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CHAPTER- X
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CHAPTER-X
CONCLUSION
This chapter briefs the summary of the findings of the different topics of
the foregoing chapters. It also highlights the probable feature and important function
of Bodo semantic structures. The present study has fully concentrated on the analysis
of sense relationship of Bodo lexical items in different grammatical categories in
various dimensions especially in paradigmatic and syntagmatic relationship. In the
light of foregoing analysis, it is clear that a lexical item has different meaning in its
various contextual uses. So for clarity and specificity in almost all analysis here,
only a given context has been taken up.
In the Introduction chapter, it is found that Bodo has long history of its
formation and development. Bodo language occupies an important place in the TibetoBurman language family in India. Its origin, migration and settlement are worth
mentioning. The present Bodo language has also been developed by the process of
coinage, borrowing loan words from the vocabularies of different sister groups of
the language, neibouring Aryan languages and foreign languages as well as lexical
reformation in contemporary time. The language has also made remarkable
contribution in the development of language and literature ofAssam in particular
and of India in general. The structure of the language given in the thesis is only a
brief study; so it needs further study to reveal the authentic structure ofthe language.
The language has a high status and lots of speakers.
The second chapter is ‘meaning in Bodo’; the first introduction subsection
ofthis chapter deals with meaning in Bodo. In this chapter meaning is discussed in
five different aspects, i.e. collocative, sentence, utterance, reduplicative and
social.There are many lexical items having the same meaning with its collocative
elements. Under the collocative aspect, different verbal lexical items, having meaning
but collates with different nominal lexical items, are discussed. Here universal lexical
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collocation, language specific collocation are also discussed. In the second
subsection, aspect of sentence meaning is discussed. Here sentential meaning which
is measured in truth condition in logical tautology, contradiction, entailment,
inconsistence as well as the principle of polarity and semantics of the language are
discussed. The next subsection deals with utterance meaning especially on sarcasm
and question. Reduplication is one of the important features in Bodo language. So
meaning in reduplication is discussed in a threadbare way. In this section lexical
items are classified into nominal, pronominal, adjectival, adverbial, reciprocal or
reflexive, eco word and partial and in expressive terms. Reduplicated lexical item
r
expresses plurality or emphatic meaning. Bodo language has meaning lexical items
having socially accepted meaning.
The Third chapter concerned with ‘denotative and connotative meaning’. There
is sufficient number of lexical item to express denotative and connotative meaning
in Bodo. From the analysis it is found that there are three Primary factors of
connotative meaning i.e. (1) the speakers associated with the word, i.e. age, sex,
education level, occupation, religious affiliation (2) the practical circumstances in
which the word is used, i.e. the usage ofcertain vocabulary items in narrowly specified
context and situations and (3) the linguistic setting characteristics of the word, i.e.
(i) linguistic setting related to time dimension (ii) linguistic setting related to literary
setting are analysed in details respectively.
Most of lexical items have their denotative and connotative meaning
according to its contextual uses. .In the light of analysis it is clear that a lexical item
may have many connotative meaning and single denotative meaning. Since denotative
meaning is the common meaning here, main emphasis is given on connotative
meaning and on single connotative meaning.
Again, the analysis of this chapter is concentrated on differerent nominal,
verbal, adjectival and adverbial lexical items connotative meaning with different
illustration since these are common in the language.
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From the analysis it is expounded that in Bodo Synonymy is very common sense
relation and it can be tested using linguistic theory, e.g. ‘zwr ’, ‘rozong ’ ‘su ’(pointed
stump, torn, splinter), ‘subung mahari ’ and ‘mansi ’(human andperson).
Again,it is true that two or more lexical items are synonymous only in a given context.
So there is no absolute synonymy in Bodo. An example from the analysis cleared
that ‘ gwthar’, ‘gwggw’( holy, pure) are synonymous only in given context. So context
is the basic criteria for analyzing synonymy.
It is found that there are also various types of synonymy in Bodo, they are
dialectal synonymy, stylistic synonymy, emotative or connotational synonymy, and
collocational synonymy. Bodo language has many dialectical variations but meaning
is synonymous. Here the analysis is taken up only in the nominal lexical items since
there is little variation in verbal lexical items.Again, there is usage of lots of emotative
or connotational synonymy in Bodo, e.g. ‘siyan’, ‘baigor’(clever/sly) are emotative
or connotational synonymy of the language. At last but not the least, collocational
synonymy is very common in the language, e.g. ‘rwza’ generally collocates with
cloth, paper and such likes objects. On the other hand ‘gubung’ collocates with grown
plants and things that are close to one another. Both of them have almost same
meaning i.e. thick or dense.
There are four properties of synonymy, they are (1) symmetric (2) applies
only to similar lexical items of the same word class (3) applied in the sense or
lexical item (4) converse of synonymy.
From the analysis it is also found that Bodo has nominal, verbal, adjectival
and adverbial lexical items in synonymy. Verbal synonymy may be analysed in state,
action and process lexical items.
In the fifth chapter Antonymy in Bodo has been discussed. In the first few
subsections it explores what is anonymy? Is anonymy a lexical relation? It’s
provenance of the term, why we study antonymy? Co-occurrence of antonyms and
its canonical features. From the analysis it is found that it is both semantic relation
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and lexical relation. We study antonyms because it plays important role in language
acquisition in children, psychological domain of word association testing, in
literature, in figurative speech and in key feature of everyday life e.g. can you try
visiting a public lavatory without checking which the ‘hwoa’ (gents) is and which the
‘aizw’ (ladies) is? Antonyms occur together, either within the same sentence or in
the adjacent sentences because of three main reasons: One reason is that certain
expression are structured in this way, e.g. ‘sase gothoni gwzwnnaiya sase khoro
>
gupurni gwzwnnaizang zeblabw soman zanw haya.Bima oseya phisani mwzang
mohor mwkhangkhwu nuywblazerwi gwzwnw bihari bimaya bibaidi gwzwnabwzanw
hahwu’(Lakheswar Brahma:2008:22).(The joy of an old man can never be equal to
that of a children. Looking the good physical appearance of her own son a mother
may f full ofjoy, while the step mother may not feel the same). Second reason is
that antonyms may be used generally to emphasis a point, e.g. ‘be zwngni gaoary
school, raizwni nonga ’(this is our private school, not pubic school).
Another context in which antonyms are typically employed is where reference is to
change the style, e.g. ‘be maokhoa khuliyw zi ringayao bandh zayw ba ringayao’
(This office opens at 10am and closes at 5pm).
There are four properties of antonyms, they are complementary, gradable,
morphological influence, and it applies to lexical items of the same word class.
Antonyms can be categorized into two, i.e. Gradable and Non gradable. Again gradable
antonyms can be subcategorized into two i.e. comparative and negative constructions.
However, although within the gradable antonyms there are nominal and verbal lexical
items, under the verbal lexical item there are only antonymous gradable state and
antonymous gradable process lexical items. Whereas from the analysis it is found
that in non gradable antonyms there is both nominal and verbal lexical items and
within verbal there are also state, action and process verbal lexical items in antonymy.
There is Converse of antonyms or relational antonyms and antonymous
adverbial lexical items are also commonly found in the language.
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In the analysis it is also found that verbal suffixes or compound verb play a
significant role in expressing an antonymous meaning.These suffixes or compound
verb are (i) ‘-khlai’(downward) and ‘khw’(upward), (ii) ‘-blang’(wide open) and
‘-seb ’(narrow down),(in) ‘-bw ’(coming towards or approching) and ‘-long ’(going
away or departure),(iv) (-phwi and-hwi) denoting near and distance.They can be
added to same and different verb root to express an antonymous meaning.
Finally, negative suffixes ‘-a’ added with mono-syllabic verb root for making
antonyms specially with habitual present tense and its extended form ‘-alia’ and4akhwi’ with future and perfect tense and Imperative negative prefix ‘da—’also
represent antonym while they are added to any mono syllabic verb.
There are also many polysemous nominal, adjectival and verbal lexical items
in Bodo. From the analysis it is explored that one nominal lexical item has various
related meaning e.g. the word ‘khoro ’ (head) mainly means ‘mansini khoro ’ (the
parts ofthe body), its meaning can be extended to include the meaning like ‘bottleni
khoro ’(the top of bottle) or ‘dwimani khoro ’ (source of the river).
In the analysis provenance of the term polysemy, disctinction between
polysemy and homonymy, distinction between indeterminacy and polysemy and
context were also discussed e.g. the referent of ‘gotho ‘(child), ‘laimwm ’(youth),
and ‘aiyong ’(a kindhip term) can be either male or female.
From the analysis it is also found that nominal polysemous lexical item can
be subcategorized into (i) etymology of the word (ii) metaphor.
Similarly polysemous lexical item is also divided into three classes: action,
process and state.
The nominal and verbal lexical items in Bodo also have hyponymy meaning.
If we talk about hyponymy, we take a closer look at the structure of lexical
hierarchies where lexical items have different level of speeifity i.e. one is genus of
general term(hypemym) others are specific term(hyponym) e.g. ‘swima ’(dog) is a
hyponym of ‘zunar ’(animal) or ‘mwsrwm ’(ant) is a hyponym of ‘emphwu-
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enla ’(insect).In these two examples, ‘zunar’(animal) and ‘emphwu-enla’(insect)
are called the super ordinate terms.
From the analysis it is also found that there is co-hyponym in Bodo at lexical
and syntactic level i.e. hypemym has more than one hyponym e.g. ‘Phithai ’ (fruit):
‘thaizwo ’ (mango), ‘thalir ’ (babana), ‘somphram ’ (guava) and ‘Be mase mwswo ’
(this is a cow) implies ‘be mase zunar ’(it is an animal), other hyponyms of ‘zunar ’
(animal) can be found ‘swima’(dog), ‘maozV (cat), ‘mwider (elephant) and so on.
There are two main problems of hyponymy i.e. all identical sentences will
give proof of a relation of hyponymy e.g. ‘Ang thaizwo mwzang mwna ’ (I don’t like
mango) does not simply implies ‘Angphithaizanw mwzang mwna’ (Idonot like
fruits.) and judgments of hyponymy are context sensitive e.g. ‘zibwu arw gubun
bisgwnang zibi’(snakes and other poisonous creatures).
In the analysis related concept with hyponymy such as taxonomy and
meronymy ,holonym were also compared.
From the analysis it is expounded verbal hyponymous lexical items also
classified into state, process and action e.g. . ‘sithab ’(stick) , ‘dagw ’(stain),
‘lirla’(smear), ‘suri’(worn out) ,‘gwzam’(old), ‘gwphwn’(decomposed),
‘phwrwng’(teach) ‘bung’(say), ‘khwntha’(tell), ‘dinthi’(show).
So, it is certain that Bodo has many hyponymous lexical items.
In the eight chapters Homonymy in Bodo has been discussed. Homonymy is
common in the language i.e a single lexeme denotes two or more sharply distinct
meaning e.g. ‘dan ’ (month), ‘dan ’ (donation/contribution).
There are two main sources of homonyms i.e. (i) Phonetic convergence or
coincidental e.g. ‘Kaamani’(kaam) ‘work’ < SKt karma.kaam ‘desire ’ and (ii)
Divergent of sense development of polysemous words e.g. ‘razalama ’(highway),
‘razalama ’(milkyway). The homonyms also have their origin in the languages by
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borrowing from different languages, e.g.
‘phuV(flower),
‘phul ’(placenta),
‘ul’(mating of reptiles), ‘ul’(disorder).
From the analysis it is explored that as Bodo language is one of the tone
languages, many homonyms are found in Bodo language. Homonyms in Bodo
language are more distinct in the same grammatical categories, though it is available
in different grammatical categories too. Verbal homonymous lexical items are also
divided into action, state and process e.g. ‘dum’(fence and‘beat), ‘gobda’ (heavy
and blunt), ‘zao ’(row, winnow) respectively.
One of the major analysis of present study is ‘idiom in Bodo’. It deals with
various aspiects of idioms in the language. The first and second subsections deal
with introduction and meaning and definition ofIdioms. Third subsection deal with
basic characteristics of idioms. Here from the analysis it is found that there are
four basic characteristics of an idiom. They are: (i) compositeness i.e. multi-word
expressions which functionjust like single word expression e.g. ‘simang phisa nunai’
in the sense of losing sense for a while, (ii) Institutionalization i.e. approved by the
usage of the language e.g. ‘khoro sani mandali’ is used in the sense of invisible
danger, (iii) Semantic opacity or Figurativeness i.e. words are used metaphorically
e.g. ‘gong bainai’ ‘horn break’is used in the sense of being defeated, (iv) Lexical
integrity i.e. which can be modified can only be modified within certain limits and
they have only a limited range ofpossible variants e.g. ‘biyw sayaosw bikhlw rwza
sing sing bikhlw gwbasw ’(He is courageous outside only, inside he is timid one).
The next subsection deals with the process of idiom formation. The process
of idioms formation in our languages is very interesting. From the analysis it is
expounded that through the figurative use of body parts, birds, insects, fishes and
animals, nature and universal objects, home and homesteads articles, human and
human characters, reduplications idiom can be formed in Bodo e.g. ‘megon
gunu’(educated), ‘Thamphwi hwphanai’(uncalled association), ‘Hathorkhi
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thukhlaV(use of bombastic words), ‘Naodra bunaV), ‘Hinzaoni akhai
sugra’(henpecked), ‘Ther ther zanai’(managing the bare necesity) respectively.
In this chapter’s subsection comparative study on idiom and phrase, Idiom
and proverb, idiom and simile, metaphors and use of idiom were also discussed.
In the last subsection there is structural classifications of Bodo idiom have
been discussed. Structurally Bodo idioms are classified into (i) verbal idiom i.e.
noun plus verb (Nv) e.g. ‘khuga dam ’(ii)Nominal idiom. From the analysis it is
found that there are many structural forms ofthis idiom. They are (a) Nominal form
(Noun) plus Nominal form (Noun) (N+N),(b) Nominal form (Noun) plus
Nominalization (Nmz)( N+Nmz),(c) Nominal form (Noun) plus Case Marker (Csm)
plus Noun (N+Csm+N),(d). Nominal form (Noun) plus nominal form (Noun) with
nominalization (nzm)(N+N+Nmz),(e). Nominal form (Noun) Plus verbal form (verb)
with nominalization (N+V+Nmz),(f) Nominal form (Noun) plus Adjectives plus
casemarker(Csm) withnominalization(N+Adj+Csm+Nmz) and (iii) Adjectival idiom
i.e. The idioms of such type consist of adjectives which either precede or follow
the nominal form (Noun), so the structural form is either (N+adj or Adj+noun)
The chapter i.e. the tenth chapter is the conclusion. It briefly highlights the
finding of the different topics.