NEB Class 11 Humanities Linguistics Question Paper 2078 Nepal

The oral form of language is the spoken form of language produced through speech sounds (the vocal-auditory channel), in which meaning is conveyed by talking and received by listening, rather than by writing.

Descriptive grammar is the grammar that objectively describes how a language is actually used by its native speakers, recording the real rules and patterns of usage without making judgements about what is correct or incorrect.

The physical adaptation source of language origin is the theory that human language arose because of gradual physical (anatomical) changes in the human body, such as the upright posture, the shape of teeth and lips, the flexible tongue, the larynx and pharynx, and the human brain, which together made the production of speech sounds possible.

Accent is the distinctive way of pronouncing a language, especially the particular pattern of speech sounds, stress and intonation that is associated with a particular region, social group or country.

Written language is the visual, graphic form of a language in which meaning is represented through written symbols, letters or scripts on a surface, and is received by reading rather than by listening.

A dialect is a regional or social variety of a language that differs from other varieties in its vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation, yet remains mutually intelligible with them.

Lexicology is the branch of linguistics that studies the words (the lexicon) of a language, including their meaning, form, origin, structure and the relationships among them.

A lingua franca is a common language adopted for communication between speakers whose native languages are different, used as a bridge or contact language among people of diverse linguistic backgrounds.

A script is a system of written symbols or characters (such as Devanagari, Roman or Arabic) used to represent the sounds, words or meanings of a language in written form.

Language decline (language decay) is the gradual process by which a language loses its speakers, functions and domains of use over time, weakening until it may eventually become endangered or extinct.

Language empowerment is the process of strengthening and promoting a language by developing it, expanding its use in various domains (education, administration, media), and giving its speakers the rights and resources to use and preserve it.

Human language differs from animal communication in several key features:

• Displacement: Humans can talk about things that are not present in time or space (past, future, imaginary). Animal communication is generally limited to the here and now.
• Productivity (creativity): Humans can produce and understand an infinite number of new sentences. Animal signals are fixed and limited in number.
• Arbitrariness: The link between human linguistic forms and their meanings is largely arbitrary; many animal signals have a direct, fixed connection to their meaning.
• Cultural transmission: Human language is learned from the surrounding culture, whereas most animal communication is largely instinctive and inherited.
• Duality (double articulation): Human language is organised on two levels (sounds combine into words, words into sentences). Animal signals lack this layered structure.
• Discreteness: Human language uses distinct, separable sound units that can be recombined; animal signals are usually holistic.

Thus, human language is open, creative and structured, while animal communication is closed, limited and largely instinctive.

Language is changing (agree): Yes, language is constantly changing because it is a living social phenomenon. Change can be shown with examples:

• Phonological change: Pronunciation shifts over time (e.g. the Great Vowel Shift in English changed vowel sounds).
• Lexical change: New words are added (e.g. internet, selfie) and old words become obsolete (e.g. thee, thou).
• Semantic change: Meanings shift (e.g. gay once meant 'happy'; nice once meant 'foolish').
• Grammatical change: Old forms are lost or simplified (e.g. loss of many inflectional endings in English).

Causes include contact with other languages, social and technological change, ease of articulation, and generational differences. Hence language is undeniably changeable.

OR — Two sources of the origin of language:

1. The divine source: This view holds that language was a gift from God or a divine power, given to humans at creation. It is based on religious traditions rather than scientific evidence.
2. The natural sound source (the 'bow-wow' theory): This holds that early words were imitations of natural sounds heard in the environment (onomatopoeia), e.g. cuckoo, splash, bang, from which a sound-based vocabulary gradually developed. (Other accepted alternatives include the social interaction/'yo-he-ho' source, the physical adaptation source, and the genetic/innateness source.)

Dialect is a variety of a language shared by a group of speakers, distinguished by regional or social differences in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation (e.g. the dialect of a particular region or community).

Idiolect is the unique, individual way in which a single person uses a language — their personal speech habits, choice of words, pronunciation and style.

Key differences:

Thus a dialect is collective while an idiolect is individual; every idiolect belongs within some dialect.

Language and culture are closely interrelated; each shapes and reflects the other:

• Language carries culture: A community's beliefs, customs, values and knowledge are transmitted from generation to generation through language.
• Culture shapes language: The vocabulary of a language reflects what matters in that culture (e.g. many words for rice/snow/kinship terms in cultures where these are important).
• Mutual dependence: Cultural practices such as rituals, festivals, folklore and proverbs are expressed and preserved in language; without language, much of culture could not be passed on.
• Worldview: Language influences how its speakers perceive and categorise the world (linguistic relativity / Sapir-Whorf hypothesis).
• Identity: Language is a marker of cultural and ethnic identity; loss of a language often means loss of cultural heritage.

Therefore, language is both a product and a vehicle of culture, and the two cannot be fully separated.

Sign language is a natural, fully developed language that uses visual-manual means — hand shapes, movements, facial expressions and body posture — instead of speech sounds to convey meaning. It is used mainly by deaf and hard-of-hearing communities.

Elaboration:

• It is a complete language with its own grammar, syntax and vocabulary, not merely gestures or a manual version of a spoken language.
• It uses the visual-spatial channel: meaning is expressed by signs made in space and perceived by sight.
• Different countries have different sign languages (e.g. American Sign Language, Nepali Sign Language), which are mutually distinct.
• It includes fingerspelling for proper names and words without established signs.
• It satisfies the defining features of language (productivity, arbitrariness, cultural transmission, etc.), proving that language need not be spoken to be a true language.

Thus sign language is a genuine human language that enables full communication through the visual mode.

Corpora (singular: corpus) are large, systematically collected and organised bodies of authentic written or spoken language texts, usually stored in machine-readable (electronic) form for linguistic study.

Description:

• A corpus contains real samples of language as it is actually used (newspapers, conversations, books, transcripts, etc.).
• It is principled and representative, chosen to reflect a language or a particular variety.
• Modern corpora are computerised, allowing researchers to search, count and analyse words and structures quickly.
• They are used in corpus linguistics for studying word frequency, collocations, grammar patterns, meaning, language change and for making dictionaries and teaching materials.
• Examples include the British National Corpus (BNC) and the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA).

Thus corpora provide an empirical, data-based foundation for describing how language is really used.

In Nepal there is a close interrelationship between caste/ethnic groups and the languages spoken:

• Ethnic identity through language: Many caste and ethnic groups (e.g. Newar, Tamang, Magar, Tharu, Limbu, Rai) are identified with their own mother tongues, so a community's language is a marker of its caste/ethnic identity.
• Linguistic diversity reflects social diversity: Nepal's many caste and ethnic groups correspond to over a hundred living languages from different families (Indo-Aryan, Sino-Tibetan, Austro-Asiatic, Dravidian).
• Mother tongue and lingua franca: While each group may have its own mother tongue, Nepali serves as the common lingua franca linking the different communities.
• Culture and language: The rituals, festivals and traditions of each caste/ethnic group are preserved and transmitted in its own language.
• Language shift: Social mobility, education and the dominance of Nepali can cause speakers of some ethnic languages to shift to Nepali, threatening minority languages.

Thus, in Nepal, caste/ethnic identity and language are deeply interrelated, with each community's language reflecting its social and cultural identity.

Bases of measuring language endangerment according to UNESCO: UNESCO uses several factors (vitality indicators) to assess the degree of endangerment of a language:

1. Intergenerational language transmission — whether the language is passed on from parents to children.
2. Absolute number of speakers — the total number of people who speak the language.
3. Proportion of speakers within the total population — the share of the community that still speaks it.
4. Trends in existing language domains — whether the language is shrinking or expanding in the contexts where it is used.
5. Response to new domains and media — whether the language is used in new areas such as schools, government and the internet.
6. Availability of materials for language education and literacy — existence of books, scripts and teaching resources.
7. Governmental and institutional language attitudes and policies — official status and support.
8. Community members' attitudes toward their own language — how speakers value it.
9. Type and quality of documentation — how well the language is recorded and documented.

On these bases UNESCO classifies languages as safe, vulnerable, definitely/severely/critically endangered, or extinct.

OR — Language documentation: Language documentation is the systematic recording, description and preservation of a language, especially an endangered one. It involves collecting samples of the language (audio and video recordings of speech, stories, songs and conversations), transcribing and analysing them, preparing grammars, dictionaries and text collections, and archiving these materials so that the language can be studied, taught and revived even if its speakers decline. It thus safeguards linguistic and cultural heritage for future generations.

Definition of language: Language is a systematic, conventional and largely arbitrary system of vocal (or signed) symbols by means of which the members of a social group communicate and cooperate. It is human, structured, productive and culturally transmitted.

Various levels of language: Language is organised hierarchically into several interrelated levels, each studied by a branch of linguistics:

1. Phonetics and Phonology (sound level) — Phonetics studies the physical production and perception of speech sounds; phonology studies how those sounds are organised and patterned in a language (phonemes).
2. Morphology (word level) — The study of the internal structure of words and how morphemes (the smallest meaningful units) combine to form words.
3. Syntax (sentence level) — The study of how words combine into phrases, clauses and sentences according to grammatical rules.
4. Semantics (meaning level) — The study of the literal meaning of words, phrases and sentences.
5. Pragmatics (use level) — The study of meaning in context, i.e. how language is used in real situations and how context affects interpretation.

(Some accounts also add the discourse level — the organisation of language above the sentence.)

These levels work together: sounds make up words, words make up sentences, and meaning and use give the whole system its communicative power.

Sociolinguistics is the branch of linguistics that studies the relationship between language and society — how language varies and changes according to social factors such as region, class, age, gender, ethnicity and situation.

Differences among language, dialect and language variety:

• Language: A complete, independent system of communication used by a speech community, usually mutually unintelligible with other languages (e.g. Nepali, English, Maithili). It often has its own standard form, script and recognition.
• Dialect: A regional or social sub-form of a single language that differs in vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation but is still mutually intelligible with other dialects of that language (e.g. the eastern and western dialects of Nepali).
• Language variety: A neutral, general term for any distinct form of a language — it can refer to a language, a dialect, a register, a style or an accent without implying it is 'good' or 'bad' (e.g. formal vs. informal varieties, the variety used in academic writing).

Example: Nepali is a language; the way Nepali is spoken in the eastern hills versus Kathmandu are dialects; the formal Nepali of a news bulletin versus casual conversational Nepali are different varieties of the same language.

OR — Listing and distribution of languages spoken in Nepal:

Nepal is a multilingual country. According to the national census, more than a hundred languages are spoken, belonging to four main language families:

1. Indo-Aryan family — the largest group by number of speakers, including Nepali (the official language and lingua franca), Maithili, Bhojpuri, Tharu, Awadhi, Urdu, etc. These are spoken mainly in the Terai and across the country.
2. Sino-Tibetan (Tibeto-Burman) family — the largest by number of distinct languages, including Tamang, Newar (Nepal Bhasa), Magar, Gurung, Rai (Kirati), Limbu, Sherpa, etc., spoken mainly in the hills and mountains.
3. Austro-Asiatic (Munda) family — a small group, e.g. Santhali, spoken in the eastern Terai.
4. Dravidian family — represented by Kusunda/Dravidian-related languages such as Jhangar (Dhangar), spoken by a very small population.

Distribution: Indo-Aryan languages dominate the Terai and lowlands; Tibeto-Burman languages dominate the hills and mountains; Nepali, an Indo-Aryan language, is spoken throughout the country as the common link language. Many minority languages have very few speakers and are endangered.

Thus Nepal shows great linguistic diversity, with languages distributed by geography and ethnicity, and Nepali serving as the unifying lingua franca.

Applied linguistics is the use of linguistic knowledge to solve real-world, practical problems involving language. Four of its important fields are:

1. Language teaching and learning (Language pedagogy): Applies linguistic theory to designing curricula, teaching methods, textbooks and assessment for first- and second-language learners, including English Language Teaching (ELT).

2. Lexicography: The art and science of compiling dictionaries — selecting words, defining their meanings, recording pronunciation, usage and etymology to produce reference works for a language.

3. Translation and interpretation: Applies linguistic knowledge to convert meaning accurately from one language to another, in writing (translation) or orally (interpretation), preserving meaning, style and cultural context.

4. Forensic linguistics: Applies linguistic analysis to legal contexts — examining language evidence such as disputed authorship, voice identification, the language of laws, confessions and threatening messages, to assist in investigations and court cases.

(Other recognised fields include computational linguistics, language planning and policy, clinical/speech-language pathology, and stylistics.)

Thus applied linguistics bridges linguistic theory and everyday practical needs in education, communication, law and technology.