Negation in English and Danuwar

Abstract

This thesis entitled 'Negation in English and Danuwar' attempts to find out the negation system of the Danuwar language and to compare that systems with that of English. To fulfill the objectives of the study, the researcher collected both primary and secondary sources of data. He selected 100 Danuwar native speaker students from Shree Azad Higher Secondary School, Devbhoomi Baluwa- 5, Kavre as the primary sources of data. He used probability sampling: simple random sampling procedure to select the informants. For the primary sources of data, he prepared a set of questionnaire, administered and requested the informants to fill up. After that, he analyzed, interpreted and presented the outcomes descriptively and comparatively with the help of suitable tables and illustrations. The researcher had studied two languages and has found some similarities and differences between the two languages in different levels. Word level negation of English can be derived by derivational prefixes (in-, im-, un-, dis-, etc.), suffixes (-less, -free, etc.) and antonyms (rich-poor) whereas in Danuwar language 'nəi-' 'boi-', '-bəiken' and lexical words (kəkhnukanhi, əsəmbhwə, etc) are used. Likewise the phrasal level negation of English can be achieved by adding 'no' to 'NP' negative and 'not' before infinitive verbs whereas in Danuwar language 'nəi-', 'boi-', '-bəiken', '-leken' are attached to main verbs and auxiliary verbs. In the same way sentence level negation of English can be gained by adding 'not' or 'n't' after auxiliary verbs whereas in Danuwar language 'nəi-, 'boi-', 'zun-', '-boike', '-bəiken', '-leken' and 'nə…nə' are used. Another 'Not' or 'n't' negative marker is used after the auxiliary verbs in assertive sentence of English language but in Danuwar language 'nəi-, 'boi-', 'zun-', are placed before the main verbs and '-boike'/'bəike', and '-leken' are placed at the end of the sentences. 'Do-support' or 'Operator-addition' need to be added in the absence of auxiliary verbs for making the sentence negative in English whereas there is not need of such a rule in Danuwar language. 'No' negative marker can be the initiator of phrasal level utterance in English but not any negative markers can do the same in Danuwar language. Negative lexical words are found in both of the languages. 'Not' the negative marker of English is used in contracted form but this technique is not found in Danuwar language. Next there is 'S-V agreement' in English negation system but it is not the same in the Danuwar language. The thesis comprises of four chapters. The first chapter deals with 'introduction'. It consists of general background, review of the related literatures, objectives of the study, significance of it and definition of the specific terms. The second chapter deals with 'methodology'. It includes sources of data, population of the study, sample population, and sampling procedures, research tools, processes of data collection and limitations of the study. The third chapter deals with 'analysis and interpretation'. It encompasses holistic analysis of negation systems of the Danuwar language, holistic comparison of negation systems of Danuwar and English and similarities and differences of negation systems between them. The fourth chapter deals with 'findings and recommendations' which suggests for the further steps in the related field.