
unlike those of natural languages.
For example, Esperanto is a language which was invented by an Austrian person, L.L. Zamenhof in
1887. The sole aim of creating this language was to render it a global medium of communication.
One peculiar characteristic of this artificial language is that, it is nobodys first language. Which
means, no one learns it as soon as they are born. The learners and speakers of this language have
to/ have had to take efforts to acquire mastery over this language to be able to use it. Maybe this is
one of the reasons why it still hasnt become a global language even after 120 years of its birth.
People will have to make a deliberate effort to learn a new language! As if the confusion caused
because of the mother tongue, the English language, the national language, the modern languages
which help you get a job like French, German or Spanish, the state or the regional language, the
father tongue- (if he ever gets a chance to speak) no but seriously, sometimes when the father
belongs to a different language, the child speaks that language as well - was easy to take care of.
Esperanto is a language which is combination of some selected languages across the world. The
script is roman. The morphology is partially Spanish. The grammar is .

In order to enable the differently abled to communicate, man invented sign language. Deaf and
mute people can communicate via sign language whereas the visually impaired people can hear and
speak. But as far as reading is concerned, they use Braille. A script used for reading by the visually
impaired.
Then there are certain symbols, signs and marks used in Maths, Geometry or Logic which denotes
equality, perpendicularity, addition, division, conclusion, etc. Then there are computer languages
also which are man made/ artificial languages used across the world, but arent spoken.
Human language and Animal language

Now this is an interesting concept. Read on!

Human language Animal language

1. Human language is defined as the 1. Animal language can be defined as the

language used by man for
communication.
2. Human languages are spoken by Man.
3. Double articulation:
As human languages have multiple
syllables, their combinations give birth to
infinite sounds. Hence, man can express
the same thing in multiple ways, and still
mean the same thing.
language used by animals and birds to
communicate amongst themselves.
Animal languages are spoken by animals
but Man interpretes them as sounds of
chirping, howling, roaring, barking , etc.
No double articulation:
Animal languages do not have multiple
sounds for the same expression.
For ex. If a dog wants food, it will bark in
a certain way. If it sees the person its
been waiting all day to see, itll bark in
another distinct way. It wont substitute
the ways of barking because it knows he
wouldnt want to confuse you or others
of his species. They do not have multiple
ways of expression. They use the exactly
identical sound of expression every time
a similar situation arises.
 4. Lying
Why does man use/need language?
My Prof answered this question in a very
convincing way. Man uses language only
to lie. He lies to the other man, because
he simply, can afford to lie.
Man can manipulate other men and
things around him for his convenience.
This is where double articulation comes
in. Man uses multiple ways of saying the
same thing in order to show hesitation,
reluctance, and so on or sometimes to
conceal greed, dishonesty and shame.
5. Roles:
For man, language plays multiple roles in
life, apart from the main purpose of
communication.
Language is used for survival,
entertainment, recreational activities,
nowadays, to even define the character
and education of a person.
6. Spatio-Temporal-Displacement
Human language permits man to talk
and communicate about stuff which
happened in past, which are happening
in present or which might happen in
future, in any part of the universe. In
other words, man can talk about events
which happen before or after his
existence, anywhere, even apart from
his place of existence. This is because
man is gifted with sense of time and
place.
Because of S-T-D, Man can even travel
and live (virtually) at another place and
time in past or future, while being
physically present in a certain place. STD
gives Man a chance to explore actions
and places which he has never
experienced.
7. Man can create, invent or design a new
language.
8. Man uses script to preserve the language
and its knowledge.
Survival
Animal language serves as a medium
only of communication amongst
animals. For them, language plays only
one role survival. Language helps
them communicate when they find
food, shelter, mate, or danger. Their life
is solely based on these few things of
survival. If they sense a threat, they
immediately communicate it to others
via their call. Where its a matter of life
and death, you cant afford to lie,
hesistate, ignore or manipulate.
Roles:
For animals, language is all about
survival. They dont use it for chit chats,
debates, entertainment, or games
simply because they cant afford to.
No such non sense
Animals do not/ cannot talk about
things which happen at other places at
other times, simply because they either
dont know them or because they dont
think thats more important than
communicating about the latest spotted
spot of food or shelter. Animals do have
a sense of time and displacement
(better than that of Mans, I would like
to add) but animals do not know what
passed in the world before their birth or
what might happen after their death.
For an owl, if the sun sets, its time to
come out and keep a look out for
danger. Thats all time and displacement
means to him.
Animals can not invent a new language.
Animals do not have a script to preserve
knowledge; a reason why they cannot
know or think of things happening at
different places at different times.

How do you judge the purity or the originality of a language?

The common conception is, as was mine before I attended this lecture, that a language is original if it
is able to retain all its older vocabulary and find self sufficiency within the existing cadre of the
language. I also thought that a language is pure, only if the speakers use the vocabulary only of that
language and not accommodate any other words of other languages.
I was wrong.
Originality and purity of a language are highly debatable and quite invalid questions at their base.
We cannot retrace the development or evolution of a language to its roots and verify if each and
every single word of that language is pure, original or not. Most of the times, it so happens that,
because of certain circumstantial conditions, a particular word gets imbibed in the regional
languages vocabulary even without the conscious effort of the people. Such words soon become so
much an intrinsic part of their language that people start treating and learning them as words of
their own, first language. This process is highly undistinguishable and long. I was surprised to know
that many words from Marathi, my first language are not really originally Marathi. Paav (bread)
comes from Portuguese, Daptar (school bag/office bag) was adopted from Persian, and so on. Today
we use these words as if they are our own, and they have been so deeply ingrained in the Marathi
language that hardly anyone knows that its a foreign word. Also, when people speak this language,
and use adopted words, they dont think that the language they use is impure. Use of foreign words,
different words, invented or coined words never make a language impure or the word unoriginal. To
ensure her survival, every language should be accommodating to other languages, or else, one day,
because of her rigid outdatedness, she will die. Or worse be killed.
The richness or purity of a vocabulary is reflected from the literature of that language.

In order to learn a language, USE it. Dont preserve it.

If you want to let a language live, let it breathe freely on your lips. In short, use it. Dont suffocate it
by preserving it under the rigid glass case of using the pure, original or beautiful language. Let the
language live, grow, evolve, accommodate foreign words, let it make and invent its own new words
with time, let it fulfil its lacking crevices and make itself self sufficient.
Why is English the most widely used language?
Because, it is easy. It does not have genders. It follows the roman i.e. the most common script. Not
only these, but also because, English is a very accommodating language. English in itself is quite a
limited syllables language. But still it has adopted hundreds of foreign words from languages around
the globe and made itself absorbant, flexible and an inviting language. English keeps updating itself
almost everyday. Almost every moment, a new word is being coined in some corner of the world.
English thrives on other languages. Thats why it is alive. And if we do not use our languages as freely
and frequently, soon. Our language might lose its supremacy to English and thus result in fossil like
Preservation of our extinct language.
Day 3
22nd July 2017

Linguistics :
Is about 4 main important things.
1. Phonetics / Phonology study of sounds of a language.
2. Morphology study of formation of words of/in a language.
3. Syntax study of formation of sentences and grammar of a language.
4. Semantics study of meaning of words and expressions in a language.

A special characteristic of human language lies in the compilibility/combilibility of a language.

In human natural languages, we make words from combining syllabic sounds. There are a certain
determined number of sounds in a particular language. But there can innumerable words which are
born from the infinite combinations of the syllabic sounds.

Language is a system of sounds.

Script is a system of signs.

What is linguistics?
Linguistics is a scientific study of a language. By scientific, I mean highly defined, objective and
descriptive form of study. When a linguist studies a language, he obviously knows the language and
can speak quite fluently, but he also studies the history of the language by retracing her roots, by
studying the syllables, their pronunciation, the formation of words, the grammar and such other
aspects of a language. The scientific study of a language is essentially based on the evidence. It
needs an analytical approach and does not include an emotional or subjective/personal opinion.
So how do linguists study a language?
Linguists study a language by experimenting with her. Just like in a boring, scientific and traditional
experiment, the linguist set
1. The aim or objective. The aim or objective can also be a hypothesis in case of an experiment
of a language. A hypothesis consists of what the linguist thinks probable of happening (or
even not happening) or what the linguist thinks might happen if kind of statements. A
hypothesis is a supposition of events, and their consequences. To prove it positive or
negative is the goal of the linguist and the medium is the experiment.
2. The apparatus or the material or the equipment. The material depends of the nature of the
experiment. It could be people of a certain region speaking a certain language, it could be
people having the concerned language s their first language, could be a number of records
or literary pieces. Whatever the material, it needs to be uniform and homogenous in nature.
3. Method or process of experiment. The method could be any method as long as it is objective,
defined with steps and stages and does not involve subjective manipulation of the target.
4. Observation. I feel this is the most important stage of an experiment. The observations need
to be recorded by the linguist periodically and in a very objective way. The observations are
the evidence, hence the linguists should be careful not to tamper them with their own
prejudices or expectations or even anticipations.
5. Inference. Its about what the experimenter thinks and infers from the seen evidence and
observation. It is about the change, if at all there was one, the nature and extent of the
change. Again, this is supposed to be entirely objective in nature.
6. Conclusion. The conclusion could be negative or positive in nature, depending on the aim of
the experiment. The conclusion need not always go with in sync with the aim of the
experiment. The conclusion should always be precise, distinct and clear in language.
When a linguist is done with his experiment of studying a language, what results is mostly
documented in the form of Documentation of a Language. This includes his study of the syllabic
sounds, the pronunciations, the words, their meaning, the grammar, the syntax, and so on. This
Documentation makes the language more balanced and wholesome in nature. A linguist who has
followed all the above steps of an experiment meticulously, and if it concludes in a positive way with
respect to the aim of the same, then it give the linguist the right to lay the foundation of an all new
rule or standard concerning the language.
The rules of any language are not invented, they are only discovered by a linguist when he takes
efforts to consciously study and analyse what the speakers had speaking unaware all along. Its a
conscious effort to discover the sub conscious usage. A linguist just observes the way the speakers
of a language speak and thus derives or determines the grammatical rule of a language.
29th July 2017. Saturday.
Lecture 4.

Parameter 1.
Langue versus Parole.

Langue is a collective concept. Its a generic term. It defines the language generally spoken
collectively by a community or a group of people. Langue has different faculties. English, Japanese,
Marathi, etc.
For example, a community speaks German whereas another community speaks French. The langues
are totally different.

Parole, in French, means dialogue. Or the language which is essentially spoken. Parole is again a
form of speech, which is individual and specific to a person in nature. Parole is an exponent of a
Langue.
For example, in the same community, a group of people speak Spanish. The Spanish spoken by an
old granny is very different from the Spanish spoken by a five year old boy. The Langue is essentially
Spanish, but the Parole is different. The same goes with feminine and masculine Parole, Professional
and Corporate Parole, Colloquial and formal Parole, etc.

Parameter 2.
Diachronic study versus Synchronic study.

Diachronic study its a study of evolution of a language with respect to time. Dia in greek means
across. Chronos menas time. Study of a language across time.
For example, if I decide to study the era when the British colonised India, I would study the time
period from 1600 to 1950, approximately. It would be a systematic study of a chunk of the
chronological timeline from 1600 to 1950 A.D.

Synchronic study its a study of language at a particular interval or point in time. Sync means in
rhythm or bound, chronos means time. Hence, it means a time bound study of a language.
For example, if I am studying the language prevalent during the pre independence India, Id study
the whole period from 1700 to 1950 A.D. which would be a diachronic study. But if I wanted to study
the language prevalent during the year when the first war of independence was fought, i.e. in 1857,
it would a synchronic study, as I would be studying just a specific period of interval in time.

Again these two are not water tight compartments. These two are conceptually different in nature
but can be found within one another. While studying a language synchronically, say, of 1960s, again
I would divide it diachronically, say, into 1961, 1962, 1963 and so on.

Parameter 3.
Syntagmatic study versus Paradigmatic study.

Syntagmatic study studying a language as it looks, as it presents itself before me. In a sentence, all
the words which constitute a sentence are placed and positioned a certain way in that sentence in
order to make it grammatically correct and sensible or meaningful. All the words arranged
horizontally have a restriction on them. This study of words, their meaning, their position in a
sentence, if it abides by the grammar rules or if it makes sense is called as syntagmatic study.
For example, I eat a mango.
This sentence cannot be rewritten as Mango I eat a syntagmatic rule, which dictate that a sentence
should follow a certain structure and rule cannot be compromised with. Horizontal or syntagmatic
study of a language (sentence) is rigid and linear in nature.
Paradigmatic study studying a language by replacing it with other possibilities and substitutes to
check if it is possible or it works that way or no.
For example, when words are strung together to form a sentence, the words individually are
replaceable by other words, as long as they belong to the same genre or family of words. All the
replacement options of an individual word in every sentence, belong to the same wheel of
genre/class. This vertical constraint is called as Paradigmatic constraint.
For example, I eat a mango. From this sentence, each individual word can be replaced by another
word belonging to the same wheel of genre.
I drink a mango.
She bathes tea.
We write pictures.
The words in the above sentences have been substituted by certain other words belonging to the
same family and yet are not meaningful or absurd in nature. These sentences do not follow
paradigmatic constraints.
I eat a mango.
She drinks tea.
We draw pictures.
Now, the above replaced words and their combinations make sense when strung together as a
sentence. They make sense because they follow the vertical paradigm of sentence structure.
These are paradigmatically acceptable sentences.
PHONETICS

Phonetics is the study of sounds of human natural languages.

Sounds are a medium of expressing thoughts.

Language is one of the important media of communication.

Communication happens when a person expresses his thoughts out aloud, puts them in
comprehensible sounds, conveys this message to another person, the latter person receives the
message and identifies it, understands it and responds to it. The response reaches the first person
and the circle or the act of communication in completed or achieved.
In other, technical words, there are 3 entities involved in the process of communication.

Speaker Medium/Signal Listener

The speaker thinks. He verbally expresses his thoughts in the form of sounds. Hence, he
generates/produces sounds. This combination of sounds is language.

These sounds are transmitted via sound waves and reach the listener. Thus air is the medium or
signal used for transmission of the message.

The listener receives the series of sounds. He interprets them and matches them with something he
already knows. He understands the message, and what he understands is his own interpretation of
those sounds.

Then this listener responds.

When he responds, the listener becomes the speaker, and the speaker becomes the listener. The
medium rests the same.
When the two parties involved express their thoughts verbally and mutually understand and
respond to each others questions, and are satisfied with the responses, the act of verbal
communication is said to have been completed or successful.

Based on the above verbal communication, there are three types of Phonetic concepts.

1. Articulatory phonetics studies the production or generation of sounds produced by the

speaker. This also deals with classification and description of sounds.
2. Acoustic phonetics studies the medium/signal of transmission of sounds. This is physical in
nature. It involves the study of sound waves, wavelengths, frequencies and what not!
3. Auditory phonetics studies the perception of sounds by the receiver.

In Japanese MA at TMV we studied only the first point in detail (thank god)

Articulatory phonetics is about how various sounds are produced by various movements or various
speech organs.
This is slightly complicated as it involves drawing a side view type face diagram which I am not
drawing now. So just imagine and understand. Thank you.
Here is a list of various speech organs, organs which help you to produce speech/sounds.

1. Nose
2. Nasal cavity (which gets blocked with shembud during colds)
 3. Uvula (dangling soft bag-like organ in the throat)
4. Windpipe
5. Lips
6. Teeth
7. Alveoli
8. Epiglottis
9. Vocal cords
10. Tongue
11. Palette
12. Lungs
13. Diaphragm

Yeah, so basic physiological revision.

The diaphragm, a tissue under the lungs, creates pressure on the lungs. The lungs inhale air, oxygen
and give out carbon dioxide, thus breathing, pumping air. We inhale air through the nose. Sound can
be produced only when theres enough inhaled air in the lungs.
When the lungs exhale the air through the windpipe, it passes first through the vocal cords. The
vocal cords are made up of muscles. There are two flat shaped muscles curtains closed to form a
circle. When air is pumped by lungs, the vocal cords open side-ways partially to let the air pass.
When the vocal cords are closed tight, air cannot pass and thus sound cannot be produced. The
vocal cords open fully when theres a lot of air passing with full force, when a person is screaming at
the top of ones lungs. (thats where the expression comes from, you see) the vocal cords not only
open and close to let the air pass, but they also vibrate when they are half open, causing vibrations
and deep sound effects to heavy syllabic sounds like gha, kha, tha, dha, and so on. The vibrations
help us distinguish sounds. The sounds which are produced thus by vibration of vocal cords are
called as voiced sounds. And when theres no vibration by the vocal cords, its called as non voiced
sounds.

The vocal cords are protected by a tissue called epiglottis. It prevents food particles from entering
the windpipe and makes sure that the food enters the right pipe (oesophagus) this devil also makes
sure that we choke when the food enters the wrong pipe.

The part that encloses and protects the vocal cords is called as Larynx.

After having passed through the vocal cords, the air now reaches the throat and runs into the uvula.
Here, the uvula decides if the sound is oral or nasal. If the sound is oral, the uvula goes back and
blocks the nasal cavity, thus making sure the air passes only through the oral cavity.
If the sound is nasal, the uvula comes down and blocks the oral passage and makes sure the nasal
cavity is blocked, thus allowing the air to pass only through the oral cavity. This sound is called as
Nasal sound.
Now, the tongue.

When the air pumped from the lungs passes through the vocal cords, passes the uvula, once its
confirmed that its an oral sound, the sound is now subjected to the tongue, which shapes this sound
and moulds them into certain syllables.
The tongue is divided into 4 parts with respect to its surface.
1. The tip of the tongue
2. The frontal flat of the tongue
 3. The rectal flat of the tongue
4. The under/retro part of the tongue.
Different parts of the tongue touch different parts of mouth (speech organs) and produce different
sounds.

Palette:
The upper bone part, ceiling of the mouth.
The palette is divided into 3 parts:-
1. Pre palatal
2. Medio palatal
3. Post palatal

Alveoli.
The bulging, protruding part at the beginning of the palette and the roots of the teeth is called Alveole.

The teeth
The upper and the lower teeth are mostly used as speech organs. These are called incisors. (the biting
teeth)

The lips
Both the lips are speech organs.

The jaws
The lower jaw is mobile.

Lets take a look at the way sounds are produced

There are four parameters of distinguishing how sounds are produced.

1. Place of articulation.
2. Mode of articulation.
3. Type of articulation.
4. Force (trial )

Parameter 1 - Place of articulation:

The place in the mouth where sounds which are produced by coming into contact of the different speech
organs is called as place of articulation.
1. Post palatal sounds:
Sounds which are produced when the rectal part of the tongue touches the posterior of the palette,
are called as Post palatal sounds.
2. Alveolar sounds (pre palatal)
Sounds which are produced when the tip of the tongue touches the Alveoli, are called as Alveolar
sounds.
3. Retroflex sounds:
Sounds which are produced when the tip of the tongue rolls back and touches the mid part of the
palette are called as Retroflex sounds.
4. Labio-Dental sounds:
Sounds which are produced when the tip of the tongue touches the upper front incisors (teeth), are
called as dental or labio dental sounds.
 5. Bi-Labial sounds:
Sounds which are produced when the two lips come into contact with each other are called as
labial or bilabial sounds.

Parameter 2 - Mode of articulation:

The mode of articulation is based on the way the air is manipulated, the way the air is
released from the mouth while producing sounds.

1. Explosive sounds:
When the air is pumped out from the lungs, and blocked just before its passage from the
mouth for a millisecond before being forcefully pushed out of the mouth by bursting out the
lips open are called as explosive sounds.
2. Fricative sounds:
Sounds which are produced when the tip of the tongue slightly touches the palette, as a result
of friction called as Fricative sounds.
3. Vibrant sounds:
Sounds which are produced when the tip of the tongue touches the palette multiple times in
quick succession as a result of vibration are called as Vibrant sound.
4. Lateral sounds:
Sounds which are produced when the tongue touches the alveoli and the air passes sideways of
the tongue are called as Lateral sounds.

Parameter 3 - Type of articulation:

There are two types:

1. Voiced type of articulation:

When the sound is produced when there is a certain vibration in the larynx, or of the vocal
cords, it is called as a voiced sound.

2. Non voiced type of articulation:

When the sound is not produced with the help of vocal cords vibration, is called non voiced
type of articulation.

Parameter 4 - Force of the articulation:

Forced maha pran (these exist especially in Sanskrit and daughter languages, and rarely seen
(heard?) in European languages.
Non forced alpa pran

Influence of one language on another language.

Most of the times, it so happens that when one speaks another tongue than his mother tongue or first
language, which is mostly a learnt one, and not an acquired one, one tends to use the first language
pronunciations even while talking in foreign languages. One can always sense the influence of ones mother
tongue on other languages.
 On the other hand, it may also happen that, a highly popular and widely spoken language might influence
ones mother tongue and thus, change or mould/shape/twist/make some slight differences in the way a
certain syllable is pronounced.
For example, in Marathi the /f/ sound is bi-labial, explosive, non-voiced, forced sound.
But in English, the /f/ sound is labio-dental, fricative, non-voiced, non-forced sound.
But in fact, most of the Marathi speakers have forgotten the traditional and the original /fh/ sound and
adopted the /f/ of English, thus erasing completely off the /fh/, the generations to come might not even
know how to pronounce /ph/ as they will not hear it anymore, and thus, wont even be able to decipher it
either. This, I am afraid to say, is the first step towards death of a language. Death of a syllable is in fact, a
small but inherent and dormant threat to the anatomy of a language.

Type Bi-labial Labio- Dental Alveolar Medio Retrofle Guttural Post Pre
dental palatal x palatal palatal
1.Explosive /p/ /b/ /f/ /v/ /t/ /d/ /cha/ /j/ /t./ /d./ /h/ /k/ /g/
2.Fricative /s/ /z/ /r/ /sh/
3.Lateral /l/ /ll/
4.Vibrative /r/
5.Nasal /m/ /n/ /dn//jn/ /gn/

Why isnt /h/ a vowel?

The sound /h/ is guttural, explosive, non voiced and maha praan in nature. Hence, the obstruction caused in the
vocal cords.

The obstruction cannot happen at two places at the same time. Hence, two sounds with the same mode and place of
articulation cannot be produced at the same time.

/k/ and /t/ or /g/ and /d/ etc. cannot be produced at the same time.

Parasaunvarna: /k/ /ch/ /t/ /t./ /p/ will always take nasal sounds of their respective series.

Kantha will always take the nasal sound na from the tha series.

Danta will always take the nasal sound /n/ from the /t/ series.

Phonological assimilation: When a sound becomes more like a nearby sound as a result of the influence of the
previous or the immediate following sound, this process is called as phonological assimilation.

Morpheme plurality

Morphs - /s/ /z/ /es/ /iz/

Example : cats cats dog dogs fish fishes horse horses etc.

Thus, /s/ /z/ /es/ /iz/ are allomorphs of the same morpheme of plurality.

But sometimes, when the preceding sound makes it difficult or inconvenient to pronounce the following sound, the
latter gets modified and sounds different, unlike its original sound.
Horses cannot be pronounced as /horss/ hence it is pronounced as /horsiz/ for convenience and ease of speech.

The same goes with dogs. Dogs is pronounced as /dogz/ unlike /dogs/ which is difficult to pronounce.

Thus, we can conclude that /s/ /z/ /es/ and /iz/ are all allomorphs of plurality as a result of phonological assimilation.
Vowels

There are 9 vowels in all (in English)

They are distinguished by 3 parameters.

1. Frontal or Rectal
2. Closed or Open
3. Rounded or Non rounded

Frontal Rectal

Closed
I u
Semi-closed e o rounded

Semi-open fashion awe

Open a a

Open Semi open Semi closed Closed

Frontal /a/ C/a/t /e/ /y/
Rectal /aa/ b/o/x /o/ /u/
5th lecture

12th August 2017.

Sounds :

*Vowels: are those sounds which are produced when there is no obstruction caused in the oral
cavity by the tongue touching different speech organs. Vowels have the power to create syllables on
their own. Lips and jaw modulate the vowels.

*Consonants: are those sounds which are produced when there are obstructions caused in the oral
cavity by the tongue touching different speech organs. Consonants by themselves are just sounds.
They cannot become syllables by themselves. They need to depend on vowels to create independent
syllables out of themselves. Various obstructions in the mouth modulate consonants.

*Semivowels, just like consonants, are incapable of producing syllables on their own. They need
vowels to help them be pronounced and become syllables.
Like in an atom, protons are vowels. Electrons are consonants. And outer orbit electrons are semi
vowels/consonants.
/y/ and /v/ both are semi vowels / semi consonants. These two are consonants which start with vowels, but
behave like a consonant, when pronounced in quick succession.

/v/ : is a combination of /u/ + /a/ /y/ : is a combination of /i/ + /a/

*A syllable is an instinctively recognised unit of speech. it is a combination of multiple vowels and

consonants. There is always one vowel essentially per syllable. A syllable just cannot exist without a
vowel. If an utterance has four syllables, it necessarily has to have 4 vowels.

*Diphthongs:
It can be defined as a complex vowel sound that begins with the sound of one vowel and ends with
the sound of another vowel, in the same syllable. For example, boy, sly, crayon, light, etc.
In Marathi there are two diphthongs. Ai and au. Vaishali and Gauri.

In devanagari script, we already write what we hear or speak. In other words, we write the syllables.
In hiragana script, we write the syllables.
Whereas in English, we write a combination of consonants and vowels to write syllables, which in
turn represent the sounds that we produce.

Phone and Phoneme

0. Phoneme Phone Allophone

1. It is an abstract concept. It is a physical representation of
It is the distinctive property of a sounds of speech of a given human
 certain sound. language.
2. It is an indivisible unit of sound It is a speech segment which When multiple
in a given language. It is an possesses distinct physical or phones represent the
abstraction of the physical perceptual properties. same phoneme, they
representation of sounds in are called allophones.
speech.
3. Phoneme is an ideal concept, Phones have human variations
hence it is constant. Whereas according to the geographical or
time bound conditions.
4. /k/ [k] [kh] [k.] (the sound of k in qatl) /p/ = [p] and [ph]
5. /ch/ [cha] as in chaha [cha] as in chav

LAPI

International phonetic alphabets

Lalphabet phonetique international

This concept was designed by phoneticians to represent all possible sounds in human natural
languages.

Every language has its own set of IPA. Because a certain set of sounds is specific to a certain
language. Some sounds do not exist in a language; hence the IPA of that language does not include
those sounds. But if a language decides to include those sounds, the IPA can be updated and those
foreign sounds can be incorporated in that language.

The basic idea of IPA is to have symbols which represent sound.

/p/ /b/

/t/ /d/

/k/ /g/

/s/ /z/

/m/ /n/

/h/ /r/

/v/

z
/d / /dz/

/ts/ /tz/

/:/ - elongation

// (cut/shut/but)
/a/ /i/ /u/ /e/ /o/ /ae/
1. /to:kyo:/
2. /tsunami/
3. /dzagaimo/
4. /bunka/
5. /bumpo:/
6. /kippu/
19TH August 2017
6th lecture Morphology.

Morphology : the study of the structure or formation of words in a given natural human language.
Another term for sounds is phoneme.

A word : is a meaningful combination of syllables.

An independent, individual syllable is meaningless. A syllable acquires the status of a word only
when it acquires a meaning to it.

Morphemes and morphs

0. Morpheme Morphs Allomorphs

1. A morpheme is the It is the physical realisation of a When two or more words
smallest, indivisible unit of concept into a word, with a have the same or similar
meaning. meaning. meaning, they are called as
allomorphs.
2. It is a conceptual Its a physical representation of a When multiple morphs
representation of a word. word. represent the same
morpheme, allomorhps.
3. It is a concept which stays It is a concept which varies
constant. according to its forms and the
meanings it wishes to convey.
4. A morpheme is like Vishnu. Morphs are like Vishnus various
A god. avatars. Krishna, Ram, Mohini,
etc.
4.
Looks /s/ /s/ and /es/ are allomorphs
Eats /s/ as they represent the same
Drinks /s/ morpheme of past tense.
Watches /es/
5.
Looked /ed/ /ed/ and /en/ and /aught/
Watched /ed/ are allomorphs as they
Broken /en/ represent the same
Eaten /en/ morpheme of Past perfect
Caught /ught/ tense.

6th lecture
26th September 2017.

The study of Morphology is divided into two parts

Inflectional morphology a change in the form of a word that reflects a change in the grammatical
function is called as inflectional morphology.
Derivational morphology when a word that is derived from another word, it is called as
derivational morphology (originally maybe Latin or Greek or Sanskrit)

Inflectional morphology.
Words exist either in free forms or bound forms.

Free forms Bound forms

When a morph can exist independently in a
sentence by itself, without the help of any other
elements, it is called as a free word.
Free words do not need other words to help
them make sense.
When morphs are dependent on other morphs
in a sentence to make sense, they are called as
bound morphs.
Bound forms depend on other morphs to be able
to appear and make sense in a sentence.

For example, nouns.

Pen, book, man, fish are free morphs.
Whereas verbs, such as
To sing, are bound to change their forms as they appear in various sentences carrying different
meanings.
I sing.
She sings.
We are singing.
Here, the verb keeps conjugating according to the noun of the sentence. (/s/ /ing/)

Derivational morphology

Inflectional morphology is when a word takes (has to take) various forms to be able to fit or appear
in a sentence.
For example, go has to become goes went gone etc with respect to person, tense and number.
Similarly, as verbs conjugate, adjectives and nouns decline. Ox becomes oxen and medium becomes
media, etc.
When adjectives change their forms with respect to the number or person, it is called as declination,
or declinaison (in fr.)

Yeah so, there are words which are formed or derived from other words.
For example, work is a word whose forms like works, worked, working, etc. are inflectional forms.
But worker or workforce are words which have been derived from the main word work and thus are
based on the meaning of the word work.

There are some words which are formed as a result of a combination of two different bound forms.
For example, the word biography is a word which is made up of two different morphs.
Bio and logy. Bio in Latin means body whereas logy means the study of. Thus, biology means the
study of a body.

In the above case, both bio and logy are morphemes. They were brought together to form a word,
a new morph. Both bio and logy are two bound forms. They come together to form a free form.
On the contrary, there can exist a combination of a word which is made up of 2 different free forms.
Workforce. Work=force.
There can also exist words which are made up of 2 morphs. Free forms and bound form.
For example, chronometer is chronos + meter
Chronos means time. Meter is measure. To measure to time.

You cannot learn a language without learning its grammar. You just cant speak a language without
knowing or following its grammar. Learning a language without learning its grammar is like taking a
dictionary and learning to speak the language from it. A dictionary is full of words, which are termed
as lexicons.
In a dictionary, you may find a word called work but you will not find different entries for works
working or worked. All those will be mentioned under the lexeme (technical word for an entry of a
word in a dictionary) of work. But if you look up workforce in the dictionary, you will find a
different independent entry as an all new lexeme as it is not an inflected form of the verb to work,
but an all new derived form of the verb to work and the noun force.
Lexeme is a unit of lexical meaning roughly corresponding to the set of inflected forms of a single
word. For example, run is a lexeme whereas ran, runs, running for its inflected forms, i.e.
lemma. Whereas, runner is treated as a lexeme as it is a derived (and not inflected) form of the
verb to run.
7th lecture
2nd September 2017

Last time he said hed wrap up morphology in this lecture. Lets see what happens. He teaches so
well, and takes time explaining concepts, takes time to lead us to our own answers rather than
imposing answers on us, thats why we run out of time. I really wish we had more than 15 lectures
for linguistics. Hes a lovely professor.
Also I am thinking of taking up computational linguistics as my topic of presentation in class. Lets see
how it goes.
Also I really feel linguistics is a very important subject. What philosophy is to sciences, linguistics is to
languages. Studying linguistics doesnt make you an expert of a certain language or enlighten you
with all the knowledge of all the languages of the world, but it does make you aware of language as
a science as well as a living entity. It changes the way you think and look at it. That change in outlook
may help you to better learn or master or approach a language. It changes the way you approach a
new language. Studying linguistics, I would say, also helps you become more tolerant and less hostile
towards other languages. At the same time, it teaches you to (re)learn, value and respect your own
language. It teaches you to let your language live, breathe, be used, be spoken and to not be scared
of other languages, rather to feed on them. Linguistics makes you aware of the way you speak,
teaches you to observe yourself with ears and become more conscious of the most widely taken-for-
granted communication tool in the history of human civilisation. Certain aspects of linguistics like
script, phonectics, (thats all I have learnt till now) also make you aware of the fact that a language
can be learnt by observing, listening, repeating and speaking. Scripts or grammar or classrooms
nothing can stop you.

Yeah, so today, as I knew, he didnt manage to finish Morphology. We did cover half of it though.
Today we did Morphological processes.

Morphological processes are processes by which words are constructed.

Morphological processes

Complex processes Compound processes

Addition Subtraction Substitution Compounding Reduplication Porte manteau

Affixes

Prefix - Vocalic
Suffix - Consonantic
Infix - Vocalic Consonantic
Suprafix - Radical/Suppletion
Agglutinative
Simulfix

Complex processes involve bound forms. The words are formed as a result of a combination of
 - Free + Bound forms
- Bound + Free forms
- Bound + Bound forms

Compound processes involve free forms only. The words are formed as a result of a combination of
- Free + Free forms ONLY.

Complex processes happen in 3 different ways. Lets look at the first and the most common way.

A. Addition : this is a process by which a group of morphs is added to a word to render it more
meaningful.

Affixation is a collective word for the ensemble of prefix, suffix, infix, simulfix,
agglutinative, suprafix, etc. All these are morphs injected in a word to modify it.
Affixation is the process of adding an affix to the base or stem to form a word.

Stem
The basic element to which an affix is attached is
called as stem.
Stem + Affix produces a new form of word.
Walk + ing = walking
In short, this is inflection. A new word is not
formed, only a new form of the same word is
formed.
In other words, when you remove inflectional
affixes, what remains is the stem.
Base
The basic element to which an affix is attached is
called as Base.
Base + affix produces a new lexime itself.
Walk + er = walker
In short, this is derivation. A new word is formed,
derived from the Base word. It is called as
lexime.
In other words, when you remove derivational
affixes, what remains is the Base.

1. Suffix Suffixes are a type of affixes which are added before the base/stem.
For ex. Possible Impossible.
2. Prefix Prefixes are a type of affixes which are added after the base/stem.
For ex. Care - careful
3. Infix Infixes are a type of affixes which are merged within a base/stem. Infixes
essentially interfere with the intrinsic formation of the root. Infixation is an essential
property of semitic languages. (Arabic or Hebrew) Infixed words all lie in the same
semantic field.
For ex. Q T L the ensemble of these three syllables in Arabic means violence.
The word qatl is formed by infixing a to the root qtl
Qatl means murder in Arabic.
The same way, qatil is formed by infixing a i to the root, thus forming qatil which
means a murderer in Arabic.
Thus, we see that infixes are essentially merged into the stems/bases of roots.
4. Agglutinative : forms are a type of affixes which are attached (stick together) to
the stem/base in a linear fashion without interfering with the root of the stem/base.
For ex. Morpho-phono-logic-al-ly
5. Simulfix : are a type of affixes, a combination of suffix and prefix which are
attached to a stem/base simultaneously to form a word out of it.
For example, embolden em prefix en suffix. Bold is the stem.
Suprafix : is a type of affix which is an abstract concept. It is the accent (the stress or
the emphasis) laid on certain sounds, or syllables of a word. Depending on the
accent, the meaning of a word is highly bound to change.
 For ex. Import.
Accent on I import : verb
Accent on 0 imported : adjective

B. Subtraction : is a process through which a certain syllable or morph is subtracted from the
stem/base in order to make a word of it.

C. Substitution : Substitution is a process by which a certain part of the stem/base is

substituted by another syllable (or group of syllables) in order to make a different word out
of it.

1. Vocalic substitution
2. Consonantic substitution
3. Vocalic Consonantic substitution
4. Radical substitution (suppletion)

1. Vocalic Substitution : is a process of substituting a vowel (or a group of vowels) of the

stem/base to form another form of the word.
For ex. Tooth becomes Teeth

2. Consonantic substitution : is a process of substituting consonants (or a group of

consonants) of the stem/base to form another form of the word.
For ex. Leaf becomes Leaves.

3. Vocalic Consonantic Substitution : is a process of substituting both vowels and

consonants to the stem/base to form another form of the word.
For ex. Goose becomes Geese.

4. Radical substitution : is a process of substituting the whole word by an all new word
together. This process is also called Suppletion.
For ex. Go becomes Went
To be becomes am, is, are.

Prosody of languages: it is the poeticness or the melodiousness of languages.

It constitutes of 3 main properties.
Tone: the continuous rising and falling phenomena of the pitch is called as Tone. It is the
verbal substitution for written punctuation marks.
Accent: the stress or the point of emphasis on a particular syllable of a word or a particular
part of a sentence, is called as accent. Accent is punctuating phenomenon.
Elongation : Its the stretching of the previous sound, usually heard before the last syllable
of the last word of the sentence in French. This notifies the listener of the nearing end of the
sentence. Elongation is marked by /:/
For example, in French, jaime lire et danser et meme chanser the elongation is remarked
between ser chanse---r.
Similarly, in Italian, origaa---no, gabrie---lla, mammamiii----yyyaaaa the second last syllable
is elongated unlike the last one in French.
Some languages, like Marathi, have no elongations. Their syllables are flat, linear and
uniform.
 - The West is full of waste. Accent on waste, stress on the /a/ syllable which is thus marked a
- The West is full of waste!
- The West id full of waste?

In the genealogy of languages, they found it very difficult to classify Japanese, owing to its
anthropological similarities to the Chinese language. The grammar is similar to that of the Indic
languages, the script to the Chinese and the sound to the Korean. Thats why, they classified
Japanese and Korean together, as an altogether different branch of the genealogy of languages, as
the 10th and the last major family of languages.
9th September 2017
8th lecture

Registers of languages.
These are the levels of politeness, formality, and informality in every language.

1. Formal language (spoken) (meetings, speeches, stage commentary)

Formal language (written) (books, newspapers, research papers)

2. Polite language (spoken) (elders, strangers, family, teachers, national radio stations, etc)
Polite language (written) (articles, formal letters, mails, notices)

3. Casual / colloquial language (spoken) (family, friends, phone calls, same age groups)
Casual / colloquial language (written) (social media, blogs, anims, podcasts, etc)

4. Argotic language (spoken) (close friends, extremely casual, sometimes too colloquial, etc)

5. Slang language (spoken) (close friends, enemies, cheap, dark comedies, lower class
situations, etc)

In French, these registers are classified as,

1. Language formel
2. Language soutenu
3. Language colloquial
4. Language Argo
5. Language slang

Morphological processes

Compound Processes: is always about reactions between 2 free forms.

A.) In Sanskrit, we have a concept called Samas. This concept is exactly what is meant by
compound processes. When two free forms, free morphs combine together and form a new
word which has its own different meaning, the process is called as compound process.

There are 4 different types of Samasa. This ancient Sanskrutic concept is accepted and used in the
concepts of modern linguistics.

Samasa Dwandwa Avyayibhava Tatpurush Bahuvrihi

types. sarvapadapradhan purvapadapradhan uttarpadapradhan anyapadapradhan
Based on Where both the Where the first Where the second Where both the
the morphs are morph is important morph is important morphs are
importance important important but the
of each whole new word
morph means or signifies
within. something else.
Examples Matapita Shwetambar Suswagatam Parthasarathy
(Krishna)
When two free morphs come together and form a different morph by compound process,
there happens a friction of sounds between the syllables of those two morphs where they
join. This influence of syllables over each other during the formation of a new morph is
 called a morpho-phonological reaction. This concept has been adopted from the Sanskrit
concept Sandhi.
For example: lamba + budara = Lambodar (round + tummy = pot bellied)

Some grammatical categories of elements

1. Noun + Noun (workforce)
2. Noun + Verb (breathtaking)
3. Verb + Noun (watchman) (migotona)
4. Verb + Verb (savoir-faire, aller-retour, make believe )
5. Noun + Adjective (monosugoi )
6. Adjective + Noun
7. Verb + Adjective (tabeyasui)

When a language is right headed, it means that the right most element of the sentence of
that language is considered important.
For example : a beautiful girl. Girl comes to the extreme right.
Un homme brave. Homme comes to the left. Thats why French is a left headed language.

B.) Reduplication
This simply means the repetition of the root element, of a morph in order to form a new
word. This reduplication could signify not just onomatopoeic words, but also words which
explain expanse, intensity, feel, frequency, etc.
There are further 2 types of reduplication:
1. Total reduplication: iroirona, bokoboko suru, dandan heru, perapera hanasu, etc.
2. Partial reduplication: ghar-bir, kaora-baora zhala, tond-gind

In Marathi you replace the first syllable with /bi/

In kannada, you replace the first syllable with /g/
In Hindi, you retain the vowel of the first syllable but replace the consonant with /v/

Reduplication cannot be seen in French or English

C.) Port manteau (Mot valise)

When two free morphs drop a certain part of themselves to fuse together and form a certain
new word, its called as a port manteau.
Brad + Angelina = Brangelina
Britain + Exit = Brexit
Ravi + Veena = Ravina (Tandon)
Chuckle + snort = chortle
Internal + Delicate = intricate
Pocket + Monster = Pokemon
Fictionary = fiction + dictionary

Abbreviation is not portmanteau

BRICS = Brazil Russia India China S
NEWS = North East West South
ADIDAS = all day I dream about sports
NATO =
SAARC =
The book, Alice in Wonderland is a book written by Lewis Carol for children. This book is full
of portmanteaux. Its a very good exercise to develop vocabulary and know their individual
original morphs.

Say what you mean

I mean what I say

Language is all a play of Syntax.

The placement or the position of the word only in a sentence makes all the difference.

English, just like Chinese and Japanese is a positional language.

She is only 7.
Only she is 7.
She only is 7.

All these sentences mean differently, just because the word only is placed in different
positions.

Morphology ends here.

Le roi est mort. Vive le roi.

21st September 2017
9th lecture

SYNTAX

Syntax is the study of formation and structure of sentences. Syntactical analysis verifies
whether a sentence, though grammatically correct, makes sense or not. It also assures
whether the arrangement of the words is logical or not. In short, syntax is the study and
verification of meaningful and logical placement of words in a sentence.

Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.

There are various ways of verifying whether a sentence is syntactically valid.

One of them is Subject-Verb agreement.
Every sentence has a verb. A sentence just cannot be complete without a verb.
Thus, we need to ensure whether the verb of a sentence is in accordance with the subject of
the same. To verify whether they are in accord, we need to theck the tense, the number and
the person of the conjugated verb.
Similarly, if there are adverbs or adjectives in a sentence, it should be made clear which
adjective is qualifying which noun and which adverb is qualifying which verb. Accordingly,
we also need to verify if the adjectives and the adverbs are in corresponding accordance
with the gender, number and tense of the qualifying noun or verb respectively. If they are,
then they are said to be in a grammatically acceptable order.

Thus, we can say that, syntax is the study of the inter relationship between the words of a
given utterance.
Lecture 10

21st September 2017

How do you decide if a certain sentence is valid/correct or no?

Subject verb agreement method

A sentence is syntactically valid if the interrelationship between the words of a given utterance is
valid, and also if the words are arranged in a grammatically acceptable order.

Ex. Colourless green ideas sleep furiously.

Lets take the above sentence as a given utterance.

First, we have to identify the subject and the verb of the sentence. (in this case, ideas and sleep
respectively)

Then, we identify the other individual elements in the sentence. (In this case, the adjective and the
adverb).

Then, we have to verify the interrelationship between each of the individual elements in the
sentence. Nouns are qualified by adjectives, thus we verify whether the concerned adjective is in
accordance with the noun, and also if it is placed at the right sequential position in the sentence.
English being a right headed language, the adjective should always precede the noun. The same way,
verbs are qualified by adverbs. In English, adverbs succeed the verbs. And finally, we verify whether
the verb of the sentence is in accordance with the subject of the same. We must take into
consideration three main criteria of verification.

1. Number (singular or plural)

2. Gender (masculine, feminine or neutral)
3. Tense (past, present or future)

Then there are pronouns. We need to identify what kind of pronoun it exactly is. It could be a simple
pronoun, possessive pronoun, demonstrative pronoun, etc.

Then there are determiners. Articles, (a, an, the) demonstrative determiners, which are essentially
adjectives (this, that these, those) all come under determiners.

Then there are adjectives. Qualitative adjectives (good, better, best), quantitative adjectives (much,
more, many, some, few), etc all come under adjectives.

Then there are prepositions, which play a very important part in English, especially, because in
English, the words dont inherently contain the preposition within the word. The preposition or the
postposition exists outside, independent, of the noun or the subject.
***Flashback***

Paradig Syntagmatic relationship

matic The boys eat on a table.
relation A Girl sits near the tree.
ship Some women work at an Office.
Many Men sleep at - work

The horizontal interrelationship between each of the words of a given utterance is called as
syntagmatic relationship, whereas the vertical interrelationship between each of the words of each
category is called as paradigmatic relationship.
If a certain paradigmatic-syntactic combination violates the syntactical relationship of a sentence,
then that sentence formation is called as a syntactically invalid sentence. Thus, it is a grammatically
invalid sentence, which cannot be used.

Ex. The girl eat near an tree.

The above sentence, as you can see, has been underlined green by Word, as eat third person,
plural, present tense does not conjugate itself in accordance with the subject the girl which is
singular in nature. Thus, this violation of subject-verb agreement renders the sentence
grammatically incorrect and thus, syntactically invalid.

There are further 4 main types of sentences based on intonation.

1. Declarative: states the state of affairs in a matter of fact-ly tone.

2. Exclamative: high key intonation
3. Interrogative: rising intonation
4. Imperative: commanding/assertive intonation.

There are even further 4 other types of classifying sentences based on their clausal structures.
Syntactical nomenclature.

1. Simple sentences: sentences which have only one main clause, and no other clauses.
Ex.: My name is khan.
2. Complex sentences: sentences which have one main clause and 2 or more subordinate clauses.
Ex.: My name, which is very common, is Khan.
3. Compound sentences: sentences which have 2 or more main clauses (of the same hierarchical
level) and connected by a conjunction.
Ex.: My name is Khan but my surname is Khanna.
4. Complex + compound sentences: sentences which contain one or more main clauses and one or
more subordinate clauses are called as CCS.
Ex.: My name which is very common is Khan but your name is common too.

Lecture 10.5 (21st sept), 11 (23rd sept), 12 (30th sept), 13 (7th oct), 14 (14th oct) 15 (presentation)

In some cases, changing the syntactical order can also change the meaning.

English: He shot the elephant in pyjamas. In the pyjamas, he shot the elephant.
Marathi: Payzama ghatlela astana tyane eka hattiche chalchitra ghetle.
French: Habill en pyjamas, il a chasse un elephant.
Hindi: Pyjamas pehne, usne hattiko maar dala.
This shows us that in English, if you change the syntactical order, the meaning also gets altered.
Whereas, in Marathi or Hindi, the meaning does not get altered even if you change the order
because Indic languages give you the freedom flexibility which allows you to change the order
without altering the meaning. Because in Marathi, the individual words are built in such a way
that the word carries with itself its particle or its function to be played in a sentence. The word
is inherently built with the root or the mool roop combined with the case markers or the
vibhakti pratyaya with it. The case is the agreement relations a word shares with the main verb
of the sentence. That is the reason why even if we change the sequence of a sentence, the
meaning remains the same because unlike in English, the word moves along with its case with it.
So irrespective of where the word is placed in a sentence, its relation with the verb remains the
same.
The position of words in a sentence determines the subject of a sentence.
John defeats Paul. John = subject Paul = object defeats = verb
Subject always precedes the verb.
If you change the sequence of this sentence by saying Paul defeats John, you change the
meaning.
A case is a relation a word of a sentence carries with the verb of the sentence. In English, those
are separately termed as prepositions.

In Sanksrit, or German, the words of a sentence have cases with respect to the verb which is
conjugated accordingly.
The cases are:
1. Nominative: subject
2. Accusative: object direct
3. Instrumental: medium of action
4. Dative: object indirect
5. Ablative: the source/ origin of an action
6. Genitive: possession
7. Locative: place of action (could be either static or dynamic)
8. Vocative: addressee (hey boys, please write.)

In Marathi, the words have two cases.

Direct case and oblique case
Samanya roop and mool roop.
Ghoda and ghodya (la/var/shi/mage) etc
In the above case, ghodya is an inflectional form of ghoda.
SYNTACTIC ANALYSIS

There are two main ways of analysing the syntax of a sentence, in order to avoid ambiguities
and in order to know which word plays the role of what, which word has which function to play,
which word is in what relation to the verb and finally, if all this put together, if a sentence
makes sense.

PHRASE STRUCTURE GRAMMAR (Playing it the Chompskian way)

DEPENDENCY GRAMMAR (Playing it the Lucien Teshire way)

noun phrase verb phrase

noun verb noun

Gauri eats chocolates

Ex. 1 The example here we take is Gauri eats chocolates.

The first thing we do when we analyse this sentence in the first way, phrase structure way. Or
the structural way, or the Chompskian way, is through a hierarchical way.
The first thing we do is mark Summation or Sigma, which stands for the addition of all elements
of that sentence.
Then we identify each element/word of a sentence; decide what grammatical category it
belongs to. A sentence always comprises of one element. A verb. A verb gives a sentence the
status of being a sentence. It gives it meaning and makes it stand independent. Everything in a
sentence revolves around the verb governing that sentence. Hence, the division at the first step
is also done keeping the verb at the central focus. Whatever comes before the governing verb is
classified under the noun phrase, whatever comes after, is classified under the verb one.

Ex. 2 The girl likes ripe mangoes.

noun phrase verb phrase

determiner (common) adjectival

verb
(article) noun phrase

The girl likes adjective noun phrase

ripe noun

mangoes
Thus, in such a way, every word, element is identified and classified under its respective grammatical
category. The final boxes should be as many as there are words in the main sentence. 5 words, 5
boxes. EVERY WORD IN A SENTENCE HAS A GRAMMATICAL IDENTITY AND CAN(HAS TO BE)
CLASSFIED UNDER SOME PHRASE.

Noun Determiners Pronouns Adjectives Verbs

Common Demonstrative Possessive Quantity Transitive (object
Ex reqd)
Proper this/that/these/those Personal Ex some, few, Intransitive (no
many object reqd)
Abstract Articles Quality Governing
a/an/the
Collective Auxiliary
Infinitive

1. Noun phrase
2. Verb phrase ( Tense + Number of people (singular or plural) + Person [first, second or third]
3. Adjectival phrase
4. Adverbial phrase
5. Prepositional phrase
6. Postpositional phrase
7. Conjuctional phrase
8. Interrogational phrase
9. Interjectional phrase
COSTITUENCY GRAMMAR

Rewriting the rules

According to Nao Chompsky, this type of system of structure analysis is called as constituency
grammar as it divides the sentences into individual constituencies.

5 = 3+2

N.P. + V.P.

In scientific or technical linguistic language, + means and, ( ) means optional { } means optional
(one within a given option)

*Noun phrase ----@ (determiner) + noun

Determiner ----@ {article/quatifier}

Noun ----@ {commo/proper/collective/abstract}

*Verb phrase ----@ verb+(noun phrase)+(adjective phrase)+(adverb phrase)+(prepositional phrase)

Verb -----@ (copulative) + (auxiliary) + (modal)

Adjective phrase ----@ adjective + (noun phrase)

Adverbial phrase ----@ adverb + (noun phrase)

Prepositional phrase ----@ preposition + (noun phrase)

1. RULE BASED APPROACH

Inclusion of linguistics rules in N.L.P.

But why is not Google using it?

Because its costly.

Needs time. Time consuming.

But accuracy is better.

2. DATA DRIVEN BASED APPROACH

Statistical data Google translate

Every new construction takes a new rule Time consuming

Charlie Chaplin Modern Times good movies

Human Brain Cognition most powerful tool- cannot be automated by any machine.

Mathematical/logical notation artificial language

DEPENDENCY GRAMMAR

When the elements/words of a sentence are all dependent on each other for meaning. The
interrelation between individual words of a sentence is more important than one word (verb, unlike
in the constituency grammar)

A relation B

Gauri eats chocolates

Subject verb object

Subject predicate object

The object chocolates is dependent on the predicate for its position and meaning. The object of a
sentence can vary with positional changes. That is, if an object is placed before a predicate, it
becomes the subject of the sentence. The meaning and status can change.

Noun, pronouns, adjectives, abverbs are grammatical categorisation of OBJECTS

The status of an object can change by being converted into a subject (as a result of positional
changes) as object is relative and relational in nature with respect to the predicate. But the status of
a noun will not change because of positional or sequential changes. The grammatical status will
remain the same, no matter where it is placed.

Thats because:

Nouns verbs pronouns adjectives adverbs are grammatical categories

Subject object predicate are semantic categories

Dependency grammar is about whos the governor and whos the dependent.

Gauri eats chocolates

core / root

eats

gauri chocolates

subject object
So in the above hierarchical chart, we see this structure

Subject root object

The verb is the root or the core on which the whole structure of a sentence depends.

The subject depends of the core, it precedes the core and is thus the subject.

The object succeeds the core and is in the predicate, thus it is an object.

Thus, we understand that the subject and the object are in relation with their placement with
respect to the core of the sentence.

A determiner which determines an object depends on that object.

An adverb which determines a verb depends on that verb.

An adjective which determines an object depends on that object.

Even if a single element of this hierarchical chain is lifted, the whole sentence loses its meaning and
syntactical validity. It disturbs the totality of it. one cannot lift the verb.

The girl writes a letter to her friend

Blue verb governor

Green subject, indirect object and direct object

Pink determiners

Grey possessive relation

To prepositional relation

*a sentence can be comprised of only a single word. But necessarily that single word has to be a verb
in its imperative form.

Ex: come. Go. Eat. Sit.

This theory is called as minimal utterance theory. Enonc minimale. Uttering as minimum words as
possible, but which make sense.
30th September 2017
12th lecture

SEMANTICS

What is semantics?
Semantics is study of meaning in a given natural human language. The word semantics has its
etymological roots in the Greek word sema which means meaning in Greek. Meaning can be
defined as an individual mental interpretation of a certain idea or a concept.
The smallest unit of meaning is a Morpheme.

What is a linguistic sign?

A Linguistic sign is a technical jargon for the word word. A linguistic sign is made up of two
indissociable parts. They are concept and form.

*Semioctics is, by the way, the study of signs. From a semiotic persepective, language is a system of
signs. (linguistic signs = words)

SEMIOTIC TRIANGLE

Signified
d

Reference

Signifier

A linguistic sign = (signfied + signifier = reference)

A word = ( concept + form = thought)

The signified is the acoustic image of the reference that one has in mind. It is the mental individual
sensory perception of the reference. This image can be a sensory perception. It doesnt necessarily
have to be a visual perception, though in most cases, it is so. It could be auditory perception, tactile,
taste and nasal perception too.

The signifier is the physical form, the sound, which is common to all (speaking the same language).
This sound can evoke the concept, the idea, the abstract in ones mind. Sound is physical.

The reference is the real thing, the real entity, the object which exits out there in the real world.
Reference is the only element in this whole equation which is extralinguistic in nature.

For example,
 A shiny handsome
animal with a black
mane and taut muscles

Horse

/hawrs/

So this is how an example of the linguisctic sign looks.

So it consists of a mental image of an idea, the sound of it and the actual real thing in the world.
People who cant read or write, or who are illiterate are the people who are not aware of the
linguistic sign horse but are aware of the elements which it is made up of. Hence, babies, kids and
illiterate people are able to communicate, even if they dont know the linguistic sign because they
know the idea, the sound and the real thing. Knowing that is sufficient to communicate in a language,
but not more.
Position
Quality dark
Reference: Function Chocolate milk
Structure molten
Colour

The lens of looking at the same concept/Reference can be different, and according to that our
Signifieds can also differ. Thus, when our Signifieds differ not according to people, but also according
to the perspectives, the problem arises.
The Signified rarely coincides with that of the others while the Reference maybe the same. The
Signified is a subjective and individual perception of the same Reference. When different individual
mental interpretations of the same Reference do not coincide, confusion is created. And this
confusion has the potential to lead to misinterpretations or miscommunications further.
However, even if the Signified in each ones head is different than that of the one in the others,
there are some basic characteristics which are essential and similar in each image of every individual.
Everyones Signified of Horse has 4 legs, one heavy mane, etc. These common traits are a reason
why human beings are able to generalise the Signified. These shared generalisations further
enable/allow them to communicate.
What is the Nature of a linguistic sign?

1. Both the elements of which a linguistic sign is made up of are interconnected. The linguistic
sign is bipolar in nature. The relation between the Signified and Signifier is indissociable. If
one is dissociated or discarded, the other ceases to exist.
2. This relation is totally arbitrary in nature. There is no specific or particular reason why a
certain Signifier has a certain Signified. That is, nothing in the word /hawrse/ depicts the
form, image, shape of a horse. These names or nouns or words are conventionalised.
(Exception : Onomatopoeia: in this case, the Signifier indicates the Signified with its sound)
3. Spacio-Temporal displacement:
This property of a linguistic sign allows you to talk about things which dont exist in present,
which dont exist in ones personal space, which would exist in future, which are away, etc.
In short, it offers the speaker the flexibility to communicate about references which are not
in front of the speaker. A linguistic sign allows the speaker to communicate over the time
and space limitations. (dea, future, fantasy, fiction, hypothesis, etc)

AMBIGUITY: when a word, a phrase or any unit of speech or language is open to more than
one interpretation and meaning, even when that meaning cannot be determined from its
context, is called as ambiguity. There are two main types of ambiguities.

LEXICAL AMBIGUITIES

Language is full of ambiguities.

When a single linguistic sign evokes two or more meanings to choose from in ones mind,
and one does not know which is applicable in the context concerned, then that is called as
linguistic ambiguity. As we just saw, a single Reference can have multiple Signifieds, this can
be one of the reasons behind lexical ambiguity.
Sometimes, a word in itself is ambiguous.
Ex: the word shot
This word as a noun itself has 3 meanings. A stroke, sports, an injection, firing rounds, pegs
of alcohol.

SYNTACTIC AMBIGUITIES

When a certain word, when appeared in a particular context, has ambiguities it is called as
Syntactic ambiguity. When one whole sentence has different meanings (when put together
in a certain sequences), it is known to have syntactical ambiguities.
At other times, a word, specified in a context, can also be ambiguous.
He shot the elephant in pyjamas
He video shot the animal while he was wearing pyjamas?
He shot the elephant who was in pyjamas?
He shot the elephant who had entered his pyjamas?
So many interpretations. And we havent even considered the above word-specific
ambiguities.

So how do we clear these ambiguities?

I shot an elephant in my pyjamas.



noun phrase verb phrase

prepositional pronoun
noun verb noun phrase noun phrase
phrase phrase

determiner possessive
I shot proper noun preposition common noun
article pronoun

an elephant in my pyjamas

Analysing a sentence in constituency way of analysing helps eliminate the ambiguity of the sentence.
This way, you identify each element of the sentence, and decided which element is attributed to
which word. Thus the ambiguity is zeroed down on by a step by step procedure ,and thus finally
eliminated.

In syntactic ambiguities, just rearranging the sequence of a certain ambiguous sentence can
eliminate the ambiguity.

Lexical Relations

1. Polysemy
2. Monosemy
3. Homonymy - Homophony Homography
4. Antonymy
5. Synonymy
6. Hypernymy-Hyponymy

1. Polysemy: the property of a linguistic sign to have multiple meanings is called as plysemy.
This property is also one of the major causes which induces ambiguity.
But, there is no word used in daily life language which is not polysemous in nature. Almost
every word has two or more meanings, depending on the context and on the syntax. This is a
result of Exhaustivity of language. Even though a language is capable of inventing and
coining new words and terms, it still has some limits. Thats why, man uses the same word
for two different meanings.
2. Monosemy: the property of a word of having not more than one meaning to it is called as
Monosemy. Monosemy is generally seen in domains where taking the risk of one word
having multiple meanings is not affordable. In domains like science and technology, or
chemicals and physics, such terms generally have only one meaning, the one why the word
was coined for in the first place.
But nowadays, with the progress of science, even the words from scientific domain have
come into normal daily life usage.
Gravity becomes a synonym of seriousness
Oxygen becomes a synonym of essence
And the same way, some daily life lexemes become a part of the scientific domains
 Port, which is a word used for a place to describe where a ship anchors herself, loads or
unloads cargo and sets off sailing again, is nowadays used to describe a slot where a USB
drive enters the system of a computer. That place is called as a USB port because the USB is
inserted in the system, it is anchored there, it copies or unloads the information and is
ejected again.
A word acquires a new meaning through human usage of it. There are a thousand such
words which, because of extralinguistic reasons, causes lexems to change their nature from
being polysemous to monosemous and vice versa. Man tends to use languages according to
his needs and tends to mould it the way he requires. When this action is imitated, re-
enacted and repeated over a number of years, it becomes a part of the culture and slowly
becomes a place specific grammar of that language.
For every new invention that there happens, there will be new words, needed to be
invented. Man is so lazy, or maybe extremely intelligent, that he would rather use a word
which already exists in a language than putting his brain into inventing a new one. Thats
how polysemous words increase ein nuber and thats also how it gives rise to ambiguity.

3. Homonymy: a phenomenon where two different words look/sound similar, but they actually
have different meanings. There are two types of homonymys divided with respect to sound
and script.
3.1. Homophones: are those words which may or may not be written in a similar way
(spelling) but have the exact same sound, and different meanings.
Ex: allowed aloud | led lead | red read | mane main | lane lain |
3.2. Homographs: are those words which are written in the exact same way, but who have
different sounds, and different meanings.
Ex: wound wound | read read | live live |

How do you distinguish between Homonymy and Polysemy?

How do you know if wound and wound are not polysemous and are homonymous?
First of all, check the roots. The etymology is the answer to most of the meaning related
questions. In most of the cases, one of them is a verb and another is a noun.
Second, if both of them belong to the same grammatical category, then we have to have a
diachronic study and see if the two words evolved and came to using the similar
sound/looking words over a period of time.

4. Synonymy: synonymy is a phenomenon where two or more words have a similar or close
meaning, but not the exact same meaning. There are some minute nuances in the meaning.
(because if two or more words have the exact same meaning then one of the words is sure
to get extinct [in this case archaic])

Ex: laugh and chuckle | chance and opportunity | bit and nibble | sniff and smell |

5. Antonyms: it is the phenomenon where two words have opposing meanings. Antonyms are
divided into two types with respect to their gradation.
5.1. Non graded antonyms: words which have opposite meanings, which go in a pair. Which
have clear cut compartmental distinctions.
Ex: living # dead | pass # fail | married # unmarried | guilty # not guilty | winner # looser
 5.2. Graded antonyms: words which have opposite meaning but with no clear distinctions.
The opposite of hot is not necessarily only cool. It could be freezing as well.
So the word hot has numerous opposites and all of them are correct. Such words are
called as graded antonyms. They all depend on the context.

How do you know if a word is a graded or non graded antonym?

Check with single negation test.
A living being can either be dead or alive. If it is alive, it is not dead. If it is dead, it is not alive.
It can be only one of the two and not the both at the same time. Hence, there is a clear black
and white distinction between the two.
If there is no such clear distinction, then there are definitely multiple grades of intensity of a
quality. The antonym of a piping hot soup, is not necessarily a cold soup. It could be a
lukewarm soup, or even a medium hot soup. There are gradations in the intensity.
If there is something that can posses the properties of both the words (the word and its
antonym) then it is a non graded antonym
Ex: a rich man can also be a poor man, depending on the context, here the country in which
he stays, the currency in which he measures his wealth, his idea of richness and poverty.

Then there are words which are polysemous in nature, and because they have more than
two meanings, they have more than two antonyms for the same word too!
Hot (garam) # cold (gaar)
Hot (taste) # sweet/blamd (sappak)

6. Hypernymy Hyponymy
In any language, things having some certain common traits are classified under a common
name, in a common family. This hierarchical arrangement of placing similar things under one
and the other tells us the relation between the two entities.

animal

reptiles wild

lizards cat family dog family

tiger wolf dogs

german
dobberman
shephard

The word Animal is a hypernym for the word dog. Because dogs are a part of the
wholesome entity which includes are living beings on four legs (or whatever is the definition
of an animal) the word Animal is a senior or a wider umbrella which covers are the lexems
which come under it.
In the other way, the word german shephard is a hyponym of the word dog. The german
shephard is a species of dog. Hence it is classified under the dog family.
A word, at the same time could be both a hypernym and a homonym at the same time. It all
depends upon the context because a words nature is determined with respect to the
relation it shares with its family lineage above and below it.
Registers of a language.

As far as synonymity of words is concerned, the difference in shade or the semantic nuances can be
seen in the registers of a language. A word belonging to a certain register of a language can have
multiple synonyms in other registers of the same language.

1. Slang chaddi
2. Dialectical panty (American English)
3. Geographical underwear (New York)
4. Domain specific swimming shorts (sports)
5. Language specific lingerie (fr eng)
6. Technical lower undergarment

1. Slang tu anta
2. Colloquial tum boku
3. Informal spoken tum marukochan
4. Informal written tum marukochan
5. Formal spoken aap marukosan
6. Formal written aap marukosan
7. Honorific spoken and written aap marukosama

COMPONENTIAL ANALYSIS

The process of analysing a word into components on meaning is called as componential analysis.
This is a highly practical method. This is one way of defining a word, and is highly useful in building of
a dictionary. This methods helps us to specify the meaning of a word right to its root level. Thus, it is
called as componential analysis.

Criteria Man Woman Boy Girl

Human + + + +
Adult + + - -
Female - + - +
Furniture

Steps

1. In the entities which you consider as targets for analysis must have atleast one trait in
common.
2. The criteria you decide should be broad and wide.
3. You are free to decide your cirteria, it is highly subjective in nature. The person who is doing
the analysis can freely decide the criteria.
4. If after the application of all criteria, if each of the entities is distinctly nd individually
distinguishable, then it can be said that all the entities were componentially analysed to get
to their exact defined meanings. This method leaves no room for confusion and smudgyness.
5. If a certain criterion, a certain quality is neither absent nor present in a certain entity, i.e. if it
is not applicable to a certain enitity, then you mark it as NA.

This is the method of componential analysis.

So this was the end of our general linguistics class. I am so happy, I could attend all lectures
peacefully, attentively and enthousiastically. I am very glad I did this course. I cant even begin to tell
you how clear the concepts are, how curious my mind, how the seeds of curiousity sown deep within
the contours of my brain are slowly starting to peep up, daring to be born. I am no more a blind
language learner. With this course I have realised what a language essentially is. It has changed my
outlook towards the process of learning, nit just languages, but learning in general. I believe, and I
know someday it will, that this course and these teachings will play a major role in my life.

The professor is amazing. It was after the first few lectures that I understood how great he is. I so
wish to learn computational linguistics from him. or learn more of french linguistics in french from
him. It would be an absolute delight and honour to study under him too. Happiness, luck and
blessing combined together is Dr. Shrikan Joshi sensei