Reflections on Hindi and history
| dc.contributor.advisor | Hindman, Heather | |
| dc.creator | Pace, Colin Gaylon | en |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2014-10-02T18:28:42Z | en |
| dc.date.issued | 2014-05 | en |
| dc.date.submitted | May 2014 | en |
| dc.date.updated | 2014-10-02T18:28:42Z | en |
| dc.description | text | en |
| dc.description.abstract | In this paper, I consider historical periods, linguistic categories, and social theories in relation to Hindi in order to trace out the character and trajectory of the language. From sixteenth-century courtly contexts, to the adoption of the Devanagari script in the twentieth century by nationalists, Hindi has a polyvalent and yet specific history. I discuss these contexts in which social contact led to linguistic change and in which Hindi acquired many of the lexical, syntactical, and phonological characteristics by which it is recognized today. I conclude with a section that considers the motif of language and power, and I suggest that the production of knowledge and power in language use, offers both the means of distinction and expression or, in another sense, of hierarchy and communitas. A thread that runs throughout the paper is attention to the contexts in which language use enables elaboration and in which elaboration is eschewed in order to attain social unity. Pursuing a descriptive historical-linguistic project, I neither affirm nor deny the politics of such language use, but rather I indicate the ways in which actors and agents use Hindi to help articulate their agency. | en |
| dc.description.department | Asian Studies | en |
| dc.format.mimetype | application/pdf | en |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/2152/26223 | en |
| dc.subject | Hindi | en |
| dc.subject | History | en |
| dc.subject | Language use | en |
| dc.subject | Social unity | en |
| dc.subject | Linguistic categories | en |
| dc.subject | Social theories | en |
| dc.title | Reflections on Hindi and history | en |
| dc.type | Thesis | en |
| thesis.degree.department | Asian Studies | en |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Asian Cultures and Languages | en |
| thesis.degree.grantor | The University of Texas at Austin | en |
| thesis.degree.level | Masters | en |
| thesis.degree.name | Master of Arts | en |