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Hindi
This book presents the structure of Hindi keeping in view the sociolinguistic context of language use. It includes descriptions of sounds, devices of word formation, rules of phrase and sentence construction and conventions of language use in spoken and written texts incorporating the insights gained by application of recent linguistic theories. The account presented here, however, is free from abstruse technical vocabulary and modes of presentation that aim at justifying a particular linguistic model. This volume is primarily designed as a source of reference for linguists and educators who want to be better informed about the forms and functions of Hindi, and a resource for students and teachers of Hindi.
Hindi, the official language of the Republic of India, is the second most widely spoken language with approximately three hundred and fifty million speakers. In its diasporic contexts, it is spoken in Africa, Australia, Europe, Fiji, Guyana, Surinam, Trinidad, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom and United States. An Indo-European language by genetic affiliation, Hindi shares many characteristics with Austro-Asiatic, Dravidian, and Sino-Tibetan languages of the subcontinent. In addition, Hindi has assimilated features of Arabic, Persian and English in a variety of its functionally determined styles.
[London Oriental and African Language Library, 12] 2006. xxi, 309 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 1 July 2008
Published online on 1 July 2008
© John Benjamins Publishing Company
Table of Contents
- Preface | pp. xv–xvii
- Symbols and Abbreviations | pp. xix–xxi
- 1. Introduction | pp. 1–11
- 2. Sound System | pp. 13–36
- 3. Devanagari Script | pp. 37–41
- 4. Parts of Speech | pp. 43–110
- 5. Word Formation | pp. 111–129
- 6. The Noun Phrase | pp. 131–137
- 7. Verb and Verb Phrase | pp. 139–157
- 8. Syntax: Simple Sentence | pp. 159–213
- 9. Syntax: Complex and Compound Sentences | pp. 215–244
- 10. Information Structure | pp. 245–254
- 11. Discourse Structure | pp. 255–275
- Appendix 1 | pp. 277–283
- Appendix 2 | p. 285
- Index | pp. 295–309
“This major new analysis of the grammar of Hindi comes from a leading and highly productive scholar in the field: more than a third of the hundred-odd items in the bibliography bear Yamuna Kachru's own name. Without following "any specific linguistic model", Kachru here sets out the grammar of Hindi with great clarity, and offers many a fresh insight in her analysis of the language.”
Rupert Snell, in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 71/1 (Feb 2008)
“A comprehensive study that breaks new ground in range and style. It presents and explains fully the standard forms of Hindi, its usage, regional and social variation, multigraded assimilation of loan words, and the relationship between grammatical usage and affective content in colloquial Hindi. This book of wide knowledge and understanding is warmly recommended as a valuable source in consolidating a reader's early knowledge and sense of the linguistic character of Hindi.”
R. Stuart McGregor, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK
“An authoritative grammar of Hindi which demonstrates how an expert linguist can distill and elegantly integrate the insights of modern linguistic theory and traditional grammar. Kachru provides an invaluable source for students and researchers for years to come.”
Tej K. Bhatia, Syracuse University, NY, USA
“A lively written and information-packed work, ranging from the basic facts about the Hindi language and its social setting to detailed presentation of grammatical structures of theoretical interest.”
Bernard Comrie, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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