Processing language

“Paths, journeys and their novelty have always intrigued me, especially the less traversed ones. Maybe this was the reason that made me pursue a Bachelor’s in foreign languages and a Master’s degree in Linguistics from JNU rather than opting for engineering, medicine, or administrative services, as is the norm for people belonging to my region. I was taught by an extremely dynamic group of professors along with some guest faculties who were PhD scholars themselves. Unlike the stereotyped professors, we shared a very cordial relationship with them. This had a very big impact on me, and I could envision myself becoming a professor of their likes, and therefore I decided to go for a PhD.

Language lies at the cornerstone of our evolution as a species and processing that information in the brain was something that had always fascinated me. My thesis topic was geared towards understanding the role of working memory and the role of prediction while reading sentences of the Hindi language. Although this kind of work has been done previously using European languages, the novelty of my work lies in the experimental methodology and choosing a South-Asian Language, particularly an Indian language for the investigation.

I was my supervisor’s very first PhD student. Because of differences in our academic training, we shared a very different work ethic, and the rigor with which he dealt with…