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LINGUISTICS-study of Language

English was introduced in India in the 19th century by the British for imparting western education. It played a key role in India's independence movement and served as a lingua franca across religions and regions. Through English, India became aware of advances in western science and culture. English continues to be important in India today, with its status as an official language and importance in various domains like education, business, and science. While some argue it threatens local languages, English is integral to India given its role in accessing global knowledge and opportunities.

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32 views2 pages

LINGUISTICS-study of Language

English was introduced in India in the 19th century by the British for imparting western education. It played a key role in India's independence movement and served as a lingua franca across religions and regions. Through English, India became aware of advances in western science and culture. English continues to be important in India today, with its status as an official language and importance in various domains like education, business, and science. While some argue it threatens local languages, English is integral to India given its role in accessing global knowledge and opportunities.

Uploaded by

Pankaj Das
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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English language as a medium of instruction was introduced in India in the nineteenth century by Lord

William Bentick, the then GOVERNOR general of India, for imparting western education system. Even
English played a great role in our freedom movement. It served as a lingua franca among the Indians
belonging to different religions and provinces. Again, it was through this language that India became
aware of great strides made by the western civilisation, science and culture.

English is no longer the language of the British. The journey which started with the Anglo – Saxons
gradually spread over the world. Needless to say that use of English in all functional domains has become
inevitable. India being a colony of the Britishers is still carrying forward the language legacy. In India the
English language has earned the status of the official language as well. The today’s population of India
specifically the young generation are more inclined towards English language.

It is a well known fact that the advanced knowledge of science, technology, space research, nuclear field,
medicine, engineering etc is abundantly available in English language. By learning the language the
Indians have been able to gain access to this vast treasure of knowledge in the field of science of
technology.

English has become a part and parcel of an educated Indian , be it academics, be it business English has
become a need. Well, some social scientists even claim that rapid growth of English in India is somehow
causing vernacular or indigenous languages lose its own communicative domain. However, considering
the hasty escalation of the use of English in India it will not be an exaggeration to say that the future
prospect of English in India is really high and the speaker strength of English language can reach the
pinnacle point in the up coming years.

LINGUISTICS- study of language


Language is the mode of communication through which one can express his/her thoughts, feelings,
opinions etc. Language has been defined in various ways by various scholars. However, the study of
language rather the scientific study of language is termed as linguistics. Language is a multi dynamic and
complex system, which is rule governed and comprises meaningful messages. The primary form of
language is always spoken. Linguistics can study languages in general or a language in particular.

A language can be studied from different aspects. Phonology and phonetics deal with the sounds of
language , morphology studies words. Where as study of sentences or syntactic structures of languages is
termed as syntax. Interestingly, meaning of languages is studied in two different ways i.e. pragmatics and
semantics.
Language is an exclusive human property and humans are social animals. It is quite obvious that society
influence language use which works the other way as well. The study of language in relation to the society
is termed as socio-linguistics. Studying language from historical perspective is termed as historical
linguistics. The domain of applied linguistics comprises computational linguistics, stylistic, lexicography,
psycholinguistics, clinical linguistics, forensic linguistics etc etc.

Perhaps, language is the only quality which differs humans from animals. As, rightly claimed by the
veteran linguist Noam Chomsky , a human child is born with a language faculty , as he/she grows old
he/she keeps on acquiring languages unlike the animals.

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