The Structure of the Verb Phrase in Spoken Sinhalese: A Linguistics Study
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Date
2020
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Uva Wellassa University of Sri Lanka
Abstract
According to structural linguistics, the structure of a language can be studied as sounds,
words, sentences, and meanings. Sentences of all languages have both a deep structure,
which gives the meaning of the sentence and a surface structure, which gives the form of
the sentence as it is used in communication. The deep structure turns into the surface
structure by using transformational rules. Hence, Phrase structure analysis is very
essential for recognizing the structure of certain phrases and ascertaining inter-structural
patterns of certain languages. The objective of the research was to recognize the structure
of the verb phrase in spoken Sinhalese. The data is gathered from the book of “Kelani
Paalama” written by R.R. Samarakoon. Accordingly, verb phrases were recognized from
collected data by using phrase structure rules. The methodology of this research is
analyzing the structure of the verb phrase by applying generative grammar. The findings
of this study revealed that the verb in which the head of the verb phrase appears as
various forms such as finite verbs, infinitive verbs, volitive verbs, involve verbs,
transitive verbs, intransitive verbs, helping verbs and main verbs. Verbs behave in the
form of reports, commands in a verb phrase, and emphasize and phrase focus happens in
abundance in the verb phrase. Word order of the verb phrase of Sinhalese can be seen as
free word order. When deep structure turns into surface structure simple sentences have
no changes and complex sentences have some changes due to transformational rules.
Sinhalese verb phrase has so many structures Moreover linguistics units such as nouns,
verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, determiners, compliments, and sentences are
included in the verb phrase in spoken Sinhalese.
Keywords: Transformational rules, Phrase structure, Verb phrase, Spoken Sinhalese
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Humanities & Social Sciences, Linguistics Study, Education, Language, Social Science