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Developing a Linguistic-based Tool for Teaching and Learning of Tamil Verbs

Saranya, R CAS in Linguistics, Annamalai University

M. Somathasan

Sri Lanka

Introduction

The things referred to by language are never merely things of the phenomenal world which can be demonstrated with the help of technology i.e. science. A large number of things are feelings, ideas, and values. In fact, the words in a language are so loaded with feelings and values that social scientists feel, sometimes, the necessity to devise a science, like mathematical science, which has signs with no such load to carry. Social phenomena like group solidarity, reference groups, and host of others are fostered through the help of a language though other group distinguishing signs are also often used. The load of meaning and emotion carried by words is sometimes made very explicit in the grammar of language. Thus, this paper tries to focus on teaching and learning of Tamil verbs which express the different moods of the speaker or writer.

Aim

The aim of this paper is to develop a linguistic based tool for teaching and learning of strong verbs in modern Tamil.

Objectives

The objectives of the developed tool are to make the students or learners:

understand the concept of Tamil verbs and their structures.

learn the different inflected forms of a verb such as finite and non-finite forms.

know the various functions of verbs.

prepare themselves at their earliest stage to work with computers and to compete with the technological challenges in the electronic educational set up.

enhance their knowledge on verb paradigms in Tamil.

stimulate them to learn eagerly by the immediate feedback of their learning activities.

Methodology

For the present study, about 40 strong verbs in modern Tamil have randomly been collected from the school text books as source data. The collected data have been analyzed linguistically to find out their components which are internally organized systematically for framing their structures. Finally, the linguistic information on verbs have been computed by applying the programming frame work namely VB.Net.

Discussion

Verbs in modern linguistic world are defined as one of the grammatical elements of speech that are used to express conceptualizations of activities, events, processes or states. In Tamil, they function morphologically and syntactically in three ways as follows:

As finite verbs: As far as Tamil language is concerned, there are three types of finite verbs namely imperative (i.e. vaa / vaarungkaL ‘come’, indicative (i.e. vantaan ‘came-he’) and optative (i.e. varuka ‘welcome/come’) . They are distinguished according to the category of mood.

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As non-finite verbs: They function syntactically adverbs, adjectives. E.g, here the verbal participle vantu in vantu poo and cenRa in cenRa paiyan can not be syntactically considered as adverbs and adjective, respectively. But cenRa in cenRa aaNTu and taLLi in taLLi nil are considered as pure adjectives and adverbs respectively, since they qualify the noun as well as the verb which follow them.

As derived verbs: The transitive verb naTattu ‘conduct’ and the causative verb naTappi ‘make to walk’ are derived from the intransitive verb naTa ‘walk’. Similarly, the causative verb tooRRuvi ‘cause to appear’ is also derived from the inherent transitive verb tooRRu ‘make to appear’.

The principal inflectional categories occurring with verbs appearing in the finite forms are tense, aspect, mood, gender, number and person, whereas in non finite forms are infinitive, verbal and adjectival participles, etc.; and they employ representations for syntactic category and semantic- syntactic function. For instance,

avan puttakam vaangka kaTaikkuc cenRaan.

‘He went to the shop to buy a book’.

The non finite verb vaangka ‘to buy’ which is morphologically treated as infinitive but it is syntactically used for expressing the meaning of purposive that is known as semantic-syntactic function. But the developed tool highlights the inflectional forms of the verbs which express not only various functions but also the different moods such as:

Indicative: It, however, is not completely devoid of emotional load as the context in which it occurs the tone in which it is uttered, might give it this weight.

Imperative: The imperative as the name suggests, calls before our eyes a social situation of superiority and subordination, one of the most fundamental of social situations.

Optative: This suggests an option and therefore a freedom to do or not to do a certain act. When the words talaivar avarkaLee varuka! are uttered, the form varuka ‘come - optative’ brings about a desire in the heart of the speaker to welcome the talaivar ‘a leader’. The form talaivar avarkaLee ‘third person epicene most honorific singular’ which is loaded with social values, all that is sectioned and, do a certain extent, sanctified by the society, because the form avarkaL ‘they’ does normally not refer to singular. This form represents the whole value framework of a society. That the language should have recognized the various forms of verbs shows the range of social function which language fulfills.

The developed tool consists of four things such as,

1. Verb Classification 2. Concept of Verbs 3. Verb Classification with examples 4. Exercise

The visual is given below.

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1. Verb Classification: It deals with how the verbs are structurally as well as functionally differed from one another. It simply shows the traditional classification of the Tamil verb. The illustration of the program has various states which are visualized in the following screenshots.

Visual-1

Visual-2

Visual-3

Visual-4

State-1

This is the starting state at which the teaching and learning

process of the verb classification begins. When the term verb

given in the visual -1 is clicked, it moves to next state that

performs the results displayed in visual-2.

State-2

In this state, the basic classification of verb such as finite, non

finite and defective verbs is depicted as it is given in the visual -

2. When the terms displayed in this visual are clicked, it moves

to the next state where the results are displayed.

State-3

This state shows the results of the previous state, that is

classification of finite verbs namely tensed and non –tensed

which come under the term Finite. In this state, when the term

Tensed displayed in the visual -3 is clicked, it goes to the next

state.

State-4

This state depicts the results of the previous state that is the

classification of the Tensed (finite) verbs which refer to the three

tenses such as present, past and future. When the term Non-

Tensed visualized in the visual -4 is clicked, it is moved to next

state.

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Visual-5

Visual-6

Visual-7

Visual-8

2. Concept of verbs

This part is divided into two sub-parts. The first one consists of the terms of the verbs. The second one contains the definition and the structure of the various verb terms given at the first part. This part describes the components of the verb, and then how the components are internally well organized as well as structured to form different forms of a single

State-5

In this state, the classification of the Tensed (finite) verbs such as

imperative and optative is visualized as the results of clicking

made in state-4. The term Non-Finite displayed in the visual-5 is

clicked to move to next state and perform its classification.

State-6

It visualizes the various forms of non-finite verbs namely

infinitive, participle and conditional. Among them the term

participle displayed in the visual-6 is clicked to go next, and

display the sub-division of participle namely verbal and adjective

participles.

State-7

The result of the previous state is visualized here. In this state, the

term Adjective (participle) displayed in the visual-7 is clicked to go

to the end state and perform the present, past and future

Adjective participles.

State-8

This state ends the program successfully with the results of the

classified verb based on the structural aspect. And then click the

Home button displayed in the visual -8 to go HOME page of this

tool.

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verb. The terms which have to be defined are given in the left side. When the term is clicked, the definition, and its structure with example are displayed in the right side. The sample visual is as follows:

2. Verb classification with examples:

This part highlights what is the maximum quantity of the inflected forms of a single verb according to the above mentioned classification. The root verb bank is placed at the left side. While clicking any of the root verbs given in the bank, the maximum quantity of the inflected forms of that particular verb is displayed. It is shown in the following sample visual.

4. Exercise:

In this part, a few of the inflected forms are randomly given for identification of the term of form. If the verb form given in the list is clicked, multiple choices are displayed. When the correct answer is clicked, the mark is automatically scored. When the wrong answer is clicked, it shows the correct answer. This is simply for testing and evaluating the students or learners, and also for having feedback.

It has three states; the first state contains a few of the inflected forms which are randomly chosen from the database developed for this tool. When any of the forms is clicked, the choices are displayed. If the correct answer is clicked, the marks are scored. If the wrong answer is clicked, the statement ‘It’s wrong’ is displayed with answer. The visuals of these three states are as follows:

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Conclusion

This simple tool will definitely stimulate the cognitive power of students; and will be not only a virtual learning but also a teaching tool in promoting up a student’s or learner’s knowledge on Tamil verbs with their functions and structures.

References

1. Lehmann, T (1993) ‘A Grammar of Modern Tamil’ Pondicherry Institute of Linguistics and Culture, Pondicheery 2. Saranya, R. & Mubarak Ali, A. (2007) ‘Tamil Morphology’ (in Tamil) Annamalai University publication,

Annamalainagar.