Probal Dasgupta

Probal Dasgupta speaking at an open house of the central office of the Universala Esperanto-Asocio, spring 2008

Probal Dasgupta (born 19 September 1953, Kolkata, India) is an Indian Linguist, Esperanto speaker and Activist.

Dasgupta's interest in Linguistics started at a very young age. He published his first article in Phonology at the age of eighteen in Indian Linguistics the journal of the Linguistic Society of India^[1] His 1980 New York University Ph.D dissertation Questions and Relative and Complement Clauses in a Bangla Grammar is considered one of the seminal works in Bangla Syntax.

Apart from Syntax Dasgupta has worked and written a great deal on Morphology and Sociolinguistics. He has developed a new approach to linguistics, called Substantivism, in partnership with Rajendra Singh, whose approach to Morphology (Whole Word Morphology) forms part of the substantivist programme. Dasgupta was made an honorary member of the Linguistic Society of America in 2004.

Outside of Formal Linguistics Dasgupta has written extensively on topics in Esperanto Studies, Sociolinguistics and Literary Theory. In his many writings he has also been vocal about political and social issues. “The Otherness of English: India's Auntie Tongue Syndrome”, in which he talks of the situation of English in India, has led to various debates on the social implications of the presence of English in India^[2]

Dasgupta has been a member of the Akademio de Esperanto since 1983. He served as the Vice-President of the Akademio for five terms from 2001 to 2015. In February 2016 he was elected the Akademio's President for a term of 3 years. Earlier, Dasgupta served as the president of Universal Esperanto Association for two terms, 2007–10 and 2010-13.

Since 2006, he has been a faculty member heading the Linguistic Research Unit at the Indian Statistical Institute in Kolkata.

Works (selection)

• Degree words in Esperanto and categories in universal grammar. In: Klaus Schubert: Interlinguistics: aspects of the science of planned languages, 1989 pp. 231–247
• Towards a dialogue between the sociolinguistic sciences and Esperanto culture. Language Problems and Language Planning.11.3.304-34. 1987.
• Explorations in Indian Sociolinguistics, Rajendra Singh, Probal Dasgupta, Jayant K. Lele. New Delhi: Sage 1995.
• After Etymology:Towards a Substantivist Linguistics. (With Alan Ford and Rajendra Singh). München: Lincom Europa. 2000
• Dasgupta, Probal (2011). Loĝi en homaj lingvoj: la substancisma perspektivo. New York: Mondial. ISBN 978-1-59569-214-6.
• Dasgupta, Probal (2012). Inhabiting Human Languages: the Substantivist Visualization. New Delhi: Samskriti and Indian Council of Philosophical Research. pp. xviii + 148. ISBN 978-81-87374-70-1.

Translations from Bengali

• Manashi DasGupta: Dormanta hejmaro, Antwerp: Flandra Esperanto-Ligo 2006
• Manashi DasGupta: Mi juna, Rotterdam: Esperantaj Kajeroj 1989
• Rabindranath Tagore: Primico, København: TK 1977
• Upendronath Gangopaddhae: Klera edzino, Pisa: Edistudio 1994

References

1. "Coronality, Old Indo‑Aryan palatals, and natva.". Indian Linguistics. 33 (2): 99‑122.
2. "The Otherness of English: India's Auntie Tongue Syndrome.". New Delhi. Thousand Oaks / London: Sage 1993.

External links

• Substantive language rights
• Translation and the Application of Linguistics Article, Meta, vol. 39, n° 2, 1994, p. 374-386.
• LiberaFolio.org