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.

Table of contents

Preface xv–xvii Symbols and Abbreviations xix–xxi 1. Introduction 1–11 2. Sound System 13–36 3. Devanagari Script 37–41 4. Parts of Speech 43–110 5. Word Formation 111–129 6. The Noun Phrase 131–137 7. Verb and Verb Phrase 139–157 8. Syntax: Simple Sentence 159–213 9. Syntax: Complex and Compound Sentences 215–244 10. Information Structure 245–254 11. Discourse Structure 255–275 Appendix 1 277–283 Appendix 2 285 References 287–288 Select Bibliography 289–294 Index 295–309

"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