Relativization in Bengali

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Noun phrase chunker for Turkish using dependency parser

Ankara : The Department of Computer Engineering and the Institute of Engineering and Science of Bilkent University, 2010.Thesis (Master's) -- Bilkent University, 2010.Includes bibliographical references leaves 89-97.Noun phrase chunking is a sub-category of shallow parsing that can be used for many natural language processing tasks. In this thesis, we propose a noun phrase chunker system for Turkish texts. We use a weighted constraint dependency parser to represent the relationship between sentence components and to determine noun phrases. The dependency parser uses a set of hand-crafted rules which can combine morphological and semantic information for constraints. The rules are suitable for handling complex noun phrase structures because of their flexibility. The developed dependency parser can be easily used for shallow parsing of all phrase types by changing the employed rule set. The lack of reliable human tagged datasets is a significant problem for natural language studies about Turkish. Therefore, we constructed the first noun phrase dataset for Turkish. According to our evaluation results, our noun phrase chunker gives promising results on this dataset. The correct morphological disambiguation of words is required for the correctness of the dependency parser. Therefore, in this thesis, we propose a hybrid morphological disambiguation technique which combines statistical information, hand-crafted grammar rules, and transformation based learning rules. We have also constructed a dataset for testing the performance of our disambiguation system. According to tests, the disambiguation system is highly effective.Kutlu, MücahidM.S

North East Indian Linguistics 8 (NEIL 8)

This is the eighth volume of North East Indian Linguistics, a series of volumes for publishing current research on the languages of North East India, the first volume of which was published in 2008. The papers in this volume were presented at the 9th conference of the North East Indian Linguistics Society (NEILS), held at Tezpur University in February 2016. The papers for this anniversary volume continue the NEILS tradition of research by both local and international scholars on a wide range of languages and topics. This eighth volume includes papers on small community languages and large regional languages from across North East India, and present detailed phonological, semantic and morphosyntactic studies of structures that are characteristic of particular languages or language groups alongside sociolinguistic studies that explore language attitudes in contexts of language shift

Early Bengali prose: Carey to Vidyasager.

The present thesis examines the growth of Bengali prose from its experimental beginnings with Carey to its growth into full literary stature in the hands of Vidyasagar. The subject is presented chronologically and covers roughly the first half of the 19th century. Prior to the 19th century there was no literary prose in Bengali. The period falls into certain clearly definable phases, the first phase begins in 1801. It seeds the cultivation of prose for the purpose of writing text-books and translations including the Biblical translations. This phase is associated with Serampore which was the headquarter of the Baptist Missionaries at the time and Fort William College where Carey worked as a teacher of Bengali and Sanskrit. The third and fourth phases belong to the newspaper which came into being in 1818 but there is an intervening phase which overlaps with the first and third and deals with the work of only one author, Rammohan Ray. The newspaper phases are divided into two because the first phase concerns the journalistic activities of many writers who are today unknown. Whereas the second phase of newspaper treats of journalists who are also writers of quality in their own right. The whole period from 1800 to roughly 1856 is the period of text books and of newspaper writing. Some authors wrote text books only, others were journalists but a number including the last and greatest Vidyasagar was both. The divisions into Chapters follows the phase framework outlined above. The first chapter sketches the history of Bengali literature prior to 1757, the social and literary conditions prevailing in Bengal during the 18th century, and the linguistic situation in Calcutta at the time the first experiments were being made in literary prose. It also presents a few specimens of the rudimentary prose prior to 19th century. The second chapter outlines the linguistic problems which confronted Carey and his colleagues. This chapter introduces the method of analysis which is applied to the work of individual authors in the later part of the thesis. The third, fourth and fifth chapters contain an analysis of the prose works produced by Carey, Ramram Basu, Mrityunjay respectively. The sixth chapter is devoted to Rammohan's contribution to the development of Bengali prose. The chapter seven treats of the beginnings of the newspaper and examines journalistic prose produced up to about 1830. The eighth chapter is devoted to the Sambad Prabhakar (1830) and treats particularly of the work of its editor Isvarcandra Gupta. The ninth chapter deals with the Tattvabodhini Patrika (1843). The works of its editor Aksay kumar Datta and of Debendranath, father of Rabindranath Tagore are examined in details. The final Chapter deals with the works of Isvarcandra Bandyopadhyay (popularly known as Vidyasagar) only. Contemporaries of Vidyasagar whose works belong to a later phase in the history of Bengali prose are omitted from the present examination. The analysis of prose presented in Chapters II to X treats of both their linguistic form and literary quality. The criteria adopted in the analysis are defined chapter by chapter as their application becomes relevant

Gender variation in Gulf Pidgin Arabic

A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of the University of Wolverhampton for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy.In the history of pidgins and creoles, many documented contact languages are European-based ones because they arose as a direct result of European colonial expansion between the sixteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century. However, contact languages are developing entirely outside the European context as a result of ongoing international migration and economic integration created by globalisation. One such newly emerging pidgin is known as Gulf Pidgin Arabic (GPA). This unique linguistic phenomenon is a simplified contact variety of the Arabic language used in the Gulf States for communication between native Arabic speakers and foreign workers, as well as among the workers themselves. Pidgin languages have not been studied until relatively recently, since the middle of the last century. Similarly, GPA has received relatively little attention in the literature, apart from a few descriptive works such as Abed (2017), Almoaily (2012), Avram (2014), Næss (2008), Smart (1990), and Wiswal (2002). Importantly, there is an increasing labour market demand for women migrants in the Gulf, and this demand is often more stable than that for men; however, no studies to date have investigated the gender and language variation in Gulf countries conditioned by length of stay or substrate language. To carry out this research, an integrated research design, combining quantitative and qualitative phases of analysis, is employed to examine data drawn from one-to-one semi-structured interviews. Extensive background research on the Saudi social setting, the Pidgin languages, Gulf Arabic (GA) and GPA, and the major substrate languages of GPA is undertaken to investigate the sociolinguistic and linguistic situations that have resulted in the emergence of GPA. I analyse the influence of the first language of female GPA speakers and the number of years spent in the Gulf as potential factors conditioning language and gender variation in GPA. The dataset for the study consists of interviews with 72 informants from six linguistic backgrounds: Malayalam, Punjabi, Bengali, Tagalog, Sinhala, and Sunda. Interviews were conducted in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia. Half of the informants had spent five years or less in the Gulf, while the other half had spent 10 years or more in the area at the time of interview. The analysis is based on 10 morphosyntactic phenomena: free or bound object or possessive pronoun, presence or absence of the Arabic definiteness marker, presence or absence of Arabic conjunction markers, presence or absence of the GPA copula, and presence or absence of agreement in the verb phrase and the noun phrase. Regarding the informants’ choice of the studied morphosyntactic features, the results of this thesis demonstrate that the length of stay in the Gulf produces more accommodation to standard GA in women than men. However, this shift was significant for only one feature: conjunction markers. For the influence of the first language, a significant adaptation to the system of GA (the lexifier language) was found for two features: conjunction markers and nominal agreement. Furthermore, with years of stay in the Gulf, there was a significant shift for only two features: conjunction markers and definiteness. This finding could be taken to support both universalist theories and substrate theory of the emergence of contact languages. The two theories seem to have effects on the emergence of pidgins and creoles; it is worth noting that neither are separate from each other, and they can be complementary. Thus, my data supports Mufwene’s (1993) complementary theory of genesis, which claims that universal as well as substratal factors can contribute to the emergence of contact languages.Saudi Arabia Cultural Bureau in London and University of Hafr Al Batin

Interferencija engleskoga i hindskoga u diskursu parlamenta Republike Indije

The thesis analyzes types of English-Hindi interference, from socio-linguistic and linguistic perspective. In the first and second chapter, the question of interference and the influence of one language onto another variety is presented. Short overview of language policy politics in India after its independence in 1947, with an emphasis on Hindi and decisions related to its promotion, sheds light on the sociolinguistic situation in contemporary India. One should bear in mind, however, that English is but the last dominant language on the Subcontinent, if one takes into account proposal by Sheldon Pollock and Zdravka Matišić on the existence of Sanskritic culture and its reflections in language usage on the Subcontinent (Chapter 3, Appendix 2.1.). Analysis consists of two parts: linguistic analysis (Chapter 4) and socio-linguistic analysis (Chapter 5). Both parts of analysis are followed by conclusions. Results reflect communicative strategies of Hindi speakers in the Parliament. They also show which English elements are inserted in Hindi. Analysis also introduces the non-linguistic characteristics of speakers such as their age, gender, political and regional affiliation etc. in the period 1950-2010 in order to decipher whether speakers with the same communicative strategy share same or similar non-linguistic characteristics as well. Speakers with EH elements represent constituencies of various regions in India. However, for the bigger part of them it is possible to assume that they come from Hindi speaking areas, particularly from Central and Eastern Hindi states. Speakers are mostly men, with high level of education. Many of them are aged between 46 and 65 and have various occupations. They also belong to various political parties. English interference in Hindi is described as EH interference of type 0, 1, 2, 3 or the sub-types EH 3;1 or 3;2. EH type 0 represents the absence of English interference in Hindi while EH type 3 stands for the code-switching type of interference. EH types 1 and 2 stand for code-mixing type of interference. The results confirm some of the already described characteristics of English-Hindi interference. The new element is the description of negation in combination with English verbs. English nouns code-mixed in Hindi have been described in detail as the most numerous interfering elements. The statistical analysis of collected data shows that 2 out of 3 Hindi speakers show elements of EH interference in his/her speech pattern throughout the analyzed period (1950-2010). Those elements are mostly of EH types 1 and 2. The analysis also suggests that the number of speakers with English elements is increasing, particularly after year 2000, in comparison to the amount of analyzed data. In the final chapter results are analyzed from the perspective of language policy and language identity. Since the simultaneous translation from English into Hindi and vice versa is available at all times in the Parliament, the question is why do speakers choose to communicate in Hindi with EH interference. The assumption that speakers cannot recollect a particular word during the speech is questionable as explanation since debate topics are known in advance and thus speakers have time to prepare for them. Another assumption that speakers try to make themselves understood by everyone in the communication act with code-mixing and code-switching as strategies is also not found as suitable explanation. Hence the question of language identity and language's social roles are introduced, having in mind particularly relations of language and power as well as of language and social status. From there it seems that the assumption of two language policies is in order. One language policy would then be overt and official and the second covert and unofficial. The assumption is that speakers base their communicative strategies taking in consideration both language policies.Tema je ovoga doktorskoga rada lingvistička i sociolingvistička analiza tipova miješanja engleskoga jezika u hindski jezik. Kao uvod u temu razmatra se općenito pitanje jezičnoga kontakta i teorijske pretpostavke o djelovanju jezičnoga kontakta na strukturu jezika (uvodno poglavlje i drugo poglavlje). U trećem poglavlju predstavlja se kratak pregled jezične politike općenito u Indiji nakon njezina osamostaljenja 1947., s naglaskom na odluke o hindskome jeziku. Važno je uočiti kompleksnost indijske sociolingvističke stvarnosti, prije svega u obrazovanju. Prema obrazovnoj politici, svaki učenik u Indiji dužan je za svoga školovanja ovladati trima jezicima. Kako učenici napreduju u obrazovanju, odnosno kako idu prema visokoškolskome obrazovanju, broj se jezika u nastavi smanjuje. Pri tome sve veću ulogu dobiva poznavanje engleskoga jezika. Neke od struka moguće je studirati jedino uz dostatno poznavanje engleskoga jezika budući da je on dominantan alat u tim strukama. Sličnu situaciju moguće je pratiti i u državnim institucijama, unatoč odluci da se hindski upotrebljava u državnim institucijama na sveindijskoj razini. Mediji i pravni sustav prate takvu sociolingvističku raspodjelu moći među jezicima. Iz svega toga može se zaključiti da je engleski posljednji u nizu dominantnih jezika slijedom pretpostavki Sheldona Pollocka i Zdravke Matišić o postojanju sanskrtske civilizacije i njezinu ogledanju u jezičnoj uporabi na Potkontinentu (treće poglavlje, dodatci 2.1.-2.3.). Razumijevanje postavki sanskrtske civilizacije važno je za praćenje zaključaka u završnome šestome poglavlju kao i za razumijevanje rezultata jezičnoga kontakta između engleskoga i hindskoga. U trećem poglavlju predstavljena su i jezična pravila i odredbe kojima je uređena upotreba jezika u indijskome parlamentu, odnosno u Donjem domu (Lok Sabhi). Sama je analiza podijeljena na lingvističku (četvrto poglavlje) i sociolingvističku (peto poglavlje) i popraćena zaključcima. Rezultati lingvističke analize odnose se na komunikacijske strategije govornika hindskoga jezika u Parlamentu i uočavanje vrste engleskih elemenata koji se miješaju s hindskim elementima u ostvaraju hindskoga jezika. U sociolingvističkoj se analizi prate izvanjezične karakteristike govornika kao što su dob, spol, politička i regionalna pripadnost itd. u razdoblju od 1950. do 2010. ne bi li se ustanovilo postojanje zajedničkih karakteristika govornika koji dijele određenu komunikacijsku strategiju. Istraživačica polazi od teze da se odnos engleskih i hindskih elemenata u ostvaraju hindskoga mijenja od 1950. prema 2010. prema kompleksnijem unosu engleskih elemenata. U sociolingvističkoj analizi pretpostavlja da će mlađa populacija govornika u parlamentu dominirati u upotrebi engleskih elemenata u hindskome jeziku. Utjecaj engleskoga na hindski opisan je kao EH interferencija tipa 0, 1, 2, 3 ili međutipova EH 3;1 ili 3;2. Pri tome se EH tip 0 odnosi na nulti stupanj interferencije tj. njezin izostanak, a EH tip 3 na interferenciju tipa prebacivanje kodova dok se EH tip 1 i EH tip 2 odnose na interferenciju tipa miješanje kodova. Rezultati analize potvrđuju neke od već uočenih i opisanih elemenata miješanja engleskoga koda u hindski kao i prebacivanja engleskoga i hindskoga koda. Novouočeni element je opis negacije u spoju s engleskim glagolima, a pobliže je opisano miješanje engleskih imenskih riječi kao najbrojnijih elemenata u ostvaraju hindskoga jezika u analiziranom materijalu. Statistička analiza pokazuje da u pregledanim dokumentima 2 od 3 govornika imaju elemente EH interferencije u svome ostvaraju hindskoga jezika, pretežito elemente EH tipa 1 ili EH tipa 2. Analiza također pokazuje da je broj govornika s umetnim elementima iz engleskoga jezika u porastu u odnosu na omjer materijala te da veći broj govornika nakon 2000. godine pokazuje takve karakteristike u svome ostvaraju hindskoga jezika. Govornici s engleskim elementima u hindskome govoru dolaze iz različitih krajeva Indije, ali se može pretpostaviti da većina ipak dolazi iz područja hindskoga govornoga područja, poglavito iz centralnih i istočnih hindskih saveznih država. Govornici su pretežno muškarci, s visokim stupnjem obrazovanja, u dobi od 46 do 65 godina, različitih zaposlenja. Pripadaju također različitim političkim strankama. U završnome šestome poglavlju rada rezultati analize se preispituju iz perspektive jezične politike i jezičnih identiteta. Kako je u parlamentu omogućen simultani prijevod s engleskoga odnosno hindskoga u svakome trenutku (vidi treće poglavlje za više detalja), postavlja se pitanje zašto govornici pribjegavaju komunikaciji na hindskome jeziku s elementima iz engleskoga jezika (EH interferencija). Pretpostavka da se ne mogu sjetiti u svakome trenutku kako se nešto kaže na hindskome dovodi se u pitanje, budući da su teme rasprave poznate unaprijed te se govornici mogu pripremiti za njih. Druga pretpostavka da govornici miješanjem ili prebacivanjem kodova žele omogućiti svim sudionicima da ih razumiju ponavljanjem poruke također ne zadovoljava. Stoga se uvodi pitanje jezičnoga identiteta i društvenih funkcija jezika – osiguravanje moći, utvrđivanje te potvrđivanje društvenoga statusa govornika. Iz te perspektive nadaje se zaključak kako treba pretpostaviti da uz službenu, javnu jezičnu politiku postoji i neslužbena jezična politika koju govornici uzimaju u obzir pri odabiru komunikacijskih strategija. Doktorski rad analiza jedan segment hindskoga korpusa političkoga diskurza. Kao takav doprinosi novim istraživanjima u istoj domeni te isto tako otvara prostor za analizu korpusa koji pripadaju drugim funkcionalnim stilovima hindskoga jezika. Rad također nudi mogućnost komparativne usporedbe utjecaja engleskoga jezika u hindskome i drugim indijskim jezicima budućim istraživačima

Religion and Aesthetic Experience

Religious aesthetics have gained increasing importance over the past few years in the fields of Religious studies and Islamic studies. This volume highlights the transcultural dimensions of the theoretical foundations of religious aesthetics. It explores aesthetic experience in the religious field through a series of case studies. These include Islamic sermons from the Middle East and South Asia, Islamic religious chanting, a chapter of the Qurʾān, a German performance artist, Indian rasa theory, and Arabic and Bengali literature. Together, the authors demonstrate that the analysis of the aesthetic forms of religious mediation across regions and genres is a fruitful approach to transcultural studies.Die Religionsästhetik hat in den vergangenen Jahren an Bedeutung innerhalb der Religions- und Islamwissenschaft gewonnen. Dieser Band betont die transkulturellen Dimensionen der theoretischen Grundlagen der Religionsästhetik und bietet Fallstudien über die Rolle ästhetischer Erfahrung in religiösen Kontexten. Diese umfassen islamische Predigten im Nahen Osten und Südasien, islamische religiöse Gesänge, ein Korankapitel, einen deutschen Performance-Künstler, indische rasa-Theorie und arabische wie bengalische Literatur. Zusammen zeigen die Autoren die Fruchtbarkeit der Analyse ästhetischer Formen von religiöser Vermittlung über verschiedene Regionen und Gattungen hinweg auf