1 1 THE PHRASE IN TELUGU PROVERBS I: A CASE STUDY OF ADJECTIVAL AND NOUN PHRASES IN ANDHRA LOKOKTHI CHANDRIKA Chilukuri Bhuvaneswar CIEFL, Hyderabad Abstract In addition to sentences and clauses, there are a significant number of phrases occurring independently as proverbs in Telugu. Such proverbial phrases are embedded in sentences generally to perform different functions in discourse. In this paper, the very first collection of Telugu proverbs Andhra Lokokthi Chandrika, published in 1868 by Captain M. W. Carr, has been examined as a case in point to find out the range of phrasal structures represented in Telugu proverbs from the very beginning of such collections. From such an examination, it has been found out that three types of phrases have been used productively in the formation of proverbs. They are: 1) noun phrases premodified by adjectival phrases; and 2) adverbial phrases postmodified by adverbs;and 3) phrases indicating analogy (or comparison or similarity). In this paper, the first type of phrases from Carr (1868) are examined and illustrated with examples. Most of these noun phrases contain adjectival phrases premodifying them but some others are postpositional. An analysis of them shows that both these types of phrases contain social or natural praxis that has been prototypicalized to function as proverbs. I. INTRODUCTION In the structural analysis of Telugu proverbs, phrasal proverbs are not comprehensively studied so far. There is a need for such analysis to find out how they function in conversation and how they are related to the sentential proverbs which helps us to know the essential characteristics of proverbs. A. Aims and Objectives In this paper, an attempt will be made to identify and analyse the internal structure of the noun phrases from among the other types of phrases in a corpus of about 500 proverbial phrases collected from Carr (1868).
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S 3 the Phrase in Telugu Proverbs: Adjectival and Noun Phrases
It lists and gives the meaning of numerous Telugu Proverb Phrases in their NOUN and ADJECTIVAL forms. This and the other two papers S 4 (Adverbial Phrasal Proverbs) and S 5 (Analogical Phrasal Proverbs) were first written in 1997 and later on published in Proverbiallinguists at Yahoogroups in 2003.
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THE PHRASE IN TELUGU PROVERBS I: A CASE STUDY OF ADJECTIVAL
AND NOUN PHRASES IN ANDHRA LOKOKTHI CHANDRIKA
Chilukuri Bhuvaneswar CIEFL, Hyderabad
Abstract
In addition to sentences and clauses, there are a significant number of phrases occurring
independently as proverbs in Telugu. Such proverbial phrases are embedded in sentences
generally to perform different functions in discourse.
In this paper, the very first collection of Telugu proverbs Andhra Lokokthi Chandrika, published
in 1868 by Captain M. W. Carr, has been examined as a case in point to find out the range of
phrasal structures represented in Telugu proverbs from the very beginning of such collections.
From such an examination, it has been found out that three types of phrases have been used
productively in the formation of proverbs. They are: 1) noun phrases premodified by adjectival
phrases; and 2) adverbial phrases postmodified by adverbs;and 3) phrases indicating analogy
(or comparison or similarity).
In this paper, the first type of phrases from Carr (1868) are examined and illustrated with
examples. Most of these noun phrases contain adjectival phrases premodifying them but some
others are postpositional. An analysis of them shows that both these types of phrases contain
social or natural praxis that has been prototypicalized to function as proverbs.
I. INTRODUCTION
In the structural analysis of Telugu proverbs, phrasal proverbs are not
comprehensively studied so far. There is a need for such analysis to find out how
they function in conversation and how they are related to the sentential proverbs
which helps us to know the essential characteristics of proverbs.
A. Aims and Objectives
In this paper, an attempt will be made to identify and analyse the internal structure
of the noun phrases from among the other types of phrases in a corpus of about
500 proverbial phrases collected from Carr (1868).
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B. Materials and Methods
Captain M. W. Carr‟s (1868) Andhra Lokokthi Chandrika has been selected as the
source for the collection of proverbial phrases for the following reasons:
i. It is the first collection ever to be published. So, its corpus gives us a
historical perspective to the choice of proverbs.
ii. Its size is both comprehensive as well as compact. Hence, the corpus
can be easily analysed.
iii. Its explanations are so elaborate that we know the meaning of the
proverbs as they are used at that time.
II. LITERATURE REVIEW
A comprehensive analysis of Telugu proverb phrases has not been made so far - as
far as I know. In Bhuvaneswar (2003a), a review of more than 250 references in
Telugu proverb literature has been made – which is so far the most comprehensive
bibliographical review since 1868 – and in it, there is no mention of any specific
analysis of phrases in Telugu proverbs apart from this and the next two articles in
this series.
III. AN ANALYSIS OF THE ADJECTIVAL AND NOUN PHRASES IN
ANDHRA LOKOKTHI CHANDRIKA
According to Quirk and Greenbaum (1989: 17 59) an English noun phrase can be
basic or complex. A basic noun phrase consists of “Pronouns and numerals, and
of nouns with articles or other closed system items that can occur before the noun
head such as predeterminers like all” (ibid. 59). A complex noun phrase consists
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of a head either premodified notably by adjectives and nouns or postmodified by
prepositional phrases, non-finite clauses, and relative clauses (ibid. 375-76).
An example of a basic noun phrase containing the predeterminers „all‟, of-
construction „of‟, determiner „the‟ and the quantifier „many‟ premodifying the
noun „boys‟ is:
(1a). all of the many boys (ibid. 63)
Another example of a basic noun phrase containing the determiner „the‟, the
ordinal numeral „first‟, the cardinal numeral „three‟ premodifying „planes‟ is:
(1b). the first three planes (ibid. 65)
An example for a complex noun phrase containing the determiner „the‟, the
adjective „pretty‟ and the noun „college‟ premodifying the head „girl‟;
and the non-finite clause „walking on the lawn‟, the prepositional phrase „in the
garden‟ the relative clause „who smiled sweetly‟, the clause of reason „because I
waved to her‟ and the clause of time when I saw her‟ postmodifying the same head
„girl‟ is:
(2). The pretty college girl walking on the lawn in the garden who smiled
sweetly because I waved to her when I saw her (is Sonali).
In Telugu also such complex noun phrases are possible according to the rules of
Telugu grammar. For example, (1b) has an equivalent in Telugu as follows:
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(1c). mod ai mu:u inima:lu
first three planes
[There is no specific word for the definite article „the‟ of English in Telugu
and hence it is not found in the phrase.]
(1a). can be translated in Telugu as follows:
(1d). ta:la kurra a: a lo: andaru:
many boys in all
„All in many boys‟
(2) has an equivalent in Telugu as follows:
(2a). anamu lo: pattika lo: naustunna and amaina
garden in lawn in walking pretty
e: kaa:a:la ba:la ne:nu a:menu ts:tin(a) appuu
which college girl I her seeing then
(a:menu) palakarintina mu:la:na: tijjaga:
(her) greeting because of sweetly
naind o: a:me so:na:li.
smiled she Sonali
„which pretty college girl walking in the lawn in the garden smiled sweetly
because of (I) greeting her when on seeing her, that (girl) is Sonali‟.
or
(2) as given earlier in the normal English version.
According to Venkateswarlu, V. (1982:99), adjectival phrases are formed by the addition
of adjectival postpositions to nouns or noun equivalent adjectives. For example, in
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(3). u:ri elupali teuu
town outside tank
„The tank outside the town‟
teuu is a common noun. elupali is a postposition. It joins with u:ri to form an
adjectival phrase „u:ri elupali‟ and that qualifies the noun teruu. Since the
postposition is used in the formation of an adjectival phrase, it is called an adjectival
postposition.An adjectival postposition is formed by the suffixation of the particle /i/, and
sometimes /i/, or /t i/ to the noun from which it is formed. In the case of the above
adjectival postposition /pali/ is added as follows:
(3a). eli (noun) > elupali (adjectival postposition)
out outside
The derivation of elupali from eli is difficult and is not as straight forward as the other