Karnataka II PUC Malayalam (KSEAB) key terms

Prose. Any written text that flows in ordinary sentences rather than verse lines, including short stories, novels, essays and biographical sketches prescribed in the textbook.

Poetry. Compositions written in metrical lines with rhythm and often rhyme, covering classical champus, modern free verse and devotional songs in the prescribed syllabus.

Short story. A brief narrative built around a single incident or conflict, with a small cast of characters and a turning point that reveals theme.

Essay. A structured piece of prose that presents and develops the writer's views on a topic through argument, illustration and conclusion.

Drama. A play written for performance, divided into acts and scenes, driven by dialogue, conflict and stage directions rather than narration.

Plot. The arranged sequence of events in a story or play, moving from exposition through conflict and climax to resolution.

Character. A person portrayed in a literary work, whose speech, action and relationships carry the theme forward.

Dialogue. Conversation between characters in a story or play, used to advance plot, reveal personality and create dramatic tension.

Junction. The phonetic joining of two adjacent sounds or words, with the resulting form determined by rules of vowel and consonant combination.

Compound. A single word formed by combining two or more stems that function as one unit, with the relationship between members fixed by type.

A compound in which the first member qualifies or determines the second, and the final member carries the main meaning, as in a noun-plus-noun combination.

A compound that names something by a characteristic possessed by it, so the whole word refers to a person or thing other than its component parts.

A compound joining two or more members of equal rank, usually linked by a conjunction in meaning, where each member retains its own significance.

Figure of speech. A deliberate device of sound or sense, such as simile or metaphor, that heightens the expressive effect of a line.

Simile. An explicit comparison between two unlike things, marked by words meaning 'like' or 'as', where the shared quality is stated.

Metaphor. An implied comparison in which one thing is identified with another without any word of likeness, so the image replaces the literal term.

Prosody. The system of metre governing syllable count, weight and pause in verse, studied to scan and identify prescribed poems.

A metrical pattern in classical verse defined by a fixed number of syllables per line and a prescribed arrangement of light and heavy syllables.

A metrical foot. A group of three syllables classified by their light and heavy pattern, used to build and identify Sanskrit-style metres.

Vowel mutation. A change in a vowel occurring at a word junction or in inflection, often producing a different vowel sound in the combined form.

Consonant. A speech sound produced with obstruction in the vocal tract, as opposed to a freely flowing vowel, and a basic unit in sandhi rules.

Composition. The section of the paper testing the candidate's ability to write original essays, letters, reports and translations in correct Malayalam.

Letter. A written communication in prescribed format, either personal or formal, with salutation, body, closing and signature placed correctly.

Translation. Rendering a passage from one language into another while preserving meaning, tone and register rather than word-for-word structure.

Comprehension. Reading an unseen passage and answering questions on its main idea, details, inference and vocabulary.

Word. A single meaningful unit of language; vocabulary questions ask for synonyms, opposites or contextual meaning of prescribed words.

Technical term or definition. A precise word used for a concept in grammar or literature, whose exact meaning must be reproduced accurately.

A long, formally organised prose or verse composition treating a single theme at length, often argumentative or reflective in character.

History. The recorded development of Malayalam literature across periods, including the influence of Tamil, Sanskrit and English on its forms.

Poem. A single composition in verse; in literary history the term covers devotional, romantic and modern experimental phases of Malayalam writing.

Classical Malayalam poet regarded as the father of the language, known for devotional retellings of the Ramayana and Mahabharata in the kilippattu form.

A narrative verse form in which a parrot is addressed as the narrator's listener, used for long devotional retellings of epic stories.

Modern Malayalam poet of the renaissance period whose narrative poems address social injustice and spiritual themes in accessible language.

Internal assessment task in which the candidate prepares a written study on a prescribed topic, assessed for content, method and presentation.

Grammar. The study of the rules governing sound combination, word formation and sentence structure tested in the grammar section.