Syntax and Pragmatics of Conversation: A Case of Bangla

Conversation is often considered as the most problematic area in the field of formal linguistics, primarily because of its dynamic emerging nature. The degree of complexity is also high in comparison to traditional sentential analysis. The challenge for developing a formal account for conversational analysis is bipartite: Since the smallest structural unit at the level of conversational analysis is utterance, existing theoretical framework has to be developed in such a manner so that it can take an account of the utterance. In addition to this, a system should be developed to explain the interconnections of the utterances in a conversation. This paper tries to address these two tasks within the transformational and generative framework of Minimalism, proposed by Chomsky, with an emphasis on the Bengali particle to – traditionally classified as indeclinable.