Morung Express News
Dimapur | November 24
The study of linguistics aims to find commonality, not difference, among the world’s known languages. The work of linguists, thus, hinges upon finding the common feature in each language that becomes part of a universal grammar.
“This book is a step towards finding that universal grammar; it is a contribution towards that hope,” said Dr. Mimi Kevichüsa Ezung at the release of her new book titled ‘Relative Clause Formation in Tenyidie’ at the A Kevichusa Citizenship Award and the Chalie Kevichusa Memorial Lecture in DBIDL Hall, Don Bosco Campus, here today. Human beings have the “power of speech,” she noted, that “sets us apart from other living beings.”
“Linguistics is the study of individual languages through which we are trying to get at that which makes us human.” A relative clause is a “process of subordination,” a feature found in every known language, “a universal principle,” explained Dr. Mimi.
Published by the Heritage Publishing House, her book makes a unique contribution by presenting the data in four lines, namely, orthographic presentation following rules laid down by Ura Academy, phonetic transcription based on the pronunciation followed by the majority of the speakers, gloss following the Leipzig Glossing Rules and English translation.
“Naga languages are currently in the middle stages of graphisation, which means we are still trying to find our spellings, word divisions etc. This (the data presentation method) becomes important when writing linguistics books on Naga languages,” she observed.
Dr. Mimi holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Delhi. She is currently an Associate Professor (Linguistics) and Head of Department of Tenyidie, Nagaland University, and is engaged in a preliminary investigation of the speech sounds of the Naga languages and the development of the Khiamniungan grammar.
With the breakage of links with oral culture, “it is necessary that scholars in all our languages do the sort of work Dr. Mimi has done with Tenyidie,” said Khekiye K Sema (IAS Retd.) while releasing the book today. “This book is a gem for scholars,” he acknowledged.
According to Karumuri V Subbarao, Former Professor of Linguistics at Delhi University, and Delhi and Radhakrishna Chair Professor in Humanities at Hyderabad University, “This book is a valuable addition and a major contribution to the existing knowledge concerning relative clauses. This book will be an asset to researchers working in the syntax of relative clauses in general, and Tibeto-Burman and the other South Asian languages in particular; language typology; language universals, and cognition.”
