Aligarh Journal of Linguistics

ISSN: 2249-1511

ALIGARH JOURNAL OF LINGUISTICS                                                                                                       Volume No. 15, 2025-2026

EDITORIAL

It gives me immense pleasure to present before you the volume fifteen of the Aligarh Journal of Linguistics (AJL-15). I am deeply gratified by the exceptionally high number of manuscripts received this year, which is both encouraging and humbling in light of the challenges it entails. The primary objective of AJL is to publish high-quality research articles. AJL continues its commitment to advancing scholarly inquiry in linguistics as papers are selected after undergoing strict blind peer review process. Papers are considered based on their merit which are empirically grounded, methodologically sound, and conceptually innovative. In this volume, there are 12 papers addressing varying and divergent areas of linguistic research.

The first paper in this volume is an invited paper by Prof Ravinder Gargesh which highlights the significance of intercultural communication in language teaching. This paper discusses the studies conducted in the area of language teaching taking into account the intercultural communication. The second paper by HuiningshumbamSurchandra Singh delves on semantic interpretations of Manipuri motion verbs. He discusses how they are conceptualized and used with their extended meaning derived from the basic meaning. The third paper by Indrani Gogoi presents a detailed diachronic study of the historical development of Tai Phake vowel system within the framework of Optimality Theory. The next paper by Riya Singh and Mamta presents an experimental study of Dyslexic children focused on Hindi conjunct consonants. The paper by Sohinee Sarkar and Ajit Kumar Baishya presents a comparative insigh tof the kinship terminology employed by speakers of Assamese, Bengali and Odia and explores various nuances of the kinship nomenclature of these languages. The next paper by Sajad Hussain Wani and Naseem Ahmad Khan examines the constraint interaction and their hierarchies in Pashto language, spoken by a minority community in Kashmir valley. This paper evaluates optimal phonological output structures of Pashto with in the framework of optimality theory. Syed Talha Ali and M. J. Warsi in their paper investigates how linguistic creativity, multimodality, and intertextual references interact within memes to generate humor and foster engagement shared on the platform X (formerly Twitter). In the next paper Rinyaphy Khangrah investigates the morphosemantic aspects of reduplication in Tangkhul (Hunphun) language following the Morphological Doubling Theory (MDT). In the next paper, Shagufta Iram and Sadia. H. Hasan explores grammatical patterns within morphosyntactic domains in the spontaneous speech of autistic children aged between eight to fourteen years. Reshma Nasreen Choudhury Shah in her paper examines how ideologies shape interactions and the representation of Social Actors in discourses in Assamese by employing Critical Discourse Analysis. Shamim Fatima in her paper reports the problems that occur in the output of state-of-the-art neural machine translation systems. The paper discusses issues of Google Translate at the syntactic level. In the last paper, Prasanna Sree Sathupati and Habtamu Yimer Ali examines the perception of EFL teachers about brain-based strategies and the factors that hinder their applications in classrooms.

This volume also includes two book reviews one on “Bharatiya Bhasha Pariwar: Perspectives and Horizons” and the other one on “Bharatiya Bhāṣā Pariwar: A New Framework in Linguistics” by Mehvish Mohsin and Noman Tahir respectively. This issue of AJL also pays tribute to Prof Pramod Pandey by M. J. Warsi.

 As AJL moves forward, we reaffirm our dedication to foster meaningful dialogue within the field of linguistics. We hope that the research presented in this issue will stimulate further discussion, inspire new lines of inquiry, and contribute to a deeper understanding of language in its varied forms. I must express my sincere gratitude to all our anonymous reviewers for their careful evaluations and constructive feedback, which enhanced the clarity and scholarly value of the papers. I would be failing in my duties if I do not formally acknowledge the diligence and dedication of our editors Sadia Husna Hasan and Pallav Vishnu, as well as the efforts of all, especially Zeeshan Afzal, involved in type-setting, page making and other aspects of the publication of AJL.

10.02.2026

M J Warsi

Editor-in-Chief

Author(s): Ravinder Gargesh

Keywords: intercultural communicative competence, lingua franca, communication styles, communication strategies, intercultural misunderstandings

Abstract: Intercultural communication is necessary for the teaching of any second or foreign language because the aim of language teaching is to enable the learners to become effective speakers of the language. The focus of the present paper is on highlighting the significance of intercultural communication in language teaching. Intercultural communication (IC) is particularly crucial for effective language education, since it aims to equip students with the capability for effective global communication across diverse cultural boundaries. This paper explores how the integration of linguo-cultural aspects within language education develops Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC). Incorporating cultural content helps students understand language use in relevant contexts, mitigating miscommunication and facilitating complex global interactions. A well-designed program helps in advancing language skills by enabling students to comprehend and manage cultural differences across geographical boundaries. This is vital for preparing students for meaningful participation in today's multicultural world.

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Author(s): Huiningshumbam Surchandra Singh

Keywords: motion, spatial, deictic, movement and extension

Abstract:The present paper attempts to investigate how the Manipuri motion verbs are working from the perspective of semantics. The eight Manipuri motion verbs i.e. ka ‘go up, climb’, kum ‘come down’, cǝt ‘go’, lak ‘come’, cǝŋ ‘enter’, thok ‘go out, leave’, ta ‘fall’, and lal ‘cross’ are used to indicate the movement of both concrete and abstract entities in both spatial and non-spatial domains. They are again used with their extended meaning derived from the basic meaning. All these happen with human conceptualizations. It mainly focuses on the semantic interpretations of these eight motion verbs.

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Author(s): Indrani Gogoi

Keywords: vowel system, proto-Tai, proto-southwestern Tai, Tai phake, optimality theory

Abstract: The primary objective of this paper is to conduct a diachronic study of the historical development of Tai Phake, with a focus on its vowel system. Tai Phake belongs to the Kra-Dai language family and is primarily spoken in the northeastern state of Assam. The phonological analyses presented herein are derived from two primary sources: (i) established secondary sources, including prior research, online dictionaries, and relevant literature; and (ii) primary data collected through fieldwork, involving native speakers of the languages. Comparisons are made with proto-forms, specifically Proto-Tai and Proto-Southwestern Tai, to trace the language’s origins. The analysis highlights significant phonological reductions in Tai Phake including the reduction of diphthongs to monophthongs. The theoretical framework employed to explain these phonological changes is Optimality Theory, which suggests a historical progression from more marked to less marked structures, prioritizing markedness constraints over faithfulness constraints.

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Author(s): Riya Singh and Mamta

Keywords: Hindi conjunct consonant, consonant cluster, bi-consonantal, tri-consonantal, dyslexia

Abstract: This is an experimental study which focused on Hindi conjunct consonants. This present study explores how Hindi speaking dyslexic children considered these conjunct consonants in a word. The data was collected from nine dyslexic and eighteen non-dyslexic children. Age group of the participants was around 11-14 years. In this study, data was collected from the participants by questionnaire method. The questionnaire contained a list of 140 Hindi words having conjunct consonants. An error analysis test was conducted to analyze the collected data from both dyslexic and non-dyslexic children. First, all the errors of conjunct consonants were identified and then classified into four categories namely addition of ‘ǝ’, deletion of conjunct consonant sound, substitution of conjunct consonant sound and others. The analysis of this study reflected that both the groups made errors but dyslexic group made more errors than non-dyslexic group. Dyslexic group made around 10-47% errors whereas non-dyslexic group made around 3-14% errors. It also highlighted that both dyslexic and non-dyslexic group made maximum number of errors under addition of ‘ǝ’ category with 13.4% errors and 6.2% errors respectively, followed by remaining categories. This study is an attempt to show the current situation of Hindi conjunct consonants in both dyslexic and non-dyslexic groups. Both the groups have issues with the words having conjunct consonant. This study also highlights those conjunct consonant patterns which have common errors among both the groups. This helps us to know which particular pattern or grapheme needs more attention.

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Author(s): Sohinee Sarkar and Ajit Kumar Baishya

Keywords: Assamese, Bengali, Odia, kinship, language, society

Abstract: Kinship terminology is the expression of kinship relations in linguistic terms. It refers to the specific words used within a society to categorize and describe family relationships, reflecting the social bonds between individuals. Assamese, Bengali and Odia are a part of the Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, and have a common origin. This paper explores the various kinship terms of these languages and classifies them on the basis of formation and the degree of closeness of kinship ties. The paper dives into the kinship terminology employed by speakers of these three languages and explores the various nuances of the kinship nomenclature of these languages, providing a comparative insight. It is seen that all the three languages in consideration of the study have precise and differentiated terms for different relatives within the family structure, aligning towards the Sudanese system or Descriptive system. However there are certain kinship relations in each of these three languages which do not have distinct and separate terms, ie. they share the same kinship term, therefore blurring age and/or gender differences.

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Author(s): Sajad Hussain Wani and Naseem Ahmad Khan

Keywords: optimality theory, pashto language, phonology, minority language

Abstract: This study examines the constraint interaction and their hierarchies which are responsible to evaluate optimal phonological output structures of Pashto language. The optimality theoretical framework first introduced by Alan Prince and Prince Smolensky in 1993 has been used to evaluate various insertion and deletion processes of Pashto. This study is based on the data collected from the minority community of native Pashto speakers residing in Kashmir valley. Word list, sentence list, and spontaneous speech recordings were used for primary data collection, and online resources were utilized for secondary data. Various markedness constraints such as *COMPLEX and ONSET, and faithfulness constraint such as Max-IO, Dep-IO, and Ident-IO have been utilized to show the constraint conflicts by the help of tableaux. The study finds that Pashto language allows insertion to simplify complex phonological structures by showing minimal violation of faithfulness constraints. Similarly, Pashto language allows deletion of segments by minimally violating faithfulness constraints to acquire economy in speech, and also provide streamline phonotactic structures in the speech. The findings not only add to our understanding of Pashto phonology but also provide insights into Optimality Theory and its application to other languages with similar phonological features.

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Author(s): Syed Talha Ali and M. J. Warsi

Keywords: memes, digital humor, multimodality, intertextuality, social media, digital communication

Abstract: This study examines how humour is linguistically and multimodally constructed in internet memes circulating on X (formerly Twitter). Adopting a qualitative discourse-analytic approach, the research investigates how lexical choice, syntactic compression, rhetorical devices, and intertextual references work together to produce humour and facilitate audience engagement. The dataset consists of high-visibility memes drawn from key phases of Indian and global online activity, allowing exploration of both local and transnational patterns of meme production. Analysis focuses on the interaction between textual and visual elements, the use of code-mixed and abbreviated language, and the deployment of pragmatic strategies such as irony, hyperbole, and parody. The findings show that memes function as multimodal micro-texts that draw on shared cultural knowledge to communicate complex social and political meanings in highly compressed form. Through participatory remixing and rapid circulation, these humorous artefacts contribute to the shaping of public discourse, enabling users to comment on contemporary issues while negotiating identity and affiliation. The study highlights memes as a significant genre of digital communication and demonstrates the value of linguistic analysis for understanding humour in networked media environments.

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Author(s): Rinyaphy Khangrah

Keywords: reduplication, word-formation, Tangkhul, Tibeto-Burman

Abstract: This paper investigates the morphosemantic aspects of reduplication in Tangkhul (Hunphun) language following the Morphological Doubling Theory (MDT) of Inkelas & Zoll (2005). Tangkhul is a Tibeto-Burman language spoken mostly in Ukhrul district of Manipur in India, by around 183,115 speakers (2011 census). Tangkhul remains little studied when compared to other Tibeto-Burman languages. This study shows that reduplication in Tangkhul is one productive morphological device and many interpretations are derived by copying word bases. This paper is primarily based on data compiled in Khangrah (2024). In Tangkhul, both full and partial reduplication is employed where content as well as function words undergo reduplication. Reduplication applies to several parts of speech, such as noun, pronoun, verb, adjective and adverb. Reduplication of expressives or lexicalized reduplication, name doubling, motherese, question word and onomatopoeic reduplication are other types of reduplication found in the language. In Tangkhul, reduplication has wide range of functions-of showing plurality, iteration/repetition, distribution, intensification, continuation, reflexivity, reciprocalness, frequency, habituality, continuity, approximation, diversity, collectivity, entirety, abundance, augmentation, exaggeration, simplification, variety, synchronization, simultaneity and accentuation. Most categories undergo reduplication to convey several semantic functions. And the same semantic function can be conveyed in several categories. A reduplicated form may also convey more than one semantic function. The common syntactic changes associated with reduplication is inflection such as adding plurality, repetition or intensity. Moreover, Tangkhul is a language in which reduplication is largely iconic, where a reduplicated form may intensify for plurality, frequency, continuation, augmentation, etc.

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Author(s): Shagufta Iram and Sadia H. Hasan

Keywords: autism spectrum disorder, grammatical errors, language development, morphosyntax

Abstract: Autism Spectrum Disorder is a complex developmental condition in which language often progresses differently from typical patterns. Many autistic children experience difficulties in learning and using grammatical structures, and these challenges can affect their overall communication abilities. (Gernsbacher et al., 2016) and (Modyanova et al., 2017) gave a similar view. It was pointed out by Eigsti et al., 2006 that earlier research has reported problems in areas such as functional morphology and sentence planning in autistic children across different languages. These findings point to a continuing need for research in languages that remain comparatively under explored, such as Urdu/Hindi.

This qualitative study explores grammatical patterns in the spontaneous speech of four autistic children aged eight to fourteen years. Speech samples were collected through naturalistic observation and semi structured interactions to document language use in familiar contexts. The analysis focuses on key morphosyntactic domains that often pose difficulty for autistic children, including postpositions, gender marking, repetition and the improper construction of sentences. It was further pointed out by Wittke et al., 2017 that morphosyntactic abilities in autism are not uniform, and children may show different strengths and difficulties. In light of these findings, the present study describes the grammatical patterns observed in Urdu Hindi speaking autistic children and aims to add to our understanding of morphosyntactic development in autism.

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Author(s): Reshma Nasreen Choudhury Shah

Keywords: critical discourse analysis, ideologies, linguistic politeness, power and language, representation of social actors, pragmatics, shared norms

Abstract: This paper uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to examine how ideologies shape interactions and the representation of Social Actors in discourses in Assamese, the official language of the state of Assam in north east India and the easternmost Indo-Aryan language. Politeness strategies in Assamese follows the common patterns described in Brown and Levinson’s idea of a model interaction where the ultimate goal is harmony. This is based on the notion of ‘face’, a self-perceived idea of one’s self that is presented to society. Any interaction that contributes towards a positive image of that ‘face’ is deemed to be ‘polite linguistic behaviour’, while any interaction that threatens it is considered to be ‘impolite. This paper examines how Face Threatening Acts (FTAs) of Brown and Levinson (1978) are negotiated to achieve harmony in interaction. Fairclough’s (2003, 2013) framework for Critical Discourse Analysis examines how ideologies presented as ‘common sense’ have evolved as the norm or accepted mode of behaviour. Thus, polite linguistic behaviour actually reflects shared norms and ideologies that have permeated the community’s belief system. An interaction is viewed as a social event that occurs and takes on a texturing that is not caused only by the linguistic norms of the language (the grammar) but also by the freedom of the social actors who can decide to include or exclude elements of those norms during that particular social event. Fairclough’s concepts of ‘context’, ‘social actor’ and ‘common sense’ are used to examine how underlying power relations and the context in which the social event occurs shape how the interactions unfold. The paper concludes that the participant’s ideologies and their orientation towards the social power structures shape how they linguistically negotiate the discussions. Even though social media provides avenues for comparatively less formal interactions, the social-historical context and the ideologies that have become internalised as norms continue to influence politeness strategies in interactions in Assamese.

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Author(s): Shamim Fatma

Keywords: world knowledge, divergence, state-of-the-art, morphological level, syntactic level, neural machine translation

Abstract: Automatic translation is becoming indispensable over time, and it has made substantial progress with the advent of state-of-the-art neural machine translation, which uses neural networks to perform translations while addressing several of their shortcomings. However, better results depend largely on the availability of resources. Divergences among languages remain a major hindrance to machine translation. Detecting divergence patterns and preparing resources to address issues related to divergence is a time-consuming and lengthy task, but even this is not sufficient. World knowledge is another major concern in the field because it is too vast to cover comprehensively. This paper presents problems that occur even in the output of state-of-the-art neural machine translation systems, such as Google Translate, due to the lack of world knowledge at the morphological level, as well as problems caused by divergences in word order and gender-marking systems at the syntactic level.

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Author(s): Prasanna Sree Sathupati and HabtamuYimer Ali

Keywords: brain compatible strategy, brain-based learning, brain-based strategies, brain-based teaching, EFL teaching-learning

Abstract: This study examined the perceptions of EFL teachers about brain-based strategies and the factors that hindered them from applying them in their classrooms. Mixed research methodology was applied. The researchers also used a descriptive survey design and collected the data from 93 EFL teachers working in secondary schools through questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The participants were selected using a comprehensive sampling technique. The findings showed that EFL teachers were often unaware of the human brain's structure, capacity for concentration, multitasking, and impact on curriculum, instructional methods, and assessment choices. They also lacked understanding of the relationship between the brain and learning, including meaning, emotions, sensory input, and the entire body's involvement. The study highlighted the need for teachers to understand natural memory facts, visual and aural tools, body motions, and emotional comforts in the classroom. Factors such as lack of attention, inadequate training, school administration, cultural differences, and diverse learning styles influenced teachers' perceptions of brain-based techniques. In conclusion, this study emphasized the necessity for teachers to comprehend the brain's influence on their pedagogical effectiveness.

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