Modern Hindi Grammar - Indian Institute of Language Studies (IILS)

(Brent) #1

4. SYNTAX


The terms ek jaOsao ek j ́se/ jaOsaI j ́si: ‘as good as/alike’ are also used in
equative expressions.



  1. yao dao Baa[- ek jaOsao hOM.
    ye do bha:i: ek j ́se h ́~.


these two brothers alike are
These two brothers are alike.



  1. yao bahnaoM ek jaOsaI hOM.
    ye bahnẽ ek j ́si: h ́~.


these sisters alike are
These sisters are alike.


There are certain co-occurrence restrictions. Indefinite determiners
do not co-occur with ordinals. Similarly, the multiplicatives do not
co-occur with collective or measure quantifiers. There are other
usage constraints on modifiers. For example, the combination of
indefinite determiners and cardinal quantifiers is possible; the
combination of an indefinite determiner and a demonstrative
pronoun in not allowed.



  1. kao[- baccaa yah kama nahIM kr sakta.
    koi: bacca: yah ka:m nahĩ: kar sakta:.
    some/any(one) child this work neg do can-ptc
    No child can do this work.


28a. kao[- vah baccaa yah kama nahIM kr sakta.
koi: vah bacca: yah ka:m nahĩ: kar sakta:.


Similarly, the combination of multiplicative and collective
quantifiers do not yield well-formed sentences.



  1. duganaa jaaoD,a dstanaa
    dugna: jori: dasta:na:
    twice pair gloves


As mentioned above, emphatic particles and limiters follow head
nouns. All other constituents precede the head noun they modify.
There is a flexibility in the word order of the preceding modifiers as
illustrated below.

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