ICLSL 2016
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Item Two Types of Quirky-case Subjects in Involitive Constructions in Sinhala: A Study under Theta System Theory(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Xiong, J.Involitionality in Sinhala, as reflected in the verb morphology, usually has the subject marked with quirky (non-nominative) cases, which are either atin-marked or dative, as shown in (1) and (2). (1) a. laməya atin kooppe biňduna. (Inman 1994: 82) child ATIN cup break. INV.PAST „The child (accidently) broke the cup.‟ b. kellə atiŋ maalu ageeṭə pihenəwa. (Inman 1994: 100; De Silva1960:101) girl ATIN fish. ACC.PL very_well cook.INV „The girl can cook fish very well.‟ (2) a. maṭə kawi kiyəwenəwa. (Inman 1994: 76) I.DAT.SG poetry recite.INV.PRES „I start reciting poetry (despite myself).‟ b. laməyaṭə æňḍuwa. (Inman 1994: 82) child:DAT cry.INV.PAST „The child cried (involuntarily).‟ Common to these two types of involitive construction is the fact that both of them can alternate with the nominative-subject construction, encoding volitionality. Reversely, the volitive construction alternates with either atin- or dative construction, but not both. For instance, causative verbs, e.g., break and drown, select the atin construction but resist the dative one, whereas verbal predicates (e.g., recite and speak) and unergative predicates (e.g., cry and laugh) choose the dative construction instead of the atin one. Given this, it would be significant to syntactically discriminate between the atin construction and the dative construction. We thus explore the distinction under the Theta System Theory (Reinhart 2002; Marelj 2004) and come to the following conclusions: (3) a. the atin construction: verb ([+m], [-c-m])(Sentient, Theme) b. the dative construction: verb ([-c], [-c-m]) (Recipient/Benefactory, Theme) The atin-marked subject is [+m], roughly equivalent to Sentient, and it is compatible with the [/+c] feature. This can explain why atin-construction must be transitive as well as why it can convey implicit modality (e.g., potentiality). On the other hand, the [-c] feature can capture its occurrence in an intransitive construction. Semantically, the atin-marked subject can be a Cause, albeit involuntary, of an event, while the dative subject can never be a cause ([-c]). Therefore, “involition” in Sinhala should be understood as either the underspecified feature of “cause” or the absence of “cause”.Item The Use of ‘Impersonal It’ by English as a Second Language Learners(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Wijewardana, A.D.ESL learners in Sri Lanka find it difficult to write English sentences due to syntactic differences between their mother tongue and the target language. It is noticeable that the English sentences start mostly with the grammatical subject while the Sinhalese expressions do not. The demand of grammatical subject and the use of „impersonal it‟ in writing sentences in English are focused in this study. Specifically, the study is based on the use of „impersonal it‟ as a Subject by Sinhalese speaking ESL learners who live in their bilingual backgrounds. The research is aimed at calculating the frequencies of the usage of sentence patterns with „impersonal it‟ used by the target population of Sri Lankan ESL learners who speak Sinhalese as their mother tongue. As the sample of study a group of fifty ESL learners in Grade ten, in the age of fifteen have been used. Behavior of the particular language unit produced in English sentences by the sample has been closely observed through a diagnostic test which had three questions: picture based writing, rearranging words to make sentences with „impersonal it‟ and free writing on the given picture. The data obtained from the responses to the test items was analysed considering the two aspects: frequency and accuracy of use. The study involves interpreting the use of „impersonal it‟ in terms of popularity. Further, the strengths and weaknesses of the ESL learners in the use of particular patterns have been found. The difficulties faced by the respondents in using „impersonal it‟ as the subject were examined. The findings reflected the general tendencies explicit in the choice of sentence patterns with „impersonal it‟ in relation to particular functions and situations. Among many academic studies done in the country „impersonal it‟ has rarely been a topic of discussion. Therefore, the findings of the study will expand the scope of awareness of syntactic features of Sri Lankan ESL learners.Item Reading Disabilities (Dyslexia) and Difficulties as a Learning Problem: A Psycholinguistic Study(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Wijesekara, J.S.'Reading' is a creative ability and it is a complex cognitive process relating to brain-cells with the functions of visual system or tactile. Knowledge on symbols in a language and semantic interpretation of those symbols are important in reading process. The first stage of reading is understanding sequences of symbols and the second stage is the semantic interpretation of them. Those two categories on reading are noticed by different symptoms, but they look normal and intelligent. Though some literature on reading problems in English language are available, no successful research has come out on reading texts in Sinhala language. Being a symbolic system, Sinhala symbols are different from English symbols as it has a phonetic symbolic system. Therefore, the research problem focuses on identification of linguistic problems on reading difficulties and dyslexia and finding the methods that can be applied to solve those problems. Therefore, (a) identifying those two categories of children and finding out what reading problems that they face and (b) introducing alternative methods for reading for the children who are severely disabled in reading are the objectives of this research. The hypothesis of this research, if the memory of phonemic symbols can be improved, it will be easy to avoid these conditions or if it is difficult, an alternative method could be identified to improve their education. twenty school children from each category from grade 6 to 10 will be selected by a test and some specific teaching methods will be applied to improve their reading ability. At the same time the questionnaires will be given to the teachers and the parents to gather knowledge and the background details of those children. This research is limited only to the children who read Sinhala. This research will be important for the students to upgrade their education and for the therapists and educationists to employ these results for their purposes.Item Word Formation in Tamil Baby Talk(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Wijeratne, W.M.This research is aimed at discovering the nature of the words used by Tamil children at the early stage of their language acquisition. Language is acquired by humans during the early part of their life. While acquiring a language they also try to communicate with people around them using either signs or words. These words may not be the same as the words used by adults in the language concerned. The adults who participate in conversation with children also imitate these words or use words specific to child language. Thus the words used in baby talks are somewhat different from those in the adult talk. The children in Tamil community are not an exception in this regard. In Tamil baby talks, children also employ specific words. They are called "koiy" and show different word formation patterns. Therefore, it is useful to study the nature of the formation of these words. Data was collected from different parts of Sri Lanka with the help of mothers and caretakers of children. The sample consists of children who belong to the age group year one to year four. Data was also collected through direct observation and participation. Collected data was analysed structurally on the basis of the structural linguistic method. The research indicates that words in baby talks are formed using several processes such as deletion, shortening, assimilation and substitution.Item The Lack of the Sinhalese Language Literacy among the Students: A Case Study of a School in Kolonnawa Educational Division(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Wickramasinghe, P.D.D.D.Sri Lanka has a commendable record for one of the highest literacy rates in the South East Asia. This achievement can be largely attributed to the free education system of the country which came into operation since 1945. The many decades since then the country‟s education system has evolved under various socio-political nuances. Kolonnawa is an area known for its complex social background. This isolated study which concentrates upon a cohort of 22 students assigned to a special Sinhalese language literacy class in a school located in Sedawaththa tries to unearth the reason as to what has made the particular student population lagging behind the required Sinhalese language literacy for their age. The study found out that the sheer lack of parent‟s concern for their children‟s education has mainly led for this predicament. In addition, the poverty, the disintegrated family setups, lack of effective educational policies on the part of relevant authorities corresponding to the above social setting have been the contributory factors for this issue. The methodology adopted for the study was face to face interviews with the relevant students and the teachers. It is not a high profile technical report but it is a simple case study which tries to highlight the current problems relating to the Sinhalese language literacy among the students in the concerned area.Item Language Policy Implementation: A Comparative Study between Sri Lanka and Canada(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Wickramasinghe, P.D.D.D.Accommodation of a multi-ethnic population within a territory of a single state has been largely acknowledged as a worldwide issue due to the problems stemming out from the linguistic disparities. In the most of the countries in the world, this scenario has been either erupted due to decade long colonial regimes or owing to the influx of the different migrant ethnic groups at various given times in the historical context of the countries concerning. Thus successive governments over the world for years have been implementing number of languages policies to lessen the widening rift between dominant ethnic groups and the minorities arising owing to the different kind of languages that they speak. The official bilingualism is the ultimate solution that the governments have been embarking on. This recognition of the two or more official languages can largely be attributed to a scenario stemming out of a socio-political dilemma therefore it had been a laborious task where the states concerning considered as the last resort to create the much needed harmony within their countries. To date, around 200 countries in the world recognise two or more official languages; The Sri Lankan and Canadian experience in this regard has much in common to share as the two countries had to undergo number volatile socio political nuances at various instances in their historical contexts. The fact that how Canadian language policy differs from the Sri Lankan language policy is considered here. Today, the Canadian experience in the bilingualism and language policy implementation has achieved tremendous success; therefore this paper attempts to highlight the currents problems relating to language policy implementation in Sri Lanka in a comparative perspective.Item 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.Item A Method to Sort Official Correspondence through Natural Language Processing(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Weerasooriya, T.; Perera, N.Natural language Processing (NLP) is a new branch of study in Computational Linguistics and the field has undergone rapid development over the past few decades. Keyword extraction is a popular application of NLP. The present study makes use of Stanford Core NLP, an NLP tool that enables Parts-of-Speech (POS) tagging in order to extract the keywords from official correspondence. POS tagging identifies all the parts of speech in a sentence and categorises them into the relevant grammatical categories. Capitalising on the grammatical uniformity of formal written English, the system is able to identify all the noun phrases and verb phrases of a sentence. Hence, the subject and the predicate of the sentence are isolated. Document sorting with regard to official correspondence is done through the system by analysing the „object‟ line of an official letter or the „subject‟ line of an e-mail, and listing the noun phrases and verb phrases. The document is then sorted to the relevant department. In order to prevent slips in the system, the remaining words of the „object‟ / „subject‟ lines are filtered through a keyword corpus. This increases the accuracy of the keyword extraction process. The present system proved to be more efficient that selecting keywords through a filter, as the POS tagging sorts and presents keywords in an order where the respondents are able to grasp the main idea of the sentence. The subsidiary list of words extracted through the key word corpus adds to the accuracy of the system. The present study is only limited to official correspondence in English. It could be modified to be adapted to other languages.Item An Analysis of the Agrammatic Speech of Persons with Aphasia in the Sinhalese Language(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Weerasinghe, K.W.A.A.G.Language impairment due to strokes can manifest as poor comprehension and expression of language, poor word recalling and word production. Aphasia is a broad term used for referring to these impairments. Expressive Aphasia shows Agrammatism or poor comprehension and/ or production of grammaticality as a feature which is the focus in this study. Accordingly a descriptive study was carried out using fifteen persons with Expressive Aphasia and a matched number of fifteen people paired with them from the normal population in order to observe the nature of Agrammatism in their speech production in colloquial Sinhala language. Objectives of the study were to describe the common syntactic patterns observed in the speech of Expressive Aphasia population, to describe the common syntactic patterns observed in speech of the matched normal population and to discuss differences in the grammatical output in speech between the normal population and the matched Expressive Aphasia population. Each participant answered three questions. Their speech was audio recorded and transcribed. The transcriptions were observed for pre identified features of Agrammatism through literature review. Length of utterance was the highest grossing feature to identify between the normal population (NNP) (5> words) at 98% and the population with Expressive Aphasia (PWAs) (<4 words) at 82%. Absence of/ poor inflection of verbs was the second prominent feature at 9% of the time for PWAs and 00% for NNPs. S+O+V word order emerged at 92% for PWAs and 98% for NNPs as the basic word order. Accordingly, in implementing Speech and Language Therapy services, assessment for expressive aphasia can include features of utterance length and verb inflection as areas to be assessed and in therapeutic intervention, utterance length and inflection (verbs) can be identified as main areas to work upon. Significance of this study is to improve the language Agrammatic problems.Item Errors in the Use of English Articles(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Wanasinghe, W.M.S.P.K.This study aims at providing a comprehensive account of the types of errors produced by Sri Lankan ESL students in their use of English articles. Within the field of second language research (SLR), a large number of studies have focused on error analysis. One of the most difficult challenges faced by second language learners of English is mastering the system of English articles. The simple morphology of English articles is easy to explain but frustratingly difficult for students to master. It has been observed by researchers that English article system which includes the indefinite article a(n) the definite article the zero (or null) article are among the most difficult structural elements for ESL/EFL learners to master although they are the most frequently used structural elements in the English language. The main objective of the study was to identify the types of errors in the use of articles and to identify whether there is a significant impact from the learners first language in committing these errors. Data were collected from randomly written samples of 50 first year undergraduates from the faculty of Arts. Students were given one hour to write on one of five different descriptive topics related to their life and culture. The researcher classified errors according to the Surface Structure Taxonomy of errors (SST), namely, substitution, omission, and addition, recording the frequency of each error type and the percentage of the total. Furthermore, students‟ errors were classified according to their possible sources into interlingual and intralingual, showing the frequency of errors according to their source. Analysis of errors in students‟ written samples revealed that while students made a considerable number of errors in their use of articles according to SST, omission and addition of errors were the most frequent, while substitutions were the least frequent.