Speech Acts in English and Bajhangi

Abstract

This research entitled "Speech Acts in English and Bajhangi" has tried to find out the different direct, indirect and non-polite speech acts and the main purpose of this studywas to list and compare,the different speech acts used by English and Bajhangi native speakers.I listed and compared the speech acts used while taking to neighbours, guests, friends, strangers. For this study, I took sample population of 60 informants.The informants were selected using judgemental non-random sampling procedure from Byansi VDC in Bajhang for native speakers of Bajhangi dialect of Nepali language and different places in Kathmandu for native speakers of English. The data were collected with the help of interview and questionnaire. The sources of data were based on native speakers of English and Bajhangi dialect of Nepali language.I found that both English and Bajhangi speakers use direct, indirect and non-polite forms with guests, friends, relatives, strangers. Ithas been found that English native speakers used 13.86 percent direct speech acts, 69.34 percent indirect speech acts and 16.75 percent non-polite responses. Bajhangi native speakers used 25.48 percent direct speech acts, 21.55 percent indirect speech acts and 52.37percent non-polite responses. This thesis is divided into four chapters. Chapter one deals with introduction. It includes general background, review of the related literature, objectives of the study, significance of the study and definition of specific terms. Chapter two deals with the methodology applied to carry out the researcher under which sources of data, sampling procedures, tools for data collection and limitations of the study are presented. Chapter three presents the analysis and interpretation of the data. In this section, both average as well as percentage statistical tools are used. Finally, the fourth chapter contains the findings and recommendations of the research.