Linguistics Terms
(Bilingualism, Trilingualism, Multilingualism)
"The limits of my language means
the limits of my world."
( By Ludwig Wittgenstein from 'Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus)
Exceptional Human being has a language to communicate their thoughts, ideas and feelings. Except human beings, any species doesn't have the ability to speak or talk or express themselves. So, Language is a bedrock for human beings and now it seems that if you don't know language than how you are going to survive. And the person who can't speak also has their own sign language.
In a broader sense or in a loose manner language is a way to communicate, a way to transform ideas, a way to understand each other and a way to describe things. But when it comes to scientific study it became 'Linguistics', Which has a set of rules and regulations, which has norms to use words in an organized manner.
Language Acquisition and Language Learning are two distinct processes. One is a subconscious process while another is a conscious process. As a child we are totally blank and unaware about the grammatical rules and norms and still we are able to communicate in our mother tongue clearly because of our constant listening. So, as a child we subconsciously acquire language is called Language Acquisition. While the Language learning is a conscious attempt to learn a second language, foreign language or any other language. In which we are totally aware about the rules, norms and grammatical structure of language. So, Language Learning is to develop a capacity to communicate in whatever language we want.
As a part of Scientific study of language, Linguistics comprises many linguistic terms and theories. The purpose of designing this particular blog is to discuss the three terms named Bilingualism, Bilingualism and Multilingualism with reference to examples.
1) BILINGUALISM
"fluency in or use of two languages" (Dictionary meaning)
If we break the word Bilingualism then we have two words, 'Bi' means two and lingualism means relating to tongue, speak or language. So, combined Bilingualism means a person's ability to speak and communicate in two languages separately or simultaneously.
A person with two languages always benefited more than a monolingual. In Bilingualism first language is a mother tongue and second language is the Language of nearby area, State, Community or sometime foreign language. Nowadays the importance of Bilingualism is much more than it was earlier. And perhaps television played a very vital role in movies, serial, reality shows, Talk shows , News bulletins where people coming from different areas are capable enough to use two languages simultaneously for the better expression of themselves. Any product you buy from the market has instructions in two languages where you can see photos….
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2) Trilingualism
Using or able to use three languages, especially with equal or nearly equal fluency. (Dictionary Meaning)
Like Bilingualism, Trilingualism refers to the ability to speak three languages. We have three kinds of language type of language structure….
First language (L1) : Mother Tongue
Second Language (L2) : Language of another State or Community
Third Language (L3) : Foreign Language
So, these are three languages with which a Trilingual person can communicate. If we see in India than Educated people mostly make communication through three languages… One is their Individual Mother Tongue, Second is in Hindi Language which is the National Language of India and third is English which is Associate language. Our Education system also supports the Trilingual structure of study where Hindi as a second language and English as a second language or foreign language introduced after 5th standard.
3) Multilingualism
Like multitasking Multilingualism is a term that refers to a person's ability to speak in three or more languages. Multilingual person can communicate effectively or can convey his/her message with the use of more than three languages. A person who can speak many languages is also known as Polyglot or Multilingual.
India is a country of diversity where different religious people to people with different cultures and people with different languages are living. In India there are a total of 22 official languages which are spoken by different States. So, Whenever we see any product from a big company or any widespread brand, we can find instructions written in multiple languages. Here is one photograph of the product, in which instructions are written in 8 languages.
There one another Example of NPTEL stands for National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning. This is a National programme which provides online learning through Video resources in various fields. During Lockdown they have initiated a task to translate their Video Contents in different 8 Regional languages like...Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu. So, many students can learn in their own languages also. So, This is a kind of Multilingual Process to translate the course in various languages.
References
Nordquist, Richard. 'What is Multilingualism', Updated July 25, 2019. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-multilingualism-1691331
Yong, Ed. 'The Bitter Fight Over the Benefits of Bilingualism', February 10, 2016. https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2016/02/the-battle-over-bilingualism/462114/
Thanks for given information.
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