Page 509 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

13.2.7 Purpose clauses
Dependent clauses expressing the purpose for an event to be carried out

usually have an implicit human subject coreferential with the (normally) explicit
subject of the main clause (Givón, 2001b:337). Such clauses are seen to have been
displayed variably as in Chitoniya Tharu (Paudyal 2013:369), Maithili (Yadav

2014:115-6), Hindi (Koul 2008:202) and Nepali (Adhikari 2016:378-9), the purpose

in Bhojpuri is denoted by clitic -ए /-e/ suffixed with the verbal root. The finite verb in
sentences is almost invariably an intransitive motion verb आ /ɑ/ 'come', जा /jɑ/ 'go',

etc, as shown in (58a-b):

(58) a. एक !दन बु!ढ़आ खेत देखे गइली ।
ek din buɽ ̊ iɑ kʰet dekʰe ɡʌili

ek din buɽ ̊ -i-ɑ kʰet dekʰ-e jɑ-il-i
one day old-F-DEF farm see-PUR go-PP-3.SG.PST.F.MH

'One day, the old woman went to see her farm.' (05.007)
b. चलऽ बैर खाए ।

cʌlʌ bʌir kʰɑe
cʌl-ʌ bʌir kʰɑ-e

walk-IMP.MH plum eat-PUR
'Let's go to eat plums.' (09.502)

Sometimes, the purposive clitic -ए /-e/ is also followed by -के /-ke/ as shown in (59):

(59) डाढ़ खेले चलेके बा ।
ɖɑɽ ̊ kʰele cʌleke bɑ

ɖɑɽ ̊ kʰel-e cʌl-e-ke bɑ
pig-cry play-PUR walk-PUR-OBL be.3SG.PRES

'We have to go to play pig-cry.' (03.233)
Moreover, postpositions used to mark benefactive case such as ला /lɑ/ or लािग

/lɑɡi/ or खाितर /kʰɑtir/ or वाzते /wɑste/ 'for' are also used to express purpose in

Bhojpuri, as shown in (60a-c):
(60) a. त ए सब चीज ला 0कृित म2 दूनू िवकnप बा ।

tʌ e sʌb cij lɑ prʌkriti mẽ dunu bikʌlp

tʌ e sʌb cij lɑ prʌkriti mẽ du-nu bikʌlp
COND PROX PL matter for nature LOC two-EMPH option

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