Bollywood and Linguistics?

Andrew Carnie, in the reading, breaks down language into various different levels, like phonetics, the study of sounds, which lead to phonology, formation of syllables from these sounds, which leads to morphology, or the grouping of syllables into meaningful words, which leads to syntax, or the formation of sentences and then finally, semantics, or the thoughts and ideas that stem from language. This process of breaking down language into sublevels emphasizes its complexity at the highest level and the subtle nuances of meaning that arise from differences in each level. The hierarchical nature of language leads to an intricate, branching tree structure. The infinitely many possibilities of language in sentence formation as well as the recursive “rules” of grammar further highlight this complexity of language.

With all of these sounds, rules and other details, the process of learning a language seems intimidating. However, Chomsky’s idea of a Universal Grammar (UG) states that one does not learn a language, but rather acquires it due to an innate sense of grammar. Carnie goes on to elaborate that as we read, write, speak and understand language, we have no “conscious knowledge”, unlike learning the rules of algebra or principles of organic chemistry.  Moreover, Carnie’s clear distinction between actively learning and the acquisition of language throughout the reading convey this inborn learning ability of humans with an innate sense of language and its complexities.

In the past five years, I have formally learnt four languages: Hindi, Mandarin, Spanish and French. Learning Hindi at school (along with these other languages) was drastically different than the way I learnt at home – by watching movies in Hindi as a child. At school we would learn about the formal rules of grammar of the language, which Carnie states as “prescriptive rules”, or how people should speak the language according to some standards. An example of such a rule in English is like how we are taught to never end sentences in prepositions. On the other hand, even though my mother would frequently encourage my brother and I to speak Hindi at home and practice writing the alphabets and different words, the way I truly picked up the language (a language I now essentially think in) was through Hindi movies. In such movies, I realised I had picked up on many “descriptive rules”, as Carnie states, or rules explaining how people actually speak. By understanding meanings of words and sentences through characters, their relationships and contexts as well as simply listening to the language, I eventually became fluent in the language as a child. This to me proves exactly what Carnie and Chomsky state – language is not merely memorized or learnt, but rather acquired in a mysteriously innate way.