1. Discuss ‘Indianisation’ of English, citing examples of some major features of Indian English. (20) 2. Give a complete description of the consonants of English. (20) 3. What, in your view, are the most important learner variables in the learning of a second language? Explain. (20) 4. What do you understand by ‘foregrounding’? Discuss with suitable examples. (20) 5. Write short notes on the following: (20) a) The function of intonation. b) Conversion as a morphological device. 1. Discuss the relationship between language and our perception of reality in terms of linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism. 2. Write short notes on any four of the following, giving examples as far as possible: i) Changes in the meaning of words from Old to Modern English. ii) Langue and Parole iii) Problems in defining a speech community iv) Code mixing and code switching v) Status versus Corpus planning vi) Monism and Dualism 3. What is Theta theory? Which parts of grammar does it affect? Discuss with examples of your own. 4. Discuss in detail four different approaches of looking at language and society (Unit 1, Block 6). Highlight the differences between all these approaches. 5. Historically discuss the rise of American English and its chief characteristics

1. Sam
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SPRING SEASON PUBLICATIONS
Navi Mumbai, INDIA

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SPSN Series: MEG-004 Aspects of Language
Author: Dr Vasant Kothari & Ms Inderpreet Kaur Gupta
First Published – 2020
Spring Season Publications
Kandla Road, Near Milk Dairy, Chikhli, MS, INDIA, 443201
www.springseason.in
ISBN: 978-81-948580-9-6
is registered trademark of Spring Season Publications
© 2020 Dr Vasant Kothari
All Rights Reserved
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electrical, mechanical,
Photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior Written permission of the author
All data were deemed correct at time of creation
Author/Publisher is not liable for errors or omissions
Printed at: Printwell International Pvt. Ltd., Aurangabad, MS, India
Cover Image by Max Kleinen on Unsplashed

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Content
Solution Series
1 June 15 1
2 Dec 15 14
3 June 16 27
4 Dec 16 36
5 June 17 46
6 Dec 17 53
7 June 18 58
8 Dec 18 65
9 June 19 69
10 Dec 19 74

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Preface
This book is written with the aim to provide a clear understanding of the
important topics and concepts which are extremely crucial from the exam
point of view.
A careful analysis of the topics frequently asked during examination has
been done and the book is a compilation of solved solutions of the
previous year papers, with short notes about the topics that must be read
thoroughly to attempt the exam successfully.
To get the best result from this handy reference guide, begin with reading
the short notes thoroughly to gain an understanding of the topic. Then,
after preparing extensively from detailed study texts, practice from the
solved solutions provided in the book to understand how to attempt
questions during exams.
The information specified in this book will make learning easy and
provide complete revision in a short span of time.

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1
June 2015
Q. No. 1. Write short notes on any two of the following: 25 Marks
a. Language shapes the world-view of the individual
Answer: People use language on a day to day basis to express something. The
study of linguistics opens a way to understand languages, how they are spoken
and the people who speak them, which lead to an understanding of how society
operates.
Scientists and linguists have conducted various studies and researches on how
language shapes the way people think and behave. Language is part of culture
and culture has an effect on the way a person thinks, which initiates behaviors.
The linguistic area got revolutionized by Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee
Whorf’s comparative study of the American Indian language from the tribe Hopi
and Indo-European languages, when many differences between them were
noticed.
For instance, Whorf concluded that Europeans recognize the world as a “set of
things”, while in Hopi language the world is a “collection of actions”. More so,
categories such as “time” and “space” are not transcultural, but are part of our
grammar. Thus, according to the Sapir-Whorf-theory, language is more than just
a communication tool. it determines our perception of reality and influences our
behavior.
Linguistics provides various techniques and tools to help document and describe
the diverse world of languages, which range from standard languages to
different dialects and their variations. Expectations drive perception of a
language while language develops expectations, the impact, the speaker’s
general perception of the world. This is because aside from using language for
communication, people use it to think for themselves.
According to George Steiner, a literary critic, the way people understand the
world dies when a language disappears. Different cultures have different
ideologies and perspectives about the world. The difference in the structure of a
language, with its syntax and specific logical rules affect how a person looks at
the world. (290 Words)
b. Finite and Non-Finite Clauses
Answer: Clauses are the principal structures of which sentences are composed.
A sentence may consist of one or more than one clause. The present chapter
deals with the classification of clauses, based on the use of verb-phrase

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structure. In terms of the amount of use, which a clause makes of a verb-phrase
structure, clauses are distinguished as Finite clauses, Non-finite clauses
Finite Clause: Indicate a person, number and tense. Have a definite relation with
the subject and can be changed according to tense. The finite clause uses verb
tenses in the past or present tense, which is how time is indicated. Can work as
subject, object, complement and adjunct.
Types of Finite Clauses include: Present Tense and Past Tense
Example:
• I spoke to Joan last night.
• He plays football every evening
Non-finite Clause: Does not indicate a person, number and tense. Does not
change but remains constant with the change in tense or number or person. With
a non-finite clause, the idea of time comes from the context of the independent
clause — a non-finite clause generally modifies the main verb (the finite) and is
part of a dependent clause. It will never be the primary verb by itself, but may
act more like a noun, adjective, or adverb. Non- finite clauses are clauses whose
verb element is a non-finite verb-phrase, an - ing participle, an -ed participle or
an infinitive. Non-finite clauses can be constructed without subject and they
usually are.
Types of Non-finite Clauses includes: Present Participle, Past Participle
Infinitive and Gerund.
Example:
• I have spoken to Joan about it.
• Playing football is what he does every morning (270 Words)
c. Pidgins and Creoles
Answer: Pidgins: Assumed to be coming from a Chinese attempt to pronounce
the English word business during trades in the Far East. Historically, pidgins
arose in colonial situations where the representatives of the particular colonial
power, officials, tradesmen, sailors, etc., came in contact with natives. A pidgin
or contact language is a restricted and extended language which arises with an
urgency of communication to serve specific needs between social groups that
are ethnically and linguistically different from each other. One of these groups is
in a more dominant position than the other; the less dominant group is the one
which develops the pidgin.

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Aspects of Language
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Is a complex combination of different processes of change, including reduction
and simplification of input materials, internal innovation, and regularization of
structure, with L1 influence also playing role.
Characteristics of pidgin language:
• No native speakers yet
• Spoken by millions as means of communication
• Not used as a means of group identification
• A product of multilingual – 3 languages – one is dominant
• The dominant language is superior because of economic or social factor
• Two languages are involved in a power struggle for dominance
• The dominant group –more vocabulary (lexifier – superstrate), while
the less dominant languages–grammar (substrate)
• Main function–trading
Creoles: An adaptation of the Castilian Spanish criollo (home, local) from
Portuguese criar (to rear, to bring up), from Latin creo (“to create”). A creole is
a pidgin that has become the first language of a new generation of speakers. Is a
process where a pidgin expands in structure and vocabulary in order to express
the range of meanings and serve the range of functions required of a first
language.
Characteristics of Creoles:
• Pidgins adopted as the native language
• Nativization is when pidgin passed onto new generations and became a
mother tongue which is acquired by children
• Often classified as English/French/Spanish… based
• Speech becomes faster
• Expansion of morphology and syntax
• Expansion of phonology
• Expansion of the lexicon
Pidgins are distributed mainly in places with direct or easy access to the oceans.
They are found mainly in the Caribbean and around the north and east coasts of
South America and Africa. (346 Words)
d. Inflectional Morphology
Answer: Every day we use our language and most of us do not think about how

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we build words or how they help us to be as precise as possible with what we
express. Morphology is the academic branch that in contrast to us focuses on
words and their structure. Inflectional morphemes are used to show some aspects
of the grammatical function of a word. Inflectional morphemes are used to
indicate if a word is singular or plural, whether it is past tense or not, and
whether it is a comparative or possessive form. In fact, inflection exists in
many languages, but compared to other languages of the world there is relatively
little inflection in English.
An inflection is a grammatical prefix or suffix that is added to a word root. For
example, the word “cat” can be made plural with the addition of the {-s}.
Another example of an inflection in English is the {-ed} added to signify past
tense in regular verbs (“saved” “kissed” “laughed” etc.).
Most prefixes and suffixes in English, however, are not inflections. This is
because they are not grammatical in meaning. Examples included {-ness} as in
“happiness” and {re-} in “rebuild.” These non-inflectional (i.e. non-
grammatical) prefixes and suffixes are called “derivational,” as they are how we
derived new words from existing words. So, “happiness” is derived from the
root word “happy” and “rebuild” is derived from “build.”
Today there are only eight inflectional morphemes in English i.e. Plural,
Possessive, Comparative, Superlative, 3rd person singular present tense, past
tense, progressive and past participle.
Inflectional morphemes never change the grammatical category (part of speech)
of a word. For example, tall and taller are both adjectives. The inflectional
morpheme -er (comparative marker) simply produces a different version of the
adjective tall. (291 Words)
Q. No. 2. What are the main principles of generative-syntax? Discuss.
25 Marks
Answer: In linguistics, generative grammar is grammar (the set of language
rules) that indicates the structure and interpretation of sentences that native
speakers of a language accept as belonging to their language. Adopting the term
generative from mathematics, linguist Noam Chomsky introduced the concept of
generative grammar in the 1950s. This theory is also known as transformational
grammar.
The term generative syntax refers to research on the syntax of natural languages
within the general framework of generative grammar. As in generative grammar,
the term ‘generative’ means explicit. Thus, generative syntax differs from much

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Aspects of Language
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the other research on syntax in its emphasis on precise and explicit specification
both of general theories and of specific analyses. Most work in generative
syntax like most work in generative grammar has also been seen as an
investigation of I-language (internalized language), the cognitive system
underlying the ordinary use of language.
Grammar refers to the set of rules that structure a language, including syntax
(the arrangement of words to form phrases and sentences) and morphology (the
study of words and how they are formed). Generative grammar is a theory of
grammar that says that human language is shaped by a set of basic principles
that are part of the human brain (and even present in the brains of small
children). This “universal grammar,” according to linguists like Chomsky,
comes from our innate language faculty.
Generative grammar is distinct from other grammars such as prescriptive
grammar, which attempts to establish standardized language rules that deem
certain usages “right” or “wrong,” and descriptive grammar, which attempts to
describe language as it is actually used (including the study of pidgins and
dialects). Instead, generative grammar attempts to get at something deeper—the
foundational principles that make language possible across all of humanity.
For example, a prescriptive grammarian may study how parts of speech are
ordered in English sentences, with the goal of laying out rules (nouns precede
verbs in simple sentences, for example). A linguist studying generative
grammar, however, is more likely to be interested in issues such as how nouns
are distinguished from verbs across multiple languages.
The main principle of generative grammar is that all humans are born with an
innate capacity for language and that this capacity shapes the rules for what is
considered “correct” grammar in a language. The idea of an innate language
capacity—or a “universal grammar”—is not accepted by all linguists. Some
believe, to the contrary, that all languages are learned and, therefore, based on
certain constraints.
Proponents of the universal grammar argument believe that children, when they
are very young, are not exposed to enough linguistic information to learn the
rules of grammar. That children do in fact learn the rules of grammar is proof,
according to some linguists, that there is an innate language capacity that allows
them to overcome the “poverty of the stimulus.”
In generative syntax, principles and parameters are related concepts whose aim
it is to capture both invariance of language and cross-linguistic variation.

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Principles express universal constraints on human language; parameters define
the space of cross-linguistic variation. (510 Words)
Q. No. 3. Trace the three stages of the evolution of the English Language.
25 Marks
Answer: The history of the English language started with the arrival of three
Germanic tribes who invaded Britain during the 5th century AD. These tribes,
the Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes, crossed the North Sea from what today is
Denmark and northern Germany. At that time, the inhabitants of Britain spoke a
Celtic language. But most of the Celtic speakers were pushed to west and north
by the invaders - mainly into what is now Wales, Scotland and Ireland. The
Angles came from “Englaland” [sic] and their language was called “Englisc” -
from which the words “England” and “English” are derived.
Three stages of evolution of the English language were:
1) Old English (450-1100 AD)
The invading Germanic tribes spoke similar languages, which in Britain
developed into what we now call Old English. Old English did not sound or look
like English today. Native English speakers now would have great difficulty
understanding Old English. Nevertheless, about half of the most commonly used
words in Modern English have Old English roots. The words be, strong and
water, for example, derive from Old English. Old English was spoken until
around 1100.
2) Middle English (1100-1500)
In 1066 William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy (part of modern
France), invaded and conquered England. The new conquerors (called the
Normans) brought with them a kind of French, which became the language of
the Royal Court, and the ruling and business classes. For a period, there was a
kind of linguistic class division, where the lower classes spoke English and the
upper classes spoke French. In the 14th century English became dominant in
Britain again, but with many French words added. This language is called
Middle English. It was the language of the great poet Chaucer (c1340-1400), but
it would still be difficult for native English speakers to understand today.
3) Modern English
a) Early Modern English (1500-1800)
Towards the end of Middle English, a sudden and distinct change in

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Aspects of Language
7
pronunciation (the Great Vowel Shift) started, with vowels being pronounced
shorter and shorter. From the 16th century the British had contact with many
peoples from around the world.
This, and the Renaissance of Classical learning, meant that many new words and
phrases entered the language. The invention of printing also meant that there
was now a common language in print. Books became cheaper and more people
learned to read. Printing also brought standardization to English. Spelling and
grammar became fixed, and the dialect of London, where most publishing
houses were, became the standard. In 1604 the first English dictionary was
published.
b) Late Modern English (1800-Present)
The main difference between Early Modern English and Late Modern English
is, vocabulary. Late Modern English has many more words, arising from two
principal factors: firstly, the Industrial Revolution and technology created a need
for new words; secondly, the British Empire at its height covered one quarter of
the earth’s surface, and the English language adopted foreign words from many
countries. (492 Words)
Q. No. 4. Describe in detail the place and manner of consonant sounds in
English. 25 Marks
Answer: Consonants can be classified along three major dimensions:
• Manners of Articulation
• Place of Articulation
• Voicing
The place of articulation dimension specifies where in the vocal tract the
constriction is. The voicing parameter specifies whether the vocal folds are
vibrating. The manner of articulation dimension is essentially everything else:
how narrow the constriction is, whether air is flowing through the nose, and
whether the tongue is dropped down on one side.
Manners of Articulation
a. Stops
A stop consonant completely cuts off the airflow through the mouth. In the
consonants [t], [d], and [n], the tongue tip touches the alveolar ridge and cuts off
the airflow at that point. We have nasal stops, like [n], which involves airflow
through the nose, and oral stops, like [t] and [d], which do not.

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b. Fricatives
In a fricative consonant, the articulators involved in the constriction approach
get close enough to each other to create a turbulent airstream. The fricatives
are [f], [v], [θ], [ð], [s], [z], [ʃ], and [ʒ].
c. Approximants
In an approximant, the articulators involved in the constriction are further apart
still than they are for a fricative. The articulators are still closer to each other
than when the vocal tract is in its neutral position, but they are not close enough
to cause the air passing between them to become turbulent. The approximants
are [w], [j], [ɹ], and [l].
d. Affricates
An affricate is a single sound composed of a stop portion and a fricative portion.
In English [tʃ], the airflow is first interrupted by a stop which is very similar
to [t] (though made a bit further back).
e. Laterals
Sounds which involve airflow around the side of the tongue are called laterals.
Sounds which are not lateral are called central. [l] is the only lateral in English.
Places of articulation
The place of articulation (or POA) of a consonant specifies where in the vocal
tract the narrowing occurs.
a. Bilabial: In a bilabial consonant, the lower and upper lips approach or
touch each other. English [p], [b], and [m] are bilabial stops
b. Labiodental: In a labiodental consonant, the lower lip approaches or
touches the upper teeth. English [f] and [v] are bilabial fricatives
c. Dental: In a dental consonant, the tip or blade of the tongue approaches
or touches the upper teeth. English [θ] and [ð] are dental fricatives
d. Alveolar: In an alveolar consonant, the tongue tip (or less often the
tongue blade) approaches or touches the alveolar ridge, the ridge
immediately behind the upper teeth
e. Postalveolar: In a postalveolar consonant, the constriction is made
immediately behind the alveolar ridge. The constriction can be made
with either the tip or blade of the tongue
f. Retroflex: In a retroflex consonant, the tongue tip is curled backward in

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Aspects of Language
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g. the mouth. [ɹ] is a retroflex approximant -tongue tip is curled up toward
the postalveolar region
h. Palatal: In a palatal consonant, the body of the tongue approaches or
touches the hard palate. [j] is a palatal approximant
i. Glottal: The glottis is the opening between the vocal folds. In an [h],
this opening is narrow enough to create some turbulence in the
airstream flowing past the vocal folds
j. Velar: In a velar consonant, the body of the tongue approaches or
touches the soft palate, or velum. [k], [ɡ], and [ŋ] are glottal
(558 Words)
Q. No. 5. What do you understand by language planning? Discuss the
limitations of language planning. 25 Marks
Answer: The term language planning refers to measures taken by official
agencies to influence the use of one or more languages in a particular speech
community. American linguist Joshua Fishman has defined language planning
as “the authoritative allocation of resources to the attainment of language status
and corpus goals, whether in connection with new functions that are aspired to
or in connection with old functions that need to be discharged more adequately”
(1987) Language planning occurs in most countries by their relevant
governments wherein they have more than one language within the community.
Four major types of language planning are status planning (about the social
standing of a language), corpus planning (the structure of a language), language-
in-education planning (learning), and prestige planning (image).
4 Stages of Language Planning are:
1. Selection: Selection is the term used to refer to the choice of a
language variety to fulfil certain functions in a given society.
2. Codification: The creation of a linguistic standard or norm for a
selected linguistic code. It is divided up into three stages:
a. Graphization – developing a writing system.
b. Grammaticalization – deciding on rules/norms of grammar
c. Lexicalization – identifying the vocabulary
3. Implementation: Promoting of the decisions made in the stages of
selection and codification which can include marketing strategy,
production of books, pamphlets, newspapers, and textbooks using the
new codified standard.

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4. Elaboration: Refers to the terminology and stylistic development of a
codified language to meet the communicative demands of modern life
and technology. Its main area is the production and dissemination of
new terms.
Goals of Language Planning:
Between 1984 and 1990, there has been a remarkable increase in the list of goals
that language planning activities are expected to carryout. Nahir (1977) initially
wrote about five goals of language planning. Later he added six more in his
classification of language planning goals (1984). Hornberger further added five
more by drawing from other literature in language planning and ultimately made
the number reach to sixteen.
The 16 language planning goals have been categorized in two groups namely:
a. goals with regard to language status. These include officialisation,
nationalisation, status standardisation, vernacularisation, revival,
spread, maintenance and interlingual communication.
b. goals with regard to language corpus. These include purification,
reform, corpus standardisation, lexical modernization, terminology
unification, stylistic simplification, auxiliary code standardisation and
graphisation.
There are certain limitations of language planning:
1. Uncertainty: Problems of uncertainty always looms large even when
there is a careful plan. These uncertainties can be those that are
unknown or those that are only predictable within certain probability
limits.
2. Limited planning: Of all the activities of man, language is perhaps, the
most widespread and the most essential one. Hence planning this
activity will be very difficult. Language planning can, therefore, be
discussed only in a very limited sense and for a very special goal.
3. Costliness: Practical limitation of planning is the costliness of making
plans. Since lot of time and energy is spent on acquiring the necessary
information to make a good plan, the cost of planning may not
necessarily be felt to be a rewarded by sufficient benefits. (518 Words)
Q. No. 6. Discuss the different types of bilingualism and its consequences to
the society. 25 Marks
Answer: Bilingualism (or more generally: Multilingualism) is the phenomenon

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Aspects of Language
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of speaking and understanding two or more languages. The term can refer to
individuals (individual bilingualism) as well as to an entire society (social
bilingualism).
1) Early bilingualism - there are two types: simultaneous early
bilingualism and consecutive (or successive) early bilingualism.
a) Simultaneous early bilingualism refers to a child who learns two
languages at the same time, from birth. This generally produces a
strong bilingualism, called additive bilingualism.
b) Successive early bilingualism refers to a child who has already
partially acquired a first language and then learns a second
language early in childhood (for example, when a child moves to
an environment where the dominant language is not his native
language). The child must be given time to learn the second
language, because the second language is learned at the same time
as the child learns to speak.
2) Late bilingualism – refers to bilingualism when the second language is
learned after the age of 6 or 7; especially when it is learned in
adolescence or adulthood. Late bilingualism is a consecutive
bilingualism which occurs after the acquisition of the first language
(after the childhood language development period). With the first
language already acquired, the late bilingual uses their experience to
learn the second language.
3) Additive bilingualism and subtractive bilingualism – The term
additive bilingualism refers to the situation where a person has acquired
the two languages in a balanced manner. It is a strong bilingualism.
Subtractive bilingualism refers to the situation where a person learns
the second language to the detriment of the first language, especially if
the first language is a minority language. In this case, mastery of the
first language decreases, while mastery of the other language (usually
the dominant language) increases.
4) Passive bilingualism - refers to being able to understand a second
language without being able to speak it. Children who respond in a
relevant way in English when they are addressed in French could
become passive bilinguals, as their mastery of oral expression in French
decreases.
Consequences of Bilingualism:
It was believed that bilingualism was a hindrance to learning and development,
but now it is considered an enabling and enriching phenomenon. Knowing two

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or more languages rather than only one, not only enriches a person’s linguistic
capability, but also growth in terms of information and knowledge. Thus,
increasing a person’s receptive access and awareness, it also tends to make a
learner more tolerant and open-minded and facilitates learning.
When two languages L1 and L2 are learnt, spoken and used by individuals and
whole groups or communities, they come to form a kind of coexistent system in
the linguistic repertoire of the bilinguals. The co-existence and habitual use of
the two languages may have the following consequences on L1 and L2, due to
mutual influence, they may undergo structural changes at the level of sounds,
syntax, vocabulary and semantics. The two languages may, in due course of
time and due to various socio-historical reasons, come to be viewed and
evaluated differentially. One language may, for instance, come to be perceived
as the language of education, opportunity, prestige or Settings status, while the
other may not be perceived to have these attributes. Such switching and mixing
may lead to respectability and social acceptability. (543 Words)
Q. No. 7. Discuss the relationship amongst linguistics, literary criticism and
stylistics. 25 Marks
Answer: Linguistics may be briefly defined as the scientific study of language
within the realm of the sentence. It can be divided into different branches,
namely, Phonetics and Phonology; Morphology and Syntax; and Semantics, and
each of these areas contributes to our understanding of how language works.
The function of literary criticism has always been to describe, analyse, interpret
and evaluate a literary work. The critic works out, on the basis of both linguistic
evidence and his knowledge of exteralinguistic background, a structure of the
meaning of a work as objectively as possible. In his evaluation of the work, he
uses some well-defined criteria of judgement which is generally derived from a
series of continuous comparisons and some accepted assumptions. Interpretation
and evaluation are often, in practice, difficult to separate since the same pattern
of assumptions and criteria works in both the processes. Until new criticism
insists on giving attention primarily to the text, the critics were more concerned
with the message than the linguistic code which carried it.
Stylistics is a branch of linguistics concerned with the study of characteristic
choices in use of language, especially literary language, as regards sound, form,
or vocabulary, made by different individuals or social groups in different
situations of use.
Literary criticism is the study, evaluation, and interpretation of literature.
Modern literary criticism is often informed by literary theory, which is the

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philosophical discussion of its methods and goals. Though the two activities are
closely related, literary critics are not always, and have not always been,
theorists.
The purpose of linguistic stylistics is to recognize and categorize the
constituents of language in a certain text. The purpose of literary stylistics is
typically to analyze certain literary texts (basically fiction).
In certain cases, analysis of text can be supported by computer programs. It is
often used to make value judgments about the quality of imagination and
creativity in the writing (of particular texts).
Stylistics aims to analyse text and takes into consideration the devices, parts and
figure of speech which help us to make style in language. Therefore, the stylistic
devices of discourse bring words’ meanings literally or metaphorically, the
texture of language according to grammar and also to study these words
semantically, phonologically, syntactically and coherently within a textural
framework.
The only difference between stylistic analysis and literary criticism, is that
literary criticism goes directly to its text evaluation subjectively and is
impressionistically independent from the linguistic form of the test. Literary
criticism is the practical application of literary theory. It tries to clarify the
importance of a text by explaining the text independently from the form of the
text of the linguistic aspects of a text.
A critic may seek the help of extra textual factors such as the milieu, socio-
politics and geography, but leaves out the linguistic aspects of the text. Both the
stylistician and literary critic opt for decoding a literary or non-literary
unfamiliar text to the public. The literary stylistician is interested in the aesthetic
experience, the perception of reality in a text according to the intuition of the
author, and the evocative and figurative language that invokes strong images,
memories, or feelings to mind. However, the stylistician is not concerned with
the formal analysis of language. (537 Words)

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SPRING SEASON PUBLICATIONS
Navi Mumbai, INDIA

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Content
Short Notes
1 What is Language? 1
2 History of English Language 13
3 English Phonetics and Phonology 16
4 English Morphology 31
5 English Syntax 40
6 Language in Use-I 49
7 Language in Use-II 57
8 The Spread of English 60
9 Stylistics 63

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1
Chapter 01
What is Language?
1.1 Definition of Language
A language is a system of communication which consists of a set of sounds and
written symbols which are used by the people of a particular country or region for
talking or writing.
1.1.1 How and Why did Language Originate?
Language is today, an inseparable part of human society.
Western Linguists & Philosophers believe there was a time when people didn’t
have the ability to talk. Humans developed language between 100,000 and 50,000
years ago but written language appeared 5000 years ago.
Four different Sources of Language
i. Natural sound source – Sounds
ii. Physical adaptation source – Lips, teeth, tongue
iii. Genetic source – Innate capability to adapt to language
iv. Divine source – Religious texts

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The early theories of the origin of language are:
• Bow-wow: mimicking the noises and animal calls
• Ding-Dong: sound symbolism – vowel sounds
• Pooh-pooh: natural verbal interjections
• Yo-he-ho: rhythmic noises made when doing manual labour
1.1.2 Language shapes the World view of the Individual
Language is part of culture and culture has an effect on the way a person thinks,
which initiates behaviors. The linguistic area got revolutionized by Edward Sapir
and Benjamin Lee Whorf’s comparative study of the American Indian language
from the tribe Hopi and Indo-European languages, when many differences
between them were noticed.
According to the Sapir-Whorf-theory, language is more than just a
communication tool. It determines our perception of reality and influences our
behavior. This is because aside from using language for communication, people
use it to think for themselves. According to George Steiner, a literary critic, the
way people understand the world dies when a language disappears.
1.1.3 Latin Borrowings in English
The earliest influence of Latin on the English language would have to be the
influence that the Romans had on early Germanic. From this period, Old English
received the following words from Latin: ceap ‘bargain’, mynet ‘coin’, win
‘wine’, must ‘new wine’, cytel ‘kettle’, and sigel ‘necklace’ Latin was introduced
to the Celts with Caesar’s invasion of Celtic Britain in 55 B.C.
When St. Augustine, England became a Christian country, the introduction to
Christianity created modern English such words as: abbot, alms, altar, hymn,
litany, priest, psalm, and tunic from Latin. It is easy to see that most of these words
are of a churchly origin, but the Anglo-Saxons also borrowed words for household
items, clothing, and education. The sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth
centuries account for most of the Latin words that are still used today.
1.1.4 French Borrowings in English
The Influence of French on English began approximately 100 years before the
Norman Conquest, although only a few French loan words were imported to
England at that time. Some of the earliest loans from French are considered to be
castle juggler, prison (1076) and service.
The Norman Conquest made French the language of the official class in England.

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Examples: attorney, chancellor, country, court and crime. Furthermore, English
titles of nobility except for king, queen, earl, lord and lady - namely prince, duke,
marquess, viscount, baron and their feminine equivalents - date from the period
when England was in the hands of a Norman French ruling class. In military usage
army, captain, corporal, lieutenant, sergeant and soldier are all of French origin.
1.1.5 Characteristics of Human Language
The human being’s superiority consists in being able to manage a great number
of resonant, fricatives and stop consonants; to make click and inbreathed sounds
as well as out-breathed ones; and above all to produce complex combinations and
sequences of varied sounds.
Thus, two main levels of communication can be distinguished as:
• the instinctive-intuitive found in all animals,
• the formal, conventional or arbitrary found only in the human species
Characteristics of Language
• Language is Arbitrary
• Language is Social
• Language is Symbolic
• Language is Systematic
• Language is Vocal
• Language is Non-instinctive, Conventional
• Language is Productive and Creative
1.1.6 Ethnography of Communication
Originally termed as ‘ethnography of speaking’, Hymes broadened it in 1964 to
include the non-vocal and non-verbal aspects of communication.
Two main purposes, according to Hymes:
1. “to investigate directly the use of language in contexts of situations so as
to discern patterns proper to speech activity”
2. “to take as framework a community, exploring its unrestrained habits as
a whole”
1.2. Structuralism in Linguistics: The Saussurean Principles
Ferdinand de Saussure was a Swiss Linguist who in his book Cours de
Linguistiques Générale, gives us an insight into the basics of the principles of –

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Structural Linguistics.
1. The language is constituted of two parts: langue and parole
Langue Parole
The Langue represents the system of
language having signs, rules, and
patterns
Parole meaning the utterance of that
Langue and thus, it varies from
community to community and region
to region
Like law langue is relatively fixed Parole is flexible but uses law or code
It belongs to theoretical linguistics It belongs to descriptive linguistics
It is well defined Unpredictable mass of speech act
Homogenous object It cannot be accurately represented
Langue can be studied as it is in form
of written symbols
Parole cannot be studied as it is
heterogeneous
It is concerned with the abstract
aspects of language
It is concerned with the physical
aspects of language

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2. Arbitrariness of the Sign
A sign is anything which produces meanings.
There are two components to every sign.
1. First, a sign has physical form. This form which exists in the material
world is called the ‘signifier’
2. The other part of the sign is called ‘signified’. This is the concept which
the signifier cause to when we perceive it
Signifier is a sensory representation, while signified is a concept (meaning). Signs
are understood best on the basis of what is signified (mental image) and what
signifies (signifier). Both components of the linguistic sign are inseparable.
• Sign has been made for convenience of a speaking community

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• There is no natural relationship between the signifier and signified, it is
conventional
• In that sense, when the signifier changes the signified does not
• In every country or speaking community, the sound of words is different
(signifier) but the concept is still the same (signified)
• The signifier is manipulated by the speaking community that uses it
• Sign has the capacity to change, to adapt to the social and cultural
environment
Collections of related connotations (mental concept/signified) can be bound
together either by Paradigmatic relations or by Syntagmatic relations.
3. Paradigm and Syntagm
Paradigm and syntagm are two concepts in semiotics that direct how signs relate
to one another.
Both these concepts are used in textual analysis for effective communication,
using signs.
The key difference between paradigm and syntagm is that paradigms are about
substitution whereas syntagm are about the positioning.

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Structures are called paradigmatic, Sequences are called syntagmatic, Paradigm
and Syntagm are like the X and Y axes in a geometry of culture.
Paradigm Syntagm
A paradigm is a set of linguistic items
that create mutually exclusive choices
in particular syntactic roles
Syntagm is a linguistic unit which
consists of a set of linguist forms such
as letters, phonemes or words that are
in a sequential relationship to one
another
A Syntagma comes from Paradigm
Syntagmatic and paradigmatic control how signs relate to each other
Paradigmatic relationship is where an
individual sign can be replaced by
another
Syntagmatic relationship is when
signs occur in sequence and operate
together to form meaning
Paradigmatic relationships are about
substitution
Syntagmatic relationships are about
positioning
The level of “structure” The level of “events”
Elements Sequences
Spatial Temporal
Order does not matter Order matters
Meaning determined by contrast
between elements
Meaning determined by what could
have been said as much as by what has
been said
Functional contrasts involving
differentiation
Possibilities of combination

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4. Synchrony & Diachrony
• Synchrony studies the language existing in a particular point of time
• Diachronic studies the language concerning its historic development
Synchrony Diachrony
Sync means “at the same time” Dia means “the passing of time”
The study of language at a given time The study of language through time
The way a language works in its
current state
The way a language change or the
development of any language
A synchronic relationship is one
where two similar things exist at the
same time
In diachronic relationship, related
things exist separated by time
Synchrony is studying a language as a
complete system at a particular point
of time
Diachrony is studying a language at
two different points of time; relating
two different stages of a language
Modern American English and British
English have a synchronic
relationship
12th
century English and 21st
century
have a diachronic relationship
Does not focus on the history of
language evolution
Focuses on the history of language
and language evolution
Grammar, classification and
arrangement of the features of a
language
Comparative linguistics, etymology,
language evolution
The truth value of statements can change over time as the word use changes, even
though the meaning of such statements remains constant. Statements that are now
false under synchronic linguistics may become false as revealed by diachronic
linguistics.
At time 1,
the statement…
But at time 2,
the statement…
Synchronic
The meaning stays the same
“Robots can be
conscious”
“Robots can be
conscious”
Diachronic
But the truth value changes
may be FALSE may be TRUE
The truth value of statements (e.g., “Robots can be conscious”) can be affected by
a change of use over the course of time, without a change of meaning in the terms
involved. Statements that are now false under synchronic linguistics (the study of
language at a given time) may become false, as revealed by diachronic linguistics
(the study of language through time).

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1.3 Difference between American and European English
• American English intonation does not rise or fall as much as that of
British English, it sounds more monotonous
• American voices usually have a higher pitch
• American pronunciation is more nasalized
• There are certain differences in the pronunciation of vowels and
consonants
Characteristics of American English
1. Use of Certain Prepositions
2. Use of Some Irregular Verbs
3. Collective Nouns’ Use of Singular or Plural Verb Forms
4. Use of Shall and Will
5. Use of Got and Have
6. Spelling Differences
7. Abbreviations
8. Use of Quotation Marks
1.4 Structuralism
Structuralism Focus on Language Structure/Form.
Structural linguistics is based on the idea that language is a self-regulating and
self-contained system.
Structural linguistics was developed in Europe and America in the first half of the
20th
Century. Two of the most prominent structuralist linguists are:
• Ferdinand de Saussure, in European structuralism
o Language has a structure
o Language is a system of sings
o Language operates at two levels: langue and parole
• Leonard Bloomfield, in American structuralism
o Linguistics is a descriptive science
o The primary form of language is the spoken one
o Every language is a system in its own right
o Language is a system in which smaller units are arranged
systematically to form larger ones

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o Meaning should not be a part of linguistic analysis
o The procedures to determine the units in language should be
objective and rigorous
o Language is observable speech, not knowledge
1.4.1 Bloomfield Methodology
Bloomfield was the main founder of the Linguistic Society of America.
Influence: His theory emphasized on:
• Behaviorist Linguistics
• Language learning: a chain of stimulus-response reinforcement
• Phonology
• Phoneme is the minimal sound unit
• Minimal pairs are applied to identify phonemes
• Structural Grammar
• Units: free form, bound form, etc.
• Method of analysis: Immediate Constituent Analysis (ICA)
1.5 Generative Grammar
In linguistics, generative grammar is grammar (the set of language rules) that
indicates the structure and interpretation of sentences that native speakers of a
language accept as belonging to their language.
Adopting the term generative from mathematics, linguist Noam Chomsky
introduced the concept of generative grammar in the 1950s.
1.5.1 Principal Goals Generativists and Structuralist
Structural Generative
Ferdinand de Saussure 1916 Noam Chomsky 1950s
As an approach to linguistics, structural
linguistics involves collecting a corpus of
utterances and then applying discovery
procedures to them in an attempt to classify
all the elements of the corpus at their
different linguistic levels: the phonemes,
morphemes, word classes, noun phrases,
verb phrases, and sentence types
A generative grammar of a language
attempts to give a set of rules that
will correctly predict which
combinations of words will form
grammatical sentences. In most
approaches to generative grammar,
the rules will also predict the
morphology of a sentence

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1.6 Language and Thought
1.6.1 The Linguistic Sign
A linguistic sign is an abstract structure whose instances participate in a linguistic
system, or language.
By definition, a linguistic sign must have
• a form component - whose elements are phonological units
• a grammatical component - whose elements are grammatical units
• a meaning component - whose elements are semantic units
The formal structure of a linguistic sign is determined by the grammar of a
language.
1.6.2 Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (1929) is named after the American anthropological
linguist Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Whorf. It is also known as

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the theory of linguistic relativity, linguistic relativism, linguistic determinism,
Whorfian hypothesis, and Whorfianism.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, states that how we look at the world is largely
determined by our thought processes, and our language limits our thought
processes. It follows that our language shapes our reality.
In other words, the language that we use shapes the way we think and how we see
the world.
Since the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis theorizes that our language use shapes our
perspective of the world, it follows that people who speak different languages
have different world views.
1.6.3 Language - Independent Thought
1. Thought and language are the same
2. Thought is dependent on language
3. Language is dependent on thought
Language of thought theories generally fall into two categories.

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