Page 424 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

rɑm kʰɑ-il-ʌkʰ kʰir ɑ syɑm kʰɑ-il-ʌkʰ roʈi
Ram eat-PP-3.PST rice-pudding and Shyam eat-PP-3.PST chapati

'Ram ate rice-pudding and Shyam ate chapatis.' (12.099)
12.1.5 Dative-shifting
As Givón (2001a:471) notes, the dative object of bi-transitive clauses is almost

always more topical than the patient, and thus tends to claim the direct-object role,
often automatically. Since topical objects are most commonly pre-established in the

preceding discourse, dative objects in discourse tend to be overwhelmingly definite
and anaphoric (Greenberg, 1974; Givón, 1984). It is not surprising then that dative-

shifting in many languages – making the dative the direct object – also has the effect
of definitizing. This is already evident in Bhojpuri as another device to topicalize for

some pragmatic purpose. The basic order of a ditransitive cluse in Bhojpuri is S-IO-
DO-V. In contrast, while employed the dative-shifting strategy, the referent in dative
case occurs either in the clause-initial or clause-final position. We exemplify the

clause-initial DO in (12a-d).

(12) a. त उनका के भगवान कृjण राखी के kयोहार मनावे के सलाह देल" ।
tʌ unkɑ ke b ̤ ʌɡwɑn krisnʌ rɑkʰi ke

tʌ unkɑ ke b ̤ ʌɡwɑn krisnʌ rɑkʰi ke
COND 3SG.GEN GEN Lord Krishna Raxabandhan GEN

tyoɦɑr mʌnɑwe ke sʌlɑɦ delẽ
tyoɦɑr mʌnɑ-we ke sʌlɑɦ de-ʌl-ẽ
festival celebrate-PUR GEN advice give-PP-3.PST.MH

'Then Lord Krishna advised him to celebrate Raxabandhan Festival.' (07.068)

b. जी, अपने के हम थोड़ा सा रोकेके चाहतानी ।
ji ʌpne ke ɦʌm tʰoɽɑ sɑ rokeke cɑɦʌtɑni

ji ʌpne ke ɦʌm tʰoɽɑ sɑ rok-eke cɑɦ-ʌt bɑni
yea 2SG.H GEN 1SG little as stop-OPT want-IMPF be.PRES.H

'Yea, I want you to halt for a while.' (01.051)
c. जा घरे । तोहे चाची एगो िमठाई दी ।

jɑ ɡ ̈ ʌre toɦe cɑci eɡo miʈʰɑi di
jɑ ɡ ̈ ʌr-e tu-e cɑci ek-ɡo miʈʰɑi de-i

go house-LOC 2SG-DAT aunty one-CLF sweet give-3SG.FUT
'Go home. Aunty will give you a sweet.' (09.459)

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