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The first book to apply the latest methodological analysis to the languages of South Asia, The Teaching and Acquisition of South Asian Languages provides a much needed examination of learners and their learning patterns, language materials and their delivery, classroom environments, and learning conditions beyond the classroom. The contributors, accredited researchers and experienced teachers, test important universal learning hypotheses on "less commonly taught languages" and find that those circumstances have significant implications for theory and practice. The book brings into focus a variety of issues related to linguistic theory, second language acquisition research, non-verbal communication, discourse appropriateness, learner variation, and strategies for developing speaking, listening, and reading skills. It is also a valuable addition to the general body of knowledge in the field of adult language acquisition. A carefully prepared index and an extensive bibliography covering both the South Asian field and general literature enhance the book's usefulness as a reference guide.
An overview of the language in South Asia within a linguistic, historical and sociolinguistic context, comprising authoritative contributions from international scholars within the field of language and linguistics. It is an accessible interdisciplinary book for students and scholars in sociolinguistics, multilingualism, language planning and South Asian studies.
The South Asian languages, mainly Indo-Aryan and Dravidian, have become a focus of interest in the formal study of language as a natural consequence of the research program of the Principle and Parameters approach and an enforced interest in exploring the parametrical space of human language. The contributions to the present volume combine theoretical reasoning in syntax and phonology with a comparative research agenda in which South Asian languages figure prominently. The topics range from issues of clause structure, serial verb constructions, cleft- and question formation, to the question of what the proper syntactic format of modification should be, issues of binding theory and raising, and issues of complementation, the clausal periphery and clausal typing. The collection of articles concludes with two chapters on Dravidian and comparative phonology and a chapter on the shaping of phonological awareness by different writing systems. The authors and the editors devote this piece of work to Professor K.A. Jayaseelan, one of present-day India s most influential linguists.
Explores the similarities and differences of about forty South Asian languages from the four different language families.
Expressive Morphology in the Languages of South Asia explores the intricacies of the grammars of several of the languages of the South Asian subcontinent. Specifically, the contributors to this volume examine grammatical resources for shaping elaborative, rhyming, and alliterative expressions, conveying the emotions, states, conditions and perceptions of speakers. These forms, often referred to expressives, remain relatively undocumented, until now. It is clear from the evidence on contextualized language use that the grammatically artistic usage of these forms enriches and enlivens both every day and ritualized genres of discourse. The contributors to this volume provide grammatical and sociolinguistic documentation through a typological introduction to the diversity of expressive forms in the languages of South Asia. This book is suitable for students and researchers in South Asian Languages, and language families of the following; Dravidian, Indo-Aryan, Iranian, Sino-Tibetan and Austro-Asiatic.
Expressives in the South Asian Linguistic Area offers the first comprehensive account of this important understudied word class from synchronic, diachronic, literary, and descriptive perspectives. The work contains studies from the four major language families of South Asia (Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austroasiatic, Tibeto-Burman) and covers domains in semantics, morphosyntax, and phonotactics. It also includes studies from literature and film that show how expressive form and function are embedded in performative contexts. Finally, the volume also contains first of its kind data from several small endangered languages from the region. Proposing an innovative methodology that combines structural and semiotic analysis, the volume advances a more holistic understanding of areal phenomena that departs from previous studies of the South Asian linguistic area.
The increasing globalization and centralization in the world is threatening the existence of a large number of smaller languages. In South Asia some locally dominant languages (e.g., Hindi, Urdu, Nepali) are gaining ground beside English at the expense of the lesser-known languages. Despite a long history of stable multilingualism, language death is not uncommon in the South Asian context. We do not know how the language situation in South Asia will be affected by modern information and communication technologies: Will cultural and linguistic diversity be strengthened or weakened as they become increasingly prevalent in all walks of life? This volume brings together areas of research that so...