Page 532 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

CHAPTER 14
REFERENTIAL COHERENCE

14.0 Outline
This chapter deals with the devices of referential coherence in Bhojpuri. It
consists of eight sections. In section 14.1, we discuss the morphosyntactic devices that

are commonly used for referential coherence in languages. In section 14.2, the
pronominal system in Bhojpuri is described. In section 14.3, we deal with the

anaphoric reference in Bhojpuri and section 14.4 deals with the reference and
definiteness. In section 14.5, we deal with topic continuity and section 14.6 deals with

action continuity. The thematic continunity in discourse is examined in section 14.7
and we present the summary of the findings of the chapter in section 14.8.

14.1 Major morpho-syntactic devices
Referential coherence – how referents (participants) are introduced or re-
introduced into the discourse, and how they may be continued or terminated – is a

vast topic that intersects with many domains of the grammar (Givón 2011:156). "The
grammar of independent pronouns and grammatical agreement lies at the intersection

of two functional domains: covering semantic domain of classifying the participants
in terms of person (speaker/hearer), number, gender/class, deixis and case-role; and

discourse pragmatic domain of clitic, inflectional or zero-anaphors to play a crucial
role to determine the grammatical subject and object as well as the reference and

definiteness of the participant" (Givón 2001b:399).
Therefore, while dealing with the referential coherence in Bhojpuri, we first
observe the grammar of pronouns and grammatical agreement based on the semantic

domain and then we discuss the grammar of anaphoric reference, a sub-domain of
referential coherence.

14.2 Pronominal system
As attested in Chitoniya Tharu (Paudyal 2013:136-56), Maithili (Yadav
1996:103-23), Awadhi (Saksena 1937/1971:157-211), HIndi (Koul 2008:75-80) and

Nepali (Upadhyay 2010:48-53 and Adhikari 2016:40-61), we have dealt with personal,
2
1
3
reflexive , reciprocal , demonstrative, interrogative, indefinite, possessive , relative
and correlative pronouns in Bhojpuri pronominal system.

1. Explained in Chapter 11.3.1.
2. Explained in Chapter 11.3.2.
3. Explained under paradigms of personal pronouns in this section.
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