The Linguistic Philosophy of Tolkaapiyar - Part 5

The Intention Generative Grammar ( or the Process Grammar) of Tolkaappiyam 


The way Tol understands the important constituents of KiLavi - the minimal unit of meaningful discourse, and its constituents, the NP and VP is very peculiar and quite unparalleled to this day either by the linguists of the West or even the Sanskrit grammarians of India including PaNini. 

We must remember the important chapter of KiLaviyaakkam, the genesis of Speech Acts and hence discourse and how and why they are coherent. It is only with the notion of coherence at the sentential level over and above at the discourse level, that the distinctions between the NP VP and the enclitics and so forth are entered into. A sentence gets used in a Speech Act and because of it becomes a KiLavi, something that is expressive or communicative of something. 

Now looked at this way what is thus communicated are INTENTIONS and therefore the poruL, the substance of PoruLatikaaram, what we have called the MEANINGS as such are intention-meanings, the INTENTIONALITIES. Such intentionalities are NOT the same as word meanings that constitute the SEMIOTICS of a language but rather something ABOVE such word-meanings.

There appears to be a dynamic relationship between the two: the historically transmitted word-meanings help in the generation of a sentence that can be used as a KiLavi, effect a Speech Act and hence with that communicate an INTENTION. And it is the emergence of such intentional meanings that also gives rise to the development of word meanings and semiotics. This is quite clear in the natural situation where the effort is to get at what a person MEANS in saying something and for which we also use the paralinguistic and contextual factors. The INTENTION, what the person MEANS comes through the speech, helped along by the word meanings as well the implications of the paralinguistic and contextual factors. 

The science of word meanings, part of the semiotics as such, is dealt with by Tol in his Uriyiyal and because of which it gave rise to the tradition of NikaNdu, the modern expressions of which are Dictionaries including Thesaurus, Etymological, Dictionaries and so forth. 

But the meaning of PoruL is NOT exhausted by this for more importantly it means the Intentional Meanings and which is the substance of PoruLatikaaram, and which accomplishment to this day remains quite unparalleled both in India and the West. 


Intentionalities and the Coherence of Discourses 


The Collatikaaram of Tol contains within itself a Transformational Generative Grammar but quite different from that of Noam Chomsky and other such generative grammars and using which I have developed what I called the Process Grammar, where the primary linguistic process is that of COMMUNICATING and in that indicating also what is ASSERTED as opposed to what is being PRESUPPOSED. Even the normal communicative act has the intention structure of Presupposed: Asserted and it is this distinction underlies our perception that a sentence is a union of NP and VP and where the NP shows what is presupposed and VP what is asserted. This also shows that there are syntactically atomic or basic sentences, called simply Cuddu by Tol, the deictic as the building blocks of complex sentences or speech acts. 

Let me illustrate the point by taking as example: King Raja Raja Chola was very brave. Here it is presupposed that there was King Raja Raja Chola whose truth is beyond doubt and then it is asserted as something unknown or NEW that he was also brave. Thus we can see this having the structure: {There was King Raja Raja Chola1) o (He1 was very brave) where the symbol “X o Y’ shows that ‘X” is presupposed and ‘Y’ is asserted. And the number ‘1’ indicates IDENTITY of the named and pronominally indicated. 


Notice that: 


1. 

If ‘X’, the truth about King Raja Raja Chola is disallowed and there was no such a person, then the assertion as a whole FAILS as a Speech Act for it fails to elicit from others either as affirmation or denial. 

2. 

Now if the pronoun ‘he” in Y does not identify the SAME person as the named in X, then again the assertion as such will NOT materialize as a Speech Act, i.e. a KiLavi. 

When Tol in KiLaviyaakkam says that one can only remain silent in the face of assertion of nonexistent objects, it is clear that he is having such discourse grammatical notions though he may not have spelt out explicitly. 

Now when we look a bit deeper at the phenomenon of FAILURE of discourse in the face of non-existent objects, it also follows that in the case of discourses that proceed with a COHERENCE, what constitutes it is the INTENTIONAL- FUSION, the reply consistent with the intention of the question etc. 


The Grammar of NP and VP 

Now we are in a position to understand the grammar of NP and VP as observed in Tol. Simply put while the NP-s conjugate with case markers number gender markers and so forth but DO NOT CARRY or even implicate the time-related tenses aspects and so forth and which is the essence of the VP-s. Thus TEMPORALITY is brought in to clarify the grammatical intuitions that underly our grasp that a phrase is a NP and another VP. And also while VP may implicate case markers, e.g. adi-t-taan (he beat) implicating that the NP carries the Accusative Case Marker ‘ai’ (x-ai adittaan), a nominal stem like ‘maram, naay”and so forth may not implicate any specific verb etc. 

But why this feature of sentence structure? 

The information communicated by the NP also communicates that it is something being PRESUPPOSED as TRUE, generally agreed upon by all and that which is communicated by the VP, is not so but that it is which is being ASSERTED with the implicit demand that it be agreed upon by others as well. 

The NP tears a certain understanding away from the world process and makes it ABOVE it as a TRUTH already accepted and hence something that can be PRESUPPOSED by the speaker and because of which it is time free and which is NOT the case with what is communicated by the VP. Of course the audience can question this very presupposition itself and in which case the discourse will develop in directions unintended by the speaker. 

Thus we can see that implicit in Tol is this Process Grammar which unlike the TG Grammar of Chomsky does NOT make Linguistic Competence simply a mechanical process already innate and so forth. The Linguistic Competence in the Process Grammar of Tol comes with the ability to intentionalize notions ideas and so forth and muster the auxiliary skills and courage to communicate effectively. 



ULLAGANAR

( editing and re-paragraphing by his student )

What is Metaphysics?

What is Metaphysics?

This is an important question which is the main question of

philsophy and religion both in the East and West. 

In Tamil it is known as "MeyyaRivu" or "thaththuva visaaraNaai" where the Sanskrit 'Thath"

means " what is in itself" and hence truth. Heidegger has written a book

called "what is metaphysics?". 

I use the term in the sense it was originally used by the Greeks: meta-physis meaning going 

beyond the physical and hence excursions into the nonphysical realities. The most 

important questions in metaphysics because of this become on the reality of God and soul as 

both are nonphysical and hence metaphysical.

I view metaphysics as the deepest Hermeneutic science and have explained 

it very elaborately in my 'Introduction to Metaphysica Universalis of

Meykandar', a translation of Meykandar's  CivanjaBotham available. 

Just to give a simple example, dreams are metaphysical, in my sense, and

hence trying to get at the meaning by interpreting it, an excursion into the metaphysical if

you take the dreams as having semiotic aspects to it. Similar but much

deeper are the interpretive studies of mythologies, folklores,

religious rituals and related matters. As such they also turn out to be

the study of the Unconscious in the Freudian sense, the Collective

Unconscious in the Jungian sense, Transcendental Uncollective

Unconscious in the Meykandarian sense.

I hope the above explains in simple terms the meaning of 'metaphysics'.

ULLAGANAR

( editing and re-paragraphing by his student) 

The Metaphysical Gynecology of Tirumular - Part 23

The Deviant and Transgressive Sexuality.

It is quite inevitable that Tirumular in the course of explaining the essence of Transgressive Sexuality (TGS) that he certainly advocates in many places, should also consider DEVIANT sexuality and which for him are the forms of sexuality inconsistent with TGS.  This is how ETHICS enters metaphysics. We must recall here that this line of thinking began among the Tamil folks with at least Tolkaappiyar where he analyses all behavior, including the verbal (both spoken and composed, the Vazakku and CeyyuL) into the five LOVE based (akam aintiNai) and two deviant forms (KaikkiLai and PeruntiNai)

Tirumular goes well beyond these early attempts where he, not only accommodates sexual abnormality but also Bramahcarya, the ascetic as a kind of deviant sexual behavior. The homosexuals, lesbians and Brahmacarins are similar in that they DISTORT and TORTURE the normal sexual libido instead of transmuting it into the Gnostic Libido (the Njana Sakti) that would burn off the Apara Bindu that permeates the body and produces the sperm filled seminal fluid that creates the desire for species regeneration and so forth.  Neither homosexuality nor brahmacariam will do this transmutation and hence the sorts of behavior to be avoided.

A man must live with a woman, enjoy sexual happiness with LOVE and evolve into one who continues to enjoy sex but in the form of TGS and with that and  in the end transcend even that by attaining the supreme inner purity, the Sivattuvam - being qualitatively the SAME as Siva.

More below.

40.

1963.

விந்துவும் நாதமும் மேவக் கனல் மூல
வந்த வனல் மயிர்க் கால்தோறும் மன்னிடக்
சிந்தனை மாறச் சிவம் அகமாகவே
விந்துவு மாளும் மெய்க் காயத்தின் வித்திலே

உரை:

நாதமும் விந்துவும் பீடமும் தாணுவுமாக விளங்கி நிற்கும் சிவலிங்கம் உயிரை மேவ, இந்த இரு தத்துவங்களின் புணர்ச்சியால் எழும் குண்டலினி காமக்கனலாக இருப்பதுபோக்கி ஞானக் கனலாக எழுந்து உடலெங்கும் பரவி மயிர்க்கால் தொறும் மன்னியிட, ஆன்மாவின் சிந்தனைப் போக்கு உலகியல் சிந்தனை விட்டு சிவச் சிந்தனையாகவே மாறும். அதனால் அகத்தில் மலங்களும் திரோதமும் நீங்க, ஆன்மா நிலமப் பேற்றின் சிவமே அகமாக சிறக்கும். அதுபொழுது உடம்பில் சந்தான விருத்திக்கு ஊந்தும் வித்திலே ( சுக்கிலம் சுரோணிதத்திலே) இருக்கும் அபரவிந்து மாளும்.
40.

vintuvum naatamum meevak kanal muula
vanta vanal mayirk kaaltooRum mannidak
cintanai maaRac Civam akamaakavee
vintuvu maaLum meyk kaayattin vittilee

Meaning:

As the Natam and Bindu in the form of SivaliGkam pervades the anma and as a result of conjugations within, produce the Libido that gets transformed into Njanakni, the Gnostic Libido, it spreads all over the body including the roots of the hair. This brings about a change in thinking whereby the person becomes truly metaphysical and where through inner purities attained, the self, shines forth as Siva itself, i.e. absolutely pure. At this point the Apara Bindu, that which is the source of species regeneration impulses, spread all over the body, will die out

49

1964

வித்துக் குற்று உண்பான் விளைவு அறியாதவன்
வித்துக் குற்று உண்ணாமல் வித்து சுட்டு உண்பவன்
வித்துக் குற்று உண்பானின் வேறலன் ஈற்றவன்
வித்துக் குற்று உண்ணாமல் வித்துவித் தானன்றே

உரை:

விதையக் குத்தி தோல் நீக்கி உண்பவன் வித்தை வயலில் விளைப்பதால் வரும் விளைவினை அறியாதவன். இவ்வாறு விதைகளைக் குத்தி உண்ணாமல் அவற்றை  சுட்டு  வறுத்து உண்பவன் , விதையக் குத்தி உண்பனைப் போலவே தவிர வேறில்லாதவன். இவ்விரண்டுமல்லாமல் மூன்றாமவன், விதையைக் (சுட்டும்) குத்தியு உண்ணாமல், விதையில் இருக்கும் அபரவிந்துவை மாய்த்து சுத்தமாக்கி ( விந்து ஜயம் அடைந்து) வித்திட்டு வித்திட்டு பரவிந்துவை விளைச்சலாக அடைவன். 

49.

1964

vittuk kuRRu uNbaan viLaivu aRiyaatavan
vittuk kuRRu uNNaamal vittu cuddu uNbavan
vittuk kuRRu uNbaanin veeRalan iiRRan
vittuk kuRRu uNNaamal vittuvvit taananRee

Meaning:

There are those who pound the seeds and removing the husk eat the grains. Such people will not realize the harvest that become possible by planting them.  There are also those who instead of pounding etc, in fact roast them and eat them. Such people are also not different from the first. However there is the third kind of people who without eating by pounding or roasting, actually plant them (but with burning the Apara Bindu there) and enjoy the harvest that accrues (in the form of the nectar of Para Bindu, the Amutu.)

Comments:

Tirumular is concerned in these two verses with the PROPER way for graduating into the stage of Transgressive Sexuality, which is simultaneously enjoying the mythical Golden Body. He brings out the real way by describing some deviant ways first and with the use of some good metaphors. There are those who MISUSE sexuality and who are people who POUND the seeds and eat them without planting them in fertile soil.  Such are those who TORTURE the sexual urges in them and take them into deviant ways.

Another kind of sexual deviancy is the Bramahcarya, the forced asceticism, where every urge of the EROS is suppressed and repressed and the whole life is spent  practicing various of gimmicks (like eating spice-less vegetarian food etc) neglecting in that struggle the real meaning of religious life - metaphysical inquiries. These are those who roast the seeds and eat them, and again without planting them.

As distinct from these two types are the third - those who enjoy active sexual life but with transmuting the normal sexuality into Transgressive Sexuality - they plant the seeds and enjoy a suitable harvest. But how is this done? The verse 48 explains it.

The sexual libido that emerges in the body and through the coition of the Natam and Bindu that compose the SivaliGkam, must be transmuted into Gnostic Libido, the Icca Sakti into Njana Sakti and which earns deep metaphysical illuminations. These illuminations do not stand just in the head or in the self - such inner light spreads all over the body, creates a sacred aura about the body whereby the THINKING itself undergoes a fundamental change. The interest in Physical Thinking is severed and interest in Metaphysical Thinking is installed. This enters the interior of the soul itself and PURIFIES it by removing all the Malam, darkness, the filth and dirt there and with that making the self glow with Sivattuvam, the Sivahood.

It is during this course of psychic and bodily development that Transgressive Sexuality comes to prevail, where it is a kind of sexuality where there are conjugal relationships within Deep Love and where there is no ejaculation of the sperms along with seminal fluid (as already explained) for there is no more the production of the sperms themselves.


Ullaganar


( editing and re-paragraphing by his student )


( photo taken from https://pixabay.com/en/ with thanks )