The dative alternation refers to the alternation between two constructions that denote some type of transfer: the double object construction ("I give my sister a book") vs. the to-dative construction ("I give a book to my sister"). We examined the motivations behind the dative alternation in Indian English. A corpus study was…

A basic introductory grammatical text of Marathi is presented. The book is divided into two parts. Part One deals with a few basic sentence constructions, and with subject pronouns, the etiquette of pronoun reference, possessives, noun plurals, adjective-noun agreement, and adverbs of place and time. Part Two is almost entirely devoted to verbal…

The properties of "do", its distribution and meaning, are discussed. "Do" is one of the most common error-zones for Indian learners of English. Two analyses of "do" which account for the distribution and meaning of this element are presented. According to the transformational approach, "do" is introduced in…

Explores how the story "The Raja's Big Ears" traveled from Gujerat in India, where it is a well-known folktale, via a skilled story teller, to London, where it was transformed through contact with the multicultural world of London school children. (Author/VWL)

This contrastive analysis of Telugu and English covers the structure of sentences, clauses, and "groups" (phrases) from a pedagogical point of view. Areas of difficulty for Telugu-speaking students of English as a second language are listed, and a list of errors commonly made by these students is appended. (JB)

Some of the errors in selected areas of English grammar and lexis made by a sample of 100 first year college students from Madhya Pradesh, India, were investigated. The errors of students are described in linguistic terms, and some of the probable sources of errors are explained. The rules of grammar and usage that should be established to help…

An integrated approach to teaching English composition to undergraduate students in Indian universities is proposed. The integration in approach is realized in terms of an onward progression from the first to the third year of the degree course. The idea of an integrated approach (viewing the sentence and the paragraph in an integrated manner) can…

This book describes the phonological and grammatical structure of the whole-Dravidian language family from different aspects, examining its history and writing system, structure and typology, lexicon, and recent contacts between Dravidian and other language groups. The 11 chapters highlight the following: (1) "Introduction" (e.g., the…

The notion of language dependency presupposes that there is a hierarchy of languages in a multilingual society, and that each language is assigned a functional role in a multilingual individual's restricted or extended spheres of linguistic interaction. In South Asia, language dependency has resulted in linguistic convergence of two types: (1)…

English grammar testing practices from the middle school level to the first two years of the bachelor's degree in India are examined, and suggestions for change are presented. Ten to thirty percent of the total marks allotted to question papers in English are set aside for the testing of grammar and usage. It is argued that syllabuses at present…

Sixteen papers are presented. Topics covered include language teaching, discourse analysis, code switching, phonetics, language and cultural identity, and descriptive and comparative studies. All presenters were from the Asia-Pacific area of the world. Papers include: "The Baba Malay Lexicon: Hokkien Loanwords in Baba Malay" (Anne…