Page 463 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

kuttɑ ke ke muʌilʌkʰ
kuttɑ ke ke mu -ɑ-il-ʌkʰ

dog ACC who die-CAUS-PP-3.PST
'Who killed the dog?' (06.056)

b. धनपत कथी के मुअइलख ?

d ̤ ʌnpʌt kʌtʰi ke muʌilʌkʰ
d ̤ ʌnpʌt kʌtʰi ke mu -ɑ-il-ʌkʰ

Dhanpat what ACC die-CAUS-PP-3.PST

'What did Dhanpat kill?' (06.057)
12.3 Summary
In this chapter, we analyzed the marked topics and contrastive focus in

Bhojpuri. Different devices like discourse particles, intonation and constituent order
may be utilized for focus and topicalization purposes. In Bhojpuri, the constituents of

the clause may be freely dislocated within the clause to a great extent to topicalize,
focus, contrast, emphasize and intensify the meaning of a constituent. Apart from the
extensive use of discourse particles, different strategies are employed to mark a topic

in terms of constituent order. Existential-presentative constructions कौनो /kɔno/ 'some

or a/an' and एगो /eɡo/ 'a/an' used as an indefinite article are indefinite referents in

Bhojpuri. Similarly, the verb in EPCs is existential रह /rʌɦ/ or ह /ɦʌ/ or बा /bɑ/ and

some locational verbs such as बैठ /bʌiʈʰ/ 'sit', उठ /uʈʰ/ 'stand', रह /rʌɦ/ 'live' 0क /ruk/
'stay' or entrance verbs such as आ /ɑ/ 'come/arrive' लउक /lʌuk/ 'appear', प1ँच /pʌɦũc/

'approach' along with departure verb जा /jɑ/ 'go' are frequently used in EPCs 'be'.

Though Bhojpuri is a flexible SOV language, it also exhibits the inverse order VSO or
OVS in EPCs. It is most commonly either a REL-clause, an adjective, a LOC-phrase,

a noun complement, a genitive or an associative phrase preceding the the indefinite
subject in Bhojpuri in EPCs. Though the Y-movement is contrastive, the Y-moved

referents also tend to be typically topical and anaphorical, falling under a single
intonation contour. As in a number of languages, Bhojpuri exhibits characteristics of a

separate intonation contour for the dislocated NP, neutralizaion of the case-marking of
the topic NP, and an anaphoric pronoun resumption of the topic NP within the clause

in left-dislocation. Similarly, Bhojpuri exhibits afterthoughts and background
constructions through anaphoric pronoun, intonation break and neutralized case-

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