Hindi

Hindi: An Essential Grammar is a practical reference guide to the core structures and features of modern Hindi. Assuming no prior knowledge of Hindi grammar, this book avoids jargon and overly technical language as it takes the student through the complexities of Hindi grammar in short, readable sections.Suitable for either independent study or for students in schools, colleges, universities and adult education classes, key features include:Full examples throughout in both Devanagari and Roman script with a gloss in EnglishGlossary of technical terms and detailed subject indexCross referencing between sectionsAuthentic material provided in the appendix demonstrating grammar usageHindi: An Essential Grammar will help students, in both formal and non-formal education and of all levels to read, speak and write the language with greater confidence and accuracy.The revised edition rectifies the printing errors inadvertently made in the first edition; it also further clarifies several other issues including Hindi word order flexibility, compound nouns, ergativity, pronominal usage and polite communication.

"The most appealing aspect of Agnihotri’s grammar is its clear conception of its own objectives and functions. For speakers of Hindi, it is an exposition of the systematicity and rule-governed nature of their language; for learners of Hindi, it is an instrument to further the learning of the language. In its jargon-free description of the patterns of Hindi grammar, the volume doubles up as an introduction to modern grammatical analysis for anyone trying their hand at grammar construction. In doing so, it produces an analytical learner/speaker who is not merely a user of language, but also its student." (Kidwai 2007: 149)"Agnihotri’s examples quite naturally draw on as wide a range of lexical resources and contexts that an average Hindi speaker would be expected to have access to. The accompanying observations on the conditions of use of the examples, and in the Appendix on Grammar in Context, is also particularly worthy of commendation, as they not only relieve the work of the usual accusations of prescriptivism that grammars typically attract, they also reveal to the reader how grammatical analysis enriches our understanding of the social and the symbolic." (Kidwai 2007: 150)Prof Ayesha Kidwai, Professor of Linguistics at the Centre for Linguistics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi

Rama Kant Agnihotri retired as Professor and Head, Dept of Linguistics, University of Delhi. He received his D. Phil from the University of York (UK). He has lectured extensively in universities across the world and his previous publications among others include Second Language Acquisition: Socio-cultural and Linguistic Aspects of English in India (edited with A.L. Khanna, 1994), Hindi Morphology: A Word-based Description (with Rajendra Singh, 1997), Noam Chomsky: The Architecture of Language (edited with N. Mukherjee and B. N. Patnaik, 2001) and Being and Becoming Multilingual: Some Narratives (edited with Rajesh Sachdeva, 2022). He is currently Professor Emeritus at Vidya Bhawan Society, Udaipur.