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In addition to the `morphological'
concessive form discussed in § 6.80 above, there is another form called the
syntactic concessive, formed by the use of the quotative verb ýá nnu in its conditional form ýºÔ(§) nnaa(l). By the
addition of Ë£ um or uuda to ýºÔ(§) -nnaa(l), we get the syntactic concessive. What is embedded before ýá
nnu is, of course, a complete sentence with a finite verb (if there
is any verb), in contrast to the morphological concessive, where 鏣
-aalum or È aa + î¹ kuuda is added to the past
stem of the verb. Thus we get sentences like:
- ØÂá£ýºÔè£ ¼Ô¨ ؽԴ¾Ô¥Ø¹¨ veenum-nnaalum, naan
poohamaatteen `Even if required to, I won't go.'
-
»¾Õ° äÀÕæ£ýºÔè£ Ç¨ Èõ´ÕÁ£ ؽßÂÔ¨ tami puriyum-nnaalum avan ingliS peecuvaan `Even if (you) understand Tamil, he'll
speak English.'
Harold_F.Schiffman