— 4 —
of many others still more startling. For the usages by
which the language is enabled to dispense with adject-
ives and adverbs, the reader may consult among other
places the questions on adnounal participles and ques-
tions 221 and 238 seqq. and for those by which the
want of prepositions and conjunctions is supplied ques-
tions 268 and 310 seqq. So in analysing sentences it
will be found that the use of nouns and verbs to supply
the place of other parts of speech often makes the number
of sentences in a Malayálam period greater than it would
be in an English period expressing the same ideas, since
every verb which has a separate subject, makes a separate
sentence, either principal or subordinate. This is the only
rule that can be relied on in the analysis of Malayálam
sentences. Nor can it be confined as in English, to finite
verbs, for the genius of the language tends to long periods
in which one solitary finite verb comes at the end only.
3. The examples in the original work from their
brevity and the ambiguity caused by want of their con-
text were often very difficult to translate, and some ren-
derings will no doubt be found capable of amendment.
4. Many errors escaped notice till it was too late
to correct them. These are noticed in the errata, and it
is requested that the corrections indicated may be made
before the work is used.
L. G.
