next up previous
Next: Classification of the Up: The Tamil Verb Previous: Ø½Ô poo `go'.

Transitivity and Verb Classes.

As noted earlier, without knowledge of the verb class and transitivity specification of a given Tamil verb, non-Tamils cannot reliably form grammatically correct forms of the verb.There are a few patterns that can be guessed at; any verb that ends in Ç a, such as ¼¹ nada, is a member of Graul's class VII; most verbs with the structure CVCVCCV, VCVVNC-u, (ÂÔõÞ vaangu, ×»Ô¹¡Þ todakku, »Õç£ä tirumbu, etc.) can probably be placed in Graul's class III. But many others may belong to more than one class, with intransitive and transitive possibilities.





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