Nidhu Bhusan Das :
We humans think, feel and imagine. This is all internal and personal unto each of us. Until and unless we have the urge to articulate to share our thought, feeling, imagination and attitude we have not the need for language – phonological or orthographic. When we think we should share these with others, we require the equivalent to deliver what is in our mind. So, we encode our thought, feeling, imagination, etc. in such symbols and signs as our intended or target audience is familiar with.
Plato said long ago art or poetry is imitation of imitation (mimesis) and, therefore, far from Truth. For him, in this context, Truth is abstract. When we identify a fruit as ‘mango’, the naming word is the imitation of the truth or reality which is ‘mangoness’.The same argument and notion apply to the word ‘fruit’ which is the imitation of ‘fruitness’. In language a word is a phonological or orthographic realization. The question arises- realization of what? The answer is – realization of thought, feeling, imagination and attitude. This argument leads us to the admission that ‘fruit’ is the imitation of ‘fruitness’ and ‘mango’ is the imitation of ‘mangoness’. If ‘fruitness’ and ‘mangoness’ are realities, ‘fruit’ and ‘mango’ are appearances. Language, then, represents appearance, the outpourings of the psyche.
There is speculation that language is echoic i.e., onomatopoeic in the sense words imitate sound. This idea is not found to be conclusive. We may here try to apply the idea in a different sense. Does language echo the mind, the fountainhead and storehouse of thought, feeling, imagination, etc? Mind is active within itself. Yet an individual mind may have the desire to share its store with others, and vice versa. Since an individual mind is not the cosmic mind, it cannot share universally as the linguistic equivalent of the store is not universal in the reality of multiplicity of languages and their many manifestations in the form of dialects. Hence, arbitrariness is taken to be a characteristic of human language.
It is found geographical dispersion is a major cause for multilingual situation and wide variations in the same language. Besides, class distinction also contributes to the variation. This reality tells us language is the code which we use to tell what is in mind. Being a code and from of the fact that we can use it to coat or color what we want to share or make public, or, in other words, can manipulate it, it may safely be said that language is artificial. George Bernard Shaw in his play ‘Pygmalion’ shows how linguistic training can turn a flower girl into an aristocratic woman. Language is acquired; it is not innate, although the capacity to acquire it is innate. This also points to the fact that language is artificial, not fundamental like the mind. Even when it is the equivalent of sincere expression, language is at best a medium, a transcription of what is in mind and what we seek to share.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Wednesday, March 21, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Random Thought About Word
Nidhu Bhusan Das :
‘What is a word? ‘you may ask. It is an important question. One may, without much thought, readily answer, ‘A word is a group of letters.’ Is the answer correct? No. But why? Let us see. Here we have a group of letters– tac. Is it a word? No. Why? Because, it does not convey any sense. How can it convey sense? The sense comes if we arrange the letters according to rule which evolved out of practical necessity. The rule is to organize the letters distributing and combining the vowels and consonants in such a way that the combination yields meaning.
We know only consonants cannot come into meaningful combination. They need vowels to combine meaningfully. Two letters A and I are words by themselves. They are vowels. We have Twenty-four other letters, three of them vowels, which cannot by themselves be words. They are words only by combination. In such a combination the vowels often function as adhesive. We can change the combination of ‘tac’ into ‘act’ and ‘cat’ and get two words. Here in the first case, ‘a’ acts as initializer and the following consonants merge into a double sound.
Why do we need vowels to form words? To answer this question I must go to the basic of sound. When we talk, we verbalize our thought and, thus, produce verbal language which is essentially oral and aural. Now, what is a vowel sound? When we produce a vowel sound, our oral passage remains unobstructed. As a result the air can flow from the lungs to the lips and beyond without being stopped. There is no audible friction. We can produce a vowel sound with our mouth open.We, therefore, can shorten and lengthen the vowel sound. We have short and long vowel sounds. On the other hand, for producing a consonant sound, we have to completely stop the air current, or have to force it through a narrow constriction which causes audible friction.
Two or more consonants put together cannot form a word because they become constricted, and produce a double sound. However, if vowel is brought in we can remove the constriction and produce a harmony. Thus, when we speak we use both vowel and consonant sounds in combination. Vowels help expansion of the sound similar to the natural process of contraction and expansion in us in the process of respiration. Vowels bring life to the combination of letters or sounds as a verb brings life to a group of words to make a sentence. What a verb does in a sentence is done by a vowel in a word or a sound image. As a sentence dies if we pluck out the verb from it so a word ceases to be a word when the vowel element is taken away from the combination of letters. When we go by the fact, we tend to believe that words may have an onomatopoeic origin i.e., imitation of sound.
‘What is a word? ‘you may ask. It is an important question. One may, without much thought, readily answer, ‘A word is a group of letters.’ Is the answer correct? No. But why? Let us see. Here we have a group of letters– tac. Is it a word? No. Why? Because, it does not convey any sense. How can it convey sense? The sense comes if we arrange the letters according to rule which evolved out of practical necessity. The rule is to organize the letters distributing and combining the vowels and consonants in such a way that the combination yields meaning.
We know only consonants cannot come into meaningful combination. They need vowels to combine meaningfully. Two letters A and I are words by themselves. They are vowels. We have Twenty-four other letters, three of them vowels, which cannot by themselves be words. They are words only by combination. In such a combination the vowels often function as adhesive. We can change the combination of ‘tac’ into ‘act’ and ‘cat’ and get two words. Here in the first case, ‘a’ acts as initializer and the following consonants merge into a double sound.
Why do we need vowels to form words? To answer this question I must go to the basic of sound. When we talk, we verbalize our thought and, thus, produce verbal language which is essentially oral and aural. Now, what is a vowel sound? When we produce a vowel sound, our oral passage remains unobstructed. As a result the air can flow from the lungs to the lips and beyond without being stopped. There is no audible friction. We can produce a vowel sound with our mouth open.We, therefore, can shorten and lengthen the vowel sound. We have short and long vowel sounds. On the other hand, for producing a consonant sound, we have to completely stop the air current, or have to force it through a narrow constriction which causes audible friction.
Two or more consonants put together cannot form a word because they become constricted, and produce a double sound. However, if vowel is brought in we can remove the constriction and produce a harmony. Thus, when we speak we use both vowel and consonant sounds in combination. Vowels help expansion of the sound similar to the natural process of contraction and expansion in us in the process of respiration. Vowels bring life to the combination of letters or sounds as a verb brings life to a group of words to make a sentence. What a verb does in a sentence is done by a vowel in a word or a sound image. As a sentence dies if we pluck out the verb from it so a word ceases to be a word when the vowel element is taken away from the combination of letters. When we go by the fact, we tend to believe that words may have an onomatopoeic origin i.e., imitation of sound.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Meanings of a Content Word
Nidhu Bhusan Das :
A content word may be used in two senses. The original sense associated with the word is its literal meaning. We can extend the meaning of a word. Such extension is called a metaphor. When we say ‘He has a donkey’ we use the word ‘donkey’ in its literal sense, but when we call a man a donkey (You are a donkey) we mean to say that the person is an idiot. Here the word donkey takes the metaphorical meaning. We may say, ‘He runs fast.’ Here the verb ‘run’ is used in literal sense, meaning ‘to move at a speed faster than a walk, but when we say ‘ Barak Obama runs for US Presidency the second time, we use the verb metaphorically meaning ‘contest’.
Concrete to Abstract: The meaning of a word may be transferred or extended from a concrete object to an abstract idea. When I say,’ I like bread’ I use the word ‘bread’ in the literal sense meaning .food’ ,but when I say ‘ He has to work from dawn to dusk to earn his bread’ we transfer the meaning from the concrete ( food ) to the abstract ( living ). We may say, ‘The building crumbled’ , we use the word ‘crumbled’ in the literal sense meaning ‘broke or broke into very small pieces’ , but when we say ‘His hope crumbled’ we transfer the meaning to suggest that his hopes came slowly to an end.
Living to non-Living and Vice-Versa : When we say ‘The right hand of the boy was injured’, we use the word ‘hand’ in the literal sense to mean a limb, but when we say ‘The minute hand of the clock in on 12’ we use the word in a metaphorical sense meaning an indicator. We may also use the word metaphorically to mean ‘role’ when we say ‘He has a hand in the affair.’
A content word may be used in two senses. The original sense associated with the word is its literal meaning. We can extend the meaning of a word. Such extension is called a metaphor. When we say ‘He has a donkey’ we use the word ‘donkey’ in its literal sense, but when we call a man a donkey (You are a donkey) we mean to say that the person is an idiot. Here the word donkey takes the metaphorical meaning. We may say, ‘He runs fast.’ Here the verb ‘run’ is used in literal sense, meaning ‘to move at a speed faster than a walk, but when we say ‘ Barak Obama runs for US Presidency the second time, we use the verb metaphorically meaning ‘contest’.
Concrete to Abstract: The meaning of a word may be transferred or extended from a concrete object to an abstract idea. When I say,’ I like bread’ I use the word ‘bread’ in the literal sense meaning .food’ ,but when I say ‘ He has to work from dawn to dusk to earn his bread’ we transfer the meaning from the concrete ( food ) to the abstract ( living ). We may say, ‘The building crumbled’ , we use the word ‘crumbled’ in the literal sense meaning ‘broke or broke into very small pieces’ , but when we say ‘His hope crumbled’ we transfer the meaning to suggest that his hopes came slowly to an end.
Living to non-Living and Vice-Versa : When we say ‘The right hand of the boy was injured’, we use the word ‘hand’ in the literal sense to mean a limb, but when we say ‘The minute hand of the clock in on 12’ we use the word in a metaphorical sense meaning an indicator. We may also use the word metaphorically to mean ‘role’ when we say ‘He has a hand in the affair.’
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