Establishment of the Department
The Department of Dravidian and Computational Linguistics was established in November 2005.
In order to fulfil the main objective of the university and to meet the challenges of technological developments, the Department of Dravidian and Computational Linguistics has identified the areas of Dravidian Linguistics and Computational Linguistics as the thrust areas of research.
In the area of Dravidian Linguistics, two streams of research are identified: one is Historical and Comparative Dravidian and the other is Descriptive Studies of the so-far un-described Tribal Languages.
In Computational Linguistics, the focus is on building Machine Translation systems involving Dravidian languages besides training students in the area of Natural Language Processing.
Programmes
The department offers certificate, diploma, M.Phil and Ph.D programmes
Faculty
The Department Faculty comprises one Professor, three Assistant Professors, one Research Officer and two Research Fellows.
Professor: Dr. G. Balasubramanian
Assistant Professors: 1. Dr. S. Arulmozi 2. Dr. M. C. Kesava Murty 3. Sri. P. Sreekumar
Research Officer: Dr. G. Ambedkar. Research Fellow: Dr. L. K. Malleswara Rao, Dr. B. P. Hemananda
Facilities
The Department has a well established Natural Language Processing Laboratory with five Pentium IV machines, three GIST terminals, one scanner, two printers, and language processing softwares.
Publication
Publishing descriptive grammars in Dravidian tribal languages
Reprinting the classic descriptive grammars of Dravidian tribal languages – In Press: 5; Under Progress: 5
Compendium of Dravidian Linguistics
Developing an encyclopedia of around 2500 topics related to information in Dravidian Linguistics up to the end of 20th century. An Advisory Committee Meeting was convened on 17th July 2007.
Projects
Independent Projects
All the faculty members are working on independent research projects
Collaborative Project
Name of the Project: Development of Indian Language-Indian Language Machine Translation System (Telugu-Tamil)
Collaborating Institution: Centre for ALTS, University of Hyderabad. Funding Agency: Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Govt. of India
Events
Extension lectures (in collaboration with Dept. of Tamil & Translation Studies, Dravidian University)
1. Ethnicity, Language and Identity among the tribal people of Nilgiri Biosphere
(Prof. R. Perialwar, Senior Fellow, Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India) - 27th March 2006
2. Language Use of Sangam Poems with Special Reference to Kurincit tinai
(Prof. V. Gnanasundaram, UGC Emeritus Fellow, Department of Linguistics, Tamil University) - 28th March 2006
Workshop on Computational Linguistics (8-11 December 2006)
The workshop focused on introducing the participants to various computational techniques that are used to build NLP tools and also exposed them to the real time MT systems. The workshop was preceded by a three-day Preparatory Program meant for participants from non-linguistics background.
The workshop started off with a three-day preparatory program from 8-10 of December 2006. The preparatory program was scheduled in such a way that the participants could learn the fundamentals of linguistics with a pinch of NLP on the third day. Prof. P. Mohanty, Prof. N. Deivasundaram and faculty from the organizing institution gave lectures in the preparatory program.
On 11th December 2007, Prof. K. Ramamurthy Naidu, Member, UGC, New Delhi inaugurated the Workshop. Prof. G. Lakshminarayana, Vice-Chancellor, Dravidian University presided over the function. Prof. K. Rangan, HOD welcomed the gathering .
Eminent scholars who are working in the field of computational linguistics were invited to deliver lectures for the workshop. These experts drawn from the academia. (Prof. Panchanan Mohanty, Prof. N. Deivasundaram, Prof. M. Ganesan, Prof. S. Rajendran, Prof. G. Uma Maheswar Rao, Mr. S. Ramesh Kumar, Mr. P. Sakthivel, Mr. R. Baskaran etc). In addition to the above, faculty members from the organizing institution covered the core linguistic concepts. They include, Prof. K. Rangan, Dr. G. Balasubramanian, Dr. S. Arulmozi, Dr. M. C. Kesava Murty and Mr. P. Sreekumar.
Various lectures covering the broad spectrum of computational linguistics were delivered during the workshop which include:
Computational Morphology, Corpora & Lexical Resources, Ontology & WordNet, Perl Programming, Morphological Modelling, Machine Translation, Statistical MT.
The workshop was organized in a way that, lectures were given during the morning sessions and afternoons were devoted to demonstrations and lab sessions.
About 20 Scholars & students from various institutions such as Bharathiar University, Cochin University of Science & Technology, Madurai Kamaraj University, Tamil University, SV University, Madras Christian College, Chennai, BH College, Assam, Manipur University and Dravidian University participated in the workshop.
The valedictory function of the ten-day workshop was held on the afternoon of 17th December 2006. Prof. G.Lakshminarayana, Vice-Chancellor, Dravidian University gave the presidential address and distributed the certificates to the participants. Prof. G. Uma Maheshwara Rao, the chief guest in his valedictory address cited a centrally sponsored Rs. 65 lakhs project of Tamil-Telugu, Telugu-Tamil Machine Translation in which the Dravidian University and CALTS, University of Hyderabad would jointly pursue. Prof. P. Rajasekhara Reddy, Registrar, Dravidian University and Prof. K. Rangan, HOD were present during the function. Dr. G. Balasubramanian, Associate Professor of the Department welcomed the gathering, Dr. S. Arulmozi summed up the proceedings of the workshop.
Globalization: The State of Dravidian Languages
Report on Celebration of International Mother Language Day Symposium (21st February 2007)
The Department of Dravidian & Computational Linguistics organised a one-day Symposium on ‘The Status of Dravidian Languages in the context of Globalisation’ to celebrate International Mother Language Day on 21st February 2007. Prof. G. Lakshminarayana, Vice-Chancellor, Dravidian University presided over the function. Dr. R. Rajendran, Director, Department Tamil Development, Government of Tamil Nadu inaugurated the International Mother Language Day Celebrations.
Dr. Rajendran in his address emphasised that as we cannot give life to any language it is our bounden duty to protect whatever language is now alive. In the context of globalisation the process of localisation must be speeded up so that technology helps to develop local languages, Rajandran said. Endangerment of language has been becoming a major issue and every government institution should come forward to address this issue, he requested.
Emphasising the importance of promoting local languages, Prof. G. Lakshminarayana appealed for a right vision related to languages at various levels. It is to realise the importance of language in educational system and educational planners should come forward with an integral project that protects endangered languages, said Prof. Lakshminarayana. Dravidian University is dedicated to cultural literacy and cultural education. The present critical times, the University highlights the importance of cultural identity he told. Very soon Dravidian University is going to initiate an extensive field based research on endangered languages, Prof. Lakshminarayana promised.
Dr. Rajendran released four booklets titled “Dravida Sukti” published in four languages i.e. Telugu, Kannada, Tamil & Malayalam. He appreciated the university’s publications that promote integration and language research. Prof. P. Rajasekhara Reddy, Registrar has also participated.
Welcoming the gathering, Dr. G. Balasubramanian, Head I/c Department of Dravidian & Computational Linguistics said that the symposium sheds fresh light on the role of local languages in the present context. Sri S.V. Ramesh, Editor, Telugu Vani, Dr. R. Venkata Chalapathy, Madras Institute of Development Studies, K.R.Narasimhan, Principal, Government College for Women, Kolar, T.P.Rajeevan, Poet & Critic, Dr. S. Arulmozi presented Keynote addresses on the status of local languages in a globalised context.
Sri Prahlada Rao, Editor, Kolar Patrika, Kolar, Dr. V. Venkatesh, Mandal Parishad President, Kuppam, Sri Ramachandran, President, Tamil Teacher’s Association, Krishnagiri, Sri. Gangadhar Reddy, President, Telugu Teacher’s Association, Tamil Nadu. Sri P. Uma Maheshwar Rao, President, Language Teacher’s Association, Kuppam and Faculty Members of the Language Departments, Dravidian University, Kuppam were the discussants. Dr. C.Kesava Murthy, Assistant Professor introduced the guests to audience.
