CLAUSE STRUCTURES IN KOKBOROK: A CASE OF LANGUAGE CONTACT AND CONVERGENCE
Date29th Jan 2021
Time11:00 AM
Venue Google-meet
PAST EVENT
Details
This thesis demonstrates the scenario of language contact situation in Tripura, one of the North-Eastern states in India where the two genetically different languages: Kokborok (Tibeto-Burman) and Bangla (Indo-Aryan) have been in intense contact with each other over the centuries. Both Kokborok and Bangla are the two official languages of Tripura, although Bangla is the dominant language of the state. Thus, this study shows that Kokborok, which is heavily influenced by Bangla syntax, undergoes significant structural changes in the indigenous clausal patterns. In this regard, this research studies some select clausal aspects of Kokborok such as anaphora, control and relative clauses which show gradual structural change due to the propensity to import Indo-Aryan clausal patterns from Bangla. In addition, this study points to the fact that despite the structural drift in Kokborok due to the prolonged contact with Bangla, there are features which unflinchingly remain unaffected, for example the violation of Thematic Eligibility Condition (TEC) in Comitative PP relativization, which is unique not only to the Tibeto-Burman family but also to the South Asian languages. Therefore, this thesis, in the light of generative framework, delineates a descriptive analysis of the select syntactic aspects in the formation of Kokborok clause structures to show that despite the gradual drift towards the Indo-Aryan patterns, Kokborok upholds the unique identity in the midst of the intense contact. Thus, a thorough analysis of certain clause structures in Kokborok (a minority language) in the light of language contact is a novel attempt which would unravel thus far unexplored features of this lesser known language to pave ways for the further study of the Tibeto-Burman language family at large.
Speakers
Mr. Gargi Roy [Roll No. HS15D005]
Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras - 600 036.