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Intent.

Ordinarily, the semantic notion of INTENT, i.e., `x intends to do y' is expressed in Tamil by a construction involving the verb (of the intended action) in the form of the modal ÁÔ£ -laam, followed by `quotative' ýá -nnu and the verb Éç iru or ×¼×Æ nene `think' in a finite form withPNG agreeing with the subject.

ÇÂç ¾×Á ½¡´£ ؽԴÁÔ£ýá Éç¡´Ôç or ×¼×Æ¡ÞÅÔç avaru male pakkam poohalaam-nnu irukkaaru or nenekkraaru `He intends to go to the mountains.'

In some dialects, particularly western dialects (Coimbatore and Salem districts) near the Kannada-speaking area, as well as in the Tamil spoken in Karnataka State, the modal used is ᣠ-num `must' instead of ÁÔ£ -laam `may'. There is, however, no difference in meaning and furthermore, there is no notion of obligation intended. The meaning is still `intend to do such-and-such'. The above sentence in these dialects would thus be:
ÇÂç ¾×Á ½¡´£ ؽԴá£ýá Éç¡´Ôç or ×¼×Æ¡ÞÅÔç avaru male pakkam poohanum-nnu irukkaaru or nenekkraaru `He intends to go to the mountains.'



Harold_F.Schiffman