Lectures by Eminent Academicians - Saturday, 24 July

The first in a series of UGC preparatory lectures, started with Dr.Seshasayee, Head, Department of English, A.M.Jain College, delivering an effective and motivating lecture on Language, Grammar, and Structural Linguistics to our students from 10 am to 12.45 noon, on Saturday, 24 July 2010. 

Excerpts from Professor's lecture:

"A car driver does not need to know about the various nuts and bolts of the car. He just needs to know how how to drive a car! On the other hand, a car mechanic has to have a good working knowledge about everything relating to the functioning of the car! The same is the case with the linguist!" he said.

"There's a kind of mental / psychological block, when we utter the word "linguistics". But it is not as tough as it is made out to be!", he said.  

He outlined the aims and objectives of Traditional grammarians, for whom the grammar book takes the position similar to that of a Holy Book. You've got to obey it, without questioning it. Then he spoke on the Latinate fallacy, which argued against William Lylye's proposition that all grammar rules are Latin-based. The Latin Fallacy, which believed that what applies in Latin must also apply in English, was abandoned as the prescriptive approach to grammar came under challenge from Linguistics scholars, when the science of linguistics came to the fore in the late 19th century, who claimed that English could not be satisfactorily described or explained in terms of the rules governing Latin. a prescriptive grammar is one that lays down the rules for English language usage, while a descriptive grammar synthesises rules for English usage from the language that people actually use. A prescriptive grammarian believes that certain forms used are correct and that others, even though they may be used by native speakers, are incorrect.

Then in the 19th century came Robert Lowth, the author of one of the most influential textbooks of English grammar. Lowth's method included "correctness" - to teach us what's right and what's wrong, thus criticising "false syntax"; his examples of false syntax were taken from Shakespeare, Milton, Swift, Pope, etc.

Then appeared Lindley Murray, often called "the father of English grammar", who based his grammar on Lylie, but didn't say that the roots are Latin. Instead he adopted it as logical rules which we call "logical fallacy". Following Murray, came along Otto Jespersen, who along with Paul Passy, he was the founder of the International Phonetic Association, and concentratred more on morphology and syntax.

Traditional grammarians refuse to accept the fact that language keeps changing. But the fact is, there's no point in asking today's student to write like a Shakespeare, or a Milton, or even that of a 19th century writer. It is difficult to adopt the writing style of the past. Language must constantly be in a state of flux. But the Traditional grammarians based their study on writing. They totally ignored the spoken part. They believed that writing is primary and speech is only secondary. Hence, Traditional Grammar is normative and prescriptive. You can't question why it's prescribed. That is why, it is unscientific.

Thus Traditional Grammar was replaced with Modern Grammar, which is descriptive. Modern grammar doesn't tell you which is right or which is wrong. In other words, it prescribes the language as it is being used by the native speakers. So here we find the shift from the grammarian to the native speaker.

Prescriptive grammar has a collected corpus. It does not say what is right or what is wrong. It just says whether it is correct or incorrect. On the other hand, Modern grammar tells us whether a particular usage is acceptable or not acceptable. Because, what is unacceptable today may become acceptable at a later period of time.

Consider the sentence:

"I didn't do nothing."

[In Traditional grammar, this is not correct, as they go by the logical rule - two negatives make a positive] but the other way round, to emphasize that I did nothing, I say, "I didn't do nothing"

Modern grammar says that it is unacceptable because native educated speakers do not use it. They depend on 'Social Acceptance' as the sole criterion.

That is, "I seed you" is not incorrect. On the other hand, it's unacceptable.

Georgina, thanking Dr.Seshasayee

Linguists see language as a part of human behaviour. Though there are more than 5000 languages, there are some commonalities among them. A linguist thus studies language as a human aspect, and try to formulate general theories based on that - General Linguistics. GL is not language-specific, followed by a variety of linguistics, like micro-linguistics, in which language is studied for the sake of itself, along with the elements of syntax and phonology. It contrasts with macro-linguistics, which includes meanings, and especially with sociolinguistics, which studies how language and meaning function within human social systems.

Then he spoke about the two ways in which language can be studied - the synchronic and the diachronic, and also elaborated on the common language theories, concerning language. He then outlined the basic characteristics of language, and then proceeded to expound the concepts of Fedinand de Saussure (the father of 20th century Linguistics) - la langue, le langue, la parole, etc.

He then spoke about Received Standard, Regional Standard, and Modified Standard, and also elaborated on dialect, idiolect etc. He then talked on the basic concepts of Structural Linguistics, and the three broad aspects of language - Phonological level, grammatical level, and the semantic level. He also outlined the difference between phonetics and phonology, and also gave a morphological rendering of a few sentences as illustrations.

To sum up, - the lecture, not only helped in giving the students a refreshing view on the subject, but also helped in dispelling certain notions about the subject, which were preventing the ordinary student from venturing into the field boldly. The fresh perspective into Language, Grammar and Linguistics was indeed an intellectual treat to the student of literature. Thank you sir. You made our day..!

Our sincere thanks are due to our beloved Professor Dr.Stephen Jebanesan, Professor of English, and Warden, Selaiyur Hall, for giving us the needed infrastructure as well as the much required motivation to keep the lectures going. Thanks are also due to all the members of Staff of the English dept, and especially, Prof.Wesley Santharaj, for his invaluable help, Prof.Dinesh, for his support and guidance, Prof.Jayanthi, for her presence and motivation, Prof.Jubi, Dept of Journalism, for covering the occasion, Prof.Rayson, for his presence and moral support, and Anand, student from SFS, Selaiyur Hall, for videographing the whole event for us. Thank you...! Thanks and kudos - a million - to our self-motivated students who make the best use of the once-in-a-lifetime - opportunites that come their way. It's indeed you - who keep us going..! Thank you...!