LANGUAGE IN INDIA

The Auxiliary Verb POO in Tamil and Telugu

A. Parimala Gantham, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D. Candidate

Introduction

There are three types of syntactical categories: Lexical, Grammatical and Phrasal categories. Among these categories, Lexical Category is the one otherwise called parts of speech. Among these Parts of Speech, verbs signify the actions of the subjects. The verb, which shows the main action or meaning, may be labeled as Main Verb. The verb, which is appended with the main verb and denote some shades of meaning, may be labeled as auxiliary verb.

Characteristics of Auxiliary Verb

An Auxiliary modifies the meaning of the main verb. It may precede or follow the main verb. Auxiliary verbss are derived from the main verb historically. Ross (1969) claims that "The auxiliaries behave like a main verb and they belong to the same category." It is a helping verb. It is sometimes considered as suffixes due to the fusion with main verb. No insertion is allowed in between the main verb and the auxiliary verb. However, some of the particles like emphasis, reflexive marker, etc., can be inserted in between main and auxiliary verbs. The order of the construction should not be changed when the auxiliary verb is involved.

Other Names for Auxiliary Verb

It is otherwise called as Vector, Secondary verb, Helping verb, Associative verb, Additional verb, or Subordinate verb.

Types of Auxiliaries

There are two main types of auxiliaries, namely, Aspectual and Modals. Aspectual are the ones which add aspectual notions like perfective, completive, progressive, etc., to the verb. The constituents, usually called Modal, express semantically the notion of possibility, potentiality, permission, obligation, etc.

Order of the Occurrence of the Auxiliary Verbs

The Auxiliary verb may precede or follow the main verb. Normally auxiliary verbs occur after the verbal participle form of the main verb, Infinitive form of the main verb and the dative form of the verbal noun. The aspectual or Modal or both may follow the main verb. When both aspectual and modal follow the main verb, the structure is Main verb+Aspect+Modal.

Auxiliaries in Tamil

Two ancient grammarians, in the earlier period Tolkaappiyar, and in the later period Nannulaar, both did not talk about auxiliaries explicitly. But Israel (1976) thinks that the acainiraikkilavi, one of the seven kinds of particles or ITaiccol in Tolkaappiyam, may be considered as auxiliary verb. Other scholars also have referred to this function and form of auxiliary verbs in Tamil. For example, Agesthialingom (1980) wrote that "Tolkaappiyam speaks of `VeeNTum`, which function as an auxiliary verb (as in varaveeNTum `One must come`)." He lists 35 auxiliary verbs.

In Tamil, the aspectual auxiliary occurs after verbal participle. For example, vandu poonaan `He came and went`. The modal auxiliary occurs after the infinitive of the verb as in: varaccol `Ask him to come`. The voice auxiliary also occurs after the infinitive form of the main verb. The auxiliary verb functions as a verbalizer when added to the nouns.

Auxiliaries in Telugu

Usha Devi pointed out that the oldest literature of Telugu named Nannya Bharatam contains auxiliary verbs. P. S. Subrahmanyam divided the auxiliaries in Telugu into two main classes on the basis of the form of the main verb to which they are attached. The auxiliaries that are attached to the past adverbial participial of a main verb may be called class one, and those that are attached to the infinitive of a main verb may be called class two. He also wrote that the auxiliary verb in Telugu is a syntactically bound form since nothing can be inserted between the auxiliary and the main verb. But Shade showed that in Old Telugu the insertion of a particle of word, pharse or even clause is possible even though in Modern Telugu it is not possible.

With this brief background of the theory about auxiliary verbs in Tamil and Telugu I present below a descriptions of the auxiliary verb poo `To go` in Tamil and Telugu.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

A Study of Auxiliaries in the Old and the Middle Tamil | Content Analysis of "Disability Communication" in the Daily Newspaper DNA (Daily News Analysis) - A Short-term Study Report | Authority: What Is It? | The Trading Community in Early Tamil Society Up To 900 AD | The Use of Setswana as a Medium of Instruction, A Core Subject and A National Language: Is It Not A Negation Of Affirmative Action? A Study of Botswana Linguistic Situation | The Auxiliary Verb POO in Tamil and Telugu | A Study of Idiomatic Expressions in Lurish and Persian | A Survey of Factors Contributing to Language Change in English With Special Reference to Lexical Change | Sarojini Naidu as a Nature Poet | HOME PAGE of November 2008 Issue | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR