[INDOLOGY] question on the use of the grammatical category of aspect in classical Tamil studies

[Tieken, H.J.H.]

Dear List members, At the moment I am going through Lynn Ate, Tirmaṅkai Āḻvār's Five Shorter Works. At several occasions she uses the term "aspect". E.g. on p. 107 in a note discussing the form īṉṟaṉai, "you bore, gave birth to". She calls it a perfective aspect formation, apparently typical of classical Tamil. On p. 82 she analyses āṉāy as a 2nd person singular perfective aspect "you became", i.e. "you are".
I have a feeling that I have missed something (but then, I am not a linguist pur sang), namely when (or by whom) the term "aspect" has been introduced in classical Tamil studies (I am not talking about modern Tamil studies)? Tense is an obvious problem in classical Tamil poetry. has the concept of aspect been introduced to solve this problem?
With the best wishes, Herman


Herman Tieken
Stationsweg 58
2515 BP Den Haag
The Netherlands
00 31 (0)70 2208127
website: hermantieken.com<http://hermantieken.com/>


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