In material processes, the lexeme ‘Sinhala’ usually most often came up as a theme in connection to the national anthem, the country and the idea of race. The national anthem is constructed purely as a ‘the Sinhala national anthem’, i.e. the idea of it being sunh in Sinhalase is just as much a part of the national anthem’s content as its meaning. It is asserted here further that Sri Lanka is a ‘Sinhala country’belonging to the ‘Sinhala race’. (113) ayi sinhala jatika geeyata niga karanne hadanne Why are you trying to insult the Sinhala National Anthem? This is repeated in relational proceses, in which the lexeme ‘Sinhala’ is mentioned in terms of asserting the identity of the country as Sinhalese, along with that of the language of the country. (114) pakayo me ape Sinhala rata tho hithuwada eka eka basa walin jathika geeya gayana karanna thope ratak kiyala. **** this is our Sinhala country, did you think it was yours to be able to sing the anthem in whatever language you like? In other places, sarcasm is the linguistic strategy used to drive the point home. The idea that it is now a Tamil country is sarcastically stated in response to the Jaffna University incident. This conveys the idea that things have now taken an about turn, i.e. from a Sinhala country to a Tamil country. (115) ŕśœŕś¸ŕˇŠŕśš ŕśœŕśŻŕś¸ŕś˝ ŕśťŕś§ŕśšŕˇŠŕśœŕśąŕˇŠ ŕś‰ŕśŕˇ’ම෩ දŕˇ?ම෩ đ&#x;˜ đ&#x;˜ đ&#x;˜ This is a Tamil country now (sarcasm) When the Sinhalese are portrayed as agents in material processes in the national anthem post, they are passive and at the mercy of ongoing events. There is continuous re-enforcement of the idea that Sri Lanka is the only country that the Sinhala Buddhists have, by implication saying that other minorities do not belong, and are essentially foreign. (116) sinhala apita me podi rata vithari thiyene apita e ratath nathi wenawa wage apita dannene mita wada hodi apiwa maruwa nam Us Sinhalese only have this small country, looks like we are about to lose even this. It is better if you kill us. When they are depicted as patients, the discourse of helplessness on the part of the Sinhalese is extended to victimization, with the Sinhalese being directly portrayed as patients of actions. While perpetrators of these actions are sometimes mentioned, many cases the agents of these actions, their perpetrators, are not mentioned. (117) ࡄࡊ ŕś¸ŕśťŕˇ” ŕˇƒŕˇ’ŕśąŕˇŠŕˇ„ŕś˝ŕśşŕś§ ŕśœŕśŻŕˇ€ŕˇ’ ŕś´ŕˇ’ŕˇ„ŕˇ’ŕś§ŕśşŕˇ’ Ha this is great God save the Sinhalese These recurrent speech patterns in both the English and the Sinhala sub-corpora arise in the Tamil sub-corpus in a slightly different way.
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