2

 

THE NOUN PHRASE

 

This chapter deals with the morphology (grammatical forms) of the noun phrase, or grammatical variations that take place when nominal elements are combined in various ways. It also treats the semantics of the noun system, especially case. Syntactic relations between noun phrases and other parts of the sentence are dealt with in the chapter on syntax (chapter four).

The noun phrase in Kannada, as in most Dravidian languages, is fairly simple in comparison with the verb phrase. Kannada has an indefinite article (but no definite article), adjectives (most of which are derived from nouns or verbs), and nouns of various sorts that take case endings and postpositions. Nouns may be distinguished for gender, "rationality," and number; and in some cases the noun phrase may contain pronouns, numerals, color terms, deictic particles (`this, that, which') and quantifiers (`many, some, all', etc.). These will all be covered in this chapter.

 

2.1. Gender and "rationality." Kannada third person nouns and pronouns are distinguished for gender; nouns referring to biologically female beings are feminine in gender, beings that are biologically male are masculine in gender, and nouns that are not thought to be "ra­tional" (capable of thought) are "nonrational" or simply neuter. There are a few exceptions to this distinction, as some "higher" animals, gods, and some other spirits are included in the category of "rational" beings, and sometimes young children and females are treated as "nonrational."1

Among the category of rational beings, masculines and feminines may be marked with the masculine marker ‑(a)nu or the feminine markers ‑(a)Lu, ‑i, or ‑e (although i and e are not always to be con­strued as feminine markers, as indicated below), but not all masculine and feminine nouns are so marked. Pronouns that refer to masculine and feminine nouns do have the person‑number‑gender (PNG) forms ‑anu and ‑aLu respectively (see 2.5).

 

Masculine                                    Feminine

 

                       huDuga(nu)     `boy'                                      huDugi              `girl'

                       sevakale(nu)    `male servant'                       sevaki, sevakaLu        maidservant'

                       tamma(nu)       `younger brother'                       tangi                         `younger sister'

                       aNNa(nu)         `elder brother'                       akka                       `elder sister'

                       maga(nu)         `son'                                      maga(Lu)                       `daughter'

    heN(Da)ti  `wife'

    atte  `aunt'

    attige         `elder brother's wife'

    sose         `daughter‑in‑law'

 

Note that although alternate forms sevaki and sevakaLu are given for `maidservant', sevaki is the preferred form. Spencer gives a paradigm for sevakaLu in LK but then states that "sevaki is the more correct of the two forms" (1950:46‑47). The form akka `elder sister', which one might expect to have the feminine ending ‑Lu, does not have it. Spencer actually gives the paradigm of this form in LK with a masculine nominative in ‑nu, that is, akkanu, but elsewhere the form is listed as just akka.

 

2.2. Number. Kannada nouns are distinguished by two numbers, singular and plural. The singular has no particular distinguishing marker added. The plural marker is usually ‑gaLu, but there are some excep­tions as noted below. Neuter nouns are only optionally marked for plural, so an unmarked noun may be either singular or plural in mean­ing, depending on the context or the intent of the speaker.

 

erDu mara(gLu) `two trees'

muuru mane(gLu) `three houses'

nuuru saarti `one hundred times'

 

Masculine nouns ending in a, and some ending in i referring to names of communal groups, have plurals with ‑aru, as do feminine nouns ending in z; e, or a consonant (followed by enunciative u).

 

huD(u)ga            `boy'                                  huD(u)garu                            `boys'  ((huDugru also occurs)           

saabi                  `Muslim'                  saabru                                        `Muslims'

sose                   `daughter‑in‑law'                  soseeru                                        `daughters‑in‑law'

huDgii                `girl'                  huDgiiru                                      `girls'

hengsu               `woman'                  hengsru                                       `women'

 

Note that feminine nouns ending in a vowel reduce the sequences iya and eya to ii and ee respectively (see 1.3.5.1).

 

soseyaru → soseeru                   huDgiyaru →  huDgiiru

 

Some nouns marked with ‑aru are honorific rather than plural.

 

deevru                  `god'                  meesTru                  `teacher'

raayru                  `master'                  DaakTru                   `doctor'

 

With kinship terms, the marker for plural is often ‑andru.

 

aNNA                  `elder brother'                  aNNandru                  `elder brothers'

akka                  `elder sister'                  akkandru                  `elder sisters'

taayi                  `mother'                  taayandru                   `mothers'

 

Some nouns have irregular plurals, such as:

 

magu                  `child'                  mak(ka)Lu                   `children'

 

2.3. The case system. The case system of Kannada is similar to those of other Dravidian languages, as well as of some other languages. Various suffixes are added to the noun stem to indicate different relationships between the noun and other constituents of the sentence; for example, to indicate whether the noun is the object of a verb (in which case it is marked fur accusative case), or the "goal" of a verb of motion (dative case), the possessor of something (genitive case), or the means by which something takes place (instrumental case), and so forth.2 Unless otherwise noted, this discussion and analy­sis of the case system is based primarily on the work of Chidananda Murthy (1976).

 

2.3.1. The nominative case. The basic form of the noun as it occurs as either the subject or predicate nominal in a sentence such as

 

idu mane `this is (a) house'

 

is called the nominative case. Subjects of sentences are usually in the nominative case, with a few exceptions (see 3.7 and 4.0.1.1 on dative­-statives). In SK, the nominative case marker can be considered a "zero" (no apparent marker in the surface form; see Chidananda Murthy 1976: 313), and it is in this basic form that a Kannada noun is listed in the dictionary. 3

Nouns may end in a, e, i, u, aa, or in a consonant. Those that end in a consonant have an enunciative a added (see 1.3.3). Nouns ending in a short a generally behave differently throughout the paradigms than other nouns.

 

2.3.2. The genitive case. The genitive case, 4 indicating possession, is marked in several different ways. In some cases, because of vowel deletion, the genitive and nominative forms may appear the same on the surface. The genitive case marker is basically ‑a, but for nonrational nouns whose nominative ends in ‑a, the genitive is ‑da, and for ra­tional nouns that have an optional gender marker ‑n(u) or ‑L(u) (see 2.1), this marker must be included before the genitive ‑a.

 

kelsa `work' + ‑da `genitive' →  kels(a)da `of work'

huDuga(nu) `boy' + ‑a `genitive' → huDug(a)na `boy's'

magaL(u) `daughter' +‑a 'genitive' →  magaLa `daughter's'

 

Nouns that end in other vowels (e, i, u, aa) simply add a, preceded by morphophonemically inserted y or v (see 1.2.6.1). In colloquial speech, however, these vowel combinations reduce to a lengthened stem‑final vowel (see 1.3.5.1); and these long vowels are then usually shortened (see 1.3.6.1). The final surface outcome of these roles is that such nouns may appear to have no genitive case marker.

 

mane `house' + ‑a `genitive' maneya → manee → mane

                   guru `teacher' + ‑a `genitive' guruva → guruu → guru

 

Nouns ending in a consonant (preceded by enunciative u) often

have a genitive ending ‑ina that morphophonemically reduces to ‑in or ‑na in SK.

 

uuru `town' + ‑ina `genitive' + janaru `people' →                   uurin janru →uurna janru `the people of the town'

 

Neuter determinatives (e.g., adu `that thing, it', muuru `three', aSTu `that much') have a genitive marker ‑ara.

 

adu `that thing, it' + ‑ara `genitive' → ad(a)ra `of that thing, it'

muuru `three' +‑ara `genitive' → muur(a)ra `of three'

 

The genitive case is used to indicate possession, including possession of qualities or attributes, so it is not strange that it can be interpreted as having an adjectival function (see Bright 1958:31). Spencer quotes Kittel as saying that "all Kanarese words which are used as adjectives are in fact nouns, often the genitive of nouns." (Spencer 1950:260). Another similarity between genitives and adjectives (see 2.6) is that they‑ both end in a.

 

            mar(a)da `of a tree, of wood; wooden'

            marda mane `house of wood; wooden house'

 

2.3.2.1. Summary of genitive forms.

 

                                        Genitive              Example

                      Noun           Ending           Noun           Genitive Form

 

Masculine

           Ending in ‑a(nu)           ‑a           huDuga(nu)                 huDug(a)na `boy's'

Feminine

           Ending in ‑a(Lu)           ‑a           maga(Lu)           magaLa `daughter's'

Neuter

Ending in ‑a       ‑da       kel(a)sa        kels(a)da `of work'

Ending in ‑a       ‑a       mane       mane(ya), mane(e)

                     `of the house'

Ending in ‑i       ‑a       daari       daari(ya), daari(i)

                     `of the way'

Ending in ‑a       ‑a       guru       guru(va), guru(u)

                            'teacher's'

Ending in consonant       ‑ina       uuru        uurin, uurna

Neuter determinative           ‑ara           adu            ad(a)ra `of that, it’

 

But plural nouns (which end in a consonant) take the genitive marker ‑a (see 2.3.8).

 

2.3.2.2. The oblique stem. The oblique stem is that form to which some other case markers are added. For nouns, it is the same as the genitive except that genitive nouns ending in ‑a drop this final a, and for neuter determinatives it is the nominative form + ‑a.

 

adu `it'            ad(a)ra `its, of it'               ada `it (obl.)'

muuru `three'                muur(a)ra `of three'                muura `three (obl.)'

 

 

Though the `oblique' is similar in most respects to the genitive, the meaning of possession is usually absent when other case markers are added to it.

 

2.3.3. The accusative case. The accusative case is used to indicate that a noun is an object of the action of a verb. That is, when the subject (agent) of a sentence does something that has some effect on some person or object, that person or object (patient) is marked for the accusative (sometimes called the objective) case. The basic SK accusative marker is ‑anna, added to the nominative stem. In LK, the most common suffix is ‑annu, but this is found only in "formal" SK (Chidananda Murthy 1976:316).

Due to short vowel deletion (see 1.3.6) and consonant cluster reduction (see 1.3.7), ‑anna may be reduced to ‑an, ‑na, or just ‑n, sometimes with glide reduction (see 1.3.5.1).

 

mara `tree' + ‑anna `accusative' → maravanna→ maraan `tree (acc.)'

mane `house' + ‑anna `accusative' → maneyanna→ maneen `house (acc.)'

 

Pronouns also have the accusative marker ‑anna.

 

adu `that thing, it' + ‑anna `accusative' ‑ adanna →adan `that thing, it (acc.)'

avaru `they' + ‑anna `accusative' ‑ avaranna →avaran `them'

 

Rational nouns that have an optional gender marker ‑nu or ‑Lu (see 2.1) must have that marker present before the accusative suffix. However, because of short vowel deletion and consonant cluster reduc­tion, the final surface form may be much reduced.

 

huDuga(nu) `boy' + ‑anna `accusative' → huDugananna →huDgan `boy (acc.)'

      appa(nu) `father' + ‑anna `accusative' → appanna → appan `father (acc.)'

 

It is also possible for the accusative marker to be omitted entirely, except with rational nouns (see 2.1).

 

i

                      mara kaDi `cut the tree'

 

kelsa maaDsu `have the work done'

 

The use of the accusative marker with nouns with which it is not oblig­atory gives a sense of particularity or definiteness.

 

mara nooDde `I saw a tree'

 

maraan nooDde `I saw the tree'

 

Thus the optional accusative marker is the closest thing Kannada has to a definite article.

 

2.3.4. 'The dative case. The dative case is used for a number of different purposes. It is used when a noun is the goal of a verb of motion, that is, when motion toward a noun is expressed (e.g., maneeg hoode `I went to the house'). It is also used when a noun is the recipi­ent of benefaction, such as when something is given to someone or something (e.g., nimag(e) koTTe `I gave (it) to you'). In addition, it occurs with certain stative verbs, expressing notions such as `knowing, understanding, liking, wanting, being available, being sufficient', and so forth (see 3.8).

Nonrational nouns ending in a have the dative marker ‑kke added to the nominative form, while neuter determinatives add ‑kke to the oblique stem.

 

 mara `tree' + ‑kke `dative' → marakke 'to(ward) the tree'

                         kelsa `work' + ‑kke `dative' → kelsakke `to/for work'

                         ida‑ `this thing (obl.)' +‑kke `dative' → idakke 'to/for this'

                         muura‑ 'three (obl.)' + ‑kke `dative' → muurakke 'to/at three'

 

For other nouns the dative suffix is ‑ige, which is added to the nominative of nonrational nouns, and to the oblique stem of rational nouns. Nouns that end in e, t, and (nonenunciative) 7i reduce the vowel and Aide sequence as usual (see 1.3.5.1).

 

mane `house' + ‑ige `dative' + maneyige→ maneeg(e) `to the house'

nari `fox' + ‑ige `dative' nariyige → nariig(e) `to the fox'

guru `teacher' + ‑ige `dative' → guruvige → guruug(e) `to the teacher'

uuru `town' + ‑ige `dative' → uurg(e) `to the town'

aNNan‑ `elder brother (obl.)' + ‑ige `dative' aNNan(i)g(e) `to the elder brother'

magaL‑ `daughter (obl.)' + ‑age `dative' ‑> magaL(i)g(e) `to the daughter'

 

The word jana `people' is semantically plural, and may occur with or without a plural marker. If no marker is present, it is treated like a singular noun ending in a, and takes the dative marker ‑kke. However, if a plural marker ‑ru or ‑gaLu is added, it takes ‑ige (Chidananda Murthy 1976:321).

 

aa janak buddhi illa `those people have no discrimination'

aa janarge/janagaLge idan koDu `give this to those people'

 

2.3.4.1. Summary of dative case forms.

 

                        Dative

             Noun                          Ending                  Example Noun                               Dative Form

 

Neuter noun

Ending in a           ‑kke          mara (nom.)                    marakke  `to the tree'

 

Ending in e, i, a          ‑ige          mane (nom.)                    maneege  `to the house'

 

Ending in consonant          ‑ige          uuru (nom.)                    uurge `to the town'

 

Neuter determinative          ‑kke          ida‑ (obl.)             idakke `to this, to it'

 

Rational noun          ‑ige          aNNan‑ (obl.)            aNNange  `to elder brother'

 

2.3.5. The locative case. The locative case is used to express location, lack of motion, containment (`in'), and instrumentality (especially locomotion, e.g., basnalli `by bus'). For nonrational nouns, the locative marker is ‑alli, added to the oblique stem. For nouns ending in a  consonant, with oblique ending of n, the n is usually present, but may be deleted.

 

marad `tree (obl.)' +‑alli `locative'→ mardalli `in the tree'

uurin `town (obl.)' + ‑alli `locative'→  uurnalli, uuralli `in the town'

daari `way (obl.)' + ‑alli `locative' → daariyalli →            daariili `in/on the way'

mane `house (obl.)' +‑alli `locative' → maneyalli →            maneeli `in the house, at home'

 

Rational nouns require the postposition hattira either instead of or before ‑alli, and is attached to the oblique form of the noun; hattira itself must be in the oblique form (hattirad) if it occurs before ‑alli.

 

nan `I (obl.)' + hattira `locative' → nan hatra `by/near/on me'

        nan `I (obl.)' + hattirad `locative (obl.)' + ‑alli `locative' →      nan hatradalli `by/on/near me'

 

This restriction on the nonoccurrence of ‑alli with rational nouns does not apply in the Dharwar dialect, where forms like nannalli, ninnalli, avaLalli, and so forth, are widely used. There are a number of other postpositions that have a more specific locative meaning, such as `on top of and `inside of'. These will be treated in a later section (see 2.4).

 

2.3.5.1. Summary of locative forms.

 

Locative          Example          Locative

Noun          Ending          Noun          Form

 

Neuter noun

Ending in a      ‑alli      kelsad (obl.) →            kelsdalli `in/at

                        work'

Ending in i. e. a      ‑alli      daari (obl.) →                  daariili `on the ‘way'

Ending in consonant      ‑alli      kaaDin (obl.) →      kaaD(n)alli `in the forest’

                                   

Rational noun         hattira(dalli)                  aNNan (obl.)                       aNNan hatra(dalli)

                                    ‘by/on/near elder brother'

 

2.3.6. The instrumental/ablative case. The case marker ‑inda is used to indicate both instrumental (`by means of') and ablative (motion away from something) notions.5 It is often the case that the locative ‑alli (see 2.3.5) may be substituted for ‑inda when it is used in the instrumental sense, but not when it is used as an ablative.  When the instrumental/ablative suffix ‑inda occurs with nouns ending in a, it is added to the oblique stem of a noun (see 2.3.2.2). (Locative ‑alli is always added to the oblique stem, even when used as an instrumental, see 2.3.5.)

 

 

aa `that' + div(a)sad‑ `day (obl.)' + ‑inda `ablative' →aa divsdinda `from that day'

ameerikaad‑ `America (obl.)' + ‑inda (or) ‑alli `ablative' → amerikadinda `from America'

marad `wood (obl.)' + ‑inda (or) ‑alli `instrumental' → mardinda (or) mardalli `by means of wood, out of wood'

      kel(a)sad‑ `work (obl.)' + ‑inda (or) ‑alli `instrumental' →kelsdinda, kelsdalli `by (means of) work'

 

 Otherwise, ‑inda is added directly to the nominative of the noun.

 

kaalu `leg, foot' + ‑inda (or) ‑alli `instrumental' →kaalinda (or) kaalli `with the leg/foot'

penninda/pennalli kaagada bari `write the letter with a pen'

 

Instrumentality in the sense of "means of transportation" is usually expressed with the locative ‑alli (see 2.3.5).

                 

                  basnalli `by bus'                             kaarnalli `by car'

 

Since the locative suffix ‑alli cannot be affixed to rational nouns, except in the Dharwar dialect (see 2.3.5), even when it is used as an instrumental marker, a postposition Such as kai (‘hand’) must be inserted in SK. Such postpositions can also be inserted before ‑inda, but are not necessary.

 

huDgan‑inda/‑kaayinda/‑kaili paaT(ha) oodsu `have the lesson read by the boy'

 

When ‑inda is used in the ablative sense, it also requires a post­position to be inserted between it and a rational noun. This is usually hattira, the same form used with locative ‑alli after rational nouns (see 2.3.5), and it occurs in the oblique form (hattirad) before ‑inda. It takes the oblique form of rational nouns and pronouns.

 

nan `I (obl.)' + hattirad (obl.) + ‑inda `ablative' → nan hatradinda `from me'

 

‑inda may also be used to indicate `time since'.

 

eraD divasdinda `starting two days ago'

 

muur varSdinda `since three years ago'

 

There are some "frozen" forms that occur frequently in Kannada, and together have a single meaning, such as adar‑inda `therefore'. Note that in these cases it is the genitive form of adu (adar‑) that must appear before ‑inda.. Even though ‑inda can be translated as `with', it does not mean `with (a person)' in the sense of accompaniment. For this meaning, a postposition such as jote(eli), kuuDa, ondige, or sangaDa is used (see 2.4.1).

 

2.3.7. The vocative case. The vocative case is used with rational nouns to indicate a calling or summons. Neuter nouns are not usually used in the vocative, since nonrational objects are usually not sum­moned in any way, although if such things are anthropomorphized (as in a folk tale), this may happen.

For all rational nouns that have anything but final a or i, the vocative suffix is ‑ee, added to the nominative (with the enunciative u deleted from those that end in a consonant).

 

guru `teacher' + ‑ee `vocative' →guruvee! `(hey) teacher!'

hengasu `woman' + ‑ee `vocative' →hengsee! `(hey) woman!'

 

 

Nouns that end in a often form the vocative by‑ lengthening the final a to aa.

 

huDgaa! `(hey) boy!'

 

sevkaa! `(hey) servant!'

 

Nouns ending in i may also lengthen the final vowel to ii instead of adding ‑ee. This would happen naturally by morphophonemic rules ( i+y+ee → ii ); failure to shorten this final long vowel would be in line with the tendency to retain final vowel length when special intonation is present, especially with clitics (1.3.6.1).

 

huDgii! '(hey) girl!'

 

 

2.3.8. Case markers with plurals. The case markers used with plural nouns are usually the same as those used with the singular. In the plural, they are added to the plural marker ‑gaL(u). Often the plural marker is not used, however, so the singular may be found when more than one object is meant (see 2.2).

Following the plural marker ‑gaLu, the genitive marker is ‑a, rather than ‑ina, which is otherwise used after nouns with final con­sonants. As with other genitives, this a may be deleted by short vowel reduction (see 1.3.6).

           

gaNDu 'man' + ‑gaLu 'plural' + ‑a `genitive' →gaNDugaLa `of the men'

magu `child' + ‑gaLu 'plural' + ‑a `genitive' →mak(ka)La `of the children'

makkaL pustaka `the children's book'

 

Note that magu `child' has an irregular form for the plural (g +g → kk); most nouns do not operate this way. With the accusative case, the marker ‑anna is sometimes reduced to just a with the plural, and this a may also be deleted.

 

                         makkaLu `children' + ‑anna `accusative'

 makkaLa `children (acc.)'

      makkaL(a) kari `call the children'

 

2.3.9. Alternate use of case markers. Kannada speakers will some­times use one case marker (e.g., nominative) when another (e.g., accusa­tive) is called for by the normal rules of grammar. This can happen when vowels are deleted so that forms that were originally different become the same; it can occur because of large scale historical changes (e.g., substitution of locative for instrumental; see 2.3.6); it can result from the influence of bilingual speakers whose other language has a different set of rules from that of standard SK; or it can be caused by the influence of one grammatical structure within Kannada being carried over into another. Variability is a natural feature of languages, especially spoken language, and few rules can be given for these phenomena;  the student is advised to use the rules provided, and leave exceptional usages to native speakers.

 

2.4. Postpositions. Kannada has a set of forms called postpositions that are added to the end of noun phrases, usually after a case marker, to indicate time, location, instrumentality, and so forth. These are similar in function and semantic content to prepositions in some other languages. ("Left‑branching" languages like Kannada, which have the verb at the end of the sentence, typically have postpositions instead of prepositions.)

It is difficult precisely to enumerate the complete set of post­positions used in SK, both because some of those used in LK may occasionally be used in SK as well (but not by all speakers),