Page 7 - Bhojpuri Verb Morphology

ABSTRACT

This thesis entitled 'Bhojpuri Verb Morphology' primarily attempts to describe the
verbal system of Bhojpuri language. This study has been organized in seven chapters.

The first chapter introduces the subject matter. The second chapter introduces
nomenclature, Bhojpuri language and dialects, population distribution, social
situation, genetic affiliation, syllable pattern, nominal system and word order. The

third chapter analyzes the verb stem of Bhojpuri. The fourth chapter discusses the
tense, aspect, mood and modality of Bhojpuri. We have dealt with copulas in Bhojpuri

in chapter five. Likewise the chapter six elucidates the causativization and
passivization processes of Bhojpuri and finally chapter seven summarizes the study.

The Bhojpuri language is the western branch of the Bihari sub-group of the Eastern

group of the Indo-Aryan language of Indo-European language family. It is the third
major language of Nepal followed by Nepali and Maithili. Bhojpuri is mainly spoken
in Sarlahi, Rautahat, Bara, Parsa, Chitwan, Nawalparasi and Rupendehi and in the

adjacent Indian territories of western Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh. Bhojpuri
language has different dialects used in different geographical boundaries. The verb

morphology of Bhojpuri shows different inflectional and derivational processes.
Bhojpuri verb stems are classified into three categories namely primitive, derivative

and compound on the basis of structural complexity. The structure of Bhojpuri verb
is:

V  (Neg) Stem ((Aspect + be ) + Tense + Concord.)

There are three tenses available in Bhojpuri: past, present and future. Perfective and
imperfective, two kinds of aspects are found in Bhojpuri, which are further divided.
Five types of moods have been described. Tense, aspect, mood and modality are

determined by different morphemes. Verbs are inflected for number, person, gender
and honorificity. In Bhojpuri, verb agrees with tense, aspect and mood by means of

different morphemes.

Prefixing  and  negativize the clause or sentence.  precedes the verb in

imperative sentence, while  in other cases. Bhojpuri has also a negative auxiliary in

present tense .There is also another kind of negation which is obtained by

using the correlated coordinator …….. 'neither…..nor'.