PHONOLOGY/MORPHOLOGY/SYNTAX INTERFACES IN PAKISTANI LANGUAGES
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Authors: Dr Umaima Kamran
Keywords: lexical variation, linguistic interfaces, derivations and notations, Pakistani languages
Abstract: Languages change is unstoppable phenomenon and various factors are there behind this variation. This paper is based on a research conducted to study language variation i.e. lexical variation brought about by the interfaces of Phonology, Morphology and Syntax in Pakistani languages. According to Shackle (2014) Urdu, Punjabi and Seraiki languages belong to the same language family i.e. Indo-Aryan. However, there found many morphological and lexical differences significant enough to make these languages quite different from one another. The focus of this study is to find out these lexical variations as an outcome of three types of interfaces, i.e. Phonology/Morphology, Phonology/Syntax, Morphology/Syntax. All the data has been collected from the Pakistani native speakers of the languages under study; i.e. Urdu, Punjabi, Seraiki. The analysis of the data has been carried out by first categorizing the data belonging to all three interfaces being studied, then derivations and notations (Chomsky and Halle; 1968) have been made to show the changes occurring as a result of the interfaces for all the three languages and the rules have been derived. Then a comparison of all these rules for the languages under study has been made and the resultant phenomenon of language variation has been discussed. The results of the study have shown that these linguistic interfaces play important role to cause lexical variation among Urdu, Punjabi and Saraiki. In Urdu plural morpheme has two allomorphs: or. It is also concluded that among so many aspects that bring about language variation, interfaces between the components of grammar of a language is an important aspect. And presence of one pattern of interaction or one interface in one language, does not guarantee its present in all the members of that particular language family. For example, Phonology determines the morphology in Seraiki language as in [kərvə̃ɳ] → kərə̃ɳ i.e. v deletion after close syllable. Due to these interfaces, not only content words but function words also take different forms, new vocabulary items evolve and ultimately bringing about language variation. The present study can prove to be pretty useful not only particularly with reference to language variation but also in interaction of three main branches of linguistics namely Phonology, Morphology and Syntax.