LOCALIST STUDIES IN TELUGU SYNTAX

Abstract

The aim this work is two-fold being firstly to describe certain important areas the syntax modern spoken Telugu and secondly by formulating the description in terms to contribute something to the understanding this approach. Illustrative support for the hypothesis has hitherto been drawn largely from languages the Indo-European family. This thesis attempts to provide a supplement to this by drawing on a language the Dravidian family which is genetically entirely unrelated to Indo-European. After an introductory chapter surveying earlier work on the grammar Telugu from which it will become apparent that there has\so far been only a modest amount work on Telugu syntax in terms any recent theoretical model and nothing in terms of the localist approach there follows an account of Telugu sentence patterns and the major elements of Telugu sentence construction. This is intended to provide the necessary data on the surface grammar the language to make the subsequent proposals regarding underlying structures more readily comprehensible. Chapter-3 gives an outline the-theory generative localism and makes comparisons with other current syntactic theories in particular the case grammar 'Fillmore and generative semantics. The fourth chapter examines one the primitive case relations namely the one that specifically underlies the spatial' locative constructions of Telugu. Attention is drawn in the discussion to the co-relationship between word-order and definiteness and' the bearing this has on a statement the derivation of existential clauses.