Verbal Affixation in Tharu and English: A Comparative Study

Abstract

This thesis entitled “Verbal Affixation in the Tharu and English: A Comparative Study” has been carried out to compare and contrast verbal affixes and the rules of verbal affixation in the Tharu and English languages. This research is based on 90 native speakers of Tharu including illiterate, literate and educated. The informants for this study have been selected from three districts viz, Saptari, Siraha and Udaypur. Among the informants, 30 were illiterate, 30 were literate and 30 were educated. The researcher used the stratified random sampling procedure to sample the population. The interview questionnaire for literate and illiterate and written questionnaire for educated were the research tools for data collection. On the basis of collected data the analysis was done. After analysis, it was found that Saptaria dialect of Tharu has more number of verbal affixes in comparison to English and they are more complex than those of English. Both the Tharu and English languages have more or less similar affixation system. The thesis consists of four chapters, viz, introduction, methodology, analysis and interpretation, and findings and recommendations. Chapter one deals with general background in which the languages of Nepal, word formation processes, English verbs, review of the related literature, objectives of the study and significance of the study are included. Chapter two states the methodology which was followed in the study. It deals with the sources of data, population of the study, sampling procedure, research tools, process of data collection and limitations of the study. Chapter three deals with the analysis and interpretation of the data. The researcher has presented the Tharu verbal affixes with the examples and the rules of affixation. Chapter four deals with findings and recommendations. The researcher first gives identified verbal affixes of the Tharu language on the basis of analysis of data collected and compared and contrasted them with those of English. On the basis of findings, some recommendations have been made for pedagogical implications.