History of focus-concord constructions and focus-associated particles in Sinhala, with comparison to Dravidian and Japanese

A new linguistic analysis reveals that the focus concord construction in Sinhala—first documented in pre-second millennial graffiti at Sigiriya’s Mirror Wall—has evolved from impersonal verbal nominalizations in Old Sinhala to a modern colloquial structure showing agreement with focused elements. This study traces its development alongside parallel constructions in Dravidian languages (Malayalam and Tamil) and Japanese (kakari-musubi), identifying shared patterns while highlighting Sinhala’s unique trajectory. The research combines historical linguistics, comparative analysis, and textual evidence from Sigiriya to reconstruct the construction’s transformation over millennia.

Slade, B. (2018). History of focus-concord constructions and focus-associated particles in Sinhala, with comparison to Dravidian and Japanese. Glossa: A Journal of General Linguistics, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.241