ENGLISH

On the way to language by martin Heidegger

Being in context, away from context:
Context in written communication, oral communication
Some places- need context
Intra personal- within yourself; retrospective kind of communication-
needed to get in touch with ideas to share in an extra-personal
relationship
Extra personal(interpersonal) – with others
How to approach and engage with a topic
Form of writing- logical way, systematic way, how we present
thoughts in order
1. Which is more important language or form?
 form is more important because of linguistic competence
 Both are equally important
 Sigmund Freud- father of modern psychology- everything
is structured like language
 Language- to give shape to ideas
 At the end of the day thinking has to be universal and
meaning is required irrespective of what language is used
and what form is used- subject-verb-object
 Language- final voice of universality
 Mode of communication can be changed but finally
understanding is required
2. Which comes first? Language or form?
Types of writing
Form vs meaning:
 What comes in writing?
 Form or meaning
 What comes first?
 Language or thought
 Some think as they write
 Other find their best ideas get developed through the process
of writing
 Language and thought
 Language and thought are different things to untangle
 Psychologists (Vygotsky, Luria, Burner, etc.) say that
language and thought have different ontological roots
 Can be debated and discussed
 Use of language is essential for developing thinking
 Writing is the most precise/careful/studied way of using
language)

How to write:
 Handwriting- the mechanism of writing
 Spelling
 Correct sentences/ grammar
 Paragraphs linked together
 Ideas developed together clearly in paragraphs

Functional writing
 Involves a reader- one who reads the writing
 The reader has to be kept in mind while the writing takes place
 Writer/students have to internalize the reader as they write
 Anticipate how their writing will be read, understood and
received
 Taking on the role of reader while writing
o Training on the role of the reader while writing

Categories of writing:
o Transactional
o Expressive
o Poetic

Sub- skills of writing:

 Transactional
 Expressive
 Poetic
  Each of these kinds of writing displays a different relationship
with the audience, or reader of the written text
 Transactional writing makes reference to the participant role of
the reader of the piece of written work
o Poetic writing can be said to have readers of a more
general nature.
Poetic writing: no audience in mind
o Expressive writing which comes in between, can be said
to be self- expressive where the reader is predominantly
the self.

What and how of writing:

If students have to communicate something, there has to

be a “what” in writing.
What is a “what” in writing? Content, substance in
writing, systematically developed
E.g.: in writing paragraph, cohesion, linkers, and
connectives, etc. have to be used for proper sequencing
What is sequencing?
It implies the order in which sentences are placed in a
paragraph. What comes first, last or in the middle? This is
basically the “how” of writing.
How to develop content: the what of writing
 Brain- storming session
 Collecting all possible points/ideas which go into a paragraph or
essay
 Reorganize or categorize for sequencing or for organization in
writing
 To encourage students to use their senses of sight, hearing,
smell and feeling, in order to arrive at accurate and authentic
descriptions of objects, to be followed by people, events,
institutions, issues, etc.
 Careful observation- for authentic and precise description
 Careful use of language.
How to develop the “how” of writing:
 Expression of ideas in a specific language
 Cohesion (bricks and other materials)
Coherence (building), functions of language use for specific
purposes
 Organization of cohesive components

1. Descriptive: of objects, people, events, processes, institutions,

arguments, etc.
2. Narrative: Sequencing of events and happenings
3. Expository: Giving an expose of a subject, setting it out of view-
with definition, clarification, example, etc.
4. Argumentative- taking a point of view and supporting it
 To take a stand or a position
 Foresee the audience (opposing ideas)
 Ability to refute those ideas as well as to convince
the leaders to accept your stance
 Present sufficient evidence
5. Reflective: looking back on issues, events, activities and people
and seeing how your opinions change
6. Persuasive: getting readers to change their views
7. Interpretative: Giving the writer’s perspective on an issue

Argumentative writing:
 Purpose is to argue something logically
 A form of discourse in which the writer or speaker presents a
pattern of reasoning, reinforced by detailed evidence and
refutation of challenging claims, that tries to persuade an
audience to accept the claim.
- White and Billings in: The well-crafted argument- A
guide and reader (2008)

Aristotle- protagonist- commit a mistake- process is called hamartia

Realise that I have done a mistake – anagnorisis- discovery, self-
realisation, self- understanding
Not being able to solve the problem– peripetia
Purify the mind and release emotions- catharsis
Oedipus rex – ideal example of hamartia
Argumentative- skills required:
 Higher order thinking skills
 Conceptualization
 Inference
 Justification of claim is inevitable
 Creativity organization
 Summarization of sophisticated ideas
MLA handbook- internationally recognized style sheet
Research and writing-
 Authority
 Accuracy and verifiability
 Currency- current relevance
 Author
 Text
 Editorial policy

Taking notes- Types of note- taking:

 Summary
 Paraphrase
 Quotation
 Verify publication information

Outlining:
 Working outline
 Skeleton/blueprint of the project
 Continually revised
 An overall view of the project/paper/assignment
 Outline- the logical progression of your argument

Thesis statement:
  An answer to a question or a problem
 Thesis statement- unified, coherent whole by framing a thesis
statement for your paper
 A single sentence that formulates both your topic and your
point of view
 Thesis statement is the answer to the central question or
problem you have raised
 Helps you to see where you are heading and to remain on your
plan
Two factors to shape a thesis statement:
 Purpose: what purpose will you try to achieve in the paper?
Describe? Explain? Argue? Persuade?
 Audience: Is you reader a specialist in the subject? Is someone
likely to agree or disagree with you?
Final outline of the paper:
 Delete irrelevant material
 Structuring for the paper
 Organizing principles- chronology, cause, and effects, process,
deductive logic (general to the specific), inductive logic (specific
to general)
How to develop your paper:
 To define, classify or analyze something
 To use descriptive details or give examples
 To compare or contrast one thing or give examples
 To argue for a certain point of view
Use of quotations:
 Effective in research papers/projects
 Use selectively
 Quote only words, phrases, line or passages that are
particularly interesting or relevant
 As brief as possible
 Must be reproduced in the original sources exactly
 Can be paraphrased- original- quote only fragments
Italicized titles:
 Name of the books, plays, poems published as books
  Examples: To Kill a Mockingbird,1960
 It is a wonderful life (film)
 Time (magazine)
Titles in quotation marks:
 Use quotation marks for the title of articles, essays, stories and
poems published within larger works
 Chapters of book
 Pages in websites
 Unpublished work such as lectures and speeches
E.g.: Kubia khan
How to quote prose presentation:
Citing print publication:
A book by a single author:
 Franke, Darmon. Modernist subject: British literary history
1863-1924. Columbus: Ohio state UP, 2008. Print
 Lee, Harper. To Kill a Mockingbird. London: Penguin random
house, 1960. Print
A book by two or more authors:
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams.
The Craft of Research, 2nd end. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2003. Print.
More than three authors:
Plag, Ingo et.al. Introduction to English linguistics Berlin
mouton, 2007, Print
An article in a scholarly journal:
 Piper, Andrew. “Rethinking the Print Object: The Book of
Everything”. PMLA 121.1 (2006): 124-38. Print
 An article in a magazine
 Wood, Jason. “Spellbound”. Sight and Sound Dec. 2005: 28-30.
Print
How to quote prose quotation:
 If a prose quotation runs no more than four lines, out it in
quotation marks and incorporate it into the text
o E.g.: “It was the best of times. It was the worst of times”,
wrote Charles dickens of the eighteenth century
 You can quote just a word or phrase as part of your sentence
 o E.g.: For Charles Dickens, the eighteenth century was both
“the best of times and the worst of times”
A work in an anthology:
 Author
 Title
 Name of the editor, translator or complier of the book
 Page number of the cited piece
 E.g.: Allende, Isabel “Toads Mouth”. Rans. Margaret Sayers
Peden. A Hammock beneath the Mangoes: Stones from Latin
America. Ed. Thomas Colchie. New York: Plume, 1992, 83-88
Print.
An article in a reference book:
 Encyclopedia article
 Dictionary entry
 If the article is signed, give the author’s name first. If it is
unsigned, give the title first
 Example: “American dream”. Who’s who in America.62nd ed.
2008. Print
 “Japan”. The encyclopedia Americana.2004 ed. Print

Reading:
 Hermeneutic- reading for interpretation
 Reading for information/understanding
  BOOK to read
 Mind to read
 Two possible relations between mind and book
 There is a book and mind to read
 If you understand, you may have gained information, but you
could not have increased understanding
 Second alternative- you do not understand the book perfectly
 Book has more to say than you understand
 Terry eagle- renowned literary critic- how to read literature
 Take the book to someone else who you think can read better
than you
 Get a commentary on the book
 Without external help one needs to work on the book
 Operate on the symbols
 Lift yourself from the state of understanding less to
understanding more- HIGH SKILLED READING
 How to make use of acts and scenes- how to read Shakespeare
 Get into the graphic symbols of the text- how to operate
symbols

SIGN: words that we see in the text

 Words seen in a book- part of larger sign structure
 Approach a word- part of sign structure
 Two parts of sign- signifier and signified
 Without signifier and signified- meaning will not be generated
 Sign- concept- semiology- study of sign
 Word should have two components- then only the meaning will
get to flow
 The image- law- sign
 Signifier will be the image that comes to mind after seeing the
word
 Signified- the conceptual image of the word
 Concept of the word law- can connect the two components
 If signifier is not identified- the meaning cannot be understood
  Image- sound- helps you to understand the concept
 Signifier and signified takes place in the mind
 Understanding takes place with the help of signifier and
signified
 Should not think everything in terms of theory- more
understanding
 High- skill readding- capacity to analyse the reading and to get
reflections in the book- analyse the signifier and signified
 In this context “learning” is meant understanding more, not
remembering more information
 One who knows some of the facts of Indian
language/literature/law and understands them in a certain
perspective/ POV ca readily acquire by reading more facts and
understand them in the same light
 Other alternative- suppose he/she is reading is a history of
Indian language/literature/law that seeks not merely facts but
throw a new revealing light on all the facts he knows

What is the art of reading:

 The process whereby a mind, with nothing to operate upon but
the symbols of readable matter
 With no help from outside, elevates itself by the power of its
own operations
 Mind- understanding less to understanding more
 Reading is thinking under the stimulus of the printed page-
(James wesbester 1982)
 Reading is a psycholinguistic guessing game
 Reading comprehending is understanding a written text.
Understanding a written text means extracting the required
information from it as efficiently as possible- Francoise greliet
1991
Reading as learning:
 Learning by instruction- teaches another through speech or
writing
  Learning by discovery- by investigation or by reflection, without
being taught
 Being able to remember something/being able to explain it
 If you remember what an author says, you have learnt
something from reading him/her- you have learned something
about the world
 Aided discovery- being instructed- discovering with someone’s
help
 Unaided discovery- discovering on own
 Thinking- part of the activity of learning
 One must use senses and imagination, keen observation
 Art of reading includes all the same skills that are involved in
the art of unaided discovery
Levels of reading:
1. Elementary reading
a. Just read without any meaning coming out
b. No purpose
2. Inspectional reading
a. Skimming or pre-reading
b. Collect certain terms which you think needs to be referred
later
c. Inspect what are the points inside the text
d. Different sentence stricture, phrases, and clauses etc.,
synonyms
e. Skimming systematically
f. Aim is to examine the surface meaning
3. Analytical reading
a. Critically analyse the words that are traced out
b. Read with help of dictionary
c. Anticipate the meaning of the passage with critical
analysis
d. Identify terms, jargons etc.
e. Intensely active- grasping ideas present
f. Analyse- coming to the contrast and compare state
 g. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and
some few to be chewed and tasted- bacon
h. Complete reading
4. Synoptical reading
a. Extend the scope of the text to a wider length
b. Space for you to contribute the points
c. Redo the text again- reinterpret the text
d. Comparing and contrasting with other sources
e. Do a thorough research on it
f. Reader reads many books, not just one, and places them
in relation to one another and to a subject about which
they all revolve.

Step 1: find the relevant passages

Step 2: bringing the authors to terms
Step 3: getting the questions clear
Step 4: defining the issues
Step 5: analysing the discussion

Views on reading:
When we read something, we understand it at three levels:
 Literal response to the graphic symbols/signals
 Reader recognises the author’s meaning
 Reader’s own personal experiences and judgement influence
his response to the text
 Reading the lines, reading between the lines, and reading
beyond the lines

Listening skills:
Input level, processing level, output level
Focus on words used, focus on references

Is there a language called legal language? Use language into law

A doll’s house:
Communication:
Structuralism
 This principle is the structure of language itself, difference and
opposition
 These differences generate meaning
 Structuralist believes that underlying structures
 Interested in the interrelationship between units and rules
 Units- surface phenomena
 Rules- the ways that units can be put together
 Ferdinand de Saussure’s linguist- three significant, moves into
his analysis of language. He divides language into two main
components: set of rules and words in a particular context

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A structure is any conceptual system that has three properties:
 Wholeness- the system function as a whole
 Transformation- system is not static but capable of change;
new units can enter the system, through the rules of the
system
 Self-regulation- you add elements to the system, but you
cannot change the basic structure of the system no matter
what you add to it
Saussure’s structural theory of language provides insights and
approaches:
 Content in a poem, film, play of novel is dependent upon the
form in which the themes are expressed
 The effect a passage/poem/a film/a play or a novel is a result of
an effective combination of elements that have been arranged
in a particular way.
Saussure proposed that the link between the word/sound (signifier)
and concept (signified) is based on the difference between sounds
and our ability to distinguish between them, the relationship
between sounds (a relationship of difference) and is purely arbitrary
(where the sound/word does not describe the object, but is assumed
to do so by convention and repeated usage)
Following are the two insights presented by Saussure:
 No content without form
 Content is a function of form
 It is possible to uncover the basic principles of organization or
grammar of a film or a poem
 Grammar is the structure of any art forms; follow specific rules
that function like language, based on opposition, differences
and relationality
 Culture/language- has underlying organization or structure
where different elements are combined to generate meaning

1. Symbolical/symbol- where there is no logical/rational relation

between the signifier and the object or the signified (concept).
The symbolic sign is arbitrary in nature. All language is
symbolic. We acquire the relations through constant use. We
understand that a red cross on a name plate indicates a
medical doctor. A red light on a traffic signal indicates stop.
There is no intrinsic connection between a person who
practices medicine and the red cross. These are names we have
acquired through learning. The relationship is known by
conventions and repeated usage or practice
The signifier resembles the object it seeks to represent.
Onomatopoeia means that the sound would suggest the
meaning.
2. Iconic/icon- signifier would have a clear relationship with
signified
3. Indexical/index- signifier is directly connected to signified

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Desire| search| aim
Communication|conflict|binary
Auxiliary support
Index- abstract- feel- experience
Body pain- fever- doctor

2/12
Waiting for Godot by
Fluidity of language- breaks- conventional- norms of language
Meaning- not relevant- situation
Represent the situation
Disconnected thoughts- disconnected words- full sentences
No logical order to thoughts
No proper plot form- topic- disconnected
Metaphor- cannot form a proper form for your existence- existential
crisis- irrational way of progress
Far away from reality
Uncertainty
- Language is absurd
Deforming the normal way of expression
Play has nothing to do with existence- it has to do with language-
that’s why author put Vladimir to deform language- mock at English
language
Address human problems with language- it has the capacity to
represent reality
English – frequently used in India but Indian English- used to
represent the culture of India? – no as English will not be enough to
capture the reality of India
Deform the normal language- linguistic analysis- help of literature

Purpose of language-
Questions the validity of formal language
Rejects- conventional form
No realistic set
Doll’s house- properly organized set, here- none
No logical reasoning in the language
Violation of plot order
Intrinsic- getting into the text and deciphering the properties of the
text
Extrinsic- contexts

Intrinsic approach:
Communication has its own variations and discourse- one set of
communication- aesthetic process
Meaningful experience of a person
Purpose of reading a poem is not to understand the formal
properties of language- an artist, poem, dancer, painter, judge-
artists- creative thinker/novelist have an idea or experience or an
imagined experience that they wish to communicate
Deliberately taking help from time and space- artist gives us a means
of communication- chooses a means of doing it- embody or
communicate a message
Formal linguistic devices used by this poet-
Imagery
Simile
Symbols
experience the meaning of the poem
4 elements:
1. Time
2. Space
3. Motive- encourage physical intimacy
4. Representation of stereotypical man’s and woman’s voice
Cannot see a female character but can see a reference- how he has
approached female consciousness- read it from a feminist
perspective- collect the words used and match it with all the 4
elements – carpe diem- how you must get to know about the time
and space relationship with one’s own body
Also- Request for physical intimacy and request for love- life after
death- Christian notion
Get into that space of time- will not conquer
Repeated images and symbols- properties of literary devices- makes
the experience a part of consciousness or senses- attempts to fetch
our consciousness- create a strange consciousness- evoke sensibility
Subjective concept in grammar
Relationship between space and time- created a sense of time and
space with the help of images
Whole poem is a proposition made by a stereotypical male to a
stereotypical female with difference of opinion- cannot get any reply
from the female- philosophical configuration of time- cannot
understand the value of it without referring the time and space
relationship- why is she not replying to his requests- seen from the
perspective of feminists
World- part of space
Sit down- space for lover to come and interact
Crime- see the way to go forward
John Donne- sunrising- stop time because he is not getting enough
time to be with his lover
Not an abstract kind of worship- objective presentation
sun- embodiment of time- without sun- time would not be seen- by
which man measures time
Defamiliarization