Symposia & Conferences
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Item Stance-Taking in Sinhala Discourse.(The Third International Conference on Linguistics in Sri Lanka, ICLSL 2017. Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Perera, K.Stance – or stance-taking - is a robust area of study in discourse that has been little applied in Sinhala. Stance is the study of linguistic resources used to express the speaker‟s emotions, attitudes, evaluation of and commitment to propositional content (Biber 2006; Schiffrin 1988; Zubair n.d.). Adverbials, verbs and adjectives marking affect and evidentiality, modals and emphatics have been identified as features showing stance in English (Biber 2006). Given the paucity of work on stance in Sinhala (Zubair n.d.), the main aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the linguistic resources used for stance in Sinhala. Additionally, the paper will also describe selected features of Sinhala that are productively used for stance-marking. Assuming that political discourse is a space for exaggerated instances of stance-taking, televised political debates in Sri Lankan media are used for investigation. Approximately six hours of televised spoken data are transcribed and coded for features that show stance-taking. This study shows that Sinhala uses many of the same features that other languages, including English, use for stance-taking, such as adverbials, affect-laden parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adjectives), and discourse markers. Other than such typical features, Sinhala also uses the focused (or cleft) sentences (eya giye: gedara) productively for stance-taking. Since there are few pragmatic studies of focused sentences in Sinhala (Gair and Paolillo, 1997), this study will describe such uses in political rhetoric. In addition, Sinhala also uses quasi-verbs (puluwan), postpositions (id la), clitics (nisa:m , gijat) and conjunctive participles (ward n y wela) for stance-taking.Item Structure of Interrogative Sentences of Sri Lankan Sign language and Colloquial Sinhala language: A Comparative Study.(The Third International Conference on Linguistics in Sri Lanka, ICLSL 2017. Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka., 2017) Assajithissa Thero, Kurupita.This paper is based on the Syntax of Sri Lankan (SL) sign language and colloquial Sinhala language. SL sign language is used by SL deaf people. According to linguistic studies, it is accepted and investigated that Sign language is also a natural language. As a natural language, its structure can be studied on a linguistic base. This research is mainly concentrated on one of those structural aspects of SL sing language where interrogative sentences are studied. SL sign language is not linguistically studied well. If linguistic studies are conducted towards SL sign language, it would be more fruitful to enhance linguistic knowledge of SL sign language. The aim of this study is to conduct a syntactic research of SL sign language in comparison to Colloquial Sinhala language. This research will also analyse how the secularities of Interrogative Sentences of SL sign language are related to colloquial Sinhala language. Data were collected by interviewing hearing impaired people who could read Sinhala. In addition, they were given several sentences to interpret in Sign Language. More than three people were interviewed for one sentence. Sign language work books were used as primary resources. Finally, sentences are investigated with comparison to colloquial Sinhala language. As a result of this research, it can be identified and established that every types of interrogative sentences of SL sign language shows a similar order even though there are a number of types and structures of interrogative sentences of colloquial Sinhala language. In conclusion, it can be stated that the structure of interrogative sentences of SL sign language is not complicated.Item A comparative study of nonverbal communication strategies between Japan and Sri Lanka(Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya, 2015) Edirimannage, I.Communication is a basic part of all human behaviors. Humans communicate using language. However, it is becoming far more evident now. Human communication is effected through Nonverbal means such as, eye contacts, gestures, postures, looks etc. Nonverbal communication has been defined as communication without words. Nonverbal communication is different from one language to another language, one culture to another culture, from one country to another and one society to another. Nonverbal communication plays a major role in human communication. When considering Nonverbal communication styles of Japan and Sri Lanka, it is also different. Japanese language learners of Sri Lanka encounter the problem of understanding nonverbal communication of Japanese people. Therefore, misunderstandings quotes in both Sri Lankans and Japanese and it leads to make the communication unsuccessful even though the used language (grammar and words) is perfect. For example, eye contact where Japanese people lower their eyes when speaking to a superior as a gesture of respect. But in Sri Lanka if someone lower their eyes when speaking to a superior it means he or she is dishonest or feeling guilty. Also, crossing legs when sitting in Japan means he or she is the superior. But in Sri Lanka it is only a sitting position. Considering such instances, the purpose of this research is to show the effect and differences of the nonverbal communication between Japanese and Sri Lankan. This research will describe the way of touching and spacing affect Japanese and Sri Lankans when using nonverbal communication. Finally, it was expected that the findings of this research will support the development of Japanese language education in Sri Lanka.Item Rhythm and Tonic Expression of the Language Pronunciation; Yapahuwa Regional Dialect(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Jinadasa, M.P.Objective of this study is to identify the tonic and rhythmic communications with special reference to Yapahuwa regional dialect. Communication and performance theory and phonology theory are instrumental in analyzing the musical and communicative formation of the language pronunciation. Despite of the widely popular style of pronunciation of the Sinhala language, Yapahuwa regional dialect remains an absolutely different and stylistic passion and color in the diction. Phones of this specific dialect constitutes a substantial mellifluous manifestation in its articulation of the pronunciation deviating from the main Sinhala pronunciation. Long stress and sound difference of the speech remains a musical recitation to language, from which results a highly emotional persuasion towards the counter speaker. As this tonic and musical pronunciation takes some similarity with one of the gypsy tribes, who live close to this area, this study assumes that melodious pronunciation is made by the close association of that of the gypsy tribes. Finally, in conclusion, this entire study revealed that this musical pronunciation of the Sinhala language is much expressive and communicative in the meaning making in the social and dialogic inter-relations in the social and personal communication systems.Item Questioning Questions and Wh-indefinites in Sinhala(University of Kelaniya, 2015) Weerasooriya, W.A.T.Many languages of the world such as Sinhala, Japanese, Chinese, Malayalam, Tlingit, etc make use of the same type of phrases in question and indefinite constructions (Audrey Li, 1992, Haspelmath, 1997, Hagstrom, 2001, Bruenning, 2007, Jayaseelan 2005, Cable 2010, Slade 2011). When they are used in wh-questions, those phrases are referred to as wh-words or phrases and when they are used in indefinite constructions they are referred to as wh-indefinites. For example, as seen in (1), based on different types of syntactic and licencing conditions, only the clause final morpheme –e as in (1b) makes an indefinite construction (1a) different from a wh-question construction (1b) in Sinhala. (1) a. John monəwa-də kææw-a. b. John monəwa-də kææw-e. John what-də ate-A John what-də ate-E ‘John ate something.’ ‘What did John eat?’ At the same time, in many of these languages such as Sinhala, Japanese, Malayalam, the same particle used in indefinite and question constructions is also found in constructions that involve disjunction. (2) John bath-də maalu-də kææw-e. John rice-də fish-də ate-E ‘Was it rice or fish that John ate?’ Thus, this paper investigates the common and distinct syntactic and semantic properties of wh-indefinite and question constructions in the Sinhala language. It attempts to show a link between wh-indefinite and wh-question constructions with respect to exhaustification of ‘the set of alternatives’ in terms of the nature of the exclusive disjunction found in both the types of constructions. It also investigates the syntactic structures of the two types of constructions with respect to different types of licensing and binding conditions and the different types of operators that serve to make them distinct types of constructions as indefinites and wh-questions. It will also study whether the same type of behaviour in the wh-indefinites and questions in relation to the ‘exclusive disjunction’ could be observed in other languages such as Japanese, Malayalam, Tlingit, etc.