This monograph is the result of my research work in the Bengali Unit of the International School of Dravidian Linguistics, Thiruvananthapuram. It is also a product of my experience of teaching Bengali language to Tamil speakers in Kolkata and Thiruvananthapuram. I have taught Bengali to Tamil speakers in Kolkata and I have also taught Bengali to Malayalam speakers (and also to a few Tamil speakers in one particular batch), in Thiruvanathapuram. Moreover, I also taught Tamil to Bengali speakers, almost for five years, in the Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University and for a few months in Ravindra Bharati University, Kolkata. All these experiences of language teaching have proved to me that connecting or contrasting the case systems of Bengali with those of other languages is a very important job. That work has been attempted in this monograph.
However, it is not only targeted at language learners. Something has also been said about the reorganization of the descriptions of the case systems of both Bengali and Tamil. It is proposed that the case systems of the concerned languages can be explained with the help of four elements, which are syntactic roles, semantic roles, synthetic markers and analytic markers (postpositions). Interactions of these elements produce meanings in both the languages. Among these, only synthetic markers are limited in number whereas syntactic and semantic roles and analytic markers are not limited. Hence the argument of this monograph is that case is not a closed category in both the languages. Cases in both the languages cannot be counted and listed and hence cannot be numbered or named.
This proposal is a new one as I have not found any description of Bengali and Tamil cases explaining it exactly in this way. This is the thesis of my research work on Case systems of Bengali and Tamil. This proposal and this different approach is placed here for consideration of Linguists and Grammarians of both the Languages. Part II of the book is meant for language learners and I hope that they will find it useful.
I am glad to introduce this monograph "A Contrastive Study of Case in Bengali and Tamil" to the scholars interested in Contrastive study of Bengali and Dravidian languages. It is research work done by Mr. Sourav Chakraborty, Lecturer in Bengali unit of ISDL.
The unit was founded by Prof. V. I. Subramoniam by getting a generous grant from West Bengal Government. The unit started to do research and teaching in Bengali language, literature and culture. The native speakers of Bengali scholars are doing the teaching work to non-Bengalis and doing research work on Bengali language, literature and culture. Mr. Sourav Chakraborty along with his teaching work was doing research work also in the Bengali unit. Contrastive study of Case system in Bengali and Tamil is one such work. It is a very sincere work for both Bengali and Tamil languages. Also it is very useful for Bengali language teaching to Dravidian language speakers.
The monograph contains two parts: Part one- The Background of Contrastive Study and Part two- The Contrastive Study. In the first part, the theories of Cases and Case in language teaching are discussed in detailed. In the second part, Case construction system in Bengali and Tamil and contrastive analysis of Case systems of both the languages are discussed in a systematic way. The monograph provides a lengthy Bibliography, which is very useful for further reading.
I am thankful to Mr. Sourav Chakraborty for providing such a good monograph to the ISDL for publication.
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