URCL 2016
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://repository.kln.ac.lk/handle/123456789/16546
Browse
36 results
Search Results
Item Institutional Language Planning Situation of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya: A Case Study(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Samaraweera, O.G.E.N.T.Language planning is the deliberate, systematic and theory-based attempt to solve the communication problems of a community by selecting an official language and standardising its structure. Even though language planning is generally a national programme undertaken by a government, observations have been made of institutional language planning situations concerned with the internal language policy of individual institutes. This study intends to examine the nature of the institutional language planning situation of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Kelaniya. Out of the six faculties of the university three faculties, namely Medicine, Science and Cornmerce & Management Studies employ English as the sole medium of instruction. The other three faculties, namely Humanities, Social Sciences and Graduate Studies employ a bilingual policy of both Sinhalese and English languages as media of instruction. The Faculty of Humanities, which is the subject of investigation of the present study, is consist of ten departments. The Department of Buddhist and Pali Studies conducts lectures in both Sinhalese and English. The Department of English, conducts lectures only in English, while the English Teaching Unit conducts lectures in both Sinhalese and English. Yet, it is mandatory for students to offer exams in English. Five other departments, namely the Department of Sinhala, the Department of Sanskrit, the Department of Linguistics, the Department of Western Classical Culture, and the Department of Fine Arts conduct lectures only in Sinhalese. The Department of Hindi keeps to a trilingual policy conducting lectures in Sinhalese, English and Hindi. The Department of Modem Languages conducts lectures mostly in the respective languages taught, but the Sinhalese and English languages are also employed where necessary. All these departments except the Department of Sinhala allow undergraduates offer exams in English on request. From this brief study it is evident that the language policy of.the faculty is not uniform and depends vehemently on the subjects taught in each of the departments.Item A Linguistic Study on the Impact of Facebook on the Sinhalese Language(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Samudra, D.W.B.One of the current trends in the modem society is the frequent use of Facebook and it is being used almost everywhere in the world. Using Facebook is very much popular among Sinhalese speakers as well. Being a popular social networking site, Facebook has a significant impact on all the languages of the world and Sinhalese is no exception. In this background, the present study is focused on discovering the impacts of Facebook on the Sinhalese language. It seems that no previous linguistics research has been carried out on this maller. Therefore, the objective of this research is to fulfillthis gap. Data were collected by analysing the Sinhalese languages used in Facebook posts and by interviewing Facebook user. Accordingly, it is discovered that Facebook has a considerable amount of impact on the Sinhalese language in morphological, syntactic, semantic and sociolinguistic aspects.Item The Impact of Tamil Lexicon on the Sinhalese Language(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Bandara, H.M.S.M.; Pathmasiri, P.S.S.; de Silva, Y.G.H.S.Sinhalese and Tamillanguages are used as official languages in Sri Lanka. It is apparent that both these languages have had a great amount of influence on each other. Linguistics borrowing into both languages can be identified as a phoneme for this constant influence. This research discusses the usage ofTamilloan words in Sinhalese language. Data were compiled by observing the speech of Sinhalese native speakers and written documents. According to the findings of this study, it was found out that some of these Tamil loan words have replaced their corresponding Sinhalese words. Further, it is pointed out that in addition to be borrowed, some Tamil words have come to Sinhalese as derived words. According to it is discovered that a great number of Tamil borrowings are used in the Sinhalese language and their origin may not be apparent.Item The Difficulties Related to Cases Encountered by Sinhalese Native Speakers in Learning Tamil as a Second Language(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Yomali, G.; Dissananyake, S.; Jayathissa, H.Many Sinhalese native speakers learn Tamil as a second language. However speakers of Sinhalese language often make mistakes while learning Tamil. The aim of the research is to bring into discussion the problem faced by Sinhalese native speaker in learning Tamil in relation to the differences in cases. Case is special grammatical category whose value reflect the grammatical functions performed by noun or pronoun in a phrase, clause or sentence. Data were collected by analysing Tamil-Sinhalese translation carried out by second year students of university of Kelaniya reading translation. Further Tamil Grammar books were used as in order to gather further data. Speakers of Sinhalese language often make mistakes while learning Tamil especially on Dative marker, Referential ease marker, instrumental case marker and Sociative case marker etc. The Dative case marker is "ukku", in spoken Tamil where as in in Sinhalese it is "ta". The Referential ease marker is "ittei", in spoken Tamil where as in in Sinhalese it is "laga, gen". The Sociative case marker is "oodei", in spoken Tarnil where as in in Sinhalese it is "ekka". The instrumental case marker is "aalei", in spoken Tamil where as in in Sinhalese it is "gen, ta". Those cases are not corresponding in Tamil and Sinhalese languages. Therefore it will be difficult to learn Tamil as a second language. To overcome this problem it will explain the similarities and the differences between these two languages. Native speakers don't have profound knowledge about case inflexion fail to speak the language fluently. Therefore cases should be inquired and improving knowledge thorough this. It is observed that it would help to understand the difficulties that Sinhalese students face while forming a Tamil sentence.Item Weaknesses of Google Translation; A Study Based on Sinhalese and English Languages(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Wijesinghe, A.; Kaluarachchi, S.S.; Weerangani, S.The process of translating words or text from one language into another is known as translation. It communicates the meaning of a source language text into a target language. It is used for legal, official, literary works ... etc. Nowadays there is a popular systematic service for translation called "Google Translation". Being an easier and quicker method than manual translation, Google Translation plays a major role in the translation field. It is a multilingual statistical machine translation service provided by Google to translate texts or speeches from one language to another. The aim of this study is to identifY the problems that can be seen in this translation service and the study is based on translating from Sinhalese to English and vice versa. Data were collected by analysing a set of Sinhalese and English sentences translated using the service. When translating trom Sinhalese into English, errors are seen in sentence structures, major reason for which is the structural differences between the two languages. The syntactic structure of the Sinhalese language is SOY, whereas the structure of English is SVO. It is apparent that this structural difference cannot always be properly comprehended by this program. Furthermore, it is identified that synonyms, homonyms and homophones used in the Sinhalese language cannot be properly translated using this service. The diglossic characters of the Sinhalcse language is yet another aspect which creates problems in "Google Translate". Translating a complex sentence with a main clause and a subordinate clause also appears problematic since identifYing the subordinate clause is not easy for the program. Accordingly, this study points out that in order to provide a better service, these issues have to be properly addressed.Item Opposing Views on the Origin of Nasalised Plosive Sounds in the Sinhalese Language(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Weerasingha, W.C.S.; Shashiprabha, K.G.T.; Ganepola, G.A.C.S.The contemporary Sinhalese language possesses five unique consonant sounds known as Nasalised Plosives alias Pre-nasal Stops. They are [g], 0]. [Q.]. [a]. [6] represented respectively by the graphemesItem A Comparative Study on the Lexicon of 'The Village in the Jungle' and its Sinhalese Translation 'Beddegama'(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Waththegedaral, P.T.S.S.; Karunathilaka, T.S.; Muthumali, H.P.Translation is not just a translation of words but it is a creative act of translating the whole idea of source language into target language. The aim of this research is to compare the lexical meanings of Leonard Woolt's 'The Village in the Jungle' which is based on Sinhalese folk life and 'Beddegama' which is translated by A. P. Gunarathna. 'The Village in the Jungle' is also an influential work of Sri Lankan Literature. Data were collected by comparing a selected chapter of the translation with the corresponding chapter of the source text. Dialects, registers, styles, cultural words, discriminative words and slangs are focused on examining the lexical meanings. Through the analysis of the data collected, it can be proved that the colonial administration had been affected to the Sri Lankans who lived in that period and it can be seen through the lexical meanings. The story of the novel "Village in the Jungle" is full of acrimony. Thus, a soothing, delicate lexicon from both the books cannot be expected. Further, semi-civilised villagers and the differences of their attitudes are also affected to the lexical meanings of the books. By this research, it is discovered that the social background of the composed season of these books is immensely affected to the lexical meanings.Item The Relevance of the Word - for - Word Translation Method(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Wijesinghe, W.R.A.I.D.; Jayasinghe, D.S.H.; Fernando, I.S.D.Peter Newmark had given an in depth analysis on the subject area of translation. In 1998 in the book of "A text book of translation" he had given an acceptable definition on language translation and 8 methods of translating categorised on source language and target language. "Word for word translation is a method which protects Source language word order and appears as an interlinear translation". According to this definition where there are different grammatical structures in two languages, appropriateness of using the above method in translation is given attention. Primary data were collected through selfobservation and personal interview method. Secondary sources were books [A text book of translation (Peter Newmark), Translation studies (Susan Bassnet), Introducing translation studies (Jeramy Munday)], Journals, articles, Internet etc. According to pro£. Newmark word for word translation is a translation between lines and hence, in spite of the nature of the sentence it should be indicated as it is in the target language [long sentences]. Although it is possible to understand the mechanism of the language as aforesaid, it would create difficulties in understanding the meaning. Word for word translation method is accepted to be commonly used in legal translations. Yet, even considering the legal documents, this method is not fully used as indicated by Pro£. Peter Newmark and it is closer to the literal translation method. Presently even a translation primarily using the word for word translation method is also been edited. Hence we could see that where there are different grammatical structures of two languages there is no pure translation.Item A Linguistic Analysis on Deixis of Catholic Religious Functions in Sri Lanka(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Samaraweeral, M."Deixis" are the words or phrases such as this, that, these, those, now, and then that point to time, place or situations in which a speaker is speaking. There are many deixis used in Sinhalese speaking society in Sri Lanka. Meanings of these can be traced directly to features of the act of utterance, when and where it takes place and who is involved as speaker and as addressee. So this research is a linguistic analysis of deixis used in Catholic Religious functions in Sri Lanka. Sinhalese speakers belong to different religious groups and Roman Catholic group is one of them. Roman Catholic religion is one of the largest Christian groups in the world with more than one billion adherents. So this research aims to identify the deixis used in Roman Catholic Religious functions in Sri Lanka and how meaningful they are in each environment. Data were collected from Catholic functions, Clergy and Catholic books. Data were analysed depending on categories as personal references, place references and time references. These terms of deixis refer to expressions where interpretation is relative to the extra linguistic context of the utterances such as who is speaking, the time or place of speaking, the gestures of the speaker or the current location in the discourse. Finally, it was expected that the findings of this research will support the development of deixis in the Sinhalese language in Sri Lanka.Item Diglossic Situation in Sri Lankan Novels: A Study Based on Lexicon Used in 'Madol Doova' by Martin Wickramasinghe(Department of Linguistics, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka, 2016) Senarathnal, S.M.I.R.Diglossia is the use of two varieties, namely High (H) and Low (L) of a language in a single speech community is wide-spread. (H) is usually the written variety whereas (L) is the spoken variety. In linguistics, lexicon is considered to be the language's inventory of lexemes. This includes information about the appropriate usage of words and phrases. As Sinhalese language is a diglossic language Sri Lankan novelists have to use it in novels. "Madol Doova" is one of the Sri Lankan novels in which this diglossic situation is used. The aim of this research is to reveal that both High and Low varieties of Sinhalese language are used in Sri Lankan novels and this study based on the lexicon used in the novel "Madol Doova" by Martin Wickramasinghe. As the methodology, data were collected by referring "Madol Doova" and other subject related sources. When considering lexicon used in the novel it shows that low variety is used in dialogues and high variety is used in narrative. In that sense it is apparent that both (H) and (L) varieties of the Sinhalese language are used in Sri Lankan novels. Moreover it enlightens (L) the spoken language is also used in written form. This has significantly affected the quality of Sri Lankan novels. This will be a theoretical study which is mostly based on linguistics factors.