Semantics and the Bangla language
Alamgir Khan goes into verb-based semantics
Why something is called aam (mango), something else called pata (leaf) and another boi (book) seemed to be arbitrary, accdidental, so long to linguists in the world. It was for long believed that people of a certain community accepted the meaning of these words as such. It seemed those people could have accepted the same words to mean something else like aam (mango) for books and so forth. Modern linguists have discovered a common structure of sentences in all languages in the world. But to them all seems arbitrary beyond the structure of sentences.
Not so, says Kalim Khan of Paschimbanga, India. His journey in linguistics began with the essay Bhashatatter Purbo Diganto (The Eastern Horizon of Linguistics), in which he proposed the greatest breakthrough in linguistics and a way to look into the old history of India along with mankind. The key is verb-based semantics with which the door to that ancient history can be opened. Rabindranath Tagore believed that there is the history of India in the Ramayana and the Mahabharata. But these two epics appear to be but fiction, if studied with the knowledge of modern language, which is logo-centric, one word carrying only one meaning with some synonyms. In verb-based semantics any word in the world is formed from a basic action word. There can be many actors for one action and such a word means many things at a time. Kalim Khan says that Sanskrit is that language, and its greatest heir is Bangla. In his view, the key to understanding history in those two puranas is this verb-based semantics. Every alphabet in Bangla holds a meaning. And the the meaning of a word is in the alphabets the word consists of. For example, in the word JaGaT (world): Ja means origin, Ga means movement and T means revolutionary change.
From this point of view, the basic difference between Bangla and all other languages in the world, except Hebrew that also carries part of this characteristic, is verb-based semantics. According to Kalim Khan, this has made Bangla the most important and unrivalled language in the world. Bangla holds the key to building a universal, super language of the future global village. Modern science cannot do without such a language and physicist David Bohm felt the need of such a language long ago. 'Paroma Bhashar Sangket: Kriyabhittik Shabdarthobidhi O Bhashatatter Natun Diganto' by Kalim Khan, published by Papyrus, Dhaka, in 2001, tells this humbly, but boldly and unhesitatingly to the world. It is a collection of his essays first published in 'Mizanur Rahmaner Troimashik Patrika' (55 56 issues, March and June in 1999).
Let's take the Bangla word Ga, derived from Sanskrit. It means 'who goes', and within it can come many beings --- from the cow to the earth, because all this goes. 'Bangiya Sabdakosh' (Calcutta, 1932), compiled and edited by Haricharan Bandyopadhyay of Santiniketan, has mentioned 41 objects under the word 'go'. Later Bengalis under the rule of British imperialism had to discard all these, except the one meaning of cow. The rule of commodity is to have a single label for a single product. Therefore in the modern Bangla language only 'go' (cow) goes now, nothing else. On the other hand, the word 'go' has settled into the English language that means only the action of going, discarding its actors. Kalim Khan believes that all languages in the world have been born out of one ancient language belonging to an undivided humanity. And the words of that ancient universal language still survive in Bangla with almost all its treasures. Therefore Bangla has the potential of becoming a key part of the universal language in the future. English is certainly the frontrunner in the race to become the global language. But to be a universal language for all mankind, Bengali along with English will lead the way to that, with due shares for all major languages. A universal language will not be hegemonical, but something that is owned by all because of its common base.
Kalim Khan thinks that Bangla is the only language in the world that gave birth to a state, and so Bangladesh is unique in this regard. Now Bengalis have a greater role to play in leading the world into a new, universal language based on verb-based semantics.
In Kalim Khan's view, development of human language runs parallel with the development of science, economics, society, etc. In the verb-based semantics of old Bangla, every word is multilinear like every human being. In logo-centric language, every word is unilinear, deterministic, fundamentalist, like every human being who is either a teacher or a farmer or a clerk because of division of labour. Karl Marx said, '… the human race made clothes for thousands of years, without a single man becoming a tailor.' (p. 131, Paroma Bhashar Sangket). This degeneration of social man has also its parallel in man's language. The time is ripe for humanity to achieve a higher integrity in all aspects. Verb-based semantics can open a door to this.