Browsing by Author "Weerawardhana, V."

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A comparative Study on the Structures of Natural Languages and Logical Arguments
(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Weerawardhana, V.
Language is the base in both Linguistics and Logic. The objective of the Logicians is not to study the natural languages but to study logical arguments in natural languages. However, identifying the structure of natural languages can be very much useful to make the correct deduction in logic. Therefore Semantics is important in both Linguistics and Logic. At the beginning Logicians tried to find out the logical patterns of natural languages, but most of the time they have seen the complexity, ambiguity, vagueness, and context based meaning of them. Therefore limited patterns of natural languages are considered in the formation of logically valid inferences in artificial, machine or formal languages. As well it is still a challenge to convert some components of natural languages into machine language .In order to face challenges in creating artificial languages, it is important to analyze the structure of both languages through a comparative study. In this study it is expected to identify sentence patterns and morphological symbols in both languages. Statement logical concepts and predicate logical concepts are taken in this research as logical languages.Stuctural linguistic analysis is done in this regard. The results of this study reveal that logical symbols abbreviate or shrink the meaning of natural languages in its well-formed formulas. In comparison of the Structures of the two languages, logical patterns can be seen morphologically and syntactically. Compositionality of the semantical component is also an important factor in the formation of logically valid arguments. Therefore this study supports to identify similarities and differences of the structure of the natural and machine languages .At the same time, studying semantics of natural languages and basic concepts of logic helps to analyze the language more efficiently and to generate smart machine languages.
Language Acquisition Patterns: A Case Study of a Child Acquiring Sinhalese as the First Language
(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Weerawardhana, V.
Child language acquisition is an innate strategy which reveals the psychological base of human language. Innate hypothesis is the pre-knowledge of the language. Human beings are born with this ability of internalising the first language with the help of language Acquisition Device (LAD). Children acquire structural regularities of their mother language (L1) from their environment. This happens in the critical period of the language development which is identified as the period from first six months to three years. This research is a case study focusing on the nature and the patterns of acquiring the Sinhalese language as L1. The child was in its critical period of language acquisition and data was collected using electronic and manual transcription. Structural linguistic analysis and theoretical concepts of Transformational Grammar on language acquisition such as competence and performance, generalisation, simplification, deep structure and surface structure are employed as the methodology. Accordingly, the gradual development of L1 acquisition from 6 months to 24 months are discussed. Babbling, sound acquisition and patterns of one word utterances, two word and three word utterances are among the findings. A comparison with the previous studies reveal that the patterns of above utterances, generalisation and simplification are commonly visible in the acquisition period. Also, the child often proves that competence is greater than performance. The results of the study further highlighted some semantic, syntactic and morphological overgeneralisations. Thus, this study and its findings are of significant importance to psycholinguists, language therapists and to researchers interested in studying child language acquisition process.
Linguistic Features in Child Language Acquisition: A Case Study of a Child Acquiring Sinhala as The First Language
(Faculty of Graduate Studies, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Weerawardhana, V.
First Language Acquisition is an innate process which reveals the connection between language and the mind. Cognitivists believe that human begins acquire the first language with the help of the Language Acquisition Device (LAD), an ability unique to them. According to the Critical Period Hypothesis, children from the age of six months to three years, children internalise their mother tongue from the language environment they are exposed to. The acquisition process is a totally creative one in which universally identified common features and patterns can be recognised. This paper is an effort to find out the linguistic features related to the first language acquisition of a child who acquires Sinhala as his mother tongue. It is a study of language development of an infant in a linguistic point of view. The research problem is to identify the linguistic features of child language acquisition. Data were collected electronically and manually in transcription. The paper discusses the structural linguistic features such as phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics in the acquisition process. In addition, theories of generative transformational grammar such as competence, performance and overgeneralisation are also discussed. Grammatical phenomena, namely simplification, addition, omission and substitution are observed as special features in the acquisition process. The findings of the study are important to psycholinguists, language therapists and researchers interested in applied linguistics.
A study on micro-verb phrases, quasi-verbs and compound verbs in middle Sinhalese language era with reference to the classical Sinhalese literary text "Buthsarana"
(Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Weerawardhana, V.
Historical linguistic studies are based on ancient written records. Sinhalese language is rich in two fold varieties of written records, namely, rock inscriptions and classical literary texts. Based on the linguistic and structural changes, Sinhalese language is classified into four major periods as Sinhalese prakrit era, Old Sinhalese language era, middle Sinhalese language era and modern Sinhalese era. In the middle Sinhalese era (8c AD- 13 c. AD) "Buthsarana" written by Vidya Chakravarthi is considered a significant literary text due to its language style and creativity. This study explores variations of special categories of verb system identified as micro verb phrases, quasai verbs and compound verbs in middle Sinhalese language era. The study is multidisciplinary as it employs the theories of historical linguistics, structural linguistics and traditional grammatical theories as methodology. Data were collected manually and analysis was done by applying morphology as a principal structural linguistic theory. Micro verb phrases are a grammatical category that consists of two verb roots. A base and a subsidiary root which help to expand the meaning of the base and emerges as a single semantic unit. Three major patterns can be analyzed regarding these phrases. Quasai verbs are the defective verbs with a limited paradigm. Compound verbs are formed by joining a noun stem and verb root a together. Noun stem and verb root are interlocked and occur in the language as a single unit. Limited compound verbs are found in Buthsarana. Findings of this research benefit both linguists and the researchers interested in language studies.
Tamil Borrowings in Sinhala: a Linguistic Approach
(Staff Development Center, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Weerawardhana, V.
Background: Sinhala is an Indo - Aryan Language. Tamil is a Dravidian Language. Although these two languages belong to separate linguistic families they have interrelationships. The main reason for this situation is clear. Sinhala is an Indo- Aryan Language separated from the other members of her family by the Dravidian language belt. That means Geographically Sinhala language is used amidst Dravidian languages. Therefore these two languages have co-existed for centuries. As a result of this, number of language borrowings can be identified in both languages. This language contact has made changes in the structure of Sinhala language. Sometimes, these changes misled even Linguists: Few decades ago Sinhala was named as a Dravidian language because of structural changes. Therefore Tamil borrowings in Sinhala should be identified in a Linguistic background. Methodology: In this research, Results of Tamil language contact to Sinhala Language was analyzed linguistically. Morphological, syntactical and Lexical theories are applied to analyze borrowings. Finally, results show how Tamil borrowings have made changes in the major components of Sinhala Language. Results: No new phonemes have been added to the phonemic component of Sinhala language due to Tamil contact. Few changes can be seen in Sinhala Language regarding morphological component. Sinhala imperative suffixes are inspired by Tamil suffixes of that sort. As well several post positions in Sinhala also have a Tamil origin. Very few syntactical changes can be also be identified. . One such evidence is ''relative participles." In most of Indo Aryan Languages including Sinhala, usage of relative pronouns in complex sentences is a distinguish feature. On contrary, In Dravidian languages relative participles are used instead of relative pronouns. In modern Sinhala relative participles are a major syntactic category. This has happened due to Tamil contact. As well most of compound verbs in Sinhala have a Tamil origin. At the same time ancient Sinhala numeric compound pattern has also been changed by the inspiration of Tamil numeral compounds. The most prominent area of Tamil borrowing is the Lexicon. Today number of Tamil words can be seen in Sinhala Lexicon. Tamil words in Sinhala Language can be categorized as loan words, loan blends or loan shifts. Implications: The study provides a foundation for studies on Tamil language inspiration. to Sinhala language. Identifying structural changes due to borrowings will help to analyze genetical features of the language.
මධ්‍යකාලීන සිංහල ක්‍රියාපදය පිළිබඳ බුත්සරණින් හෙළිවන තොරතුරු
(Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2015) Weerawardhana, V.