IGNOU MEG 04 FREE Solved Assignment 2021-22 PDF

IGNOU MEG 04 FREE Solved Assignment 2021-22 PDF  : MEG 04 Solved Assignment 2022 , MEG 04 Solved Assignment 2021-22, MEG 04 Assignment 2021-22, MEG 04 Assignment, IGNOU Assignments 2021-22- Gandhi National Open University had recently uploaded the assignments of the present session for MEG Programme for the year 2021-22. Students are recommended to download their Assignments from this webpage itself.

1. Write short notes on the following: 
(i) Borrowings

Ans. In linguistics, borrowing (also known as lexical borrowing) is the process by which a word from one language is adapted for use in another. The word that is borrowed is called a borrowing, a borrowed word, or a loanword.

The English language has been described by David Crystal as an “insatiable borrower.” More than 120 other languages have served as sources for the contemporary vocabulary of English.

Present-day English is also a major donor language–the leading source of borrowings for many other languages.

• “English . . . has freely appropriated the major parts of its vocabulry from Greek, Latin, French, and dozens of other languages. Even though The official’s automobile functioned erratically consists entirely of borrowed words, with the single exception of the, it is uniquely an English sentence.”
• “The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don’t just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.”
• Exploration and Borrowing

  “The vocabulary of English based on exploration and trade [was] often brought to England in spoken form or in popular printed books and pamphlets. An early example is assassin (eater of hashish), which appears in English about 1531 as a loanword from Arabic, probably borrowed during the Crusades. Many of the other words borrowed from eastern countries during the Middle Ages were the names of products (Arabic lemon, Persian musk, Semitic cinnamon, Chinese silk) and place names (like damask, from Damascus).

(ii) Langue and Parole

Ans. The French term langue (‘[an individual] language’) encompasses the abstract, systematic rules and conventions of a signifying system; it is independent of, and pre-exists, the individual user. It involves the principles of language, without which no meaningful utterance, or parole, would be possible.

Structural linguistics, as proposed by Saussure, assumes a non-biological standpoint of culture within the nature–nurture divide. Langue and parole make up two thirds of Saussure’s speech circuit the third part being the brain, where the individual’s knowledge of language is located. The speech circuit is a feedback loop between the individual speakers of a given language. It is an interactive phenomenon: knowledge of language arises from language usage, and language usage arises from knowledge of language. Saussure, however, argues that the true locus of language is neither in the verbal behaviour (parole) nor in the mind of the speakers, but is situated in the loop between speech and the individual, existing as such nowhere else but only as a social phenomenon within the speech community.

2. Discuss the description and classification of Consonants and Vowels.

Ans. The difference between vowels and consonants

A vowel is a speech sound made with your mouth fairly open, the nucleus of a spoken syllable.

A consonant is a sound made with your mouth fairly closed.

When we talk, consonants break up the stream of vowels (functioning as syllable onsets and codas), so that we don’t sound like we’ve just been to the dentist for four fillings and the anaesthetic hasn’t worn off yet.

Consonants require more precise articulation than vowels, which is why children find them harder to learn, and often end up in speech therapy after having become so cross at not being understood that they’ve started hitting people.

Only a few children with severe speech sound difficulties (often called dyspraxia or apraxia) sometimes need therapy to help them produce vowel sounds correctly.

Most syllables contain a vowel, though vowel-like consonants can occasionally be syllables. And to complicate matters, many English vowels are technically two or three vowels shmooshed together.

Consonants and vowels are traditionally classified in two dimensions: place and manner of articulation. Place of articulation refers to the location of the narrowest part of the vocal tract in producing a sound.

Consonants are either voiced (sonant) or voiceless (surd). Voiced consonants are pronounced with the same vocal murmur that is heard in vowels; voiceless consonants lack this murmur. The voiced consonants are b, d, g, l, r, m, n, z, consonantal i, and v.

We classify consonants according to three pieces of information: the voicing: is it voiced or voiceless, the place of articulation: where is the vocal tract obstructed, and. the manner of articulation: how is the vocal tract obstructed.

1. Vowels and Consonants

Phonetically, it is easy to give definitions: a vowel is any sound with no audible noise produced by constriction in the vocal tract, and consonant is a sound with audible noise produced by a constriction.

However, this definition forces us to identify as vowels many sounds which function as consonants in speech. For example, in the English word “yes”, the initial is phonetically a vowel according to the definition above. In the phonological system of English, however, the is in a typical consonant position (compare “yes” with “mess”, “less”, “Tess” etc.). Similarly, there are sounds which are phonetically consonants which under some circumstances do act as syllable nuclei; a typical example would be the use of “syllabic in English “little” (cf. litter).

2. Contoid and Vocoid

A solution to this terminological difficulty, suggested by Pike, is to have two different distinctions, one strictly phonetic and the other based on function, or phonological criteria.

For the phonetic distinction, Pike advocated using the words vocoid and contoid. A vocoid is defined as a “central oral resonant”. It’s central because not a lateral sound, like [l]; oral because air passes through the oral cavity; and resonant because there is no constriction, so all the sound comes from the resonances in the oral tract resulting from the vibration of the vocal cords. Everything which is not a vocoid is a contoid. Thus, [j] is a vocoid, [i] is a vocoid, [a] is a vocoid, [w] is a vocoid, but [l] is not; it is a contoid, as are [p], [b], etc.

This leaves the terms “vowel” and “consonant” available to be used as phonological terms. Generally, vowels are syllabic vocoids. Thus, of the vocoids above, [i] and [a] could be vowels, but [j] and [w] would not, as they are never syllabic. Consonants are contoids which function as syllable margins, e.g. [p], [b], and sometimes [l] (in words like “lip”, “lot”, but not the final segment in “little”, where the [l] is syllabic).

3.Why is language planning essential in any country? What are the factors which influence language planning?

Ans. Many countries have a language policy designed to favor or discourage the use of a particular language or set of languages. Although nations historically have used language policies most often to promote one official language at the expense of others, many countries now have policies designed to protect and promote regional and ethnic languages whose viability is threatened. Indeed, whilst the existence of linguistic minorities within their jurisdiction has often been considered to be a potential threat to internal cohesion, States also understand that providing language rights to minorities may be more in their long term interest, as a means of gaining citizens’ trust in the central government.

Language policy is what a government does either officially through legislation, court decisions or policy to determine how languages are used, cultivate language skills needed to meet national priorities or to establish the rights of individuals or groups to use and maintain languages. The scope of language policy varies in practice from State to State. This may be explained by the fact that language policy is often based on contingent historical reasons

THE FACTORS INFLUENCING LANGUAGE PLANNING

1. Linguistic factor

Linguistic factors can be regarded as those that are needed to be considered on the part of a language in relation to other languages. It relates to the status and characters of a language as well as similarities between languages. Such considerations would inform why a speech community, a country for instance, would prefer language like English to language like Chinese. The former has simpler characters as opposed to the complicated characters of the latter. In Indonesia, for instance, Malay was preferred to Japanese as a national language because it is less complicated in terms of characters, though it is a minority language. The status that a language presently enjoys can also influence its preference as national language of a country. This is why many multilingual countries in Africa would choose an European language. In terms of similarities and dissimilarities between languages, it is the case that languages with common origin do share some similarities and vice versa. If a language lacks adequate lexicon for day-to-day usage, it is imperative that language planning is done so as to rectify this anomaly

2. Political factors

Political factors are considerations that relate the general policy of a country to its language policy. It is not a gain saying that the Government is the Chief-actor in the process of language planning. Government uses language planning to achieve its other aims such as political stability and economic benefits from other nation(s). Government also provides funds for implementing any language policy. In maintaining political stability in Nigeria, the Government has always avoided choosing any indigenous language as the official language in order to prevent geo-political conflicts. Thus, the highest status any indigenous language has enjoyed is the status of a national language. The three major Nigeria languages recognized as the national language are: Hausa, Igbo, and Yoruba. As an illustration, it was for political-economic reasons that General Sani Abacha imposed French on the Nigerians during his military regime. He single-handedly recognized French as an official language just because France supported his oppressive ruling while the United States and the Commonwealth of nations opposed it. Also in the time of apartheid in South Africa, the policy which promoted segregation was supported by the language policy adopted. Such language planning helped in undermining the language of the South African. Moreover, it is the responsibility of the (Nigerian) Government to fund the implementation of language planning, particularly the policy on the use of mother tongue in teaching school children in the lower primary level. The failure or success of meeting this responsibility or otherwise is one major way in which politics influences language planning. A language could also be planned for political reasons

3. Socio-demographic factor

Socio-demographic factor relates to the numbers of speakers of the languages and their geographical distribution. The actors in language planning usually consider not only the majority language but also the minority languages. Thus, ethno linguistic consideration made Tanzania chose a minority language as a national language. There are about hundred languages and none of them could compete with the official language. India chose Hindi as the official language which is language of the northern majority ethnic group. While that of Tanzania might be said to be partially successful, India has not succeeded in appeasing the other ethno linguistic groups which continue to protest the choice of Hidi: [Akinnaso, 1989]. This factor influence language planning in the sense that if the majority of people for whom the language is being planned do not speak the language, it will lead to the failure of the language planning process. Also, if the language planning does not reflect the social lives of the speakers, the planning process may not see the light of the day. The society and its geographical distributions in which language planning have to be carried out is a contributing factor that influences language planning. Since a multilingual society is often not mono-religion. For instance, since Hausa is very close to the Arabic language (language of Islam) and subsequently the Islamic religion, choosing Hausa as an official language in Nigeria may be considered as a way of imposing Islam on Nigerians. Also, for example, in India, when Hindi was chosen as the national language; speakers of other language protested because Hindi is associated with the Hindu religion. And also, there have been wars in Sudan due to the imposition of Arabic language on the people. Language is also planned so as to foster the spread or a religion. It is related to the use of local languages in spreading religion

4. Pedagogical factor

In pedagogical factor, the need for qualitative education also influences language planning. Since it is being scientifically proven that it is better to teach a child with his/her mother tongue in his early years. Language policy in Nigeria, for instance, has always reflected the need for mother tongue in education. This is not just to preserve culture but also to aid the cognitive ability of the school children.

5. financial factor

The financial factor has to do with the consideration of finance in the process of planning a language. Language planning can be financially draining, so adequate planning of financial resources is essential. What we are actually reiterating here is that whatever one does is affected by the resources one puts into it and that one of those resources in language planning that has to be present is the financial resource. The presence of enough financial resources can make a language planning work as its absence can equally make it fail. When a government, a group of individuals, or an individual is making a plan for a language consideration has to be taken of the financial cost of the plan. For instance, if Nigeria is making a move to make Igbo, Hausa, or Yoruba a national language, the financial cost of such a move should be consider just as a husband planning for the use of Yoruba in his home would consider the cost of the materials (e.g. Yoruba dictionaries, texts written English, etc.) to be used in carrying out such a plan. So, financial factor is one of those crucial factors that have to be considered in planning a language.

6. The people

People who own languages of a particular territory should also be considered in language planning. If the argument that language is the people who use it is anything to operate by, then it will never fall out of scope to take an examination on the people who use the language to be planned for. Here, we look at the history of the people and try answering some questions such as: what have been the dealings of these people? Have they once been colonized, enslaved? (a reason which may account for certain linguistic borrowings in their language)? Have they conquered a group or groups of people and lorded their ways of life on them? What do this people like? Hunting, Adventure, etc.? What is the current status of this people? What do these people think of themselves? What do others think of them? The essence of these raised questions is to find data on certain information that needs to be considered while planning a language

7. Cultural factor

Cultural factor is another factor that can influence language planning. When a language exists, it does not exist alone, there is a culture attached to it. Culture refers to the beliefs, the ways of life, the custom, the art, and the social organization of a group of people. Learning the culture with which a particular language is attached is crucial to planning such a language especially in corpus planning. For instance, Yoruba people have respect as an aspect of their culture and this is shown in their language.

4. Do you agree with the ‘one language: one community’ theory? What other factors, apart from language, may determine one’s identification with a speech community? 

Ans. A speech community is a group of people who share rules for conducting and interpreting at least one variety of a language or dialect. The term can be applied to a neighborhood, a city, a region or a nation. We all belong to at least one speech community. The earliest speech community we belong to is the one we share with our primary caregivers (usually our parents) and is the basis for some of the most intimate and long term relationships we form across our life. The rules and norms of this speech community show up in a dialect referred to as the vernacular, the most basic variety or dialect of language we command. Our vernacular speech is least susceptible to monitoring and least likely to change across our lifetime.

Most of us were immersed in language from our first awareness of the world around us. Since infants can hear the sound of their mother’s voice and the noises and interactions in her environment in the womb, we probably hear our first sounds before we take our first breath. Fairly early in our development, we target in our babbling those sounds that form the phonology of our language or dialect. In interaction with us, our mother adjusts her speech to reflect the phonology, morphology, semantic and syntactic relationships that we are learning. Indeed, our vernacular speech forms the very basis of all future linguistic interaction and development. Across our lifetime we will participate in, construct, engage in, and possibly abandon many speech communities. No other will be as primary.

Identity and Vernacular Connection

Our vernacular speech is the language of this earliest communication. Through this community, we are introduced to our culture, our heritage, and the ways of being that are important in our development as a member of the human community. It forms the basis of our adult identity. That is why vernacular speech is often called our mother tongue. It is the form of speech spoken to us by our mothers, and it is the mother of (the basis of) the development of other forms of speech.

Our next speech community involves our neighborhood and the larger extended family. Unless we were reared in multi or bilingual communities and neighborhoods, the norms of our vernacular speech community and other early speech communities are not that different from each other. In fact, the first contrast probably occurs when we begin to participate in religion or school. Both of these communities involve regular, face-to-face interaction between us and a larger group of people who may or may not share vernacular speech similar to our own.

Home and School

What may be sources of a conflict in one’s identity, particularly when children enter school.

When we enter school we bring more than the pronunciation patterns, lexicon, syntactic structures, semantic and interpretive frameworks of the language variation or dialect we speak. We have begun to learn to whom we should say what and when. Furthermore, we have learned rules of conversation and linguistic interaction. We have learned to identify whose turn it is to speak, how to get the floor ourselves, and when a person’s turn is over. All of these linguistic skills support us in our first steps toward the development of literacy. When the patterns of the speech communities we join at school are not that much different from the discourse patterns of the speech community (or communities) we participate in with our parents, literary development is more natural and easier.

When the linguistic heritage we bring to school contrasts sharply with the norms of the speech community of the school, it creates difficulties not just for speaking but for participating. If our linguistic heritage is viewed as problematic, divergent, or substandard, we may think of ourselves as problems. We may feel shame for who we are and the community we come from. If how we speak, gain access to participation, interpret behavior, or respond politely is misunderstood by the school as laziness, recalcitrance, disrespectfulness, or stupidity, our entire educational future and our ability to achieve our intellectual potential may be called into question.

Linguistic heritage that is suspect usually comes from those who either speak a different language or use dialects judged to be non-standard. John Ogbu points out that just because people speak a different language or dialect does not mean they will not do well in learning a new language and in achieving success in a new culture. But in the United States as well as other countries in the world, some groups do better in this process than others. Some point to cultural patterns to account for differences in successful participation. Yet, as we look at different immigrant groups we find this may or may not be true. For example, people often suggest that the reason Puerto Ricans have not done well in American schools is because of differences in eye contact in their culture compared to the dominant or majority culture of the United States. However, the Punjabi usually do very well in the United States even though they share similar cultural differences involving eye contact. Furthermore, immigrant Korean and Japanese students do equally well in the majority culture of the U.S., even though their cultural practices are quite different from ours. Ironically, Korean students in Japan whose families were brought there as forced labor do significantly worse than Japanese students, even though the cultures of Korea and Japan are much more alike than the cultures of the U.S. and Korea.

Different Reactions

John Ogbu accounts for these discrepancies by pointing to the difference between voluntary and involuntary (or caste minority) groups. Voluntary immigrants are those who came willingly to this country. They expect to learn a new language and find ways to gain access to and participate in a new culture. Therefore, while the speech community they meet at school is different from their own, they expect to be able to use the vernacular speech they brought with them as the basis from which their new language will emerge. For voluntary immigrants, learning the new language and participating in this new speech community is, in the long run, viewed as a positive and exhilarating experience. Voluntary immigrants plan to add this new language and culture to their repertoire of language styles. They expect to participate in additive bilingualism.

Involuntary immigrants (caste minorities) come into a country against their will, or they represent caste minorities like the forced labor Koreans in Japan and the African Americans in this country. They are also represented by groups of conquered and oppressed people within a country, like Native American groups. In the foundations course we discussed resistance theory. After consistently experiencing rejection by the majority community, students sometimes become aggressive or belligerent toward or actively resist the majority culture. Involuntary immigrants respond in similar ways. Because of the response to their culture and language, these immigrants have developed cultural practices which have emerged either in response to their rejection by the majority culture or have been interpreted by the minority group as resistance toward the majority culture. In order to become part of the majority discourse community, involuntary immigrants feel they will have to give up their own culture and practice subtractive bilingualism. However, when individual members of the community have rejected the language of their speech community, this has not guaranteed their success in the dominant culture.

5. What do you think is the role of English vis-à-vis the Indian languages in modern India?

Ans. Language plays a crucial role in creating a single thread for the world. In almost all countries where English is not the first language, English has a second language status. The main goal of studying every language is to gain simple language for day-to-day interaction. The workforce of today, in effect, is supposed to be highly skilled in continuous improvement of skills and lifelong learning. Language is ability, like any other art, until it is extremely difficult for us to exercise the skill mastery. The goal of learning a language is directly linked to the growth of LSRW skills. Communication as a natural mechanism affects the human community’s practices as a whole. Social development is a prominent feature of effective communication strategies that are needed to sustain growth and development.

The need to learn a language emerges from the point of view of its adaptability, effectiveness, utility, universality and ability to teach. Communication is a communication with others of thoughts, ideas and opinions. This may be in essence academic, workers spoken or read. We live in groups, and man is a social animal, inevitably. We share our opinions with others as the social needs demand. The two-way communication mechanisms are inspiring, educating, advising, alert, ordering, changing behavior and stabilizing good relationships in order to make meaningful contact and knowing one another.

Communication is successful when a communicator is sufficiently able to interact with integrity, clarity, frankness and dynamism. Communication is necessary for close relationships of empathy in a society and for the transfer of human beings, resources and thoughts from one position to another. This process involves receiving and responding to the induction that will act as feedback. Hence, communication is interactive by nature. Today the compulsions of learning English are no longer merely political but scientific and technological. And no longer is English language of Great Britain only; it is the language required by the world for greater understanding; it is the most international of languages.

English has become a global language, a linking connection, a language of modern science and technology, a language of the latest sciences, such as information technology and space science, a language of all competitive exams, whether regional, national or international. We now live in the world of information and communication technology, whether we know it or not. Computers can be seen everywhere populating in this digital age. Eighty percent of computer data is processed and stored in English scientists find that more than half of the world’s published newspapers were written in the English problem faced by students.

Many students are not “good for business” because they lack the ability to communicate. The faculty-student and student-student do not communicate effectively. Students who are very poor in communication are not given effective training. The technical skills that lack the most important communication skills are given a lot of priority. Communication plays a key role in order to perform successfully in the business world or organization. One who is good at efficient communication thinks soundly, maintains self-esteem, integrity, and is valued in culture, education, or career. Those with effective communication skills are more relaxed because they feel they can say exactly what they need to tell other people. One has to think ahead and plan one’s thoughts in order to communicate effectively. To have the technical know-how and other related skills, the ability to apply English should be developed.

GENERAL TREND

Over the years, in particular the last ten years, English language teaching has undergone enormous changes. Students are burdened with reading, understanding and absorbing the materials and, of course, lectures with gathering relevant information from prescribed texts. Some career alternatives once considered trivial, such as communication skills, soft skills, technical skills, interpersonal skills, ICT literacy, etc., are currently gaining prominence. The need for chiseled graduates to effectively move into the global market’s difficult survival environment is now in high demand. For this, a pattern shift, particularly the English language teaching learning system, should undergo a transformation for improvement. Seasons change, shifts in style, changes in human behavior, but it is disheartening to note that there has been hardly any change in English education in the last century.

 

 

 

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