Pluralization of Nouns in English and Maithili

Abstract

This thesis entitled "Pluralization of Nouns in English and Maithili"isan academic attempt aiming at identifying the processes of pluralization inMaithili and comparing them with thosein English. The main objectiveofcarrying this studywastopinpoint the similarities and differences betweenEnglish and Maithili nouns related to the processes of pluralization. Theresearcher used both the primary and secondary sources of data. The primarysources of the data were native speakers oftheMaithililanguage fromEightVDC of Saptari district. The secondary sources of the data were differentbooks, journals and thesis. The sample population of the study consisted of72Maithili native speakers who were sampled for the study by using stratifiedrandomsampling procedure to elicit the required data. The structuredinterview sheets wereused for the selected illiterate and literateMaithili nativeinformants and the questionnairesfor the selected educated ones but thequestions were the same in both tools. The collected data were analyzed,interpreted and presented descriptively and comparatively. There are the same types ofnounsin both English and Maithili. But theprocesses of pluralization of nouns in both languages are different. There are alargenumber of processes of pluralization intheEnglish language but suchasituationdoes not exist in theMaithili language. There arealimited number ofprocessesofpluralization intheMaithili language. The suffix 'sab' is addedwith a singular countable noun to change it into a plural one.The suffix'lokain' is only used with singular countable human noun to change into aplural one. The determiner 'bahut' is also used to change singularnouns intoplural intheMaithili language. They are written separately. This thesis consists of four chapters.Chapterone deals with theintroduction of the study. It consistsofgeneral background, review of related ix literature, objectives of the study, significance of study and definitions of thespecific terms. Chapter two deals with methodology. It consists of sources of data,sample population,sampling procedure, tools for data collection, processes ofdatacollection and limitations of the study. Chapter three which is the core of the thesis includes the analysis andinterpretation of the data. It deals with the similarities and differences amongthe processes of pluralization of nouns in English and Maithili. Chapter four incorporates findings, recommendations and pedogogicalimplications of the study.