Nepali and an Analyzed Corpus, a Descriptive Grammar of (Acharya).Pdf
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Order Number 9122111 A descriptive grammar of Nepali and an analyzed corpus Acharya, Jayaraj, Ph.D. Georgetown University, 1990 UMI 300 N. Zeeb Rd. Ann Arbor, MI 48106 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. A DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR OF NEPALI AND AN ANALYZED CORPUS A Dissertation submitted to the Linguistics Department of the Graduate School of Georgetown University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Ph. D. in Lingustics by Jayaraj Acharya Washington, D.C. June 5,1990 (q O Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY GRADUATE SCHOOL The dissertation of.Jay a raj.. Ach arya entitled A Descriptive Grammar of Nepali and an Analyzed Corpus submitted to the department of. Linguis tic s. .in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor-.of.-P.hxloaophy...... in the G raduate School of Georgetown University has been read and approved by the Committee: H ead of Deo0'rl/nent Date Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Abstract A DESCRIPTIVE GRAMMAR OF NEPALI AND AN ANALYZED CORPUS Jayaraj Acharya This is a descriptive grammar of Nepali, the national language of Nepal. The theoretical framework for this description is provided by the system of the Tagmemic analysis developed by K. L. Pike, and used by the Summer Institute of Linguistics in analyzing the structures of many languages of the world. This grammar describes the forms and functions of the constructions of Nepali at phonological, lexical, and grammatical levels. This descriptive grammar has two parts. Part One: Grammar contains twenty-four chapters, and describes the sound systems (segmental and suprasegmental phonemes), and the writing system of Nepali. This part also contains the definition and classification of the form classes (parts of speech) of Nepali in terms of their inflection, function, dependents, and lexical morphology. Then the descriptions of the phrase level structures (nominal structures, adjectival structures, and adverbial structures) follow. Finally, the clause types and sentential structures of Nepali are described. Part Two: Analyzed corpus contains the Nepali text, literal English translation and roman transliteration of the story Naso 'Ward' by Guruprasad Mainali, a famous short-story writer of Nepal. Then the clause structure analysis is presented. This clause structure analysis accounts for all the forms and their functions in the syntactic structure of Nepali. This analysis yeilds the grammatical categories and functions, and the syntactic structure of Nepali described in Part One. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. PREFACE This is a descriptive grammar of Nepali, the national language of Nepal. The theoretical framework for this description is provided by the tagmemic system of linguistic analysis developed by K. L. Pike, and used by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. In tagmemic analysis language is seen as comprising three levels ~ phonology, lexicon, and grammar. The present study attempts to describe the sound system (phonology), form classes (lexicon), and the phrase, clause, and sentence structures (grammar) of Nepali. Although there are a few courses in Nepali, there is no systematic descriptive grammar of the language yet available. This work is intended to fulfill the need of such a grammar, and it contains a precise description of the sound system, writing system, morphology, and syntax of Nepali. Thus, it is a reference grammar which can be used as a guide by a language teacher with some linguistic training to teach Nepali. Based on this work, one can also develop scientific teaching materials. For this purpose, the description has been made more practical than theoretical. Each grammatical rule has been illustrated by examples taken from an analyzed corpus. And, in order to have control over the corpus, a famous short story by Guruprasad Mainali (1900-1981), namely Naso 'Ward', was selected. All the clauses, phrases and words in the story have been analyzed, and the analysis has been presented in Part two. So in this description the examples prefaced by a reference number refer to the numbered text of Naso cited in Part two. Bhojpuri grammar by Shukla (1981) was helpful in organizing chapters in the phonology and writing system whereas A Course in Romance Linguistics by Frederick B. Agard (1984) was of great help in organizing the chapters in syntax. This work was done as a Ph.D. dissertation in theoretical linguistics at the Graduate School of Georgetown University. I received a Fulbright scholarship (1984-1886) and a Georgetown University Graduate School Fellowship (1986- 1989) which made it possible for me to do this work. I am, therefore, thankful to the Fulbright scholarship program and the Graduate School of Georgetown University for their generousity. Personally, my heartfelt thanks are due to Professor Richard J. O'Brien, S. J. without whose constant guide and advice this work was not possible. My thanks are also due to Professors Shaligram Shukla and Richard Lutz who, together with Prof. O'Brien, formed the committee to read this dissertation. Since May, 19891 have been completely dependent on the income of my wife Usha Acharya, who worked hard to support my study despite the fact that she was expecting our second child in September 1989. I cannot remain without acknowledging my profound appreciation of her patience and hard work with which she supported the whole family. June 5,1990 Jayaraj Acharya Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. List of Abbreviations + Obligatory Compdev compound + Optional equational verb AA: Adverbial Adjunct Cmpdiv compund function intransitive verb ab ablative case Cmpdtv compund transitive verb AbA: Ablative adjunct function CmpdtVP Compound transitive verb abcsjnkr ablative case phrase marker at common noun abs.prt absolutive participle CNP Common noun phrase ac accusative case cond conditional mode ac cs.mkr accusative case of verb marker conj.pit conjunctive AD: Adverbial disjunct participle function DC: Dative adj adjective complement adjl adjectival function AdjP Adjectival phrase Dem. Demonstrative adv adverb DeL Determiner AdvCl Adverbial clause DO: Direct object function advl advetbial dt dative case AdvP Adverbial phrase dt cs.mkr dative case marker ag sb.mkr agentive subject marker emph emphatic AppCNP Appositive ev equational verb common noun eVP equational Verb phrase Phrase AppPNP appositive proper EX Exclamation noun phrase function aux auxiliaty verb ex exclamatory Aux: Auxiliary function f feminine C: Connector fut future tense of function verb cc coordinate gn cs.mkr genitive case conjunction marker cl clausal H: Head Cla: Classifier function hon honorific da. classifier form IA: Instrumental Cmpd compound adjunct function Cmpdadj compound imp imperative of verb adjective impf imperfective aspect Cmpdadjl compound impf.prt imperfect adjectival participle Cmpdcn compound common in instrumental case noun in cs.mkr instrumental case CmpdCNP Compound CNP marker Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. V intj interjection prf perfective aspect iv intransitive verb of vetb iVP intransitive verb prf.prog.prt perfect progressive phrase participle LA: Locative Adjunct prf.prt perfect participle function pro pronoun LC: Locative pro-dem pronoun Complement (demonstrative) function pro-interrog pronoun 1c locative