Asking for, Accepting and Denying Permission in English and Maithili

Abstract

This thesis entitled ‘Asking for, accepting and denying permission in Maithili and English.’is an attempt to identify the forms of asking for permission, accepting permission anddenying permission in the Maithili language. This is also an attempt compare and contrastthem with English language, and to suggest some pedagogical implications on the basis ofthe findings drawn from the study. The researcher utilized both primary and secondarysources of data. The sample population of the study consisted of 80 Maithili native speakerswho were selected using stratified randomsampling procedure to elicit the required data ofasking for permission and accepting and denying permission in Maithili. A set ofquestionnaire was prepared for old and young informatnts and used as a tool for datacollection. English forms weretaken fromsecondary sources viz., Blundell, Higgens andMiddlermiss (2001), Metreyk (1983) Leech and Svativik (1975) a set of questionnaires wereprepared for old and young informants. The study showed that forms of asking forpermission are reflected through affixation in Maithili where as they are reflected throughlexical items in English. Another major findings are Maithili people accept by using ‘hā andJi’ but English people use ‘yes’ and sometimes indirectly by giving further clarification.Regarding the denying permission Maithili respondents used ‘nāi’ for negation but Englishrespondents generally used ‘I’m afraid/sorry, I don’t think so and so on. This thesis has been divided into four chapters. The first chapter deals with generalbackground, review ofthe related literature, objectives and significance of the study. Thesecond chapter consists of the methodology in which the sources of data, samplingprocedure, tools for data collection, process of data collection and limitations of the studyare seen.Similarly, the third chapter comprises analysis and interpretation of the data.Finally, the fourth chapter contains the findings and recommendations of the study.