A Study of Demonstrative Determiners in Pashto

Abstract

The existence of determiner phrases and their different manifestations in number, gender, and case have been studied and proved in English in many research studies. Many languages other than English need this investigation to establish a sound hypothesis about the universal language structure. This study was an attempt to find out the structure of the determiner phrase in the Pashto. It also investigated the equivalents of the English determiner phrase in the Pashto. It used the spoken corpus of Pashto as primary data. In addition, short stories and novels written by literary writers in the Pashto have been used as secondary data. Moreover, intensive group discussion with native speakers of Pashto has also been utilized as another secondary data source. The minimalist program was used to guide and understand the syntactic structure of languages. It was followed by the determiner phrase hypothesis. The hypothesis states that a noun is headed by its determiner in a noun phrase. Data were analyzed within the framework of the determiner phrase hypothesis. The study shows that a noun in the determiner phrase is not determined by a definite or indefinite article in Pashto. The determiner phrase is inflected for number, gender, and case in Pashto. Furthermore, the Pashto determiner phrase is different from English in terms of medial demonstrative determiners. The study is significant as it provides insight into the structure of the Pashto determiner phrase.