Tamil
Language
Tamil is characterized by a number of distinguishing morphophonemic,
syntactic and stylistic features. Agglutination of suffixing
morphemes, free order of words in sentences and head-final structure
of phrases are some of the features that distinguish this language
from other European languages. The complex nature of this language
is also accounted for due to its diglossic characteristics with
the presence of both high and low varieties, besides a vast
number of registers and dialects.
Morphology
Tamil is an agglutinative language with words made by adding
suffixe of both derivational and inflectional suffixes onto
the root form of word. Extensive use of suffixes some time cause
ambiguous interpretations at word levels. To cite one example,
neuter singular form of Tamil verbs shows three different interperations:
a) past tense form, b) gerund and c) participial noun form.
Example: depending upon the context, the verb ?????? vantatu
can be understood to mean either as a) came - it, or
b) that which came or c) coming - past. This
is because of a overlap between the neuter singular suffix ???
atu, the neuter marker ?? tu and the adjectival
participle marker ? a. The two ways of identifying suffixes
within this word, thus, can be made as either ?-????-??? va-nt-atu
or ?-????-?-?? va-nt-a-tu. This type of ambiguities can
sometimes be resolved at phrase and sentence levels by the help
of co-occurring words, though this is not always possible in
other cases. Further, presence of a rich aspectual system in
Tamil requires special attention both to write words as well
as to understand to speak them. Traditional Tamil grammars list
four different aspectual forms in Tamil. They are: a) perfective
aspect marked by the suffix ??? iru, b) completive aspect
marked by ???? viTu, c) progressive aspect marked by
???????? koNTiru and d) reflexive aspect marked by the
suffix ???? koL. These suffixes are kept intact in both
finite and non-finite forms of verbs along with other suffixes
such as tense, modal, infinitive and participle suffixes.
Nature
of subject
Tamil exhibits three types of subjects namely nominative, dative
and instrumental subjects. Subject position in majority of cases
is filled with nominative case marked by a zero suffix and in
such instances the main verb is marked with an agreement marker
agreeing with the subject in terms of person, number and gender
Nominative
subject
??????? ????? ?????????
murukan tamizh patittaan
Murugan studied Tamil
The suffix aan with the main verb in this sentence is
a third person masculine singular suffix agreeing with the subject
murukan 'Murugan', which is a third person singular
masculine noun.
??????? ????? ????????????
niingkaL tamizh paTittiirkaL
You (polite/plural) studied Tamil
The suffix ?????? iirkaL is a second person human plural
suffix agreeing with the subject ??????? niingkaL 'you'.
Dative
subject
In the case of sentences with psychological verbs like ????
teri 'know', ???? puri 'understand' etc., and
perception verbs like ??? paci 'be hungry', ??? vali
'pain' etc., subject takes the dative case marker ???? kku.
This type of sentences are usually called dative subject sentences:
???????? ????? ????????
enakku tamizh teriyum
I know Tamil
???????? ??????? ????????
jaanukku kannaTam puriyum
John understands Kannada
???????? ?????? ????????
meerikku jaanai teriyum
Mary knows John
Instrumental
subject
A third type of sentence in Tamil takes instrumental subject
with the instrumental case marker ??? aal. Verbs in this
type of sentences usually occur with the modal form ????????
muTiyum 'can' with the meaning 'capability'
???????? ?????? ??????????
siitaavaal veehamaaka ooTamuTiyum
Sita can run fast
???????? ????? ?????? ?????????
ungaLaal tamizh paTikka muTiyumaa
Can you read Tamil?
Unlike the sentences with nominative subjects, neither the sentence
with dative subject nor the instrumental subject takes the agreement
marker with the main verb.
Word
Order
So far as the typical order of words is concerned, Tamil can
be characterized as a Subject Object Verb (SOV) language. However,
other orders are also common (especially in discourse). Order
of words may change rather freely without affecting the grammaticality
of the sentence. Due to various syntactic and pragmatic reasons,
sentences with the non-typical order or words are not stylistic
variants of the corresponding normal order, which can be used
interchangeably depending upon the context. For example, a word
that needs to be emphasized is generally placed in sentence
initial positions. This affects the place of occurrence of all
the other words in the sentence except that of the main verb:
???? ?????????? ????? ??????????????????
siitaa kamalaavukku paaDam sollikkoDuttaaL
Sita taught Kamala Tamil
?????????? ???? ????? ??????????????????
kamalaavukku siitaa paaDam sollikkoDuttaaL
Sita taught Kamala Tamil
Both of these sentences mean the same except for the extra emphasis/focus
on ???? kamalaa in the second sentence.
Marked
and Unmarked object
When the object noun is a neuter noun, it can optionally be
marked with the accusative suffix ai. When marked with
this suffix, the object is understood to be 'specific' and 'definite',
whereas the unmarked one is always an indefinite and non-specific
noun. Only the marked object can occur freely in sentences,
but not the unmarked one which should always occur before the
main verb.
???? ???????? ??????????????????? ??????????
meeri jaanukku tamizh puttahattai koDuttaaL
Mary gave the Tamil book to John
??????????????? ???? ?????????? ??????????
tamizh puttahattai meeri jaanukku koDuttaaL
Mary gave the Tamil book to John
*????????????? ???? ?????????? ??????????
tamizhputtaham meeri jaanukku koDuttaaL
*Tamil book Mary gave to John
Anaphor
Binding
The other notable feature of Tamil from the syntactic point
of view is its use of reflexive pronoun. Tamil reflexive pronoun
???? taan 'self' is bound in its clause only when the
main verb of the sentence occurs with the reflexive auxiliary
suffix ???? koL, otherwise it is free to be bound by
subjects in other clauses.
???? ????? ?????????????????
jaan tannai aDittukkoNDaan
John hit himself
*???? ????? ?????????
jaan tannai aDittaan
John hit himself.
???? ????? ????????? ????? ???? ????????
jaan tannai aDittaan enRu meeri sonnaaL
Mary said that John hit her
Tamil pronouns when occur with the emphatic suffix ? ee
take the role of the reflexive pronoun ??? tan
?????? ?????? ??????????? ??????????????????
kannan avanaiyee kaNNaaDiyil paarttukkoNDaan
Kannan saw himself in the mirror
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