தொல்காப்பியம்: பொருளதிகாரம்: அகத்திணையியல்: இளம்பூரணர் உரை Part 1 Fall 2017

By E. Annamalai 

 

 

The components of a language are எழுத்து ‘sound / letter, சொல் ‘word’ and பொருள் ‘meaning, content’. They are components of the ordinary language and the poetic language; ‘content’ is only of the latter. The poetic language has a symbolic language (செய்யுள்) that is overlaid on the ordinary language (வழக்கு).  The above three are not categories of a language, but are its components.

பொருள் as ‘content or subject matter’ of poetry has categories within it. பொருள் is super-ordinate; so there is no *பொருள் திணை, only பொருளதிகாரம். திணை is the word for ‘category’ (see உயர்திணை, அஃறிணை). Its etymon is probably திண் ‘strong, dense, thick (i.e. be close with others)’, from which one can get the meaning of ‘a body of closely related things’. Sri Lankan Tamil uses திணைக்களம் in the sense of ‘division of knowledge’ such as Humanities or ‘division of administration’ in government. திணை is a sub-division of the super-ordinate பொருள். It is a category name and there are two: அகத்திணை, புறத்திணை.