What is it about?
Sluicing is a type of elliptical structure which applies to wh-questions, e.g. John met someone, but I don't know WHO. In this paper, I study sluicing in Tamil, a Southern Dravidian language. I claim that there are two types of sluicing in Tamil determined by whether the wh-word bears a case marker. The Tamil facts demonstrate clearly that the two types of sluicing stem from two types of wh-questions. The conclusion which I reach about Tamil sluicing leads to a further inquiry about the homogeneity of Dravidian syntax. I claim that an optimal theory of Dravidian syntax should stem from detailed analyses of individual Dravidian languages at a microscopic level.
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Why is it important?
At the descriptive level, our finding shows that while Tamil possesses three types of wh-questions, only two of which are used to form sluicing. From a broader perspective, our analysis casts doubt on any work which considers Dravidian syntax as a homogeneous linguistic entity.
Perspectives
This is my first published work in Tamil, and it took several years before the paper can see the day of light. The discussion with Tamil informants is an interesting experience, though describing their underlying intuition of the language is particularly challenging. I hope that this article can add some contributions to Dravidian syntax and moreover invite more work on the detailed study of individual Dravidian languages.
Tommi Leung
United Arab Emirates University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The syntax of two types of sluicing in Tamil, The Linguistic Review, January 2018, De Gruyter,
DOI: 10.1515/tlr-2017-0017.
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