Hindi: An Essential Grammar

299 Pages·2022·7.331 MB·English

by  Rama Kant Agnihotri

Hindi
Hindi: An Essential Grammar is a practical reference guide to the core
structures and features of modern Hindi. Assuming no prior knowledge
of Hindi grammar, this book avoids jargon and overly technical language
as it takes the student through the complexities of Hindi grammar in
short, readable sections.
Suitable for either independent study or for students in schools,
colleges, universities and adult education classes, key features include:
• Full examples throughout in both Devanagari and Roman script
with a gloss in English
• Glossary of technical terms and detailed subject index
• Cross referencing between sections
• Authentic material provided in the appendix demonstrating
grammar usage
Hindi: An Essential Grammar will help students, in both formal and
non-formal education and of all levels to read, speak and write the
language with greater confidence and accuracy.
The revised edition rectifies the printing errors inadvertently made in
the first edition; it also further clarifies several other issues including
Hindi word order flexibility, compound nouns, ergativity, pronominal
usage and polite communication.
Rama Kant Agnihotri retired as Professor and Head, Dept of Linguistics,
University of Delhi. He got his D. Phil from the University of York (UK).
He has lectured extensively in universities across the world and his
previous publications among others include Second Language
Acquisition: Socio-cultural and Linguistic Aspects of English in India
(edited with A.L. Khanna, 1994), Hindi Morphology: A Word-based
Description (with Rajendra Singh, 1997), Noam Chomsky: The
Architecture of Language (edited with N. Mukherjee and B. N. Patnaik,
2001) and Being and Becoming Multilingual: Some Narratives (edited
with Rajesh Sachdeva, 2022). He is currently Professor Emeritus at
Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur.
Routledge Essential Grammars
Essential Grammars describe clearly and succinctly the core rules of each lan-
guage and are up-to-date and practical reference guides to the most important
aspects of languages used by contemporary native speakers. They are designed
for elementary to intermediate learners and present an accessible description
of the language, focusing on the real patterns of use today.
Essential Grammars are a reference source for the learner and user
of the language, irrespective of level, setting out the complexities of the
language in short, readable sections that are clear and free from jargon.
Essential Grammars are ideal either for independent study or for
students in schools, colleges, universities and adult classes of all types.
Essential Grammars are available for the following languages:
Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian
Catalan
Chinese
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English
Filipino
Finnish
German
Greek
Hindi
Hungarian
Icelandic
Korean
Latvian
Modern Hebrew
North Sámi
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese
Romanian
Serbian
Spanish
Swedish
Thai
Turkish
Urdu
Vietnamese
West Greenlandic
For more information about this series, please visit: https://www.rout-
ledge.com/Routledge-Essential-Grammars/book-series/SE0549
‘Hindi: An Essential Grammar is exactly what a pedagogically
oriented grammar of a language should be: wide in its coverage,
elegant in its style, clear in its presentation, and simple, without
being simplistic, in its content.’
Rajendra Singh, Professor of Linguistics,
Université de Montreal, Canada
“The most appealing aspect of Agnihotri’s grammar is its clear
conception of its own objectives and functions. For speakers of
Hindi, it is an exposition of the systematicity and rule-governed
nature of their language; for learners of Hindi, it is an instrument
to further the learning of the language. In its jargon-free descrip-
tion of the patterns of Hindi grammar, the volume doubles up as
an introduction to modern grammatical analysis for anyone trying
their hand at grammar construction. In doing so, it produces an
analytical learner/speaker who is not merely a user of language,
but also its student.” (Kidwai 2007: 149)
“Agnihotri’s examples quite naturally draw on as wide a range of
lexical resources and contexts that an average Hindi speaker
would be expected to have access to. The accompanying observa-
tions on the conditions of use of the examples, and in the Appendix
on Grammar in Context, is also particularly worthy of commen-
dation, as they not only relieve the work of the usual accusations
of prescriptivism that grammars typically attract, they also reveal
to the reader how grammatical analysis enriches our understand-
ing of the social and the symbolic.” (Kidwai 2007: 150)
Prof Ayesha Kidwai, Professor of Linguistics at the Centre for
Linguistics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Hindi
An Essential Grammar
Second edition
Rama Kant Agnihotri
Second edition published 2023
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Rama Kant Agnihotri
The right of Rama Kant Agnihotri to be identified as author of this work
has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks,
and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
First edition published by Routledge 2007
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Agnihotri, Rama Kant, 1945– author.
Title: Hindi : an essential grammar / Rama Kant Agnihotri.
Description: Revised edition. | London ; New York : Routledge, 2022. |
Series: Routledge essential grammars | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
Identifiers: LCCN 2022004384 (print) | LCCN 2022004385 (ebook) |
ISBN 9781032163024 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032163048 (paperback) |
ISBN 9781003247968 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Hindi language–Grammar.
Classification: LCC PK1933 .A53 2022 (print) | LCC PK1933 (ebook) |
DDC 491.4/35–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022004384
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022004385
ISBN: 978-1-032-16302-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-16304-8 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-24796-8 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003247968
Typeset in Sabon
by Newgen Publishing UK
For
Vidisha, Lavanya, Homna and Ananya

Contents
Preface xvi
Acknowledgements xviii
Symbols xx
Abbreviations xxiii
Part I Hindi and its sentence types 1
Chapter 1 Hindi: a brief introduction 3
1.1 The Hindi area 3
1.2 The status of Hindi 3
1.3 What do we mean by ‘Hindi’? 5
1.4 Hindi sounds and writing system 6
1.5 The Hindi sentence 7
1.6 The Hindi vocabulary 8
1.7 Conclusion 9
Chapter 2 Hindi sentence structure 10
2.1 Word order 10
2.2 Subject–verb agreement 11
2.3 Linear ordering of constituents 12
2.3.1 Adjectives and nouns 12
2.3.2 Nouns, postpositions and agreement 13
2.3.3 Flexibility in word order 14
2.3.4 Direct and indirect object 15
2.3.5 Marker of comparison 15
2.3.6 Adverbs 16
2.4 Types of sentences 16
2.5 Conclusion 18
Chapter 3 Negatives 19
3.1 Negation 20
iixx
3.2 The use of nnaahhIIMM nahı˜ı˜, ‘not’ 22