SE367 : HW Language

Vidur Kumar (Y8560)

Q1

(a) the indian roller is on the window-ledge 	vs. 	(b) the window ledge is below the indian roller.

The (a) option is known to be more acceptable than the (b) option, for describing the given picture. Why is there this selection between the two?

As per the rules of generative grammar (Chomskyian view), the prepositions "below" and "on" are both being used appropriately in the respective options - and there is no breach of 'rules of grammar' in each of the options. Hence, both options become grammatically correct sentences, under this view.
Option (b) becomes a more subtle variation of the "colourless green ideas sleep furiously" example that Chomsky gave - to justify that grammatical accuracy is independent of semantic context.

However, the question at hand is not the grammatical validity of the statements - but their preference in communicating specific semantic content (describing the picture in this case).

The selection could be mediated by convention - which is that, over years of usage of a given language, a particular form of choice of prepositions was accepted as being more accurate than an alternative choice, simply by virtue of predominance of the population speaking/understanding that variation.

Alternatively, the selection could be mediated by the perception-cognition of "figure-ground" - where the more distinctive element (figure) gains priority in terms of attention, and hence - this gets reflected in the description of the scene, with respect to choice of preposition.

To argue that the second possibility validates cognitive linguistic theories over Chomskyian views of language - is not sufficient - since the argument only justifies preference of a particular form of sentence/preposition, and does not invalidate the correctness of option (b) in itself (i.e. - option (b) becomes a less preferred choice, but not an invalid one)

Q2

a) Data Collection :

Subject 1 [Age = 21, Lucknow, First Language = Hindi, Schooling (Hindi) = till 10th, Parent's native language = Hindi]

Subject 2 [Age = 56, Lucknow/Bareily, First Language = Hindi, Schooling (Hindi) = till 12th, Parent's native language = Hindi]

Subject 3 [Age = 21, Indore, First Language = Hindi, Schooling (Hindi) = till 10th, Parent's native language = Hindi]

Total Scores :

b) Examples and Discussion :

Some examples by subjects :

a) pata hi nahi chala kab waqt nikal gaYA aur hum kuch na kar paye.

b) sochte sochte main neend ki baahon mein kho gaya.

c) mujhse rooth ke woh chaala gaya.

d) gulaal ki wajah se paani rangeela ho gaya

                gaya - indicative of occurrence (past) (d) and sometimes with a component of an entity leaving/exiting (a), (b), (c)

1) maine anuj se sawaal poocha par wo kuch kahta usse pahle hi honhar chandan uttar bol paRA.

2) gharyaal dhoop mein para raha.

3) raaste mein uske ghar para, lekin... 

	para - indicative of presence of an entity (2), (3) , and sometimes used for initiation of task (1) (random initiation, not expected)

i) maine anuj se sawaal poocha par wo kuch kahta usse pahle hi honhar chandan uttar kah Utha.

ii) aawaz ne mujhe neend se utha diya.

iii) maine bachce ko god mein utha liya.

	utha - used for rising/elevating event (ii), (iii) and sometimes indicative of sudden random action (i).

c) Energy of uTha : The verb is used for high intensity or sudden event situations - signifying a higher energy value than other verb "gaya". Alternatively, its usage is often to indicate "rising" events and can thus be labeled as "positive", as opposed to the "gaya" verb, which is largely negative (by virtue of the "exiting" context it is often used in)