Next: Ø½Ô poo `change
Up: Primarily Aspectual Verbs
Previous: ؽÔà poodu `malicious
The
aspectual verb ÂÔ vaa has a lexical analog ÂÔ vaa which of
course means `come'. The notion conveyed by aspectual vaa is that an
occurrence is or was of long-standing duration, but more as a series of
connected events (or waves of occurrences) rather than as uninterrupted
continuity. (The latter is expressed by ´Õ¥Üç kittiru.)
ÂÔ vaa may often express a kind of `narrative' or `historical' (or
perhaps even `mythological') past, describing an action that was common
practice in a past time. Since it is only used in LT, the example(s) below are
in LT rather than ST.This aspectual verb is often erroneously
translated as English `used to', e.g. `Many kings used to rule at that time,'
whereas `used to' probably ought to be reserved for translating
habitual actions, which ÂÔ vaa does not express.
Vasu Renganathan
Sat Nov 2 21:16:08 EST 1996