Krishnamurti Bhadriraju. The Dravidian Languages

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9.3 Complex

sentences

451

and it is replaceable by a corresponding non-ﬁnite clause with a conditional verb (see

section 9.3.1.2). The semantic and grammatical differences between the two types of

conditions need to be investigated.

9.3.3.2 Embedding by verb

∗

aHn- ‘say’

The perfective, conditional, concessive and relative (adjectival) participles of the verb

‘say’ are used as complementizers in embedding a variety of ﬁnite clauses in matrix

clauses. Clauses with ﬁnite predications are attached to the main clause as the direct

object

complement of the verb

‘sa

’. The

most commonly used one is the

perfective

participle Ta. e

n-ru, Ma. en-n

, Ka. en-du/an-ta,Te.an-i ‘having said’ in reporting

speech acts as a quotative complementizer. The ﬁnite verbs in the matrix clause may be

one of ‘know, think,

hear, ask, speak

’ etc. This mechanism

is found in all subgroups and

is reconstructible for Proto-Dravidian, e.g.

(34) a. Ta. [kum¯ar e-p.p¯otu varu-v-¯a

n] en-ru k¯e

t-¯ar-ka

[Kumar when come-fut-3m-sg say-ppl ask-past-3h-pl]

‘the

y asked (me) when Kumar would

come

’

b. Ta. [ava

n var-av¯e

t-um] enr-¯al n¯a

lai var-al-¯am

[he come-inf want-fut-3neu-sg say-cond tomorrow come-noml-fut-

3neu-sg]

‘if he wants to come, he may come tomorrow’

c. Ma.[˜n¯a

n var-¯am] enn

r¯amanpara˜n˜nu

[I come-fut-mod say-ppl Raman say-past]

‘Raman said, “I will come”’

d. Ma. [avan varum] enn-¯al-um ava

lk¯u

te varilla

[he come-fut say-conc she along with come-neg]

‘even if he comes, she will not come’ (lit. ‘he comes, even if one

says...’)

e. Ka. [ayskr¯ım tinn-ab¯eku] endu/anta annis-utt-ade

[ice cream eat-inf want say-ppl feel-non-past-3neu-sg]

‘(I) feel

like eating ice cream

’ (lit.

ice cream

–want

to eat

–so it

strikes)

f. Te. nuwwu n¯at¯o [r¯epu wast¯anu] ani cepp

[you I-obl-com tomorrow come-hb-1sg say-pp say-past-2sg]

‘you said to me, “I will come tomorrow”’

g. Te. [jailu-nunci el¯a tappincuk¯o-

tam-¯a] ani w¯a

di ¯al¯ocana

[jail-from how escape-noml-Q say-ppl he-gen thinking]

‘his idea is how to escape from the jail’

h. Te. n¯aku [amerik¯awe

l-¯ali] ani undi

[I-dat America go-must say-ppl-comp be-3neu-sg]

‘I would like to go to America’

452 Syntax

i. Kol. [n¯ı v s ¯a-t-iv] ena ¯an ar-t-an

[you-sg go-pres-2sg say-ppl I weep-past-1sg]

‘I wept thinking that you are leaving’

The non-ﬁnite forms of the verb ‘say’ have a variety of usages. The perfective participle

is mainly used as a quotative marker as in (34a, c, f); note that the quoted clause is in direct

speech. The distinction between direct and indirect reporting is subtle in Dravidian. The

difference is observed in the different use of subject pronouns in embedded and main

clauses, at least in Telugu (see

Krishnamurti and Gwynn 1985: 363

–8):

j. Te. r¯amu [n¯enu r¯epu we

lt¯anu] ani kamalat¯o cepp-

[Ramu I tomorro

w come-fut-1sg say-comp Kamala-com

tell-past-3m-

sg]

‘Ramu said to Kamala, “I will go tomorrow”’



.—[t¯anu—————–] —

‘Ramu said to Kamala that he would go tomorrow’

Instead of n¯enu ‘I’ in (34j), the reﬂexive pronoun t¯anu ‘self’ is used in (34j



) co-indexed

with the third-person subject in the higher sentence, suggesting indirect reporting.

Still

the verb agreement of the quoted clause is in the ﬁrst person singular. Another strategy

is in the case of reporting imperative sentences (see Krishnamurti and Gwynn 1985:

366–7).

(34g) shows that the subordinate clause can be a complement to a head noun

meaning ‘idea, thought’ etc. in the main clause; in (34i) en- means ‘thinking’ which is

reporting a ‘thought’ and not ‘speech’; (34e,h) illustrate the use of the subordinate clause

as a desiderative complement to the main clause, literall

y meaning

‘I must eat ice cream,

so (saying/thinking), it is to me’, ‘I must go to America, so it is to me.’ The conditional and

concessive forms of ‘say’ mark the subordinate clauses, as grammaticalized conditional

and concessive markers added to these clauses without the lexical meaning of ‘say’. The

verb ‘be’ is also used in the same way, Ta. ¯a

n-¯al ‘if ’, ¯an-¯al-um ‘even if ...’; Telugu adds

ay-it¯e ‘if’, ay-in¯a ‘even if ’ to factive clauses in -a

tu (section 9.3.2.3).

9.3.4 Adverbial clauses

Adverbs of time and place are morphologically nominals, since they can be inﬂected for

case, although they are devoid of gender and number. There are three types of adverbial

The reﬂexive pronoun t¯anu (<

∗

t¯an) anaphorically refers only to the third person and not to

the ﬁrst or second person. Note that although the subject of direct report is in the ﬁrst person

in the embedded clause, it is replaced in indirect report by t¯anu ‘self’ because it refers to the

antecedent subject of the matrix clause which is in the third person. If the matrix subject is in

the ﬁrst person, it cannot be replaced by t¯anu (Rama Rao 1968).

Parallel mechanisms must be available in the other major Dravidian languages although I have

not come across these in available grammars.

9.3 Complex

sentences

453

clauses: (i) a relative clause with an Adverbial Phrase of time or place, with an inﬂected

or uninﬂected adverb as head, (ii) a noun clause (NP) or a postpositional (PP) clause,

followed by postpositions denoting time and place, and (iii) an embedded AdvP with a

manner adverbial as head; these include non-ﬁnite verbal participles, which modify the

predicate as manner adverbials, e.g.

(35) a. Te.

AdvP

[

AdjP

[atanu upany¯asam cebu-tun-na]

AdjP

m¯u

du ga

ta-l-¯u]

AdvP

w¯ana kuris-in-di

[he lecture speak-dur-adj three hour-pl-conj prcl rain rain-past-3neu-sg]

‘it rained during the three hours he was lecturing’

b. Te.

AdvP

[

AdjP

[¯ayana pani c¯es-¯e]

AdjP

c¯o

t-i-ki]

AdvP

n¯en-¯ewe

-nu

[he work do-hab adj place-obl-dat I-emph go-past-1sg]

‘I myself went to the place where he works’

c. Te. [r¯amu we

l-in(a)-appa

ti-nunci] kamala-ku o

t(i )l¯ob¯ag¯al¯edu

[Ramu go-past-adj time-obl-abl Kamala-dat body-obl-loc well-adv be-

not-3neu-sg]

‘Since the time Ramu left, Kamala has not been feeling well’

d. Te. n¯aku telis-in-(a)-anta wara-ku ...

[I-dat know-past-quan up to ...]

‘as far as I know ...’

e. Te. n¯enu r¯aw-a

t¯ani-ki mundu ...

[I come-noml-obl-dat before ...]

‘before my coming ...’

f. Te. w¯a

du [parigettu-ko

t¯u tondara-g¯a] wacc-

[he run-reﬂ-dur quick-adv come-past-3m-sg]

‘he came running fast’

g. Ta. [ma

zai pey-t-atu-kku appu

ram] payir nanr¯aka va

lar-nt-adu

[rain-nom fall-past-noml-dat after crops

goodness-adv grow-past-3neu-

sg]

‘After it rained/rains, the crops grew/grow well’

h. Ma. n¯ı var-um-p¯o

l enta ko

tu var-um

[you come-fut-time what bring-fut]

‘when you come, what will you bring?’

Ma.

ŋŋ

lj¯oli t¯ırkkunnat

vare ...

[you-hon work ﬁnish-pres-noml until ...]

‘until you ﬁnish the work ...’

j. Ka. railu bi

du-v-a samaya-kke ...

[train leave-fut-adj time-dat...]

‘by the time the train leaves...’

454 Syntax

k. Ka. ¯ı h a

lige baruvadakke munce ...

[this village-dat come-nonpast-noml-dat before ...]

‘before you came to this village ...’

l. Ka. sy¯amnna [¯ed-utt¯a] ba-nd-a

[Shymanna pant-nonpast-pp come-past-3m-sg]

‘Shymanna came panting’

9.4 Compound sentences (coordination)

Two or more autonomous units (words, phrases, clauses) of equal grammatical status

and rank from two o

r more underlying clauses can be

conjoined together within one

sentence, called a compound sentence. The relationship of conjoining can be additive

(‘and’), alternative (‘or’), or adversative (‘but’). At the word level, conjoining by ‘and’

relationship produces dvandva compounds, e.g. Te. talli-da

drulu ‘mother and father’,

ann¯a-dammulu ‘elder and younger brother’, akk¯a-celle

lu ‘elder and younger sisters’.

These are lexical compounds not always derivable by syntactic processes. Therefore,

such compounds are not discussed in this section. We will restrict our attention to

coordination of phrases and clauses.

9.4.1 ‘And’ coordination

Any of the phrases NP, PP, AdvP or the predicate phrase may be coordinated as long

as the other phrases remain the same. Tamil and Malay¯a

lam add -um, the conjunctive

particle, to each of the phrases coordinated. Kanna

da uses -¯u and Telugu lengthens the

ﬁnal vowels of the coordinated

phrases (see section 8.4.1

for the distribution of the

conjunctive morpheme). Examples:

(36) a. Ta. [e

n [makan-um maka

l-um] appuram varu-v-¯arka

[I-obl son-conj daughter-conj later come-fut-3h-pl]

‘my son and daughter will come later’

b. Ma. s¯ıta [innale.y-um] r¯adha [inn-um] k¯al¯ejil c¯er-nnu

[Sita yesterday-conj Radha today-conj

college-loc join-past]

‘Sita joined the college yesterday and Radha did so today’

c. Ka. avaru [ha

nav-annu va

deve.y-annu] by¯ankin-alli i

tidd-¯are

[he-hon money-conj jewellery-conj bank-loc keep-pr-pf -3h-pl]

‘he has kept money and jewellery in the bank’

d. Te. ¯ameku oka [maga-pillaw¯a

d¯u oka ¯a

da-pilla]

[she-dat one boy-child one girl-child]

‘she has a boy and a girl’

Sentence (36a) is an example of coordinating two subject NPs, namely e

n makan ‘my

son’ and e

n maka

l ‘my daughter’, while the AdvP appuram ‘afterwards’ and the VP

9.4 Compound

sentences

(coordination)

455

remain lexically the same. The only difference is in the agreement sufﬁx in the VP,

which is plural as opposed to two singular predicates in the underlying structures, namely

maka

n ...varu-v-an and mak-a

l varu-v-a

l. Sentence (36b) illustrates the coordination

of the time adverbials, innale ‘yesterday’ and inne ‘today’, as well as the subjects of the

sentence. It seems to be a case of clause coordination with time adverbials focussed.

Sentence (36c) exempliﬁes the coordination of two PPs (NPs + accusative) in otherwise

the same clause. Sentence (36d) is a nominal predication with a dative subject, in which

the predicate

NPs,

oka moga-pillaw¯a

du ‘one boy’ and oka ¯a

da-pilla ‘one girl’, are

coordinated both

by a combination of vowel

length and by intonation.

9.4.2 ‘Or’ coordination

The most common coordinator is the clitic -¯o which is added to each of the coordi-

nated words, phrases or clauses, see section 8.4.4. Tamil (1c), Malay¯a

lam (2a), Kanna

(4b) and Telugu (5f) as illustrations of phrase coordination. Clause coordination is il-

lustrated by

a sentence from Ko

da (6b). Tamil

uses other coordinators also,

namely

illai-e

nr¯al, allatu,-¯avatu ‘if not’; adjectiva

l phrases and

ﬁnite clauses

can be coordi-

nated only by illai-e

nr¯al or allatu in Tamil, e.g. [periya allatu ciriya] v¯ı

tu ‘big or small

house’. Malay¯a

lam uses -ill-e

kil/-all-e

kil ‘if not, or else’; the choice of the negative

morpheme -ill or -all depends on whether the alternation is between verbs or nouns.

Kanna

da uses athav¯a ‘or else’, borrowed from Sanskrit, or illa/illav¯e ‘if not’ but only

once between the coordinated phrases or clauses. Sometimes both the strategies are

used redundantly. Telugu uses ay-in¯a ‘even if be’ or ann¯a ‘even if said’ in the place

of ¯o ...¯o after each of the coordinated phrases. If two interrogative clauses are coordi-

nated each of them carries the interrogative marker -¯a. Some more examples of clause

coordination:

(37) a. Ta. [kum¯ar varu-v-¯a

n] illaienr¯al / allatu [r¯aj¯a varu-v-¯an ]

[Kumar come-fut-3m-sg or/or Raja come-fut-3m-sg]

‘Either Kumar will come or Raja will come’

b. Ma. avan [varika.y-¯o sand¯e´sam ayakkuka.y-¯o] cey-t-illa

[he come-inf-coor message send-inf-coor do-past-neg]

‘He neither came nor sent any message’

c. Ka. [r¯upa barutta

l ]-¯o [ava

l-aga

da barutt¯an]-¯o gott(u)-illa

[Rupa

come-pres-f-sg-coor she-gen husband] [come-pres-m-sg-coor

know-neg]

‘(I/we) do not know if Rupa will come or her husband will come’

d. Te. ¯ayana ninna ¯u

l¯o unn¯ar-¯al¯er-¯a

[he yesterday town-loc be-past-3m-pl-Q be-not-Q]

‘was he in town or not yesterday?’

456 Syntax

Sentence (37a) illustrates the coordination of two ﬁnite clauses in ‘either/or’ relationship;

(37b) coordinates two inﬁnitive clauses; (37c) shows coordination of two ﬁnite clauses

by ¯o ...¯o and also illa, redundantly; (37d) coordinates two ﬁnite interrogative clauses

by repeating them with the question clitic, one after the other with deletion of identical

elements from the second clause, i.e. dropping the parts in the parentheses (¯ayana ninna

¯u

l¯o) l¯er-¯a. The coordination of interrogative clauses follows the same strategy in the

other languages also.

9.4.3 ‘But’ coordination

Tamil uses the coordinator ¯a

n-¯al between the conjoined phrases or clauses. Even adjective

phrases and clauses can be coordinated. Malay¯a

lam uses e

-kil-um as the coordinator.

As in Tamil, adjective

s can be coordinated by

enn¯al. Kanna

da uses ¯adare to coordinate

only clauses; ‘but’ coordination is not possible between phrases, according to Sridhar

(1990: 102). Telugu ‘but’ coordination is accomplished by placing k¯ani/g¯ani between

coordinated clauses. When the same coordinator is added to coordinate phrases one after

each, they mean ‘either ...or’. Adjectival clauses, in general, cannot be coordinated in

Telugu, as happens in Tamil and Malay¯a

lam in this case.

(38) a. Ta. idu [kum¯ar ko

tu-tt-a] ¯a

n¯al [e

zut-¯at-a] ka

titam

[this-one Kumar give-past-adj but-coor write-neg-adj letter]

‘this is the letter Kumar gave, but did not write’

b. Ta. ava

n [vant¯an ] ¯an¯al [onrum coll-a.v-illai]

[he come-past-3m-sg

but anything say-inf-be not-3neu-pl]

‘he came, but did not

say anything

’

c. Ma. avan [ku

lan] e

kilum [sundaran] ¯a

[he short-m but beautiful-m be-pres]

‘he is short but beautiful’

d. Ma. [naracca] enn¯al [ putiya] j¯ıns

[faded but new jeans]

‘faded but new jeans’

e. Ka. nanna hattira [d¯ara ide] ¯adare [s¯uji illa]

[I-poss near thread is but needle be-not]

‘I have thread with me but no needle’

f. Te. [r¯amu b¯ag¯a samp¯ayis-t¯a-

du] g¯ani [pays¯a-k¯u

d¯a kharcu-pe

t-a-

du]

[Ramu well earn-hab-3m-sg but penny-too spend-neg-3m-sg]

‘Ramu earns well, but does not spend even a penny’

Telugu uses some other clause coordinators like k¯aba

tti, kanuka/ganuka ‘therefore’ to

join a causal clause with the main clause. There are a few other coordinator-like elements

used in Telugu, which need to be studied comparatively, e.g. telis¯ı-teliyaka ‘knowingly

9.5 Minor

sentences

457

and unknowingly’ (adverbial modifying the verb ‘tell’), ¯an¯ı-¯anaku

d¯a ‘leaning and

not leaning’ (adverbial with the VP ‘sit on a chair-arm’), wacc¯ı-r¯ani ‘acquired and

not acquired’ (adjectival modifying the noun telugu). These are apparently coordinated

perfective participles (because of lengthening of the vowels of coordinated phrases) in

the afﬁrmative and negative, but they have become idiomatic and cannot be derived from

underlying clauses

(see Krishnamurti and Gwynn 1985: 336–9).

9.5 Minor sentences

The properties of minor sentences are: ‘(1) They do not have a subject and predicate

as required by simple, complex or compound sentences; (2) they are self-contained

autonomous expressions which are used either as whole utterances, or in conjunction

with other minor or regular sentences in discourse; (3) when minor sentences precede

or follow other sentences, the former do not inﬂuence or are inﬂuenced by the latter’

(Krishnamur

ti and Gwynn 1985: 299). Minor

sentences include vocative

s or address

terms, sometimes combined with pre-vocative politeness clitics, greetings, interjections

and other short utterances, which convey the purport of the accompanying discourse.

We will start with examples from Telugu:

(39) Interjections

a. ayy¯o ‘alas!’, p¯apam ‘mercy’, abb¯a ‘ouch’, bh¯e

s ‘excellent’, are are ‘hey’

(in wonder) etc. ch¯ı ch¯ı ‘terrible!’ (disapproval). These may be followed

by short sentences.

(39) Address terms

b. or-¯ey/¯em-r¯a/¯ori (male addressee, with zero-degree politeness)

c. os-¯ey/¯em-¯e/¯osi (female addressee, same as b in politeness)

d. ¯em-¯oy (male addressee, with ﬁrst-degree politeness)

e. ¯em-ayya/amma (male/female addressee, second-degree politeness)

f. ¯em-a

di (male/female addressee with third- or highest-degree of polite-

ness)

g. n¯ann¯a ‘father’, amm¯a ‘mother’, t¯at¯a ‘grandfather’ etc. all kinship ad-

dress terms

h. ´s¯astri/´sarma/

d¯ak

taru/subb¯ar¯awu + g¯aru (marker of third-degree po-

liteness) with each address term outside the immediate family.

(39 b–f) occur as conversation openers, sometimes before address terms as pre-

vocatives. The clitics of politeness can also occur after any autonomous unit of a clause,

For example, telis¯ı-teliyaka means ‘with half knowledge’ which cannot be derived from two

underlying clauses, in which one would mean ‘knowingly’ and the other ‘not knowing’. Then,

these have to be taken as compound words at the morphological level.

458 Syntax

e.g. c¯u´s

r(u)-a

d¯ı ‘have you seen?’ ewar-¯oy wacc-in-di ‘who has come?’ (addressing

a male with ﬁrst-degree politeness). For an explanation of degrees of politeness, see

Krishnamurti and Gwynn 1985: 301–3.

(39) Greetings and other short expressions

i. namask¯aram-a

di/-ayya/-amma ‘hello’ (polite salutation)

j. awnu ‘yes’, k¯adu ‘no’, mancidi ‘ﬁne’, al¯an-¯a ‘is that so?’ (-a

di/-amma/-

ayya/-¯oy/-r¯a after each, depending on addressee’s status)

k. sar¯e ‘O K’ (-a

di/-amma/-ayya/-¯oy/-r¯a with ﬁnal -n before clitics be-

ginning with vowels)

l. idug¯o ‘here’, adug¯o ‘there’ (pointing out or handing in something; with

politeness clitics as above)

For

further details, see Krishnamur

ti and Gwynn (1985: 299

–306).

The examples

given for Tamil (Asher

1985: 100

–11, 119–20) are

given in different

sections. These include:

(40) a. evva

lavu ruciy¯ana halv¯a [how much tasty halva] ‘what a tasty halv¯a!’

b. appa

ti.y-¯a ‘is that so?’

c. Vocative in the case of names ending in -an is -¯a, e.g. r¯aman:vocr¯am¯a;

all stems in ﬁnal vowel lengthen that vowel, tampi ‘younger brother’:

voc tamp¯ı, cuntaram (proper noun): cuntar

d. Interjections: app¯a/amm¯a (pain), app¯a

tiy¯o (fear), ayy¯o (sorrow), ¯ok¯o

(surprise), c¯ı c¯ı (disapproval), p¯avam (sorrow and sympathy), pram¯atam

(appreciation and wonder). The last word is borrowed from Sanskrit

where it means ‘danger, unintended fault’

Malay¯a

lam (Asher and Kumari 1997: 186–7, 223–4, 449–50) has the same classiﬁ-

cation:

(41) a. Greetings include namask¯aram (general), sal¯am alaikkum (Moslems)

‘salutation’.

b. Vocatives: male names in ﬁnal -an replace it by -¯a,-m ending female

names double the ﬁnal -m, all vowel-ﬁnal names lengthen the vowel and

other consonantal-ﬁnal words add -¯e in address, e.g. m¯adhavan: m¯adhav-

¯a, kamala-m: kamala-mm, makka

l ‘children (one’s own)’: makka

l-¯e,

r¯a

ni: r¯a

n-¯ı (proper noun). Pre-vocatives include h¯e, allay¯o ‘hello’

(polite), ¯e

t¯a/¯e

t¯ı m/f ‘hello’ (familiar).

c. Interjections: ate ‘yes’, ayya

t¯a (contempt), ayy¯o/ayyayy¯o (grief, sympa-

thy), ¯av¯o (doubt), oh¯o ‘is that so?’, ch¯ı (disgust), bh¯e

s (appreciation).

9.6 Sentence

negation

459

Kanna

da (Sridhar 1990: 149–51) follows a similar pattern.

(42) a. Vocatives: the ﬁnal vowel of a common noun or a proper noun is

lengthened, e.g. hu

dug¯a ‘boy’, hu

dug¯ı ‘girl’, a

n¯a ‘dad’, amm¯a ‘mother,

madam’; ¯enr¯ı ‘hello’ (polite, to draw one’s attention).

b. Interjections: ayy¯o (pain, pity), abb¯a (incredulity, shock), che (mild dis-

approval), th¯u (disgust), ¯enu ‘what a ...!’

c. Greetings: namask¯ara, k

s¯emav-¯a ‘how do you do?’

d. Short utterances: haudu ‘yes’, h¯u ‘OK’, illa ‘no’.

A comparison of the four languages shows that several of the minor sentence types are

shared: (i) lengthening of the ﬁnal vowel of the word in addressing; (ii) using the terms for

‘mother’ (amma) and father (ayya, abba) followed by -¯a/-¯o in expressing pity, grief, etc.;

(iii) the use of interrogative stem ¯em followed by clitics in expressing different degrees

of politeness; (iv) the use of /h/ in ¯oho, ¯aha in expressing wonder, amazement etc.;

(v) the use of /c/ or /ch/ followed by front high or non-high vowels (ch¯a/ch¯ı/che) usually

reduplicated

in expressing disgust,

disapproval. Items (i) to (iii)

can be reconstructed as

shared patterns from Proto-South Dravidian. The last two could be recent innovations,

which have diffused across languages. They are also found in Indo-Aryan.

9.6 Sentence negation

Morphologically negation is expressed in verbal conjugation in Dravidian. This topic has

been dealt with in section 7.10.1–5. Besides, there is a negative verb

∗

cil reconstructible

for Proto-Dravidian (see section 7.10.6). This verb is used as an auxiliary with non-ﬁnite

verbs to denote sentence negation. In South Dravidian I there is another negative verb

al-, which is used in negating nominal predications.

In the modern languages of South Dravidian I, nominal predications are negated by

alla ‘not be so-and so’ (identity negation) and verbal predications by illai ‘not be, not

(do)’ (existential negation). Telugu and the other South Dravidian II languages have no

counterpart to alla. Instead, they use the negative form of the verb

∗

¯a ‘to be’ to negate

identity (Te. k¯a-du,Ko

da ¯a

ed). For verbal predications, in existential meaning, Telugu

uses l¯e- ‘be not’ which corresponds to il- of South Dravidian I, both from PD

∗

cil- with

the loss of c- in South Dravidian I, but retained in South Dravidian II with the exception

of Telugu. Let us look at sentence negation in Tamil:

(43) a. Ta. kum¯ar vakk¯ıl illai/alla

[Kumar lawyer be-not-3neu-pl]

‘Kumar is not a lawyer’ (identity negation)

b. Ta. ¯anantan ¯urle ill-ai

[Anandan town-loc be-not-3neu-sg]

‘Anandan is not in town’ (existential negation)

460 Syntax

c. Ta. pey u

[ghost exist-3neu-sg]

‘ghosts exist’



.Ta.pey ill-ai

[ghost not-exist-3neu-sg]

‘ghosts do not exist’

d. Ta. kum¯ar k¯ovil-ukku.p p¯o-

n-atu illai

[Kumar temple-dat go-past-noml be not-past-3neu-sg]

‘Kumar

has never gone to a temple

’

e. Ta. ravi n¯e

rru/n¯a

lai var-a.v ill-ai

[Ravi yesterda

y/tomorrow come-inf not-3neu-pl]

‘Ravi did not come yesterday/will not come tomorrow’

f. Ta. kum¯ar var-¯at-atu nall-atu alla

[Kumar come-neg-noml nice-3neu-sg be-not 3neu-pl]

‘Kumar not coming was not nice’

The negative verbs il- ‘be not’ (to negate existential, locative, copula usages) and al- (to

negate copula usage) are not inﬂected for tense but marked only for third neuter plural

as ill-ai, all-a, but agree with both singular and/or plural subjects. In equative sentences,

both the verbs occur as predicates in free variation (43a). In formal Tamil alla is used

to negate nominal predications and illai for the rest, as in (43f ) (Asher 1985: 77). This

distinction is lost in colloquial speech. In sentences with a locative PP as complement

(43b) onl

illai occurs. Sentence

(43d) has a nominalized

ﬁnite verb

in the subject NP

and (43e) refers to an action and not a state. In both cases illai is used. Sentences (43c,



) have an existential predicate and illai is used to negate it. As an auxiliary illai occurs

after a main verb in the inﬁnitive in verbal predications (43e) for negating an action done

in the past or non-past.

Malay¯a

lam uses alla to negate a nominal predication with the copula ¯a

and illa

a verbal predication with the copula u

. All other verbal predications add illa to the

ﬁnite verb to negate it.

(44) a. r¯aman

d¯ak

tar ¯a

[Raman doctor be-pres]

‘Raman is a doctor’



. r¯aman

d¯ak

tar alla

[Raman doctor neg]

‘Raman is not a doctor’

b. ku

ti v¯ı

t-il u

[child house-loc be-pres]

‘the child is at home’