LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 21:6 June 2021
ISSN 1930-2940

Editors:
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         T. Deivasigamani, Ph.D.
         Pammi Pavan Kumar, Ph.D.
         Soibam Rebika Devi, M.Sc., Ph.D.

Managing Editor & Publisher: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.

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Polysemantic Study of Tamil Verbs based on the Principles of Generative Lexicon
(Monograph in Tamil)

Prof. Rajendran Sankaravelayuthan
Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University
Coimbatore 641 112
rajushush@gmail.com

Abstract

This monograph written in Tamil has eleven chapters. The first ten chapters deal about the principles of generative lexicon based on James Pustejovsky’s (1995) book on “Generative lexicon. The generative lexicon (shortly GL) presents a new and exciting theory of lexical semantics that addresses the problem of the “multiplicity of word meaning”, that is, how we are able to give an infinite number of senses to words with finite means. As the first formally elaborated theory of generative approach to word meaning, it lays the foundation for an implemented computational treatment of word meaning that connects explicitly to a compositional semantics. In contrast to static view of word meaning (where each word is characterized by a predetermined number of word senses) that imposes a tremendous bottleneck on the performance capability of any natural language processing, Pustejovsky proposes that the lexicon becomes an active and central component in the linguistic description. The essence of his theory is that the lexicon functions generatively, first by providing a rich and expressive vocabulary for characterizing lexical information; then, by developing a frame work for manipulating fine-grained distinctions in word descriptions; and finally, by formalizing a set of mechanisms for specialized composition of aspects of such description of words, as they occur in context, extended and novel senses are generated.

The second part of the book is on polysemantic study of Tamil verbs based on principles of generative lexicon. Taking into account the principles of generative lexicon propounded by Pustejovsky, the semantic extension of meanings has been studied taking the data from Crea’s Modern Tamil Dictionary (Ramakrishnan 2008). Nearly 28 verbs have been taken from Crea and their meanings have been tabulated by extracting the participants of actions expressed by verbs such as subject, object, indirect object, location, etc., from the examples given for meanings of each verbal entry. The participants are realized as noun phrases (NPs). The verbs such as acai1 ‘move’ , acai2 ‘cause to move’, anjcu ‘be afraid of’, aTangku ‘subside’, aTakku ‘control’, aTi ‘beat’, aTai1 ‘get’ and aTai2 ‘confine’, aNi ‘wear’, aNai1 ‘be extinguished’ and aNai2 ‘extinguish’, aNai3 ‘embrace’, amai1 ‘be established’, amai2 ‘establish’, aaTu ‘move’, aaTTu ‘shake’, izu ‘pull’, iir ‘attract’, uTai ‘be broken’, uTai ‘break’, uuRu ‘secrete’, uuRRu ‘pour’, eTu ‘take’, eeRu ‘climb’, eeRRu ‘load’, ooTu ‘run’, ooTTu ‘cause to run’, kaTTu ‘construct’, kalai ‘become disorderly’, kalai ‘change the order’, ceer1 ‘join’, ceer ‘assemble’, taTTu ‘pat’, ndaTa ‘walk’ and maRRu ‘change’ have been selected from Crea. From the meanings of each verb and taking into account the participants of the action such as subject, object, indirect object, location, etc. realized as NPs, the sematic features of the participants are studied and the polysemy and semantic extension of the verbs are plotted and given explanation from the point of view of Pustejovsky.

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

Dr. S. Rajendran
Professor of Linguistics
Centre for Excellence in Computational Engineering and Networking (CEN)
Amrita University
Coimbatore 641112
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