AN APPEAL FOR SUPPORT
- We are in need of support to meet expenses relating to some new and essential software, formatting of articles and books, maintaining and running the journal through hosting, correrspondences, etc. If you wish to support this voluntary effort, please send your contributions to
M. S. Thirumalai
6820 Auto Club Road Suite C
Bloomington
MN 55438, USA.
Also please use the AMAZON link to buy your books. Even the smallest contribution will go a long way in supporting this journal. Thank you. Thirumalai, Editor.
BOOKS FOR YOU TO READ AND DOWNLOAD
- COMMUNICATION
VIA GESTURE: A STUDY OF INDIAN CONTEXTS by M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D. - CIEFL Occasional
Papers in Linguistics,
Vol. 1 - Language, Thought
and Disorder - Some Classic Positions by
M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D. - English in India:
Loyalty and Attitudes
by Annika Hohenthal - Language In Science
by M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D. - Vocabulary Education
by B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D. - A CONTRASTIVE ANALYSIS OF HINDI
AND MALAYALAM
by V. Geethakumary, Ph.D. - LANGUAGE OF ADVERTISEMENTS
IN TAMIL
by Sandhya Nayak, Ph.D. - An Introduction to TESOL:
Methods of Teaching English
to Speakers of Other Languages
by M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D. - Transformation of
Natural Language
into Indexing Language:
Kannada - A Case Study
by B. A. Sharada, Ph.D. - How to Learn
Another Language?
by M.S.Thirumalai, Ph.D. - Verbal Communication
with CP Children
by Shyamala Chengappa, Ph.D.
and M.S.Thirumalai, Ph.D. - Bringing Order
to Linguistic Diversity
- Language Planning in
the British Raj by
Ranjit Singh Rangila,
M. S. Thirumalai,
and B. Mallikarjun
REFERENCE MATERIALS
- Lord Macaulay and
His Minute on
Indian Education - In Defense of
Indian Vernaculars
Against
Lord Macaulay's Minute
By A Contemporary of
Lord Macaulay - Languages of India,
Census of India 1991 - The Constitution of India:
Provisions Relating to
Languages - The Official
Languages Act, 1963
(As Amended 1967) - Mother Tongues of India,
According to
1961 Census of India
BACK ISSUES
- FROM MARCH 2001
- FROM JANUARY 2002
- INDEX OF ARTICLES
FROM MARCH, 2001
- FEBRUARY 2004 - INDEX OF AUTHORS
AND THEIR ARTICLES
FROM MARCH, 2001
- FEBRUARY 2004
- E-mail your articles and book-length reports to thirumalai@bethfel.org or send your floppy disk (preferably in Microsoft Word) by regular mail to:
M. S. Thirumalai
6820 Auto Club Road #320
Bloomington, MN 55438 USA. - Contributors from South Asia may send their articles to
B. Mallikarjun,
Central Institute of Indian Languages,
Manasagangotri,
Mysore 570006, India or e-mail to mallikarjun@ciil.stpmy.soft.net - Your articles and booklength reports should be written following the MLA, LSA, or IJDL Stylesheet.
- The Editorial Board has the right to accept, reject, or suggest modifications to the articles submitted for publication, and to make suitable stylistic adjustments. High quality, academic integrity, ethics and morals are expected from the authors and discussants.
Copyright © 2001
M. S. Thirumalai
A PRELUDE TO TEACHING GRAMMAR AESTHETICALLY
B. Syamalakumari
A thing of beauty is a joy is forever. Beauty attracts, sustains, and maddens people. Beauty with brain conquers world. This type of beauty pleases, wins.
Grammar with beauty elevates human thought. Grammar is a set of rules for Beauty.
Every living and non-living being has a grammar of its own - with respect to its structure -the skeleton, ligaments, tissues, etc. The basic frame - the end product - is beauty. It appeals to the senses, namely, touch, vision, smell, taste, and hearing and the sixth sense, intuition.
Grammar functions as a bridge between expression and content - speech and meaning.
Grammar is a set of values, which relates sound and meaning.
Haphazard speech does not communicate.
Grammar gives the design and order. Order means the system, disorder means the confusion. Grammar adds beauty to speech. Social grammar gives politeness/appropriateness, which in turn earns admiration.
Exercises sometimes can result in boredom. Games thrill while giving exercises.
Exercises and Games
| Exercise | Make sentence using following words. |
| Games | Select the suitable petals and make a flower. |
| Difference is only in the garb. | Exercise is plain, Game is decorative. |
| Gymnastics and Exercise Ground. | Example: Cricket |
Every word has a set of other categories of words behind it, which can go together in a sentence. It means there are selection and restriction processes for the use of each word. These are the common values for communication.
When these common values are violated in poetry, beauty is enhanced. Cross the border of common expressions to literary expressions - literary appreciation - it can reach great heights to attain the supreme beauty called God.
| Ordinary Expression | |
| Flower | Blossoms |
| Blooms | |
| Dries | |
| Falls | |
| Spread perfume | |
| Baby | Cries |
| Smiles | |
| Walks | |
| Babbles |
| Literary Expression | |
| Flower | smiles |
| cries | |
| dies | |
| attracts | |
| calls | |
| Baby | blooms |
| blossoms | |
| shines | |
| withers |
Yet another relish is found when human verbs and adjectives are attributed to non-human categories and vice-versa.
| Sounds | Phones | Phonemes |
| Words | free | bound |
Grammatical categories
Rhyming sounds
Use of synonyms - sneha, prema, priti, bhakti, vatsalya
Context
Culture specific words
Culture neutral words
Language borrowing is the only borrowing by which the giver does not lose.
On the other hand, in uncontrolled language borrowing, the borrower loses.
CLICK HERE FOR PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION
B. Syamalakumari
Central Institute of Indian Languages
Manasagangotri
Mysore 570006, India
E-mail: syamala@ciil.stpmy.soft.net
Send your articles
as an attachment
to your e-mail to
thirumalai@bethfel.org.