Department of Linguistics
About Us
The Department of Linguistics, University of Mumbai is established in June 1964. The Department offers MA, M.Phil and Ph.D. programmes in Linguistics. It also offers a Certificate Course in Phonetics and Phonology. The Department follows the Credit Based Semester and Grading System for its teaching programmes
Linguistics is a discipline that studies the structure, functions and use of human languages. In Linguistics, we study properties of specific languages as well as seek to search for the properties which are common to all human languages.
While examining the structure of languages, a linguist addresses the questions such as:- what are the units of a language; how are these units patterned, e.g sounds into words, words into larger words and phrases, phrases into sentences
- how are various languages different from each other and how are they similar
- how do children acquire any language, without being taught and in a very short period of time.
The part of linguistics that studies the structure of languages is divided into the following subfields:
Phonetics: Study of the physical properties of speech sounds (articulation and acoustics)
Phonology: Study of the patterns of speech sounds in languages
Morphology: Study of processes of word formation
Syntax: Study of the structure of sentences
Semantics: Study of linguistic meaning
Linguistics also studies how linguistic structures exhibit variation across space and time. A subfield of Linguistics called Historical Linguistics also studies how languages change over the period of time, and in contact with each other. Linguistics also concerns itself with the study of functions and use of human language. Languages are used for expression: for communication as well as for thinking. A subfield of Linguistics called Pragmatics studies the use of language in society and its use in communication.
Various functions of languages, such as establishing identities, organizing the relations between individuals, groups and communities etc are studied in a subfield called Sociolinguistics. Here, the complex relationship of language and society is investigated. Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field of knowledge. It not only interacts closely with literature, culture studies, sociology, politics, philosophy, media studies, anthropology, psychology but also with education, health science, computer science and neuroscience. Application of Linguistics extends to research in linguistics and language studies, language teaching, translation, media and journalism, special education, speech pathology etc. Many IT companies also need linguistics in the domains such as machine translations, speech-to-text conversions etc.
Studying Linguistics sensitizes one to this extremely complex knowledge system called language and to its intricate patterns. It also sensitizes one to the strengths and challenges of the multilingual situations such as India. It further makes one realize the role of languages in building a strong participatory democracy. There are around 6000-7000 languages in the World today, and many of them are on the brink of extinction. In India alone, there are 750+ languages, a majority of which are being spoken by marginalized groups and are in a grave danger of being forced out of use. It is not only important to document these languages, but also to save them from extinction. Linguistics would help one to the understanding of the forces and conditions responsible for the plight of languages and of the societies speaking them, thereby opening up possibilities of bringing about positive social change
The Department currently has four faculty members including an Associate Professor and three Assistant Professors (for more details, see Faculty Profile).
Vision of the Department
The Department seeks to promote research in various aspects of human languages. This involves research in sound patterns, word formation processes, sentence structures, linguistic meaning, processes of language change, language use, relationship between language and society etc.
The Department seeks to sensitize the students to the diversity of language structures found in human languages. Given the increasing importance of linguistic resources in the current scenario, the Department seeks to equip the students with a toolkit which would enable him/her to understand, describe and work with these resources
The Department also seeks to instill amongst the students a sense of responsibility and respect towards the linguistic diversity of the world, by developing an attitude which is responsive to the needs of the plurilingual ethos prevalent in human societies. Special attention is given to the languages of linguistic minorities of India. Such an approach would help in promoting and strengthening participatory democratic practices.
Facilities
The Department is well-equipped with digital instruments such as high-definition recorders, a handicam and computer software, required for recording, analyzing and documenting linguistic data. The Department is also in the process of developing a Computational Linguistics lab, which will be useful for research as well as industrial application
Equipments
Tape Recorder (Model -64) 1 Tape Recorder (Philips) 1 Tape Recorder (Akai) 1 D.S.P. Sonagraph 1 Personal Computers 5 Laptop 1 Printers 4 Overhead Projector with Screen 1 Slide Projector with laser Pointer 1 Scanner 2 LCD Projector 1 MA in Linguistics
The MA programme in Linguistics is a 2year (4 semesters), full time, regular course. The admission process for the MA programme normally starts in the month of June-July each year.
The students are expected to undertake 16 courses (4 courses each semester). Out of these 16 courses, 8 core courses are obligatory and the remaining 8 courses can be chosen from the electives offered by the Department.
For this programme, the Department follows the Credit Based Semester and Grading System. This involves a home-assignment, a mid-semester exam and an end-semester exam for each course.
Highlights of the Programme
The M.A. programme includes the courses with a large practical import.Courses such as Computational Linguistics, Lexicography, Basic Semiotics, Media Semiotics, Educational Linguistics, Translation: Theory & Practice offer career training.
Courses such as Introduction to Sociolinguistics; Language, Power and Inequality; Language, Culture and Nation; Introduction to Pragmatics promote community orientation
Courses such as Introduction to Linguistics, Morphosyntax, Formal Semantics, Analysing Structures of Modern Indian Languages, Analysing Meaning in Natural Languages, Historical Linguistics are incorporated to develop the analytic skills of the students.
All courses are designed to introduce the students to the latest research trends. A major highlight of the Programme is the Field Methods course offered in the 4th Semester. This course exposes the students to the techniques of the field work and data collection. This course not only provides the students an opportunity to use the analytical skills acquired during the Programme, but also provides them an opportunity to interact with the community using the language being studied.
Eligibility: A graduate from any discipline can apply for the course.
Admission Process
Students for the programme are selected through a written entrance exam conducted by the Department around June-July every year. The written entrance exam consists of descriptive questions. Its duration is 2 hours (40 marks). Inquiries about the programme can be made throughout the year in the Office of the Department.
Fee Structure
Sem. I & II - Rs. 5, 585/-
Sem.III & IV – Rs. 4,230/-
Certificate Course in Phonetics and Phonology
About us The Certificate Course in Phonetics and Phonology is being offered in the Department since 2009-2010. It is aimed at sensitizing the students of this Course to the patterns of sounds in human languages and has a lot of practical import. Phonetics is a scientific study of sounds used in human languages, while phonology is a study of the patterns of speech sounds in human languages. The students in this Course are trained to perceive and identify a variety of different speech sounds used in the various languages of the world, to understand the mechanisms of speech production (pronunciation) and transcribe the sounds in different languages using the International Phonetic Alphabets. The Course also teaches various methods of analyzing sound patterns in human language
Language educators, special educators especially those dealing with speech pathology, schools teachers, anyone interested in studying the patterns of languages, people working in the areas of speech recognition/ speech synthesis, forensic phonetics etc. who have no prior background in linguistics would benefit from this Course. This Course is not aimed at training anyone to improve the pronunciation of any language or acquire speaking skills
The Course starts in late July-August every year and culminates in March-April. The Course will be conducted on Sundays. Its evaluation consists of a written exam and Viva-Voce at the end of the Course, in March-April. Successful candidates will be awarded a certificate from the University of Mumbai
Admission Process The admissions for this Course start immediately after the declaration of HSC results every year, i.e. in June. The intake capacity of the Course is 50. The inquiries about the Course can be made in the Office of the Department throughout the year
Fee Structure
Registration / Admission Fee : Rs. 40/-
Tuition Fee : Rs.2000/-
Examination Fee : Rs. 300/-
Courses
M.A.
Ph.D.The department has introduced a revised M.A. syllabus during the academic year 2003 -2004. This new syllabus has been prepared by taking into consideration the recent developments in Linguistic studies and the latest UGC model curriculum .
Two new optional courses ( Paper IV :Semiotics and Paper VIII : Translation : Theory & Practice ) have been introduced. These two courses have been designed in such a manner that the students of other departments may also register for these courses either as an optional paper or a subsidiary paper.Syllabus
M. A. Part - I
I. INTRODUCTION TO
LINGUISTICS,
II. SCHOOLS OF LINGUISTIC
THOUGHT
III. SOCIOLINGUISTICS
IV. SEMIOTICS
Or
LANGUAGE LEARNING
& LANGUAGE
TEACHINGM.A. Part - II
V. SYNTAX,
VI. SEMANTICS &
LEXICOGRAPHY
VII. FIELD METHODS
VIII. HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS
Or
TRANSLATION :
THEORY & PRACTICE(i) As the syllabus has been designed for the two - year M.A. programme in Linguistics the first four papers (i.e. Paper - I, II, III, & IV) will be offered to the M.A. Part -I students and the next four papers (i.e. Paper - V, VI,VII & VIII) to the M.A. Part - II students. It may be noted that paper IV is optional paper for M.A. part - I students and paper - VIII for the M.A. Part - II students.
(ii) As the Department of Linguistics follows the Internal - External Evaluation Scheme, each paper (except the * Field Methods Paper) will be evaluated in the following manner :
a) Two Internal Test (Each carries 20 marks) - 40 marks
b) Home Assignment / Project Report & Seminar - 20 marks
c) Final Examination - 40 marks
___________
Total - 100 marks
* Paper VII (Field Methods) will be evaluated on the basis of the dissertation which is required to be submitted by the student before the end of the academic year.
Fees Structure
M.A. Part I
M.A. Part II
Ph.D
Tuition Fee
1000/-
1000/-
1000/-
Registration Fee
800/-
----
1000/-
Admission Form Fee
---
100/-
---
Registration Form Fee
15/-
----
15/-
Laboratory Fee
100/-
----
----
Caution Money Deposit
10/-
10/-
10/-
Library Fee
380/-
380/-
680/-
Students Union Fee
10/-
10/-
10/-
Cult. Activities
06/-
06/-
06/-
Gymkhana Fee
125/-
125/-
125/-
E- charge
20/-
20/-
20/-
Sport & Cult. Act.
20/-
20/-
20/-
Disaster Fee
10/-
10/-
10/-
Group Insurance Fee
36/-
36/-
36/-
Total =
2532/-
1717/-
3032/-
Foreign Students : Tuition fees of Rs.5000/-
Reserved Category Students : Rs.75/-
Exam Fee (M.A. Part I & II) : Rs.510/-
Transference Certificate : Rs.100/-
Transcript Certificate : Rs. 750/- (each copy)
Bonafide Certificate : Rs. 10/-
Railway concession : Rs. 5/-
Enrollment : Rs. 220/- (Foreign Student : Rs.750/-)
Ph. D Synopsis Fee : Rs. 5010/-
Academic Staff
All the faculty members are involved in research and publications (see Faculty Profile for more details).
Dr. Avinash Pandey
- "Orality in the Structuralist Philosophy of Language" funded by ICPR, New Delhi during the period 2011-2013.
- "Linguistic Landscape of Vasai" a minor research project funded by UGC was completed during the period 2011-2012.
Co- Principal Investigator for a project on ‘Development of Pronunciation Lexicon based on Experimental Studies of Phonetics and Phonemics of 5 Indian Languages, Marathi Chapter’ in collaboration with Dr. Nandini Bondale, TIFR funded by Department of Information Technology through TIFR, Mumbai for the period 2012-2015.
Research projects
Research Fellowship
Associate Fellow of UGC Inter-University Centre of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIAS, Shimla for the period 2012-2015.
Ph.D. and M.Phil. Programme
- "Orality in the Structuralist Philosophy of Language" funded by ICPR, New Delhi during the period 2011-2013.
- "Linguistic Landscape of Vasai" a minor research project funded by UGC was completed during the period 2011-2012.
Co- Principal Investigator for a project on ‘Development of Pronunciation Lexicon based on Experimental Studies of Phonetics and Phonemics of 5 Indian Languages, Marathi Chapter’ in collaboration with Dr. Nandini Bondale, TIFR funded by Department of Information Technology through TIFR, Mumbai for the period 2012-2015.
Research projects
Research Fellowship
Associate Fellow of UGC Inter-University Centre of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIAS, Shimla for the period 2012-2015.
Name of the Student Title Ms. Renuka Ozarkar Structures of Marathi Verbs Ms. Shaima Al-Issa Literary Narratives, Culture and Ideology : A Semiolinguistic Study of Orhan Pamuk’s Fictional Discourse
Ms. Anjali Singh English in India and in Japan Mr. Mohammad B. Aghaei A Semiotic Analysis of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Novels Mr. Jalvi Rajeev Ramkrishna Hearing Impairment and Linguistic Development : Issues and Perspectives
A list of the current M.Phil students and titles of their research is as follows:
Name of the Student Area/Topic of Research Ms. Manasi Nadkarni Sociolinguistics variation in Konkani of Goa Ms. Vrushali Surve Stylistic Analysis of Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland
Ms. Harsha Bhatt Yet to be decided Every academic year the Department organizes Seminars, Conferences, Symposia or Workshops not only to encourage research in Linguistics, but also to take Linguistics to wider domains of relevance to society. The activities of the Department in past few years are as follows :
- Special Lectures Series on the area of Graph Theory conducted by Salil Badodekar during the year 2014-2015
- Workshop on “Phonology of Indian Languages” from the 5th – 14th of December, 2014
- A series of lectures on “Negating”, “Linguistic Negations” & “ The Problem of Existential Import” by Prof. Fabian Schang on 24th & 25th February, 2014
- A series of lectures on “Bhartrhari’s Philosophy of Language” by Prof. Kapil Kapoor on 11th & 12th March, 2013
- A series of lectures on “Phonology” by Prof. K.P. Mohanan on 4th & 5th March, 2013
- A special lecture on “Indian Languages and Split Lexis” by Prof. Probal Dasgupta on 5th February, 2013
- A special lecture on “Pragmatics & the Counting of Speech-Act Units” by Prof. Probal Dasgupta on 2nd August, 2011
- A series of special lectures on “Indian Grammatical Theory” by Prof. Malhar Kulkarni from 4th – 9th January, 2010
- A series of special lectures on “Some Issues in Marathi Grammar” by Dr. R. V. Dhongde from the 3rd of December to 5th of December, 2009
Seminars
- National Symposia of “Right to Education and the future of our languages” from 9th – 11th of March, 2015
- A National Seminar on “The Role of Language & Culture in the makings of a nation” from 27th to 29th January, 2011
- The Fourth International Student’s Conference of Linguistics in India (SCONLI-4) from the 18th-20th of February, 2010
Events in 2014-2015
A National Symposium on Right to Education and the Future of Our Languages
The Department of Linguistics and Dr. Rakhmabai Educational Resource and Research Centre, (The Unique Foundation), Pune organized this Symposium in association with ICSSR-WRC, during 9th-11th March, 2015.
The Symposium was aimed at bringing together the academic experts and researchers in the areas of Education and Linguistics andthe actual practitioners such as primary school teachers, to share their experiences in order to draw a plan to take the progressive spirit of the RTE ahead in the multilingual set up of Indian society. In this Symposium, apart from around 15 experts, 25 primary school teachers from government schools from all over Maharashtra had actively participated.
The Symposium is to be followed by a series of workshops for school teachers to be conducted jointly by the Department of Linguistics and Dr. Rakhmabai Educational Resource and Research Centre, (The Unique Foundation), Pune across various regions of Maharashtra. Click here for the Concept Note and Click here for the Schedule of the Symposium
Workshop in the Phonology of Indian Languages
In order to familiarize the students of Linguistics to the current theoretical trends in phonology, train the students to apply their skills in analyzing the phonological patterns in Indian languages, and encourage research in Phonology, a ten-day intensive workshop was organized by the Department during 5th-14th December, 2014. Some students from outside the Department had also participated in the Workshop. The focus of the Workshop was on identifying some research problems in Phonology of Indian languages and therefore, a lot of emphasis was given on practical problem-solving sessions and a group activity. The Department intends to organize such intensive workshops in various areas of Linguistics every year.
A Beginners’ Workshop in Linguistics
Since 2012, the Department has been organizing a week-long workshop to introduce basics of Linguistics to a wider audience who comes with no background in Linguistics, but has interest in languages. This Workshop is open for anyone above the age of 13 years. This year, the Beginners’ Workshop took place during 23rd-28th of December, 2014.
The Beginners’ Workshop was started as an activity in support of the Panini Linguistics Olympiad India Programme of the Department of Linguistics, University of Mumbai (see Outreach Programmes of the Department), to train the school and junior college students to participate in the National and the International Linguistics Olympiad competition.
OUTREACH PROGRAMMES
The Department is keen to spread awareness regarding linguistic issues in the larger sections of society. With this aim in mind, the Department has initiated various outreach programmes such as :
Teacher Training Programmes in Linguistics & Language-in-Education
The Department will be conducting a series of workshops for school teachers in collaboration with Dr. Rakhmabai Educational Resource and Research Centre, (The Unique Foundation), Pune across various regions of Maharashtra. The aim of the workshops will be to interact with school teachers regarding the various issues concerning language in education with special reference to multilingualism in India. The Department also looks forward to conduct similar workshops in the area of linguistics and language-in-education in collaboration with various educational institutes across Maharashtra
The Panini Linguistics Olympiad, India programme
The Department initiated the Panini Linguistics Olympiad, India programme to promote Linguistics among school and college students. As part of this programme, a group of students from various parts of the country are selected to represent India in the International Linguistics Olympiad held every year. For more details on Panini Linguistics Olympiad, India programme, visit the following link: https://sites.google.com/site/paninilinguisticsolympiad
Name Dr. Avinash Pandey Designation Assistant Professor & Head Qualification MA (Linguistics),
Ph.D. (Linguistics)Research Interests Pragmatics; Syntax-Semantics; Language & Philosophy; Language, Power & Inequality; Language Movements; Educational Linguistics, Linguistics for Health Sciences.
Contact information:Contact information E-mail avinash@linguistics.mu.ac.in Tel. (o) 022-2654 3443 Profile Click Here Name Dr. Biswamohan Pradhan Designation Associate Professor Qualification M.A. , Ph.D Areas of Interest Semiotics, Sociolinguistics, Linguistic Theories, Literary Discourse Analysis
Contact information E-mail biswamohanp@linguistics.mu.ac.in Tel. (o) 022-26543443 Name Archana Thool Designation Assistant Professor Qualification M.A. M.Phil Research Interests Computational Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, Corpus Linguistics, Lexicography, Translation Studies, Linguistics Theories.
Contact information E-mail archanathool@gmail.com Tel. (o) 022-26543443 Profile Click Here Name Renuka Ozarkar Designation Assistant Professor Qualification MA (Linguistics) Research Interests Structure of Marathi and other Indian languages; Syntax- Semantics; Morphology; Phonology; Language education; Indian grammatical theories.
Contact information E-mail hi.renuka@gmail.com Tel. (o) 022-2654 3443 Profile Click Here Name Mrs. Sandhya A. Dicholkar Designation Sr.Typist-Clerk Contact information E-mail linguistics@linguistics.mu.ac.in Tel. (o) 022-2654 3443
Name Mr. Lalu S. Lohakare Designation Peon Name Mr. Sunil R. Patil Designation Peon The Department also has a well-equipped library section in the Jawaharlal Nehru Library located in the Kalina Campus of the University. Along with this, the Department also has a small library located in the Department
Postal Address
Department of Linguistics
Ground Floor, Ranade Bhavan,
University of Mumbai
Vidyanagari,
Kalina, Santracruz (East)
Mumbai-400 098
E-mail: linguistics@linguistics.mu.ac.in
Tel.: +91 22 2654 3443
