Page 545 - A GRAMMAR OF BHOJPURI _ PhD Dissertation 2020 TU

bɑbuji meɦmɑn ke kʰɑe bolʌini
bɑbu-ji meɦmɑn ke kʰɑ-e bol-ɑ-ini

father-H guest DAT eat-PUR tell-CAUS-PST.H
'Father called the guest for meal.' (14.153)

b. उहाँका नहाए चल गइनी ।
uɦɑ ̃ kɑ nʌɦɑe cʌl ɡʌini

uɦɑ ̃ -kɑ nʌɦɑ-e cʌl jɑ-ini
there-SPEC bathe-PUR walk go-PST.H

'He went to bathe.' (14.154)
In (12a) there are two potential referents, बाबुजी /bɑbuji/ 'father' and मेहमान

/meɦmɑn/ 'guest' for the third person pronoun उहाँका /uɦɑkɑ/ 'he (honorific)' in (12b).

Thus, in (12b) the personal pronoun has been stressed so that it refers to 'father', not
the 'guest'.

14.3.4 R-dislocation, neutral word order and L-dislocation
Word-order, viz., the order of definite noun phrases, is one of the major
coding devices for topic continuity. A natural language may employ two devices: R-

dislocation vs. L-dislocation. These two devices are particularly applicable to the rigid
word-order such as English (SVO) or Japanese (SOV). Such languages present the

specific scalar prediction for the continuity or discontinuity of the topics as in (13).
(13) R-dislocation > neutral word-order> L-dislocation

The scale in (13) predicts that the left-most on the scale codes more
continuous and right-most more discontinuous ones (Givón, 1983:19). Almost

similar type of scale of prediction given in (13) can be made in the languages with
pragmatically controlled flexible word-order language as in (14).
(14) a. VS > SV

b. vo > ov
The scale in (14a-b) implies that the left-most element codes the more

continuous topics and right-most the less ones.
Before we discuss whether the implicational scale in (14a-b) can apply in

Bhojpuri, we examine the word order phenomena in the language. The order of the
constituents of simple transitive clause, viz. S, O and v as in (15a) may be permuted

from their stipulated places, e.g.,
(15) a. पVवाहा गाछ पाङेला । (SOV)

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