A comparative study on subject-verb agreement in Baram and English languages

Abstract

The research entitled A Comparative Study on Subject-verb Agreement in Baram and English Languages was an attempt to find out patterns of the Baram subject verb agreement and to compare and contrast between Baram and English languages in term of subject and verb agreement. I followed contrastive analysis design to meet the objectives of the study. The population of this study was native speakers of Baram language of Barpak Sulikot Rural Municipality of Gorkha district. I selected forty native speakers of Baram community of Gorkha district as my sample and used purposive non-random sampling procedure to select my sample. Questionnaires and structured interview were used as tools for primary data collection. The collected data were analyzed and interpreted. The major findings of this research were the Baram language sentence pattern SOV where as SVO in English language. There are six personal pronouns in the Baram language which follow the same verb agreement where as seven personal pronouns in English language which follow different verb affixation. Subject, verb and object play vital role to construct sentence in both languages the Baram and English. There are two types' tenses in the Baram language: Past and Non past tense where as past, present and future in English language. Tense and aspects agree with particular verbal affixation in the both Baram and English languages. Simple, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous aspects are available in both English and Baram language. Different case markers are used for making nouns and pronouns in Baram and English languages. Gender does not take different verb affixation in Baram language where different verb affixation in English language. The past sentences suffix 'ki' and 'gi', eg, usei am ki-ca(he ate rice) and non past marker 'ñi' and 'ni', eg taya aanmat ni-yu ( it will rain today)on the basis of the phonological structure of the stem in the Baram language where subject agrees different verb affixation in English language. The present study consists of five chapters. Each chapter is divided into different headings and subheadings. The first chapter deals with the introduction part of the study which consists of background of the study, statement of problem, objectives of the study, delimitations of the study and operational definition of the key terms. The second chapter consists of review of related theoretical and empirical literature and conceptual framework. The third chapter consists of the methods and procedures of the study. It includes the design of the study, population, sample, sampling strategy, and sources of data, research tools, data collection procedures, data analysis and interpretation procedures and ethical considerations. The fourth chapter includes the analysis and interpretation of the data. Finally the fifth chapter presents findings, conclusions and recommendations related to policy, practice and further research. References and appendices are also included at the last part of this thesis.