Cases in the English and Tharu Languages

Abstract

ABSTRACT The thesis entitled “Cases in the English and Tharu Languages” is an attempt to list cases in the Tharu, and to compare and contrast them with those of English. The cases listed in Tharu are nominative, accusative-dative, instrumental, genitive, comitative, ablative, locative and vocative. Clitic is found to be used as case markers in the Tharu language. Word order does not play a vital role in meaning change in the Tharu language. The researcher collected data from native speakers of two districts: Saptari and Siraha for Saptaria dialect of Tharu. He used both the primary and secondary sources to carry out this research work. The sample population of the study consisted of 30 Tharu native speaker who were selected for the study by using stratified random sampling procedure to elicit the required data. The interview questionnaire and interview schedule were developed as a research tool for literate, illiterate and educated informants. The two districts of the Eastern Development Region were selected to collect data and the collected data were analyzed, interpreted and presented descriptively and comparatively with the help of table, diagram and illustration. Case systems of English were extracted from the secondary sources and those of Tharu were analyzed on the basis of primary data. He found that the case marker ‘-ke’ is used for genitive and accusative-dative, ‘-se’ is used for instrumental and ablative, ‘-saŋge’ and ‘-jare’ are used for comitative, ‘-me’ is used for locative, ‘-gәi’ and ‘-hei’ are used for vocative and ‘Ø’ (zero marking) for nominative case in the Tharu language. He also found that case markers appear after nouns in Tharu whereas they appear before nouns in English. The thesis consists of four chapters. The first chapter deals with general background which deals with the languages found in Nepal, introduction to the Tharu language, review of the related literature, objectives of the study, significance of the study, etc. The second chapter is related to the methodology applied to carry out research. It deals with the sources of data, population of the study, sampling procedure, tools for data collection, process of data collection, and limitations of the study. The third chapter deals with the analysis and interpretation of the data. The researcher has used descriptive style to present the Tharu and English cases with examples. The fourth chapter deals with the findings and recommendations made in the light of analysis and interpretation. On the basis of the findings, some recommendations have been made for pedagogical implication.