Malayalam

Web References
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// General information
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malayalam
// Transliteration engine
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=DAA1C682-777B-471A-8FD3-B45C37CE947C&displaylang=en
// Information from the Indian Government, including script information and sample sentences.
http://tdil.mit.gov.in/news.htm

Reference Books
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Malayalam by R.E. Asher and T. C. Kumari
Parametric Studies in Malayalam Syntax by K. A. Jayaseelan

General Information
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ISO Language ID: mal
Possible Malayalam speakers: malayalam.meetup.com/cities/us/wa/seattle/


Basic Word Order
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The basic word order of Malayalam is SOV, however there is considerable freedom in word order.
In general however, the V seems to come last.
The more arguments there are in addition to S and O, the more difficult it is to state what the order is.

The constituents of the sentence are identified by their CASE marking.
In the following sentences, the word order remains the same, but the Subject (S) and Object (O) are indicated
by their case: S is NOM and O is ACC.

	child mother-ACC call-PAST = the child called the mother
	child-ACC mother call-PAST = the mother called the child
 
Transitive verbs which may or may not take a direct object are 
	unanaunnu	(eat)
	vaayikkuka (read)
	
Ditransitive verbs which take an indirect object are
	kotaukkuka (give)
	tarika (give)
	ayakkuka (send)
With ditransitive verbs, the indirect object (IO) is usually in the dative (DAT) form.
The tendency is for the IO to follow S and precede O.

I have not been able to investigate auxiliaries yet.

/***** Examples *****/
For the ungrammatical cases, I've moved the verb out of the final position.
There's the possibility of reordering the S, O, or IO in these sentences, but
I'm not sure how that affects the ungrammaticality.  For elements where the 
case is marked, the order should not matter.  For elements without case 
marking, I am assuming they can not be reordered.

++ Direct Object
kutatai ammaye     vilaiccu
child   mother-ACC call-PAST
the child called the mother

kutataiye amma     vilaiccu
child-ACC mother   call-PAST
the mother called the child

* vilaiccu   kutatai ammaye     
  call-PAST  child   mother-ACC 
  called the child the mother

* vilaiccu   kutataiye  amma      
  call-PAST  child-ACC  mother   
  called the mother the child

* kutatai vilaiccu  ammaye     
  child   call-PAST mother-ACC 
   the child called the mother

* kutataiye vilaiccu   amma      
  child-ACC call-PAST  mother   
  called the mother the child

	+++ I have no idea whether the subject and object could be reordered.  
		Would child-ACC mother call-PAST be the same as 
		mother child-ACC call-PAST

avan cooraə unanaunnu
he   rice   eat-PRES
he is eating rive

* unanaunnu avan cooraə 
  eat-PRES  he   rice   
  is eating he rice
  
  	+++ In this case, there is no case marking to indicate S and O
  		So, perhaps the words can't be reordered here without changing
  		meaning, but I'm not sure.

++ Indirect Object
Hanifa enikkə ii pustakam tannu
Hanifa I-DAT this book gave-PAST
Hanifa gave me this book

* tannu Hanifa enikkə ii pustakam
  gave-PAST Hanifa I-DAT this book 
  gave Hanifa me this book

* Hanifa tannu     enikkə ii   pustakam
  Hanifa gave-PAST I-DAT  this book 
  Hanifa gave me this book

* Hanifa enikkə tannu     ii   pustakam
  Hanifa I-DAT  gave-PAST this book 
  Hanifa me gave this book

* Hanifa enikkə ii   tannu      pustakam
  Hanifa I-DAT  this gave-PAST  book 
  Hanifa me this gave book


Pronouns
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Malayalam pronouns have the features of
	person (1st, 2nd or 3rd)
	number (singular or plural)
	gender (masc, fem, neut)
	proximality (proximal or distal)	/ Only applies in 3rd person
	honorificity (honorific or non-honorific)	/ Only applies in 2nd or 3rd person
	
1st and 2nd person plural includes an inclusive / exclusive modification as well, 
indicating if the object is in the group, or outside it.

The masculin / feminine gender only applies to humans.  All other elements
have neutral gender.

Pronouns do appear in the same place in the string as NPs.
Pronouns do not agree with verbs in tense, since tense marking is on the verbs.

The pronouns are:
1st person singular				njaaan
1st person plural inclusive		nammala ~ naam
1st per. incl. hon. (Royal We)	naam
1st person plural exclusive		njaangangaala
2nd person singular				nii
2nd person plural				ningangaala
3rd person singular masc		avan / ivan
3rd person singular fem			avala / ivala
3rd person singular neut		atə / itə
3rd person plural epicene		avar / ivar
3rd person plural neut			ava / iva

The CASE system applies to pronouns, and can modify their morphology to make them
NOM, ACC, or DAT, and also sociative, locative, instrumental or genitive

Here are some simple pronoun examples

njaaan paampine  bhayappetaunnu
I      snake-ACC fear-PRES
I am afraid of snakes

nii ini pookaam
you now go-FUT-MOD
you may go now

avan oru taiiccar aanaə
he   a   teacher  be-PRES
he is a teacher

avala oru taiiccar aanaə
she   a   teacher  be-PRES
she is a teacher

	+++ I think that the ungrammatical cases for pronouns might be to use the incorrect
		CASE form of the pronoun.  Here are sentences created with that idea.
		This would need to be researched more.

* enne  paampine  bhayappetaunnu
  I-ACC snake-ACC fear-PRES
  I am afraid of snakes

* enikkə  paampine  bhayappetaunnu
  I-DAT   snake-ACC fear-PRES
  I am afraid of snakes

* ninne   ini pookaam
  you-ACC now go-FUT-MOD
  you may go now

* ninakkə ini pookaam
  you-DAT now go-FUT-MOD
  you may go now

* avane  oru taiiccar aanaə
  he-ACC a   teacher  be-PRES
  he is a teacher

* avannə oru taiiccar aanaə
  he-DAT a   teacher  be-PRES
  he is a teacher

* avalae  oru taiiccar aanaə
  she-ACC a   teacher  be-PRES
  she is a teacher

* avalakkə oru taiiccar aanaə
  she-DAT  a   teacher  be-PRES
  she is a teacher



The Rest of the NP
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The noun phrase can function as subject, direct object, or indirect object.

A noun phrase consists minimally of a pronoun or a simple noun.
It may consist of a compound noun, or of a noun or pronoun preceded or 
followed by a number of modifiers.  (most modifiers are prenominal.)

Nouns may be inflected for Agreement - refer to that section for more information.
Adjectives precede the noun they modify.
Any number of adjectives may precede a noun.
	
There is no category for articles, but indefiniteness may be shown by oru, meaning one.
Oru precedes the noun it is modifying.
There are also demonstrative adjectives such as that, this, these, those, etc.
Nouns may also be modified by quantifiers or numerals.

Quantifiers which precede the noun they are modifying:
kuraccə - a few
valaare - many

Quantifiers which follow the noun:
ellaam - all
okke - all
maatram - only

The book states that modification of pronoun headed phrases is more limited than for
noun headed phrases, but doesn't elaborate.


***
++ one + NP
oru raajaavə untaayirunnu
a    king        be-PAST
there was a king

For the ungrammatical cases, I've moved the modifier from its appropriate position
for the noun it's modifying.

* raajaavə oru untaayirunnu
  king  a   be-PAST
  there was a king

* raajaavə untaayirunnu oru 
  king     be-PAST      a
  there was a king

njaaan oru pustakam vaangangai
I      a   book     buy-PAST
I bought a book

* oru njaaan pustakam vaangangai
  a   I      book     buy-PAST
  I bought a book

* njaaan pustakam oru vaangangai
  I      book     a   buy-PAST
  I bought a book


++ Quantifier + NP
aalaukala ellaam pooyi
person-PL all go-PAST
all the people went

* ellaam aalaukala pooyi
  all person-PL    go-PAST
  all the people went

* aalaukala pooyi   ellaam 
  person-PL go-PAST all 
  all the people went

++ NP + quantifier
valare aalaukala pooyi
many   person-PL go-PAST
many people went

* aalaukala valare pooyi
  person-PL many   go-PAST
  many people went

* aalaukala pooyi   valare 
  person-PL go-PAST many   
  many people went

Case Marking Adpositions - 
The grammar book I have talks about postpositional phrases, but these seem to be
simple prepositional phrases.
p. 120 Some examples it provides are:
	from the river to the sea
	with money
The order seems to be noun postposition


Argument optionality
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I think Malayalam is a rampant pro-drop langauge.
Subjects which are understood from context may be deleted.
The articles are not required, and can be dropped as well.
Verbs may also be dropped if they are understood.

++ Dropping Verbs:
avan oru taiiccar aanaə
he   a   teacher  be-PRES
he is a teacher

avan oru taiiccar
he   a   teacher
he is a teacher

thanuppundu
cold
it is cold

++ Dropping Subjects
* s trans-verb o
enikkə tanaukkunnu
I-DAT feel cold-PRES
I feel cold

* trans-verb o
tanaukkunnu
feel cold-PRES
I feel cold

visaakkunnu
feel_hungry-PRES
(I) feel hungry

saabdam sahikka    vayya
noise   bear-INFIN cannot
(I) can't stand the noise

	+++ I'm not sure how to create ungrammatical cases for these.



Agreement
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According to R.E. Asher and T. C. Kumari, there is limited agreement between 
adjectives and the nouns they modify, and it only occurs if the noun has CASE human (HUM).
The adjective is then modified for GEN and NUM.
However, the examples show modification of the adjectives for other cases, so I don't 
understand that section of the grammar.  I'll look at other materials to try to find
other examples.

In general, I saw a lot of morphological changes in the examples in the book, but
there seemed to be very little discussion of agreement.  I suspect that there is
agreement, but I don't understand how to interpret the discussion in the grammar book.

There are 5 forms of nalla (good)
masculine singular	nallavan
feminine singular	nallavalai 
human plural		nallavar
neuter singular		nallatə
neuter plural		nallava

Examples are:
kutatai nallavan annaə
child good-MASC be-PRES
the boy is good

kutatai nallavala annaə
child good-FEM be-PRES
the girl is good

kutataikala nallavar annaə
the children good-HUM_PL be-PRES
the boy is good

ii pustakam nallatə annaə
this book good-NEUT be-PRES
this book is good

Refer to the test suite for ungrammatical cases in which the 
wrong form of the adjective is used.




