Page 258 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

a) Nominal morphology
To determine the grammatical relations, the nominal morphology, as one of the

overt coding properties, refers to the morphological case-marking of the noun phrases
(NPs). On contrary to the ergative-absolutive languages, the case-marking morphology
in nominative-accusative languages is keyed towards coding the grammaticalized

subject (nominative) and direct-object (accusative), regardless of semantic roles or
transitivity (Givón 2001a:203). In Bhojpuri, an Indo-Aryan nominative-accusative

language as its close neighbours Chitoniya Tharu (Paudyal 2013:110), Maithili (Yadav
1996:72) and Awadhi (Saksena 1937/1971:126), the subject of an intransitive clause

and the agent of a transitive clause are maked as nominative, irrespective of the tense,
aspect or person, whereas, the object of the transitive clause is marked as accusative.

Examples in (1a-b) exhibit the nominative-accusative case marking pattern in Bhojpuri.
(1) a. Intransitive clause

बाबुजी अइनी ... ।
bɑbuji ʌini

bɑbu-ji ɑ-ini
father-H come-PST.H

'Father came ....' (09.505)
b. Transitive clause (non-human patient/object)

प"वाहा गाछ पाङेला ।
pʌŋwɑɦɑ ɡɑcʰ pɑŋelɑ

pʌŋwɑɦɑ ɡɑcʰ pɑŋ-e-lɑ
shortener tree trim-PUR-3SG.PRES

'A trimmer trims a tree.' (09.363)
In example (1a), the subject of the intransitive clause बाबुजी /bɑbuji/ 'father' is

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encoded by the nominative marker -ø. Similarly, the agent of the transitive clause in
(1b) प"वाहा /pʌŋwɑɦɑ/ 'trimmer' is unmarked nominative and the non-human
object/patient of the transitive clause in (1b) गाछ /ɡɑcʰ/ 'tree' is unmarked accusative.

But they are marked as nominative and accusative respectively semantically

However, a human patient/object is marked as dative in Bhojpuri, as in (2):

2. Nominative is almost always the functional term in a nominative-accusative system, and may also be
formally unmarked (Dixon 2010b:120).
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