The use of vector verbs in early modern Tamil
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Jean-Luc Chevillard
Abstract
The posthumous Vocabulario Tamulico com a Significaçam Portugueza (VTCSP) compiled by Antam de Proença (1625-1666) was printed in 1679 in Ambalacatta (now in Kerala). Although the VTCSP contains 16,217 entries printed on 508 pages, it does not deal with 16,217 distinct lexemes because it is non-lemmatized and stands in fact between a grammar and a dictionary. A number of entries have to be grouped into families, scattered over several pages. Limiting ourselves to the verbal morphology, which takes up 39% of the total count, we can say that (almost) all families of entries contain a citation form (ending in -kkiṟatu, -kiṟatu, or -ṟatu) but that many families also contain a separate entry for the relative participle or for a verbal noun ending in -kai. The central focus of this paper is an indepth analysis of a group of 298 entries, in which we see the earliest clear attestation of the use of vector verbs in compound verbal expressions in Tamil. Fifteen distinct vector verbs are represented in the VTCSP, of which the most frequently attested are the following four: pōṟatu ‘to go’ (42%), koḷḷukiṟatu ‘to take’ (20%), irukkiṟatu ‘to sit’ or ‘to be’ (17%), and pōṭukiṟatu ‘to put’ (10%). An additional important element of information provided by the VTCSP is the collection of Portuguese glosses that are provided with each of these entries, which are in some cases accompanied by concrete examples of use. These glosses and examples allow us to see how these compound forms were perceived to differ, or not to differ, from the corresponding simple forms.
Abstract
The posthumous Vocabulario Tamulico com a Significaçam Portugueza (VTCSP) compiled by Antam de Proença (1625-1666) was printed in 1679 in Ambalacatta (now in Kerala). Although the VTCSP contains 16,217 entries printed on 508 pages, it does not deal with 16,217 distinct lexemes because it is non-lemmatized and stands in fact between a grammar and a dictionary. A number of entries have to be grouped into families, scattered over several pages. Limiting ourselves to the verbal morphology, which takes up 39% of the total count, we can say that (almost) all families of entries contain a citation form (ending in -kkiṟatu, -kiṟatu, or -ṟatu) but that many families also contain a separate entry for the relative participle or for a verbal noun ending in -kai. The central focus of this paper is an indepth analysis of a group of 298 entries, in which we see the earliest clear attestation of the use of vector verbs in compound verbal expressions in Tamil. Fifteen distinct vector verbs are represented in the VTCSP, of which the most frequently attested are the following four: pōṟatu ‘to go’ (42%), koḷḷukiṟatu ‘to take’ (20%), irukkiṟatu ‘to sit’ or ‘to be’ (17%), and pōṭukiṟatu ‘to put’ (10%). An additional important element of information provided by the VTCSP is the collection of Portuguese glosses that are provided with each of these entries, which are in some cases accompanied by concrete examples of use. These glosses and examples allow us to see how these compound forms were perceived to differ, or not to differ, from the corresponding simple forms.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Preface vii
- Contents xi
- Acknowledgements xiii
- On the syntax of comparative clauses in Vedic Sanskrit … like someone eating the foam off the water 1
- Some questions about yád in Vedic 23
- A statistical model of syntactic and nonsyntactic factors affecting relative clause placement in Hindi 43
- Optionality and variation in agreement in some participles in Hindi-Urdu 77
- A cross-linguistic approach to sentential subjects in Kannada 119
- Relation between animacy and case marking in Eastern Indo-Aryan languages 173
- Participles with a semantic void in Koints 191
- Competition between vectored verbs and factored verbs in Hindi-Urdu, Marathi and Gujarati 207
- How similarly do Hindi rakhnā and Japanese oku PUT behave as a V2? A corpus-based comparative analysis 243
- The use of vector verbs in early modern Tamil 261
- Reflexive and reciprocal marking in Mising 291
- Reciprocals in Kokborok — A Case of Syntactic Convergence 311
- A cognitive semantic analysis of locative and spatial constructions in Bangla 339
- Revisiting Pāṇini’s generative power 361
- Hindi root allomorphy: Insights from phonological and morphosyntactic theory 381
- Lexeme and speech syllables in English and Hindi. A case for syllable structure 415
- List of contributors 463
- List of contributors 469
- Index of languages 477
- Index of subjects 479
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter i
- Preface vii
- Contents xi
- Acknowledgements xiii
- On the syntax of comparative clauses in Vedic Sanskrit … like someone eating the foam off the water 1
- Some questions about yád in Vedic 23
- A statistical model of syntactic and nonsyntactic factors affecting relative clause placement in Hindi 43
- Optionality and variation in agreement in some participles in Hindi-Urdu 77
- A cross-linguistic approach to sentential subjects in Kannada 119
- Relation between animacy and case marking in Eastern Indo-Aryan languages 173
- Participles with a semantic void in Koints 191
- Competition between vectored verbs and factored verbs in Hindi-Urdu, Marathi and Gujarati 207
- How similarly do Hindi rakhnā and Japanese oku PUT behave as a V2? A corpus-based comparative analysis 243
- The use of vector verbs in early modern Tamil 261
- Reflexive and reciprocal marking in Mising 291
- Reciprocals in Kokborok — A Case of Syntactic Convergence 311
- A cognitive semantic analysis of locative and spatial constructions in Bangla 339
- Revisiting Pāṇini’s generative power 361
- Hindi root allomorphy: Insights from phonological and morphosyntactic theory 381
- Lexeme and speech syllables in English and Hindi. A case for syllable structure 415
- List of contributors 463
- List of contributors 469
- Index of languages 477
- Index of subjects 479
