NILOTPAL PATHAK ROLL NO.

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Before we begin our examination of the various manifestations of use based variation in
language in the different spheres of our lives as the problem statement mentions, I believe it
would be helpful to start with a brief examination of why there should be any use based
variation at all. There is a notion in psychology that a man has as many social selves as there
are individuals who recognize him and carry an image of him in their head. One can create a
linguistic analogy of the same- that the number of linguistic selves of a man, seen in the
several varieties of one or more languages he speaks, is actually equal to the different people
and situations that he encounters. These people and situations can be divided into categories
as the problem statement does, to ease the analysis of use based variation.

Coming to the topic, I think the use of language in academics, or official purposes in general,
is the perfect place to start since it provides a great demonstration of how our means of
expression can change drastically depending upon the topic of discourse. Unless forced
otherwise, I mainly use Hindi when it comes to day to day communication with
acquaintances. However it is difficult for me to even imagine taking my classes in Hindi, due
to the large arsenal of scientific terms in English whose Hindi analogues are not known to us
as a consequence of our English medium education. Indeed writing an application or a mail to
a professor in Hindi is equally unimaginable- in this case not due to the lack of capabilities of
the parties involved but the distinct lack of usage of Hindi for official purposes in general!

However, when talking to friends about academics, or about science, I automatically tend to
switch to Hindi interspersed with science related terms in English. The reason for this is
probably that with friends who can speak in both Hindi and English, I speak in Hinglish
almost without exception. This Hinglish though tends to vary drastically depending on the
extent of intimacy with the person I am speaking to, among other factors. The use of varying
honorific pronouns is one good example of this variation. Like most Hindi speakers, my rule
of thumb for usage of pronouns is to address acquaintances (friends, neighbours) elder to me
as ‘aap’ and friends younger to me as ‘tu’. With family and friends of the same age however,
the matter becomes rather ambiguous. Interestingly, I have found myself using the
intermediately respectful pronoun ‘tum’ for female friends the same age as me or younger to
me, whereas using the rather derogatory ‘tu’ for male peers. While I have been unable to pin
down the reason behind this injustice, my guess is that it stems from the varying degrees of
comfort I experience when communicating with friends of different sexes.

Moving on, the primary difference between the language used with friends and with family
members is that the language used at home is a little more restrained because there are several
phrases and words (most of them IITK slang) which have become part of our lexicon in
college, but will not be taken down well at home! At my home, while one must as a rule use
the pronoun ‘aap’ to address family members of the previous generation, there is freedom for
one to address siblings and cousins with the pronoun ‘tum’ ,due to which I have ended up
using ‘tum’ for a cousin six years elder to me. But whenever we talk in front of her friends,
her colleagues or any outsiders, I address her with the utmost respect to prevent any
embarrassments for her. While I know that she does not mind the way I talk to her, I am
fairly sure that any outsiders will not be able to understand the dynamics of our relationship,
the intimacy we share and the fact that there are other more important markers of respect.

Speaking of respect, I now find it ironic that while I have been taking my beloved family
members for granted when it comes to the sort of language I use with them, the language I
use with strangers, irrespective of their apparent social class, is of the most respectful variety
possible! Generally, when initiating conversation with a stranger, I make the choice (often
incorrectly) between English and Hindi on the basis of the limited knowledge I have about
the stranger, such as the place, his/her attire (highly westernized implying English and so on)
and body language. The sort of language used for shopping makes for another interesting
case study. I generally use Hindi for shopping irrespective of whether the commodity being
purchased is an expensive gadget or a packet of flour at your neighbourhood shopkeeper’s.
However I must admit that I have sometimes unwillingly used English to purchase products
at high end stores -not because I suspect that I will not be understood if I speak in Hindi, but
for the fear of being smirked upon by both the salesman and fellow customers due to not
speaking English, which has been the prestige variant in our diglossic society for some time.

While one would expect that the choice of language in entertainment will be based on
proficiency in speech and understanding, the quality of content being produced also
influences this choice. For example the reason why I primarily watch subtitled foreign
language films is that they are artistically much superior to mainstream Hindi cinema in my
opinion. However, the joy of watching a well-made film in one’s own ‘mother tongue’
(dubious term, but still) is difficult to match for any English or French film!

The language and the sort of language one uses does not just depend on the listener and the
topic of discourse. There are several other factors, the domain of discourse being an
important one. Take online communication for example. We can observe several differences
between language used for day to day and online conversations, given a particular pair of
communicators. People often tend to reduce typing effort by substituting ‘for’ with ‘4’, ‘to’
with ‘2’ and so on. However, this is a practice often frowned upon by the internet community
and with the introduction of touch screen phones and better mobile keyboards, this practice is
on the decline. Another difference I have felt is that since the Devnagari script keyboard does
not come pre-installed on most mobile phones, conversations tend to happen in English even
between people who would generally not talk to each other in English face to face. However,
the reason for this could also be that many people (even me) do not feel as comfortable in
speaking English as writing it. Another important factor that can influence language use is the
set of observers of a conversation. The language used by a couple of friends to talk to each
other will be fairly different depending on whether their parents are listening to them or not!

Indeed writing this essay has further made me appreciate the extent of variation that exists in
the language we use to express ourselves in different situations and also how much can be
told about a person by observing his/her language- from social class to the sort of upbringing
someone has had to the stereotypes that have found their way to the person’s opinions. That
in my opinion is where the wonder and importance and beauty of linguistic lie- the fact that it
is all essentially about people and hence about life itself.