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Positive.

Two sentences, the action of one of which is subsequent to the action of the other, can be conjoined to produce one sentence of the English type, (1) `After coming to India, (2) I studied Tamil. When two Tamil sentences are conjoined, the verb of the first is given past tense marking, and PNG is deleted. If there is no vowel following the past marker, add Ë u.

This form of the verb withoutPNG is often called the PAST ADVERBIAL PARTICIPLE or AVP for short. With most verbs there is no problem in its formation, but verbs which have past markers ɨ -in-, we find, instead of the expected participle, e.g., * ÂÔõ´Õí vaanginu `having bought, after buying', that they have the form ÂÔõ´Õ vaanki without í nu. Furthermore, a few verbs, namely ÈÞ aaku `become' and Ø½Ô poo `go' have, instead of the expected * aanu and * poonu the forms Ȳ aay and ؽԲ(É) pooy(i). These sentences translate as `after verbing' in English but there is no `word' meaning `after' in the Tamil sentences because this notion is given by the construction. The two actions are understood to be CONSECUTIVE.



Harold_F.Schiffman