Person and Social Deixis in Tharu and English

Abstract

The thesis entitled “Person and Social Deixis in Tharu and English” is an attempt of the researcher to find out person and social deixis used in Tharu language and to compare and contrast person and social deixis between Tharu and English language. To meet the objectives of the study, I utilized both primary and secondary sources of data. The sample of the study consisted to native Tharu speakers who were selected for the study to elicit required data. The questionnaire was developed as a research tool for literate informants. Manpur, Duruwa and Bijauri VDCs of Dang district were selected to collect data and collected data were analyzed, interpreted and presented descriptively and comparatively with the help of diagrams and illustration. Person and social deixis of Tharu language were derived from the primary data and those of English were extracted from the secondary sources. Like in English, Tharu has three person system, two number system and three case system. Tharu third person deictic terms have no gender distinction. The same terms are used for both males and females. Tharu second person deictic expressions have different forms where English second person deictic expression you has the same form. In Tharu social deixis system, while addressing to the elder and old person Tharu people always use honorific family name i.e. dadu, dai, baba with honorific suffix. While addressing their servant they use non honorific word i.e. aa with non-honorific suffix is. Gender is seen very significant factor in using social deictic as Tharu is also male dominated. Husband uses non-honorific and wife uses vice versa to one another. This study is divided into five chapters: Introduction, Review of Related Literature and Conceptual Framework, Methods and Procedures of the Study, Analysis and Interpretation and Conclusion and Recommendation. The first chapter deals with general background, statement of the problem, significance of the study, delimitations of the study and definition of key terms. The second chapter deals with the review of the related literature, implication of the review of the study and conceptual framework. The third chapter includes design and method of the study, sample population and sampling procedure, study area/field, tools for data collection and techniques, data collection procedures and data analysis and interpretation procedures. The fourth chapter contains the results and discussion/interpretation and last chapter includes conclusion and recommendation.