Sweta Sinha | IIT Patna (original) (raw)

Papers by Sweta Sinha

Kumauni is a lesser known Indian language of the In do- Aryan language family bearing the languag... more Kumauni is a lesser known Indian language of the In do- Aryan language family bearing the language code ISO 639-3. It is s poken mainly in the sub- Himalayan regions of India. Having failed to attrac t thorough linguistic lime light the language is on the verge of anonymity. The present paper is an attempt to describe the segmental sound system, the pattern of syllabificat ion and some important phonological phenomena of the language. The notewor thy findings of the paper are: there are a total of sixteen vowels (ten oral and s ix nasal), thirty six phonemic consonants and fifteen diphthongs. Vowel nasalizati on and consonantal aspiration are phonemic in nature. There are nine monosyllabic pat terns: /CVC/ being the most common. The language manifests phonological phenome na like vowel harmony, voicing, replaciveness, apotheosis, assimilation an d vowel alternation.

International Journal of Indian Psychology, 2017

Language is primary to human race. It is one of the most essential cognitive faculties which empo... more Language is primary to human race. It is one of the most essential cognitive faculties which empower man to conduct in society. It is as much a biological function as is a social function. It is acquired naturally but mastering it requires careful guidance and teaching. The article reviews Dr. Krishna Kumar‟s “The Child‟s Language and the Teacher” (2000) in light of linguistic and sociological theories wherever possible. The article is an attempt to justify the relevance of the book for each and every language teacher. The book talks about several easy reformations in pedagogical techniques that can ensure better language comprehension and acquisition among the tiny tots. Written in a clear and lucid style the book stresses the role of a teacher and the huge impact that a teacher‟s attitude can have on the psyche of a student.

The processes of origin/ evolution of language have been a subject of debate for several decades.... more The processes of origin/ evolution of language have been a subject of debate for several decades. It has been with man long before the invention of writing though its importance has been widely underestimated. The article reviews Steven Pinker's "The Language Instinct" (1994) in light of the existing debate. Through his book Pinker tried to claim that if two people come in contact then language is bound to develop. The faculty of language is not just a product of cultural influence but it has a strong and verifiable biological basis. Sympathizing with the Chomskyan perspective of Universal Grammar Pinker claims that human mind has its own language 'mentalese' which acts as an interface between the spoken form of language and the mental lexicon. The book makes an interesting reading offering evidential support for the claims that Pinker makes in the book.

Dialectologia, 2019

International Journal of Linguistics, 2018

This paper is an attempt to investigate and compare the case markers of Bodo and Sanzari Bodo - a... more This paper is an attempt to investigate and compare the case markers of Bodo and Sanzari Bodo - a variety of Bodo. A Tibeto-Burman language, Bodo is primarily spoken in the north eastern state of Assam, India. Because of immense ethno linguistic diversity the region of Bodoland has attracted numerous linguistic studies from across the globe but due to geographical isolation there are pockets which are left with undocumented language varieties. The present research is based on the data obtained from 20 Sanzari Bodo speakers of Nagaon district of Assam. Though the standard Bodo and Sanzari Bodo share the same number of case markers they have some evident differences between them. Case is a grammatical category which expresses the semantic relation between a noun phrase and its predicate. There are at least ten case markers in both Bodo as well as Sanzari Bodo. Close investigation of data establishes that despite sharing similarities, the two varieties have their uniqueness too, for ex...

Pragmatics is a very important aspect of language that helps in establishing the purpose of any c... more Pragmatics is a very important aspect of language that helps in establishing the purpose of any communication. It accounts for the usage, the properties and the processes of language. Communication is not an isolated process. It occurs in continuum. It is a two-way channel between the speaker and the hearer with reversible roles and the complete comprehension of the utterance can be obtained only when the entire context is taken into consideration. The paper reviews the development of pragmatics as a separate branch of study focusing on its various aspects and elements. Speech acts which are the essence of any communication are an integral part of pragmatics.

Dialectologia, 2020

Diminutives are universal linguistic features generally affixed to a root and modified to convey ... more Diminutives are universal linguistic features generally affixed to a root and modified to convey a slighter degree of its root meaning along with a range of possible meanings that get attached to them like conveying intimacy or endearment, smallness of the object, inferiority in quality, gender largely feminine and so on. Languages have diminutives to convey all or some of the meanings listed above. In many languages, formation of diminutives by adding suffixes is a productive process. In Magahi (an Indo Aryan language) too diminutives are suffixes that are attached to the root modifying its meaning to serve a range of grammatical functions. Of all the diminutives in Magahi-waa seems to be the most frequent and dynamic because of its allomorphs. Interestingly, the investigation of the underlying phonological processes helps one to understand the accommodating and the dynamic nature of this suffix with regards to its grammaticalization. 44 ANÁLISIS FONOLÓGICO Y FUNCIONAL DEL MARCADOR DIMINUTIVO-WAA EN MAGAHI Resumen Los diminutivos son características lingüísticas universales generalmente afijadas a una raíz y modificadas para transmitir un grado más leve de su significado junto con una gama de posibles significados que se les atribuyen, como transmitir intimidad o cariño, pequeñez del objeto, inferioridad de calidad, uso de género en gran medida femenino y así sucesivamente. Las lenguas tienen diminutivos para transmitir todos o algunos de los significados enumerados anteriormente. En muchas, la formación de diminutivos al agregar sufijos es un proceso productivo. En magahi (una lengua indoaria) también los diminutivos son sufijos que se unen a la raíz modificando su significado para cumplir una serie de funciones gramaticales. De todos los diminutivos en Magahi-waa parece ser el más frecuente y dinámico debido a sus alomorfos. Curiosamente, la investigación de los procesos fonológicos subyacentes ayuda a comprender la naturaleza acomodaticia y dinámica de este sufijo con respecto a su gramaticalización. Palabras clave diminutivos, indoaria, fonología magahi, alomorfos

International Journal of Multilingualism, 2019

Linguistic landscaping is an emerging field of sociolinguistics exploring language in its textual... more Linguistic landscaping is an emerging field of sociolinguistics
exploring language in its textual form in the public sphere.
Studies on Linguistic Landscape (LL) can be used as a tool to
interpret language vitality in a given territory. The present study
investigates visibility and vitality of languages in public space of
Bihta, an upcoming satellite town of Patna, the capital city of the
Indian state of Bihar. The corpus of the study including both
government and private signs are collected by using diversity
sampling method. The result of the study shows the prevalence of
Hindi and English signs. The exclusion of the majority languages
spoken in Bihta in the LL demonstrates the imposition of the
government language policy of the state and the country as well.
Attitude towards language greatly influences the landscaping of
the public space. The study also solicits the attitude of bottom-up
actors regarding the language choice in the LL of Bihta. Using
Bourdieusian approach of language and symbolic power and
linguistic capital, the study explains the marginalisation of mother
tongues spoken in Bihta, Bihar since the speakers of Bihta
consider the official language of the state as their linguistic capital
which symbolises power and prestige for them.

Acta Linguistica Asiatica, 2019

Metaphorical expressions are one of the most indispensable aspects of human language, thought and... more Metaphorical expressions are one of the most indispensable aspects of human language, thought and action. Their meanings are figurative, which in other words means that they carry literal meanings that are in direct opposition to the intended or primary meanings. The usage of metaphors is not limited to figurative writing and speaking only but they are pervasively found in everyday language. Irony, sarcasm, jokes, puns and other such metaphorical expressions rampantly occur in our everyday speech. This paper examines the abstract notion of sarcasm within the framework of conceptual integration theory, and with special reference to Hindi language. A corpus of five thousand sentences has been procured from Indian Language Technology Proliferation and Deployment Centre (TDIL) for the present study. The findings aim to provide a theoretical understanding of how Hindi sarcasm is perceived among the native speakers. Povzetek Metaforični izrazi so eden nepogrešljivih vidikov človeškega jezika, mišljenja in delovanja. Njihovi pomeni so preneseni in so lahko v popolnem nasprotju z izvornimi pomeni pozameznih besed v izrazih. Metafore niso sredstvo samo v literarnem jeziku, ampak so splošno razširjene tudi v vsakodnevnem pisnem in govornem izražanju. Ironija, sarkazem, šale, besedne igre in drugi metaforični izrazi so vsakodnevnica v govoru. Članek preučuje abstaktnost sarkazma na primeru hindujščine in sicer po teoriji konceptualne integracije. Za raziskavo je bil uporabljen korpus Indijskega centra za jezikovne tehnologije (TDIL) s pet tisoč primeri stavkov. Rezultati raziskave predstavljajo teoretično razumevanje sarkazma, ki ga uporabljajo hindujski govorci. Ključne

International Journal of Linguistics, 2018

This paper is an attempt to investigate and compare the case markers of Bodo and Sanzari Bodo-a v... more This paper is an attempt to investigate and compare the case markers of Bodo and Sanzari Bodo-a variety of Bodo. A Tibeto-Burman language, Bodo is primarily spoken in the north eastern state of Assam, India. Because of immense ethno linguistic diversity the region of Bodoland has attracted numerous linguistic studies from across the globe but due to geographical isolation there are pockets which are left with undocumented language varieties. The present research is based on the data obtained from 20 Sanzari Bodo speakers of Nagaon district of Assam. Though the standard Bodo and Sanzari Bodo share the same number of case markers they have some evident differences between them. Case is a grammatical category which expresses the semantic relation between a noun phrase and its predicate. There are at least ten case markers in both Bodo as well as Sanzari Bodo. Close investigation of data establishes that despite sharing similarities, the two varieties have their uniqueness too, for example, the accusative case marker of Bodo {-kʰɯu} is monophthongised to {-kʰɯ}, the final /ŋ/ sound of instrumental, comitative and allative cases are removed in Sanzari Bodo and the illative case too has different manifestations in the two varieties.

Acta Linguistica Asiatica, 2017

The concept of Fuzzy Logic (FL) has gained momentum in areas of artificial intelligence and allie... more The concept of Fuzzy Logic (FL) has gained momentum in areas of artificial intelligence and allied researches because of its absolute ability to present efficient solutions to real life problems. Contrary to the paradigmatic approach to the solutions of being either absolutely true or false [0 or 1] the fuzzy sets provide a range of possible outputs with error prone inputs which are vague and inaccurate using linguistic objects instead of mere mathematical numbers. A multilingual situation poses a similar challenge for a language teacher/learner where languages exist in continuum. Learners with heavy mother tongue influence tend to use their natural languages instinctively in a way that can create their own fuzzy rules to encounter the situation of being taught an entirely new language. A typical Indian language classroom is highly multilingual where scope of errors is numerous though they are ignored. This leads to stress both for the teachers as well as the learners making the classroom ambience more mechanistic than human. To combat such situations FL based Three-Phase Model of language teaching has been proposed which derives its basis on the presumption that the language instructor is aware of general rules of linguistics. An empirical longitudinal study on 150 undergraduate technical students designed on the proposed framework has been conducted to establish the efficiency and the success of the model. Observing language pedagogy through the lens of fuzzy logic and fuzzy thinking will not only make the classroom more real-like but it will also tap the pre-existing linguistic knowledge of the learners. Language interference will be more of a resource than a challenge. Povzetek Koncept mehke logike je zaradi svoje popolne zmožnosti podati učinkovito rešitev k problemom vsakdanjega življenja najprej pritegnil pozornost s področij, kot je na primer umetna inteligenca. V nasprotju s paradigmatičnim pristopom navadne logike, kjer so rešitve lahko le absolutno pravilne in absolutno nepravilne [0 ali 1], mehka logika dovoljuje tudi vmesne vrednosti in torej opisno dovoljuje delno pravilnost. Večjezikovne situacije, kjer je meja med jeziki ni jasna temveč prehodna, predstavljajo za učitelja in učenca izziv, ki ga lahko predstavimo z mehko logiko. Učenci tujega jezika z močnim naglasom, ki je posledica vpliva maternega jezika, običajno jezik uporabljajo na način, da ob učenju tujega jezika ustvarijo svojevrstna mehka pravila. Tipična indijska jezikovna učilnica je običajno polna učencev iz različnih jezikovnih okolij, zato je tudi obseg napak zelo velik. Kljub temu,

International Journal of ELT, Linguistics and Comparative Lietrature, 2017

Noun phrase (NP) beginning with 'the' or 'a/ an' are the prototypical construction for definite a... more Noun phrase (NP) beginning with 'the' or 'a/ an' are the prototypical construction for definite and indefinite NP in English. When discussing definiteness, the two main theories that one needs to focus are uniqueness and familiarity. However, in some cases these two theories fail to distinguish the definite and the indefinite NP, therefore, existential sentences have become a major criterion for determining distinction. The expression of definiteness varies from language to language. Definiteness/ Indefiniteness is inherent in all natural languages, though, all such markers might not be present in every language. Translators face similar dilemma if they adhere to word-to-word translation where the semantic interpretation of definiteness in one language becomes indefinite in the other and vice versa. Have constructions in English denote inalienable possession whereas the same construction denotes alienable possession in Hindi and vice versa. The definiteness in English locative existential construction becomes indefinite in Hindi for similar constructions. The NP in Hindi when occurring at subject position get indefinite interpretation but if the locative phrase is fronted then an entirely new interpretation is obtained.

Language in India, 2017

The concept of gender is much more complex than what it appears to be and when it is investigated... more The concept of gender is much more complex than what it appears to be and when it is investigated through the lens of language the interrelationship appears to be both implicit as well as explicit. The present research is an attempt to reinstate the profound agreement between gender and number in Hindi (an Indo-Aryan) language with an aim to highlight the gendered behavior of numbers in this language. The investigational framework was based on three-hypotheses: (a) gender bias in Hindi being both implicit as well as explicit; (b) gender bias is observed in gender and number interaction and (c) nouns with (+ Male attribute) do not take on as many overt affixes as nouns with (+ Female attributes). Around fifty disyllabic words were chosen as part of the first phase of study in this area and they were categorized based on (+Male/ +Female), (+Human/-Human) and (+Countable/-Countable) attributes. Nouns with (Human) attribute were further categorized on the basis of (+/-Animacy). Analysis of data not only established the validity of the hypotheses but it has also opened up new area of research where more studies can be carried out to investigate gender influenced morphological behavior in languages.

In India, from the competitive examinations' point of view, Hindi and other Indian languages are ... more In India, from the competitive examinations' point of view, Hindi and other Indian languages are placed at a substandard position in the curriculum because marks obtained in the Indian language paper is not included in the determination of the final merit list and is only considered for qualifying to enter the competition. Language policies and planning helped English to become as a dominant and hegemony language over and above all Indian languages. This process obstructed and affected the growth and quality of indigenous languages in the field of education. After independence from the British Rule, it was because of various changes in the socioeconomic development and education of science and technology, English evolved and established itself as a standard language in different streams of education. Candidates who apply for jobs may be asked to qualify in Hindi or other Indian languages to enter the main examinations in popular employment examinations. The same system seems to be followed for admission to many educational institutes across India. Because of this Hindi curriculum remains unchanged and teachers do not get opportunity to improve their teaching quality. As a result the role of teacher in imparting knowledge and language use is reduced. To break this vicious cycle in the existing system, the status of Hindi and other Indian languages should be changed in a way that can provide the teachers with ample opportunities to teach and improve. For the improvement of Hindi in the existing educational system the competitive examinations must include the marks obtained in the Indian language papers so as to attract serious attitude. It is not easy to change the attitude of the learners right away; however, with remedial steps the change can at least be initiated.

Vol. 4 (2), Number 93, Mar 2017

Academic period is the best phase of life for many students where they try to shape themselves in... more Academic period is the best phase of life for many students where they try to shape themselves in a perfect frame under the supervision of their teachers. But sometimes many students are unable to compensate the need of the actual goal setting. Somehow they also get deviated from their path due to the lack of proper setting with the situation as well as internal and external factors that imposes unwilling pressure on them. Stress appears when the complexity of internal and external factor exceeds individual's resources to cope with their situation. It is critically determined by the name of depression, anxiety, stress, as well as phobia. Students frequently encounter stressors which may test their capability to cope: conforming to recent environment, managing a massive work load, making new friends, becoming more independent and dealing with several issues. From a closer outlook, students' confront various challenges in their everyday life therefore the whole idea of an exciting and vibrant academic life is veiled by these challenges which leads to stress. If not dealt with, it can only escalate and hamper academic performance as well as emotional and social well-being. In the past ten years the percentage of suicide has increased considerably among the educated class in comparison to the uneducated sections of the Indian society. Among the educated section, the prime suicide prone people belong to educational level raging from higher secondary to graduation and above as survey by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB, India, See Annexure-I). This provides the chief motivation to carry out the psychoanalytical study of students. The current study examines the level of stress and its major causative agents among the PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) students of a prestigious technical institute of India. The primary aim of term paper is to assess the level of stress and its major triggering factors among the PhD students. The methodology for the present paper is based on a quantitative approach where a questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data with a sample size of 30 students.

—Rapid evolution of technology has changed language pedagogy as well as perspectives on language ... more —Rapid evolution of technology has changed language pedagogy as well as perspectives on language use, leading to strategic changes in discourse studies. We are now firmly embedded in a time when digital technologies have become an integral part of our daily lives. This has made ELT a subject of research from technology point of view. Also now the concerns become different. The first being the linguistic background of the learner which might interfere/intervene with the entire process of English language learning and secondly, the level of knowledge of English already possessed by the learner might render the entire teaching-learning process as inefficient on a general level. ELT needs a more systematic and differential pedagogical approach for greater efficiency and accuracy. The present research analyses the need of identifying learner groups based on different levels of target language proficiency based on a longitudinal study done on 150 undergraduate students. The learners were divided into five groups based on their performance on a twenty point scale in Listening Speaking Reading and Writing (LSRW). The groups were then subjected to varying durations of technology aided language learning sessions and their performance was recorded again on the same scale. Identifying groups and introducing differential teaching and learning strategies led to better results compared to generalized teaching strategies. Language teaching includes different aspects: Organizational, technological, sociological, psychological, pedagogical and linguistic. And a facilitator must account for all these aspects in a carefully devised differential approach meeting the challenge of learner diversity. Apart from the justification of the formation of differential groups the paper attempts to devise framework to account for all these aspects to make ELT in multilingual setting much more effective. 1Keywords—Differential groups, ELT, language pedagogy, multilingualism, technology aided language learning.

International Journal of Indian Psychology, 2017

Dialectologia, 2019

International Journal of Linguistics, 2018

Dialectologia, 2020

International Journal of Multilingualism, 2019

Acta Linguistica Asiatica, 2019

International Journal of Linguistics, 2018

Acta Linguistica Asiatica, 2017

International Journal of ELT, Linguistics and Comparative Lietrature, 2017

Language in India, 2017

Vol. 4 (2), Number 93, Mar 2017

Mental processes have intrigued researchers since ages. New approaches, theories and pedagogies a... more Mental processes have intrigued researchers since ages. New approaches, theories and pedagogies are being devised to understand mental phenomena. With the advent of technology and thrust to create machines with human cognitive faculty, frontiers in Cognitive Science are being stretched incessantly. One primary way to understand human cognition is to understand the intricate processes of language cognition and concept formation. The workshop will focus upon the contemporary frameworks pertaining to Language, Mind and Brain and their relationships along with their interfaces. The workshop will focus upon the theoretical arguments and computational modeling. Language is a complex mental faculty, recruiting, integrating and assimilating several interacting representational and computational architectures in the mind. The workshop aims to investigate the nature of the cognitive and neural architecture that support the human language system and how it interfaces with other cognitive faculties. Through the workshop, the participants will get the idea as to how the insights from linguistic theory, processing models and mental phenomena are combined in order to resolve certain research questions.

World Congress on the Interrelationship among Arts, Culture...., Sep 25, 2016

The relevance of gender to linguistic analysis was first noted in the early 20th century when des... more The relevance of gender to linguistic analysis was first noted in the early 20th century when descriptive linguists observed the differences in female and male vocabularies and patterns of speech in non-European languages. Since the 1960 sociolinguists [1, 9, 10-11, and 17] have been exploring gender dimension of language that catapulted work on language and gender. Countries where citizens speak gendered languages display a higher rate of gender inequality than countries with languages that do not ascribe gender to nouns [6]. Language shapes our cognition and perception of society [14]. Countries that speak predominantly gendered language evidence less gender equality in relation to countries with natural gender and genderless languages.The primary aim of this research is to highlight such instances of gender based language biasness in Hindi highlighting situations of conflict between genders. The research methodology used for the present paper includes the development of conceptual framework through secondary sources and applying the native speaker’s competence in subsequent analysis. This paper is an attempt to point out the gender differences in language use and perception; investigating the ways in which Hindi speakers express as to how such linguistic differences affect their self- identity. Such situations often lead to a state of conflict within an individual that gets manifested in his/her interaction with the outside world.