Will Marathi be without comma?

The following is the response from Ganesh Puranik to the post  

http://mediasceneindia.blogspot.in/2014/02/comma-may-be-abolished-from-english.html 


धन्यवाद सर, एक महत्त्वाची माहिती 'share' केल्याबद्दल !

खरं तर मुळात भारतीय भाषांमध्ये रूढ अर्थाने विराम चिन्हे नव्हती, 'गद्य' साहित्य तात्त्विक दृष्ट्या 'पद्य' साहित्यापेक्षा श्रेष्ठ मानले जायचे, पण 'पद्य' हे अर्थातच लोकप्रिय होते ! पद्याचे संख्यात्मक प्रमाण अधिक असल्यामुळे बहुदा असेल, पण 'एकल दंड' (। ) आणि 'द्वि दंड' ( ॥ ) या पलीकडे विराम चिन्हांचा विचार भारतीय भाषांमध्ये झाला असेल, असे वाटत नाही.   

नागपूरला कवि कालिदास संस्कृत विद्यापिठात 'भाषा शास्त्र' शिकतअसताना, एका व्याख्यानादरम्यान आम्हाला सांगण्यात आले होते कि,'वेदोक्त संस्कृत' मध्ये किंवा 'संस्कृत' मध्ये शब्द आधारित, जोडाक्षरे आधारित 'विराम स्थळे' (विराम चिन्हांचा 'प्रगत' अथवा 'अप्रगत' प्रकार)होती. (अर्थात पाश्चिमात्यांकडे जे आज आहे, ते आमच्याकडे त्यांच्यापेक्षा आधीपासूनच आहे, असे सांगण्याचा अभिनिवेश पण त्या व्याख्यानातहोताच !) 

एकोणिसाव्या शतकात मेजर थॉमस कॅंडी ने मराठी भाषेत विरामचिन्हे रुजवली.  भारतीय भाषांमध्ये सर्वप्रथम आणि सर्वाधिक विरामचिन्हेमराठी भाषेमध्ये आली, रुजली आणि वाढली, असे मानले जाते.  मराठी भाषेत आज सहजपणे वापरले जाणारे रोमन लिपी आधारित  'पूर्ण विराम' (.) यासारखे विराम चिन्ह अजूनही हिंदी भाषेत पूर्णांशाने रुजलेले नाही, हे इथे आवर्जून करावेसे वाटते.

असो, सदर बातमीमध्ये लिहिल्याप्रमाणे जर खरोखरच स्वल्पविरामाला अलविदा केले, तर सगळ्यात आधी गोची होईल, ती आपल्या वकील लोकांची !  'अर्धविराम' (;), स्वल्पविराम (,) यासारख्या विरामचिन्हांचा सर्वाधिक वापर होत असावा तो कायदेशीर भाषेत, विरामचिन्हे जर काढूनटाकली, तर एका कलमाचे अनेक कलमी अर्थ लावणा-या आमच्या वकिलांचे कसे होणार? (खर तर अनेकांचे जरा जास्तीच 'भले' होणार ;-) )

शाळेत स्वल्पविराम किंवा विरामचिन्हे यांचे महत्त्व सांगताना "डोईवर जांभळे पागोटे खांद्यावर उपरणे पायात जोडा हातात छत्री खिशात केसरी अशा वेशात टिळक गायकवाड वाड्यात आले" यासारखीअर्थाचा अनर्थ करणारी अनेक वाक्ये वानगीदाखल सांगितली जायची.सारांश, विरामचिन्हे नसतील तर अनेक ठिकाणी अर्थाचा अनर्थ होऊ शकतो. 

तळटीप: अधिक प्रभावी 'शब्दानुशासन' (हा व्याकरणकार 'पतंजली' चा आवडता शब्द) असावे यासाठी आपल्याकडे विरामचिन्हे आली ती पश्चिमेकडून आणि आता तेच लोक विरामचिन्हांना अलविदा करण्याचा विचार करतायत …. एक circle पूर्ण झाले म्हणायचे !  :-) 

आपलाच, 

गणेश

Abstract Submission for IAMCR extended to Feb 17

Following from Prof Vinod Pavrala,

Dear friends:

If you have not yet submitted an abstract to the upcoming IAMCR 2014 to be held in Hyderabad from July 15-19, 2014, you have another opportunity to do so now. The number of submissions as of yesterday has crossed 1200! The deadline for submission has been exteded up to February 17, 2014 to allow more people to participate. See all the relevant links in the below mail from the IAMCR local secretariat.  

As you know, the prestigious conference is returning to India after 25 years and provides us a great chance to showcase the research and scholarship in our region to the rest of the world. Eminent speakers such as Manuel Castells are lined up for the conference. While the registration fee may sound high, remember that it is the premier conference in media and communication studies in the world, and you save heavily on international travel. If you would like to explore possibilities for getting economical accommodation, please contact the IAMCR local secretariat atiamcr2014@gmail.com for suggestions.

Look forward to seeing everyone in Hyderabad in July,

warm regards,

Vinod

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: IAMCR 2014 <iamcr2014@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 11:37 PM
Subject: IAMCR 2014: Deadline Extended

Respected Colleagues,

Greetings from the Local Organising Committee of IAMCR 2014!

At the request of some people in different parts of the world who have been experiencing technical difficulties unrelated to IAMCR's online abstract submission system, the Executive Board has agreed to extend the deadline to submit proposals by one week. 

The new deadline is Monday 17 February at 24:00 GMT. 

IAMCR's Executive Board and the Local Organising Committee in Hyderabad are pleased that the conference has already received more than 1200 proposals and hope that the extension will facilitate the widest possible participation of the global media and community research community.

See the links below for general information about the conference as well as available awards and scholarships:

• Hyderabad IAMCR 2014 local site
• General call for proposals
• Specific calls for proposals of individual sections and working groups
• Information about available travel grants
• Smythe Award 2014
• UCF/IAMCR Urban Communication Research Grant
• Submit your abstract

We look forward to your participation.

Warm regards,

Shruti

Comma may be abolished from English language'

Comma may be abolished from English language'

LONDON: Death of the comma? One of the most commonly used elements of written English - the humble comma - could be abolished as a punctuation mark without doing much damage to the language, a US academic has suggested.

Professor John McWhorter, an associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, believes that removing commas from most modern US texts would cause little loss of clarity.

McWhorter said that as Internet users and even some writers become increasingly idiosyncratic - if not indifferent - in their use of the punctuation mark, it may have outstayed its welcome, 'The Times' reported.

You "could take them out of a great deal of modern American texts and you would probably suffer so little loss of clarity that there could even be a case made for not using commas at all," McWhorter said.

He cited the Oxford comma, inserted after the penultimate item in a list, as an example of the mark's obsolescence.

"Nobody has any reason for it that is scientifically sensible and logical in the sense that we know how hydrogen and oxygen combine to form water," McWhorter told Slate magazine.

"So these things are just fashions and conventions. They change over time," he said.

PTI story published in newspapers on February 10, 2014

--

Comma RIP: Is this ubiquitous punctuation mark heading to a full stop?

Columbia University professor John McWhorter suggests the comma is way past its expiry date. This is not just because we've learnt to save time and use words — or 'wrds' — composed of collapsible letters today. McWhorter says the comma need never have been a pillar on our grammatical landscape for there's no inherent logic to the little chap. You could apparently withdraw the comma from most modern American texts and not even notice the difference.

The stinging dismissal will certainly cause many writers to pause mid-phrase. We anticipatePico Iyer — who's earlier written a blushing essay in fulsome praise of the comma where he likens the punctuation mark to how we bat our eyelashes and murmur endearments to lovers — will express disapproval replete with red-faced full stops. But Pico's party of punctuation-lovers will face stiff challenge from Gertrude Stein who condemns the comma stringently. Stein writes the comma is basically "a poor period that stops and lets you take a breath". She tartly elaborates — "But if you want to take a breath you ought to know yourself that you want to take a breath." That's not all. Stein remarks a comma enfeebles. It distracts. It annoyingly dilutes what must be intense.

Clearly the comma war won't pause just yet. But it will tickle grammar's grandmasters by presenting new games. Oscar Wilde delighted many by confessing he'd spent most of the day putting in a comma and the rest taking it out. From there to writing editorials sans a comma at all is just another fun move on changing chessboards of words where clauses and pauses keep shifting but the challenge — to communicate — stays the same.

(Times of India, Edit, Feb 11, 2014)

GUIDELINES FOR RIGHT TO INFORMATION FELLOWSHIP

Thanks to Mr Jagdish More, I have received the following about the RTI fellowship:

(Please visit also the weblink http://ccis.nic.in/WriteReadData/CircularPortal/D2/D02rti/RTI_fellowship_guidelines-2014.pdf ) 

GUIDELINES FOR RIGHT TO INFORMATION FELLOWSHIP

The Department of Personnel and Training (DOPT), Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, Government of India, is the nodal Ministry for the Right to Information Act. It is also administering a Plan scheme titled ‘Improving Transparency and Accountability in Government through effective Implementation of the Right to Information Act’. The primary goal of the scheme is to contribute towards more accountable and transparent government and it has several components including programmes for awareness generation, training and e-governance initiatives for RTI for achieving the purpose.

Under this scheme, DOPT proposes to offer 4(Four) short-term fellowships to researchers from the field of media / journalism/ Civil Society Organisations associated with RTI / RTI Trainers to conduct field based research on themes relating to RTI. It is hoped that the research output will enhance our understanding of the status of the implementation of the act, including its successes, constraints in its implementation and how those are being / could be overcome and what more needs to be done to help achieve the objectives of the Act.

Who can Apply/

The fellowship is open to individuals in the age group of 25 to 40 years from the field of journalism (newspaper/ magazine/ radio/ TV), Civil Society Organisations associated with RTI and researchers & trainers in the field of RTI. The applicant should have proven credentials in his / her professional area, have some prior experience of work relating to the Right to Information and should have an aptitude for research.

Suggested Areas of Study and Research Output

RTI fellowships would be granted for researching any theme relating to RTI with the objective of contributing towards better understanding of the successes of RTI and/ or constraints in its implementation and how implementation of the Act could be strengthened? Some examples of themes that could be selected are given below. These are only in the nature of examples and applicants may choose any theme relating to RTI as long as they are able to justify that it would meet the objective of the scheme.

(a) Issues relating to awareness generation and accessibility for seeking information in the remote areas/villages.

(b) Role of civil society in strengthening RTI regime and how government may coordinate with the efforts of the CSOs.

(c) Successes of RTI in improving transparency and accountability.

(d) Issues in functioning of Central Information Commission /State Information Commissions.

(e) Ensuring Implementation of provisions and guidelines regarding pro-active disclosures.

(f) Best practices from the field.

The proposal should clearly indicate the monthly as well as final output that will be delivered at the end of the fellowship. It could be in the nature of a monograph of 10,000 words which is ready for publication, or features/news stories /investigative stories that could be printed / published as a journalistic piece in national /international media or, in the case of professionals from the field of audio-video media, it could even be short video films or stories. The copyright of the research output will vest in Government of India who may publish the research output and /or may use it in any other way for the purpose of strengthening the working of the RTI regime in the country. Government of India may, however, upon request, permit the Fellow to use the output for publication etc., if government itself does not publish / make use of the output within one year.

Duration

The fellowships would be for a duration of three months.

Compensation and funding

a) Each selected Fellow will receive a total stipend of upto Rs. 2.00 lakhs (subject to tax deduction at source), including a grant of upto Rs.50,000 for books, research material, travel, printing, production of creatives etc on production of actual bills.

b) The stipend will be disbursed as follows:-

(i) Rs.50,000 – On acceptance of the 1st monthly progress report by an expert group

(ii) Rs.50,000 – On acceptance of the 2nd monthly progress report by an expert group

(iii) Rs.50,000 – On acceptance of the final output by competent authority in DOPT.

(iv) Upto Rs.50,000 – For books, research material, travel, printing, production of creatives etc on acceptance of the final output by competent authority in DOPT and on production of the actual bills.

Selection

RTI fellows will be selected on the basis of appraisal of the application and the research proposal and/or interviews /presentation of the proposal. The proposals will be evaluated on the basis of evaluation criteria detailed below.

Application for fellowship should be accompanied by the following documents:

a) A comprehensive proposal (not more than 6-8 A4 size pages) outlining the subject to be researched, the research plan and the monthly and final deliverables.

b) Curriculum vitae (no more than 3 A4 sheets) along with a photograph.

c) A brief statement of work done in the field of RTI.

d) Two references from professionals familiar with the applicant’s work from his /her professional field.

e) A no-objection from the present employer, if any.

Evaluation of Applications will be done by a committee constituted by DOPT on the following general criteria:

Evaluation criteria		Marks
1	Curriculum vitae		10
2	References		10
3	Professional Experience and achievements		20
4	Proposal a) Relevance and Importance of Theme b) Quality of Research Plan (i) Problem Definition (ii) Research Methodology (iii) Expected Deliverable (iv) Emphasis on field / action research c) Innovativeness of the proposal		10 40 10 15 10 5 10
Total		100

Get together for alumni, students, faculty at Ranade Institute Building

Following from Dr Ujjwala Barve:

Invitation

All past students and staff; visiting faculty and well wishers of Department of Communication and Journalism, University of Pune are cordially invited for a Get-together on Sunday, Feb. 09, 2014 at Ranade Institute Building, Fergusson College Road from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

It will be a golden opportunity to visit the department once again, meet old friends and colleagues, revive the sweet memories of days spent in the Department.

So see you on Feb. 09, 2014.

Head, faculty, staff and students

Department of Communication and Journalism

University of Pune

-----------------------------

International Conference on Communication and Media (i-COME’14) in Malaysia

Following received through Prof Sanjay Ranade:

In conjunction with the 30th anniversary of Universiti Utara Malaysia, we proudly invite you to the International Conference on Communication and Media (i-COME’14) organized by Communication Department, School of Multimedia Technology and Communication, UUM. This conference is scheduled to take place from 18 - 20 October, 2014 at the Holiday Villa Beach Hotel and Resort, Langkawi, Malaysia

i-COME’14 aims to provide a multinational platform where the latest issues in communication and media can be presented and discussed in a friendly environment with the aim to learn from each other. The theme of the conference is Communication, Empowerment and Governance: The 21st Century Enigma.

TOPIC OF INTEREST

The key communication and media issues to be addressed by the conference are in relation (but not limited) to:
(a) Organizational Communication: Corporate communication, Power and politics in organizations, Communication for organizational change, Communication management, Public relations;
(b) Communication for Social Change: Health communication, Communication and media, Gender and communication, Governance and empowerment of women, Campaign;
(c) Intercultural Communication: Issues in international and intercultural communication, Barriers in intercultural communication, Negotiating across cultures, Empowerment and governance across cultures;
(d) Political Communication: Communication policies and regulations, Communication law, Empowerment and governance in the information society, Leadership, Ethics in campaign, Ethics in speech;
(e) New Media: New media and culture, Media industry trends and dynamics, Ethics and cyber society, Media challenges and opportunities, Creativity, innovation and users, Government, regulations and new media;
(f) Language and Communication: Media and Language, Role of language, Visual and Linguistics, Critical literacy, Language and advertising, Language and rhetoric, Language and social interaction.

(For full list of issues, please visit our website here)

SUBMISSION

Authors are invited to submit papers for the conference through the i-COME’14 online management system (http://www.i-comeuum.com/openconf/openconf.php).  Submissions must be original and should not have been published previously or be under consideration for publication while being evaluated for this conference. Any questions can, be forwarded to the secretariat via icome@uum.edu.my

PUBLICATION AND INDEXING

This conference is featured by blind review of papers. The conference proceedings will be published by Procedia - Social and Behavioural Sciences (Elsevier) with ISBN/ISSN number and will be indexed in SCOPUS and published by Elsevier (upon approval by Elsevier).


IMPORTANT DATES

Paper Submission Deadline   31 March 2014
Acceptance Notification to Authors   30 April 2014
Deadline for Revised/Final Version   30 May 2014
Early Bird Registration Deadline   15 August 2014
Registration Deadline   1 October 2014


Registration is now open via our website:  http://www.i-comeuum.com . Please forward all inquiries to: icome@uum.edu.my


---
i-COME'14 Secretariat
School of Multimedia Technology and Communication
Universiti Utara Malaysia
06010 Sintok, Kedah, MALAYSIA
Tel: +604 9285859  Fax: +604 9285804
Email: icome@uum.edu.my  Website: http://www.i-comeuum.com

Universiti Utara Malaysia Official Website http://www.uum.edu.my

Anomalies in IRS 2013

Gross anomalies are found in the Indian Readership Survey (IRS) 2013 conducted by AC Nielsen and released by the Media Research Users Council (MRUC). Some leading publishers like the Times of India, Anand Bazaar Patrika, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar, The Hindu, India Today Group, Lokmat, Amar Ujala, Malayala Manorama, Tribune and Outlook, have strongly condemned the recently released IRS 2013. According to them, the survey is riddled with shocking anomalies, defying all logic and common sense and completely ignores circulation -- the very basis of readership. They say the survey grossly contradicts Audit Bureau of Circulation figures (ABC). Some of the anomalies pointed out by them are ? Wild swings in newspaper readership across states. While Punjab has lost one-third of all its readers in a year since the last IRS, Haryana’s has grown by 17%. ? Every major newspaper in Andhra Pradesh, irrespective of language, has fallen by 30 to 65%. ? Wild swings at the city level. Mumbai shows a 20.3% growth in overall English readership. Delhi (a faster growing city overall on all macro indices) shows a drop of 19.5%. ? Hitavada, the leading English newspaper of Nagpur with a certified circulation of over 60,000, doesn’t appear to have a single reader now! ? The Hindu Business Line has thrice as many readers in Manipur as in Chennai!! ? Patrika added a whopping 138% readers on a base of 2 million readers as per the last IRS survey. In other words, it added 2.5 million readers in Madhya Pradesh in a year without adding one single edition. ? In Kanpur, Hindustan has more than 10 readers per copy against the leader, which has just 2.6 readers per copy, on the basis of the last ABC figures. The group of publishers have made a strong case to MRUC to withdraw the results of IRS 2013 and stop all future editions of the survey. (Source: DNA and Times of India, February 1, 2014)