Anaphors in Magahi: A Binding Theoretic Treatment

Abstract

This paper analyses anaphors in Magahi in Binding Theory. Magahi is a South Asian language of the Indo-Aryan family of languages. Anaphors in Magahi are consistent with the Principle-A of Binding Theory. Magahi anaphors display operator like properties as they depend on the nature of the clause they are embedded in. In a finite clause anaphor is subject oriented whereas in a non-finite clause anaphor is a PRO which in turn depends on the object of the main clause. The position of anaphors in non-finite clause is fixed. They can neither be moved nor can be scrambled. However, in finite clauses they can easily be scrambled.