Page 396 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

ɦʌmr ɑ dwɑrɑ rɑd ̤ ɑ ke kitɑb diɑil

ɦʌm-ʌr-ɑ dwɑrɑ rɑd ̤ ɑ ke kitɑb de-ɑ-il
1SG-GEN-SPEC by Radha DAT book give-PASS-3SG.PST
'A book was given to Radha by me.'

In examples (30a-d), (30a) and (30c) are active sentences consisting of NPs,
both as a subject and an object, and a transitive verb. Sentences (30b) and (30d) are

considered as passive sentences, consisting of a subject NP, a postpositional phrase of
the NP+ से /se/ or kारा /dw ɑrɑ/ 'by' and transitive verb with the perfect particle suffix

-इल /-il/ or -अल /-ʌl/ following the verb root suffixed by -आ /-ɑ/ for passivization. In

(30b) the passivized verb is further followed a copula हो /ɦo/ 'be' in agreement with

the promoted patient/dative NP as new subject.
Despite the vital grammatical differences, the pairs of sentences shown above

in (30a-b) and (30c-d) are semantically the same. Both have the same truth condition,
i. e., whatever assertion is made in (30a) is also made in (30b), and vice versa.
Moreover, the semantic relations between the set of NPs and the transitive

verbs in active sentences are likely manifested by the NPs and transitive verb in the

passive sentences. Therefore, the subject NP तू /tu/ 'you' in active sentence (30a) and
तोहरा से /toɦrɑ se/ 'by you' in passive sentence (30b) and हम /ɦʌm/ 'I' in (30c) and

हमरा kारा /ɦʌmrɑ dwɑrɑ/ 'by me' in (30d) have the same role of agent. Similarly, the

NP ;कताब /kit ɑb/ 'book' in (30a-d), is the patient.

Moreover, the agent in active sentence is not only suppressed but deleted too
in passivization, as shown in (31a-b).

(31) a. Active
लोग दरी खनलन ।

loɡ dʌri kʰʌnlʌn
loɡ dʌri kʰʌn-ʌl-ʌn

people grave dig-PP-3.PST.MH
'They dug the grave.'

b. PAT topic-of-passive (deletion of agent)
दरी खनाइल ।

dʌri kʰʌnɑil

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