ICLSL 2016

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/14246

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    Ancient Phonetics in India: A Study on the Phonetic Observations of Āranyaka by the Sages in India
    (Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Upananda Thero, Ambaliyadde
    Many scholars of linguistics generally know that the main languages used in early India were Vedic and Sanskrit. Moreover, they know that the study of such languages has supported particularly the investigations of historical and comparative linguistics of the worldduring18th century A.D. This paper attempts to identify the phonetic roots of the Āraṇyaka books composed in post Vedic language by different Sages in 7th century B.C. This study attempts to find out and analyse the early tendency in phonetic study by Indians. Āranyaka, a great literature of later Vedic period or the period before Pāṇinī, provides very interesting hints on phonetics. For example, Aitareya Āraṇyaka (II.2.I) compares the consonant to the night, and vowels to the day. Not only that the Āraṇyakaṣ states that the consonants are the body and the voice its soul (III.2.5). By analysing the evidence of phonetics in Āraṇyaka books using qualitative approach, an important analysis of phonetics of Vedic language can be found out. Besides, the diverse understanding of phonetic elements of the language such as breath, voice and communication etc. by early Indians can be identified. Though we are aware of Pāṇinī, Patañjalī who have emphasised, discovered and developed the phonetics of Sanskrit, the study of pre Pāṇiniyan literature also supports the gradual tendency of phonetic developments in India that became very rich after 3rd century B.C.
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    Problems in Translating Sinhala ‘weniya’ into English
    (Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Rajapakshe, R.M.W.
    One language may differ from another phonologically, morphologically, syntactically and semantically. There are, however, differences as well as similarities between two languages. The degree of those differences and similarities between two languages depends on target languages. A number of differences and similarities can be seen between Sinhala and English. The purpose of this study is to analyse the difficulties of translating the Sinhala word “weniya” into English. When it refers to a position of a student in a class the word palaweniya, dewaniya, thuweniya are used to mean first, second, and third respectively. There are no problems in translating such words. The adjective forms of those words, namely palaweni, dewani and thunweni can be translated into English without any difficulty. However, a problem arises when translating a Sinhala sentence like “J.R. Jayawardena mahattaya lankawe kii weni janadhipathiwaraya da?” Ten scholars including university lecturers, professors and highly qualified professional translators gave different answers to this question. The problem here is that there is no parallel grammatical structure for this sentence in the English language. This study attempts to find the most suitable solution to the above problem. Data was gathered from six university professors, two university lecturers and two professional translators.
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    The Impact of Studying English Literature in Improving English as a Second Language
    (Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Karunarathna, J.A.M.B.
    The four language skills are of varying degrees of importance to the second language learner. Listening and reading are considered as the receptive skills of language and speaking and writing are considered as the productive skills of language. Reading provides learners with a wide range of individual lexical or syntactic items. The students become familiar with many features of the written language such as syntax, discourse functions, by reading. The research aims at analysing the impact of English literature towards improving writing skills of English in the Sri Lankan context. The sample consists of 22 students who are learning English as a subject in the G.C.E. Advanced Level class, Co/Muslim Ladies College. The students have been learning English literature for a duration of 16 months. The instruments of data collection are questionnaires, interviews and analysis of texts written by the students in the 02nd week of study and in the 14th month. Specifically, in analysing the texts written by the students, the analysis was limited to subject-verb-object agreement, tenses, spellings and punctuation. An analysis of data was done descriptively and statistically, since both types of data, i.e. qualitative and quantitative data were collected. In the analysis of the texts 48% of improvement of accurate subject-verb-object agreement, 68% of improvement in the tenses, 52% of improvement of accurate spellings and 62% of accurate use of punctuation were observed. Thus, through the findings of the research, it could be discerned that learning English literature has a positive impact on improving writing skills of English as a second language.