Krishnamurti Bhadriraju. The Dravidian Languages

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9.2 Simple

sentences

431

(morphologically not different from bound sufﬁxes), while others may also occur as

independent words, in some contexts. Postpositions carry meanings similar to those of

case sufﬁxes like ‘in, on, into, below, above, behind, before, up to, from the place etc.’ I

do not distinguish cases from postpositions functionally for the following reasons:

1. The range of meanings speciﬁed by prepositions in an analytical language like

English is partly expressed by case markers and partly by postpositions in Dravidian.

2. Postpositions are grammaticalized nouns or verbs, which relate NPs to the main

verb, in the same way that prepositions do in English (for details of postpositions see

section 6.3.3).

3. Functionally postpositions and cases are the same, though morphologically they

can be distinguished into different subclasses: (i) N (= head noun) + case/postposition

(with partial or full free variation), (ii) N + case, (iii) N + postposition, (iv) N + case +

postposition, (v) N + postposition + case, but all these sequences have the function of

converting a NP into a complement to the head of the VP (main verb). These are illustrated

from Telugu, e.g. bomma ‘doll, picture’; the oblique is marked by -Ø for this stem:

(18) (i) bomma-ku [doll-obl-dat] ‘for the doll’, bomma k¯osam [doll-obl pp] ‘for

the sake of the doll’

The case marker and the postposition can freely vary in some contexts;

(ii) bomma-nu [doll-obl-acc] ‘doll’ (direct object)

(iii) bomma walla [doll-obl-pp] ‘by reason of the doll’

(iv) bomma-nu gurinci [doll-obl-acc pp] ‘about the doll’ (lit. ‘having aimed

at the doll’, but the postposition is frozen and the literal meaning is not

transparent)

(v) bomma kind-i-ki [doll-obl bottom-obl-dat] ‘below the doll’ (kinda

‘bottom’)

4. Some case markers and postpositions have the same underlying root etymologically.

Thus, the locative case marker -u

l ‘inside’ is used as a postposition in Tamil, Malay¯a

lam

and Kanna

da; but in Telugu

l¯o is used as a case mark

er as well as a postposition, e.g.

in-

ti-l¯o ‘in the house’: l¯o- and l¯o-pala ‘inside’ are also used as postpositions, to which a

case sufﬁx can be added, e.g. i

ti-l¯o-ki/ i

ti l¯opal-i-ki [house-obl inside-obl-dat] ‘into

the house’.

5. Some Dravidian languages use a bound case marker for the ablative (meaning

‘source’), while others use a postposition instead (see section 6.3.2.5). Old Tamil used

a case sufﬁx -i

n, e.g. malai.y-in ‘from the hill’, while Modern Tamil uses two postposi-

tions: ni

nru ‘having stood’ = ‘from’ (ppl of nil- ‘stay, stand’), iruntu [be-perf-participle]

‘having been (in a

place)

’ = ‘from’, e.g. k¯alai iruntu ‘from morning’. Malay¯a

lam uses

-il-iruntu ‘having been in a place’, e.g. k¯oyil-il-iruntu [temple-from] ‘from the temple’,

432 Syntax

and ninn

(< OTa. nin-ru) ‘from’, e.g. v¯ı

t-il ninn

[house-in stay-ppl] ‘from the house’;

Kanna

da uses the case marker -inda for ablative, e.g. mara-d-inda [tree-obl-from] ‘from

the tree’. It also uses the postposition ka

de.y-inda ‘from the side of’ in the place of the

case marker -inda. Such alternation between case sufﬁxes and postpositions within a

language and across languages indicates their functional unity. Secondly, certain post-

positions have been totally grammaticalized and lost their original historical connection

to words such as Ma. ninn

, and Modern Telugu ablative -nunci (see section 9.2.5.5).

Both formally and functionally they are no different from case sufﬁxes.

6. In terms of syntax, there is no difference in the role the NP (part of PP) has with

respect to the predicate, whether it is followed by a case sufﬁx or a postposition.

All these arguments support the stand taken here that PPs are complements/adjuncts to

the predicate phrase and represent NPs inﬂected with either case sufﬁxes or postpositions,

irrespective of their surface morphological differences.

A NP, which occurs in the nominative without any case marking, functions as the

subject of a sentence with a nominal or verbal predicate. Any verb – intransitive, transitive

and causative – may occur as the head

of the predicate phrase. When

the predicate denotes

a stative verb (like, want, have etc.) or a psychosomatic state (hunger, anger, disgust etc.)

and not action, the subject referring to the experiencer is in the dative case, which is a

PP. The surface subject that occurs in the nominative within the PP is not the subject of

the sentence. PPs, which carry non-nominative cases/postpositions, are treated below.

9.2.5.1 PP in accusative

(NP + accusative case; see section 6.3.2.1.) The direct object of a transitive verb carries

obligatorily the accusative case marker, if the head noun of the NP denotes an animate

being (for further details see section 6.3.2.1); otherwise, the accusative is marked by -Ø:

(19) a. Ta. kum¯ar i

tli c¯appi-

t-¯an

Kumar idly-accØ eat-past-3m-sg]

‘Kumar ate idly’

b. Ma. avan ku

ti-y-ea

ticcu

[he child-acc beat-past]

‘he beat the child’

c. Ka. r¯ama ¯aﬁsu-nalli chatri bi

tu-bi

[Rama ofﬁce-loc umbrella-accØ leave-past-3m-sg]

‘Rama left the umbrella in the ofﬁce’

Lehmann (1989: 27–30) says that even with inanimate nouns the case is marked (-ai in Tamil)

if the speaker intends to refer to the object with deﬁniteness. But several speakers deny that

‘accusative’ is a deﬁniteness marker in Tamil. A similar observation is made for Kanna

da by

Sridhar (1990: 160–1), but it is not in evidence in Telugu.

9.2 Simple

sentences

433

d. Te. pillaw¯a

ni w¯a

l-an¯anna ko

[boy-m-sg-acc they-gen-father beat-past-3m-sg]

‘their (his) father beat the boy’

9.2.5.2 PP in instrumental

Verbs requiring (i.e. semantically permitting) the use of an instrument such as ‘strike,

beat, kill, cut, sweep, weigh, make’, etc. take an argument NP denoting an instrument

marked [− animate] with which the action is accomplished. Both case markers and

postpositions are used for this purpose (see section 6.3.2.4). In some languages the

instrumental case includes ‘cause’ also. In Telugu causative verbs require the causee

Agent to be marked by the postposition -c¯eta ‘by the hand of’, ‘by means of’. The main

verb in the passive voice requires the Agent argument to be marked by instrumental -¯al

in Tamil and by -c¯eta in Telugu (for the use of passive auxiliaries, see sections 7.15.1

(1), 7.15.2 (9)),

(20) a. Ta. kum¯ar katti.y-¯al pa

za-tt-ai ve

t-i

n-¯an

[Kumar knife-instr fruit-obl-acc cut-past-3msg]

‘Kumar cut the fruit with a knife’

b. Ta. kum¯ar ma

n-¯al p¯a

nai.ccey-t-¯an

[Kumar clay-instr pot-accØ do-past-3m-sg]

‘Kumar made a pot with clay’

c. Ma. (see (16a, b) above)

d. Ka. ´sa

kara k¯ol-in-inda jhari.y-annu ettida

[Shankara stick-instr centipede-acc lift-past-3m-sg]

‘Shankara lifted the centipede with a stick’

e. Te. kamala kalam-t¯o par¯ık

sa r¯as-in-di

[Kamla pen-instr examination-accØ write-past-3f-sg]

‘Kamala wrote the examination with a pen’

f. Te. n¯enu r¯amu-c¯eta k¯aru ka

dig-inc-

-nu

[I Ramu-instr car-accØ wash-caus-past-1sg]

‘I had the car washed by Ramu’/ ‘I caused the car to be washed by Ramu’

g. Ta. kum¯ar app¯a.v-¯al a

tikka-p.pa

t-¯an

[Kumar father-by beat-inf-suffer-past-3m-sg]

‘Kumar wa

s beaten by his father

’

h. Te. r¯amu raw

d¯ı l-a-c¯eta ko

t-a-ba

d-¯a

[Ramu rowdies-obl-instr beat-inf-suffer-past-3m-sg]

‘Ramu

was beaten by rowdies/hooligans

’

Note that Tamil uses a case sufﬁx in (20g) and Telugu uses a postposition for the same

function.

434 Syntax

9.2.5.3 PP in comitative/sociative

Some languages use the instrumental marker for ‘with, together with’ required by verbs

denoting ‘movement, speech, reciprocity’ such as ‘go, run, speak, ﬁght, play’ etc.

Tamil uses the case sufﬁx -¯o

tu or the postposition -u

n in some contexts. Tamil:

naivi.y-¯o

tu/-u

tan ‘with wife’ (verb: ‘come’), ca

tai

-y-¯o

tu paniyan

‘an undershirt

with a shirt

’ (verb: ‘buy’), ‘smile with love’, ‘shout with anger’ etc. include a comitative

case/postposition.

In Malay¯a

lam the postposition k¯u

te ‘together’ (< PD

∗

k¯u

tu ‘to join’) is added to the

oblique–genitive stem of head noun of a NP, accan

re k¯u

te ‘with father’ with the ﬁnite

verb ‘go’. The sufﬁx -¯o

te occurs in such phrases as vrttike

vastra

-¯o

‘with

dirty

clothes

’ (verb: ‘come’), vrttike

kai-ka

-¯o

‘with

dirty

hands

’ (verb: ‘eat’)

etc.

In Kanna

da three postpositions are used: jote, o

dane, k¯u

da ‘with’, e.g. nimma

´sr¯ımati.y-o

dane ‘with your wife’ (verb: ‘come for dinner’).

Telugu uses the same marker -t¯o for both instrumental and comitative, e.g. s¯ıta-t¯o

‘with Sita’ (‘Rama went to a forest’),

dabbu-t¯o ‘with money’ (‘a burglar ran away’).

A NP denoting a psychosomatic

state may take the case mark

er -

t¯o when the predicate

is a copula or any verb e

xpressing animate feelings, e.g.

¯akali-t¯o ‘with hunger’ (verb:

‘be, cry’, etc.), k¯opam-t¯o ‘with anger’, pr¯ema-t¯o ‘with love’ (verb: ‘be, look at, kiss’),

viyatn¯am-t¯o ‘with Vietnam’ (verb: ‘ﬁght’), n¯a-t¯o ‘with me’ (verb: ‘speak’), etc.

9.2.5.4 PP in dative

9.2.5.4.1 As complement to predicate The morphological distribution of the dative

case marker

∗

-kku in different languages and subgroups has been discussed in section

6.3.2.2. The functions of dative PP include (i) goal (with verbs of motion), (ii) indirect

object (with ‘give, tell’ etc.), (iii) a point in time or duration of time, (iv) purpose,

(v) recipient of a beneﬁt (with ‘give, send’ etc.), (vi) distributive, (vii) reference point

(comparing distance between places),

(viii) cause, (ix) possessive. All literary languages

have usages for most of these. Examples are given for a few functions from each language:

(21) a. Ta. kum¯ar ¯ur-ukku p¯o-n¯a

n (goal)

[Kumar village-dat go-past-3m-sg]

‘Kumar went to the village’

b. Ta. kum¯ar aintu ma

ni-kku varu-v-¯a

n (point in time)

[Kumar ﬁve hour-dat come-fut-3m-sg]

‘Kumar will come at 5 o’clock’

c. Ta. matr¯asu-kku n¯u

ru mail-il p¯a

ticc¯eri (point of reference)

[Madras-dat hundred

mile-loc Pondicherry]

‘Pondicherry is one hundred miles from Madras’

9.2 Simple

sentences

435

d. Ka. avara tande-t¯ayi t¯ırthay¯atre-ge h¯og-(i) idd-¯are (purpose)

[they-gen father-mother pilgrimage-dat go-n-past-perf-3h- pl]

‘their parents have gone on a pilgrimage’

e. Ka, ava

lu r¯aman-ige ondu sve

tar ko

lu (benefactive)

[she Rama-dat one sweater buy-past-3f-sg]

‘she bought a sweater for Rama’

f. Te. ¯ace

tu g¯ali-ki pa

d-i-p¯oy-in-di (cause)

[that tree wind-dat fall-ppl-go-past-3neu-sg]

‘that tree fell due to wind’

g. Te. r¯amu kamla-ku bharta (possessive)

[Ramu Kamala-dat husband]

‘Ramu is Kamala’s husband’

h. Te. mani

si-ki oka r¯up¯ayi

coppu-na iwwu (distributive)

[person-dat one rupee

rate-at give-2imper-sg]

‘give each person a rupee’

i. Ko

da atek vani-

salva si-t-an (indirect object)

[Atek he-obl-dat/acc breakfast give-past-3m-sg]

‘Atek gave him breakfast’

For the benefactive, Kanna

da uses a postposition -¯oskara added to the dative -ge (NP +

g-¯oskara); for the corresponding function, Telugu uses k¯osam as a single morpheme (the

dative -ku is inseparable); the etymology of these postpositions is obscure. For expressing

the comparative degree, Tamil uses the dative sufﬁx, while Telugu uses a postposition

-ka

te/-kanna, e.g.

j. Ta. atu-kku itu m¯ocam (comparative)

[that-dat this deceit/evil]

‘this is worse than that’

k. Te. d¯a-ni-ka

te idi any¯ayam (comparative)

[that one-obl-than this-one unfair]

‘this is more unfair than that’

9.2.5.4.2 As dative subject A special feature of the Dravidian languages (also shared

by Indo-Aryan though as an areal feature) is the use of the postpositional phrase in

the dative as the subject of intransitive and transitive clauses, denoting ‘possessor of

experience’ with stative predicates of a psychosomatic nature, like knowledge, hunger,

anger, cold, fever etc. For many dative-subject predications, ‘verbs are morphologically

defective’ both in Tamil and in Telugu. This topic needs fuller

treatment in syntax along

with justiﬁcation for treating such phrases as subject arguments (Lehmann 1989: 184–93,

Krishnamurti 1994c):

436 Syntax

(22) a. Ta. Kum¯ar-ukku vayi

rr-ai.p paci-kkir-atu

[Kumar-dat stomach-acc feel-hungry-pres-3neu-sg]

‘Kumar feels hungry for food’

b. Ta. Kum¯arukku ta

nn-ai.p puri.y-a.v-illai

[Kumar-dat self-acc understand-inf-be-not-3neu-pl]

‘Kumar did not understand himself’

c. Ma. ava

l-kk

d¯ah-ikk-unnu (experience: dative subject)

[she-dat thirst be-pres]

‘she

is thirsty

’

d. Ma. enikk

imgl¯ı

sariy¯am (cognition)

[I-dat English kno

‘I know English’

e. Te. R¯amu-ku talanoppi wacc-i, pa

dukon-n¯a-

[Ramu-to head-ache come-ppl, (he) lie down-past-3m-sg]

‘Ramu had a head-ache and lay down’

f. Te. R¯amuku tana-sangati tana-k-¯e teliy-a-du

[Ramu-dat self-gen-matter self-dat-emph

know-neg-3neu-sg]

‘Ramu does not know himself (his own affair)’

The reﬂexive

∗

t¯an/tan-V ‘self’ normally requires a nominative subject as its antecedent

in a complex sentence. But in (22b,d,f) the reﬂexive refers to the person signalled by the

dative PP, thereby suggesting that it is the subject argument. Secondly, the subject of the

main

clause (where it is marked [

+ human])

and of the subordinate clause

headed by a

perfective participle should be coreferential and identical; (22e) shows that the subjects

of both the clauses refer to the same, though one is in the dative and the other, the deleted

subject in the main clause, if speciﬁed, would have been in the nominative.

9.2.5.5 PP in ablative

The modern literary languages do not have a case marker for ‘source’; instead they use

postpositions. Modern Tamil adds iru-ntu ‘having been’ (the perfective participle of the

verb iru- ‘be’) to the NP in the locative, e.g. maram ‘tree’, mara-tt-il [tree-obl-loc] ‘on

the tree’, mara-tt-il-iruntu ‘from (abo

ve) the tree

’. It

is added directly to adverbs of place,

a˙nk-iruntu [there-from] ‘from there’. Malay¯a

lam adds the postposition -ninn

(< OTa.

nin-

ru < nil-ntu; nil-‘to stand’) ‘having stood/stayed’ to the locative PP, e.g. r¯aman-il

ninn

‘from Raman’. Kanna

da -inda is a case sufﬁx for the instrumental–ablative directly

added to the complement NP, e.g. r¯evati.y-inda ‘from Revati’; it is also used with the ad-

verb ka

de ‘side, direction’, as in dh¯arw¯a

dka

de.y-inda ‘from Dharwar’. Old Telugu uses

-n-u

d-i ‘having been’ (u

du- ‘be’), the -n being a remnant of a locative sufﬁx added to

the preceding NP, e.g. i

t-an u

d-i [house-in having been] ‘from the house’ ← i

t-an

9.2 Simple

sentences

437

‘in the house’ + u

d-i ‘having been’. Note that this is the semantic equivalent of

Ta. NP loc. + iru-ntu. In Modern Telugu the postposition has dialect variants -nu

(Telangana districts) -n-unc-i (> -n-inci) (coastal districts and modern standard). The

coastal forms have been grammaticalized to a point where they have totally lost any

historical connection to the older form and meaning.

This PP is used with verbs of motion (‘go, come’) to refer to one or more from a

group (verb: ‘choose, select’), or to a range from one point to the other in time and place

(several verbs like ‘wait, burn, rain, etc.’). Examples:

(23) a. Ta. kum¯ar maratt-il-iruntu vi

zu-nt-¯a

[Kumar tree-loc-be-ppl fall-past-3m-sg]

‘Kumar fell

from the tree

’

b. Ma. enikk

nam b¯a

k-il ninn

t-i

[I-dat money bank-loc from get-past]

‘I got money from the bank’

c. Ka. kall-in-inda e

ne tege.y-alu s¯adhyav-¯e?

[stone-obl-abl oil-acc take-inf possible-Q]

‘Is it possible to extract oil from stone?’

d. Te. re

du ga

tal-a-nunci w¯ana kurus-t-un-n-adi

[two hour-pl-obl-abl rain rain-n-past-be-past-3neu-sg]

‘it has

been raining for two hours

’

9.2.5.6 PP in locative

A number of postpositions refer to location like Te. m¯ıda, pai-na ‘above’, kinda ‘be-

low’, mundu ‘in front’, wenaka ‘back’, pakka ‘side’, l¯o-pala ‘inside’ etc. The other

literary languages have corresponding forms. These occur after the genitive–oblique

base, to which case signs are added. These, in turn, are treated as nouns of place and

can take case markers, e.g. illu ‘house’: obl i

ti-; with postpositions: i

ti-m¯ı da /mundu/

wenaka/pakka/l¯opala/daggara, etc. ‘on or above/ behind/in front of/at the back of/on

the side of/inside/ near the house’. When the postpositions are inﬂected, we get i

ti-

m¯ıd-i-nunci ‘from above the house’, i

ti-wenaka-gu

d¯a ‘through the back of the house,’

ti-mundu-nunci ‘from the front of the house’, i

ti-daggar-i-ki ‘to near the house’,

ti-l¯opal-i-nunci ‘from inside the house’ etc. Several modiﬁers may precede these. As

syntactic constituents, these are no different from sequences of NP + case such as i

nti-

nunci ‘from the house’, i

ti-ki etc. Those that still function as free lexical items denoting

place and time can be treated as adverbials with case inﬂection.

uncu ‘to let stay, keep’ is the transitive of u

du ‘to be’, but semantically, there is no reason why a

transitive should replace an intransitive in an ablative sense. The process of grammaticalization

of loc + u

di was complete by 1000 CE, since the restructured -nu

di already came to stay in

Old Telugu itself.

438 Syntax

For the general locative case, Tamil uses the case sufﬁx -il and the postposition

-i

tam ‘place’ (for animate nouns). The Malay¯a

lam locative sufﬁx is -il. Both Tamil and

Malay¯a

lam have a number of words denoting ‘location’, ‘direction’, ‘extent’ added as

postpositions to NPs or PPs, e.g. Ta. varai ‘until, up to’: v¯ı

tu varai ‘up to the house’,

aintu ma

ni varai ‘up to ﬁve o’clock’, pakkam, ki

ta ‘near’: v¯ı

tu pakkam [house-obl near]

‘near the house’, Ma. t¯aze ‘below’, pi

nne ‘behind’, tekk

‘south’ etc. When a NP or a

PP is followed by one of these words, they become adverbial phrases. Examples for the

locative:

(24) a. Ta. kuruvi mara-tt-il u

tk¯ar-ki

r-atu

[bird tree-obl-loc sit-pres-3neu-sg]

‘a bird is sitting

on the tree

’

b. Ta. Kum¯ar app¯a.ν-i

tam va-nt-¯a

[Kumar father-loc come-past-3m-sg]

‘Kumar came to (his) father’

c. Ma. ˜n¯an m¯e

sa.y-u

te m¯ıte irunnu

[I table-gen upon (pp) sit-past]

‘I sat on the table’

d. Ka. be

l¯ur-in-alli mane-ga

l-a bele j¯asti

[Bangalore-loc house-pl-gen price high]

‘the price of houses in Bangalore is high’

e. Te. w¯a

lu ippu

du amerik¯a-l¯oun-n-¯aru

[they (hum) now America-in be-non-past-are]

‘they are now in America’

f. Ko

da ku

rka-dz¯ava b¯a

ta ki-t-an

[bowl-loc food serving do-past-3m-sg]

‘he served food in the bowl’

9.2.6 Adjectival phrases

Adjectival phrases occur only as modiﬁers of noun heads. There is a precedence hierarchy

among different types of descriptive adjectives within an adjectival phrase, as illustrated

in section 9.2.4, and earlier in section 8.2.2. Demonstrative/possessive and numeral

adjectives may precede descriptive adjecti

ves within an adjectival phrase. A relative

clause may precede an adjectival phrase, illustrated in (15d): Te. idi [[n¯enu r¯asina]

[mo

tamoda

ti] pustakam]] is a nominal predication, NP + NP with an embedded relative

clause as part of the AdjP within the predicate NP. The internal structure of this sentence

has been illustrated in a tree structure in section 9.2.4.

The structure of a Tamil adjectival phrase is similar to that of the other Dravidian

languages. Examples: nalla peru t¯o

l [nice-3neu pl big shoulder] ‘big nice shoulders’

9.2 Simple

sentences

439

(Na

rr 13–15); the order of the adjectives follows the same order as stated for Telugu.

A relative participle can be a part of the expanded adjectival phrase (see sections 8.2.2,

9.3.2.1).

The adjectival phrase in Malay¯a

lam is said to have three constituents: (i) a pure

adjective, (ii) a noun with an adjectival sufﬁx or, in the case of Sanskrit nouns, by

dropping the ﬁnal -m, vid¯e´sam ‘foreign’→ vid¯e´sa-, (iii) a relative clause. Details of

these have been discussed in sections 8.2.2 and 9.3.2.1. Kanna

da has the same model as

the other Dravidian languages, for which, see sections 8.2.2 and 9.3.2.1.

Telugu uses the adverb c¯al¯a ‘much, very’ and Kanna

da baha

la ‘very’, Malay¯a

lam

lare ‘very’ as modiﬁers of descriptive adjectives, e.g. Te. c¯al¯a goppa wyakti, ‘a very

great individual’, Ma. va

lare mi

tukku u

la ‘very bright’ (having much brightness).

9.2.7 Adverbial phrase (AdvP)

An adverbial phrase has an adverb as head preceded by modiﬁers. Morphological adverbs

as a part of speech have already been dealt with in section 8.3. Most adverbs are said

to be nominals of time and place. Extended nominals of this kind are syntactically

adverbial, e.g. Te. sru

moda

nunci

ippa

wara-ku

[creation beginning-obl-from

now-obl-till] ‘from

the beginning

of creation

till

now

’ would be an example of a

time adverbial phrase. The only modiﬁers of adverbs are other adjectives like Te. c¯al¯a

‘very’: c¯al¯a

tondara-g¯a

‘very

fast

’. There are some distributive phrases consisting

of interrogative words with the clitic -¯o meaning ‘any time, place ...’, followed by oka

‘one’ + the demonstrative adverbial word meaning ‘time, place’, e.g. eppu

d(u)-¯o oka-

(a)ppu

tu ‘sometime’ (lit. ‘any time-one time’), ekka

d(a)-¯o oka c¯o

ta ‘at some place’. Also

note reduplicated time and place adverbs with specialized meanings, appu

d(u)-appu

‘now and then’, akka

d(a)-akka

da ‘here and there’. A relative clause can be embedded

within an adverbial phrase as its modiﬁer, giving rise to an adverbial clause, e.g. Te. n¯enu

mimmal-ni c¯usina-appa

ti-nunci [I you-hon-acc see-past-adj time-obl-abl] ‘from the time

Isawyou...’ The adverbializing sufﬁx -g¯a may be used with any NP to convert it into an

adverbial phrase, e.g. tondara ‘speed’: tondara-g¯a ‘quickly’, picciw¯a

du ‘a mad man’:

picciw¯a

du-g¯a ‘as a mad man’, ¯ı kampen¯ıki m¯en¯ejaru-g¯a [this company-dat manager-

advl] ‘as a manager of this company’, n¯alug(u)-aydu ¯e

lu-g¯a [four-ﬁve years-advl] ‘for

four or ﬁve years’.

Tamil also has nominals denoting place and time which

are syntactically adverbial.

Nouns followed by the inﬁnitive ¯ak-a (¯aku ‘be’) are quite frequently used for a variety of

adverbial functions, namely manner: ¯attiram-¯aka ‘angrily’; comparative role: app¯av-¯aka

‘like father’; paittiyak¯aran-¯aka ‘like a madman’, nimi

sam-¯aka ‘like a minute’; time loca-

tion: c¯aya˙nk¯alam-¯aka ‘in the evening’; purpose: v¯elai-¯aka ‘for work’; duration: varu

sam-

¯aka ‘for a year’; distributive: o

nru onru-¯aka. Time and place adverbial phrases include

quantiﬁers such as anta mu

zu v¯ı

tu ‘that whole house’, ca

rru n¯eram ‘a little time’ etc.

440 Syntax

Malay¯a

lam adverbial phrases, like Tamil, are nominals followed by ¯ayi (ppl of ¯a ‘be’),

e.g. bhamgi ‘beautiful’: bhamgi.y-¯ayi ‘beautifully’. Modiﬁers of adverbs include va

lare,

adhikam ‘much’: va

lare v¯egam ‘very fast’.

In Modern Kanna

da baha

la ‘very’ is an adverbial modiﬁer, e.g. baha

la b¯ega ‘very

fast’. Adverbial phrases include a comparative degree, ellariginta

heccu

n¯ı

tu-¯agi

[all-hpl-dat-comp much neat-advl] ‘more

neatly

than all others

’.

9.3 Complex sentences

A complex sentence consists of one main clause (matrix clause) and one or more sub-

ordinate clauses to its left. There are several strategies of forming complex sentences

in Dravidian: (i) by embedding clauses headed by non-ﬁnite verbs; (ii) by embedding

a relative clause, changing the ﬁnite verb into a verbal adjective/relative participle, and

shifting the head NP to its immediate right; (iii) by embedding an action clause, chang-

ing the ﬁnite verb into an action nominal; (iv) by embedding adverbial clauses headed

by time or place Adverbial Phrases (AdvP); and (v) by embedding a variety of clauses

with ﬁnite verbs, by means

of complementizers, like -

¯o and non-ﬁnite forms of the verb

meaning ‘say’ (PD

∗

aHn-). If more than one subordinate clause is embedded, they are

adjoined by pauses or conjunctive particles.

9.3.1 Non-ﬁnite verb clauses

The non-ﬁnite clauses

are headed by perfective

participle, conditional, concessi

ve and

inﬁnitive

verbs. The subordinate clause(s)

are enclosed in square brackets.

9.3.1.1 Perfective participle

clause

(25) a. OTa. a

nnai [...en mukam n¯okk-i][nak-¯uu] ...peyar-nt-¯o

[mother ...my face look-ppl laugh-ppl go-past-3f-sg]

‘mother looked at my face, laughed, and went away’

b. Ta. kum¯ar [i˙nk¯eva-ntu] e

nnai k¯uppi

t-¯an

[Kumar-nom here-emph come-ppl I-acc call-past-3m-sg]

‘Kumar came here and called me’

c. Ma. avan [ku

licci

] ¯u

ziccu

[he bathe-ppl meal eat-past]

‘he, having bathed, ate the meal’

This is also called conjunctive participle, adverbial participle, gerund, converb etc. with different

markers (section 7.7.1). It means ‘having completed the action speciﬁed by the verb to which

the marker is attached’. Traditionally it is called ‘past participle’, but it can be governed by a

ﬁnite verb in the past, future or present in the matrix clause. What it means is that the action

is completed before the beginning of the action speciﬁed by the governing main verb. I have,

therefore, decided to give it an aspectual name rather than a tense name as ‘perfective’ and not

‘past’.