Abstract
Submitted to ICON 2008
Tariq Khan
CALTS, University Of Hyderabad
'Focus' is an intrinsic property of the 'Human Languages'. Among the variegated functions it performs are: highlighting the constituents in a phrase and sentence and relating the information between phrases. This paper deals with 'hI' as a focus particle in Hindi-Urdu language. It begins with a brief description on 'hI' as a focus particle. Next, it observes 'hI' at morphophonemic and Syntactic levels. I have used some example sentences to show the various positions it acquires in order to perform the roles assigned to it in different contexts. Then, I have attempted to show its interface with other particles like 'wo', 'ko', 'waka', 'para', 'BI' etc. My endeavour is to describe 'hI' not merely as an 'emphasizer' or 'discourse marker', but also as a tool for disambiguation. Finally, I have put a belief that, the understanding of 'hI' may prove computationally relevant, too. Specially, tasks like instructing machines how to parse Hindi-Urdu sentences and/or translate them into other language(s).
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