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. Î -ee has another
meaning not associated with »Ô¨ taan, namely, presupposed knowledge.
Its use indicates that the speaker thinks that the hearer ought to already
know something. A sentence with Î -ee in this meaning has a special
intonation pattern that falls, rises again, then falls on the last syllable.
- A
- Éÿ» ÂÃÕ²×Á ¼¹ÿØ» ؽԿÕàÁÔ£ inda vaiyle nadandee pooyidalaam. `Let's go along this way.'
- B
- ɧ×Á ½öÓ×Á ؽԴÁÔ£ ille, basle poohalaam. `No, let's take
the bus.'
- A
- ½öÓ Éÿ» ÂÃÕ²×Á ؽԴÔØ»? bas inta vaiyle
pookaadee? `But the bus doesn't go this way (don't you remember?).'
Tamils seem to feel that this use of Î ee is somehow `interrogative'
and will supply question marks for such sentences. The question, of course,
refers to why the other person is acting in such a way, as if they don't
remember some presupposed information. The intonation on the last word would
be 
Ø½Ô poo ´Ô haa 
Ø»
dee
. Without this intonation, the above sentence
would simply be `emphatic': `The bus simply doesn't go this way at all.'
Haorld_F.Schiffman