The Tamil Clitics

from H. Schiffman
A Reference Grammar of Spoken Tamil
Cambridge University Press, 1999

Clitics oo, ee, aa, um, een

In Tamil there is a class of constituents known as clitics, so-called because they can be suffixed to many different kinds of constituents but can never occur alone. They are therefore neither verbal nor nominal suffixes exclusively. (The best study of Tamil clitics can be found in Arokianathan 1981.

Doubt markers oo and -een

clitic -oo plus varia

The clitic -oo is added to different kinds of constituents to indicate vagueness, ambiguity, or doubt in the speaker's mind about the certainty, veracity or truth value of some event or circumstance. Sometimes oo substitutes for an interrogative aa, but with an expression of ``doubt' or uncertainty. Sometimes, also, oo is pragmatically ``softer' than an outright interrogative.

Since a sequence of two noun phrases or whole sentences, both marked with aa is one way Tamil makes disjunctive phrases (``either X or Y), a sequence of noun phrases or whole sentences, both marked instead with oo, gives a disjunctive pair with extra doubt, as in the last example in Table 7.3. This can often be translated ``whether or not' or, if both verbs are negative, ``neither ... nor':

• naan saappiDaleyoo, tuungaleyoo ``I neither ate nor slept.'
• avanukku baaSe puriyumoo, puriyalleyoo avan sinimaavukku poovaan ``Whether or not he knows the language, he'll go to the movies.'

When oo is added to WH-interrogatives, the meaning is as in section (6.6.8)

• enge ``where' engeyoo ``somewhere (or other)'
• yaaru ``who' yaaroo ``someone (or other)'
• ettaneyettane ``however many' ettaneyettaneyoo ``I don't know how many'

The ultra polite/deferential doubt marker -een.

When -een (literally ``why') is suffixed to a sentence in final position, the meaning is politeness with doubt and deference, and perhaps with a nuance of servility and/or obsequiousness. This is, of course, often used with caution or when great respect is being attempted. Compare:

venkaDaacalam ngravaru viiDu idu-taan-ngaL-aa?.
Is this the house of the man called Venkadacalam, please?

venkaDaacalam ngravaru viiDu idu-taan-ngaL-een?.
Might this be the house of the man called Venkadacalam, if you don't mind my asking?

Note that -een occupies the place of the clitics so if the question is interrogative, it replaces the normal clitic -aa.

• kaTTaayamaa kuDuttiDringaLeen?.
  certainly give-COMPL-PNG-EEN.
  I trust you'll please give it to him?

• ayyaa-kiTTee oru koraccalaana vaaDaheyle oru viiDu paakka sollungaL-een..
  master-LOC a cheap rent-LOC a house to-find say-IMP- DEFER.
  ``Would you please be so kind as to ask the master to please find me a cheap place to live?

``Whether-or-not' in interrogative constructions.

When an English yes-no interrogative sentence containing ``whether or not' is translated into Tamil, -oo ... -oo is not used. Rather, -a ... -aa) is required. These usually are simply requests for information, not an expression of doubt.

• avaru varraar-aa NNu keeTTeen. he come-FUT Q QTV ask-I. ``I asked whether he was coming (or not).'
• tuNiye tarraanaa pooyTTu varraanaa NNu keeLu. clothing giveFUT Q going-and comeFUT Q QTV ask. ``Ask whether he's going to deliver the clothes or just go away.'

Wh-interrogative + Vb + oo, a-word Vb.

When a WH-interrogative word (beginning with e is followed by a verb + oo, followed by the equivalent a-word plus a verb, the meaning is ``A is equal to B' or ``B is neither more nor less than A.' It therefore functions as a COMPARATIVE system between two sentences or phrases.

• avan enge poonaanoo, angeyum pooneen. ``Wherever he went, I also went (I went wherever he went.)
• ava evvaLavu kuDuttaaLoo, naan avvaLavu kuDuppeen. ``I will give as much as she gave (whatever amount she gave, I also will give.)'
• miiTTar evvaLavu kaaTTradoo avvaLavu taan kuDuppeen ``I will pay whatever amount the meter shows and no more.' [``No matter what amount the meter shows, I will pay that amount only']
• avanukku ettane taDave sonnadoo, avan keekkamaaTTaan ``No matter how many times you tell him, he doesn't listen.'

The clitic -um

The clitic -um has many functions in Tamil. When one -um is added to a noun or noun-phrase, the meaning is ``also, too' or ``even'.

naanum tamiR aasiriyaru taan ``I'm a Tamil teacher, too".'

When um follows a noun-phrase that includes a quantifier (cf. 5.5.1) the meaning is ``all-inclusive,' i.e. ``all (of); both (of them).' Compare the two following examples, one of which contains um and the other which doesn't:

With:

reNDu peerukkum tamiR teriyum ``Both of them know Tamil.'

Without:

reNDu peerukku tamiR teriyum ``Two (of them) know Tamil.'

um is also suffixed to various verbal forms, such as the concessive ( 6.6.4), in positive-negative reduplication ( 7.2.1), expressions of possibility ( 7.1.1), and in other cases discussed below. In some of these cases, it has the meaning ``even' which it can also have with nouns.

... -um ... -um, ... -aa

... -aa : Conjunctions

... um ...

um: X ``and' Y . When two similar constituents in a sentence are affixed with ... um ... um , the meaning is X ``and' Y.

• naan-um avar-um pooroom ``He AND I are going.'
• naan reNDu naaLaa saappiDavum tuungavum ille ``I didn't sleep or eat for two days.'

For some speakers, this sentence would be preferable with oo ... oo because of the negative verbs:

• naan reNDu naaLaa saappiDavoo tuungavoo ille ``I didn't sleep or eat for two days.'

The constituents must be of the same type in order for them to be conjoined, i.e., two nouns, two verbs (infinitives, or AVP's), two adverbs, etc. can be conjoined, but not one noun and one adjective, for example. Sentences cannot be conjoined with ... ; another method, discussed in 6.4.4, must be used.

... aa ... aa: disjunction.

When two similar constituents have affixes ... -aa ... -aa , the meaning is disjunctive ``either ... or' but in an interrogative sense: ``Which alternative is correct?'

• avan varraanaa pooraanaa? ``Is he coming or going?'
• idaa ataa? ``(Do you mean) this or that?'
• yaaru, naanaa niingaLaa? Who, me or you?'

... aavadu ... aavadu

``either, or' When two noun phrases are conjoined by suffixes aavadu ... aavadu , the meaning is declarative ``either ... or' (but only one alternative is possible).

• naanaavadu niiyaavadu peesalaam ``Either you or I may speak (but not both)'

aavadu in isolation.

When only one -aavadu appears, its meaning, if attached to a numeral, is ORDINAL, i.e. equivalent to English ``-th': naalaavadu ``fourth'. If attached to a single noun (phrase) the meaning is ``at least': niiyaavadu pooyirukkalaam ``you, at least, may go'. aavadu may be attached to ettane to mean ``how many-eth':

idu ettanaavadu taDave? ``This is the how-many-eth time?'

aavadu and an alternative form aam are used as ordinal-markers of numerals, and thus for dates: idu anjaam (anjaavadu) teedi ``This is the fifth (day) of the month'.

``Emphatic' -ee, taan, taanee, maTTum

There are a number of so-called emphatic particles in Tamil, such as -ee, maTTum, and taan. They are used in Tamil to emphasize or focus attention on particular elements of the sentence, as well as to handle other discourse phenomena such as whether information is new, old but related to new, presupposed, and for other pragmatic functions. Many western languages (such as English) use emphatic word stress for these purposes. Tamil does not have emphatic word stress, but uses ``emphatic particles' instead. Often they cannot be literally translated.

There is much confusion in the use of Tamil particles in that their English equivalents seem the same, but the Tamil meanings are different. The basic difference beteen ee and taan (which are often both translated ``only') is that -ee means ``one compared to many' while taan means ``one and only one (compared to none)', ``just'. Thus:

• inge-yee irukku. here-EMPH is. ``It's right here (rather than somewhere else)'.
  • inge daan irukku. here-EMPH is. It's here (and only here).

  Occasionally, both occur, as taan-ee , as in

  keeTTaa taanee ``If (he'd) only listened ...'

  taan, being a word suffix, obeys word-internal sandhi in Tamil, so sometimes the initial consonant is phonetically voiced, and sometimes not. The same rules that apply to this are the rules shown in 1.2.7 on sandhi.

  taan often functions in a discourse to indicate that new information is related to old information; it therefore functions as a communicative device that speakers use to establish solidarity, as in the following discourse:

  A

  niinga yaaru? ``Who are you?'

  B

  naan tamiR aasiriyaru ``I'm a Tamil teacher.'

  A

  oo, naanum tamiR aasiriyaru taan ``Oh (well, what do you know?) I'm a Tamil teacher, too".'

  Here um is used to indicate ``also' but taan indicates that new information (B is a Tamil teacher) is related to old information (A is also a Tamil teacher) and establish solidarity. Without taan the sentence would be abrupt and almost confrontational.

  ee also has pragmatic uses that are equivalent to English ``of course, as you know' etc.

  A

  tamiR teriyumaa? ``Do you know Tamil?'

  B

  oo teriyumee! ``Why of course I know (Tamil.)' ('You bet your life I know Tamil!)

  
  Presupposed Knowledge.

  
  -ee has another meaning not associated with taan, namely, presupposed knowledge. Its use indicates that the speaker thinks that the hearer ought to already know something. A sentence with -ee in this meaning has a special intonation pattern that falls, rises again, then falls on the last syllable.

  A

  inda vaRiyle naDandee pooyiDalaam. ``Let's walk along this way.'

  B

  ille, basle poohalaam. ``No, let's take the bus.'

  A

  bas inta vaRiyle pookaadee? ``But the bus doesn't go this way (don't you remember?).'

  Tamils seem to feel that this use of 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 poo haa dee Without this intonation, the above sentence would simply be ``emphatic': `The bus simply doesn't go this way at all.'