Language, Mind and Society: A Language and Education Reader is a collection of essays that has been curated to create awareness about the interactional nature and structure of language, and to explore and examine its relationship with mind, society and education. This reader covers a wide range of topics including the structuring of language, language acquisition in children, multilingualism, the nature of language variation, and the ways in which language is related to social power structures, among others. The essays have been grouped under four sections: the nature of language, language and the human mind, language and society, and language and education. The selections represent the diverse and multifaceted views held by scholars renowned in their respective fields, and will provide students with an in-depth understanding of the topics discussed and help them form their own ideas on these topics.
Rama Kant Agnihotri retired as Professor and Head, Department of Linguistics at the University of Delhi, and is Professor Emeritus at Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur. He was Chairperson of the NCERT's National Focus Group on the teaching of Indian languages, and advisor to CBSE, NCERT, SCERTs and DIETs across India.
Rajesh Kumar is Professor of Linguistics at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras. His book Negation and Licensing of Negative Polarity Items in Hindi Syntax was published as part of the prestigious Outstanding Dissertations in Linguistics series in 2006.
Acknowledgements Publisher’s Acknowledgements
Introduction Rama Kant Agnihotri and Rajesh Kumar 1. Language Defined Edward Sapir 2. Nature and Structure of Language Rama Kant Agnihotri 3. Child Language Acquisition: Cross-Linguistic Evidence for Universal Grammar Ayesha Kidwai, Benu Pareek and Yangchen Roy 4. Language Analysis Rajesh Kumar 5. How Language Works Steven Pinker 6. Knowledge of Language: The Chomskyan Perspective K. A. Jayaseelan 7. Language and Cognition Catherine Caldwell-Harris 8. Linguistic and Communicative Competence Rama Kant Agnihotri and Rajesh Kumar 9. Issues of Language Proficiency Rama Kant Agnihotri 10. Towards a Pedagogical Paradigm Rooted in Multilinguality Rama Kant Agnihotri 11. Social Influences on the Choice of a Linguistic Variant John L. Fischer 12. Identity and Multilinguality: The Case of India Rama Kant Agnihotri 13. Politeness and Language Suranjana Barua 14. Constituent Assembly Debates on Language Rama Kant Agnihotri 15. Teaching a Native Language Jerome S. Bruner 16. Linguistics and the Teaching of English M. A. K. Halliday 17. Language and Learning in Education Rajesh Kumar and Rama Kant Agnihotri Conclusion Rama Kant Agnihotri and Rajesh Kumar