Deixis in Bhauraiya Western Tharu Nepali and English

Abstract

The study entitled "Deixis in Bhauraiya Western Tharu, Nepali and English"aimed to find out Bhauraiya people, place and time deictic expressions and to compare and contrast them with those of English and Nepali languages. For this study,I selected sample population consisting of 40 Bhauraiya native speakers from Belasa and BhaluFanta village of Bardiya district. The sample was selected by convenience random sampling procedure through survey design. A set of questionnaire was used as the tool for data collection. English deictic expressions were taken from secondary sources. The data were analyzed and interpreted descriptively and statistically by using tables and illustrations. The major finding of this study showed that Bhauraiya has a complex deixis system due to the existence of honorific distinction, number distinction, case distinction, proximal distal distinction,gestural and non-gestural distinction; Bhauraiya second and third person deictic expressions have honorific and non-honorific distinction; Bhauraiya first, second and third person deictic expression have different terms for singular and plural numbers and subjective, objective and genitive cases; there have been found proximal and distal distinction, gestural and non-gestural distinction distinction regarding Bhauraiya place and time deictic expressions. This study consists of five chapters. The first chapter incorporates background of the study, statement of the problem, objectives of the study, research questions,significance of the study, delimitations of the study and operational definition of the key terms. Likewise, the second chapter includes the review of theoretical literature,review of the empirical literature, implications of the review for the study and conceptual framework. Similarly, the third chapter deals with design and methods of the study, population, sample and sampling strategy, data collection tools and techniques, sources of data,data collection procedures, data analysis and interpretation procedures and ethical considerations. The fourth chapter involves the analysis and interpretation of results where the both statistical and descriptive approaches were used. Finally the fifth chapter involves findings, conclusion and recommendations of the study.