Amrita Collected Papers by A M Ghatage

SR No.: 006968
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: Kasturbhai Lalbhai Smarak Nidhi Ahmedabad
Total Pages: 530
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 10 MB

Page 382

Indian Linguistics
373
know 'first and is in the danger of developing some kind of apathy, if not hostility, to the other views. If I am not mistaken, now and then, one appears to notice a slight inclination on the part of the budding linguist to consider the descriptive or structural approach of a specific type to be the only proper linguistic approach and to feel a bit cold towards the historical studies of earlier tradition. An undue importance attached to the type of terminology one is accustomed to use, is likely to be a source of misunderstanding and may indicate a lop-sided development. If the elderly linguist may find it unusual or unnecessary to adopt the more recent and to some extent novel terminology, one fails to see why the younger scholar should not take more seriously to historical studies, along with descriptive work.
15. In spite of apparent differences in the terms used and some amount of basic differences in the attitudes to be adopted towards the study of language, which are ultimately traceable to what general theory of language. one holds and what one wants to get out of the language-study, a broad basis of common agreement is present among all these views, and it may pay us to emphasise these common features and try to appropriate them as the sound basis, of our own attitudes. Granting that the phonemic or phonological approach is essentially correct and renders great service in revealing the structure of the language analysed, one sometimes feels a bit embarrassed at the fact that other aspects of language, which is truly a manysided and complex object of study, are either getting neglected or do not receive proper emphasis. The studied brevity which is developed in describing the different languages, dialects and even idiolects, makes for difficult reading and understanding, and one may be pardoned for doubting that a brief sketch of a few pages can really describe a rich cultural language of long history. One may not find it also easy to agree with the application of the principle of economy in linguistic analysis, by which one feature of the data is called significant and all others are regarded as superfluous or redundant because predictable. The initial reaction against phonetic niceties has often led to complete neglect of the phonic material, which can be neither logically justified nor pragmatically likely to yield useful results. The constant demand to keep levels apart in language-analysis often leads to the setting up of more and more such levels and the organic unity of the language appears to be put to an undue strain, under which it may break into pieces. Nor can one go to the other extreme and decide to neglect the obvious differences between different layers of a language under the spacious plea of unity and the whole approach. No one doubts the basic distinction which de Saussure drew