Linguistics As Hermeneutic Science

IlakkaNam, Ilakkiyam and Linguistics as Hermeneutic Science 

This is just a brief note on the meaning of linguistics as it prevailed or prevails in the native Tamil Linguistic tradition at least from days of Tolkaappiyar(c. 300 BC) if not earlier. The notion that linguistics belongs to the field of Hermeneutic Science, a rational science concerned with UNDERSTANDING (Tol. nuul neRi) is already quite clearly available in the concepts of IlakkaNam and Ilakkiyam, the identifying essences and the TEXTS that are studied to wrest out these identifying essences. 

In the case of language, the IlakkaNam are processes ALREADY at work in the linguistic competence a person has and the business of linguistics as belonging to Hermeneutic Science is to make EXPLICIT these processes that allow the generation of speech in a language that is grammatically coherent. 

Thus in being an able speaker of a language, say Tamil, a person has already a TACIT understanding of the PROCESSES of word generation, sentence generation, speech act generation and so forth and the task of the linguist is to MAKE EXPLICIT these elements of TACIT understanding so that a CONSCIOUS understanding of what remained hitherto only UNCONSCIOUS (in one sense of this word) comes to prevail. 

But what is the need for such a kind of linguistics? There are many but the most important one is that disambiguation, the removing of uncertainties, the incomprehensibility, vagueness, the correction of misperceptions and so forth. 

Now we can add that it is such studies where the processes already there in a language are wrested out from actual TEXTS or discourses (not just the lexicon), the lakshanas, are spelt out clearly that we can IDENTIFY a language as such and such and belongs to this family or that family and has evolved from this archaic form or that archaic form and so forth. It is through the identification of such processes already there at work (and thus NOT constructed, invented etc) that I claim Sumerian is Archaic Tamil, and Rigkrit has evolved form it etc. 

I append here part of my ongoing study of Tolkaappiyam below because such ideas are implicit in the words of Teyvaccilaiyaar: urubu toka varutal ennum iLakkaNam (The IlakkaNam where a phrase emerges with the deletion of case markers) 

This view of Linguistics also makes it imperative that we study TEXTS that are discourses and not simply words in isolation for the IlakkaNam, the processes that would help us to identify a language, to what family it belongs to, how it has evolved from an earlier archaic form etc are available fully only in such texts. 

To understand what kind of language Rigkrit is and how it is related on an evolutionary basis to SumeroTamil, we have to acquire the TEXTS of both languages, wrest out the IlakkaNam, the linguistic processes there already at work in both languages and show a SAMENESS (along with differences) that would serve as evidences for the identification being made , or saying that Rigkrit has evolved from SumeroTamil etc. 


Loga

“ உலகம் உவப்ப வலன் ஏர்பு திரிதரு, பலர்புகழ் ஞாயிறு கடல் கண்டாங்கு, ஓவற இமைக்கும் சேண் விளங்கு அவிர் ஒளி, உறுநர்த் தாங்கிய மதன் உடை நோன்றாள், செறுநர்த்தேய்த்த, செல் உறழ் தடக்கை, மறுவில் கற்பின் வாணுதல் கணவன்” என்பது இரண்டொன்றாக ஒட்டியவாறு என்னையெனின், ‘உலகம்’ என்பது உலகத்துள்ளார்க்குப் பெயராய் ‘உவப்ப’ எனும் செயவென் எச்சத்தோடு முடிந்தது. ‘வலனாக’ என்னும் எச்சத்துக்கண் ஆகவென்பது செய்யுள் விகாரத்தால் தொக்கு நின்றது. தொக்கு நின்ற காலத்தும் அதற்கு இயல்பு முற்பட்ட நிலமை என்று கொள்க. என் போலுமெனின், வாலுஞ் செவியும் இழந்த ஞமலியைப் பின்னும் ஞமலி என்றே வழங்கினாற்போல, உவப்ப வலனாக என்னும் செயவென் எச்சமும் , ‘ஏர்பு’ என நிகழ்காலங் குறித்த செயவென் எச்சமும் திரிதரு வென்னும் பெயரெச்சத்தோடு முடிந்தன. 


Translation (Loga) 

We have the complex clause with pair-wise nesting “ Ulakam uvappa valan eerbu tiritaru, palar pukaz njaayiRu kadal kaNdaaGku, oovaRa imaikkum ceeN viLaGku avir oLi, uRun_rt taaGkiya matan udai n_oonRaaL, ceRunart teeytta, cel uRal tadakkai, maRuvil kaRpin vaaNutal kaNavan” , and now we shall explain how there is pair-wise gluing of words in the generation of this clause. The word ‘ulakam’ (the world) stands as a name for the people at large, and finds its completion with verbal participial of the ‘ceya’ type i.e. uvappa ( be pleased) . Now in the participial construction ‘valanaaka” we have the deletion of ‘aaka’ because of the requirements of prosodic coherence. However despite this deletion at the surface level, it continues to be at the deep and original level (muRpadda nilamai) with no change. You can take this to be something like a dog which has lost its tail and ears but still continues to be called a ‘dog’. The verbal participial ‘ uvappa valanaaka’ along with another present tense verbal participial ‘eerbu’ ends up with the nominal participial (peyareccam) ‘tiritaru’ ( that which moves about)



Notes( Loga) 

What Teyvaccilaiyaar is trying to communicate here, can be understood better in terms of Transformational Grammar where we have Surface Structures (SS) that are transformed versions of the original Deep Structure (DS). The DS is ‘ulakam uvappa valanaaka’ and its SS is “Ulakam uvappa valan” where we have deletion of ‘aaka’ from ‘valanaaka” . But despite this surface level absence, ‘aaka’ continues to be at the DS level as there is NO CHANGE in meaning. He also implies here that the genesis if verbal and nominal participial constructions ( vinaieccam and peyareccam) are related to another level of such transformational processes that keep the original meanings in tact. 


‘பலரால்’ என்னும் மூன்றாம் வேற்றுமை ஏற்ற பெயர் உருபு தொக வருதல் என்னும் இலக்கணத்தால், தொக்குப் ‘பலர்’ என நின்றது. 


அது புகழப்பட்ட என்பதற்கு அடையாகி நின்றது. அடையெனினும் விசேடணம் எனினும் ஒக்கும். புகழப்பட்ட என்னும் பெயரெச்சம், உண்சோறு என்றாற்போலப் பொருண்மேல் வந்து வினைதொகையாகிப் புகழ்ஞாயிறு என ஒட்டி ஒருசொல்லாகி நின்றது. அது திரிதரு என்னும் பெயரெச்சத்திற்கு முடிபாயிற்று. 



Translation(Loga) 

The case-suffixed NP ‘palaraal’ has ‘aal’ , the instrumental case marker. In accordance with IlakkaNam, or grammatical process of coming with the deletion of the case marker, it stands here simply as ‘palar’ . It also stands as the qualifier of ‘pukazapadda’ (that which is praised). The meaning of ‘adai’ the adjectival qualification is the same as viceedaNam(in Sanskrit), the attributes. The nominal participial ‘pukazappadda’ , like ‘uNcooRu” ( food being eaten) indicates concrete objects and becoming a Verbal Compound , generates ‘pukaznjaayiRu” , the words glued into one and made to function like a single word. 


Loga(Notes) 

Teyvaccilaiyar explains here how the passive sentence “palaraal pukazappadda njaayiRu” ( the sun that is praised by many) gets transformed into the SS ‘palarpukaznjaayiRu’ through a process not of gluing two distinct names but through another species of agglutinating, where the word fusion takes place because of deletion of the case marker “aal” and passive marker ‘padda’. Though the word fusion is made possible by such deletions they are still available in the DS as the meaning remains the same. 


The Meaning of IlakkaNam 

We should also note the special significance of the clause ’”urubu toka varutal ennum iLakkaNam”. Here the word ilaakkanam corresponds to the English word grammar but however the ‘grammar’ is understood as the PROCESSES underlying the generation of such phrases and clause. The deletion of case markers in the transformation of a clause into a Glued Word or Compound Word, involve some linguistic PROCESSES implying that the task of a linguist is to UNEARTH such processes already OPERATIVE in the language. 

This makes it clear that Linguistics is a Hermeneutic Science where we make CLEAR the processes already at work in the generation of grammatically correct phrases and clauses. 

The ilakkiyam, the texts contain the IlakkaNam, the processes underlying the generation of grammatically coherent phrases and clauses. The ilakkaNam are processes that are not invented, posited hypothetically and so forth but rather noted as there already in the linguistic processes underlying the generation of grammatically coherent sentences i.e. linguistic competence 


Loganathan @ Ullaganar (revised 15-7-10)