Page 458 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

keɦu ɑdmi un-kɑ u mʌn nɑ pʌr-ʌl
any man 3SG-DAT 3SG mind NEG fall-3SG.PST

'*As for a man, she didn't like him.'
In (46a-c), the generic or non-referring contrast is presented in (46a) and
definite contrast in (46b). A referential-indefinite noun is seen in L-dislocation in

(46c) but it is a marked construction in Bhojpuri as in English.
The shared restriction suggests that it is cataphoric topicality rather than contrast

that is at the bottom of the restriction on referential-indefinite NPs in all these constructions.
c) Topicality and contrast

"The restrictions on referential-indefinite nouns in cleft, Y-movement and L-
dislocation suggest that the referent coded by these constructions must be

anaphorically accessible, i.e., established in the preceding discourse" (Givón,
2001b:229) . Thus it is perfectly acceptable to introduce a topic for the first time with
a pseudo-cleft construction in a discourse-initial context as shown in (47a), but rather

odd with a cleft as in (47b) – unless the contrasted NP has been already topicalized in
the preceding discourse, as in (47c):

(47) a. Pseudo-cleft (initial)
आज हमनी जे पर बात करे जातानी ऊ ह :ेम ।

ɑj ɦʌmni je pʌr bɑt kʌre jɑtɑni u

ɑj ɦʌm-ni je pʌr bɑt kʌr-e jɑ-ʌt bɑni u
today 1SG-PL COND LOC matter do-PUR go-IMPF be.PRES.H 3SG

ɦʌ prem
ɦʌ prem
be.3SG.PRES love

'What we're going to talk about today is love.' (06.042)
b. Cleft (initial)

ऊ :ेम ह जे पर हमनी आज बात करे जातानी ।

u prem ɦʌ je pʌr ɦʌmni ɑj bɑt
u prem ɦʌ je pʌr ɦʌm-ni ɑj bɑt
DIST love be.3SG.PRES COND LOC 1SG-PL today matter

kʌre jɑtɑni
kʌr-e jɑ-ʌt bɑni
do-PUR go-IMPF be.PRES.H

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