Syntactical Structure of English and Pashto Prepositions: A Case of IN-ON Vs PUH-KE and PUH-BANDE

Kainat; Dr. Khan Sardaraz

doi:10.36902/sjesr-vol3-iss1-2020(76-88)

Kainat Undergraduate Student, Department of English and Applied Linguistics, University of Science & Technology, Bannu
Dr. Khan Sardaraz Director ORIC, University of Science & Technology, Bannu

DOI: https://doi.org/10.36902/sjesr-vol3-iss1-2020(76-88)

Keywords: Prepositional system, Svenonius’ model, LocP, Axpart, K

Abstract

Previous literature mainly focused on the categorization of prepositions in investigation of the syntactical structure of Pashto grammar. This paper will adopt syntactical model of Svenonius to examine the syntactic structure of Pashto prepositional system and will compare it with English to find out differences between English and Pashto prepositions. Svenonius’ model has been applied to the structured data on preposition IN and ON in English and PUH-KE and PUH-BANDE in Pashto retrieved from different sources. Purposeful structured sample was used for analysis. The analysis revealed that the prepositional systems in two languages exhibit syntactic and semantic differences, which often affect the translation and learning of second language. The analysis also revealed that the Svenonius’ model has to be adjusted to harness the syntactical structure of Pashto language. Moreover, Pashto speakers use the contact schema more often in expression of spatial relations than the English, and this paper suggests further research into spatial schemas to comprehensively analyze the Pashto prepositions.