LANGUAGE IN INDIA

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Volume 22:1 January 2022
ISSN 1930-2940

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Exhaustivity in Exclusives: An Analysis of the Malayalam Exclusive Particles -e and ma:tRam

Ringu Ann Baby, M.Phil.

Abstract

This paper deals with the meaning of the two exclusive particles in Malayalam -e and ma:tRam. Though they are treated as exclusives with the English Focus particle 'only', the paper claims their semantic is not identical. The paper focuses on a significant aspect of the meaning of exclusives: the source and content of the prejacent and the universal (the exhaustive) meaning component. It is demonstrated here with conventional semantic tests for assertion, presupposition and implicature that both the former and latter meaning components are asserted in sentences with ma:tRam. However, -e differs in that the prejacent is presupposed while the universal is asserted. Identifying whether an inference is part of the sentence's assertion/presupposition/ implication is substantial, as this impacts these particle's distribution and discourse functions. This study would contribute to a unified theory of exclusives.

Keywords: Malayalam, Exclusive particles, -e, ma:tRam, Prejacent; Exhaustivity, Only.

1. Introduction

This paper deals with the interpretational differences induced by the Malayalam exclusive particle –e and ma:tRam, which roughly correspond to English 'only'.

As Beaver and Clark (2008) suggests, the meaning of exclusives is effectively captured only when approached from three dimensions viz. discourse effect, treatment of scalarity and the status of the prejacent and the universal. However, a study of Malayalam exclusive particles covering these three areas is beyond the scope of this paper. The discussion of this paper is limited to the third aspect - the status of the prejacent and the universal meaning component. The central claim of this paper is that, though they are treated as exclusives with English 'only', their interpretative functions are not identical. Like 'only', 'just', etc., -e is used to weaken expectations in the common ground. Its specific effects are to suggest the truth of its prejacent and to assert that it is placed in a low position of a totally ordered set of alternatives. On the other hand, the particle ma:tRam, exhaustively asserts the truth of the prejacent and the universal reading.

The paper is structured as follows. The analysis starts with a demonstration of why –e and ma:tRam are treated as exclusives like 'only', 'just', 'mere' etc. This is followed by a discussion on the semantic literature that attempts to diagnose the source of the prejacent and the universal interpretations induced by English' only'. The following section applies four semantic tests on ma:tRam and –e viz. the cancellation test, the negation test, the reinforcement test and the question test. The paper is then concluded with a discussion on the results of these tests and its implications in the theory of exclusive particles.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Ringu Ann Baby, M.Phil.
Centre for Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies
University of Hyderabad 500047
r.annbaby@gmail.com
Mob: 9866525454
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