Page 235 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

(14) a. हमार लेख ब[त बाड़ऽ ।

ɦʌmɑr lekʰ bʌɦut bɑɽʌ
ɦʌm-ɑr lekʰ bʌɦut bɑɽʌ
1SG-GEN article more be.2/3.PRES

'There are many articles of mine.' (04.230)

b. ... ... राउर िजXासा बा ... ...।
rɑur jiɡyɑsɑ bɑ

2SG.GEN.H query be.3SG.PRES
' it's your query ' (03.392)
c. घरे बुFढ़आ के एगो बेटी रहे ।

ɡ ̈ ʌre buɽ ̊ iɑ ke eɡo beʈi rʌɦe

ɡ ̈ ʌr-e buɽ ̊ iɑ ke ek-ɡo beʈi rʌɦ-e
house-LOC old woman GEN one-CLF daughter live-3.PST

'The old woman had a daughter at home.' (07.041)
7.2 Verbal predicates
Verbal predication is the pragmatic function of a verb. As displayed in

Chitoniya Tharu (Paudyal 2013:310), Maithili (Yadav 2014:41), Hindi (Koul
20018:211) and Nepali (Adhikari 2016:322), it is a natural phenomenon in languages

and analyzed on the basis of argument structure and transitivity. Verbal predicates in
Bhojpuri; also displayed in Grierson (1884a:34), Ojha (1915[1982]:27-43), Tiwari

(1954:243-58 and 1960:151-96), Nirbhik (1975:76-9), Shrivastava (1999:73-9),
Sharma and Ashk (2007:19-23), Singh (2009:108-19 and 2013:69-79) and Thakur

(2011:85-92); may be described as follows:
7.2.1 Argument structure and transitivity
Bhojpuri exhibits a clear distinction between intransitive and transitive verbs.

Simply a verb is either intransitive or transitive but there is also possibility of
ambivalent or polyvalent as far as transitivity is concerned. As Bhojpuri is a

nominative-accusative language such as Maithili as well as English, a verb's
transitivity is primarily diagnosed on the basis of absence or presence of direct objects

or patients in a clause.
The four resulting argument structures as shown in Table 7.2 cover a large

majority of all verbs in Bhojpuri. Besides, some verbs displaying a non-standard

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