The Syntax and Semantics of Tolkaappiyam
Let us keep in mind that for Tol the MEANINGS constitute the basis for linguistic studies and hence the various kinds of COMMUNICATIVE acts - verbal and nonverbal - are the events that are studied.
Such studies are complied as PoruLatikaaram where PoruL here means the MEANINGS people live with and hence a kind of existential analytics. Now the Second Book Collatikaaram (Col) deals very specifically with the Coherence of Discourse and the syntactic and semantic issues related to that. The kiLavi, the meaningful utterance becomes the unit that is analyzed and where COHERENCE of sentence structure is dealt with. It is here GRAMMAR in the strict sense of the word, evolves with delineation of the RULES implicit in the structure of sentences coherent both syntactically and semantically.
The Eccaviyal, the final chapter is of peculiar importance for here we have not only a discussion of the agglutination of Noun Phrases but also a kind of Linguistic Survey of ancient India where almost all Indian languages are classified into Centamil and Koduntamil with Sanskrit separated out as Vadamozi i.e. the Northern Language, or Dead Language (pada> vada: to be dead)
The Book begins, interestingly enough with a chapter on KiLaviyaakkam, the formative processes of speech and which turns out to be actually a Discourse Analysis where the units of discourse, the KiLavi are various kinds of Speech Acts like questioning, replying, requesting, commanding and so forth. After that it begins an analysis of the constituents of such linguistic units and for which purposes the Case Markers are studied followed with an analysis of ViLi Marabu or the Vocative that is quite intimately related to the cases. Then we have an extensive analysis of the Noun Phrases (NP) followed with an equally extensive analysis of Verb Phrases (VP). Then we have a study of what are called Idaiccol- the particles, enclitics and so forth followed with Uriyiyal that gave rise to the tradition of dictionaries - the explication of the meaning of rare words with commonly occurring words. One could say that this chapter of Uriyiyal is the first DICTIONARY or NikaNdu in Tamil, that set the model for some ancient NikaNdus like Tivaakaram and so forth, which finally led to a proper dictionary, the Caturakaraty of Rev Beschi or Viramamunivar (c. 17th cent)
The final chapter is Eccaviyal and which literally means the Chapter on matters that were left out in the earlier chapters. In seeking out what kind of words can legitimately be used in literary compositions, Tol ranges very wide into all the languages of India and classifies them variously. It is here that we find an explicit mention of Sanskrit and the rules that must be applied to words that have phonemes peculiar to that language before being accepted into Tamil.
KiLaviyaakkam: Discourse Analysis
This is the chapter which not only that sets the framework for the various rules of grammar that are noted later but also that which links up with PoruLatikaaram, the third book.
The Discourse is an organized dialogue with questions and replies alternating but with a COHERENCE of their own and which is RULE BOUND. Now here the notion of coherence is tackled at several levels- the discourse level, the sentential level and morphological levels. For example for a discourse to be coherent it is noted that a reply to a question must be relevant to the issue raised by the question and that sometimes a counter question itself can serve as an implicit reply. Quite interesting in this matter is the observation that when questions are raised about nonexistent objects like Flower in the Sky and so forth, it is WRONG to reply positively or negatively, as that would implicate that one accepts the existence of the object. The best thing to do under such circumstances is to refuse a reply and remain SILENT. Questions about nonexistent objects terminate the dynamic flow of the discourse itself and hence nonproductive.
Now grammatical considerations proper begins only at the level of coherences at the sentential level and it is here that the basic categories like TiNai (person non-person gender distinctions) the number (one and many), the pronominal considerations ( the firrd person, second person etc), tenses and aspects and so forth are considered along with the distinction between NP and VP, the basic constituents of all sentences that have a coherent meaning. There are morphological elements like number indicating infixes both in the NP and VP and there must be AGREEMENT between the NP and VP of a single sentence for it to be grammatically acceptable. So is the case with other categories like gender tense pronominal structures and so forth.
ULLAGANAR
( editing and re-paragraphing by his student )
No comments:
Post a Comment