Descriptive Grammar of Bangla

Contents
Foreword
Series Editors’ Preface
Preface
1 About this Grammar
	1.1 Overview
	1.2 Scope of this book
	1.3 Tables and examples
		1.3.1 Order of elements in a gloss
	1.4 Abbreviations and symbols
2 The Bangla Language
	2.1 Population of speakers
	2.2 History and classification
	2.3 Dialectal variation
	2.4 The Bangla script
3 Phonology and Orthography
	3.1 Introduction
	3.2 Bangla phonemes
		3.2.1 Vowels
		3.2.2 Consonants
	3.3 Other phonology
		3.3.1 Phonotactics
			3.3.1.1 Vowels
				3.3.1.1.1 Occurrence constraints and height neutralization
				3.3.1.1.2 Anticipatory assimilation
				3.3.1.1.3 Progressive assimilation
				3.3.1.1.4 Sanskritic vowel mutation
			3.3.1.2 Consonants
			3.3.1.3 Syllable structure
		3.3.2 Prosody
	3.4 Romanized transcription and Bangla orthography
		3.4.1 Introduction: our transcription system
		3.4.2 Orthography of Bangla vowels
			3.4.2.1 Vowel length in the orthography
			3.4.2.2 Vowel letters and vowel diacritics
			3.4.2.3 The vowel letter ? and the inherent vowel
			3.4.2.4 The vowel letter ? and its diacritic
		3.4.3 Orthography of Bangla consonants
			3.4.3.1 Nasals
			3.4.3.2 Sibilants
			3.4.3.3 Consonant conjuncts
			3.4.3.4 ????
			3.4.3.5 ??
	3.5 Our transcription system
4 Bangla as a South Asian Language
	4.1 Typological convergence
		4.1.1 Phonology
		4.1.2 Complex predicates
			4.1.2.1 Conjunct verbs
			4.1.2.2 Compound verbs
		4.1.3 Oblique case-marked subjects
		4.1.4 Reduplication & onomatopoeia
		4.1.5 Quotatives
	4.2 Typological divergence
		4.2.1 Phonology
		4.2.2 Ergativity
		4.2.3 Classifiers
5 Nouns
	5.1 Nominal categories
	5.2 Nominal inflection
		5.2.1 Nominal markers
		5.2.2 Noun paradigms
		5.2.3 A note on orthography of case markers
	5.3 Allomorphy in noun inflection
		5.3.1 Nominative marker allomorphy
			5.3.1.1 Singular
			5.3.1.2 Plural
		5.3.2 Genitive marker allomorphy
			5.3.2.1 Singular
			5.3.2.2 Plural
		5.3.3 Objective marker allomorphy
			5.3.3.1 Singular
			5.3.3.2 Plural
		5.3.4 Locative marker allomorphy
	5.4 Use of case and number markers
		5.4.1 Nominative
			5.4.1.1 Nominative case proper
			5.4.1.2 Unmarked nouns
		5.4.2 Objective
		5.4.3 Genitive
		5.4.4 Locative
		5.4.5 Plural number
	5.5 Noun derivation
		5.5.1 Deriving nouns from adjectives
		5.5.2 Deriving nouns from nouns
6 Pronouns and Other Pro-forms
	6.1 Introduction
	6.2 Pronominal morphology
		6.2.1 Pronominal stems
		6.2.2 Pronominal case-marking suffixes
		6.2.3 Rules of stem allomorphy
	6.3 Personal pronouns (including demonstratives)
		6.3.1 First person pronouns
		6.3.2 Second person pronouns
		6.3.3 Third person pronouns
	6.4 Relative and correlative pronouns
	6.5 Demonstrative pronouns
	6.6 Reflexive pronouns
	6.7 Interrogative pronouns
	6.8 Indefinite pro-forms
		6.8.1 Indefinite pronouns and pro-forms
		6.8.2 Quantifying pro-forms
			6.8.2.1 Declinable quantifying pro-forms
			6.8.2.2 Indeclinable quantifying pro-forms
7 Noun Modifiers
	7.1 Introduction
	7.2 Adjectives
		7.2.1 About adjectives
		7.2.2 Comparison of adjectives
			7.2.2.1 Comparatives
			7.2.2.2 Superlatives
		7.2.3 Historically derived adjectives
			7.2.3.1 Adjectives derived from adverbs
			7.2.3.2 Adjectives derived from nouns
			7.2.3.3 Adjectives derived from verbs
	7.3 Noun modification via other parts of speech
	7.4 Determiners
		7.4.1 Demonstratives
		7.4.2 Quantifiers
			7.4.2.1 Number names
				7.4.2.1.1 Inventory and representation
				7.4.2.1.2 Expressions involving number names
			7.4.2.2 Other quantifiers
				7.4.2.2.1 Inventory
				7.4.2.2.2 Interrogative quantifiers
				7.4.2.2.3 Indefinite Quantifiers
		7.4.3 Classifiers
			7.4.3.1 Definition
			7.4.3.2 Inventory of classifiers
				7.4.3.2.1 -??/-?a/- ???/-?e/- ??/-?o/
				7.4.3.2.2 /-?i/
				7.4.3.2.3 -?? /-j?n/
				7.4.3.2.4 /-gulo/
				7.4.3.2.5 /-guli/
				7.4.3.2.6 -???? /-khana/
				7.4.3.2.7 -???? /-khani/
				7.4.3.2.8 /-?uku/-?uk/-?ukun/-?ukuni/
			7.4.3.3 Functions of classifiers
			7.4.3.4 Frozen classifiers
				7.4.3.4.1 ???? /-gacha/, -???? /-gachi/
				7.4.3.4.2 -???? /-fala/, -???? /-fali/
8 Other Word Classes and Processes
	8.1 Interrogative words
	8.2 Adverbs
	8.3 Postpositions and prepositions
		8.3.1 Postpositions
			8.3.1.1 Postpositions requiring the genitive case
			8.3.1.2 Postpositions requiring no particular case
			8.3.1.3 Postpositions requiring the objective case
			8.3.1.4 Postpositions with optional genitive case
		8.3.2 Prepositions
	8.4 Conjunctions
		8.4.1 Coordinating conjunctions
		8.4.2 Subordinating conjunctions
	8.5 Particles or clitics
		8.5.1 The particle -? /-i/
		8.5.2 The particle -? /-o/
		8.5.3 The particle /to/
		8.5.4 The particle ?? /ba/
		8.5.5 The particle /je/
		8.5.6 The particle ??/ja/
		8.5.7 The interrogative particle ?? /ki/
	8.6 Reduplication
		8.6.1 Reduplication of whole words
			8.6.1.1 Repetition of verbs
			8.6.1.2 Repetition of other parts of speech
			8.6.1.3 Reduplicative expressives
		8.6.2 Partial reduplication
			8.6.2.1 Partial reduplication with initial consonant insertion
			8.6.2.2 Partial reduplication with final vowel change
	8.7 Lengthened consonants
9 Verbs
	9.1 Inflectional features
		9.1.1 Verbal categories
		9.1.2 Personal, tense, and aspect suffixes
		9.1.3 Verbal stem allomorphy
	9.2 Verb conjugation classes
		9.2.1 Class 1: (C)VC-; V ? /a/
		9.2.2 Class 2: (C)aC-
		9.2.3 Class 3: (C)V-; V ? a
		9.2.4 Class 4: (C)a-
		9.2.5 Class 5: (C)?(i)- or (C)a(i)-
		9.2.6 Class 6: (C)VCa- or (C)Vwa-
		9.2.7 Class 7: (C)VCCa- or (C)VVCa- (“three-letter” verbs)
	9.3 Verb paradigms
		9.3.1 Simple present
			9.3.1.1 Morphology of the simple present
			9.3.1.2 Uses of the simple present
		9.3.2 Present imperative
			9.3.2.1 Morphology of the present imperative
			9.3.2.2 Uses of the present imperative
		9.3.3 Present imperfect
			9.3.3.1 Morphology of the present imperfect
			9.3.3.2 Uses of the present imperfect
		9.3.4 Present perfect
			9.3.4.1 Morphology of the present perfect
			9.3.4.2 Uses of the present perfect
		9.3.5 Simple future
			9.3.5.1 Morphology of the simple future
			9.3.5.2 Uses of the simple future
		9.3.6 Future imperative
			9.3.6.1 Morphology of the future imperative
			9.3.6.2 Uses of the future imperative
		9.3.7 Simple past
			9.3.7.1 Morphology of the simple past
			9.3.7.2 Uses of the simple past
		9.3.8 Conditional/past habitual
			9.3.8.1 Morphology of the conditional/past habitual
			9.3.8.2 Uses of the conditional/past habitual
		9.3.9 Past imperfect
			9.3.9.1 Morphology of the past imperfect
			9.3.9.2 Uses of the past imperfect
		9.3.10 Past perfect
			9.3.10.1 Morphology of the past perfect
			9.3.10.2 Uses of the past perfect
	9.4 Irregular verbs
		9.4.1 ??- /ach-/ ‘to be present, exist’
		9.4.2 /dewa/ ‘to give’
		9.4.3 /newa/ ‘to take’
		9.4.4 ?- /n?-/ ‘not to be, not to exist’
		9.4.5 ?????/jawa/ ‘to go’
		9.4.6 ??? /asa/ ‘to come’
	9.5 Non-finite forms
		9.5.1 Perfect participle
			9.5.1.1 Morphology of perfect participles
			9.5.1.2 Uses
		9.5.2 Imperfect participle
			9.5.2.1 Morphology of imperfect participles
			9.5.2.2 Uses
		9.5.3 Conditional participle
			9.5.3.1 Morphology of the conditional participle
			9.5.3.2 Uses
		9.5.4 Verbal noun
			9.5.4.1 Morphology of verbal nouns
				9.5.4.1.1 Common form
				9.5.4.1.2 Alternate form
			9.5.4.2 Uses
	9.6 Causatives
		9.6.1 Morphology of causatives
		9.6.2 Causatives of pseudo-causative verbs
		9.6.3 Triple causatives
	9.7 Negation
		9.7.1 ?? /na/
			9.7.1.1 As a negator of verbs
			9.7.1.2 Other uses of ?? /na/:
		9.7.2 /nei/ ‘is not’
		9.7.3 ?- /n?-/ ‘not to be, not to exist’ (the negative copula)
		9.7.4 ?? /ni/ (the perfect negative)
		9.7.5 ???? /nara/
10 Syntax
	10.1 Word order and clause structure
		10.1.1 Scrambling
		10.1.2 The two be verbs
			10.1.2.1 ??- /ach-/ ‘be’
		10.1.3 Questions
			10.1.3.1 Question marker
			10.1.3.2 Wh-phrases
				10.1.3.2.1 Wh-phrase structure
	10.2 Noun phrase structure
		10.2.1 Word order
			10.2.1.1 Adjective placement
		10.2.2 Headless noun phrases
		10.2.3 Definiteness marking
		10.2.4 Quantifiers and classifiers
			10.2.4.1 Bare nouns
				10.2.4.1.1 Nouns with and without classifiers
				10.2.4.1.2 Floating quantifiers
			10.2.4.2 “The whole”
			10.2.4.3 Indefinite number
		10.2.5 Associative plurals
	10.3 Verbal phrase structure
		10.3.1 Valency
			10.3.1.1 Passives
			10.3.1.2 Causatives
		10.3.2 Light verb constructions
			10.3.2.1 Subjects and light verbs
			10.3.2.2 Scrambling
			10.3.2.3 Light verb inventory
		10.3.3 Conjunct verbs
			10.3.3.1 Uses of conjunct verbs
			10.3.3.2 Selection
		10.3.4 Imperfect participles
			10.3.4.1 Other uses of the imperfect participle
	10.4 Postpositions
	10.5 Subordinate clauses
		10.5.1 Perfect participles as subordinators
		10.5.2 Conditionals
		10.5.3 Relative and correlative clauses
			10.5.3.1 Modifying nouns
		10.5.4 Complement clauses
		10.5.5 Other subordinate clauses
	10.6 Non-canonical case-marking
		10.6.1 Oblique subjects vs. nominative subjects
		10.6.2 ????/laga/ ‘to strike’
		10.6.3 Oblique and nominative pairs
		10.6.4 Expressing possession with an oblique subject
		10.6.5 Deontic modals
		10.6.6 Objective case
	10.7 Negation
References Cited
	A The Digital Grammar
		A.1 Overview
		A.2 Audience
		A.3 More on uses of this grammar
			A.3.1 The grammar as a basis for computational tools
				A.3.1.1 Building a parser and generator
			A.3.2 The grammar as a description
		A.4 Spell correction
		A.5 Grammar adaptation
			A.5.1 Manual grammar building
			A.5.2 Automated grammar adaptation
		A.6 Formatting the grammar for viewing
	B Unicode Representation
		B.1 Diacritics
		B.2 Normalization
Index