M. A. I english P. C3 & C6 Modern Linguistics title pmd

a)
Identification of Area for Linguistic Analysis :
Linguistics analyses a language for discovering its underlying 
principles. This analysis is usually based on some problem. The problem 
decides the area for research and vice versa. This also has some scientific 
background. One has to move from general to specific while identifying area 
for research. Identification of problem may be accidental or calculated. While 
working, we suddenly come across something that appears different and this 
difference when carefully observed leads us to identify the problem for study.
For example, one day I was talking to my teacher. We were talking 
about English words used by Marathi speakers while talking Marathi. I used 
the word ‘S.T.’ instead of ‘bus’. He enquired what is S.T. and I replied in 

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Marathi gaadi. He asked names of other vehicles and I made a list truck, car, 
jeep, tractor, bike, moped, etc. He asked me to translate these words into 
Marathi. I said, “Why should I translate them? These are Marathi words only.” 
He very politely replied, “No.” He showed me all these words in the dictionary 
and I was surprised to find them all in English. This gave a problem for study: 
English words used in Marathi. This is accidental. 
On the other hand, my students of First Year of graduation are quite 
poor at English. I tried to find out reasons and I realised that they are afraid of 
using it because they are not trained to use it. My research started. I arrived 
at a conclusion that all the teachers right from the primary schools need to 
use English to some extent so as to reduce fear of English from the minds of 
students. This is calculated problem for study.
b)
Collection of Data : 
Once we have a problem, it is necessary to collect data. For collecting 
data, a student of linguistics needs to prepare a questionnaire. This 
questionnaire should be designed taking into account different aspects which 
you have already come across.
For example: ‘Indian English as a variety of English’ is the problem for 
our study. One of the features of Indian English is ‘ample use of continuous 
tense’. We need to verify it. For that purpose, we need to collect samples of 
speeches of some Indian users of English. There will be differences among 
speakers; some speakers use English for official purposes only, some use 
English for international communications only, there are some people who 
use English for day-to-day communication and so on. There are different 

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reasons for use of English and these reasons give us aspects for preparing 
questionnaire.
Data can also be collected through personal interviews, books, 
surveys, reports, etc. Whatever data we borrow, we need to acknowledge it 
by giving proper references, dates of survey, dates of interviews, etc. 
Linguists collect data using all these tools of data collection.