Postpositions in Malayalam
Malayalam is a Dravidian language used predominantly in the state of Kerala, in
southern India. It is one of the 22 official languages in India, and it is used by around 36
million people. Malayalam is also widely used in the union territories of Lakshadweep and Mahe. Malayalam follows a ‘Subject Object verb(SOV)’ word order.
This paper focuses on the concept of postpositions in Malayalam and test the hypothesis that they are in fact noun phrases. It has been observed that almost all postpositions in Malayalam function as case endings. It has also been noticed that the postpositions carry semantic information abut the relationship between two nouns and between nouns and verbs. Postpositions in Malayalam occur after the nominal. They perform similar to inflectional markers. But unlike inflectional markers, postpositions in Malayalam are free forms. Being invariants, they can stand alone or alongside another free or bound morpheme.
Eg: Avante jeevithathil ninnu othiri padikaan undu
He+poss Life+gen case from much learn is
(There is much to learn from his life)
When we speak about postpositions, it is necessary to mention that Malayalam has bound postpositions as well. But in this paper, we are concerned only about the free postpositions. Although all the postpositions in Malayalam are invariants normally, they tend to be variants when negates.
If we classify Malayalam postpositions according to the cases their preceeding nouns take, it will be as follows: (with their English correspondences)
NOMINATIVE
|
ACCUSATIVE
|
GENITIVE
|
POSSESIVE
OR
DATIVE
|
DATIVE
|
Koodathe- apart from,
|
Patti-about
|
Koode-with
|
Mukalil-on/above
|
Vendi-for
|
Maari-off
|
Kurichu-about
|
Nadukku-between,amidst
|
Kuruke-across
|
Pakaram-in place of
|
Ozhichu-except for
|
Poole-as,like
|
Chuttum-around
|
Aduthu-adjacent
|
|
|
Munpu/pinpu-before
|
Purakil-behind
|
Ethire-against
|
|
|
Sambandichu-according to
|
Adiyil-under
|
Idayil-between
|
|
|
Ozhichu-except for
|
Thaazhe-below
|
Shesham-after
|
|
|
|
Arikil-beside
|
Appuram-beyond
|
|
|
|
Purathu-on
|
Munpe-prior to
|
|
|
|
|
Munnil-in front of
|
|
|
|
|
Ullil-in
|
|
|
|
|
Akathu-in
|
|
Apart from these there are a few postpositions which comes only after nouns which denotes place or time. They are :
-
Muthal - from
-
Thottu - from
-
Ninnu - from
-
vare - to/till
Eg: Hyderabad muthal Mumbai vare samaram aanu
Hyderabad from Mumbai till strike be
It is strike from Hyderabad till mumbai
Examples for postpositions comes after the nouns which takes different cases:
Nominative:
-
sita koodathe ramanum varum
sita apart from ram+also come+future
Apart from sita, ram also will come
-
vazhi maari sancharikkuka
way off walk
Walk off the way
-
john ozhichu ellavarum vannu
john except all come+past
All except John came
Accusative
-
ramane patti sita ennodu paranju.
Ram+acc about sita me+to tell+past
Sita told me about ram.
-
njaan prashnangale kurichu kettu
I problems+acc about hear+past
I heard about the problems
3. johninu munpe ram vannu
john+acc before ram come+past
Ram came before john
-
enne sampandichu athu anaavashyam aanu
I+acc according to that useless be
That is useless according to me
-
Sitaye ozhichu ellavareym kandu
Sita+acc except for all see+past
Saw everyone except for sita.
Genitive
-
njaan johninte koode pookunnu
I john+gen with go+fut
I am going with john.
-
avan shatrukkalude nadukku aanu
he enemies+gen amidst be
he is amidst his enemies
-
njaan avalude purakil ninnu
I she+gen behind stand+past
I stood behind her
-
book meshayude mukalil aanu
book table+gen on be
Book is on the table
Dative
-
john marykku vendi book vangichu
john mary+dat for book buy+past
john bought a book for mary
-
enikku pakaram avan varum
I+dat in place of he come+fut
He will come in place of me
From the above data, we can conclude that all Malayalam postpositions are conditioned by the case it’s previous noun takes. It also has been noticed that some postpositions occur after the nouns that take more than one cases. It can also be because of the semantic roles these postpositions play in the language.
Postpositions
|
English Correspondence
|
Semantic role
|
1. koodathe
|
without, apart from,besides
|
Manner related,content
|
2. ozhichu
|
Except for,besides
|
Manner related,content
|
3. patti
|
about
|
Manner related,content
|
4. Kurichu
|
about
|
Manner related,content
|
5. poole
|
As,like
|
Manner related,content
|
6. munpu/pinpu
|
before
|
Temporal, locational
|
7. sambandichu
|
According to
|
Manner related,content
|
8. koode
|
With,along,including
|
Manner related,content
|
9. nadukku
|
Amidst,between, in the middle of, among
|
Spatial, locational
|
10. chuttum
|
around
|
Spatial, locational
|
11. purakil
|
behind
|
locational
|
12. adiyil
|
Under,below,beneath,down
|
Locational, spatial
|
13. thaazhe
|
Under,below,beneath,down
|
Locational, spatial
|
14. arikil
|
Beside,near
|
locational
|
15. purathu
|
On,upon,above,on top of,
|
Locational , spatial
|
16. mukalil
|
On,upon,above,on top of,up
|
Locational spatial
|
17. kuruke
|
across
|
Directional
|
18. aduthu
|
Beside,near
|
Locational ,spatial
|
19. ethire
|
against
|
casual
|
20. idayil
|
between
|
Comparative,spatial
|
21. shesham
|
After,next
|
Temporal
|
22. appuram
|
Beyond,after
|
Locational , casual
|
23. munpe
|
Prior to,ahead of
|
Temporal, locational
|
24. munnil
|
In front of
|
Temporal, locational
|
25. ullil
|
In,inside,towards
|
Locational, spatial, directional,destination
|
26. akathu
|
In,inside
|
Locational, spatial
|
27. vendi
|
for
|
casual
|
28. pakaram
|
In place of
|
casual
|
29. muthal
|
From
|
Directional, source, destination
|
30. thottu
|
From,since
|
Directional, source, destination
|
31. ninnu
|
From
|
Directional, source, destination
|
32. vare
|
Till, until
|
Directional, destination
|
In the table above is a sum up of the semantic roles play by the Malayalam postpositions. |