This companion offers a unique introductory study of linguistics in India. Well supplemented with sample problems and linguistic puzzles to bolster analytical skills and logical reasoning, it promotes a unique inquiry-based approach to learning linguistics. The volume looks at all the major subdisciplines of linguistics, including phonetics, phonology, morphology, semantics, syntax, and the interdisciplinary domains of psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics. It provides a wealth of data not only from many Indian languages belonging to the primary language families present in the country – Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, and Tibeto-Burman – but also from the endangered languages of the Tai-Kadai family of Assam and the Greater Andamanese family.
The author gives a holistic view of the linguistic landscape of India and fills a significant gap in the study of the lesser-known languages of South Asia. This volume will be an excellent resource for students and researchers of Indian languages, cultural studies, South Asian studies, and all branches of linguistics.
1 Introduction
2 Language and Linguistics
3 Phonetics and Phonology: Learning the Sound System
4 Learning to Expand and Dissect Words: Morphology
5 Learning the Rules: Syntax
6 Understanding Meaning: Semantics
7 Language and Social Identity: Sociolinguistics
8 Language and the Brain: Neurolinguistics
9 Acquiring and Processing Language: Psycholinguistics
10 Natural vs. Computer Languages: Computational Linguistics
11 Conclusion
Biography
Hemalatha Nagarajan is Professor in the Department of Linguistics and Contemporary English at the English and Foreign Languages University (formerly known as the Central Institute of English and Foreign Languages), Hyderabad, India. She obtained an MA in English from Madras University and an MLitt and PhD from CIEFL, Hyderabad, India. She was awarded the British Chevening scholarship for a post-doctoral research programme at University College, London, in 1994. Her PhD work was published as a book titled A Theory of Post-Syntactic Phonology. Her areas of interest in linguistics are phonology, syntax, neurolinguistics, and language acquisition. Apart from research articles in her area of interest, namely linguistics, she has published books on grammar and general textbooks. She has worked as a resource person in several workshops and teacher training programmes in India and Sri Lanka and presented papers at various conferences at the national and international levels. She has guided 14 doctoral students and 13 students of MPhil.
