Verbal Affixation in English and Nepali

Abstract

The dissertation entitled 'Negative and Interrogative Transformation in English and Jhagar Language: A Comparative Study' is the first dissertation on Jhagar language which attempts to identify the process of negative and interrogative transformation in Jhagar language and compare and contrast them with of English. The researcher collected data from both primary and secondary sources. Using stratified random sampling procedure, the researcher divided 50 Jhagar native speaker above 15 years of age belonging to Dangraha VDC of Morang district into two groups-literate and illiterate,each group consisting of 25 Jhagar native speakers. He took structured interview to collect data for the illiterate group and a set of questionnaire was prepared for literate group. Then, by means of the analysis and interpretation of the responses provided by the study population, the researcher found the common responses from the both groups. It was found that the process of Jhagar negative and interrogative transformation were found out and those of English were divided from secondary sources. The major findings in a nutshell are: 'ma' is the negative marker in Jhagar language; other markers-'malla','malli', 'polo', 'poli', 'poldas' also sometimes used but they are optional,whereas English negative marker is 'not' which is used in all situation . Jhagar negative imperative marker is formed by placing the negative marker 'ma'before the verb and after the subject and 'malla' or 'malli' or 'polo' are used at the end of the verb, whereas English negative imperative is formed by placing'do not' or 'don't' at the beginning of the sentence; Jhagar yes\no question isformed by using rising intonation whereas English yes\no question is formedby placing the auxiliary verb at the beginning of the sentence; Jhagar wh-wordin most cases occurs after the subject, whereas English wh-word occurs at thebeginning of the sentence. 11 The dissertation is divided into four chapters. They are introduction,methodology, analysis and interpretation, and findings, recommendation and pedagogical implications. Chapter one encompasses general background, literature review,objectives of the study, significance of the study and definition of the specific terms. Chapter two deals with methodology adopted for the study under which sources of data, sampling procedure, research tool, process of data collection, the limitations of the study and the definition of the specific terms are presented. Chapter three is the most important chapter that includes analysis and interpretation of data. Chapter four consists of the findings, recommendation and pedagogical implications.