next up previous
Next: ÇÜ adi `pejorative Up: Verbalizers and Compound Previous: Common Verbalizers

½ýá pannu `make, do'.

The commonest and most general of these verbs is ½ýá pannu `make, do'. It can be added to a noun to make a verb, and is the most common way of making verbs out of borrowed English words. Sometimes Tamil even borrows words for lexical items it already has.

½ýá pannu can be attached to both nouns and verbs (usually borrowed from English), but always with the effect of having been added to nouns; that is, what precedes ½ýá pannu is an NP in Tamil, regardless of whether it is an NP or a VP in English. Thus, ¥ÙÀ¬ draiv in the above example, though a verb in English (`drive') is treated as if it is a noun in Tamil.



Vasu Renganathan
Sat Nov 2 21:16:08 EST 1996