SHAFEEK AHAMEDU

DA2232301010013

Department of English

Internal Assignment No -1
Class: M.A. English / Sem: I Date: 24-12-2022

Title of the paper: MEND 1914- Language and Linguistics Max: 30 Marks
I. Answer any five of the following questions in paragraph. ( 5x3 = 15
Marks)
1) What do you mean by varieties of language and how is it different from
Standard English?

Standard English

Standard English is a form of English that is a widely recognised and accepted form of
English. It is used in domains such as education, the media, and
in official organisations (eg. in Government). Standard English is often used in situations
where you need to be formal and polite, such as when you are speaking to your headteacher
or sending an important email.

Standard English follows specific grammar rules (remember all of those spelling tests!) and

that we use in exams. It is also the form that you are reading right now!

People studying English as a foreign language are taught Standard English. It is the form

that is recognised by English speakers around the world and is used
for international communication. Standard English is not associated with a particular place
and is a uniform form of language throughout the world.

Types of Standard English

Each of these types of English is considered a 'Standard English' as they are widely
recognised, accepted, and used:

 Standard British English

 Standard American English
 Standard Scottish English
 Standard Australian English
 Standard South African English

Features of Standard English

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Standard English has some specific features:

 Phonology - Certain accents are seen as the standard for certain countries. For the
UK, Received Pronunciation (RP) or the ‘Queen’s English’, is seen as the
standard accent. It is considered typically British and is the standard accent taught to
English language learners around the world. There are also other standard English
accents, such as ‘General American’ and ‘General Australian’. Despite this, there are
many unique and different English accents spoken across the globe.

 Syntax - Standard English follows certain rules concerning word order. For

example, sentences in English follow the sequence subject, verb, object (SVO) eg. I
(subject) play (verb) tennis (object).

 Grammar - Standard English maintains a standard of grammar. We are expected to

use ‘correct English’ such as correct tenses and verb agreements. Language such as
‘we was going’ is not considered to be Standard or indeed ‘correct’, but it is a feature
of some non-standard varieties of English.

 Vocabulary (Lexis) - Standard English tends to avoid slang. For example, the word

‘friend’ is standard whereas the word ‘mate’ is considered to be slang.

 Spelling conventions -Standard English consists of standardised spelling (ie. the

spelling that we find in the dictionary). This may differ between countries. For
example, British people use the affix -ise (‘recognise’) but Americans use the affix -
ize (‘recognize’). There are also rules concerning punctuation, which we are
expected to use in particular ways. We are also expected to capitalise the first word of
a sentence and all proper nouns (i.e. the names of people, places, and things).

Standard English is also very diverse in register. It may be used in a variety of situations,

including in both spoken and written English and in formal and informal situations.

Examples of Standard English

Let’s now look at some examples from everyday life:

Standard English Non-standard English

Hello. How are you today? Hiya, y’alright?

She isn’t going to go to work today. She ain’t gonna go to work today.
Look at those birds! Look at them birds!
We were watching the football. We was watching the football.

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In these examples, we use full-length sentences in standard English as well as more formal
language (eg. ‘how are you today?’), and standard grammar eg. ‘we were’ instead of ‘we
was’. We also see plenty of contractions in the examples of non-standard English, like ‘ain’t
gonna’.

2) What is meant by “the arbitrariness” of language?

One of the key aspects of Ferdinand de Sassure's theory and of structuralism is the
notion of the arbitrariness of the sign. In fact, Saussure stressed the arbitrariness
of the sign as the first principle of semiology I (the study of signs which includes
linguistics). By saying that signs are arbitrary, Saussure was saying that there is no
good reason why we use the sequence of sounds 'sister' to mean a female sibling.
We could just as well use 'soeur', 'Schwester', 'sorella'. For that matter, we could just
as well use the sequence of sounds: 'brother'. Of course, as he pointed out, we don't
have any choice in the matter. If we want to talk about female siblings in the English
language, we can only talk about 'female siblings' or 'sisters'.
The point of the arbitrariness of the sign is that there is not compelling necessary
connection between signifier and signified, and therefore language as a system
determines meaning which does not originate outside of language. Saussure saw
language as being an ordered system of signs whose meanings are arrived at
arbitrarily by a cultural convention. 
Understanding De Saussure's nature of the linguistic sign can lead us to understand
why the source of meaning for him is difference. Arbitrariness and difference go
together since there is no positive bond between a signifier and a signified, only the
relative position of the that bond withing the system of language. 

3) What is Neuro-linguistics

Neurolinguistics is the study of how language is represented in the brain: that is, how
and where our brains store our knowledge of the language (or languages) that we
speak, understand, read, and write, what happens in our brains as we acquire that
knowledge, and what happens as we use it in our everyday lives. Neurolinguists try
to answer questions like these: What about our brains makes human language
possible – why is our communication system so elaborate and so different from that
of other animals? Does language use the same kind of neural computation as other
cognitive systems, such as music or mathematics? Where in your brain is a word
that you've learned? How does a word ‘come to mind’ when you need it (and why
does it sometimes not come to you?)
If you know two languages, how do you switch between them and how do you keep
them from interfering with each other? If you learn two languages from birth, how is
your brain different from the brain of someone who speaks only one language, and
why? Is the left side of your brain really ‘the language side’? If you lose the ability to

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talk or to read because of a stroke or other brain injury, how well can you learn to
talk again? What kinds of therapy are known to help, and what new kinds of
language therapy look promising? Do people who read languages written from left to
right (like English or Spanish) have language in a different place from people who
read languages written from right to left (like Hebrew and Arabic)? What about if you
read a language that is written using some other kind of symbols instead of an
alphabet, like Chinese or Japanese? If you're dyslexic, in what way is your brain
different from the brain of someone who has no trouble reading? How about if you
stutter?
As you can see, neurolinguistics is deeply entwined with psycholinguistics, which is
the study of the language processing steps that are required for speaking and
understanding words and sentences, learning first and later languages, and also of
language processing in disorders of speech, language, and reading.
Our brains store information in networks of brain cells (neurons and glial cells).
These neural networks are ultimately connected to the parts of the brain that
control our movements (including those needed to produce speech) and our
internal and external sensations (sounds, sights, touch, and those that come from
our own movements). The connections within these networks may be strong or
weak, and the information that a cell sends out may increase the activity of some
of its neighbors and inhibit the activity of others. Each time a connection is used,
it gets stronger. Densely connected neighborhoods of brain cells carry out
computations that are integrated with information coming from other
neighborhoods, often involving feedback loops. Many computations are carried
out simultaneously (the brain is a massively parallel information processor).

Where is language in the brain?

This question is hard to answer, because brain activity is like the activity of a huge
city. A city is organized so that people who live in it can get what they need to live
on, but you can't say that a complex activity, like manufacturing a product, is 'in' one
place. Raw materials have to arrive at the right times, subcontractors are needed,
the product must be shipped out in various directions. It's the same with our brains.
We can't say that language is 'in' a particular part of the brain. It's not even true that
a particular word is 'in' one place in a person's brain; the information that comes
together when we understand or say a word arrives from many places, depending on
what the word means. For example, when we understand or say a word like ‘apple’,
we are likely to use information about what apples look, feel, smell, and taste like,
even though we aren’t aware of doing this. So listening, understanding, talking, and
reading involve activities in many parts of the brain. However, some parts of the
brain are more involved in language than other parts.
Most of the parts of your brain that are crucial for both spoken and written language
are in the left side of the cortex of your brain (the left hemisphere), regardless of
what language you read and how it is written. We know this because aphasia is

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almost always caused by left hemisphere injury, not by right hemisphere injury, no
matter what language you speak or read, or whether you can read at all. (This is true
for about 95% of right-handed people and about half of left-handed people.) A large
part of the brain (the 'white matter') consists of fibers that connect different areas to
one another, because using language (and thinking) requires the rapid integration of
information that is stored and/or processed in many different brain regions. 

4) Write about branches of linguistics.

Branches of linguistics

Due to the intricate structure of languages and their far-reaching impact, there

are various subfields, domains, and specialised branches of linguistics. Here are

the main branches of linguistics with examples.

1. Psycholinguistics - Psycholinguistics is amongst the most popular

branches of linguistics that studies the relationship between psychological

processes and linguistic behaviour. An example of psycholinguistics is

found in the study of how humans perceive language and why certain

words have the capacity to trigger us emotionally, more so than other

words.

Such branches of linguistics also seek to understand how humans acquire

and master languages. Psycholinguists often work with child psychologists

and conduct research on speech and language development to

understand how humans perceive and produce language.

See also: Career as Clinical Psychologist

2. Sociolinguistics - This is another one of those branches of linguistics that

serves a crucial function in our understanding and application of

linguistics. Because language is a deeply human and social construct,

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 socio-linguistics deals with the effect of different aspects of society on

language.

On top of that, it studies the interaction of languages as people from

different cultures and heritage interact. One example of sociolinguistics is

the emergence of different dialects of a language, as is the study of

language confluence, such as Hindi and English being spoken together as

Hinglish.

3. Applied linguistics - Applied linguistics involves the practical use of

linguistics to solve real-life problems. Linguists make use of other fields

such as sociology, psychology, anthropology, etc. to better understand

how to apply their study of linguistics to help people and solve real-world

concerns.

It is best to understand such branches of linguistics with examples.

Applied linguistics can be seen in speech therapy, translating texts from

different cultures or ages, and even in the process of second-language

acquisition.

See also: 7 reasons why you should learn a foreign language

4. Computational linguistics - This is a relatively new branch of linguistics

that deals with the use of language by computers and programs. Such

branches of linguistics leverage computer science to analyse, model, and

produce speech. One example of computational linguistics is the AI-driven

Google Assistant that uses natural language processing and speech

recognition systems to do your bidding.

See also: What is Artificial Intelligence (AI courses)

Machine Learning courses

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 5. Comparative linguistics - As the name suggests, this branch is

associated with identifying similarities and differences between languages

that have a common origin. For instance, romance languages like

Italian, French, and Spanish differ in speech and construction even though

they all originated from Vulgar Latin of the Roman era. Studies in

comparative linguistics also include studying distant languages, such as

Sanskrit and German that are separated by thousands of kilometres and

years, but which nevertheless have structural and etymological

similarities.

See also: Learn Spanish with these 15+ amazing courses

6. Historical linguistics - This is one of the more intriguing branches of

linguistics. It studies the evolution of languages over a period of time and

analyses the changes that took place within them. One of the purposes of

this branch is the examination of ‘dead’ languages, such as Latin, Sanskrit,

Ancient Greek, etc., and the emergence of current languages from them.

Historical linguistics also enables us to reconstruct earlier stages of

languages to understand how grammar, semantics, and phonetics can

change over time.

See also: 20+ Foreign Language courses to pursue

7. Stylistics - This is another one of the important branches of linguistics. It

is the study and interpretation of style and rhetorics as employed by

different authors within a language. Oftentimes, such interdisciplinary

branches of linguistics include the study of literature which lets one

analyze symbolism, rhyme and rhythm, dialogues, sentence structures,

etc. For example, the language used in politics and advertising is very

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 different from that of religious texts and classical literature. The analysis

of that comes within the domain of stylistics.

What is linguistics - Some more branches

While it is important to know about the major branches of linguistics, with

examples, it is also equally necessary to learn the different subfields of

linguistics that deal with the utterance of physical sounds, word order, and

meaning construction. Here are a few more structural branches of linguistics

that one needs to know about.

Phonetics - The scientific study of speech sounds that investigate how humans

perceive and produce sounds. Three sub-fields make up this branch, namely -

articulatory phonetics, acoustic phonetics, and perceptual phonetics.

Phonology - This branch studies how different sounds come together to form

the spoken words of a language. It is the systematic arrangement of sound

patterns in languages and dialects.

Syntax - Syntax is the study of rules of word arrangement to form proper

phrases and sentences. In English, the simplest form of syntax follows the

‘Subject + Verb + Object’ formula.

Semantics - Semantic is one of the special branches of linguistics that deal with

the study of meaning, reference, and truth. Semantics is related to various other

fields and disciplines such as pragmatics (see below), philosophy and computer

science as well.

Morphology - Morphology is the branch of linguistics that deals with the study

of words, their formation, and their relationship with other words within the

same language. Whenever one is dealing with etymology, root words, prefixes,

suffixes, and word stems, etc., one is operating in the domain of morphology.

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Pragmatics - This is one of the more unique branches of linguistics, in that it

studies how the context of spoken or written language relates to semantics or

the meaning of words. Pragmatics also borrows heavily from sociolinguistics and

investigates how contextual clues can alter meaning in social interactions

5) Distinguish between synchronic and diachronic approach to

language study.

Synchronic and diachronic are the two complementary terms

in linguistic analysis. Ferdinand de Saussure has made a distinction between
these two approaches to the study of language.

The synchronic approach considers language as a living whole existing as a state

at one particular time in a given speech community. Diachronic approach the
other hand focus on the development of a language and records the changes
that have taken place on it.

In short, Synchronic approach aims to describe a language at a particular time

whereas diachronic approach considers the development and changes of a
language through history.

For example, the development of English from Shakespeare’s time to the

present time. It is diachronic study.

Ferdinand de Saussure gives priority to the synchronic study and observes that
the two approaches must be kept separate.  This is because as he said, the first
thing that strikes us when we study the facts of a language is that the succession
in time does not exist so far the speaker is concerned.

The inter relationship between synchronic and diachronic approach have

discussed with the following diagram…

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From the above diagram we can analyze that AB is the synchronic axis of
simultaneity. That is all the facts of language as they exist at a particular time. 
CD is the diachronic axis of succession that is CD is an imaginary line moving
through time. The historical path through which language has evolved. AB can
intersect the axis CD at any point. Because at any given time there will be a
number of simultaneous facts about language. In the diagram x is the point on
CD.

Overview

1. Synchronic study of language refers to the study of language at a

given point of time.
2. Diachronic study of language refers to the changes that take place
in course of time.
3.  Synchronic study is static whereas the diachronic study of language
is dynamic.
4. Diachronic study of language records the historical facts. On the
other hand, synchronic study does not deal with any historical facts
or time factor.

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II. Answer the question given below elaborately. (1x15=15 marks)
1. a) Discuss in detail the characteristics of a language.

1. LANGUAGE IS VERBAL, VOCAL: LANGUAGE IS SOUND

Language is an organization of sounds, of vocal symbols – the sounds
produced from the mouth with the help of various organs of speech to convey
some meaningful message. It also means that speech is primary to writing.
There are several languages because they are spoken. Music and singing also
employ vocal sounds, but they are not languages. Language is systematic
verbal symbolism; it makes use of verbal elements such as sound, words. and
phrases, which are arranged in certain ways to make sentences. Language is
vocal in as much as it is made up of sounds which can be produced by the
organs of speech.

2. LANGUAGE IS A MEANS OF COMMUNICATION

Language is the most powerful, convenient and permanent means and form of
communication. Non-linguistics symbols such as expressive gestures signals of
various kinds, traffic lights, road-signs, flags, emblems and many more such
things as well as shorthand, mores and other codes, the deaf and dumb and
braille alphabets, the symbols of mathematics and logic, etc. are also means of
communication, yet they are not so flexible, comprehensive, perfect and
extensive as language is. Language is the best means of self-expression. It is
though the language that humans express their thoughts, desires, emotions
and feelings; it is through it that they store knowledge, transmit messages,
knowledge and experience from one person to another, from one generation
to another. most of the activities in the world are carried on through or by it. It
is through it that humans interact. It is language again that yokes the present,
the past and the future together.

3. LANGUAGE IS A SOCIAL PHENOMENON

Language is a set of conventional communicative signals used by humans for
communication in a community. Language in this sense is a possession of a
social group, comprising an indispensable set of rules which permits its
members to relate to each other; it is a social institution. Language exists in
society; it is a means of nourishing and developing culture and establishing
human relations. It is a member of society that a human being acquires a
language. We learn not born with an instinct to learn a particular language–
English, Hindi, Russian, Bengali, Chinese, Tamil, or French. We learn a language
as members of the society using that language, or because we want to

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understand that society or, to be understood by that speech-community. If a
language is not used in any society it dies out.

Language is thus a social event. It can be described only if we know all

about the people who are involved in it, their personalities, their beliefs,
attitudes, knowledge of the world, relationship to each other, their social
status, what activity they are engaged in what they are talking about, what
has gone before linguistically and non-linguistically, what happens after,
what they are and host of other facts about them and the situation they are
placed in.
4. LANGUAGE IS ARBITRARY
By the arbitrariness of language, we mean that there is no inherent or logical
relation or similarity between any given feature of language and its meaning.
That is entirely arbitrary, that there is no direct, necessary connection between
the nature of things or ideas the language deals with, and the linguistics unites
are combinations by which these things or ideas are expressed. There is no
reason why the four-legged domestic animals should be called Dog in English,
Kutta in Hindi, Kukkur in Sanskrit, Kutta in Telugu, Kukur in Bengali, Chien in
French, hund in German, Kalb in Arabic and so on. That those particular words
that imitate the sounds of there referents, for example- buzz, hiss, hum, bang
in English and Kal-Kal in Hindi, may seem to invalidate this statement, but such
words are comparatively few in different languages, and the accuracy of the
limitation depends on the sounds available in the language. Furthermore,
these are a variation in different languages of the world and have no
uniformity.

5. LANGUAGE IS NON-INSTINCTIVE, CONVENTIONAL

no language was created in a day out of a mutually agreed-upon formula by a
group of humans. Language is the outcome of evolution and convention. Each
generation transmits this convention on to the next, Like all human institutions
languages also change and die, grow and expand. Every language then is a
conventional community, It is non-instinctive because it is acquired by human
beings. Nobody gets a language an innate ability to acquire language. Animals
inherit their system of communication by heredity, humans do not.

6. LANGUAGE IS SYMBOLIC
The symbolism of language is a necessary consequence of the feature of
arbitrariness discussed above. A symbol stands for something else; it is
something that serves as a substitute. Language is a system of arbitrary vocal
symbols. For concepts, things ideas, objects etc. we have sounds and words as

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symbols. the language uses words essentially as symbols and not as signs (e.g
in Mats.) for the concepts represented by them.

7. LANGUAGE IS SYSTEMATIC
Although the language is symbolic, yet its symbols are arranged in a particular
system. All languages have their system of arrangements. Though symbols in
each human language are finite, they can be arranged infinity; that is to say,
we can produce an infinite set of sentences by a finite set of symbols.

Every language is a system of systems. All languages have a phonological and

grammatical system we have morphological and syntactic systems, and within
these two sub-systems, we have several other systems such as those of plural,
of mood, of aspect, of tense, etc.

By “systematic” we also mean the following: the speakers of language use only
certain combinations. Thus although the sounds b and z occur in English.
There is no word in English which begins with bz. Similarly, we can say that the
beautiful girl chased the brown dog is a sentence of English, but
the edfulauti girl chased the brown dog is not. Thus we conclude that all
languages, though linear in their visual manifestation, have a dual system of
sound and meaning. In other words, Language is systematic composition or
arrangement of linguistic which correlate word and meaning. Each language,
therefore, can be described as a special system, suitable for conveying the
message within its own framework of structure and meaning and having very
little direct physical relation to the meanings or acts which it involves. it should
also be remembered that language is meaningful.
8. LANGUAGE IS UNIQUE, CREATIVE, COMPLEX AND MODIFIABLE
Language is a unique phenomenon of the earth. Other planets do not seem to
have any language, although this fact may be invalidated if we happen to
discover a talking generation on any other planet. but so far there is no
evidence of the presence of language on the moon. Each language is unique
in its own sense. By this, we do not mean that language do not have any
similarities or universals. Despite there common features and language
universals, each language has its peculiarities and distinct features.

language has creativity and productivity. The structural elements of human

language can be combined to produce new utterances, which neither the
speaker nor his hearers may ever have made or heard before any listener, yet
which both sides understand without difficulty, language changes according to
the needs of society. Old English is different from modern English.

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9. LANGUAGE IS HUMAN AND STRUCTURALLY COMPLEX
No species other than humans has been endowed with language. Animals
cannot acquire human language because of its complex structure and their
physical inadequacies. Animals do not have the type of brain which the human
beings possess and their articulatory organs are also very much different from
those of human beings. Furthermore, any system of animals communication
does not make use of the quality of features, that is, of concurrent systems of
sound and meaning. Human language is open-ended, extendable and
modifiable whereas the animal language is not.

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