A Comparative Study on Negative and Interrogative Transformation in English and Bantawa Language

Abstract

Themain purpose of this study was to findout the similarities anddifferences between Negative and Interrogative transformation processesin Bantawa and English language. The study was focused on pointing outsome pedagogical implications of the findings of the study. To accomplish this task the researcher selected Khoku VDC ofDhankuta district. Out of total Bantawa native speakers of the VDC 60informants (20 literate in English and Nepali, 20 literate only in Nepaliand 20 illiterate) were selected for the interview. The same set ofsentences for all the three groups was prepared for data collection. Theinformants were interviewed and the data were collected in written form.The English data were collected from Thomson Martinet (1960), Quirkand Greenbaum(1990), Sinclair (2000), Leech and Svartvik (2000).Thecollected data were tabulated and analyzed. From the analysis it has been found that the negative andinterrogative transformation process in Bantawa and English arecompletely different as the negative affixes '-n', '-nin' and '-man' areadded to the verbs in Bantawa to change into negative where as inEnglish an 'auxiliary + not' should be placed after the subject. Thequestion particle usually occurs after the subject and subject-verbinversion is not required in Bantawa whereas in English the questionparticle always should be placed in the beginning and subject-verb IX inversion is compulsory for interrogative transformation except in thecase when the question element occurs as subject of the sentence. This research work comprises four chapters. Chapter oneincludespreliminary information of languages used in Nepal, review of relatedliterature, objective and significant of the study. Chapter two deals with the methodology it incorporates sourcesofdata, population of the study, tools for data collection process of datacollection and limitation of the study. Chapter three consists of analysis and interpretationof the data. Inthis section, the rules of negative and interrogative transformation inBantawa language are generalized and the processes of negative andinterrogative transformation in Bantawa are compared and contrasted with those in English. Chapter four presents the findings and recommendations of the study. Findings are derived from the analysis and interpretation of the data and recommendation are made on the basis of findings.