Problematizing Language Studies: Cultural, Theoretical and Applied Perspectives - Essays in Honor of Rama Kant Agnihotri

Rama Kant Agnihotri, D.Phil. (York) is Professor of Linguistics at the University of Delhi, Delhi. He is interested in and has taught and written extensively about Applied Linguistics, Language Teaching & ELT, Morphology, Sociolinguistics, Research Methods, Literacy and Primary Education for several years. He has lectured in Germany, UK, USA, Canada, Yemen, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, among other countries. He has also been working with several NGOs across India in the area of primary school education. He co-edits, with A.L.Khanna, the Sage series on Applied Linguistics. He was the Chairperson of the NCERT NCF-2005 Focus Group working on the 'Teaching of Indian Languages'.

As a mark of esteem and affection, we bring this Festschrift to honor  Rama Kant for his interests and work, for the questions and concerns he has raised, and for the subtle and not so subtle ways in which he has influenced and even altered our agenda.  The articles included in the Festschrift reflect the range of Rama Kant’s interests and report nearly all that is currently happening in Indian linguistics and language studies worldwide.

All contributions in this volume look at cultural, theoretical, and appliedaspects of the problem of language studies. Articles in the cultural section dwell upon issues that influence the form and use of language. Issues pertaining to the theory of grammar in general, and of syntax, morphology or phonetics and phonology have been grouped together in the theoretical section. Articles in the section on applied linguistics discuss the problems of language pedagogy, language planning, data bases, etc.

S. Imtiaz Hasnain,Ph.D. (Jawaharlal Nehru University) is Professor of Sociolinguistics, Department of Linguistics, Aligarh Muslim University. He has published articles and books in the areas of sociolinguistics, critical discourse, language planning and minority language rights. He was a Fellow of East West Center, Hawaii, and a Senior Fellow at Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore. He has published, among other books, Globalization: Language, Culture and Media (ed. with B. N. Patnaik, IIAS, Shimla).

Shreesh Chaudhary, Ph.D. (English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad) is Professor of Linguistics at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai. He has published extensively in the areas of Applied Linguistics, Sociolinguistics and Natural Language Processing. His recently completed monograph on language contact titled Foreigners and Foreign Languages in India has been published by Cambridge University Press, India.