II. STRUCTURE OF THE LANGUAGE

D. SYNTAX (Sentence Structure)

An outline of Bangla Syntax:

Bangla is a head-final language where the principle word order is SOV.

1. Sentence Types: -- The principle types of sentences found in Bangla are a) declarative, b) imperative and c) interrogative.

Examples are given below for these three types:

a) Declaratives are the statement sentences without question, command or request. The basic word order is followed for this type of sentences, i.e., the Subject(S) precedes the Object(O) and the Verb(V) follows it.

		1.  আমি বাড়ী যাচ্ছি

     		ami baɾi յacchi
      		I home go-pr-prog. 1P
     		'I am going home.'     

b) Second person present verbal form is the imperative form and there is no subject for this type of sentence.

		2.  বাড়ি যাও
    		baɾi  ïeao.
    		home go-imp
    		'Go home'. 

c) Interrogative sentences are used for asking questions. They can be of two types-yes-no questions and Wh-questions. Yes-no questions are formed by using one complementizer /ki/ which indicates the question.

		3.  তুমি বাড়ি যাবে কি ? 

    		tumi baɾi ïeabe ki?
    		You home go-fut-2P Q-Comp
    		'Will you go home?'

Wh-questions use the equivalents of English Wh-words which start with /k/ in Bangla. These words include /ke/ 'who', /ki/ 'what',/kæno/ 'why', /kɔbe/, /kɔk^hon/ 'when', /kot^haj/ 'where', /kon/ 'which' and their inflected forms.

The other way of forming yes-no questions is to keep the normal indicative SOV word order and change the intonation pattern normally used for a question, i.e., a rising intonation. E.g.

		4.  তুমি বাড়ি যাচ্ছ ? 

      		tumi baɾi ïeaccho ?
     		you house go-pr-cont-2p
     		'Are you going home?'

 
		5.  তুমি কি খাবে ? 

    		tumi ki khabe?
    		You what eat-fut-2P
    		'What will you eat?'


		6.  তুমি কোথায় যাবে ? 

    		tumi kothaj ïeabe?
    		You where go-fut-2P
    		'Where will you go?'


		7.  কোন বইটা তোমার ?

    		kon   boiʈa tomar?
    		which book-cl your
    		'Which book is yours?'

All the above sentences were the examples of simple sentences. There are also complex sentences where one sentence contains another sentence. The connectors which are used in Bangla are /ïe/ 'that' and /bole/ 'having said'. Both of these work as complementizers and the latter has a typical use in South-Asian languages, known as quotative.

		8. আমি জানি যে সে আসবে না

		ami ïeani ïee Se aʃbe  na.
		I   know-pr-1P that (s)he come-fut-3P neg
		'I know that (s)he will not come.'

		9.  সে আসবে না বলে আমি জানি

    		ʃe aʃbe na  bole ami ïeani.
    		(s)he come-fut-3P neg quotative I know.
     		'I know that (s)he will not come.'

In the above examples the sentences are with finite subordinate clauses, however, there can be sentence with non-finite subordinate clauses and they are much common than this type. A separate section on the non-finite constructions follows in the course of the discussion.

Two types of speech are found in the language as the examples follow: --

		10. রাম ভরতকেý বলল ‘আমি বাড়ি যাব'

    		ram bhɔrotke bollo 'ami baɾi jabo'
     		Ram Bharat-obj marker said 'I   home go-fu-1P' 
    		"Ram said to Bharat 'I will go home'."

The next is the reported speech for the above direct speech where the 1st person pronouns within quotation is used as the 3rd person pronoun.

		11. রাম ভরতকে বলল যে সে বাড়ি যাবে

      		ram bhɔrotke bollo ïee ʃe bari ïeabe.
      		Ram Bharat-obj marker said that he home go-fut-3P
    		'Ram told Bharat that he would go home.' 

2.Internal structure of the sentence: In general, the sentences are with SOV word order as is already mentioned in the last section. There is only exception of this order, i.e., copular sentences. In general, Bangla does not use copula but sometimes it is used to draw extra attention towards the subject of the sentence. In those sentences, the verb comes after the focused subject and the word order becomes SVO. The following is the example of a copular sentence: --

		12.তুমি হলে আমাদের গুরু

      		tumi hole amader guru.
      		you copula our  teacher
      		'you are our teacher.' ('you' is focused) 

The next sentence is without any copula which is more regular and the subject is not in the focus. This type of sentence is also called equative construction.

		13. তুমি আমাদের গুরু

      		tumi amader guru.
      		you our teacher
      		'You are our teacher.' 

Among the complex sentences, one important is relative clause construction. Following is the example of that type of construction: --

		14. ছেলেরা পড়তে চায় না তারা বাইরে যেতে পারে

      		(ïee chelera)1 porte caj na (tara)1 baire ïeete pare.
      		those boys to study want-pr-3P not  they out to go can-pr-3P
      		' Those boys who do not want to study can go outside.'

In the above construction /je/ is the relative prornoun.

 		15. যাকে যা দেবার তাকে তা দিতে হবে‎

      		(jake)1 (ïa)2 debar (take)1 (ta)2 dite hɔbe
		whom what giving-poss (s)he-obj that to give be-fut
      		'What has to be given to whom, that has to be given to him/her only.'  

 
		16. আমি এমন ছেলেকে চিনি যে এ কাজ পারবে

     		ami (æmon cheleke)1 cini (je)1 e kaj  parbe.
		I such boy-obj marker know-pr-1P who this work can-fut-3P   
       		'I know such a boy who can do this work.'



		17. রীনার যা টাকা ওকে তো অনেকেই বিয়ে করতে চাইবে 

      		rinar ïea ʈaka, oke to ɔnekei bie korte caibe. (Dasgupta 2001)
		Rina's what money, her of-course many wed to-do will-want
     		'Given the money Rina has, there will of course be many who want to marry her.'

The first two examples of relative clause construction have the relative pronouns at the left of the matrix sentence followed by their coreferences. These constructions are called the left relatives and they have some different characteristics from the classical type of relative known as right relatives as exemplified in (16) where the antecedent occurs at the left of the sentence followed by only one relative pronoun. The last example (17) has a relative pronoun /ja/ 'what' which does not have any antecedent or coreference anywhere in the rest of the sentence. This is traditionally called a headless relative.

The other important type of clause is a small clause which is a verbless clause consisting of either a noun and an adjective or a noun and a noun. The typical examples are like the following: --

		18. ওরা পাথরকে দেবতা ভাবে
      		ora [pathorke debota] bhabe.
      		they stone-obj god think-pr-1P
     		'They think the stone god.'



		19. আমি রামকে বোকা ভাবতাম 
      		ami [ramke boka] bhabtam.
       		I Ram-obj stupid think-past-1P
       		'I thought Ram a stupid.

No discussion on the clause structure can be completed without mentioning the non-finite constructions. There are three types of participial constructions in Bangla along with the infinitival. The infinitive is formed by adding /te/ with the verb; for example, from the verb root kɔr 'to do' the resulting infinitival form is /korte/'to do'.

		20. আমি এটা করতে চাই

       		ami eʈa     korte cai.
       		I     this-cl to do want-pr-1P
       		'I want to do this.'

There is a third type of verbal small clause with the infinitive form as the following: --

	
		21. আমি সোমাকে গাইতে শুনলাম

		ami [ʃomake gaite] ʃunlam.
		I     Soma-obj to sing hear-past-1P
		'I heard Soma to sing.'

The three types of non-finite verbal clauses in Bangla are the imperfective with the homonymous /te/ form like the infinitival, the perfective with /e/ ending and the conditional with /le/ ending. The imperfective /te/ is generally reduplicatedly used and only in this use it retains its imperfective aspectual sense, i.e., non-completion of that action. This is used when two actions take place simultaneously. E.g.

		22.  আমি যেতে যেতে গাইছিলাম

		ami ïeete ïeete    gaichilam
		I go-imp go-imp sing-past prog-1P
		'I was singing while going.'

The other type of use of imperfective is found when one action follows the other and the verb of the first action takes the imperfective ending. This use is frequently found with an emphasizer attached with the imperfective form. E.g.

		23. রমা বাড়ী যেতে রিমা বেরোল

       		rɔma   bari    jete       rima berolo.
       		Rama house go-imp Rima go out-past-3P
       		'Rima went out after Rama had gone home.'

The perfective participle is formed with the ending /e/ after the verb and is used when one action follows the other like the previous use of imperfective. But the difference is, for that use of imperfective the subject of the main clause should always be non-coreferential with the subject of the adjoined participial clause while for the perfective the subjects, if volitional, must be the same.

		24. আমি বাড়ী গিয়ে খাব

	      	ami bari gie khabo.
	       	I   house go-perf eat-fut-1P 
    		'Having gone home I will eat.'

The conditional participle marker in Bangla is /le/ and it is used in two different senses; one is typical conditional use and the other is the same sequential event use like the perfective and the imperfective. Both the uses are exemplified below: --

		25. তুমি চাইলে আমি দেব

       		tumi caile ami debo.
       		you want-cond I give-fut-1P
       		'I will give you if you want.'



		26. রাম বাড়ী ফিরলে আমি বেরোব

     		ram bari    phirle       ami berobo.
      		Ram house return-cond I go out-fut-1P
     		'I will go out after Ram comes back.'    

The next lower level structure which comes after the clause structure is the phrase structure. In this section the few main phrases such as Noun Phrase, Adjective Phrase, Postpositional Phrase, Verb Phrase and Adverb Phrase will be discussed. However, there are many more phrases postulated for the description of the language which will not be taken into consideration.

Phrase Structure of Bangla: Noun Phrase:

A Noun Phrase or NP consists of nouns or a personal pronoun. In older theory, all the constructions with a noun were thought to be a phrase where N is the head. But latter development in the theory has revealed the fact that a NP is part of a higher functional phrase known as Determiner Phrase or DP where D is the head of that phrase. Though Bangla has no overt D like English , still Bangla NP is postulated in a multi-tier structure consisting of [DP[DemP[QP[ClP[NP]]]]]. The medial categories are the Demonstrative, Quantifier and Classifier. A typical DP construction of Bangla is shown below: --

		27. আমার এ দুটো লাল বই

       		amar(poss) ei(Dem) duʈo(Q-Cl) lal(A) boi(N)
       		my           this      two-cl        red    book
	       	'These two red books of mine'

A Classifier is an element attached typically with a quantifier or a noun in Bangla. This element is a special feature of Eastern Indo-European languages such as Asamiya, Bangla and Oriya. The default or the most frequently found classifier in Bangla is /Ta/ which is not only used with a quantifier (e.g. 27) or a noun (boiʈa book-Cl 'the book') but also can be used with a verb or an adjective. The other classifiers of Bangla are human classifier /jon/ as in carjon lok four-jon persons ' four persons', collective classifier /gulo/ as in /lokgulo/ person-cl 'the people', non-human classifier k^hana as in boik^hanabook-cl 'the book', ʈukuas in dud^hʈuku 'this little amount of milk' and k^hani as in ɔnekk^hani pɔt^hmuch-k^hani way 'a long long way'.

An Adjective Phrase is generated in the specifier position of the NP consisting of the adjectives which are the modifiers of the nouns. However, adjective as a category is hard to distinguish from others, probably it is safest to say that adjectives can be recognized from their functions in a particular context. Typical adjectives include b^halo 'good', k^harap 'bad' etc but quantifiers and nouns often serve the functions of the adjectives. E.g.

		28  a) অনেক লোক এসেছে

		ɔnek lok eʃeche.                  
		many people come-pr perf-3 
		'Many people have come.'        


		28  b) অনেক বেলায় উঠেছি

		ɔnek bælaj uʈhechi.
		much part of the day-loc get up-prperf-1P
		'(I/we) have got up late in the morning.' 

In 28 a) /ɔnek/ is a quantifier but in b) it is modifying the noun /bæla as an adjective.

The nouns used as adjectives are very common in the language, e.g. the name of the colours are all used as the modifiers of a noun as in /lal boi/ 'red book'.

Unlike English, Bangla has postpositions which occur after a NP in a postpositional phrase (PP) typically consists of a NP and a postposition. E.g.

/nice/ 'under', /opore/ 'above, on', /paʃe/ 'beside', /kac^he/ 'near', /b^hetore/ 'in, inside' etc are the common postpositions. The NP preceding takes the genitive case before these postpositions. E.g.

	29.  বাড়ির ভেতরে                       	30. মাদুরের নীচে 

     	baɾir bhetore		madurer nice
     	house-gen inside                 	mat-gen under
     	'inside the house'               	under the mat

A Verb Phrase may consist of just a verb or a verb and an NP or a PP. Examples of each type of VP are given below: --

		31. চলো

		cɔlo.
       		go-imp 'Let's go.' (only a verb)


		32. বাড়ী চলো

       		bari  cɔlo.
       		home go-imp ' Let's go home.' (NP+V)


		33. আমাকে নিয়ে চলো

       		amake nie cɔlo.
       		me with go-imp  'Take me with you.' (PP+V) 

An Adverb Phrase consists of an adverb modifying the verb. The typical adverbs are formed with the addition of /kore/ or /b^habe/ with the adjective. E.g. b^halob^habe good-b^habe 'in a proper manner, well', cɔʈkore 'fast'. There are some adverbial words like taɾataɾi 'fast', /aste aste/ 'slowly', druto 'fast' etc. Another way of making adverb is to add /e/ with the verb as in heʃe'laughing' from the verb haʃ 'to laugh'.

		34. সে হেসে চলে গেল

		ʃe    heʃe cole   gælo.
		(s)he laughing went off
		'She went off laughing.'

Some adjective can function as a modifier of a verb like /bHalo/ 'good' as in the following sentence.

		35. চোখে ভালো দেখতো পাই না
		cokhe bhalo dekhte pai na.
		eye-loc well to see can neg
		'I cannot see well (by the eyes).'

An adverb can modify an adjective or another adverb also. In such cases, quantifier can be used as the adverb. e.g. in the following sentence, /ɔnek/ is used as an adverb.

		36. আজকাল অনেক ভালো দেখতে পাই না

		ajkal ɔnek       bhalo dekhte pai.
		nowadays much well to see can
		'Nowadays I can see much better.'

Therefore categorization of the adjectives and the adverbs is purely functional depending on the circumstances where they are used.

3. Coordination: -- The simple sentences are conjoined to make compound sentences with the help of the conjunctives, this process is known as coordination. The most common conjunctives are ebɔŋ/, /o/ 'and', /kintu/ 'but' and ɔt^hba/, /ba/ 'or'. These words join two sentences, clauses, phrases or words. Examples are the followings: --

		37. আমি ও আমার ভাই

		[ami] o [amar bhai] 'I and my brother'



		38. রাহুলের বোন বা কবিতার ভাই

       		[rahuler bon] ba [kobitar bhai] 'Rahul's sister or Kavita's brother'



		39. আমি যাব কিন্তু খাব না

		[ami jabo] kintu [khabo na].
		I go-fut-1P but eat-fut-1P neg
		'I shall go but not eat.'

For joining two sentences, clauses, words or phrases a pair of words such as /hɔj..nɔj 'either..or' is also used. E.g.

		40. হয় আমি এ বাড়িতে থাকব নয় তুমি

		hɔj ami e barite thakbo nɔj tumi.
		either I this house-loc stay-fut-1p or you
		'Either I will stay in this house or you.' 

4. Negation: -- The negative particle in Bangla is /na/ 'not' which occurs post-verbally in the finite construction and preverbally in the non-finite construction. E.g.

		41. আমি যাব না

		ami jabo   na.
		I go-fut-1p not
		' I shall not go.'


		42. আমি না গিয়ে সোমা গেল

       		ami na gie Soma gælo.
       		I    not go-perf Soma go-past-3p
       		'Soma went after I having not gone.'

5. Anaphora and pronominal: -- The pronominals which follow the principle A of Binding theory are known as the anaphora. An anaphora must have an antecedent (the binder) in its binding domain. The binder and the anaphoric pronoun are always coreferential. The reflexives and reciprocals as mentioned in the next two sections are the typical examples of anaphoric pronouns.

On the other hand, pronominals follow the principle B of Binding theory which says that they must not be bound in the binding domain. The example following shows the binding condition for the pronominal: the pronominal /take/ can be bound by the matrix clause subject Gopal but never by the same clause subject Mohan where it occurs.

All the personal pronouns are this type of NP which must be free in the binding domain.

		43. গোপাল জানে যে মোহন তাকে ভালবাসে
		gopal1 jane je mohon2 take1/3 bhalobaʃe.
		Gopal knows that Mohan him/her loves

'Gopal knows that Mohan loves him(Gopal)/her(some lady whose reference is not mentioned in the sentence.'

6. Reflexives: -- A reflexive is a pronoun which is used instead of repeating the same subject noun or pronoun. In English these pronouns are made of adding to the personal pronoun possessive (him is the only exception) forms such as myself used for I, yourself for you, himself for he, herself for she etc. But Bangla uses only one pronoun for all these forms, i.e., /nije/.

		44. আমি নিজেকে বিশ্বাস করি না

		ami nijeke biʃʃaʃ kori na.
		I  myself-obj beleive not
		'I don't beleive myself.'



		45. তোমরা নিজেদের ওপরে বিশ্বাস রাখ

      		tomra nijeder opore biʃʃaʃ rakho.
       		you-pl yourself-gen on trust keep
       		'You(pl) keep trust on yourself.'  



		46. রাহুল নিজেকে বিশ্বাস করতে পারছে না

		rahul nijeke biʃʃaʃ korte parche na.
		rahul himself-obj beleive to do can not
		'Rahul is not able to beleive himself.'

7. Reciprocals: -- The reciprocal pronoun is /pɔroSpɔr/ 'each other' in Bangla which is used instead of two nouns conjoined with a conjunctive. There is no separate word for 'one another' also in the language.

		47. রাহুল ও রমা পরস্পরকে ভালবাসে

       		[rahul o rɔma]1 [pɔroSpɔrke]1  bhalobaʃe.
      		Rahul and Rama each other-obj love
     		' Rahul and Rama love each other.'

		48. আমরা পরস্পরের জন্য ভাবব

     		amra pɔroSpɔr pɔroSpɔrer jonno bhabbo.
      		we one another one another-gen for think-fut-1p
     		' We all will think of one another.'

8. Comparison: -- The comparative degree is expressed in the language by the use of two postpositions /ceje/ and /t^heke/ 'than' preceded by an NP in its genitive form. E.g.

		49. আমি তোমাদের চেয়ে বড়ো

		rami tomader ceje bɔro.
		I you-gen than old
		'I am older than you.' 

		50. সোনা লোহার থেকে দামী

		Sona lohar theke dami.
		gold iron-gen than expensive
		'Gold is more expensive than the iron.'

9. Equatives: The Equative construction has already been discussed under the section 2.

10. Possessive : The Bangla word for the possession verb is /ac^h/ 'to have'. The subject of this type of construction is in genitive case.

		51. আমার বই আছে

		amar boi ache
		I-poss book have
		'I have books.'

The verb /ac^h/ is also used in the existential sentences such as the following: --

		52. নদীর ধারে একটা গাছ আছে

		nodir dhare ækʈa gach ache
		river-gen side one tree have
		'There is one tree on the riverside.'

11. Emphasizer: -- Bangla uses two emphatic particles /i/ and /o/ known as emphasizers. The first of these /i/ is known as dissociative emphasizer and the second /o/ is called associative emphasizer. The reason for such naming lies in the behaviour and use of the particles. Let us take some examples of those emphasizers: ---

		53. শুধু আমরাই যাচ্ছি

      		ʃudhu amra jacchi.
       		only  we-emph. go-pr.prog.-1p
      		'Only we are going. (no one else).'



		54. শুধু ওরা যাচ্ছে না আমরাও যাচ্ছি

       		ʃudhu ora jacche na amrao jacchi.
      		only  they go-pr.prog.3p not, we-emph. go-pr.prog.1p
      		'Not only they are going, we are also going.'

In 53, emphasizer /i/ attached with a set of persons consisting of me and some other members differentiates it from all other sets and specifies that only that set is involved in the discourse at that time. This is, therefore, can be called a dissociative emphasizer. Whereas in the example 54, the emphasizer /o/ is attached with the pronoun /amra/ 'we' includes a set consisting of me and some other persons with a set of other people denoted by /ora/ 'they'. Therefore, this is known as associative emphasizer. Emphasizer while attached with some element makes that element prominent in the discourse, therefore it is a focus-marking particle. It can be attached with the nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, postpositions - practically all kinds of lexical elements.

12. Topic marker and other particles: The topic of a sentence is that element about which the information is given in the sentence. As such there is no inherent topic marker in Bangla like Japanese which is ever-attached with the subject but /to/ is classified as a topic-marking particle in this language. E.g.

		52. আমি তো আমার কথা বললাম এবার তুমি বলো
		ami to amar kɔtha bollam, ebar tumi bɔlo.
		I  topic my  story say-past-1p now you say-pr-2p
		' I said my story, now  you tell yours.'

		53. বললাম তো কি করতে হবো

       		bollam to ki korte hɔbe.
       		say-past-1p topic what to do be-fut-pass
       		' (I  already) said what to do.'

There are some particles in the language like /buj^hi/, /naki/, /ïæno/, /ba/ etc which add extra shade of meaning to the clause where they occur. They are safely called particles at this stage of investigation but surely need more attention.

		54. আহা ! তুমি বুঝি জান না ! 

		jaha! tumi bjhi jano na!>  
		Oh! you part know-pr-2p neg
		'Oh! as if you don't know.'



		55. তুমি নাকি জানতে না ? 

		tumi naki jante na?
		you part know-past-2p neg
		'It seems you did not know.'



		56. এমন বলছ, তুমি যেন কিছু জানতে না !

		æmon bolcho, tumi jæno kichu jante na.
		Such say-pr-prog-1p, you part anything kno-past-2p neg
		'You are saying in such a manner as if you did not know anything.'

All these three particles can be moved at the end of the clause without a change in the meaning. The other particle /be/ has a different distribution, it occurs in a question following an emphatic verb or a wh-question element. E.g.

		57.কেনই বা যাব? 

		kænoi ba jabo?
		Why-emp part go-fut-1p
		' Why shall I go?' (asked when the speaker argues for not going)



		58. ও একা সম কাজ করবেই বা কেন ? 

		o    æka ʃɔb  kaj korbei ba kæno?
		(s)he alone all works do-fut-3p-emp part why
		'why will (s)he alone do all the works?'

13. Case markers: There are only three morphologically overt case markers in Bangla. One is for dative case and the marker is /ke/ which is in special cases used as accusative marker also. It is safe to call this marker as the objective case marker following Kelkar (1997). E.g.

		59. ভিখিরিকে পয়সা দাও
		bhikhirike pɔjSa dao.
		beggar-obj money give-imp
		'Give money to the beggar.' 



		60. মিতা গোপালকে ভালবাসে

		mita gopalke bhalobaʃe.
		Mita Gopal-obj love-pr-3p
		' Mita loves Gopal.'

The next case marker is possessive /ɼ/ which is phonologically in complementary distribution with its variant form /er/. /ɼ/ occurs after the vowels and /er/ occurs elsewhere. E.g. /ramer boi/ Ram-poss book ' Ram's book', /ʃitar boi/ ʃita-poss book ' Sita's book'.

The typical experience subject takes possessive case marker in Bangla instead of dative which is commonly found in other Indian languages. E.g.

		61. আমার ফুল ভাল লাগে
		amar phul bhalo lage
		I-gen flower like
		'I like flowers.'

The third one is locative marker /e/ which is again phonologically in complementary distribution with the variant form /te/. /te/ occurs after the /i/ and /u/-ending words and for /e/ /o/ and /a/ endings both the /e/ and /te/ occur. For the words ending with the consonants it is always /e/ which is used. E.g.

	62. /barite/ house-loc 'in the house', 

	63. /modhute/ honey-loc 'in the honey'

	64. /chelete/ or /chelej/ boy-loc, locative marker used for nominative 

	65. /kouʈote/ /kouʈoj/  box-loc 'in the box'

	66. /rajaj/  king-loc /ghɔrate/ room--loc 

	67. /ghɔrete/ or /ghɔre/ room-loc 'in the room.'

14. Minor Sentence Types: Apart from the main sentence types discussed in the section 1, there are some minor sentence types such as karma-katrvaacya and bhabvaacya of Sanskrit. The first type is found in case of a patient acting as an agent of a sentence. E.g.

		68. অন্ধকারে বীণা বাজছে

		ɔndhokare bina bajche.
		dark-loc a musical instrument playing
		'A Veena is playing in the dark.'

The second case is used when one wants to avoid a direct speech with someone and uses this typical indirect form where one can avoid the person and honourific agreement on the verb. E.g.

		69.  কোথায় থাকা হয় ? 

		kothaj thaka hɔj 
		where stay-verbal noun be-3p
		' Where do you stay?'

As a detailed study is beyond the scope of this short note, the above description of the language is a very superficial one leaving all the details of the analysis.

E.LEXICON

Structure Semantic Fields

Kinship Terminology: --

Colour terminology:

Basic colours:

Derived from natural things:

Body Parts:

Cooking Terminology:

Pre-cooking terms:

/kuʈno koʈa / 'cutting the vegetable'

Types of cutting the vegetable: reduplicated words

The frame for using these reduplicated words:

_____ kore kaʈa ' cut in the required reduplicated shape'

The ancillary used is /bõʈi/ 'the vegetable-cutting instrument'. E.g. ____ die kaʈa 'cut with a ___'

/baʈna baʈa / 'make paste of the spices by grinding'

ancillary used is /ʃil noɽa/ 'the big and small stones for making this paste of spice'. E.g. ___________te bat,na bãʈa 'make paste of the spices with the silnora'

/thẽto kɔra/ 'grind only with the small stone by hammering again and again (used for mainly ginger and garlic)'. E.g.

noɽadie _____ ' grind with the small stone nora'

(আটা/ময়দা) মাখা / (aʈa/mɔeda) mak^ha/ 'make a dough of flour'

লেচি পাকানো/leci pakano/ 'make small ball from the dough'

(রুটি/লুচি/পরোটা)বেলা /ruʈi/luci/pɔroʈa bæla/ 'make bigger shape from the ball with the help of the belun'

The ancillary used is /belun-caki/ 'one round wooden or stone plate and a long round instrument'.

Cooking verbs:

The spices:

two types: /gũɽo mɔʃla/'spice powder' and /baʈa mɔʃla/ 'ground spice as paste'. All the spices used in the cooking are either of these two types.

Cooking ingredients:

1. Basic vocabulary

Names of the days of a week

Numbers:

Stars:

Basic Vocabulary:

Human beings:

Natural Objects:

Plants:

Fruits:

Animals:

Dress:

Personal Pronouns:

Interrogatives

Correlatives:

Locatives:

Time Periods:

Quantitatives:

Size and Shape:

Verbs:

Types of Lexicon:

There are four types of words in the Bangla lexicon: tatsama or Sanskrit words, tatbhava or derived words from Sanskrit, desi from aboriginal origin and foreign words.

Sanskrit or tatsama

Derived from Sanskrit or tatbhava

desi or aboriginal words

ঝাঁটা /j^hãʈa/ 'broom'

Foreign words

F. DISCOURSE/ PRAGMATIC STRUCTURE

1. Content Dependent Structure:

In Bangla discourse content dependent structure can be observed in the use of the folk language or folk register in order to give a separate identity to the folk language and to provide an atmosphere of fairy tales. The structures and lexical items like - হাউ মাউ খাউঁ hau mau khãu̯ an expressive of gulping ¸ সাত সমুদ্র তেরো নদী ʃat ʃomudro tæro nodi ' seven seas, thirteen rivers' , দৈত্যপুরী doittopuri ' demon' s palace' , সোনার কাঠি ʃonar kaʈhi ' gold stick' ,রাজপুত্তুর raʤputtur ' prince' , etc are examples of the stereotyped folk register, which are employed for the purpose.

Content specific structure can also be noticed (Majumdar, 1998 a) in the language structure of dialogues between the subalterns and the upper class people, which functions as a class variable structure. Content specific structure can also be noticed in the establishment of contrast, parallelism and substitution (Majumdar, 1998 b). The contrast between a character of a fairy tale and a realistic man of the modern social system is often created, which is evident from the following lines of Rabindranath Tagore's Rajputtur

আর সকলে হাটবাজার করে, ঘর করে, জগড়া করে...রাজপুত্তরু সে রাজ্য ছেড়ে চলে যায়

aɤ ʃɔkole haʈbadgar kɔre, ghɔr kɔre, ʤhɔgɽa kɔre ..... raʤ putter ʃe raʤʤo tʃheɽ;e tʃheɤe tʃole ʤae̯.

' All others do marketing, household work; quarreling ... the prince goes away leaving that place.'

Parallelism can be evidenced in the following structure.

গিরিশিখরের জল গিরিশিখরে ধরে না, মেঘের জল মেঘেরবাঁধন মানে না....তেপান্তরের মাঠ দেখে সে ফেরে না

giriʃikhɔrer ʤɔl giriʃikhɔre dhɔre na, megher ʤɔl megher bãdhon mane na .....tepantɔrer maʈh dekhe ʃe phere na.

' The mountain peak cannot hold the water of mountain-peak, the water of the cloud does not obey the tie of the cloud.....having seen ' tepantar' meadow, he does not return.'

Substitution is made by the author by deglamourizing the image of the prince and the princess of the fairy tale. They are changed into characters of a struggling man and a woman of the modern period.

The discursive formation of the story can be viewed not only from the structuralist point of view but also from the post structuralist perspective. The saussurean signifier - signified relationship that marks the relationship of the character of the prince in the fairy tale with the character of the ' young man' is deconstructed in the neither or nor framework of the post modern time and space of the social structure.

2. Coherence:

Coherence which indicates both formal linking or formal cohesiveness and logical (or thematic) cohesiveness is evident in Bangla literature. In studying the discourse of ' Rajputtur' of Rabindranath Tagore, Majumdar (1998 b) finds that though the characters of two tales that have been employed by Rabindranath, differ in respect of time, space and social background, the author by virtue of his own style could make them cohesive and complete. Cohesive of both form and content is evident throughout the text, which ultimately aims at reaching the reality of life.

Coherence of time and tense is evident in the establishment of myth in Tarasankar Bandyopadhyay's novel ' nāginī kanyār kāhinī' (Majumdar 1998 a).

Thematic coherence is also apparent in Jibanananda Das's poem ām bachad āger ekdin (Majumdar, 2002). The equation of life and death forms a complete network throughout the poem. The cohesiveness of place and time and the dynamicity of the human world and society could easily be traced from the analysis of the content of the poem. The proposed use of the verb forms serves the function of formal cohesion in the poem. The anaphoric forms like তবু tobu ' yet' , এ এম্প ei̯ ' this' , তাই - tai̯ ' so' function as discourse markers that contribute to the cohesiveness in the poem.

3. Grammar of discourse:

Use of particular grammatical structures in discourse as evident in the use of the perfective conjunctive form of verbs like ছেড়ে tʃheɽe ' having left' , পেরিয়ে perie ' having left' etc. indicates a kind of positional parallelism in the syntactic formation. This also indicates ' recurrence' and ' dynamicity' (Majumdar, 1998 b).

The use of various adjectival phrases like অদ্ভুত আঁধার ɔdbhut ādhar ' particular darkness' , যূথচারী আঁধার ʤuthotʃari ãdhar ' intense darkness' ,প্রগাঢ পিতামহী progaɽho pitamohi ' indepth grandmother' ,

থুরথুরে পেঁচা thurthure pæ̃tʃa ' feeble owl' , তুমুল গাঢ় সমাচার tumul gaɽho ʃɔmatʃar ' great deep news' , etc are noticed in Jibanananda Das' s ' ām bachar āger ekdin' (Majumdar, 2002).

The use of conjunctive marks like যেন ʤæno ' as if ' , যখন ʤɔkhon ' when' , আর ar ' and' , etc create contrast and digression in the discursive formation. Use of some particular grammatical structures has been observed by Majumdar (2002) in Jibanananda Das's work. For example, the use of habitual present in the syntactic constructions like - পেঁচা জাগে pæ̃tʃa ʤage ' owl wakes' , গলিত স্তবির ব্যাঙ... ভিক্ষা মাগে golito sthobir bæŋ .. bhikkha mage ' decomposed static frog ... begs' , মশা জীবনের স্রোত ভালোবাসে mɔʃa ʤibɔner srot bhalobaʃe ' mosquito loves the current of life' , etc. highlights the dynamic truth of life.

The negativization of the affirmative structure can be noticed in Bangla discourse. In Rabindranath Tagore's Rajputtur this is found in the description of the heroine for realizing the reality. This is done by destroying the illusion of the reader, which is the ulterior motive of the story. This is evident from the following lines.

চাঁপা ফুলের মতো রঙ নয়, হাসিতে তার মানিক খসে না---আকাশের তারার সঙ্গে তার তুলনা হয় না..

tʃãpaphuler moto rɔŋ nɔe̯, haʃite tar manik khɔʃe na - akaʃer tarar ʃɔŋge tar tulona hɔe̯ na.

' (her) complexion is not like the color of Champa flower, precious stones do not come out of her smile - she cannot be compared with stars of the sky' .

4. Discourse semantics:

In Bangla, discourse analysis has also been done from the point of view of politico- Semantic interpretation. The history of the Bangla language and literature has been studied (Mukhopadhyay, 2002) keeping in view the socio - political scenario in its background. In course of the analytical study, the nation statist influence behind the artificial construct of establishing the standard colloquial Bangla has been viewed significantly. The discursive formation of the questionnaire of examination has also been analyzed which feeds to the same socio - political influence behind the establishment of the genealogical fantasy for the Bangla language. It is basically an establishment of a critique of the history of the Bangla language and literature that has been done by semantically interpreting it as an outcome of the socio- political setup of the Bangla language and literature.

Discourse analysis has also been done on Bangla advertisements (Dattamajumdar, 2000) from the socio - semantic point of view. The various communicative strategies in a particular social setting have been analyzed from the psycho - social perspective. The capitation like চৈতি হাওয়ার পন্থী tʃoiti hao̯ar ponthi ' with the wind of ' chaitra' (a Bangla month)' , দগ্ধ দিনে স্নিগ্ধ পোষাক dɔgdho dine snigdho poʃak ' light and comfortable dress in a scorching day' ,বসনে বৈশাখ bɔʃone boiʃakh ' Baisakh (a Bangla month) in dress' , are instances of message reduction. These captions without saying anything explicitly about garments capture the attention of the reader and create a social aspiration for having those garments. The discursive analysis of the various structures of such advertisements reveals the social reality that, a particular commodity is associated with a particular social group. The extent of the effectiveness of the communicative technique is dependent on the socio-cultural acceptability of the various aspects of the language used for the purpose.