next up previous
Next: Inventory of Aspect Up: The Tamil Verb Previous: Aspect and Markedness.

Primarily aspectual verbs.

The aspectual verbs that are primarily aspectual (and minimally attitudinal) are ÂÕà (v)idu `completive', ´Õ¥Üç kittiru `durative', ÙÂ¿Õ vayyi `future utility', ÈÞ aahu `finality, expected result', ÂÔ vaa `iterative', Ø½Ô poo `change of state', Éç iru `perfect', Éç iru `result remains', and Éç iru `epestemic.'I have dealt with the nitty-gritty details of the three Éçs iru's in my 1969 dissertation.

The aspectual verbs that are primarily attitudinal (but nonetheless aspectual) are »ªë tallu `distributive', `exdeictic',That is, away from the speaker. ×»Ô×Á tole `riddance', ؽÔà poodu `malicious intent', and some others that vary from dialect to dialect.The attitudinal aspectual verbs are not a closed set, and different dialects may use different verbs as markers of aspectual and attitudinal nuances. The non-attitudinal aspectual verbs are a closed set and show less variation from dialect to dialect. But there are some differences between Literary and Spoken Tamil, even in this set. Annamalai 1981 also lists ×´Ôà kodu `benefactive'; Ramanujan (196?) gives some others. I am indebted to Annamalai for his many cogent examples of Tamil aspectual verbs. Finally, there is Ø´Ô koo `self-benefactive', that displays more versatility than almost any other AM except possibly Éç iru `be; perfect; epistemic; suppositional'. It displays both aspectual and attitudinal semantics, and is perhaps the most radically different in phonology from its lexical analog of all the AM's.





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