Date of Award
12-2006
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Arts (MA)
Department
Linguistics
First Advisor
David J. Weber
Abstract
The morpheme to occurs in the Hindi language frequently, but is difficult to define and difficult for speakers of Hindi as a second language to use correctly. The purpose of this study is to provide insight into how to contributes to the understanding of the utterance that contains it. Relevance Theory, developed by Sperber and Wilson in 1986, is the framework for this study. Relevance Theory makes a distinction between the implicit and explicit content of utterances and between words that encode conceptual representations and words that encode processing instructions. I will consider whether to contributes to implicit or explicit content and whether it is conceptual or procedural.
The data I have used for this thesis are published Hindi narrative texts, portions of the Bible, and examples used in the writings of scholars and grammarians. I also collected oral data through informal observations and interviews with Hindi speakers.
I have come to the conclusion that there are two homophonous morphemes pronounced [ t̪ ] in Hindi. Both are procedural morphemes. Conjunction-to affects the implicatures of the following proposition by limiting the relevant implicated premises. It instructs the hearer to interpret the following proposition as an implicated conclusion. Contrast-to instructs the hearer to compare the constituent preceding to with a corresponding constituent in the context. As such it also affects the implicatures.
Recommended Citation
Phillips, Virginia Crowell, "Hindi "to" and relevance" (2006). Theses and Dissertations. 5020.
https://commons.und.edu/theses/5020