Language has long been considered a cognitive phenomenon by theorists who believed that it is in cognition that language develops as a communication tool. However, cognitive linguistics recently realized that language is not merely an innate, natural or cognitive phenomenon, but develops in socially and culturally situated cognition. Cognitive sociolinguistics emerged as a sub-discipline of cognitive linguistics which believed that selection of linguistic variants by its users is governed not only by cognitive but also social constraints. Social constructionism as an approach became relevant to this conception of language as it guided the researchers to believe that cognition and language are socially constructed phenomena. Social cognition theories explained the link between cognition and society, and made it easy to understand language as a social cognitive phenomenon rather than a purely cognitive one. Variationist studies focused on the link between linguistic and social variables, and researchers started to study the link between linguistic variants and social classes of the speakers. In the same vein, this research project aims to explore correlation between social class and the cognitive development of syntax among the learners of English language in Pakistani universities. It aims to highlight how social approaches to language differ from cognitive approaches in their understanding of language acquisition and how the former emphasizes the social nature of language development. The study follows correlational method of research to find out the relationship between social class of the adult learners of English and cognitive development of syntax among them. Apart from social class, which is the main social variable studied in this research for its correlation with cognitive development of language, the research also takes into account gender, marital status and age as extraneous variables and studies the relationship of these with the sample’s performance in a syntax-based test. The population for this study consisted of male and female students of English language courses belonging to three universities of Pakistani capital Islamabad. To collect social class data and test syntactic skills of the sample, two research tools were designed; a Socio-economic Index (SES Index or SEI) and a Syntax-based test. The SES Index consisted of five social class variables. These are occupation, income, educational qualification, medium of instruction, and property. The sample was asked to provide details of the said variables about three family members; the subjects themselves, their fathers and mothers. The second tool designed for this research was Syntax test which aimed to test various syntactic skills of the sample. Their performance in the syntax based test was considered an indicator of their cognitive development. The participants were required to fill up the SES Index and solve the test. Both the tools had equal marks, that is, 100. This class score of the respondents was studied for its correlation with the syntax score. SPSS was used to study correlation between social class score / SES score of the individuals and their syntax score. The results yielded moderately significant positive correlation between social class of the individuals and their syntax score and the hypothesis that there is a positive correlation between the two variables was retained. Further, the population was divided into three social classes on the basis on 33% percentile and regression was run to see mean score difference, which pointed out significant mean difference in three SC groups. T-test and Mann Whitney were run in SPSS to study the relationship between gender, marital status and age and syntax. The data were categorized according to these variables and then the tests were applied. In case of gender, which is the first extraneous variable, the mean difference between males and females was significant with females scoring more in syntax test than males, but SPSS showed that these results were statistically non-significant, so the hypothesis of unequal variance between males and females was rejected. The t-test regarding married and single population proved statistically significant difference with married scoring higher than the singles in syntax test. Unlike gender and marital status variables, age variable had three groups, and due to non-homogenous population in these three groups, non-parametric Mann-Whitney test was run. No statistically significant difference was found in the mean rank of age group 1 and 2, and 1 & 3. Also, no statistically significant difference was found in the mean rank of the two age groups, which proved equal performance in syntax test by both groups.
ڈاکٹر نکلسن گزشتہ اگست میں مشہور انگریز مستشرق ڈاکٹر نکلسن نے ۷۷ سال کی عمر میں انتقال کیا، وہ عربی و فارسی زبان کے فاضل اور لندن اور کیمبرج یونیورسٹی میں ان دونوں زبانوں کے استاد رہے تھے، ان کا موضوع اسلامی تصوف تھا، اس کے وہ یورپ میں امام مانے جاتے تھے، انہوں نے اسلامیات اور تصوف پر کئی کتابیں لکھیں، اس کی بعض قدیم اور اہم کتابوں کو ایڈٹ کیا، اور انگریزی میں ان کے ترجمے کئے، شیخ ابونصر سراج کی کتاب اللمع اور مثنوی مولانا روم کی بڑی محنت سے تصحیح کی، یہ دونوں کتابیں گب میموریل سیریز کی جانب سے شائع ہوگئی ہیں، کشف المحجوب، مثنوی مولانا روم اور انتخاب دیوان شمس تبریز کا انگریزی میں ترجمہ کیا، اسلامی تصوف اور صوفیائے اسلام پر مستقل کتابیں لکھیں، عربوں کی علمی و ادبی تاریخ پر ایک مسبوط کتاب لٹریری ہسٹری آف دی عربس تالیف کی ہندوستان میں ان کا نام زیادہ سراقبال مرحوم کی مثنوی اسرار خودی کے مترجم کی حیثیت سے مشہور ہے، لیکن اسلامیات سے اس دلچسپی کے باوجود ان کا دامن تعصب و تنگ نظری سے پاک نہ تھا، جس کا اثر لٹریری ہسٹری آف دی عربس میں زیادہ نمایاں ہے، اور یہ کتاب علمی و مذہبی دونوں حیثیتوں سے اعتبار کے لائق نہیں ہے۔ (شاہ معین الدین ندوی، اکتوبر ۱۹۴۵ء)
لسانیات اورمعاشرتی روابط Language is fundamental to any society. It is through language that we can communicate our thoughts to others. The more a language is used, the more it will develop. There are many types of languages including mother tongue, regional language, religious language, official language, business language, national language, international language and so on. When speaking, language and ascent are not taken into consideration, but there is a need to be careful while writing. People who cannot speak a language use specific gestures or symbols to convey their point of view to others. Therefore, we can say that the use of language began as soon as man came into this world.
Lignocellulose (LC), a composite of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin is considered as naturally occurring chemical feedstock. Pakistan being an agricultural country, generates huge amounts of LC substrates in the form of agricultural waste. Global demand for chemicals and insufficient supply of energy in Pakistan, necessitates comprehensive studies on the utilization of LC substrates. LC materials can be used as substrate for the production of plant cell wall degrading enzymes (PCWDEs) including industrially important enzymes, cellulase and xylanase. At present, bacteria and filamentous fungi are employed for the production of cellulases and xylanase on large scale, whereas, very few yeasts have been studied in this regard. Keeping in view the importance of yeast cellulase and xylanase, the present study was conducted on isolation, production and characterization and possible biotechnological application of indigenous yeast strains. The study was initiated with the isolation of yeast strains from environmental samples and retrieval from culture collection available at the Department of Microbiology, University of Karachi. Total 225 yeast strains were subjected to qualitative screening, as well as, quantitative screening for cellulase and xylanase. On the basis of titers of the enzymes, three yeast strains were selected for further studies, MK-157 and MK-160, for endoglucanase (EG) and Xylanase (Xyl) production, repectively, while MK-118 for EG, β-glucosidase (BGL) and Xyl production. The strain, MK-157, was identified on morphological and biochemical basis as Saccharomyces cerevisiae, and was confirmed on molecular basis using ITS primer and species specific primers. Production of EG from S. cerevisiae MK-157 was optimized through shake flask method by adopting one factor at a time (OFAT) strategy. Maximum production of EG from MK-157 was obtained at 30 °C with media pH 7.0 and 1% CMC. EG from MK-157 was characterized and the data revealed that enzyme optimally active at 30 °C under acidic pH in the presence of 1% CMC. The gene encoding EG was isolated, sequenced and submitted to Genbank with accession number MF871644 and KY660547. The strain, MK-160, was identified on morphological, cultural and biochemical basis as Candida tropicalis. The optimized conditions for Xyl production from MK-160 were temperature, 40 °C; pH, 7; and substrate concentration, 0.5%. Optimal activity of Xyl from MK-160 was observed at 40 °C under acidic condition and with 2% of beechwood xylan. Likewise, the strain, MK-118, was identified as C. tropicalison on the basis of morphological, cultural and biochemical tests. MK-118 was studied for coproduction of EG, BGL and Xyl. Production of all the three enzymes from C. tropicalis MK-118 was optimized, separately. Production parameters varied greatly for individual enzyme. Such as for EG and BGL production, cultivation at 40 °C under neutral conditions was maximum while 25 °C with acidic condition was considered as suitable for Xyl production. The highest titers of EG, BGL and Xyl from MK-118 were obtained in presence of 0.5% of CMC, 1.5% of salicin and 1% of xylan, respectively. Moreover, the parameters affect differently when enzyme preparations were characterized. The maximum activity of the EG and BGL was noted at 30 °C while Xyl worked optimally at 40 °C. BGL and Xyl from MK-118 showed maximum active with 1.5% salicin and xylan, respectively, while EG exhibited highest activity with 2% of CMC. Selected yeast strains and their enzymes were also studied for their possible biotechnological application. S. cerevisiae MK-157, C. tropicalis MK-118 and MK-160 were cultivated under submerged fermentation (SmF) of sugarcane bagasse (SB) and wheat bran (WB) and found to produce a multienzyme comprised of EG, BGL and Xyl. Under SSF of SB, the strains MK-157 and MK-118 were cultivated along with a pectinolytic strain, Geotrichum candidum AA-15 that led to significant increase in the production of pectinase. Similarly, the production of multienzyme preparation by the strains MK-118, MK-157 and MK-160 was also studied under solid-state fermentation (SSF) of peels of Citrus limetta (CL). The parameters affecting multienzyme preparation were studied by employing statistical tools, Plackett-Burman Design and Box-Behnken Design. The data inferred that the multienzyme preparation was able to efficiently hydrolyze a variety of pectin-rich and cellulose-rich LC substrates. Moreover, the preparation was also found suitable to be applied for the clarification of orange juice. Ethanol production and dye adsorption ability of strain MK-157 of S. cerevisiae, MK-118 and MK-160 of C. tropicalis were also evaluated. All the three strains produced ~5% of ethanol and absorbed more than 90% of an azo dye, congo red from aqueous solution. Therefore, the strains may appear as suitable candidate for future biotechnological applications.