My Seminar

LINGUISTIC PRINCIPLES

INTRODUCTION

•      Language is a medium of communication. It is an inseparable part of human society.

•      It is through language that humanity has come out of the stone-age and has developed science, art and technology.

•      Human language exists in wide varieties and it is possible for the human beings to learn or acquire all these languages according to their linguistic competence.

•      Language acquisition is a subconscious process. It is easy to pick-up a language if we establish it as a habit.

•      Learner must form the habits of speaking, reading and writing in the target language so as to make the learning process easy.

LANGUAGE IS FOR COMMUNICATION

•      The basic purpose for which we use language is for communication.

•      Language is the one and only systematic medium which makes communication possible.

•      It is the best means of self-expression.

•      It is through language that we store knowledge, transmit messages, information and experience from one generation to another.

•      It connects the past, present and future together.

LANGUAGE IS UNIQUE

•      Each language is unique.

•      No two languages in the world have the same set of patterns of sounds, of grammatical signals, of syntax or vocabulary.

•      Each language is the result of the arbitrary classification of experience of its speakers.

LANGUAGE IS VOCAL

•      Language is the most effective medium which makes speech possible.

•      Usage of any language is primarily for the purpose of speech.

•      In acquiring a language, reading and writing skills follow the listening and speaking skills.

•      Graphical representations of any language are developed succeeding the use of it.

LANGUAGE IS RELATED TO CULTURE

•      Language and culture are interrelated. Every language is the product of a culture and language propagates its own culture through generations.

•      Language does not exist in vacuum.

•      It exists in speakers who exist in specific places and specific situations.

•      Therefore, learning a new language means imbibing a different culture.

•      It means learning new ways of thought.

LANGUAGE IS SOCIAL

•      Language is a set of conventional communicative signals used by humans for communication in a community.

•      Language exists in the society and helps nourish and develop culture and establish human relations.

•      It is a possession of a social group, comprising a set of rules which permits its members to interact and co-operate with each other.

•      Human beings acquire language by socializing with the members of society.

•      Thus language is a social institution which has a function to perform and without which it would become extinct.

LANGUAGE IS ARBITRARY

•      There is no inherent connection or logical relation between any given feature of language and their meaning.

•      In other words, there is no relation between any language item and what it indicates.

•      For example, a woman is called Zen in Persian, Aurat in Hindi and Sthree in Malayalam. None of these words have any connection with the meanings they signify.

LANGUAGE IS SYMBOLIC

•      Language is a system of arbitrary, vocal and graphic symbols to denote concepts, things, ideas etc.

•      We use sounds and words as symbols.

•      Symbols represent things and are not the things themselves.

•      Symbolism is a necessary consequence of the feature of arbitrariness.

LANGUAGE IS SYSTEMATIC

•      Every language is a system of systems which is indeed made-up of several subsystems.

•      Phonology, graphology, morphology, syntax and semantics are the subsystems of a language.

•      Language is symbolic in nature and these symbols are arranged in a particular system.

•      Out of the system, symbols lose their meaning.

•      For example, ‘Rama killed Ravana’(SVO) is permitted in English but not ‘Rama Ravana killed’.

LANGUAGE IS LEARNED

•      Language is non-instinctive, it should either be acquired or learned.

•      The ability to use a particular language is not inherited.

•      One learns a language from other people. The learning begins in infancy and continues throughout life in varying degree.

•      We learn a language first by listening to it, trying to repeat it by speaking, then learning to read and finally by writing it.

•      It is an acquired social activity.

LANGUAGE IS FLEXIBLE

•      No language is static. It is ever undergoing a change.

•      Changes go on in all aspects of language—speech sounds, grammatical features and vocabulary.

•      The changes in vocabulary are extensive and occur rapidly.

•      English has borrowed several thousands of words from different languages of the world.

LANGUAGE IS HUMAN AND STRUCTURALLY COMPLEX

•      Language is very specific though it is flexible.

•      It has a complex structure.

•      The physical adequacies, articulatory organs, the knowledge of communicative importance etc make human language very well defined.

•      Though language is a product of evolution, it is perfectly structured and exists within a system.

LANGUAGE IS CONVENTIONAL

•      No language was created in a day out of a mutually agreed upon formula by a group of humans.

•      It is the outcome of evolution and convention.

•      This convention is passed on through generations.

•      Human language is non-instinctive along with being conventional because, it is not natural and should be acquired by humans.

•      Though we have innate ability to communicate, nobody inherits a language from their ancestors.

LANGUAGE IS LINGUISTIC AND COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

•      Language is both a psychological and sociological phenomena which constitutes a person’s competence as a speaker.

•      The psychological principles enable humans to make numerous utterances first and sentences later based on situations.

•      This adds to the linguistic competence that we need inorder to learn a language.

•      Communicative competence develops as a result of contextual usage of the learnt language.

LANGUAGE LEARNING IS HABIT FORMATION

•      A language is learned by use and not by rules. It does a little good to a pupil who knows the various rules or definitions of grammar.

•      No language is learned without sufficient practice.

•      A language learner should acquire the habit of ‘unreflective right utterance’ so as to be a successful speaker.

•      A good deal of practice, from the part of the learner, is required to master a language.

LANGUAGE IS PRODUCTIVE AND CREATIVE

•      The structural elements of human language can be combined to produce new utterances, which neither the speaker nor his listeners may ever have made or heard before.

•      Language is a social need and it changes according to the necessities and purposes of the society.

•      It is modifiable too i.e., language as a verbal and vocal medium can be changed into the graphic medium (letters, signs, pictures).

CHARACTERISTICS OF LANGUAGE

•      Interchangeability–the role of the speaker and listener can be interchanged in communication.

•      Duality–organization of language into two, pattern of sound(phonemes) and pattern of meaning(morphemes).

•      Displacement–the quality of human language which enables us to relate to events of past and future far removed in time and space.

•      Discreetness–each sound in a language is different.

•      Recursiveness –a sentence can be prolonged with infinite number of utterances or words.

•      Cultural transmission –process of passing on a language from one generation to the other.

CONCLUSION

•      Human language is universal and it is supreme to all other forms of communication.

•      It is possible for all human beings to acquire languages at any age.

•      Man is a social being and hence language is acquired mainly through social interactions.

•      It is learnt by an individual from his elders and it is transmitted from one generation to another.

•      The peculiarities of human language such as arbitrariness, systematic and symbolic nature, creativity, productivity etc makes it unique and distinct from animal communication which is instinctual.

My assignment

INFORMATION RETRIEVAL

Introduction:

            The long history of information retrieval does not begin with the internet.It is only in the last decade and a half web search engines have become pervasive and search has become integrated into the fabric of desktop and mobile operating systems. Prior to the broad public day-to-day use of search engines, information retrieval systems were found in commercial and intelligence applications as long ago as the 1960’s. The earliest computer-based searching systems were built in the late 1940’s and were inspired by pioneering innovation in the first half of the 20^th century. As with many computer technologies, the capabilities of retrieval systems grew with increases in processor speed and storage capacity. The development of such systems also reflects a rapid progression away from manual library-based approaches of acquiring, indexing and searching information to increasingly automated methods.

             The idea of using computers to search for relevant pieces of information was popularized in the article ‘As we may think’ by Vannevar Bush in 1945. The first automated information retrieval systems were introduced in the 1950s and 60s. By 1970 several different techniques had been shown to perform well on small text corpora such as the Cranfield collection (several thousand documents). Large-scale retrieval systems such as the Lockheed Dialog System came into use early in the 1970s. In 1992, the US Department of Defense along with the National institute of standard and Technology (NIST), co-sponsored the Text Retrieval Conference (TREC) as part of the TIPSTER text program. The aim of this was to look into the information retrieval community by supplying the infrastructure that was needed for evaluation of text retrieval methodologies on a very large text collection. This catalyzed research on methods that scale to huge corpora. The introduction of web search engines has boosted the need for very large scale retrieval systems.

Information Retrieval Using Technology

            Information retrieval is the activity of obtaining information resources relevant for a need from a collection of information resources. Automated information retrieval systems are used to reduce what has been called “information overload “. Many universities and public libraries use IR systems to provide access to books, journals and other documents. Web search engines are the most visible IR applications. An information retrieval process begins when a user enters a query into the system. Queries are formal statements of information needs, for example we use keywords to refine our search using search engines. In information retrieval a query does not uniquely identify a single object in the collection. Instead, several objects may match the query, perhaps with different degrees of relevancy.

            Information storage and retrieval is the systematic process of collecting and cataloging data so that they can be located and displayed on request. Computers and data processing techniques have made possible the high speed, selective retrieval of large amounts of information for government, commercial and academic purposes. These are several basic types of information for government, commercial and academic purposes. There are numerous types of information storage and retrieval systems. Document retrieval systems store entire documents which are usually retrieved by the title or by the Key words associated with the document. In some systems the text of documents is stored as data. This permits full text searching enabling retrieval on the basis of any words in the document. In others, a digitalized image of the document is stored, usually on a right once optical disc.

            Database system stores the information as a series of discrete records that are, in turn divided into discrete fields. For example, name, address and phone number are the basic personal information that we can store about a person. Records can be searched and retrieved on the basis of the content of the fields (e.g. all people who have a particular telephone area code). The data are stored within the computer, either in main storage or in auxiliary storage, for ready access. Reference retrieval systems store references to documents rather than the documents themselves. Such systems, in response to a search request, provide the titles of relevant documents and frequently their physical locations. Such systems are efficient when large amounts of different types of printed data must be stored. They have proven extremely effective in libraries where material is constantly changing.

            In the recovery of information in the database stored in a computer, we usually take two approaches. First approach uses the database index i.e. the keyword searching and the second approach is by traversing the database using hypertext or hyper media links. Keyword searching has been the dominant approach to text retrieval since the early 1960s; hypertext has so far been confined largely to personal or corporate information retrieval applications. Evolving information retrieval techniques, exemplified by developments with modern internet search engines combine natural language, hyperlinks and keyword searching. Other techniques that seek higher levels of retrieval precision are studied by researchers involved with artificial intelligence.

For effectively retrieving relevant documents by IR strategies, the documents are typically transformed into a suitable representation. Each retrieval strategy incorporates a specific model for its document representation purposes. The conventional approach to manage large collections of information originates from the discipline of librarianship. Commonly items such as books or papers were indexed using cataloguing schemes.

            The 1960s saw a wide range of activities reflecting the move from simply asking if IR was possible on computers to determining means of improving IR systems. By the 1990s there arouse a vast increase in the number of websites and quantity of pages. World Wide Web was established by late 1990. Year by year the number of websites were multiplying and thus information was revolutionized by technology.

Retrieving Information-A Study Skill

            In our classroom situation, retrieving skills will mean summarizing, classifying, indexing and getting back the stored information. The conventional précis writing will help us to make summaries and outlines. In précis writing, we condense the original message into a minimum number of words. Summaries can be made with the help of notes taken.

            There are certain effective methods of notes taking and summarizing. First, one has to read the given material carefully and understand the content. Then you may underline or highlight the important (message carrying) words and sentences in the passage. With these words we can create effective notes. With the brief and important words or sentences in the note, write a brief summary. One should take utmost care in that the content of the given material is not altered or changed. We are just to modify it by making it precise. Careful reading of the passage helps to summarize the content. But still one third of the original material should be kept aloof. If necessary, we can remove a few more unwanted words or sentences from the summary.

            A good summary must have the following qualities in it:

1.      It is brief and clear.

2.      The main ideas of the passage are presented in it.

3.      Unnecessary avoidable details are not present in it.

4.      It is simple and easy to understand.

          The learner must be taught a classifying and indexing scheme so that the collected information is stored in some systematic manner. The use of aperture cards or some other methods that will facilitate the retrieval of the required information or the document or a book or an abstract is to be taught. Once the learner gets the bits of information, it is stored in some systematic manner. Once we get a bit of information, we need to know how to put them together or expanda given summary. This involves the convention expansion and paraphrasing. In a paraphrase or expansion, we try to express the meaning of the original message clearly and more fully. In teaching retrieving skills, we need to make use of the techniques used in documentation that are to be taught. The best place for such training is the information center or the library.

Using a Library:

          Library is known as the treasure house of information. The students need to know how to use a library, for which they should understand the basis of classification. Students should also be taught to use the library catalogue and how to borrow a book. They need to know how to locate a book, articles, by giving the title or the authors of a book or journal. The students should be taught to conduct the ‘information hunt’ effectively by gathering maximum useful information within a limited period of time. At the same time, they should be trained to be up-to-date with the technological advancements. Therefore, the teacher should give assistance to the students in using internet for collection of information.

Books:

            In using books, they should be familiar with the contents, index, appendix and bibliography. The students should know how to write bibliographical information,how to write quotations etc. They must be taught how to use an index, the content page, appendices, footnotes etc. These reference skills will be useful in the long run.

Referring to periodical:

            Periodicals, commonly known as journals and magazines are another excellent source of information. Thisinformationis current and fresh. Periodicals cover a vast area of knowledge which may be important or unimportant. They provide different viewpoints about the same topic, whereas books are elaborations of one view point. Thus periodicals are as important as books as a source of information.

Referring to Abstracts:

Abstract of articles published in the periodicals is also available for researchers through abstracting services. They provide the findings or conclusions of the authors and the user can choose the abstract if it is suitable to his purpose. Abstracts are published periodically in every discipline .They are arranged subject wise. The most popular abstracting services are;

             1.ERIC: Resources in Educations and Current India to Journals in Education.

             2. Psychological Abstracts.

             3. Language and literature abstracts.

            Besides the above skills, the learner has to learn and know how to prepare for his or her examination. The skills in retrieving information calls for a condensation and from this condensed date, they are able to produce or in a way re-produce those information or answers that are needed in an examination.

            Technological advancements made the explosion of information. From the 1990s computers, mobile phones and any other means of information technology have become inevitable for a normal human being. Now we have tons of information at our finger tips. We are supposed to use it according to its relevance and our needs so as to gather specific and in-depth knowledge about what we are unaware.

Conclusion:

          The 20^th and early 21^st centuries were transformational in the way people accessed information. In 1912, a person with an information need would probably go to local library and using a catalogue, locate books or documents that hopefully answered that need. But the scope of available information would be limited the size of their library. Now, because of the ubiquity of web-based search, with an internet connection, one can instantaneously access hundreds of terabytes of web pages, video clips, news, images, social media, scanned books, academic papers, music, televisions, programs and films. In the last few years, access has been also possible from a mobile phone. Thus information is available anywhere any time, we should make use of it in a positive way so as to bring a change in our own attitude and in the society.