Passivization in English and Maithili: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The main objective of this dissertation is to present the analyses of English and Maithili passivization. The analysis ofEnglish passivization is fully based on the secondary data. With the help ofsecondary data collected from A Reference Grammar of Maithili (1990), University Grammar(1973), and also by using his own intuition, the researcher sets the rules for Maithili passivization,then tests those rules by collecting the oral and written data from forty Maithili speakers of Siraha district. By making the contrastive analysis of English and Maithili passivization, it also predicts the errors that the Maithili speakers are likely to commit while learning English passivization. It also calculates the errors actually committed by 150 Maithili- speaking students of GradesIX and X of Siraha (Kalyanpur) district through Error Analysis. Finally, it points out the correlation between the predictions of errors and the actual occurrences of errors. The sample population for this study consists of 150 Maithili-speaking students of GradesIX and X Siraha district from ten different schools, fifteen from each school. In this work, both primary and secondary sources are used for the collection of data. The primary tools for the verification of Maithili passivization are both oraland written texts which consistof three items. The primary tool for analyzing the errors of Maithili-speaking students is a written text which consists of two items. After collecting the data, the responses of the students are marked systematically and the errors committedby them are tabulated. The tables consist of total errors and average errors presented item-wise and class-wise.