A Profile of the Grammatical Variation in British and American English

This research paper attempts to focus on the main and major differences and idiosyncrasies of grammar and grammar related issues in British and American English. These differences have a great influence on learning and using the English language. In fact, British and American English are one language having two (slightly) different grammars. Although there is a popular notion about American English to be more simplified and flexible, we have to keep it in mind about the subtleties, complexities and identifications too. American English is now different from its British mother and we could say it is more than another dialect due to its importance as well as control over the world affairs at present. The fall of the then USSR, the US popular media, open market, globalization, the internet etc have made American English more powerful than ever before. But still today, the number of British English users is more than that of American English. Sometimes, it is noticed by and large that the misuse and the misconception in handling these two major varieties of English pose various problems. So, the main concern of this current paper is to remove the possible mistakes and confusions about the two different but related varieties of English, specially in most of the areas of grammar, syntax and the like

The Utility Extent of Linguistics to Language Teaching: An Experimental Evaluation

To approach the very questions how and how far linguistics helps language teaching, we have to examine, analyze and evaluate them critically from various view-points. During the Second World War, the importance of linguistics in language teaching was noticed forthwith for the first time. Linguistics and language teaching have the same subject matter to deal with. Though linguistics is the scientific study of language, it has some specific role to play in the process of language teaching from the earlier to the modern times. Stephen Pit Corder (1975:143) says, “… the relevance of theoretical linguistics to language teaching is indirect and it is not the task of a theoretical linguist to say what relevance it may have. This is the field of applied linguistics.” According to the American linguist Noam Chomsky and some others, applied linguistics has a direct relationship with language teaching which is a pragmatic process and cannot take place in a total isolation. It takes help from various related sources and fields such as general, educational and social psychology; sociology, social anthropology and so on. Here, linguistics provides a language teacher with effective tools. However, as Dwight Bollinger says (1975a:22), “Language teaching is not linguistics, any more than medicine is chemistry….” So, the aim of this paper is to show the role of linguistics in teaching both foreign languages and any first languages or mother tongues

Syntax of Standard English and Bangla: A Bilingual Study of Simple Declarative Sentences

This research paper explores much of the basic and background knowledge of English and Bangla sentence patterns or structures as well as tries to compare and contrast between these two very languages, English and Bangla at the sentential levels. As it is known the concept of basic sentence structures is necessary for classroom teaching and learning to perceive the subtleties of language at the highest unit of grammar, this study is expected to facilitate the understanding of bilingual relationships between them (may be as a native or a foreign language) for researchers, teachers, learners and/or speakers of both the languages. The ideas drawn from the findings in this paper will also help one in the field of translating amid these two languages which is pedagogically very significant as well. For a few dissimilarities, we often notice greatly faulty grammatical constructions both in English and Bangla, when learners or users shift from one to another. So, this study of the two types of sentence patterns along with their components will be of considerable use to many, specially to those who teach, learn or use these languages

A Discourse on Bangla Translation of Arabic Texts: Need-Based Studies in Bilingual Issues

In this paper, the challenges of translating Arabic into Bangla and finding any possible means are tried to some great extent. Translation is at all times a very tough task and confronted with various issues. Since translation is one of the most intricate and subtle areas of language studies, translators must be aware of both the surface and underlying relations of language. The characteristic elements are also transferred from one language into the other through translation. Translation from Arabic to Bangla or vice versa creates a lot of difficulties because these two languages are of different and distant origins though translation between two languages from the same origin has fewer difficulties. The problems of translation falls under five major areas of language: syntactic, semantic, stylistic, phonological and usage. So, this research paper focuses on some need-based discussion regarding translating the Arabic text, specially the language, into Bangla. To help the non-native users of the two languages understand better, the IPA transcription as well as English meaning is also provided where necessary

An Analysis of Arabic-English Translation: Problems and Prospects

This research paper is designed with a view to looking into various problems of translating Arabic texts into English and fixing them with prospective and suitable solutions. As translation is a very sensitive and subtle task of language studies, it involves some serious issues to deal with. However, it becomes a more complex task when we translate from Arabic to English. So, a translator must have the critical linguistic knowledge in tackling both the surface and underlying relations of language. Translation also entails the transferring and transforming a variety of characteristic elements from one language into the other. As Arabic and English are of different and distant origins, any translation from one script into the other poses a lot of difficulties such as in the areas of vocabulary, grammar, sound, style and usage. The present paper addresses the problems relating to translating the Arabic texts, specially of the language, into English as well as resolving the obstructions in a practical, possible and acceptable way on the bases of types of readership, text, context, culture and so forth. To make this work more accessible to the non-native users of the Arabic language, Arabic IPA transcriptions are furnished wherever necessary