Dravidian Syntax and Universal Grammar

This volume comprises twenty eight papers selected from the widely known work of K.A. Jayaseelan and R. Amritavalli on Dravidian. Collectively, these papers cover the entire area of Dravidian syntax: they range from broad questions such as sentence structure and word order to more particular questions such as the morphological basis of anaphora, the genesis of lexical categories, the morpho-syntax of quantifiers, and the syntax and semantics of questions. Important universalist claims are embedded in these essays; for this reason, this volume will be of interest also to a student of the general theory of syntax. No future discussion of Dravidian (or South Asian) languages is possible without taking into account the insightful analyses set forth in these pages.

K.A. Jayaseelan is formerly Professor and Chair of School of Language Sciences at The English & Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, India. He has published more than 50 papers and published four volumes of poetry in Malayalam.

R. Amritavalli is former Professor, School of Language Sciences, and former Vice-Chancellor, The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad, India