Dravidian Syntax - A Comparative Study

In traditional and structural linguistics, language is studied in various levels such as Phonology, Morphology and Syntax. There are many theoretical models which deal with treatment of Syntax such as traditional, descriptive, transformational, tagmemic, etc. But one cannot say that any one of these models are thoroughly adequate to explain all aspects of Syntax.Each one has got its merits, demerits and limitation and furnishes insights on different aspects. In the field of descriptive study, a number of works have been done covering various aspects of each language. On the contrary, in Comparative study, only a few works have been published related to Phonology and Morphology. However no major works have been published in Comparative Dravidian Syntax. The main reason for the absence of studies on Comparative Syntax is the lack of comparable data on the sentence patterns of the individual languages. For comparative study of Syntax, cognate sentences, with cognate constituents or the constituents with the same grammatical category in each language is needed. Hence this study is limited only to four major languages.