<jats:p>Genetic and geological studies reveal that following the melting of snows 22,000 ye... more <jats:p>Genetic and geological studies reveal that following the melting of snows 22,000 years ago, the post Ice-age Sundaland peoples' migrations as well as other peoples' migrations spread the ancestors of the two distinct ethnic groups Austronesian and Austroasiatic to various East and South–East Asian countries. Some of the Austroasiatic groups must have migrated to Northeast India at a later date, and whose descendants are today's Munda-speaking people of Northeast, East and Southcentral India. Language is the store-house of one's ancestral knowledge, the community's history, its skills, customs, rituals and rites, attire and cuisine, sports and games, pleasantries and sorrows, terrain and geography, climate and seasons, family and neighbourhoods, greetings and address-forms and so on. Language loss leads to loss of social identity and cultural knowledge, loss of ecological knowledge, and much more. Linguistic hegemony marginalizes and subdues the mother-tongues of the peripheral groups of a society, thereby the community's narratives, histories, skills etc. are erased from their memories, and fabricated narratives are created to replace them. Each social-group has its own norms of extending respect to a hearer, and a stranger. Similarly there are social rules of expressing grief, condoling, consoling, mourning and so on. The emergence of nation-states after the 2nd World War has made it imperative for every social group to build an authentic, indigenous narrative with intellectual rigour to sustain itself politically and ideologically and progress forward peacefully. The present essay will attempt to introduce variants of linguistic-anthropology practiced in the West, and their genesis and importance for the Asian speech communities. An attempt shall be made to outline a Khymer narrative with inputs from Khymer History, Art and Architecture, Agriculture and Language, for the scholars to take into account, for putting Cambodia on the path to peace, progress and development.</jats:p>
Richard Trim makes an attempt to track the evolution of the use of metaphors in languages/ litera... more Richard Trim makes an attempt to track the evolution of the use of metaphors in languages/ literatures across Europe. The European literature from the pre-Christian Greek and Roman times through medieval literatures exhibits a strong linkage in the figurative use of language(s) but in the modern European languages he finds a tendency to exhibit differences in metaphor coinages, which is primarily due to the influence of various social-religious movements. Trim claims, for example, that ‘‘despite a common cultural heritage, European languages reveal a distinct cleavage in the second phase of the drugs scenario’’ (70). While presenting ‘‘a case study of the evolution of love metaphor,’’ he remarks: ‘‘Different cultural concepts of love are reflected in metaphor. These differences are often explained by a culture’s history which, particularly in the case of English, is often linked to religion’’ (174–75). He describes an episode from 1930 in which the anthropologist Audrey Richards recounts his experience among the Bemba of Northern Rhodesia: ‘‘an English folk-fable about a young prince who climbed glass mountains, crossed chasms, and fought dragons, all to obtain the hand of the maiden he loved. The Bemba were plainly bewildered,’’ but ‘‘finally, an old chief voicing the feelings of all those present asked: ‘Why not take another girl’’’ (174). There is a useful discussion on homonymy and polysemy (92ff.) where the author looks at the creation and expansion of metaphors through such sense relations. He also accounts for vagueness and ambiguity, culture specific metaphors (like colour terms), and theories of culture/metaphor, including John Searle’s description of ‘‘dead metaphors.’’ Prototype theory, although much critiqued, does offer ‘‘a starting point in understanding how basic metaphor structures are extended to new metaphor creation’’ (18). The use of mother tongue/country can, for example, be seen as an extension of the ‘‘core’’ concept ‘mother.’ Since in Latin both mother and father were used with these connotations, one finds, for example, the German ‘‘father-land’’ (vaterland). He suggests that ‘‘most figurative concepts are in some way conceptually linked to others. They appear at different levels: one word or multiple word metaphors or metonyms, a short idiomatic phrase or proverbial expression, long passages of personification or extensive areas of experience involving the conceptualization of a single mapping base’’ (19). Metaphor Networks provides a rich critical overview of various theories of metaphor. It will be of immense value to scholars, and students of semantics, translation, and historical linguistics.
Contains twelve of the sixteen papers presented at the linguistics section of the 12th world Sans... more Contains twelve of the sixteen papers presented at the linguistics section of the 12th world Sanskrit conference Helsinki, final 13 july 2003. These papers span a wide range of topics extending from Common Indo-Iranian all the way to modern Indo-Aryan.
This paper aims at consolidating various viewpoints held by scholars on the status of the vector ... more This paper aims at consolidating various viewpoints held by scholars on the status of the vector or second verb in sentences with compound verbs in Hindi.
The Gandhian strategy of mobilising people has been successfully employed internationally by many... more The Gandhian strategy of mobilising people has been successfully employed internationally by many marginalized communities under the leadership of Martin Luther King in the United States, Nelson Mandela in South Africa, and Aung Saan Sun Kyi in Myanmar. Albert Einstein observed: " Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth ". The present essay presents a brief overview of Gandhian principles and attempts to support minor modifications therein in accordance with the time and space to build a strain-free and peace-loving, democratic, secure, fearless, crime-free society across the continents.
The colonial scholars created wedges between/among communities to justify their own presence and ... more The colonial scholars created wedges between/among communities to justify their own presence and mis-rule.
<jats:p>Genetic and geological studies reveal that following the melting of snows 22,000 ye... more <jats:p>Genetic and geological studies reveal that following the melting of snows 22,000 years ago, the post Ice-age Sundaland peoples' migrations as well as other peoples' migrations spread the ancestors of the two distinct ethnic groups Austronesian and Austroasiatic to various East and South–East Asian countries. Some of the Austroasiatic groups must have migrated to Northeast India at a later date, and whose descendants are today's Munda-speaking people of Northeast, East and Southcentral India. Language is the store-house of one's ancestral knowledge, the community's history, its skills, customs, rituals and rites, attire and cuisine, sports and games, pleasantries and sorrows, terrain and geography, climate and seasons, family and neighbourhoods, greetings and address-forms and so on. Language loss leads to loss of social identity and cultural knowledge, loss of ecological knowledge, and much more. Linguistic hegemony marginalizes and subdues the mother-tongues of the peripheral groups of a society, thereby the community's narratives, histories, skills etc. are erased from their memories, and fabricated narratives are created to replace them. Each social-group has its own norms of extending respect to a hearer, and a stranger. Similarly there are social rules of expressing grief, condoling, consoling, mourning and so on. The emergence of nation-states after the 2nd World War has made it imperative for every social group to build an authentic, indigenous narrative with intellectual rigour to sustain itself politically and ideologically and progress forward peacefully. The present essay will attempt to introduce variants of linguistic-anthropology practiced in the West, and their genesis and importance for the Asian speech communities. An attempt shall be made to outline a Khymer narrative with inputs from Khymer History, Art and Architecture, Agriculture and Language, for the scholars to take into account, for putting Cambodia on the path to peace, progress and development.</jats:p>
Richard Trim makes an attempt to track the evolution of the use of metaphors in languages/ litera... more Richard Trim makes an attempt to track the evolution of the use of metaphors in languages/ literatures across Europe. The European literature from the pre-Christian Greek and Roman times through medieval literatures exhibits a strong linkage in the figurative use of language(s) but in the modern European languages he finds a tendency to exhibit differences in metaphor coinages, which is primarily due to the influence of various social-religious movements. Trim claims, for example, that ‘‘despite a common cultural heritage, European languages reveal a distinct cleavage in the second phase of the drugs scenario’’ (70). While presenting ‘‘a case study of the evolution of love metaphor,’’ he remarks: ‘‘Different cultural concepts of love are reflected in metaphor. These differences are often explained by a culture’s history which, particularly in the case of English, is often linked to religion’’ (174–75). He describes an episode from 1930 in which the anthropologist Audrey Richards recounts his experience among the Bemba of Northern Rhodesia: ‘‘an English folk-fable about a young prince who climbed glass mountains, crossed chasms, and fought dragons, all to obtain the hand of the maiden he loved. The Bemba were plainly bewildered,’’ but ‘‘finally, an old chief voicing the feelings of all those present asked: ‘Why not take another girl’’’ (174). There is a useful discussion on homonymy and polysemy (92ff.) where the author looks at the creation and expansion of metaphors through such sense relations. He also accounts for vagueness and ambiguity, culture specific metaphors (like colour terms), and theories of culture/metaphor, including John Searle’s description of ‘‘dead metaphors.’’ Prototype theory, although much critiqued, does offer ‘‘a starting point in understanding how basic metaphor structures are extended to new metaphor creation’’ (18). The use of mother tongue/country can, for example, be seen as an extension of the ‘‘core’’ concept ‘mother.’ Since in Latin both mother and father were used with these connotations, one finds, for example, the German ‘‘father-land’’ (vaterland). He suggests that ‘‘most figurative concepts are in some way conceptually linked to others. They appear at different levels: one word or multiple word metaphors or metonyms, a short idiomatic phrase or proverbial expression, long passages of personification or extensive areas of experience involving the conceptualization of a single mapping base’’ (19). Metaphor Networks provides a rich critical overview of various theories of metaphor. It will be of immense value to scholars, and students of semantics, translation, and historical linguistics.
Contains twelve of the sixteen papers presented at the linguistics section of the 12th world Sans... more Contains twelve of the sixteen papers presented at the linguistics section of the 12th world Sanskrit conference Helsinki, final 13 july 2003. These papers span a wide range of topics extending from Common Indo-Iranian all the way to modern Indo-Aryan.
This paper aims at consolidating various viewpoints held by scholars on the status of the vector ... more This paper aims at consolidating various viewpoints held by scholars on the status of the vector or second verb in sentences with compound verbs in Hindi.
The Gandhian strategy of mobilising people has been successfully employed internationally by many... more The Gandhian strategy of mobilising people has been successfully employed internationally by many marginalized communities under the leadership of Martin Luther King in the United States, Nelson Mandela in South Africa, and Aung Saan Sun Kyi in Myanmar. Albert Einstein observed: " Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth ". The present essay presents a brief overview of Gandhian principles and attempts to support minor modifications therein in accordance with the time and space to build a strain-free and peace-loving, democratic, secure, fearless, crime-free society across the continents.
The colonial scholars created wedges between/among communities to justify their own presence and ... more The colonial scholars created wedges between/among communities to justify their own presence and mis-rule.
Modern China has asserted its distinctiveness while engaging with the world on its own terms. Chi... more Modern China has asserted its distinctiveness while engaging with the world on its own terms. China, thus, offers a good counterexample to the claim that globalization necessarily means westernization. There is a large movement among the Chinese to develop 'Confucian modernity' based on Confucian ethics. Many Chinese thinkers are offering ideas as alternatives to Max Weber's Protestant Ethics on which Western modernity was formulated. China, therefore, positions itself and its ancient civilization as being on par with the West. Japan has preserved its distinct cultural norms and identity, while remaining a major global economy. These instances demonstrate that being different from the West does not mean remaining in isolation, stuck in pre-modernity.
India today is home to three types of widely-used scripts: 1-Brahmi-based Indic scripts; 2-Roman ... more India today is home to three types of widely-used scripts: 1-Brahmi-based Indic scripts; 2-Roman based systems used for writing Khasi, etc.; 3-Arabic and Persian based Nastaliq (Urdu) script. In addition to these, there are unexplored indigenous scripts, community scripts which are not available to wider audiences. Historically speaking, people of the Indus and Harappa civilizations also had an understanding of writing, but those writing systems have not been deciphered so far (See Kak 2007). There are no authentic records of the nature/names of scripts and languages that were taught as subjects or medium/mediums at the renowned educational institutions during the pre-Mauryan [pre-Ashoka] times at the places like Taxila, Sharada, Nalanda and so on. One of the Jataka-s informs/records that the Buddha was supposed to learn as many as sixty-four scripts. According to one theory, Brahmi is descended from the Indus-Saraswati script (See Kak. op.cit.). Brahmi script comes down to us from Ashokan inscriptions and stone engravings from the third century BCE. Kharoshthi, the other script used at that time, which was written from right to left has disappeared. Most of the Buddhist literature written in central Asia at that time used this script. A serious question to ponder is: Do Perso-Arabic and Nastaliq scripts share any structural-phonetic features with Kharashthi? Brahmi-based Indic scripts are written from left to right, the Roman script is also written from left to right. Nastaliq like its source Perso-Arabic is written from right to left. Indic scripts are alpha-syllabries or abugida where a consonant-letter except the anusvara and visarga, have a CV structure, the V in these consonant-letters is an 'a', which is deleted with the help of a diacritic mark called halanta. Deletion of the vowel 'a' in a vowel-sandhi [a-a] situation is denoted by avagraha-an elongated S like sign. The replacement of 'a' from a consonant-letter requires a matra-system in these writing systems. 'a', obviously, does not need a 'matra', all other vowel-letters need a matra. Hence, the writing system is called an alpha-syllabry or abugida. The Brahmi
India, West Asia (Arabia and Persia), East Asia (China and Japan) have given birth to great creat... more India, West Asia (Arabia and Persia), East Asia (China and Japan) have given birth to great creative minds whose poetry as well as prose writings have enriched not only the syntax of the respective languages but also the imaginations and creations of future generations of creative minds. Ancient Indian aesthetes sifted through creative works from time to time and propounded theories of aesthetics to account for the creative mind's imagination and originality, the contents and structure of the work as well as the objectives and aims of the work. Standards were set to treat a work of art as a creative piece or otherwise. Creative minds used to be conscious of the standards of creation, and they created a work of art with care. Bharata's theory of Rasa [logos, pathos and ethos], Bhāma's theory of alankāra [Embellishment], Vāman's theory of Rīti [Style], Ānandavarman's theory of dhvani [sound] are the earliest attempts to analyze a creative mind's choice of lexis, use of myths, proverbs, similes, metaphors, personification, images and ornamental language. The present essay attempts to investigate the contribution of ancient Indian, West Asian and East Asian aesthetes to the study of a creative mind's qualities of his/her presentation.
India, West Asia (Arabia and Persia), East Asia (China and Japan) have given birth to great creat... more India, West Asia (Arabia and Persia), East Asia (China and Japan) have given birth to great creative minds whose poetry as well as prose writings have enriched not only the syntax of the respective languages but also the imaginations and creations of future generations of creative minds. Ancient Indian aesthetes sifted through creative works from time to time and propounded theories of aesthetics to account for the creative mind's imagination and originality, the contents and structure of the work as well as the objectives and aims of the work. Standards were set to treat a work of art as a creative piece or otherwise. Creative minds used to be conscious of the standards of creation, and they created a work of art with care. Bharata's theory of Rasa [logos, pathos and ethos], Bhāma's theory of alankāra [Embellishment], Vāman's theory of Rīti [Style], Ānandavarman's theory of dhvani [sound] are the earliest attempts to analyze a creative mind's choice of lexis, use of myths, proverbs, similes, metaphors, personification, images and ornamental language. The present essay attempts to investigate the contribution of ancient Indian, West Asian and East Asian aesthetes to the study of a creative mind's qualities of his/her presentation.
Sarala Dasa is the 'adi-kavi' of Odia literature, a creative genius who retold Vyasa's long Sansk... more Sarala Dasa is the 'adi-kavi' of Odia literature, a creative genius who retold Vyasa's long Sanskrit narrative, Mahabharata {MBh hereafter}, in vernacular Odia of the fifteenth century, when the Odia lexis had not been categorized as formal, informal and semi-formal nor had the stylistic parameters of verse been set up. He Odianized/localised almost the entire 'alien' narrative, names of the characters, references to places to attract the native, non-elite Odia audiences to the itihaasa-purana. Sarala, the poet has used 'quoted material', of the long and meandering story of MBh to report to the listeners at another yuga (page 37). Odisha was ruled by many non-Odia rulers till the fifteenth century and Sanskrit was the language of administration and intellection. Odia language was far from getting any patronage.
Sarala Dāsa is the 'ādi-kavi' of Odia literature, a creative genius who retold Vyāsa's long Sansk... more Sarala Dāsa is the 'ādi-kavi' of Odia literature, a creative genius who retold Vyāsa's long Sanskrit narrative, Mahābhārata {MBh hereafter}, in vernacular Odia of the fifteenth century, when the Odia lexis had not been categorized as formal, informal and semi-formal nor had the stylistic parameters of verse been set up. He Odianized/localised almost the entire 'alien' narrative, names of the characters, references to places to attract t he native non-elite Odia audiences to the itihāsa-purāna. Sarala, the poet has used 'quoted material', of the long and meandering story of MBh to report to the listeners at another yuga (page 37). Odisha was ruled by non-Odia rulers till the fifteenth century and Sanskrit was the language of administration and intellectual activities. Odia language was far from getting any patronage.
Human-beings attempt to quantify almost everything they come in contact with; however, different ... more Human-beings attempt to quantify almost everything they come in contact with; however, different things are quantified in different units of measure: time is measured in hours, minutes and seconds whereas the distance between any two places is measured in miles/kilometres; length is measured in meters/ centimeters. Number system, therefore, defines a set of values used to represent a quantity. Number Systems can be traced back to the early civilisations of India, Egypt and Babylon. Some of the familiar number-systems are: Indic, Arabic, Babylonian, Mayan and Roman. The Roman number system uses numerals to represent each number, e.g. the number 5 is represented as V. In contrast, the most commonly used system is the Indic-Arabic system which uses the digits 0 to 9. Decimal number system has base 10 because it uses ten digits from 0 to 9. In decimal number system, the positions successive to the left of the decimal point represent units, tens, hundreds, thousands and so on. [Each number system can be defined by its base (sometimes referred to as the radix). This base value of the number system indicates the number of different values the set has before repeating itself, e.g. Decimal has a base of ten values, hence, the digits 0-9, Octal has a base of 8 values, hence the digits 0-7]. [A numeral system (or system of numeration) is a writing system for expressing numbers; that is, a mathematical notation for representing numbers. The number the numeral represents is called its value].
Here is an attempt to probe 'meaning' or 'the lack of it' in linguistic sign-system. Meaning is c... more Here is an attempt to probe 'meaning' or 'the lack of it' in linguistic sign-system. Meaning is considered as the fundamental and essential function of human-language and other sign-systems. The communication of ideas,
Genetic and geological studies reveal that following the melting of snows 22,000 years ago, the p... more Genetic and geological studies reveal that following the melting of snows 22,000 years ago, the post Ice-age Sundaland peoples’ migrations as well as other peoples’ migrations spread the ancestors of the two distinct ethnic groups Austronesian and Austroasiatic to various East and South–East Asian countries. Some of the Austroasiatic groups must have migrated to Northeast India at a later date, and whose descendants are today’s Munda-speaking people of Northeast, East and Southcentral India. Language is the store-house of one’s ancestral knowledge, the community’s history, its skills, customs, rituals and rites, attire and cuisine, sports and games, pleasantries and sorrows, terrain and geography, climate and seasons, family and neighbourhoods, greetings and addressforms and so on. Language loss leads to loss of social identity and cultural knowledge, loss of ecological knowledge, and much more. Linguistic hegemony marginalizes and subdues the mother-tongues of the peripheral groups of a society, thereby the community’s narratives, histories, skills etc. are erased from their memories, and fabricated narratives are created to replace them. Each social-group has its own norms of extending respect to a hearer, and a stranger. Similarly there are social rules of expressing grief, condoling, consoling, mourning and so on. The emergence of nation-states after the 2nd World War has made it imperative for every social group to build an authentic, indigenous narrative with intellectual rigour to sustain itself politically and ideologically and progress forward peacefully. The present essay will attempt to introduce variants of linguistic-anthropology practiced in the West, and their genesis and importance for the Asian speech communities. An attempt shall be made to outline a Khymer narrative with inputs from Khymer History, Art and Architecture, Agriculture and Language, for the scholars to take into account, for putting Cambodia on the path to peace, progress and development.
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