ah how we learn a language ok which language
do you speak
telugu
how did you learn that
mother tongue at home
right but how
we we we live at home
yeah
right we eat somebody cooks that food doesnt
happen that we just ah stay at home and eat
how did you learn language telugu and ah
parents taught me ah
did they really
i repeated ah what have they say ah during
my childhood sir
are you sure that they taught you
yes sir ah that is what is happen in
or other people sure that you were taught
these languages that you speak
not as we learnt english but ah
right that thats a good example when you go
to school did did you all learn english in
school
yes
did you learn english at home
no sir
i mean little bit here and there but formally
you learnt english in schools right were you
taught telugu the the way you were taught
english
no
no but which one do you speak more comfortably
telugu
so does this does this ah make you wonder
sometimes the language that you are not taught
formally you speak better than the language
that you were taught formally in your school
and you paid for that
sir may be because i think in telugu
my brain
sure oh all that what you are saying is true
i am not debating any one of them though all
i am asking you is does this make you wonder
sometimes that i paid for something to learn
that then why do i not think in english or
if at all i do i am not saying that you dont
think in telugu sorry dont think in english
if i think in english why do i still feel
more comfortable with telugu or tamil or ah
respective languages you see you understand
this this question and i am i am not really
asking for a serious answer from you i am
only asking you to understand that these are
the things we are going to learn how does
it happen that we end up a speaking language
right and more than that when we say language
what do you mean by that these are the fundamental
objectives of this and little bit more into
objectives i am going to go with you when
i talk to you about linguistics and language
today just a generic introduction about the
discipline and ah the object of enquiry remember
last time we were discussing that in this
discipline
we study about language ok and when we study
about language that that simply means language
is the object of enquiry in ah this discipline
right i remember ah many many of you are from
mechanical engineering if someone asks you
one simple question what do you study in mechanical
engineering in one sentence what will 
you say
engineering is
no
nothing
i common dont dont say that what do you study
in mechanical engineering
nothing
in one sentence i i know you can speak for
an hour but in one sentence and if you think
hard the answer is going to be similar the
answer is going to be same from everybody
what do you what do you study about
that is fine but what is the mechanical engineering
about
study of machines
study of
machines
machines right machinery and machines whatever
you study is finally going to collide with
and we can we can call that the study of or
about machines
similarly whatever we study in this discipline
from varieties of perspectives this is about
language ok and then there are several interesting
questions like couple of them i just asked
you right ah and and more ah some of them
we will discuss today ah when we move one
by one these are the things that we study
more than that ah i i also went through the
topics that we will be covering besides ah
the scheme as soon as your class representative
gets ready with the with a google group and
you have a ah subscribe to that ah i will
post the post the preliminary slice and all
these things on that so that you have them
accessible for you to take a look at all right
so i already talked to you about ah ah ah
linguistics we we discussed this thing as
well last time so let let me say this thing
in this discipline
we studied language in a systematic way right
like like you study about machines in a systematic
way an and i hope at this stage you understand
what we mean by systematic way we and that
is called ah systematic way is in an organized
way in a shine ah in a in a scientific way
and ah what we look at within language primarily
and what we are going to be looking at primarily
in this class are sounds words and sentences
and the we will try to understand structure
of language at the level of sounds words and
sentences all right
there are uh there are an an and i am going
to talk to you about what we mean by language
and how we learn a language see ah when we
when we talk about ah let me introduce you
to a couple of more names ah that you will
hear in this in the in this discipline some
of the some of the things like we study about
sounds and that area of a study is called
ah phonetics and phonology ok the does it
make sense the the word it comes from the
word phone and phone refers to sounds so when
we study about sounds that discipline is called
fanatics or phonology to be more precise the
articulatory system of humans is part of phonetics
and when
when we have final outcome what we know as
sounds the study of that is called a phonology
do we do we understand by articulatory system
the vocal apparatus the way we speak language
and i will i will talk about that as well
ah shortly we study about words in ah in the
discipline called morphology ok ah i am i
am going to come to these these things in
in a in not too much details but in short
ah very soon and then when we move to the
level of sentences that particular discipline
is called syntax and your this course is particularly
located in that so we will be talking about
sounds and words little bit for us to reach
the level from where we can discuss sentences
from where we can understand how we come up
with sentences and
then we will spend little bit time on understanding
how sentences work in natural languages all
right and then ah language is not just about
sounds words and sentences its about meanings
right what is it sometimes we say certain
ah sentences and sometimes we mean in mean
with those sentences in a literal way and
sometimes sentences have more meaning than
their literal total do you understand this
part ah ah which is to say lot of times sentences
do not mean only the total of the meaning
of words involved in it right ah an and all
all of that and more than that everything
related to meaning of a sentence and meaning
of what we are saying is studied in this discipline
called ah ah semantics ok and then as ah as
you know ah uh language is hugely hugely related
to society it is used in society ah
we we learn language in society we we need
a language for society so all kinds of intersections
between language and society is studied in
this discipline called socio linguistics ok
these are some of the core areas of a studies
in ah study of language core aspects of a
study in the study of language and these are
the names of some of the disciplines in which
we are study about language ok and ah as you
know when we put things under category when
we look at words sounds sentences meaning
social interactions such categorizations itself
is called a systematic ah classification a
systematic way
so when we said in the beginning its its about
systematic study that systematic study doesnt
mean too much ok its simply means in a ah
categorized way one by one and in every possible
details ok then there comes a part of language
study which is which is ah ah which is also
a studied in linguistics and i am going to
give you these names just so that you are
familiar with these things ah when we learn
about languages with those things like sounds
words sentences its meanings how they mean
how words mean something how sentences means
something right ah ah we
we apply such things to understand certain
other things as well ok in that case and that
type of a study is called applied study ok
ah and it happens with the study of language
as well so when we want to a study ah a application
of language in understanding or designing
machines or intelligent or not intelligent
machines ah an interaction of language and
computers such things are studied in computational
linguistics ok how ah uh what is the relationship
between language and human mind and particularly
its the functioning of mind in a greater details
is what people study in this area called neuro
linguistics ok and likewise ah interactions
between ah human psychology and language and
its uh ah relationship of language with psychology
is studied in psycholinguistics and ah
very lately ah not not really uh ah it its
what i mean is its not a recent phenomenon
but it has its the the attention has gone
in that directions lately ah therefore i said
lately people have a started studying ah overlap
between human genes and language ah where
fundamental question is is language located
in human genes because the way we speak only
humans speak that way which uh which is to
say other species with life do not speak the
way we do if language something is specific
to human genes and couple of more questions
related to this area is what people are study
in this ah discipline called bio linguistics
ok ah
its not a fashionable term simply ah it its
a very serious ah uh very some some very serious
studies ah are going on in this area however
not much is available to establish the connection
between human genes and and ah language ok
so the and and these areas are called applied
areas of linguistics where we apply what we
know what we call theoretical knowledge or
fundamental fundamental aspects of a language
study in variety of ways to a study different
things is what we know is applied linguistics
i have just mentioned four or five names there
are more lot more for for example when we
want to establish ah historical development
of language or ah
how over a period of time language evolved
ah take take an example of ah english ah all
of you when you were studying english or you
have a studied something about english you
must have heard names of a ah shakespeare
the i am i am using this famous name just
to make sure that everybody knows if you read
english or shakes shakespearean writings in
english is not what how is be ok and for that
matter in the same way the way we spea you
speak telugu or tamil or hindi is not what
the way these languages were two hundred years
ago or for that matter fifty years ago so
what causes any kind of motivated or unmotivated
change in language
such things are studied in ah um ah what we
know is historical linguistics and then then
there are overlaps of these things as well
ah society history and something else psychology
so that i i dont know what that will be called
so these names can be coined ah depending
upon what people want to be study and what
they mean by that name so these names are
not that important what we what we need to
understand that there are two two but two
broad aspects of a study of language in one
we study some fundamental basics about language
and we learned ah learned ah ah learn ah such
those ah those aspects in a systematic way
which we refer to them as theoretical linguistics
or fundamentals fundamentals of linguistics
and then when we apply such knowledge to is
study more understand more we call them applied
linguistics and this is this is what we what
people do in this area of ah ah study which
what we call linguistics at this stage if
i tell tell you or if i ask you ah you still
have time to answer ah these questions but
if someone asks you what what is it that you
study in in linguistics you think you will
be able to say something about that right
all right did i should i take that as yes
or no
yes
yes all right very good ah now ah lets lets
talk little bit about language which i said
is the object of enquiry in their study of
this in the last class a i had asked you this
question and i think we are started talking
about this what is it what is language right
and remember i had asked each one of you about
your language what what you speak did i did
i did i ask this question ok so ah and and
we came up with the names of many languages
right and if i remember correctly everybody
mentioned at least two to three languages
right is that is that is still correct or
has there been any change in that still correct
how many what what else do you speak other
than telugu
telugu tamil or english hindi
yeah see that i think that thats going to
be true for most of the people all right then
we went to the question difference between
what we call language and languages remember
this language and languages its an its an
important distinction for us to make lot of
times people use these two terms interchangeably
there is absolutely no problem using them
interchangeably as long as we understand what
we mean by these two terms and what was the
distinction that we established i think we
had talked about that little bit what was
the distinction that we had established anybody
it is an abstract concept of what language
means and languages examples like english
right good can we describe that in a little
bit ah little bit more obvious terms we we
had talked about one example also now i remember
we talked about an example
what is a car
what is a car right when we say car right
we dont mean name of a car what is car what
does the term car refer to when somebody tells
you do you have a car or or asks you do you
have a car do they mean do you have a mercedes
what do they mean
transport vehicle
transport vehicle or its it could be more
precise
four wheeler
something that looks like a car right but
they are not interested in which one right
thats the distinction between language and
languages and and the reason why i am giving
you this example or or for for this distinction
for for this ah point is very very specific
the reason is ah its easy for us to understand
not just because you are mechanical engineers
or or electrical engineers or other its its
very normal for anyone to understand that
there are lots of similarities in all the
cars that we see right for a even even if
you dont go into the specifics of them if
you just take a look at them by looks there
are similarities right all you can you can
put all cars that you know about in one category
the moment you find something called ah let
say bus right
so what what we are talking about is there
are lots of superficial similarities and then
there are lots of similarities which are deep
rooted when we say car that is similarities
among all types of cars right and then again
there may not be a lot of deep rooted differences
among all of them right but there are going
to be lot of not so visible differences among
all of them right there is there is no point
going into the details of their differences
i am just taking it for ah taking as an assumption
that you understand what i what i mean by
them similar things similar things are applicable
to the similarities and differences of languages
ok so so i begin with this by saying that
languages are now now i am using the term
languages the the names that you are referring
to are instances of language and then the
moment we hear more names we call them languages
right so languages have lot of similarities
among one another ok at the same time and
they may be the though such similarities maybe
superficial similarity as well as similarities
that are difficult for us to see and
likewise they have lot of differences among
one another obvious differences and ah and
ah systematic differences among one another
similarities of all the languages is what
we referred to as principles of language and
such differences that exist we refer to them
as parametric differences ok so we we can
say languages are similar to one another in
a systematic way in a principled way not that
they are different not in a principled way
they are different in a principled way as
well but languages vary from one another around
certain parameters ok this is what why this
these two terms here in the in the title of
this course principles and parameters of of
natural language ok
ah ah i i want to give you one quick example
of such similarities and differences ok ok
or rather let me ask you ah you know more
than one language right lets lets talk about
tamil and english or telugu and english if
someone asks you is there any similarity between
tamil and tamil and ah english what will be
their answer any similarity between these
two languages yes and then the next question
the obvious question will be what could be
one such example of such similarities right
how will you answer that question
pretty simple simple things this only requires
you to think little little higher what would
be what would be such similarity between two
languages namely english and ah tamil which
are substantially very different from one
another can you give me one example of that
both have a grammar system
that will be similarity between all the languages
all of them have grammar system and and we
will look at that as well ah in in other other
words we can say new language exists without
a grammar system that is new lang by grammar
system we simply mean a system right its its
just a notational thing that the system underlying
languages or language is called grammar system
underlying language the distinction that we
have made between language and languages system
underlying language is called grammar or principle
they are the they mean the same thing we can
call it system we can call it grammar we can
call it principles they mean the same thing
ok and ah there therefore there could be no
language without a system they that is there
is no language which is which is ah unsystematic
all right so true there both of them have
system underlying them but if we probably
little harder we and uh we are when we are
looking for an example we look for more concrete
examples
and it that thats not very difficult who who
speaks tamil and english both anybody ok good
many people right so very difficult to say
that
sir both are national languages also
both are national languages of what
sri lanka malaysia
and ok that thats fine too let me not dismiss
that right away we will we will talk about
those national part as well but right now
i am talking about that system of language
they have similar sentence structures sir
similar sentences structure and what would
that refer to
ah in english we say my name is rishab in
tamil it is very similar meaning refers to
my name and rishab is rishab
so so what what he is saying is the way we
construct the sentence is very similar in
two languages right so when we have a when
we have a sentence in a sentence there are
certain elements of language you must have
otherwise there is no sentence there is no
language ok and then the differences among
the two between the two are pretty obvious
right can you give me an example of a of differences
between the two as well
phonetics
of course phonetics lot of suchs such differences
exist but since you gave an example about
sentences for similarities can you give us
give an example
from sentences for the differences as well
subject object and verb ah the positions relative
positions like in japanese and in english
they are opposite ah so
really
yeah in
so understand what he is talking about the
he is talking about three particular elements
in any language ah which is subject object
and a verb have you heard these terms before
subject object and verbs again i promise you
we will look at the details of these things
later but all he means is and if i am right
ah when i understand him he means is in every
sentence ok
for example in tamil there is a particular
position of verb right and in every sentence
of english there is a particular position
of verb that is in english verbs are always
going to be in the middle of the sentence
that is more precisely verbs are never going
to be the final element in a language like
english ok however in tamil telugu hindi or
any other languages that you may know how
verbs are always going to be the final element
that that could be one major striking difference
between ah am i right is this what you wanted
to say thats one of the major strike striking
differences between these two languages
so with with the help of these two examples
ah and i wanted these examples from from you
and we can talk about hundreds of such similarities
and differences ah but we will talk about
those things later the all i want to to show
you right now is languages are similar to
one another in a principled way they vary
from one another in a parametric way so when
we say there is an underlying system of language
that in that sense we are talking about principle
ok and when we are saying that english is
a verb medial language where verbs come in
the middle of the sentence and tamil is a
verb final language where verb is the final
element in normal speech ah verb is the final
element in a sentence it comes right before
the full stop thats called a parameter that
is the position of a verb is a parameter to
see the differences between languages
ok and there arent the parameters are also
systemic in such a way then there are only
going to be three positions and no no further
permutation or combinations are allowed that
is us if we are talking about position of
a verb in a sentence a verb can only be either
in the beginning of your sentence it can be
either in the middle of a sentence or at the
end of the sentence all the languages of the
world will follow one of the three parameters
so what we are what we mean by a parameter
is the position of a verb in a sentence is
a parameter however these parameters are also
systematic in a way that there arent going
to be hundreds of parameters along which languages
are going to vary so think about any language
that you know they will definitely fall in
between these three get it
so this is what is called a parameter all
right so ah now i hope this definition of
language makes more sense to you does it it
it its just written with few words everything
about it i have already told you its a its
a fascinating human capacity that is the language
that we are talking about ah is about human
language and that is what we refer to as natural
language therefore i i had uh ah i have discussed
this thing in the last class that there are
differences between artificial languages body
language sign language but object of enquiry
for us the language that we are going to be
talking about is what is called natural language
that is the languages that we speak language
that humans is speak therefore this definition
its a fascinating human capacity and ah at
the same time such a capacity is very powerful
and and a very complex system complex or not
its its a system its not a random thing its
not not uh arbitrary thing ok and and therefore
we learn these things also in a systematic
way its just that we dont know how it happened
and i will go into the details of that later
and therefore i have put this thing here for
you to be familiar with this right in the
beginning that ah have you heard the name
of plateau must have heard right ah this was
his question which was not really meant for
languages but this has been used in understanding
how we learn language right he he add a uh
you know philosophers have lots of lot lots
of questions of very different types
so he had a question how do we know so much
given so little right and then people studying
language namely linguists have used this thing
what is known as plateaus problem in understanding
how we learn languages ok and then i will
expand that to you later and this is also
referred to as logical problem of language
acquisition that is how does it happen that
we end up a speaking a language and this is
what i was asking you and i want you to think
about that how did it happen that you started
to speaking telugu or tamil or somebody is
more comfortable with telugu or more comfortable
with tamil why did it not happen that use
you were speaking french and if there are
similarities in all the languages why do we
not the speak all the languages
because we are surrounded by people who are
speaking the same language
right absolutely to we are we speak telugu
because you are surrounded by telugu speaking
people right and if the the reverse of that
is also equally powerfully true that if you
are not among telugu speakers then you will
never learn telugu that is in the way you
you speak and and here when i am saying learning
i am talking about children acquiring language
ok we are not talking about second language
learning that is language learning or teaching
in a classroom in a at a much later a stage
we are talking about first language learning
we are talking about children acquiring language
so if children learn telugu this they end
up speaking telugu or tamil because they are
surrounded by tamil or telugu speakers and
same thing applies for all all the languages
i hope you understand i dont need to repeat
this thing every time and equally true that
if you are not surrounded by telugu speakers
then you will not a speak telugu even if you
are born from telugu speaking parents ok so
just the fact that you are born in a telugu
family does not make you speak telugu that
is also one of the questions for serious examination
by bio linguists ok
but that it this has been falsified several
times that ah tamil child or a telugu child
if raised somewhere else ah in french society
or english society or any other hindi society
you will be speaking hindi more comfortably
than than telugu or or or tamil how does that
happen what are the factors responsible for
that we will be discussing those those things
as well and i am raising these questions for
you only to think about it so when we are
talking about these things i would definitely
want to hear your inputs not and i i i dont
mean to prove you right or wrong it will be
just interesting to to see or to to discuss
ah and at least for me to see whether you
have thought about these things these things
are not all right
now so we will we will come to language acquisition
in a moment ah ok this is one mo one more
thing related to plateaus problem that i wanted
to ah discuss with you you know this is what
charles darwin wrote once ah all of us know
charles darwin all of us know what he is famous
for right and it it it has huge implications
for how we learn language ok and this also
refers to why what is more interesting or
which part of language study is more interesting
ok and why the object of enquiry in a scientific
research of language is only spoken language
ok so so read the read this thing carefully
man has intrindic intrigic
instinctive
instinctive tendency to speak as we see in
the babbles of our children while no child
has instinctive tendency to bake brew or write
you understand this all the three things that
he is referring to bake brew and write are
activities that we do not do instinctively
however speaking a language is very instinctive
and its very common to find people who do
not know how to write or may not know how
to write but they speak language therefore
writing learning to write is never a prerequisite
for learning a language and in a more precise
way learning a language does not even refer
to learning to write get this thing
however i am not saying that you should one
should not learn how to write thats not the
point i am i am trying to make i am trying
to make how learning language is instinctive
all right if if we are talking about and and
when we say instinctive tendency of children
and babbling of children ah of course we are
talking about normal human child ok there
are there there there may be some children
some some babies with some disabilities we
are we are not talking about that part of
ah disabilities all right normal human children
have this instinctive tendency to speak they
start babbling ok and about babbles i will
talk to you more so it its sounds like just
like birds learn to fly ok or fish learn to
swim we learn to speak
it just like we grow up its so mathematical
and i i mean it in a in a serious sense when
i say so mathematical a five year old child
after five more years is going to be ten there
is no miracle in that right if you dont cut
your hair or you dont get your hair cut its
going to grow right same things apply to nails
and ah say it it applies to us right we we
keep growing in our height of course it doesnt
happen all the time it doesnt keep happen
all the time it is stops after a while similarly
uh learning a language it stops after while
it doesnt happen that you keep learning language
the way you acquired telugu or tamil if i
start living in hyderabad or visakhapatnam
from today will i learn telugu some bit of
it definitely there is no denial of it
but i wont be able to learn the same language
the way as uh ah smaller child learnt by living
in visakhapatnam or hyderabad or for that
matter anywhere else in ah andhra pradesh
or or or tamilnadu or or wherever get the
get this point this is why i want to ah stop
by few more questions and telling you this
thing that ah you know you know a lot of times
people refer to things like ah stop doing
something this is not childs play language
is really a childs play this is one such cognitive
ability where children perform much better
than grown up people ok rather grown up people
cannot perform that way they are grown up
people and let me use a strong word here are
ah i i i dont mean it is in a serious way
are biologically incapable of learning
the way children learn languages get this
a this point therefore in a serious sense
language learning its childs play how we will
look at that later ah so we come to some some
more questions for you before we ah meet tomorrow
to discuss some of them and some more questions
ah we have talked about it how many languages
do you speak right everybody speaks two to
three languages right how many languages do
we have in this country any idea how many
people do we have in this country
one point three billion
we have over a billion and when we say over
a billion that over is substantial over its
not just hundred here and there right the
substantial over right all right its its not
a bad thing lets not lets not be ah worried
about that thats also mathematical thats also
normal right all right but so how many languages
do you speak any idea
three thousand
three thousand
you are just saying something right
it include dialects and tribal languages it
might be
do you hear this question do you hear this
answer carefully
that an its an important important thing that
he is mentioning so the moment you ask this
question how many languages do you speak or
do we speak as the country or the state its
important to address this question of language
and dialect what is it that we call a language
and what is it that we call a dialect and
there is another interesting thing is referring
to tribal languages what what do we mean by
that and and i am i am using these terms and
i am trying to under this understand these
terms only to improve our understanding what
do we mean by tribal languages
languages spoken by tribes ah they usually
dont have a script spoken
do you see the do you see this answer does
this tell you something what is this answer
tell you that there is this some there is
this particular kind of prerequisite in our
understanding that for something to be called
language it must have its own script right
however what we refer to as tribal languages
is may not have a scripts and very very quickly
i ah i am we are we are not winding up these
these questions we are just opening them up
they these questions do not fall directly
within the purview of this course however
we will definitely address those questions
before we move on to something else because
these are important questions for us to understand
so ah
one more thing ah from you ah so so what do
you think will be the different difference
between a language and a dialect what is it
that we call a dialect
minor variation of the major language
minor variation
from the major language
all right that sounds good is telugu a dialect
is telugu a dialect
and also i want you to understand they are
these terms language and dialect socially
loaded ok are the are these terms i i havent
discussed this thing with you so far but i
must mention it to you language is also a
very important marker of human identity right
we identify ourselves with languages sometimes
sometimes its a stronger marker of identity
than religion ok therefore these these terms
are socially loaded and
its important for anyone to understand these
terms in proper perspective ok so i i do want
you to think about is the differences between
the two terms and what do we mean when we
say a dialect i i think you you have said
something important that some variation from
main language then what is main language and
how do we know which one is main language
or who will speaks main language and who will
speaks variations how do we know that who
know these things right or how important are
these things particularly with reference to
what we know about language get get uh get
the point and i also want this answer from
you tomorrow uh
how many languages do we how many languages
does india speak and and let me extend this
question further how many languages people
are speak all over the world do you think
this is an interesting question of a general
general knowledge and if at all we know the
number how do we verify that ok so let lets
start with some of these questions ah ah tomorrow
and trust me i am not not just throwing these
questions for tomorrow i am putting these
questions for tomorrow because i want you
to take some time to think about these questions
and its not really very important for me to
just ah ah tell you these answers and move
ahead it its important for you to think and
then we will do that all right so let lets
stop here we will meet tomorrow at our regular
time
thank you
