Draft:Ramakant Agnihotri

Rama Kant Agnihotri (born 21 December 1945) is an Indian linguist who is interested in General Linguistics, Applied Linguistics and Sociolinguistics. As distinguished from the concepts of translanguaging, the Matrix Language Frame model, polylingualism and hybridity, he proposed the concept of Multilinguality that is at once sensitive to Universal Grammar, linguistic fluidity and social concerns and is not bound by the concept of 'a language'. He also explored the ways in which Multilinguality could be used as a classroom resource leading to enhanced language proficiency, cognitive growth, and social tolerance.

He retired as Professor and Head, Department of Linguistics, University of Delhi. He has participated in the innovative school education and teacher training programmes of such NGOs as Eklavya, Digantar and Vidya Bhawan and was an integral part of the Primary Education Programme of Eklavya. He was the Chairperson of the NCERT’s (National Council of Educational Research and Training) National Focus Group on the Teaching of Indian Languages. He is at present Professor Emeritus at Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur. He is one of the Chief Editors of Language and Language Teaching.

https://www.du.ac.in/index.php?page=department-of-linguistics

General Linguistics

Books

• 1997. Hindi Morphology: A Word-based Description. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass (with Rajendra Singh).
• 2001. Noam Chomsky: The Architecture of Language. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. (eds. N.  Mukherjee, B. N. Patnaik and Rama Kant Agnihotri)
• 2007.   Hindi: An Essential Grammar. London: Routledge. (Second Edition 2023)
• 2012 (ed.) Indian English: Towards a New Paradigm. (with Rajendra Singh). New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan.

Articles

• 1985. Syntax-The Common Bond: Acceptability of Syntactic Deviances in Indian English. English World-wide 6.1:117-129 (with Anju Sahgal).
• 1985. I Deny that I’m Incapable of Not Working all Night: Divergence of Negative Structures in British and Indian English. Current Issues in Linguistic theory 4.1:3-14 (with Jean Aitchison)
• 1991. Acquisition of Articles in Learning English as a Second Language: A Cross-cultural Study. South Asian Language Review 1.2: 67-80.
• 1991. Syntactic Strategies and Politeness Phenomena. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 92: 35-53. (with K.V. Subbarao and Aditi Mukherjee)

Applied Linguistics

Books

• 1994 (ed.) Second Language Acquisition: Socio-cultural and Linguistic Aspects of English in India. (RAL 1). New Delhi: Sage Publications (with A.L. Khanna).
• 1998 Adult ESOL Learners in Great Britain U.K.: Multilingual Matters. (with A.L. Khanna, M.K. Verma and S.K. Sinha)
• 2017 (ed.)  Trends in Language Teaching. Delhi: Orient BlackSwan (with A. S. Gupta and A. L. Khanna)

Articles

• 1984 The Use of Articles: Errors and Pedagogical Implications. International Review of Applied Linguistics 22.2:115-28 (with A.L. Khanna and A Mukherjee).
• 1997 The Social Psychological Perspective on Second Language Learning: A Critique. In Singh, R. (ed.) Grammar, Language, and Society: Contemporary Indian Contributions. New Delhi: Sage. 325-342 (with A.L. Khanna).
• 2002 English in Indian Education. In Daswani, C. J. (ed.) Language Education in Multilingual India. New Delhi: UNESCO. 186-209.
• 2015. Constituent assembly debates on language. Economic and Political Weekly Vol. L No. 8: 47-56.
• 2022. Language as a space for scientific enquiry.  Economic & Political Weekly,  August 6, 2022, 57.32: 1-15.

Sociolinguistics

Books

• 1997. Problematizing English in India. New Delhi: Sage Publications (with A.L. Khanna).
• 2015 (ed.) ‘Impure Languages’: Linguistic and Literary Hybridity in Contemporary Cultures. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan (with C. Benthien and T. Oransakia)
• 2020 (ed.)  Language and Identity: Selected Papers of Robert B Le Page. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan (with M. K. Verma and V. Puri)
• 2021 (ed.) Education and Inequality: Historical and Contemporary Trajectories. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan (with Vikas Gupta and Minati Panda)
• 2022 (ed.) Being and Becoming Multilingual: Some Narratives (with Rajesh Sachdeva) Delhi: Orient BlackSwan

Articles

• 1988. Indian English Phonology: A Sociolinguistic Perspective. English World-Wide 9.1:51-64 (with Anju Sahgal).
• 1994 Campaign-Based Literacy Programmes: The Case of the Ambedakar Nagar experiment in Delhi. In   Barton, D. (ed.) Language and Education 8.1 & 2: 47-56 (special issue on `Sustaining Local Literacies).
• 2002. A Pre-Partition Partition: The Case of Hindi and Urdu. In Settar, S. and   Gupta, I.B. ed. Pangs of Partition, Vol II. New Delhi: ICHR and Manohar, 29-46.
• 2002a. Sociolinguistic Theory and Practice: The Indian Counterpoint. In Singh, R. ed. The Yearbook of South Asian Languages and Linguistics. New Delhi: Sage, 11-26.
• 2008 Orality and Literacy. In Kachru, Braj, B., Kachru, Y and Sridhar, S N. ed. Language in South Asia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 271-284.
• 2009 Forms and functions of English in multilingual signage. English Today, 25(3), 11-17. (with Kay McCormick) doi:10.1017/S0266078409990228

Multilinguality

Some videos

• http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=l74ULxuBM3EAgniho
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYe2amIy9HQ
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob1qVIYOLq4
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0aQHN9zlZ8
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzLXlphoFis

Articles

• 1995 Multilingualism as a classroom resource. In Kathleen Heugh, Amanda Sieruhn and Peter Pluddemann  (eds.). Multilingual Education for South Africa. Johannesburg: Heinemann, 3-7.
• 2006 Identity and Multilinguality: The Case of India. In Tsui, Amy B.M. and Tollefson, James, W. ed. Language Policy, Culture, and Identity in Asian Contexts. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 185-204
• 2007 Towards a Pedagogical Paradigm Rooted in Multilinguality. International Multilingual Research Journal 1.2: 79-88.

• 2009.   Multilinguality and a New World Order. In Mohanty, A.K., Panda, M., Phillipson, R. and Skutnabb-Kangas, T. eds. Multilingual Education for Social Justice: Globalizing the Local. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, pp. 268-77.
• 2010. Multilinguality and the Teaching of English in India. The EFL Journal 1.1: 1-14.
• 2012. Multilinguality, marginality and social change. In Khanna, A.L. and Anju Sahgal Gupta, ed. 2012. Essential Readings for Teachers of English: From Research Insights to Classroom Practices. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, pp. 13-24
• 2014 Multilinguality, education and harmony. International Journal of Multilingualism, 11(3): 364-379.
• 2020. Linguistic Diversity and Marginality in South Asia. In: Sarangapani, P., Pappu, R. (eds) Handbook of Education Systems in South Asia. Global Education Systems. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3309-5_32-1
• 2021. Multilinguality and challenges to education. In Gupta, V, Agnihotri, R K and Panda, M. ed. Education and Inequality: Historical and Contemporary Trajectories. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, 322-358.
• 2022l. Negotiating multilinguality. Being and Becoming Multilingual: Some Narratives (ed with Rajesh Sachdeva) Delhi: Orient BlackSwan, pp. 286-308.