Tag: language

Linguistic Sanity: A Hoax

If I ask you to make a list of path breaking human innovations, how will it look like?
For one thing, it is ought to be a non-exhaustive list encompassing numerous
innovations, we humans have created over the last 2.5 million years of our existence
(of course if we include Homo habilis and Homo erectus in the class of humans).
But one great innovation which I bet will be missed by most of us- language. But had it
not for language, I would not have been able to communicate my ideas to you (or vice
versa) As most other important facets of life, language is taken for granted, yet
without it an invaluable trait of human life- smooth communication is rendered
ineffective.
In fact, Language has played a very important role in Human beings
coming to dominate the earth over such a short period of time. In any case, the sheer
diversity and precise structure of human language is something to seriously admire
and ponder upon.
It is this diversity of language; in fact, we have close to 7000 living languages¹,4500 of
which have a published Grammar; which is fascinating. However what is even more
fascinating is that amongst this pool of languages only a few have a substantial
speaker base(spreading across more than one linguistic zone).
Then what is that which makes these languages different? Not discounting the impact of colonisation
(which obviously led to the spread of languages like English, French) and other such
factors, one important reason was their continuous interaction with local languages
and hence their cultures.
A common feature running through all these major languages is they encompass within themselves words and phrases from diverse sources. It is this diversity which in turn enhance them. This is a spontaneous feature of any language-the same applies to most of our regional languages(the likes of hindi,
marathi,tamil, assamese, etc.)

How many of you remember being chided for using English words(like hello, sorry)
while speaking a regional language? Numerous times, right? We are often told that
this weakens the language, endangering it’s’sanity’. But this is a natural process, as
natural as your breathing. This is how languages evolve over time-encompassing
words and phases and hence related nuances of diverse cultures.
As when a word from a different language is incorporated,an unbreakable bond between the two
languages and it’s people develop. For instance, English words like table, School,
phone, tiffin have very much become an indistinguishable part of our vocabulary
even when we speak regional languages.

This synthesis,if anything only enriches the language .. While this seems as a threat
to linguistic ‘sanity’ by those who view language as an uniform monolithic
phenomenon; in reality this diversity only adds to the beauty of the language just as
the many colours of the rainbows beautifies and enriches it.

An Article by Rajdeep Mahanta, UG 2nd Sem, History Hons, Cotton University, Guwahati, Assam, India

July 13, 2023
Language problem in higher education and recommendations in NEP 2020

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Dhrubash Karan Mathur
Among the multitude of problems that cropped up in the in wake of Indian independence, language problem was one which not only defied a solution but threatened to create a lot of confusion in the country. Hindi was recognised as the National language but to make it official language was not favoured and met with stiff resistance from many States. To make Hindi popular and easily understandable by the majority, a mixture of simple Hindi and Urdu under the name HINDUSTANI was introduced in the school curriculum, but did not last for long. Ultimately as an amicable solution to the problem, Hindi was clubbed with English and regional language and accepted as a trilingual formula for all practical purposes.
India is unique as a multilingual country, with 22 officially recognised languages. When India was ruled by muslims and mugals for centuries, Urdu mixed with Persian was used not only as official language but for all communication purposes, including teaching in madarsas (schools) by maulavies (Teachers). Thereafter, British rulers used English as official language and to a large extend as medium of instructions in schools and colleges. At present most of the States are using their regional languages along with English as official language and English to correspond with the Central Government. However, medium of instructions in schools and colleges in the States depends upon their locations, demand and availability of required facilities.
After a long gap National Education Policy (NEP) was revised and released as NEP – 2020 with drastic changes made in the existing 10+2 schooling which used to start at the age of 6 years with grade I. Now 3 years of pre- school / Anganwadi foundational learning in the age group of 3-6 years has been introduced as a part of school curriculum; although similar scheme still exists in the form of nursery/play school, K.G.1 and 2 in recognised or unrecognised private schools throughout the country. Next two years of primary school will be treated as school study of class 1 and 2 in the age group of 6-8 years. Thereafter, it is preparatory from 3-5 in the age group of 8-11 years. Finally, it is secondary of 4 years from 9-12 grades/ classes in two phases i.e. 9-10 in the first and 11-12 the second in the age group of 14-18 years. Thus the new schooling system will be 5+3+3+4 covering the age 3-18 years.

NEP 2020 emphasizes early childhood care and education (ECCE) preferably through mother tongue from age 3, extending its benefits to socio- economically disadvantageous children residing in rural or remote areas, also in Ashramshalas in tribal dominated areas by providing access in phased manners. Similar emphasis is laid on foundation literacy and numeracy i.e. reading, writing and arthematics. This policy decision is in addition to the existing right of children to free compulsory education act 2009 and is well desired; but what is desired need not always be possible, especially under the prevailing economically weak and politically surcharged atmosphere. Its implementation on a large scale in the existing huge number of public schools spread over the country, especially those in villages and remote areas involving heavy finances and man power will be a very tough task.
As indicated above the new education policy emphasises on teaching primary level education, stretchable up to 8th class and beyond, through mother tongue / regional language. No doubt primary stages of learning through mother tongue is quickly imbibed by children and helpful in accelerating progress; but it needs to be viewed in the perspective of university education and higher technical and professional courses, after the secondary school stages, where English continues as a medium of instructions. In our country teaching for technical, professional and post graduate level courses pertaining to science, is invariably through English medium.
Teachers teaching these courses often found complaining about their students’ poor communication skills in speaking and writing in English. Such observations are a regular feature among students who had their earlier education through regional languages. It is relevant to refer to the recent statement of UGC Chairman to the language issue faced by the students in institutions of higher learning. The Chairman without any hesitation and reservation asserted on universities to allow students to write examinations in local languages even if the course is offered in English medium. Appropriate necessary action to be taken for appointing required faculty, evaluators and translators to translate standard text books. He pin pointed the crucial area of focus in NEP 2020 on promotion and regular use of mother tongue and local Indian languages in education. Once the teaching, learning and assessments are done in local languages, student engagement will gradually increase leading to an increase in the success rate. This proposal appears to be quite appealing for learning purpose but it should be viewed from the angle of its practical utility and benefits in seeking jobs, both at national and International levels; or even to those desirous of seeking admissions in institutions of higher learning in advanced countries. Apart from this it will be very difficult to make arrangement for teaching, examining and evaluating in different languages by the states where students speaking different languages enrol for studies.
It is relevant to cite the example of one of the oldest Indian universities, Osmania University, established in 1919 by Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of erstwhile Hyderabad Deccan State where Urdu was the medium of instructions right from primary to post graduate education, including technical and professional courses. However, English was a compulsory subject in the curriculum, maintaining its high standard. Obviously, this helped those students pursuing technical and professional courses to refer to original standard books in English even before they were translated and published. Many students even shifted to other States or travelled abroad to join universities of repute for studying through English medium. After India’s independence and merger of Hyderabad Deccan State in the Indian Union the medium of instructions in the colleges of Osmania University was changed to English.
If reviewed critically it will not be surprising to note that majority of the students in India would like to study through English medium in their own interest. Telangana Government has been quick to switch over to English as medium of instructions in all public schools throughout the State. However, a good number of private English medium schools are spread over the country to cater to the needs of those who would like to pursue their education through English language.

English has the advantage of helping us in dealings with the advanced nations of the world by avoiding delay in communicating with them. We have yet to learn a lot in technical and scientific fields from other advanced countries. Under the existing conditions, we cannot toy with the idea of replacing English at the University level either by National or regional languages. However, bilingual approach of teaching and learning as envisaged in NEP 2020 is worth trying in phase wise long duration with sincere co-operative efforts of all the concerned including States, since education is a concurrent subject.
Dr. Dhrubash Karan Mathur, Rtd. Professor, Osmania University, Former Principal, Nizam College (Autonomous)
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#Language #problem #higher #education #recommendations #NEP
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

May 9, 2023
Giggles Plastic – Complete Kitchen Set, 29 Piece Colourful Pretend and Play Cooking Set, Language and Social Skills, Role Play, for 3 Years & Above, Preschool Toys

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Improves language skills and creativity
Fosters endless hours of roleplay fun

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#Giggles #Plastic #Complete #Kitchen #Set #Piece #Colourful #Pretend #Play #Cooking #Set #Language #Social #Skills #Role #Play #Years #Preschool #Toys

May 8, 2023
No one thought Scindia, Azad would speak such low level language against Rahul: Gehlot

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Jaipur: Hitting back at Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia and former Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad for targeting Rahul Gandhi, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Thursday said no one had thought that the duo would start speaking such a low level language against the Gandhi scion.
He said the BJP leaders are tired because Gandhi has not shied away from raising the voice of people despite so many attacks.
“That is why, a task has been given to these leaders who left the Congress. The ideology they had sworn to fight throughout their lives, today they have stood with the same fascist ideology at the behest of BJP leaders,” Gehlot said.

Launching a sharp attack on Gandhi and the Congress, Scindia alleged the party has been left with no ideology, except the one of a “traitor who works against the country”.
He attacked the Congress for giving Gandhi a “special treatment” following his conviction in a defamation case. He accused the party of pressuring the judiciary and doing everything possible to stay relevant.
Scindia, who was once considered close to Gandhi, left the Congress following differences with the leadership and joined the BJP in 2020.
Similarly, Azad, who quit the Congress last year, said Gandhi was the primary reason why he and many others were not in the Congress today and claimed that one had to be “spineless” to remain in the grand old party.

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#thought #Scindia #Azad #speak #level #language #Rahul #Gehlot
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

April 7, 2023
Raj govt forms committee to consider declaring Rajasthani official language of state

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Jaipur: Rajasthan government has formed a committee to consider declaring Rajasthani the official language of the state, minister B D Kalla said on Thursday.
Replying to the calling attention motion moved by the deputy leader of Opposition in the Rajasthan Assembly during Zero Hour, Kalla, the art and culture minister, informed the house that the government has approved the formation of a committee, which will study the model of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand and submit a report to the state government.
He said based on the report, the state government will take action regarding the recognition of the Rajasthani language on similar lines.
Kalla said, at present, the Rajasthani language is included as a literary subject in the syllabus under the Board of Secondary Education. He said it would be possible to include it as a language after approval from the competent level.
The minister said it has come to the notice of the state government that different languages have been made official languages in different states.
At present, the Rajasthan Official Language Act, 1956 is applicable in the state. In order to make Rajasthani the official language, an amendment to the Act will have to be made.
He said the Mahapatra Committee has also considered Rajasthani eligible for inclusion in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution. In this regard, the members of the party and the opposition should unite and request Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Speaking on the issue, Rathore said various states have given official language status to their local languages such as Goa, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Sikkim and West Bengal.

“Why cannot Rajasthan do the same under article 345 of the Constitution,” he questioned.
Article 345 of the Indian Constitution, provides constitutional recognition as “official languages” to any language adopted by a state legislature as the official language of that state.
He said as per the recommendations of the Pahwa committee 1996 and Sitakant Mahapatra Committee 2003 if any government gives primary education in the mother tongue then it is eligible to be included in the 8th schedule.
“The resolution taken by the state assembly in 2003 to add Rajasthani in the 8th schedule should start with the state making it an official language,” he said.
Rathore said article 345 of the constitution allows a state to make one or more languages its official language. The state should bring an amendment to the Rajasthan Official Language Act-1956 and give official status to Rajasthani.
In his response, Kalla said on August 25, 2003, a resolution was unanimously passed by all the members of the State Legislative Assembly regarding the recognition of the Rajasthani language and its inclusion in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
The central government was urged to include the Rajasthani language in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution in 2009, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020 and 2023. At present the matter is under consideration at the level of the Government of India, he said.
A total of 22 languages of India are included in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India.
In a written reply in Lok Sabha on March 14, Minister of State of Home Affairs Nityanand Rai said 14 languages were initially included in the Constitution on 26th January 1950.
Last year, former CM Vasundhara Raje demanded that Rajasthani be given the status of the official language of the state.
Raje had written a letter to Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot stating that the mother tongue of Rajasthan is one of the richest languages in the world which is not only cultural identity but it is also related to sentiments.
She said after the recognition of Rajasthani as the official language, the state will be recognised globally and employment and tourism opportunities will increase.
In January this year, hundreds of youths gathered at the Shaheed Smarak in Jaipur to raise their demand to give Rajasthani the status of the official language of Rajasthan.
Office-bearers of student unions of various universities, student organisations including ruling Congress’ student wing NSUI and youth from different districts had gathered for the candle march in Jaipur in support of the demand.
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#Raj #govt #forms #committee #declaring #Rajasthani #official #language #state
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

March 16, 2023
SEL: SYSTEM BALANCED BY LANGUAGE: “A Reform in Language”: JESUS-ARCHETYPE-SAVIOR-ANOINTED, LOGOCENTRISM – THE INSUFFICIENCY OF THE LAW, RETURN-TO-MOUNT-SERMON.

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ASIN ‏ : ‎ B088SQSZPZ
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2606 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 114 pages
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#SEL #SYSTEM #BALANCED #LANGUAGE #Reform #Language #JESUSARCHETYPESAVIORANOINTED #LOGOCENTRISM #INSUFFICIENCY #LAW #RETURNTOMOUNTSERMON

March 14, 2023
“Mohammed bin Rashid Knowledge” and “King Salman International Academy for the Arabic Language” are disc

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The delegation of the “Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Knowledge” during its visit to the “King Salman International Complex for the Arabic Language” discussed ways of cooperation to support youth and develop the Arabic language, in addition to the possibility of launching joint projects that contribute to enhancing the knowledge momentum among the youth segment, which contributes to bringing about positive change. In the reality of the use of the Arabic language.
The two sides also discussed the possibility of developing the knowledge role of the Arabic language around the world and working on the participation of the largest number of people around the world in the use of the Arabic language. Secretary General of the King Salman International Academy for the Arabic Language.
During the visit, a number of initiatives undertaken by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation for Knowledge to enhance the role of the Arabic language were also reviewed, including the “In Arabic” initiative, one of the initiatives that focuses on presenting various activities through digital media channels and social media, and consolidating the presence of the Arabic language. And the “Digital Knowledge Center” initiative, which is the largest open Arab platform and incubator for digital content, provides a free environment for institutions to share digital content, which helps to enhance their presence in the Internet environment.
#Mohammed #bin #Rashid #Knowledge #King #Salman #International #Academy #Arabic #Language #discussing #ways #cooperation
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( With inputs from : pledgetimes.com )

February 28, 2023
The Transformer Model: Revolutionizing Natural Language Processing

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Natural language processing (NLP) has made significant strides in recent years with the introduction of the Transformer model. The Transformer model, first introduced in a 2017 paper by Vaswani et al., has become the backbone for many of the state-of-the-art NLP models including the widely popular ChatGPT, a language model trained by OpenAI. In this article, we will explore what the Transformer model is, how it works, and why it has become a game-changer in NLP.
What is the Transformer model?
The Transformer model is a type of neural network architecture that was specifically designed for sequence-to-sequence learning tasks, such as language translation or text summarization. Unlike previous models, which relied heavily on recurrent neural networks (RNNs), the Transformer model uses only self-attention mechanisms, which allows it to capture global dependencies in the input sequence more efficiently.
How does it work?
The Transformer model is composed of two main parts: the encoder and the decoder. The encoder takes in an input sequence and converts it into a sequence of hidden representations, where each representation corresponds to a specific position in the input sequence. The decoder then takes in these hidden representations and generates an output sequence, which can be a translation or a summary of the input sequence.
Structure of the Transformer Model
The key innovation of the Transformer model lies in its use of self-attention mechanisms, which allow it to attend to all positions in the input sequence to compute a representation for each position. This is in contrast to RNNs, which process the input sequence sequentially, and therefore can struggle with long-range dependencies. By attending to all positions simultaneously, the Transformer model can capture global dependencies more efficiently, which leads to improved performance on sequence-to-sequence learning tasks.
Why is it a game-changer in NLP?
The Transformer model has revolutionized NLP in several ways. First, it has led to significant improvements in performance on a wide range of NLP tasks, such as machine translation, text summarization, and language modeling. This is due to its ability to capture global dependencies in the input sequence more efficiently than previous models.
Second, the Transformer model has made it possible to train much larger language models, such as the GPT-3 model, which has 175 billion parameters. This has allowed for the development of language models that can generate human-like responses to text prompts, such as ChatGPT.
Read the official research paper on the Transformer Model here

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#Transformer #Model #Revolutionizing #Natural #Language #Processing
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 26, 2023
Meta’s LLaMA: Advancing AI research with a groundbreaking language model

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Meta, Facebook’s parent company, is releasing a new AI language generator called LLaMA, which is not a system that anyone can talk to but rather a research tool aimed at democratizing access to the field of AI language models. LLaMA consists of four different-sized models, and Meta is making it available under a noncommercial license focused on research use cases. This will grant access to groups such as universities, NGOs, and industry labs. Meta believes that the entire AI community, including academic researchers, civil society, policymakers, and industry, must work together to develop clear guidelines around responsible AI in general and responsible large language models in particular.
In a research paper, Meta claims that the LLaMA-13B model outperforms OpenAI’s popular GPT-3 model on most benchmarks, and the largest model, LLaMA-65B, is competitive with the best models such as DeepMind’s Chinchilla70B and Google’s PaLM 540B. The numbers in these model names refer to the billions of parameters in each model, which is a measure of the system’s size and sophistication. Once trained, LLaMA-13B can run on a single data center-grade Nvidia Tesla V100 GPU, making it accessible to smaller institutions.
Meta’s release of LLaMA is significant because it differs from the current buzz around AI chatbots. Meta has released its own chatbots in the past, such as BlenderBot and Galactica, but they were not well-received due to their poor performance. LLaMA is designed to help researchers advance their work in generating text, having conversations, summarizing written material, and more complicated tasks like solving math theorems or predicting protein structures.
Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said in a Facebook post that the company is committed to an open model of research, and they will make the LLaMA model available to the AI research community. The hope is that LLaMA will contribute to the development of clear guidelines around responsible AI and further advance research in the field of AI language models.
Read the official research paper here.
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#Metas #LLaMA #Advancing #research #groundbreaking #language #model
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 26, 2023
‘It’s political language’, says Udit Raj on Congress slogan ‘Modi teri kabar khudegi’

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Raipur: Congress leader Udit Raj on Saturday defended the “Modi teri kabar khudegi” (Modi, your grave would be dug) slogan by his fellow party leaders at the Delhi airport and called it “political language”.
The Congress said it was a “rajnaitik kabar (political grave)” of Prime Minister Narendra Modi they were referring to.
Notably, Congress leaders allegedly raised “Modi teri kabar khudegi” slogan after party leader Pawan Khera was stopped from boarding a flight to Chhattisgarh’s Raipur at the Delhi airport on Thursday.
“It’s a political language. When PM Modi speaks of ‘Congress-Mukt Bharat’, does he mean he wants to kill Congress or deregister it?…If the country has to be healthy, it’s essential that ‘rajnaitik kabar’ of PM Narendra Modi be dug…,” he said on Congress’ slogan ‘Modi teri kabar khudegi’.
Earlier on Friday, coming down heavily on Congress for raising the slogan ‘Modi teri kabar khudegi’, PM Modi said that the country and people are saying “Modi Tera Kamal Khilega” (Modi, your lotus will bloom).
Retorting to the Congress’ remarks, the Prime Minister said that the country will give a “befitting reply” to the people with offensive thinking and language.
“I can see BJP all around in Meghalaya. Be it hills or plains, village or town, I can see the lotus blooming. Those who have been rejected by the country, who the country is no more ready to accept, are now chanting ‘Modi teri kabar khudegi’. But the country is saying ‘Modi tera kamal khilega’,” PM Modi said while addressing an election rally here on Friday.
PM Modi went on saying, “The people of the country will give a befitting reply to the people having such offensive thinking and language. The people of Meghalaya and Nagaland will also give a reply.”

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#political #language #Udit #Raj #Congress #slogan #Modi #teri #kabar #khudegi
( With inputs from www.siasat.com )

February 26, 2023