தமிழ் இலக்கண மரபினில் வேற்றுமைத் தொகைமொழி

Case compounds in the Tamil grammatical tradition

Abstract

Compound structures serve as an indispensable syntactic and grammatical component within the Tamil grammatical tradition. Tolkappiyar classifies these compound structures into six distinct categories. Among these, two divergent perspectives currently exist regarding the structure and definition of case compounds. One school of thought argues that a case compound is formed merely by the elision of case markers between two constituent words. Conversely, another school contends that beyond the mere elision of case markers, these constituent words must fuse indivisibly to function with the "nature of a single word." This article comprehensively analyzes these contrasting viewpoints by comparing the commentaries of traditional grammarians, the interpretations of grammatical scholars, and the theories of modern linguists. By prioritizing semantics—the fundamental core of language—this study establishes that it is grammatically appropriate to define a case compound as a compound syntactic structure that not only conveys case meanings but also functions organically as a unified, single lexical unit without any phonetic hiatus.