Morphology and Syntax 1

Morphology and Syntax: A Comparative Study

between English and Bangla

MOHAMMED SHANAWAZ

ID: 112 0697 055

ENG 551: Advanced Study of Morphology and Syntax

Associate Professor Dr. Deena P. Forkan

25 April 2013

North South University

 Morphology and Syntax 2

Table of Contents

Abstract………………………………………………………………………………….03

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..04

1.1 Rational of the Study…………………………………………………………04

1.2 Statement of Problems………………………………………………………..05
2. Literature Review……………………………………………………………………05

2.1 General Description on Morphology…………………………………………05

2.2 General Description on Syntax…………………………………….................08
3. Synchronic and Diachronic Analysis……………………………………………….09

3.1 English Morphology and Syntax……………………………………………..09

3.2 Bangla Morphology and Syntax…………………………………...................13
4. Comparative Analysis……………………………………………………………….15

4.1 English and Bangla Morphology……………………………………………..15

4.2 English and Bangla Syntax…………………………………………………...18
5. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………................22

5.1 Limitations of the Study……………………………………………...............23

References……………………………………………………………………………....24
 Morphology and Syntax 3

Abstract

First language (L1) acquisition is a natural process where learners acquire mother tongue (L1)
unconsciously. Unlike L1, second/foreign language (L2) acquisition (SLA) is a conscious
process of learning language where learners have to imply deliberate attempts. Hence, L2
learners go through many SLA challenges including mother tongue/L1 interference, error
analysis, interlanguage/learner’s language, learners’ age, motivation, positive feedback and so
on. This very study portrays morphological and syntactical comparison between English and
Bangla from synchronic, diachronic, and grammatical prospective. Therefore, the study aids the
second language (L2) learners of either English or Bangla to comprehend both the language
better and to overcome SLA challenges.
 Morphology and Syntax 4

1. Introduction

1.1 Rational of the Study:

Language is a precious gift designed for human species. Language ability in fact is one of the
unique features of humans that distinguishes them from any other animal species. Human beings
are the only animal species who possess language ability. Barber (1999) asserts, “It is language,
more obviously than anything else, that distinguishes humankind from rest of the animal world”
(p. 1). Language itself is a complex phenomenon and how humans acquire language ability is a
matter of debate. According to certain school of linguists, the unique language ability of human
beings is the outcome of nature which is genetically coded among human species. While another
school of linguists argues that language ability of human species is the outcome of nurture,
humans acquire the input of language gradually from the environment they live in. Conversely,
other group of linguists believes that little bit of both nature and nurture play essential role
behind the unique language ability of human species.

All these disputes behind the unique language ability of humans are centered on mother tongue
or first language (L1) acquisition. First language (L1) acquisition is a natural process where
humans acquire their mother tongue (L1) unconsciously. However, no such disputes arise in
learning second language (L2). Although We, humans (more precisely children) can acquire
more than one language simultaneously, but in most of the cases second language (L2)
acquisition is a deliberate attempt of learning language (other than mother tongue/L1) unlike first
language (L1) acquisition. Ellis (2002) points out that, “At first sight, the meaning of the term
‘second language acquisition’ seems transparent but, in fact, it requires careful explanation. For
one thing, in this context ‘second’ can refer to any language that is learned subsequent to the
mother tongue. Thus, it can refer to the learning of a third or fourth language. Also, ‘second’ is
not intended to contrast with ‘foreign’. Whether you are learning a language naturally as a result
of living in a country where it is spoken, or learning it in a classroom through instruction, it is
customary to speak generically of ‘second language acquisition’. ‘L2 acquisition’, then can be
defined as the way in which people learn a language other than their mother tongue, inside or
outside of a classroom, and ‘Second Language Acquisition’ (SLA) as the study of this” (p. 3).
 Morphology and Syntax 5

Thus, in the case of Second Language Acquisition (SLA), we consciously learn the grammar rules
of a particular language which is second/foreign language towards us. In such cases of SLA, the
more we can comprehend the phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics of the L2; the better
we master the language. Hence, for better mastering the L2, a comparative study between the
grammar rules of mother tongue (L1) and target language (L2) can aid L2 learners in long run.
Therefore, morphological and syntactical comparison between Bangla and English can play a
very significant role in mastering English as a second language among the Bangla speaking
English learners.

1.2 Statement of Problems:

Bangla is the widely spoken mother tongue (L1) in our country, while a large number of Bangla
speakers learn English as the second/foreign language for the purposes of education,
employment, or international business. English has become ‘lingua franca’ (common speech) in
the present globalized world, and hence, we cannot ignore the necessity of learning English as a
second/foreign language apart from the mother tongue (L1) in such era of global village. In
Second Language Acquisition (SLA), L2 learners have to face many challenges, e.g., mother
tongue/L1 interference, error analysis, interlanguage/learner’s language, learners’ age,
motivation, positive feedback and so on (Ellis, 2002). The success of L2 learners (in acquiring
the language) mostly depends on overcoming these challenges. Likewise, Bangla speakers who
learn English as L2 also go through such challenges, and their success of mastering English also
rely on overcoming such hindrances. Thus, a comparative analysis of morphology and syntax
between Bangla and English can surely aid us to face optimistically some of these SLA
challenges, i.e., mother tongue/L1 interference, error analysis, and interlanguage/learner’s
language.

2. Literature Review

2.1 General Description on Morphology:

According to Haspelmath (2002), morphology is the study of the internal structure of words. He
states that morphology is both the oldest and one of the youngest sub-disciplines of grammar. It
is oldest in a sense that the first linguists were primarily morphologists. Morphology was very
 Morphology and Syntax 6

much prominent in the writings of the greatest grammarian of antiquity, such as—the Indian
Panini, and in the Greek and Roman grammatical tradition. But as a sub-discipline of grammar,
morphology flourished only in the second half of the nineteenth century. In this sense,
morphology is a young sub-discipline of grammar.

Haspelmath (2002) in his book Understanding Morphology asserts that morphological analysis
typically consists of the identifications of parts of words or more precisely constituents of words.
The smallest meaningful constituents of words that can be identified are called morphemes. For
example, in the word nuts, both the suffix -s and the stem nut represent a morpheme. According
to McCarthy (2002), morphemes can be free and bound—free morphemes can stand by
themselves as single words, while bound morphemes cannot normally stand alone and are
typically attached to another form. McCarthy says that free morphemes fall into two categories—
lexical and functional. Lexical morphemes consist of the lexical words of the language, such as
nouns, adjectives, and adverbs; whereas functional morphemes consist largely of the functional
words of the language, such as conjunctions, prepositions, articles, and pronouns. McCarthy also
asserts that bound morphemes fall into two categories—derivational and inflectional.
Derivational morphemes change the grammatical category and/or the type of meaning of the
word, so it is said to create a new word, e.g., suffix -ment in government (from verb to noun).
Conversely, inflectional morphemes do not change either the grammatical category or the type of
meaning found in the word, e.g., suffix -s in books.

Thus, Haspelmath (2002) rightly gives the definition of morphology as, “Morphology is the
study of the combination of morphemes to yield words” (p. 3). In morphological analysis of nuts,
we may also see that the final [s] of nuts expresses plural meaning; the final [s] expresses the
same meaning in general when it occurs at the end of a noun. But the final [s] in lapse does not
have morphological structure. So, it is obvious that morphological structure only exists if there
are groups of words which show identical partial resemblances in both form and meaning.
Hence, Haspelmath gives another definition of morphology as, “Morphology is the study of
systematic covariation in the form and meaning of words” (p. 2).

In morphological analysis, we usually find two different notions of word—the dictionary word
and the text word. As this distinction of words is central to morphology, morphologists use
 Morphology and Syntax 7

technical terms for the two notions. Haspelmath states, “A ‘dictionary word’ is called a lexeme
(this is because the mental dictionary in our heads is called the lexicon by linguists). Lexemes are
abstract entities and can be thought of as sets of word-forms. Sometimes we will use the
convention of writing lexemes in small capitals (e.g. LIVE is a lexeme)” (p.12). Conversely,
Haspelmath says, “A ‘text word’ (i.e. whatever is separated by spaces in writing) is called a
word-form. Word-forms are concrete in that they can be pronounced and used in texts. Every
word-form belongs to one lexeme, e.g. the word-form lived belongs to the lexeme LIVE” (p. 13).
Moreover, Haspelmath also says, “…lexemes consist of a fair number of word-forms. The set of
word-forms that belongs to a lexeme is often called a paradigm…Different lexemes may also be
related to each other, and a set of related lexemes is sometimes called a word family (though it
should more properly be called a lexeme family)” (p. 14). Hence, examples of two English word
families can be the following—

I. READ, READABLE, UNREADABLE, READER, READABILITY, REREAD

II. LOGIC, LOGICIAN, LOGICAL, ILLOGICAL, ILLOGICALITY

We also find two different kinds of morphological relationship among words and linguists use
technical terms in order to identify such relationship. One is called inflection (inflectional
morphology); such relationship exists between word-forms of a lexeme. Conversely, another is
derivation (derivational morphology); such relationship exists between lexemes of a word
family. Morphologists also use the corresponding verbs inflect and derive in order to identify
such relationships among words. Hence, we may say that the lexeme LIVE is inflected (or
inflects) for case and number, whereas the lexeme READER is derived from the lexeme READ.
We also call a derive lexeme as a derivative.

We often see that morphologically complex words belong to two or more word families
simultaneously. For example, the lexeme FIREWOOD belongs both in the family of FIRE and in
the family of WOOD. We call such relationship as compounding and lexeme like FIREWOOD are
called as compound lexemes. Therefore, Haspelmath asserts the following subdivisions of
morphology (Figure 01):
 Morphology and Syntax 8

Figure 01: Subdivisions of Morphology

2.2 General Description on Syntax:

Syntax is the study of the internal structure of phrases/sentences which known to be the most
significant property of human language (grammar). Unlike morphology, in syntax we study the
structure at phrase or sentence level. According to Haspelmath (2002), “Syntax means sentence
construction: how words group together to make phrases and sentences” (p. 1).

Haspelmath claims that sometimes people use the term GRAMMAR to denote same as syntax.
But most linguists follow the more recent practice whereby the grammar of a language includes
all of its organizing principles—information about the sound system, about the forms of words,
how we adjust language according to context, and so on; syntax is only one part of this grammar.
The term syntax is also used to mean the study of the syntactic properties of languages. In this
sense, syntax is used in the exact way we use stylistics to mean to the study of literary style.
Syntactic properties tell us the rules and principles of combining meaningful sentences. Syntax is
not just a string of words rather syntactic rules determine the structure of that string. For
example, we cannot just say that ‘*Beat the cat the dong’, this string of words does not denote
any meaning at all. In order to give proper meaning, a string of words (phrase/sentence) has to
follow a proper word order and that word order is always determined by the syntactic rules of
that very language. Hence, the string of words, ‘The cat beat the dog’ denotes proper meaning as
it follows the word order of English syntax. Moreover, meaning of phrases/sentences also
 Morphology and Syntax 9

depends on the syntactic combination. The meaning of a phrase/sentence varies depending on

that syntactic combination of that very phrase/sentence. Thus, the meaning of the sentence ‘The
dog beat the cat’ differs completely for the above sentence ‘The cat beat the dog’.

Syntactic rules differ from language to language. For instance, English follows SVO (subject +
verb + object) word order, whereas Bangla follows SOV (subject + object + verb). Moreover,
syntactic rules may also vary within a language; let’s say—the word order of Standard Bangla
and Chittagonian Dialect (dialect of standard Bangla) varies.

Syntax also varies depending on speakers’ social class, age group, time frame, environment etc,
as these factors sometimes determine speaker’ choice of vocabulary and construction of the
phrase/sentence. Although syntactic rules vary from language to language, person to person, or
situation to situation; syntax is universal to all human languages. Haspelmath (2002) argues that
all languages have syntax, and non-industrial societies also have languages which are as complex
as the languages of most civilized industrial societies. Linguists know this fact as all languages
have various sophisticated features in common; and moreover speakers of all languages can
express the same thoughts and concepts, hold the same debates and reason in the same
interactive ways. Haspelmath furthermore asserts that, “Children learn to speak their native
language in stages which are remarkably similar in any culture, and their learning is completed in
a comparable time scale across cultures. There are no languages which are so hard that their
speakers don’t become fluent until they’re 18 years old! If children can learn all languages with
equal ease, then all languages must have the same degree of difficulty” (p. 2).

3. Synchronic and Diachronic Analysis

3.1 English Morphology and Syntax:

On the basis of synchronic and diachronic study (“English Language,” n.d.) of English language,
we can see that English is a West Germanic language which was first spoken in early medieval
England but it is now the most widely used language in the world. English is spoken as a first
language by the majority populations of several superior states, i.e., the United Kingdom, the
United States, Canada, Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and a number of Caribbean nations.
After Mandarin Chinese and Spanish, English is the third-most-common native language in the
 Morphology and Syntax 10

world, while it is also widely learned as a second language around the world. English arose in the
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England what is now southeast Scotland. Following the authoritative
influence of Great Britain and the United Kingdom from the 17th century to the mid-20th century
through the British colonialism, and also of the United States since the mid-20th century, English
has been widely propagated around the world becoming the leading language of international
discourse and the lingua franca in many regions.

Historically, English originated from the fusion of closely related dialects, now collectively
termed Old English, which were brought to the eastern coast of Great Britain by Germanic
settlers (Anglo-Saxons) on the 5th century AD. However, English language we speak today is not
the same that people spoke earlier. In course of time, the English language has evolved
dramatically. One can notice a very significant morphological, syntactical, or even phonological
changes and enrichments in the English language over the years. O’Grady, Dobrovolsky, &
Katamba (1996) assert, English has undergone continuous and dramatic change throughout its
three major periods Old English (roughly from 450 to 1100), Middle English (from 1100 to
1500), and Modern English (from 1500 to the present). In the book Contemporary Linguistics
O’Grady et al. (1996) argue, while Chaucer’s Middle English is at least comprehensible today,
Old English looks like a completely foreign language. Analyzing an extract from an eighth-
century Old English literary document (a translation of Bede’s Latin History of England), they
(O’Grady et al.,1996) further explain how Old English sentences differ from their Modern
English counterparts in many respects—

and Seaxan pā sige geslōgan.

and Saxons the victory won
‘And the Saxons won the victory.’

pā sendan hī hām ǣrenddracan.

then sent they home messenger
‘Then they sent home messenger.’

They (O’Grady et al.,1996) show, in terms of pronunciation, for instance, the Old English word
hām [ha:m] or ‘home’ (in the second sentence of the above extract) became [hɔ:m] in Middle
English, and then [howm] and eventually [həʊm] in Modern English. They (O’Grady et al.,1996)
assert, in terms of morphology Old English differed significantly from Modern English, for
 Morphology and Syntax 11

instance, the suffix -an on the Old English word for ‘sent’ indicates both past tense and plurality
of the subject (hī ‘they’). They (O’Grady et al.,1996) also state, differences in word order
(syntax) between Old English and Modern English are readily apparent, with the verb following
both the subject and the object in the first sentence of the above extract and preceding both the
subject and the object in the second sentence. Modern English accept neither of the above word
order; rather it has evolved as a fixed subject-verb-direct object (SVO) basic word order. They
(O’Grady et al.,1996) in addition state, some Old English words have disappeared from use, e.g.,
the unfamiliar words ǣrenddracan ‘messenger’ and sige ‘victory’ used in the above extract. Still
other words have maintained, but with a change in meaning. For example, the Old English word
geslōgan (which is translated as ‘won’ in the above extract) is the past tense of the verb slēan,
the Old English predecessor of our word slay. Though the Modern English meaning of this word
in usual usage is limited to the act of killing, the Old English verb could also mean ‘to strike,
beat, coin (money), and forge (weapons)’.

Inflectional Simplicity, Transformation form Synthetic to Analytic Language, Great Vowel Shift,
Conversion of Grammatical Gender to Natural Gender are some of the major aspects of Modern
English that denote significant morphological and syntactical alterations of the English language
over the years. Baugh & Cable (2000) assert—the evolution of English language in the 1,500
years of its existence in England has been an unbroken one. Within this development, it is
possible to recognize three main periods, each of which denote broad characteristics and special
developments of English language took place over the years. Baugh & Cable term Old English as
the period of full of inflections; because during this period the endings of the noun, the adjective,
and the verb are preserved more or less unimpaired. They (Baugh & Cable) term Middle English
as the period of leveled inflections; because during this period the inflections which had begun to
break down toward the end of the Old English period become greatly reduced. Eventually, they
(Baugh & Cable) term Modern English as the period of lost inflections; because by the time we
reach this stage in the development a large part of original inflectional system has disappeared
entirely. Moreover, Baugh & Cable analyze how Modern English has evolved from synthetic to
analytic language putting significant impact in its morphology and syntax. English is an
inflectional language and inflectional languages fall into two categories—synthetic, and analytic.
A synthetic language is one that indicates the relation of words in a sentence largely by means of
 Morphology and Syntax 12

inflections. In the case of Indo-European languages these most commonly take the form of
endings on the noun and pronoun, the adjective and the verb. For instance, in Latin the
nominative murus (wall) is distinguished from the genitive muri (of the wall), dative muro,
accusative murum, etc. In synthetic languages word order is not fixed and thus alteration in word
order may not change the meaning of the sentence. Old English and even Bangla bear such
characteristic of synthetic language. Thus, Bangla sentence ‘Rahim hotta korachilo Karim ke.’
and ‘Karim ke hotta korachilo Rahim.’ denote same meaning. However, in Modern English the
subject and the object do not have distinctive forms and we also make use of fixed word order in
Modern English syntax. Hence, Modern English sentence ‘Rahim killed Karim.’ and ‘Karim
killed Rahim.’ denote completely different meaning; whereas ‘Rahim killed Karim.’ and ‘Karim
was killed by Rahim.’ possess same meaning. Languages that make extensive use of prepositions
and auxiliary verbs and depend upon word order to show other relationships are known as
analytic languages. Modern English morphology and syntax possess such characteristics of
analytic language, whereas Old English was merely synthetic one.

Baugh & Cable further assert—long vowels in Old English have undergone considerable
modification in Modern English (which is known as Great Vowel Shift). Thus, Old English
words stān, gān, bān, rāp etc. are the same words in Modern English as stone, go, bone, rope
etc. They (Baugh & Cable) also claims—English enjoys an exceptional advantage over all other
major European languages in having adopted natural (rather than grammatical gender. Unlike
Modern English, German sonne (sun) is feminine, mond (moon) is masculine; but kind (child),
mädchen (maiden), and weib (wife) are neuter. This distinction must be constantly kept in mind
(in the case of grammatical gender) as it not only affects the reference of pronouns but also
determines the form of inflection and the agreement of adjectives. Old English also possessed
grammatical gender but all those were stripped away during Middle English period, and today
the gender of every noun in the dictionary is known instantly. Gender of Modern English is
determined by meaning—all nouns naming living creatures are masculine or feminine according
to the sex of the individual, and all others are neuter. Therefore, Great Vowel Shift, and
Conversion of Old English Grammatical Gender into Natural Gender also play significant role in
alterations and enrichments of English morphology and syntax.
 Morphology and Syntax 13

3.2 Bangla Morphology and Syntax:

On the basis of synchronic and diachronic study (“Bengali Language,” n.d.) of Bangla language,
we can examine that Bangla is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of
eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state
of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. Bangla is one of the most
spoken languages (ranked sixth) in the world with around 193 million native and around 230
million total speakers. Bangla, along with other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages evolved circa
1000–1200 CE from eastern Middle Indo-Aryan dialects such as the Magadhi Prakrit and Pali,
which developed from a dialect or group of dialects that were close, but not identical to, Vedic
and Classical Sanskrit.

Literary Bangla saw borrowings from Classical Sanskrit, preserving spelling while adapting
pronunciation to that of Bangla, during the period of Middle Bengali and the Bengali
Renaissance. The modern literary form of Bangla was developed during the 19th and early 20th
centuries based on the dialect spoken in the Nadia region, a west-central Bangla dialect. Today,
literary form and dialects of Bangla constitute the primary language spoken in Bangladesh and
the second most commonly spoken language in India.

We can identify three major periods in the history of emergence of Bangla language, while each
of these periods predominantly shows the major morphological, syntactical, and even
phonological development of the language—

(i) Old Bengali (900/1000–1400): Texts of this period include Charyapada, devotional songs;
emergence of pronouns Ami, Tumi, etc.; verb inflections -ila, -iba, etc. Assamese (Ahomiya)
branches out in this period and Oriya just before this period (8th century-1300). The scripts and
languages during this period were mainly influenced by the Kamrupi language (script-Kamrupa
Prakrit) as the entire region—Assam, Bengal and parts of Bihar and Orissa was under the
Kamrupa kingdom (now known as Assam).

(ii) Middle Bengali (1400–1800): Major texts of this period include Chandidas’s Shreekrishna
Kirtana; elision of word-final ô sound; spread of compound verbs; Persian influence. Some
scholars further divide this period into early and late middle periods.
 Morphology and Syntax 14

(iii) New Bengali (since 1800): Major developments of this period include shortening of verbs
and pronouns, among other changes (e.g. tahar → tar “his”/“her”; koriyachilô → korechilo
he/she had done).

Moreover, historically being closer to Pali, Bangla saw an increase in Sanskrit influence during
the Middle Bengali (Chaitanya Mahaprabhu era) and also during the Bengali Renaissance. Of
the modern Indo-European languages in South Asia, Bangla and its neighbors, Oriya and
Assamese (Ahomiya), in the east maintain a largely Pali/Sanskrit vocabulary base, as does
Marathi in the center-west.

However, synchronic and diachronic analysis (“Bengali Language,” n.d.) of Bangla further
assert, Bangla exhibits diglossia. Although it is a largely contested notion as some scholars
proposed triglossia or even n-glossia or heteroglossia between the written and spoken forms of
the language. Two of these forms of Bangla possess somewhat different morphology
(vocabularies) and syntax—

(i) Shadhubhasha (chaste/sage language): This particular form was the written language with
longer verb inflections and more of a Pali/Sanskrit-derived (tôtshômo) vocabulary. Songs such as
India’s national anthem Jana Gana Mana (by Rabindranath Tagore) and national song Vande
Mātaram (by Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay) were composed in Shadhubhasha. However, use
of this form (Shadhubhasha) in modern writing is uncommon, restricted to some official signs
and documents in Bangladesh as well as for achieving particular literary effects.

(ii) Cholitobhasha (current/running language): This particular form is known by linguists as

Manno Cholit Bangla (Standard Colloquial Bangla). It is a written Bangla style exhibiting a
predominance of colloquial idiom and shortened verb forms, and is the standard for written
Bangla now. This form came into vogue towards the turn of the 19th century, promoted by the
writings of Peary Chand Mitra (Alaler Gharer Dulal, 1857), Pramatha Chowdhury (Sabujpatra,
1914) and in the later writings of Rabindranath Tagore. This form is modeled on the dialect
spoken in the Shantipur region in Nadia district, West Bengal. Hence, this vary form of Bangla is
often referred to as the Nadia Standard or Shantipuri Bangla.
 Morphology and Syntax 15

Linguistically, Cholit Bangla is derived from Sadhu Bangla through two successive standard
linguistic transformations. While most writings are carried out in Cholit Bangla, spoken dialects
exhibit a far greater variety. South-eastern West Bengal, including Kolkata speaks in Manno
Cholit Bangla. Other parts of West Bengal and west Bangladesh speak in dialects that are minor
variations, such as the Medinipur dialect characterized by some unique words and constructions.
However, areas of Bangladesh, particularly the Chittagong region, speak in a dialect that bears
very little superficial resemblance to Manno Cholit Bangla, including an entirely different
vocabulary. The difference is so great that a person from West Bengal will be very hard hard-
pressed to understand even a single sentence in a passage of this dialect. This is known as the
Bongali Sublanguage, or more informally as Chattagram Bangla. Writers (such as Manik
Bandopadhyay in Padmanodir Majhi) have used the Bongali dialect in writing conversations.
Though formal spoken Bangla is modeled on Manno Cholit Bangla, the majority of Bengalis are
able to communicate in more than one variety—often, speakers are fluent in Choltibhasha and
one or more Regional dialects.

4. Comparative Analysis

4.1 English and Bangla Morphology:

Analyzing morphology of English and Bangla (“Bengali Grammar,” & “English Language,”
n.d.), it is obvious that both the language possesses some morphological similarities and
dissimilarities:

(i) Pronouns: Bangla pronouns are somewhat similar to English pronouns, having different
words for first, second, and third person, and also for singular and plural. Bangla pronouns,
unlike their English counterparts, do not differentiate for gender; that is, the same pronoun may
be used for he/she. However, Bangla has different third-person pronouns for proximity. The first
are used for someone who is nearby, and the second are for those who are a little further away.
The third are usually for those who are not present. In addition, each of the second-person and
third-person pronouns have different forms for the familiar and polite forms; the second person
also has a ‘very familiar’ form. It may be noted that the ‘very familiar’ form is used when
addressing particularly close friends or family as well as for addressing subordinates, or in
 Morphology and Syntax 16

abusive language. In the following tables, the abbreviations used are as follows: VF=very
familiar, F=familiar and P=polite (honor); H=here, T=there, and E=elsewhere (proximity).

In both Bangla and English, the nominative case is used for pronouns that are the subject of the
sentence (see Figure 02), such as ‘I already did that’ or ‘Will you please stop making that noise?’

Figure 02: Personal Pronouns (nominative case) in Bangla and English

In both Bangla and English, the objective case is used for pronouns serving as the direct or
indirect objects (see Figure 03), such as ‘I told him to wash the dishes’ or ‘The teacher gave me
the homework assignment.’

Figure 03: Personal Pronouns (objective case) in Bangla and English

 Morphology and Syntax 17

In both Bangla and English, the possessive case is used to show possession (see Figure 04), such
as ‘Where is your coat?’ or ‘Let’s go to our house.’ Note that the plural forms are identical to
those for the objective case.

Figure 04: Personal Pronouns (possessive case) in Bangla and English

(ii) Nouns: Unlike English, Bangla nouns are also inflected for case, including nominative,
objective, genitive (possessive), and locative. The case marking pattern of Bangla for each noun
being inflected also depends on the noun’s degree of animacy (see Figure 05).

Figure 05: Singular Noun Inflection Bangla and English Figure 06: Plural Noun Inflection Bangla and English
 Morphology and Syntax 18

When a definite article of Bangla such as -ta (singular) or -gula (plural) is added, as in the table
above, Bangla nouns are also inflected for number unlike English (see Figure 06).

(iii) Measure Words: When counted, nouns in Bangla must also be accompanied by the
appropriate measure word. Unlike English, nouns in Bangla cannot be counted directly by
adding the numeral directly adjacent to the noun. The noun’s measure word (MW) must be used
in between the numeral and the noun (see Figure 07). Most nouns in Bangla unlike English take
the generic measure word ta, although there are many more specific measure words, such as jon,
which is only used to count humans.

Figure 07: Measure Words Dissimilarity in Bangla and English

Measuring nouns in Bangla without their corresponding measure words (e.g. at biŗal instead of
at-ta biral ‘eight cats’) would typically be considered ungrammatical (unlike English). However,
omitting the noun and preserving the measure word is grammatical and not uncommon in
Bangla. For example, ‘Shudhu ek-jon thakbe.’ (‘Only one-MW will remain’) would be
understood to mean ‘Only one person will remain.’, since jon can only be used to count humans.
The word lok ‘person’ is implied.

4.2 English and Bangla Syntax:

The fundamental contrast between English and Bangla syntax is in the word-order. The basic
word-order of English is SVO (subject-verb-object), whereas Bangla follows SOV (subject-
object-verb) as basic word-order. Hence, English and Bangla sentences constitute with transitive
verbs differ significantly. Hence, word-to-word translation of Bangla sentence ‘Ami vat khai.’ is
‘*I rice eat’, which is ungrammatical in English. Apart from these, analyzing syntax of English
and Bangla (“Bengali Grammar,” & “English Language,” n.d.), we find some other syntactic
similarities and contract between both the language—
 Morphology and Syntax 19

(i) Aspect: Unlike English, there are three aspects for Bangla verbs—the simple aspect, the
progressive/continuous aspect, and the perfect aspect. These are combined with the different
tenses described below to form the various verbal conjugations possible:

ãka - verbal noun (‘act of drawing’)

ãkte - verbal infinitive (‘to draw’)

ãkte-ãkte - progressive participle (‘while drawing’)

ãkle - conditional participle (‘if X draws’)

ẽke - perfect participle (‘having drawn’)

ẽke-ẽke - iterative participle (‘having drawn many times’)

(ii) Tense: Bangla has four simple tenses (more likely as English)—the present tense, the past
tense, the conditional or habitual past tense, and the future tense. These combine with mood and
aspect to form more complex conjugations, such as the past progressive, or the present perfect.

Simple Present Tense: The present tense in Bangla is similar to that of English: I eat (Ami
khai), ‘You run (Tumi daorao)’, ‘He reads (Sha pore)’ etc. The endings are -i, -(i)sh, -o, -
e, and -(e)n.

Figure 08: Simple Present Tense (Bangla)

 Morphology and Syntax 20

Simple Past Tense: The (simple) past tense in Bangla differs from its use in English as it
is usually reserved for events that have occurred recently; for instance, events happened
less than a day ago would be translated into the English simple past tense: ‘I ate (Ami
kalam)’, ‘You ran (Tumi dourale)’, ‘He read (Sha porlo)’. The endings are -lam, -li, -le, -
lo, -len (notice that the vowels for the second and third familiar persons are the reverse of
those in the present tense). For example: ami dekhlam, tui dekhli, tumi dekhle, se dekhlo,
apni dekhlen. In less standard varieties of Bangla, ‘a’ is substituted for ‘e’ in second-
person familiar forms; thus ‘tumi bolla/khulla/khella,’ etc.

Figure 09: Simple Past Tense (Bangla)

Habitual Past Tense: The habitual past tense has a few different uses in Bangla. In both
English and Bangla, Habitual Past is used for events that happened regularly, such as ‘I
used to eat out every day’ or ‘He wrote poems when he was young’, the equivalent of an
imperfect. It may also be used as a sort of conditional, such as the following: ‘If you
 Morphology and Syntax 21

asked I would come’ or ‘If you had asked I would have come’. It is easy to form the
habitual past tense in Bangla: simply start with the simple past tense and change the l to t
(except in the tui in very familiar form). The endings are -tam, -tish, -te, -to, -ten. For
example: ami dekhtam, tui dekhtish, tumi dekhte, sha dekhto, apni dekhten. In less
standard varieties of Bangla, ‘a’ is substituted for ‘e’ in second-person familiar forms;
thus ‘tumi bolta/khulta/khelta,’ etc.

Figure 10: Habitual Past Tense (Bangla)

Future Tense: In less standard varieties of Bangla, ‘a’ is substituted for ‘e’ in second-
person familiar forms; thus ‘tumi bolba/khulba/khelba,’ etc can be found in construction
of future (simple) tense of Bangla (unlike English).

Figure 11: Future Tense (Bangla)

 Morphology and Syntax 22

(iii) Prepositions/Postpositions: English features prepositions, whereas Bangla typically uses

postpositions. That is, while these modifying words occur before their object in English (beside
him, inside the house), they typically occur after their object in Bangla (or pashe, baŗir bhitore).

Some postpositions require their object noun to take the possessive case, while others require the
objective case (which is unmarked for inanimate nouns); this distinction must be memorized.
Most postpositions are formed by taking nouns referring to a location and inflecting them for
locative case.

5. Conclusion

In the present day of globalization where the entire world acts as a global village, we cannot
necessarily ignore the necessity of learning English (which is spoken as lingua franca in today’s
global village) as second/foreign language apart from our mother tongue (L1). Second/foreign
language learning is a conscious process of learning language where learners have to put
deliberate attempts unlike first language (L1) acquisition. Hence, second/foreign language
learners usually go through many challenges, e.g., mother tongue/L1 interference, error analysis,
interlanguage/learner’s language, learners’ age, motivation, positive feedback and so on. So, a
comparative analysis between first language (L1) and second language (L2) can help
second/foreign language learners to overcome such challenges. Therefore, this very study aids
the second language (L2) learners of either Bangla or English as it portrays morphological and
syntactical comparison between the two languages. The study compares morphology and syntax
of both the language from synchronic, diachronic, and grammatical prospective; and thus second
language (L2) learners of either Bangla or English get utmost opportunity to comprehend both
the language better and to overcome second language acquisition (SLA) challenges.
 Morphology and Syntax 23

5.1 Limitations of the Study:

‘Morphology and Syntax: A Comparative Study between English and Bangla’ is a small scale
exploratory study on morphological and syntactical analysis of English and Bangla. Being small
scale exploratory research, this very study usually contains many limitations—time constraints,
financial constraints, lack of study materials particularly on Bangla morphology & syntax etc.
are some of such major limitations. Thus, a rigorous study on this very topic is required in near
future to aid second language (L2) learners of either Bangla or English aptly.
 Morphology and Syntax 24

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