-
Sanskrit syntaxSelected papers presented at the seminar
on Sanskrit syntax and discourse structures,13-15 June 2013,
Universit Paris Diderot,
with an updated and revised bibliographyby
HANS HENRICH HOCK
edited byPETER M. SCHARF
28 February 2015
-
ii
Scharf, Peter M., ed. Sanskrit syntax: Selected papers
presentedat the seminar on Sanskrit syntax and discourse
structures, 13-15June 2013, Universit Paris Diderot, with an
updated and revisedbibliography by Hans Henrich Hock. Providence:
The SanskritLibrary, 2015.
Copyright 2015 by The Sanskrit Library.
All rights reserved. Reproduction in any medium is restricted.
Nopart of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted,
exceptbrief quotations, in any form or by any means, electronic or
me-chanical, including photocopying, recording, or any
informationstorage or retrieval system, without prior written
permission of thecopyright holder and publisher.
Published by:The Sanskrit Library89 Cole AvenueProvidence, RI
02906USAsanskritlibrary.org
Library of Congress Control Number: 2015934847
ISBN-10: 1943135002ISBN-13: 978-1-943135-00-4
1350047819439
ISBN 978-1-943135-00-490000
-
Preface
A strong tradition of linguistics developed in India in the
firstmillenium BCE naturally associated with the heightened
aware-ness of language engendered by the assiduous preservation of
oralVedic texts. The curiousity as well as the need to understand
thelanguage of these compositions already several hundred years
oldinstigated the development of systematic linguistic analysis
whichflourished throughout the two and a half millennia since Pan.
inicomposed his comprehensive linguistic description of the
Sanskritlanguage by the fourth century BCE. His unprecedented
analysisof the language into basic units and reconstitution of
utterancesin accordance with precise rules laid the foundation for
the de-velopment of highly sophisticated discussions concerned with
thestructure of verbal cognition and its relation to speech units
rang-ing from roots and affixes to words, phrases, and sentences.
Thestudy of syntax in India is intimately associated with
semantics,and the analysis of the semantic content provides the
foundationfor the generation of linguistic expressions. Relational
structuresin the domain of consciousness are projected onto speech
formswhose arrangement in the string of speech is subordinate.
Modern linguistics developed in Europe beginning in the
lateeighteenth century as a direct result of the fascination
Europeanscholars had with the resemblances of Sanskrit to classical
Greekand Latin. Their excitement to discover the relationship
amongthese and a gradually expanding number of languages in
whatcame to be known as the Indo-European family led them to
readaptthe precise phonetic rules of Indian linguists to historical
soundchange in the science of historical and comparative
linguistics.The great figures of the history of modern linguistics
Jones,Bopp, de Saussure, Bloomfield, and many others all
studied
iii
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iv PREFACE
Sanskrit, and some worked directly on Sanskrit grammatical
textsor with learned Sanskrit scholars (pan. d. ita) intimately
familiar withsuch texts. Even Chomskys generative analysis of
English was in-spired by Pan. inian methods.
Formal and computational linguistics, engendered in the U.S.,was
dominated by English at its inception and developed in sub-sequent
decades primarily in the environment of European lan-guages. More
recently there has been a concerted effort to under-take formal
linguistic analysis of a wide variety of languages, withparticular
interest in those with dramatically different features, andto
enrich syntactic theory to account for linguistic variety. Over
thepast couple of decades there has been a growing interest among
adiverse group including Sanskrit scholars and computer
scientistswho collaborated together to form the Sanskrit
Computational Lin-guistics Consortium. The Consortium has sponsored
several sym-posia in Europe, the U.S. and India since 2007.
Against this background, I was inspired to undertake researchto
develop universally adequate linguistic theory by formalizingthe
sophisticated linguistic theories, structures and procedures
de-veloped in the Indian linguistic tradition. To do so, for the
year20122013, I was awarded a Chaire Internationale de
RechercheBlaise Pascal, financed by the State of France and the
RgiondIle-de-France and managed by the Fondation de lcole Nor-male
Suprieure. The project investigated ways in which Indianlinguistics
could contribute useful insights to contemporary for-mal
linguistics, and designed ways in which Indian linguistic the-ories
could be formalized and implemented computationally. Theproject
focused on Indian semantic and syntactic theory and
thesemantics-syntax interface where computational linguistic work
isflourishing. In the midst of the project I was invited as a
Visit-ing Professor to the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay.
Theinvitation facilitated collaboration sponsored by the Blaise
PascalChair with several junior Indian scholars. The project
culminated
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SANSKRIT SYNTAX v
in the organization of the Seminar on Sanskrit syntax and
discoursestructures held at the Universit Paris Diderot, 1315 June
2013the program of which is posted on the Sanskrit Library
Website(www.sanskritlibrary.org) under Events. The theme ofthe
seminar was the exposition of current theoretical
knowledgeconcerning Sanskrit syntax and the application of state of
the artmethods of computational linguistics to Sanskrit. This book
is thepublication of selected revised papers presented at that
seminar.
The book includes twelve papers by seventeen contributorsfrom
divergent backgrounds in European and American linguis-tics, Pan.
inian grammar, and computer science that converge indealing with
contemporary issues in Sanskrit syntax. Hans Hen-rich Hock provides
a general survey of research on Sanskrit syn-tax since the
publication of the collection on Sanskrit syntax heedited in 1991
(Hock 1991). He brings to our attention challeng-ing formal issues
concerning word order, oblique subject agree-ment, clause
coordination, and ditransitivity as well as contrastingdiscourse
structures in different genres. Along with his presenta-tion, he
provided a bibliography of research done in the twenty-five years
since the publication of his and Madhav Deshpandescombined
bibliographies on Sanskrit syntax (Deshpande and Hock1991). With
the gracious consent of the authors and Motilal Banar-sidass I have
revised and integrated their earlier bibliography withHocks update
in a seventy-two page comprehensive bibliographyof Sanskrit syntax
containing nearly a thousand entries. Supple-mented by the author
and title indices at the back of this volume,Hocks survey of
research should provide useful and convenientaccess to research on
Sanskrit syntax generally.
George Cardona contributes two papers to the volume. In
thefirst, he deals with how expectancy, ellipsis and suppletion
presentin ordinary language use of Sanskrit are formalized in
interpretiveprinciples (paribhas. as) in the metalanguage of Pan.
inis As. t.adhya-y. Here he also reiterates the semantic foundation
of Pan. inian
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vi PREFACE
derivational procedure. In the second, he deals with the
syntaxof the extension and removal of properties, and comparison
withrespect to shared actions or properties. In that connection, he
dis-cusses the two rules that account for the use of the affix vat
andprovides a categorization of which sutras of the As. t.adhyay
con-form to the syntactic pattern described by which rule.
The next paper, by Scharf, Goyal, Ajotikar and Ajotikar,
de-scribes a computational implementation of Pan. inis rules that
de-termine the use of Atmanepada and Parasmaipada verbal
termina-tions under specific semantic and cooccurrence conditions.
Thepaper necessarily touches upon the different categorization of
con-ditions for voice in the Pan. inian and European traditions.
Aussantexamines the presuppositions of European and Indian
approachesto word classification generally. She traces contemporary
schemesof tagging parts of speech in computational linguistics back
to cat-egories described by Dionysius Thrax, and compares them
withIndian classification schemes traced back to Pan. ini and
Yaska.Joshi compares the concepts of concord and government in
Eu-ropean grammar with the concepts of coreferrentiality
(samana-dhikaran. ya) and unexpressed karaka roles (anabhihitatva)
in Pa-n. inian grammar.
Several papers deal with the topic of word order and howfree it
is. Scharfs paper, "Interrogatives," shows that interrog-atives
locate in positions of focus and topic rather than movingfrom a
position designated by a predetermined principle of word-ordering.
Gillon examines various types of ellipsis and their re-lation to
constituent units and the argument structure of lexicalitems. Amba
Kulkarni, Shukla, Satuluri, and Shukl examine prox-imity
constraints on sentences analyzed in dependency structuresto
precisely determine the degree of freedom in Sanskrit word or-der.
They find that dislocations in prose are limited to cases
ofunilateral expectancy while in verse dislocations involving
mutualexpectancy also occur. Scharf, Ajotikar, Savardekar, and
Goyal
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SANSKRIT SYNTAX vii
further examine differences between prose and poetic syntax
com-putationally with significant results. Melnad, Goyal, and
Scharfdescribe software they developed to identify metrical
patterns. Fi-nally, Katira and Malhar Kulkarni, examine syntactic
violations insentences identified as erroneous by Charudeva Shastri
and presentparse trees for them.
As the research in the area of Sanskrit syntax continues
toflourish, we plan to furnish bibliographic updates regularly.
Wetherefore invite scholars in the field to inform us of current
publi-cations as well as items missing from the bibliography
supplied inthis volume. Please send complete citations to Hans
Henrich Hockand to me at our email addresses provided in the list
of contribu-tors.
Let me close by mentioning two practical points for readers.(1)
While the reference lists for most contributions cover cita-tions
in that contribution completely, since most of the citationsin
Hocks survey of research are to references in the Sanskrit syn-tax
bibliography, only references not included there are containedin
the reference list at the end of his contribution. (2)
Generallyaccents in Vedic passages in Devanagar are shown using
marksproper to the particular Vedic school while accents in
Romaniza-tion mark the underlying udatta with an acute accent mark
() andindependent svarita with a grave accent mark (). Cardona
marksaccents in the Romanization of words in derivation likewise
but infinished forms borrows the marks used in Indic scripts for
the com-mon system of accentuation described in the R
kpratisakhya. Hock
similarly borrows marks used in Indic scripts to mark accents
inthe Romanization of Satapathabrahman. a passages in
accordancewith their description in the Bhas. ikasutras.
Peter M. Scharf 28 February 2015
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viii PREFACE
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Contributors
ANUJA AJOTIKARLaboratoire dHistoire des Thories Linguistiques,
UniversitParis Diderot, and Indian Institute of Technology
[email protected]
TANUJA AJOTIKARLaboratoire dHistoire des Thories Linguistiques,
UniversitParis Diderot, and Indian Institute of Technology
[email protected]
MILIE AUSSANTCNRS, Laboratoire dHistoire des Thories
Linguistiques, Univer-sit Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cit,
[email protected]
GEORGE CARDONADepartment of Linguistics, University of
Pennsylvania, [email protected]
BRENDAN S. GILLONDepartment of Linguistics, McGill University,
[email protected]
PAWAN GOYALDepartment of Computer Science, Indian Institute of
Technology,[email protected]
ix
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x CONTRIBUTORS
HANS HENRICH HOCKUniversity of Illinois,
[email protected]
PRASAD P. JOSHIDeccan College, [email protected]
DIPESH KATIRAShree Somnath Sanskrit University,
[email protected]
AMBA KULKARNIDepartment of Sanskrit Studies, University of
Hyderabad, [email protected]
MALHAR KULKARNIIndian Institute of Technology
[email protected]
KESHAV S. MELNADIndian Institute of Technology
[email protected]
PAVANKUMAR SATULURIDepartment of Sanskrit Studies, University of
Hyderabad, [email protected]
SAMPADA SAVARDEKARIndian Institute of Technology
[email protected]
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SANSKRIT SYNTAX xi
PETER M. SCHARFThe Sanskrit Library, Laboratoire dHistoire des
Thories Linguis-tiques, Universit Paris Diderot, and the Indian
Institute of Tech-nology [email protected]
DEVANAND SHUKLMaharshi Sandipani Rashtriya Vedavidya
Pratishthan, Ujjain, [email protected]
PREETI SHUKLADepartment of Sanskrit Studies, University of
Hyderabad, [email protected]
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xii CONTRIBUTORS
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Table of contents
Preface iii
Contributors ix
Some issues in Sanskrit syntaxHANS HENRICH HOCK 1
Derivation and interpretation in Pan. inis systemGEORGE CARDONA
53
Extension rules and the syntax of As. t.adhyay sutraswith
-vatiGEORGE CARDONA 109
Voice, preverb, and transitivity restrictionsin Sanskrit verb
usePETER SCHARF, PAWAN GOYAL,ANUJA AJOTIKAR, and TANUJA AJOTIKAR
157
Interrogatives and word-order in SanskritPETER M. SCHARF 203
To classify words: European and Indiangrammatical
approachesMILIE AUSSANT 219
Constituency and cotextual dependencein Classical
SanskritBRENDAN S. GILLON 237
xiii
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xiv SANSKRIT SYNTAX
How free is free word order in Sanskrit?AMBA KULKARNI, PREETI
SHUKLA, PAVANKUMARSATULURI and DEVANAND SHUKL 269
Distinctive features of poetic syntax: preliminary resultsPETER
SCHARF, ANUJA AJOTIKAR,SAMPADA SAVARDEKAR, and PAWAN GOYAL 305
Meter identification of Sanskrit verseKESHAV MELNAD, PAWAN GOYAL
and PETER SCHARF 325
On concord and government relations in SanskritPRASAD P. JOSHI
347
Parse trees for erroneous sentencesDIPESH KATIRA and MALHAR
KULKARNI 361
A bibliography of Sanskrit syntax 399
As. t.adhyay sutra index 471
Author index 477
Title index 487
-
Detailed table of contents
Preface iii
Contributors ixTable of contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . xiiiDetailed table of contents . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . xvList of tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . xxvList of figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . xxvii
Some issues in Sanskrit syntaxHANS HENRICH HOCK 11 Introduction
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 A brief survey of
recent publications . . . . . . . . 23 Formal issues . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3.1 Free Word Order and related issues . . . . 43.2
Relative-correlatives . . . . . . . . . . . . 93.3 Some issues of
agreement . . . . . . . . . 133.4 Converbs, reflexives, oblique
subjects, and
syntactic bracketing . . . . . . . . . . . . 193.5 Double Direct
Object constructions and
Causatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263.6 Asamartha
compounding . . . . . . . . . . 32
4 Functional issues that should be of interest to com-putational
approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354.1 Fronting . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.1.1 Initial strings in Vedic . . . . . . 364.1.2
Predicate-Subject order . . . . . 374.1.3 Narrative linkage and
related is-
sues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
xv
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xvi SANSKRIT SYNTAX
4.2 Extraposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 434.2.1 Gondas
amplified sentences . . 434.2.2 Purpose datives in Vedic prose .
444.2.3 Kartr
backing and extraposition,
and politeness . . . . . . . . . . 455 Conclusions and
implications for further research . 46References . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Derivation and interpretation in Pan. inis systemGEORGE CARDONA
531 Speakers and listeners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 532
Derivation and a speakers perspective . . . . . . . 56
2.1 Katyayana on speech being prompted bymeaning . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 56
2.2 Patajali on speech being caused by meaning 572.2.1 Number
distinction . . . . . . . 572.2.2 Residual relations . . . . . . .
. 612.2.3 Gender distinction . . . . . . . . 67
2.3 Meaning conditions and derivation . . . . . 693 Affixation
meaning conditions . . . . . . . . . . . 714 A different approach
suggested . . . . . . . . . . . 735 Interpreting Pan. inian sutras
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 885.2
Contexts requiring metarules . . . . . . . . 89
5.2.1 :Sa; +a .~Ta;a;nea;ya;ea;ga;a (A. 1.1.49) . . . . 915.2.2
ta;/////////a;sma;a;a;a;ta ;a;na;a;dR ;e :pUa;vRa;~ya ta;sma;a-
;a;d;tyua:a:=+~ya (A. 1.1.6667) . . . . 945.2.2.1 Purpose of the
rules. . . 945.2.2.2 Scope of 1.1.66. . . . . 965.2.2.3 Scope of
1.1.67. . . . . 99
6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
100References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
103
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TABLE OF CONTENTS xvii
Extension rules and the syntax of As. t.adhyay sutraswith
-vatiGEORGE CARDONA 1091 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 1092 Varieties of extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 111
2.1 Karyatidesa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1112.2
Sastratidesa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1132.3 Rupatidesa .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1172.4 Tadatmyatidesa . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 1172.5 Nimittatidesa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 1192.6 Vyapadesatidesa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1202.7
Arthatidesa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
3 Extensions of the type X is Y . . . . . . . . . . . 1234
Syntactic structures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
4.1 Predication without comparison . . . . . . 1274.2
Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
4.2.1 Comparison involving a com-mon action . . . . . . . . . .
. . 128
4.2.2 Other comparisons . . . . . . . . 1314.3 Summary of
syntactic structures . . . . . . 133
5 Semantic and pragmatic considerations . . . . . . . 1366
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1407 As.
t.adhyay sutras in which terms with -vati are used 142
7.1 List indicating extension type . . . . . . . 1427.2 Syntax
of sutras with terms in -vati . . . . 146
7.2.1 Schema I (4.3) . . . . . . . . . 1467.2.2 Schema II . . .
. . . . . . . . . 148
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
151
Voice, preverb, and transitivity restrictionsin Sanskrit verb
use
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xviii SANSKRIT SYNTAX
PETER SCHARF, PAWAN GOYAL,ANUJA AJOTIKAR, and TANUJA AJOTIKAR
1571 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
1.1 Root markers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1611.2 Prayoga
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1611.3 Other semantic
conditions . . . . . . . . . 1621.4 Preverbs . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 1621.5 Other co-occurrence conditions . . . . . .
1631.6 Tabulation of voice conditions . . . . . . . 163
2 Related Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1653
Preparing inputs for the implementation . . . . . . 171
3.1 XML Dhatupat.ha database . . . . . . . . . 1713.2 Preverb
cooccurences attested by Pan. ini . . 175
4 Implementation details . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1774.1
Data Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1774.2 Rule
formulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
4.2.1 Phonetic conditions . . . . . . . 1784.2.2 Attribute
conditions . . . . . . . 1784.2.3 Semantic conditions . . . . . . .
1794.2.4 Optionality . . . . . . . . . . . . 1794.2.5 Action . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 179
4.3 Control structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1795 Results
and related discussions . . . . . . . . . . . 181
5.1 Notations in the derivation tree . . . . . . . 1815.2
Handling meaning conditions . . . . . . . 1845.3 Handling rule
interaction . . . . . . . . . . 1855.4 Handling praptavibhas.a . .
. . . . . . . . 188
6 Conclusions and Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . .
189References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
195
Interrogatives and word-order in SanskritPETER M. SCHARF 2031
The problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203
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TABLE OF CONTENTS xix
2 The evidence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2083
Parallels with other pronouns . . . . . . . . . . . . 2124 The
solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214References .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
To classify words: European and Indiangrammatical
approachesMILIE AUSSANT 2191 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 2192 The European approach . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 220
2.1 Parts of speech in computational linguistics 2202.2 Parts of
speech in Graeco-Latin grammat-
ical tradition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2213 The Indian
approach (Sanskrit Vyakaran. a) . . . . . 224
3.1 The naman-akhyata-upasarga-nipata clas-sification . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
3.2 The Pan. inian classification of padas . . . . 2273.3 Some
remarks on a few other classifications 230
4 Concluding remarks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
232References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
233
Constituency and cotextual dependencein Classical
SanskritBRENDAN S. GILLON 2371 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . 2372 Parts of speech . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . 2393 Clausal constituents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 2404 Supra-lexical and sub-clausal constituents . . . . . 240
4.1 Context Dependence . . . . . . . . . . . . 2414.2 Proforms .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2464.3 Ellipsis . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 247
4.3.1 Interrogative ellipsis (sluicing) . 248
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xx SANSKRIT SYNTAX
4.3.2 Appended coordination (strip-ping) . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . 249
4.3.3 Gapping . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2504.3.4 Verb phrase
ellipsis . . . . . . . 2524.3.5 Copular complement ellipsis . .
2524.3.6 Nominal ellipsis . . . . . . . . . 253
5 Further evidence for Phrases . . . . . . . . . . . . 2556
Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263References
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
How free is free word order in Sanskrit?AMBA KULKARNI, PREETI
SHUKLA, PAVANKUMARSATULURI and DEVANAND SHUKL 2691 Introduction . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2692 Word order in Sanskrit .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2733 Indian theories of expectancy and
proximity . . . . 274
3.1 Akanks.a (expectancy) . . . . . . . . . . . 2753.2 Sannidhi
(proximity) . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
4 Dependency parsing and word order . . . . . . . . 2784.1 Tree
traversal and possible word orders . . 279
4.1.1 Generalising tree traversal . . . . 2804.2 Projectivity
principle . . . . . . . . . . . . 2824.3 Weak non-projectivity
(planarity) . . . . . 285
5 Empirical evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2885.1
Cases of sannidhi violation from Gillons
data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2885.1.1
Dislocation of a genitive . . . . . 2895.1.2 Dislocation of a
vises.an. a . . . . 2915.1.3 Other relations . . . . . . . . . .
291
5.2 Sannidhi violation in the Bhagavadgta . . 2925.2.1 Sannidhi
violation involving kartr
and karman . . . . . . . . . . . 293
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TABLE OF CONTENTS xxi
5.2.2 Sannidhi violation involving twokartr
relations . . . . . . . . . . 298
5.2.3 Sannidhi violation involving kar-man and kriyavises.an. a
. . . . . . 299
5.2.4 Sannidhi violation involving kar-man and apadana . . . . .
. . . 299
6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
300References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
302
Distinctive features of poetic syntax: preliminary resultsPETER
SCHARF, ANUJA AJOTIKAR,SAMPADA SAVARDEKAR, and PAWAN GOYAL 3051
Motivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3062
Expectations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3073
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 310
3.1 Corpus preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3103.2 An
Indian cognitive linguistics depen-
dency relations tagset . . . . . . . . . . . . 3113.3 Queries .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 313
4 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3144.1
Agent after verb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3144.2 Object after
verb . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3154.3 Instrument after verb . . .
. . . . . . . . . 3154.4 Adverb after verb . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 3154.5 Qualifier after qualified . . . . . . . . . . . 3154.6
Genitive after what it limits . . . . . . . . 3184.7 Object after
absolutive . . . . . . . . . . . 3184.8 Agent after object . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 3194.9 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . 319
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
322
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xxii SANSKRIT SYNTAX
Meter identification of Sanskrit verseKESHAV MELNAD, PAWAN GOYAL
and PETER SCHARF 3251 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . 3252 Sources describing Sanskrit meters . . . . . . . . .
3273 Sanskrit prosody . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
3.1 Syllable weight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3293.2 The
basic unit of varn. avr
tta meter: gan. a . . 330
3.3 The basic unit of matravr
tta meter: catu-rmatrika . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
331
3.4 Types of meters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3314 Meter
Identifying Tool (MIT) . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
4.1 Meter database . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3334.2 Input
and output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3344.3 Algorithm . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 335
5 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3385.1
A samavr
tta verse in Vasantatilaka meter . 338
5.2 An ardhasamavr
tta verse in Vegavat meter 3395.3 A vis.amavr
tta verse in Lalita meter . . . . 340
5.4 A matravr
tta verse in Arya meter . . . . . . 3415.5 Performance . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . 342
6 Conclusions and future work . . . . . . . . . . . .
343References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
345
On concord and government relations in SanskritPRASAD P. JOSHI
3471 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3482
The importance of concord and government . . . . 3483 Concord . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 349
3.1 Concord of substantive and adjective . . . 3493.1.1
Adjectives with taddhita-deletion 3523.1.2 Nouns in apposition . .
. . . . . 354
3.2 Concord of a predicate verb and noun (ofagent and object) .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
-
TABLE OF CONTENTS xxiii
4 Government . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3574.1
Government of a verb and a noun . . . . . 3574.2 Government of an
indeclinable and a noun 358
5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
359References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
360
Parse trees for erroneous sentencesDIPESH KATIRA and MALHAR
KULKARNI 3611 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. 3612 Modern Sanskrit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3633
Error analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3634 The
standard of correct Sanskrit . . . . . . . . . . 3645 Discussion of
erroneous sentences . . . . . . . . . 367
5.1 Sentence 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3675.1.1
Shastris comments . . . . . . . 3675.1.2 Discussion . . . . . . . .
. . . . 3685.1.3 Directive rules . . . . . . . . . . 373
5.2 Sentence 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3745.2.1
Shastris comments . . . . . . . 3755.2.2 Discussion . . . . . . . .
. . . . 3765.2.3 Directive rule . . . . . . . . . . 378
5.3 Sentence 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3785.3.1
Shastris comments . . . . . . . 3785.3.2 Discussion . . . . . . . .
. . . . 3795.3.3 Directive rule . . . . . . . . . . 380
5.4 Sentence 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3805.4.1
Shastris comments . . . . . . . 3805.4.2 Discussion . . . . . . . .
. . . . 3815.4.3 Directive rule . . . . . . . . . . 381
5.5 Sentence 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3825.5.1
Shastris comments . . . . . . . 3825.5.2 Discussion . . . . . . . .
. . . . 3835.5.3 Directive rule . . . . . . . . . . 385
-
xxiv SANSKRIT SYNTAX
5.6 Sentence 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3865.6.1
Shastris comments . . . . . . . 3865.6.2 Discussion . . . . . . . .
. . . . 3875.6.3 Directive rule . . . . . . . . . . 387
5.7 Sentence 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3875.7.1
Shastris comments . . . . . . . 3885.7.2 Discussion . . . . . . . .
. . . . 3885.7.3 Directive rule . . . . . . . . . . 389
5.8 Sentence 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3905.8.1
Shastris comments . . . . . . . 3905.8.2 Discussion . . . . . . . .
. . . . 3905.8.3 Directive rule . . . . . . . . . . 392
5.9 Sentence 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3925.9.1
Shastris comments . . . . . . . 3925.9.2 Discussion . . . . . . . .
. . . . 3925.9.3 Directive rule . . . . . . . . . . 395
5.10 Sentence 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3955.10.1
Shastris comments . . . . . . . 3955.10.2 Directive rule . . . . .
. . . . . 396
6 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
397References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
397
A bibliography of Sanskrit syntax 399
As. t.adhyay sutra index 471
Author index 477
Title index 487
-
List of tables
Some issues in Sanskrit syntax 11 Hocks (1989a) account for
example (8) . . . . . . 132 Locative absolute with normal and
upside-
down agreement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Non-head
relational nominal governing an exter-
nal head . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 344 Node
erasure, movement, and compounding in (35c) 34
Derivation and interpretation in Pan. inis system 531
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Extension rules and the syntax of . . . -vati 1091 Derivation of
non-feminine forms of the interrog-
ative pronoun kim and noun vr
ks. a . . . . . . . . . 1122 Derivation of (14a) .tea;na tua;yMa
va;tRa;tea and (14b) ta;d ;d ;tRa;tea 1303 Sutras with terms in
-vati . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1424 Ia. Sutras in which a
nominative form is explicit . . 1465 Ib. Sutras in which a
nominative form is understood 1476 IIa. B-vat = B6 iva . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 1487 IIb. B-vat = B7 iva . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . 1508 Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . 150
Voice, preverb, and transitivity restrictions 1571
Correspondence of voice with prayoga and pada . . 160
To classify words: European and Indian . . . approaches 2191
Sub-categories of noun in the Brown Corpus . . . . 2222
Abbreviations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
xxv
-
xxvi SANSKRIT SYNTAX
Constituency and cotextual dependence 2371 English optional
complementation . . . . . . . . . 2582 Abbreviations . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 264
How free is free word order in Sanskrit? 2691 Abbreviations . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Distinctive features of poetic syntax 3051 Probability of x
occurring before y in a relation
pair (x,y): comparing poetic sentences with prose . 321
Meter identification of Sanskrit verse 3251 Gan. a patterns . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3312 Matra patterns . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3323 Prototypes of each of the four
types of meters and
the number of meters of each type in our database . 334
Parse trees for erroneous sentences 3611 Word sense in Sanskrit
versus in modern Indian
languages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393
-
List of figures
Voice, preverb, and transitivity restrictions 1571 The control
structure for the implementation. This
process is applied recursively until no rules aretriggered. . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
2 Derivation tree for the root bhu . . . . . . . . . . . 1833
Derivation tree for the root da . . . . . . . . . . . 1904
Derivation tree for the root gam . . . . . . . . . . . 1915
Derivation tree for the root ks. ip . . . . . . . . . . . 1926
Derivation tree for the root kr . . . . . . . . . . . 1937
Derivation tree for the root ram . . . . . . . . . . . 194
To classify words: European and Indian . . . approaches 2191 The
main classes of speech forms distinguished by
Pan. ini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
How free is free word order in Sanskrit? 2691 Traversals for
sentence (1) with and without trans-
position . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2812
Dependency graph for sentence 3 . . . . . . . . . . 2823 Dependency
structure with projections for sen-
tences 1.1 to 1.6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2834
Projections for sentences 2.1 to 2.6 . . . . . . . . . 2845
Projection for sentence (4) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2846
Projection with Rearrangement of nodes . . . . . . 2857 Planar
dependency graph for sentences (2.2) and
(2.5) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2868
Planar dependency graph for sentence (4) . . . . . 2879 Dislocation
without sannidhi violation . . . . . . . 287
xxvii
-
xxviii SANSKRIT SYNTAX
10 Dislocation of a genitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29011
Dislocation of a genitive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29012
Dislocation of a vises.an. a . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29113
Dislocation of an argument . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29214 Analysis
of BhG. 6.34 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29415 Analysis of BhG.
8.25 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29516 Analysis of BhG. 10.16 .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29617 Analysis of BhG. 9.3 . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . 29618 Analysis of BhG. 1.27 . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . 29719 Modified Analysis of BhG. 1.27 . . . . . . . . .
. 29820 Analysis of BhG. 8.19 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29921
Analysis of BhG. 1.37 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30022
Analysis of BhG. 18.75 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Distinctive features of poetic syntax 3051 Relative position of
an agent with respect the verb
that governs it: comparison of prose and poetrysyntax . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
2 Relative position of a direct object with respect tothe verb
that governs it: comparison of prose andpoetry syntax . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 316
3 Relative position of an instrument with respect tothe verb
that governs it: comparison of prose andpoetry syntax . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
4 Relative position of an adverb with respect to theverb that
governs it: comparison of prose and po-etry syntax . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
5 Relative position of a qualifier with respect to whatit
qualifies in a sentence: comparison of prose andpoetry syntax . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 318
6 Relative position of a genitive with respect to whatit limits
in a sentence: comparison of prose andpoetry syntax . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 320
-
LIST OF FIGURES xxix
7 Relative position of a direct object with respect toan
absolutive that governs it: comparison of proseand poetry syntax .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 320
8 Relative position of a direct object with respect toan agent
of the same action governing them: com-parison of prose and poetry
syntax . . . . . . . . . 321
Parse trees for erroneous sentences 3611 Sentence 1 . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3732 Sentence 2 . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . 3773 Sentence 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . 3794 Sentence 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . 3825 Sentence 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
3866 Sentence 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3887
Sentence 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3898
Sentence 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3919
Sentence 9 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39510
Sentence 10 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 396
-
xxx SANSKRIT SYNTAX
-
Some issues in Sanskrit syntax
HANS HENRICH HOCK
Abstract: The purpose of this presentation is to provide a
briefgeneral survey of major recent developments in
Sanskritsyntactic studies since Deshpande and Hock 1991, fol-lowed
by more in-depth discussion of formal and func-tional issues that
should be of interest to scholars work-ing on computational
approaches to Sanskrit syntax. For-mal syntactic topics are free
word order, challengingsyntactic aspects of relative-correlative
constructions, is-sues of agreement, oblique subjects and related
issues,the syntax of double-direct-object constructions (includ-ing
causatives), and the issue of asamartha compound-ing. The
functional part focuses on the use of differentsyntactic
alternatives in discourse and in different genres a topic that, to
my knowledge, has not received sys-tematic discussion. Two major
phenomena are examinedin some detail fronting and extraposition to
the right,including their different functions in a variety of
genres.Functional analytical approaches may yield interesting
in-sights and challenges to formal syntactic approaches, al-though
they clearly cannot be a substitute for formal anal-ysis. I
conclude that there is ample room for more researchon Sanskrit
syntax, especially in the post-Vedic languagewith its richer
variety of different genres.
Keywords: Sanskrit, syntax, formal approaches,
functionalapproaches
1
-
2 H. H. HOCK
1 Introduction
My presentation has three goals. One is to provide a survey of
pub-lications in Sanskrit syntax since Deshpande and Hocks
(1991)Sanskrit syntax bibliography. A second one is to focus in
greaterdetail on a number of formal issues that, I believe, would
be of in-terest both to linguists pursuing computational approaches
to San-skrit syntax and to those working in linguistic theory. The
thirdgoal is to discuss a selection of functional factors that
influencethe use of particular syntactic structures in particular
text types, anissue which I believe would also be interesting to
those engaged incomputational work.
2 A brief survey of recent publications
The Sanskrit syntax bibliography provided at the end of this
bookconsolidates Deshpande and Hocks (1991) A bibliography of
writ-ings on Sanskrit syntax published in Hock 1991b and the
bibliog-raphy of works on Sanskrit syntax published since then
compiledfor presentation at the Seminar on Sanskrit Syntax and
DiscourseStructures held in Paris, 1315 June 2013. The combined
bibliog-raphy will also be published at the Sanskrit Library
website withregular upadates. We look forward to receiving
additional refer-ences so as to make the bibliography more
comprehensive. At thispoint, let me briefly survey the distribution
of recent publicationsin terms of chronology and general categories
of subject matter.
Recent research concerning Sanskrit syntax includes over
200works, including article collections and bibliographies quite
im-pressive for a period of less than 25 years, especially if
comparedto the 474 entries in Deshpande and Hock 1991, which covers
pub-lications from Burnouf (1824) to Brereton and Jamison To
Ap-pear (published 1991). It is impressive, too, because, as in
thepast, syntax receives much less scholarly attention than other
as-
-
SOME ISSUES IN SANSKRIT SYNTAX 3
pects of Sanskrit linguistics. The following statistics are
based ona smaller set of 186 entries that I had collected by 24 May
2013.
As in the past (see Deshpande and Hock 1991, as well as
Hock1989b), the bulk of publications (147 out of 186) deals with
theVedic period, especially the R
gveda, and commonly from a his-
torical, Indo-Europeanist perspective. The post-Vedic or
classicalperiod is covered only in 45 publications, some of which
addressboth Vedic and post-Vedic issues.
A common topic for the Vedic period is the issue of tense,
as-pect, voice, and modality, which is dealt with in 29
publications.Another 23 publications address word and phrase order,
includingthe issue of clitics and Wackernagels Law. Case syntax is
cov-ered in 18 publications, especially by Hettrich (six
publications,including the important 2007: Materialien zu einer
Kasussyntaxdes R
gveda, which includes a rich bibliography). Issues of subor-
dination, both finite and non-finite (infinitives, converbs,
locativeabsolute constructions, etc.) are dealt with in some 18
publica-tions.
Most of the 27 publications that approach Sanskrit syntax froma
modern theoretical or typological approach are focused on
thepost-Vedic language, and so are all of the 23 publications that
dealwith, or refer to, the insights of the Indian grammatical
tradition,especially Pan. ini. As a personal note, let me add that
this relativelylimited reference to the Indian tradition is
regrettable. In principle,all research on Sanskrit syntax and
Sanskrit linguistics in gen-eral should treat the work of Pan. ini
and the entire early gram-matical and phonetic tradition as earlier
scholarship, just as it doesthe work of linguists like Delbrck,
Wackernagel, and Whitney;see Hock 2009b and Hock
Forthcoming(b).
Finally, 65 publications treat of issues of function and
dis-course, in both the Vedic and the post-Vedic period. This
categoryis heavily dominated by Jared Kleins publications, most of
which(16 out of 22) focus on the issue of stylistic repetition of
differ-
-
4 H. H. HOCK
ent grammatical structures and categories in the language of
theR
gveda.
3 Formal issues
In the following section of my paper I address formal issues
thatmay be of interest to scholars pursuing computational
approachesto Sanskrit syntax as well those working on typology and
syntactictheory. I draw to a large extent on my own research, both
pub-lished and unpublished, but also include references to other
recentresearch.
A recurrent theme is that we need to consider both Pan. i-nis
generative approach and modern approaches, whether gen-erative or
traditional-philological, and that, likewise, we need tokeep in
mind both the empirical information conveyed by Pan. i-nis
speaker-knowledge based grammar and the empirical data un-earthed
by western philological approaches. The latter issue isespecially
relevant, since as Deshpande (1983) suggested, Pan. inislocation on
the northwestern periphery of the Sanskrit-speakingworld of his
time may account for certain differences between thesyntactic
structures predicted by his grammar and those found inthe tradition
of Madhyadesa; see also Hock 1981, 2012b.
3.1 Free Word Order and related issues
It is well known that Sanskrit (like other early Indo-European
lan-guages) exhibits a remarkable degree of free word order not
justfree phrase order. In this section I discuss two major formal
ap-proaches to this phenomenon. Schufele (1990, 1991a,b) followsthe
major tradition of modern western scholarship (e.g. Delbrck1878,
1888; Speijer 1886, 1896; Lahiri 1933) in assuming a basicword and
phrase order of the SOV type, with various movementprocesses
accounting for marked orderings. The work of Gillon
-
SOME ISSUES IN SANSKRIT SYNTAX 5
(1996) and Gillon and Shaer (2005) adopts and modifies
Staals(1967) notion of wild trees, i.e. trees without
phrase-internallinear ordering. Neither approach adopts the
possible alternativeof assuming complete non-configurationality
along the lines sug-gested for other languages by Farmer (1980),
and Ken Hale (1975,1983).
Schufeles most important findings are the following (1990:6163,
84):
In the majority of cases, phrases are continuous and exhibitall
the features normally associated with hierarchical struc-ture. This
is something that children learning the languagewould have to
account for in their grammar, and it woulddiscourage them from
positing a completely flat structure.
Similarly, in the majority of cases, phrases are
head-final,although for PPs head-finality is only a statistical
tendencyin Vedic. While Schufele does not pursue this issue
ex-plicitly, the dominant head-finality too can be argued to
besomething that children learning the language would have
toaccount for in their grammar.
In PPs the adposition normally remains next to at least partof
its complement if there is movement. This, again, sup-ports the
assumption of hierarchical, rather than flat phrasestructure.
Schufele (1990: 85) cites the examples in (1).Further examples can
be found in the classical language; (2).Interestingly, Bolkestein
(2001) and Snijders (2012) note thesame phenomenon in Latin.
Movement of individual words or combinations of words, asin
(3),1 is made possible through a process of liberation ornode
erasure (see Pullum 1982, Ross 1967: 5054 (1986)).
1These examples come from my collections.
-
6 H. H. HOCK
(1) a. .~ta;vEa :pu!a:=+a :pa;a;ya;R!a;a;d;nd ! +ma; Hstavai
pura paryad ndram ahnah. (R
V. 3.32.14b)
I shall praise Indra before the fateful day.
b. O;;ta;Ea va;a ! :(;Ma ma;a;h;ma;!a;na;a;va;a;B!a;taH
.s!a;}ba;BUa;va;tua:=,etau va a
svam mahima
nav abhi
tah. sa
mbabhuvatur (SB.10.6.4.1)These two jars appeared around = on
both sides of thehorse. (Ss translation; my transcription)
(2) ;a .sa;mua;d +a:ua ;vEa :pUa;va;Ra;d;a .sa;mua;d +a:ua
:pa;a;(a;ma;a;t,a ta;ya;ea;=e +va;a;nta:=M
;a;ga;ya;eRa:=+a;ya;Ra;va;t a ;a;va;du ;bRua;Da;aH
a samudrat tu vai purvad a samudrat tu pascimat.tayor eva +
antaram giryor aryavartam vidur budhah. .. (Ma-nu 2.22)Wise people
know (that) Aryavarta (extends) from the east-ern sea to the
western sea, (and) between these two moun-tains (the himalayas and
the vindhyas).
(3) a. O;;ta;!a;}vea;vE!a;S!a O;;t!a;smEa ;a;v!a;Sua;yRa;a;ea
;a;v!a;k +:a;////a;ntMa ;a;v!a;k +:ma;teaeta
mi v eva
+ es. a jeta
smai vi
s. n. ur j yajo vi
krantimi vikra-
mate (SB. 1.1.2.13)This Vis.n. u, the sacrifice, steps this
(world-conqueringthree-fold) stepping for him (the sacrificer).
b. .tea;Sa;Mai Ba;a;ma;ea ma;h;a;ba;a;hu H
:pa;a;a;TRa;va;a;na;Mai ma;h;a;tma;na;a;m,a ya;Ta;a;h
;k+.=+ea;tpUa:ja;Ma . . .tes. ami bhmo mahabahuh. parthivanami
mahatmanam.yatharham akarot pujam . . . (Nala 2.11; MBh.
3.51.10*215)Strong-armed Bhma honored these noble rulers
appro-priately . . .
-
SOME ISSUES IN SANSKRIT SYNTAX 7
Schufeles approach contrasts with that of Staal and Gillon.Staal
starts with the claim that the Indian grammatical tradition,being
silent on the issue, assumed that there are no rules for wordorder
(360) and he goes on to argue for a (modern) generative ac-count
operating with wild trees, i.e. trees without phrase-internallinear
ordering.
Gillon (1996) adopts and modifies Staals (1967) notion ofwild
trees, providing empirical support from two corpora theprose
examples in Apte 1885 and 1,500 sentences from Dharma-krtis
autocommentary on the Praman. avarttika. See also Gillonand Shaer
2005. The following discussion is based on the
latterpublication.
Like Staal, as well as Schufele, Gillon and Shaer accept theneed
for phrases, rather than a completely flat structure.
UnlikeSchufele, they assume that there is no linear order within
phrases.Moreover, they argue against a VP, instead postulating the
flatclause structure in (4), without linear order. Further, they
(2005:468) claim that . . . the strategy of deriving less common
word or-ders with specialized information packaging functions from
morebasic syntactic structures . . . seems to us less plausible
than onesconsistent with the wild tree claim. The paper (2005:
48085)concludes with a section on Some remaining puzzles.
(4) S V, NPS, NPOIn support for the assumption of flat
phrase-internal structures,
such as (4), they claim that their corpora exhibit both left-
andright-headed phrases and that therefore there is no evidence
forphrasal headedness (2005: 470). In addition, they accept
move-ment processes that extract elements out of phrases and place
themin left- or right-peripheral position within the clause (2005:
47580).
Certain features are shared between Schufeles and
Gillonsapproaches the acceptance of phrases, rather than
completely
-
8 H. H. HOCK
flat structures, and the fact that movement processes can
extractand move elements out of phrases. For the purposes of
computa-tional text analysis, therefore, there may be no
significant differ-ence.
From the perspective of linguistic theory, however, the two
ap-proaches differ considerably, and it is Schufeles approach
thatprovides the better insights. His account of Sanskrit is
completelycompatible with the linguistic typology of SOV languages,
withhead-finality at all phrasal levels. In fact, Sanskrit also
conformsto SOV typology in its complex syntax, by making extensive
use ofnon-finite subordination as well as of relative-correlative
construc-tions; Hock 1989a, 2005, 2014. Under the Staal-Gillon
approachthese typological characteristics would be epiphenomenal at
best.
Now, it is true that Pan. ini has no rules comparable to
westerngeneralizations about word or phrase order. But Pan. ini
also has norules comparable to western generalizations about
phrases, suchas NP, VP, PP. True, there are rules regarding karakas
and theirrealizations, but these do not address issues such as
complex NPswith genitive modifiers. There is also the notion
samanadhikara-n. a, but this presumably holds not only for
agreement within NPsbut also relates surface subject NPs to their
verbs (A. 1.4.104107)and must be assumed to hold also for agreement
between subjects(kartr
s) and predicate nouns or adjectives (see 3.3 below for dis-
cussion). Even the notion sentence is a murky issue in the Pan.
i-nian tradition; see e.g. Cardona 1976: 22324, Deshpande 1991,as
well as Hock Forthcoming(b): 6. In all of these respects, andnot
only as regards word order, the Indian grammatical traditionand
modern generative approaches are orthogonal.
It is also true that Sanskrit offers frequent examples with
non-final heads. But there are considerable differences between
differ-ent texts. Consider major constituent order. As noted in
Hock1984, while in mantra Vedic and Kalidasas dramatic
dialogueverb-final structures amount to only about 65%, in Vedic
prose
-
SOME ISSUES IN SANSKRIT SYNTAX 9
they are about 97% (see also Hock 1997). A similarly high
ratioof verb-final structures is found in Patajalis Mahabhas. ya;
see thestatistics in (5). Claims about headedness and any other
aspectsof syntax must therefore be based on a large variety of
differentgenres, not just on the two corpora examined by Gillon.
And asthe evidence just cited shows, genres that do not make any
claimsto stylistic or literary elegance are characterized by heavy
predom-inance of head-final constituent order; in fact, even in
other genresverb-finality runs to about 65%. The wild tree
assumption thatphrases, including the sentence (S), have no
internal order fails tocapture these facts.
(5) Word order in Patajalis Mahabhas. ya
a. Paspasa (Kielhorn-Abhyankar 1.1.11.3.5)2
V-final: 35V-initial: Not found in the sampleV + O in the
formula . . . adhyeyam vyakaran. am: 73
sak + (O) + infinitive: 2
b. Sivasutras (Kielhorn-Abhyankar 1.15.21.16.18)V-final:
40V-initial (including after linker, such as tena): 5V + O/Pred: 3V
+ Other: 3V + [ ] iti: 8
3.2 Relative-correlatives
As in the case of word order, Pan. ini has remarkably little to
sayabout the syntax of Sanskrit relativization. The closest he
comes
2Vedic and other traditional citations are ignored. Gerundives
and ta-participles used as main verbs are included.
3Contrast the formulaic use of the gerundive with the ordinary
one in laghva-rtham cadhyeyam vyakaran. am. brahman. enavasyam
sabda jeya iti.
-
10 H. H. HOCK
is in three sutras (A. 3.3.139140 and 3.3.156) that address the
is-sue of modality in conditional structures which, as is well
known,involve an adverbial form of the relative pronoun (yadi) or
the par-ticle ced.
At least from the time of Speijer (1886, 1896) and
Delbrck(1888), western scholarship has recognized that Sanskrit
relativestructures consist of a relative clause, containing a
relative pro-noun, and a main clause, containing a correlative
pronoun and thatthe relative clause is not inserted into the main
clause.4 Speijer(1886: 349, 1896: 349) refers to the relationship
as one betweena protasis and an apodosis. Minard (1936) introduces
the termdiptych for the construction which in typological and
theoreticalliterature is now commonly referred to as
relative-correlative.
The syntactic account of Sanskrit and other, similar
relative-correlative constructions is further refined in the 1970s
and 1980sby arguments that the relative clause is base-generated as
AD-JOINED to the main or correlative clause; see e.g. Andrews1975
(1985), Ken K. Hale 1975, Dasgupta 1980, Keenan 1985,Lehmann 1984,
Srivastav 1988.
Based on a broad range of evidence, Hock (1989a) goes onestep
further and argues that relative clauses are syntactically
CON-JOINED to their correlative clauses. While some of that
evidenceappears to be restricted to Vedic, other evidence is also
found inpost-Vedic. The nature of that evidence is, I believe, such
thatboth those working in formal syntax and those working on
com-putational analyses will find it interesting and
challenging.
First, in some cases there is no clear relationship between
therelative pronoun (or phrase) of the relative clause and the
correl-ative pronoun (or phrase) of the main clause; see (6), where
an
4Speijer (1886: 349) hedges on this issue by stating that
preposing of the rel-ative clause before the main clause is much
more used than inserting the relativesentence in the main one.
-
SOME ISSUES IN SANSKRIT SYNTAX 11
example similar to (6a) was brought to my attention in 1989
byKiparsky 1995, and (6c) by James Fitzgerald (March 2006).
Struc-tures of this sort are typically best rendered as
conditionals.
(6) a. ya I +.nd ! ya;ta;ya;~tva;!a Bxa;ga;va;e!a yea ..ca tua;u
! ;vuaH ma;m!a I+.du ;g{a (rua;Da;!a h;va;m,aya indra yatayas tva
bhr
gavo ye ca tus. t.uvuh. . mama d u-
gra srudh havam (R
V. 8.6.18)Which Yatis, O Indra, (have praised) you, and which
Bhr
-
gus have praised you, powerful Indra, nevertheless hearMY call.
Even if the Yatis and Bhr
gus have praised you, power-
ful Indra, nevertheless hear MY call.
b. ya;a;sa;Ma na;a;d;d;tea Zua;kM a;a;ta;ya;ea na .sa ;a;va;k
+:yaHyasam nadadate sulkam jatayo na sa vikrayah. (Manu3.45)Of
which (women) the relatives do not appropriate the(bride) price,
that is not a sale. If the relatives do not appropriate . . .
c. ya;(a;na;ea;+:ea ;a;h ;a;na;deR ;ZaH ;///a;~:a;ya;a
mEa;Tua;na;txa;a;yea ta;~ya;a;sma;a:=+ya;ta;ea v.ya;+:ma;Da;ma;eRa
na;a:a .sMa;Za;yaH yas canokto hi nirdesah. striya maithunatr
ptaye;
tasyasmarayato vyaktam adharmo natra samsayah. -. (MBh.
12.258.38)Which instruction to gratify ones wife sexually is
notheard, of him who does not remember (this) it is clearly,no
doubt, a breach of duty.Though there is no requirement to satisfy
ones wife sex-ually, if a man does not remember this it is clearly
a seri-ous infraction.
Secondly, there are some examples in which the relative
clauseexhibits properties normally only associated with
independentmain clauses, namely interrogation and imperative
modality (7).
-
12 H. H. HOCK
(7) a. Z!a;ya;Ra;ta;ea h va;!a IR +a;M!a;.ca;ke
ya;//a;tk+:m!a;k+.=M t!a;sma;a;a;d;d;ma;!a;pa;d ;!a;a;tasa
ryato ha va
ks. amcakre [yat kim a
karam]RC [ta
smad i-
dam a
padi]CC + iti (SB. 4.1.5.4)
Saryata thought, Because I have done what?, therefore Ihave
gotten into this. . . . What have I done to get into this?(Thus
also SB. 1.7.3.19; a similar structure with kvawhere at SB.
5.1.3.13)
b. tya:jea :pra;a;a;a;Ea;va d;d;a;Ma k+:pa;ea;tMa .sa;Ea;}ya;ea
h:a;yMa ;a;kM na .ja;a;na;a;a;sa . . . ya;Ta;a :*:e +:ZMa ma;a ku
+.+:Svea;h . . . na;a;hM k+:pa;ea;ta;ma;pRa;a;ya;Syea
k+:TMa;a;.ca;t,atyaje pran. an naiva dadyam kapotamsaumyo hy ayam
kim na janasi . . . .[yatha klesam ma kurus. va + iha . . .
]RC[naham kapotam arpayis. ye kathamcit]CC (MBh. 3, App.21/5.82)I
abandon my life, but I may not at all give the dove;for he is
gentle, dont you know. . . ? So that dont youmake trouble here ! .
. . , I will not hand over the dove inany way. . . . so that you
dont make trouble here . . .
Most important, example (8) shows clearly that the
relativeclause must be CONJOINED to the two main clauses. It is
simplyimpossible for the same clause to be simultaneously
ADJOINEDto two different clauses; and deriving the relative clause
from anunderlying center-embedded postnominal position would be
pre-posterous how can a single clause be simultaneously
embeddedunder two different NPs, in two different clauses? In Hock
1989aI therefore propose to conceive of the relation between the
relativeclause and the two correlative clauses as in Table 1. The
formalismis, of course, antiquated, but the syntactic relation must
be some-thing along these lines. (Davison 2009 proposes CP
adjunction for
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SOME ISSUES IN SANSKRIT SYNTAX 13
S S
S S
S
CP CC RP RC CP CC
Table 1Hocks (1989a) account for example (8)
structures in which the relative clause precedes, in contrast to
IPadjunction, which stands for the traditional adjunct
analysis.)
(8) .sa;a ;vEa ;dE! ;va;a va;a;gy!a;ya;a y!a;d;a;de ;va
v!a;d;a;ta t!a:a;; +va;a;ta[sai vai dai
v vag]CC[ya
yai ya
d yad j eva vadati]RC
[ta
t tad j bhavati]CC (BAU. 1.3.27)Thati is divine Speech by whichi
whatever j one speaks, that jcomes about. Whatever one speaks by
means of divine Speech comesabout.
3.3 Some issues of agreement
Pan. ini addresses some issues of agreement, in two places. One
isthe ekases.a sutras which address the issue of gender resolution
un-der the specific circumstance of one word taking the place of
twoconjoined ones (A. 1.2.6473); the other are the sutras
governingperson agreement between surface subjects (kartr
s or karmans) and
the la-kara of the verb (1.4.104107). But many aspects of
agree-ment are not covered, except perhaps implicitly under the
notionof samanadhikaran. a coreference.
-
14 H. H. HOCK
In this section I map out some issues of Sanskrit agreementthat
I believe should be of interest, especially to linguists workingon
computational analyses of Sanskrit syntax.
A fairly straightforward issue is the question of gender
agree-ment with mixed-gender conjunct antecedents, where two
differ-ent strategies can be observed. One is agreement with the
nearestconjunct, as in (9); the other is gender resolution as in
(10).
(9) k+:a;////a;nta;ma;ta;a .=+a:$ya;a;ma;dM ma;ma ..ca
.ja;a;a;va;ta;ma;pya;d;a;pra;Bxa;a;ta tva;d;Da;a;na;m,akantimat
rajyam idam mama ca jvitam apy adyaprabhr
ti
tvadadhnam (Das. 135)Kantimat [f.sg.], and this kingdom [n.sg.],
and also my life[n.sg.] [is] from today under your control
[n.sg.].
(10) a. .sa;e!a Y;a:(;!a;na;Ea ..ca .s!a:=+~va;ta;Ma
..ca;e!a;pa;!a;Da;!a;va;.cCe +.pa;!a;na;e!a Y;/////////a;sma
n!a;mua;.ca;yea. . . (I+.t,aI).. .tea Y;b.rua;va;n,a . . .so
svinau ca sa
rasvatm co
pa
dha
vac chepa
no
smi na
mu-caye . . . (iti).. te bruvan . . . (SB. 12.7.3.12)He (Indra)
went to the Asvins [m.du.] and Sarasva-t [f.sg.], (saying) I have
sworn to Namuci . . . They[m.pl.] said . . .
b. mxa;dM ga;Ma ;dE ;va;tMa ;a;va;prMa ;Gxa;tMa ma;Dua
..ca;tua;Spa;Ta;m,a :pra;d;a:a;a;a;a;na ku +:va;Ra;tamr
dam gam daivatam vipram ghr
tam madhu catus. patha-m. pradaks. in. ani kurvta (Manu 4.39)He
should keep on his right a lump of earth, a cow, anidol, a brahmin,
ghee, honey, and a crossroads [n.pl.].
As I show in Hock 2012a, Speijers analysis for
post-VedicSanskrit gender resolution (1886: 1920), going back to
Borooah(1879), best accounts for the Vedic evidence: In the case of
mixed-gender antecedents that are entirely human (or animate),
genderresolution is in favor of the masculine; in all other cases,
includ-ing cases like (10b), where non-human/inanimate and human
an-tecedents are mixed, the result is neuter, except that in Vedic
texts
-
SOME ISSUES IN SANSKRIT SYNTAX 15
some inanimate, but sacred antecedents such as the sun, the
earth,or the sky may be treated as animate/human.
In the case of nearest-conjunct agreement, there is the a
pri-ori possibility that a modifier to the left may show agreement
withthe left conjunct, and one to the right with the right
conjunct; seeArnold, Sadler, and Villavicencio 2007 for Portuguese
and John-son 2008 for Latin. As it turns out, an example of this
mirror-image agreement can also be found in Sanskrit (11). It
remainsto be seen whether this kind of agreement occurs more
frequently,and whether it does so in post-Vedic.
(11) v.ya;a;m!a;ma;a:a;Ea :p!a:a;Ea ..ca :pua;CM ..ca
Ba;va;a;tavyamamatrau paks. au ca pucham ca bhavati (TS.
5.2.5.1)the two wings [m.du.] and the tail [n.sg.] are (lit. is
[sg.3])measuring-a-fathom [m.du.].
While with the exception of the mirror-image agreement,
thephenomena discussed so far are rather mundane, another type
ofagreement presents greater challenges. This is what may be
calledupside-down agreement.
The best-known variety of this agreement is widespread inVedic
prose, as in (12), but is also found in the later language. Thisis
the fact that pronoun subjects normally adopt the agreement
fea-tures of their predicates, rather than the other way around. As
faras I can tell, this usage was first introduced into the
discussionof Sanskrit syntax by Speijer (1886: 18). The feminine
singularmarking on sa in example (12) shows that at least in Vedic
prosethis pattern of agreement is clause-bound, and that structures
ofthis kind do not exhibit cross-clausal anaphoric gender
agreement(which would have required nominative masculine te).
(12) yea tua;Sa;aH .sa;a tva;g,aye tus. ah. sa tvag (AB.
1.22.14)
-
16 H. H. HOCK
What (masc.) are the shells (masc.) that (fem.) is the
skin(fem.).
As it turns out, upside-down agreement must also be pos-tulated
for locative (and genitive) absolute constructions, such as(13);
see Hock 2009a.
(13) a. vxa;tea tua .nEa;Sa;Dea BEa;}ya;a l+.ea;k+:pa;a;l+.a . .
. na;l+.a;ya;a;;Ea va:=+a;nd;du Hvr
te tu nais. adhe bhaimya lokapala . . . nalayas. t.au
varandaduh. (Nala 5.33; MBh. 3.54.28)The Nis.adhan having been
chosen by Bhaim, the worldrulers gave Nala eight boons.
b. .tea;Sua ga;.cC+.tsua va;yMa .~Ta;a;~ya;a;maHtes. u gacchatsu
vayam sthasyamah.With them having gone, we will stay.
c. ga;nta;v.yea na ;a;.ca:=M .~Ta;a;tua;a;ma;h
Za;k+.a;m,agantavye na ciram sthatum iha sakyam(MBh. 1.150.4,
Speijer 1886: 286)5
As/since we have to go, it is not possible to stay here
forlong.Lit. (It) having to be gone, it is not possible to stay
herefor long.
d. ga;ntMua ;a;na;a;(a;ta;.cea;ta;a;sa ;a;pra;ya;ta;mea .sa;veRa
.sa;mMa :pra;//////a;~Ta;ta;aga;nta;v.yea .sa;a;ta
.ja;a;a;va;ta;a;pra;ya;sua;&+.tsa;a;TRaH ;a;k+:mua tya:$ya;tea
gantum niscitacetasi priyatame sarve samam prasthitagantavye sati
jvitapriyasuhr
t sarthah. kim u tyajyate.
(Subhas. itaratnakos. a 1151)Together all set out to go to the
determined-minded dear-est one. (It) having to be gone, how is the
dear friend ofones life, having the same goal, getting left
behind?
5The Critical Edition instead has gantavyam na ciram sthatum iha
sakyam(MBh. 1.142.21)
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SOME ISSUES IN SANSKRIT SYNTAX 17
The nearest analogue for analyzing such constructions wouldbe
that of nominalization, which embeds a subordinate propositioninto
a matrix clause by means of a nominal form of the verb, whosecase
marking signals the status of that proposition within the ma-trix
clause. See Yoon 1996 for an analysis of such structures.
The major difference between ordinary nominalizations
andstructures of the type (13) is that the latter involve an
adjectivalform, rather than a purely nominal one, a form which
thereforemust be supplied with gender and number features, in
addition tothe locative that signals the function of the
construction within thematrix clause. Note that in the synchronic
grammar of Sanskritthe locative case has to be assigned to the
participle, not to its un-derlying subject, because of the fact
that locative participial casemarking is not restricted to
structures in which the participle hasa subject to agree with such
as (13ab), but is also found in imper-sonal, subject-less
structures like (13cd).
Note further that under this analysis, the subject of the
par-ticiple, if any, is not in a position governed by a verb that
couldassign case to it; the only features that the syntax can
assign to itare gender and number.
A possible way to account for the fact that the participle
nev-ertheless gets gender and number features agreeing with its
under-lying subject, and that the subject, in turn, receives case,
lies inadopting the approach of the post-syntactic distributed
morphol-ogy of Halle and Marantz 1993. As illustrated in Table 2,
in thisanalysis the syntactic output only has the abstract features
pluralmasculine for the underlying subject of the locative
absolute, andlocative for the participle. The rest of the features
need to be filledin by the Morphology. The gender and number
features of theparticiple are filled in by normal agreement
control, but the casefeature of the subject is supplied by
upside-down agreement fromthe participle. (In impersonal structures
like (13cd), the participlereceives the usual neuter singular
default features.)
-
18 H. H. HOCK
Syntactic Output tad gacchat vayam sthasyamah.[pl.m.] [loc.]
Morphology: Input tad- gacchat- vayam sthasyamah.[pl.m.]
[loc.]
Coreference tad- gacchat-su vayam sthasyamah.[pl.m.]
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SOME ISSUES IN SANSKRIT SYNTAX 19
account of whose action (there is) qualification of
(another)action.6
3.4 Converbs, reflexives, oblique subjects, and
syntacticbracketing
In discussions of modern South Asian syntax, converbs
(variouslyreferred to as absolutives, conjunctive participles,
gerunds, and thelike), combined with reflexivization and word
order, play a signif-icant role as criteria that determine whether
non-nominative con-stituents can be considered to be subjects or
not. See for instancethe various contributions to Verma and Mohanan
1990.
Of the three features converbs, reflexivization and word
order,only the syntax of converbs is addressed in the Pan. inian
tradition.The discussion in Speijers Syntax, however, suggests that
reflex-ives exhibit a similar syntactic behavior to converbs (1886:
200and 297298). More comprehensive discussions, which includenot
only converbs and reflexives, but also word order, are Hock1986,
1990, 1991a (with references). This section surveys the ma-jor
issues and findings.
Pan. inis account for the syntax of the converb (ktva)7 is
wellknown (15), and its provision that ktva requires identity of
kartr
s,
i.e. underlying subjects, is well motivated. The dominant
pat-tern, at least for post-mantra-Vedic,8 is that this provision
holds
6A priori yasya could refer to the agent of the action bhava, or
to the wordexpressing the action. The latter is the usual
interpretation and is made explicitin the Kasika Vr
tti: yasya ca kriyaya kriyantaram laks. yate tato bhavavatah.
sa-
ptam vibhaktir bhavati locative case is also (used) after a word
characterizingan action (bhavavat) by whose action another action
is characterized. Joshi andRoodbergen (1980: 8788) interpret bhava
as state, distinguishing it from kriyaaction. However, Cardona
(1976: 197) (w. ref.) notes that both terms are usedto refer to
actions.
7Here as elsewhere ktva also stands for its replacement
lyap.8For the mantras, Hock (1982b, 1986, 1987, 1990, 1991a) finds
some (lim-
ited) evidence for surface subject, rather than underlying
subject (kartr
) control
-
20 H. H. HOCK
not only for active structures, where underlying and surface
sub-ject are identical, but also for passive or passive-like
structures,where they are not. See Hock 1986 for discussion.
(15) .sa;ma;a;na;k+:tRxa;k+:ya;eaH
:pUa;vRa;k+:a;lesamanakartr
kayoh. purvakale (A. 3.4.21)
(ktva) is introduced under the condition of identity of
kartr
sin reference to prior time
The syntax of reflexives is not covered in the Pan. inian
tradi-tion, and most western discussions focus on Vedic and/or its
Indo-European origins; see Vine 1997; Hock 2006; Kulikov 2007
forrecent discussions. In his coverage of reflexives, Speijer
(1886:200) notes similar conditions for the use of reflexives as
for thatof converbs (1886: 29798), without however trying to link
thetwo phenomena. In a series of papers (Hock 1982b, 1986,
1987,1990, 1991a), I have shown that, just like converbs,
reflexives arecontrolled by kartr
s, i.e. underlying, rather than surface subjects.
Moreover, in the same publications I have shown that word
order,too, is sensitive to the notion kartr
, rather than surface subject.
Examples for kartr
control of converbs and reflexivizationabound; see e.g. (16),
(17), and (18) which focus on instrumental-marked kartr
s. Note especially (18), which has both converb and
reflexive control.
(16) ta;ta;~ta;ma;a;ya;a;ntMa dx ; ;a :pa;a:a;Za;a;va;kE +.=, .
. .k+:ea;l+.a;h;lH kx +:taHtatas tam ayantam dr
s. t.va paks. isavakair . . . kolahalah. kr
tah.
(Hit. 1.4)Then, upon seeing him coming, the young birds made
aracket.
of converbs in passives and passive-like structures, and
somewhat more robustevidence as regards word order and reflexive
control. Zakharyin (1998) questionsthis finding, but his discussion
only focuses on converbs and does not address thebroader evidence
of word order and reflexivization.
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SOME ISSUES IN SANSKRIT SYNTAX 21
(17) .~vea;Sua .~Ta;a;nea;Sva;va;a;h;tEa;BRa;a;va;ta;v.yMa
Ba;va;a;; Hsves. u sthanes. v avahitair bhavitavyam bhavadbhih.
(Vikram.1, p. 2; Speijer 1886: 199)Your lordships must be attentive
on your own seats.
(18) ;Ta .tea;na tMa Za:Mua ma;tva;a;tma;a;nMa ta;~ya;ea;pa;a:=
:pra;a:a;pya :pra;a;a;aH :pa;a:=+tya;+:aHatha tena tam satrum matva
+ atmanam tasyopari praks. i-pya pran. ah. parityaktah.(Pac.
70;Speijer 1886: 297)Then he1, considering him2 an enemy, threw
himself1 on topof him2 and gave up his1 ghost.
Although converb and reflexive control by the kartr
(whethernominative or instrumental) is the most common pattern
in San-skrit, there are examples where other constituents or no
con-stituents in the same clause seem to exert control. See
theexamples in (19)(25) which focus on converb control, with
theexception of (24c) which shows that genitive-marked NPs also
cancontrol reflexives.
(19) a. ;lM ;a;va;Sa;a;de ;na ;a;ba;lM :pra;a;va;Zya va;sa;a;ma
.sa;veRa ya;a;d .=+ea;.ca;tea vaHalam vis. adena bilam pravisya (.)
vasama sarve yadi ro-cate vah. (Ram. 4.52.31)Enough of entering the
cave in despondency. All of usare staying if it pleases you.
b. ;pra;a;pya na;d ;Ma :pa;vRa;taH ;//////a;~Ta;taHaprapya nadm
parvatah. sthitah. (Kas. on A. 3.4.20)Not having reached the river
(i.e. on this side of the river)stands the mountain.
(20) ;ea! ;Sa;Da;a:jRa;gDva;!a;p!aH :pa;a;tva;a t!a;ta O;;Sa .=!
+saH .sM!a;Ba;va;a;tao
s. adhr jagdhva+ apa
h. ptva ta
ta es. a rasah. sa
mbhavati(SB. 1.3.1.24)
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22 H. H. HOCK
(The animals/somebody) having eaten the plants, havingdrunk the
waters, from that arises this essence.
(21) a. ;a;a;ta;Tye!a;na ;vE!a :de ;va;!a I+. ;!a
ta;!a;ntsa;m!a;d;a;va;nd;t,aatithye
na vai
deva
is. t.va
ta
n t-sama
d avindat (SB. 3.4.2.1)The Gods having sacrificed with the
guest-offering discord befell them.
b. tM!a ;hE ;nMa dx ; ;a Ba;!a;a;vRa;vea;dta
m hainam dr
s. t.va bhr viveda (SB. 11.6.1.7)
Having seen him (i.e. someone else), fear befell him.
(22) a. (rua;tva;a ;//a;tva;d;mua;pa;a;K.ya;a;na;m,a . . .;nya;a
.=+ea;.ca;tea [ta;smEa]srutva tv idam upakhyanam . . . anyan na
rocate [tasmai](MBh. 1.2.236)(He) having heard this story, another
(story) does notplease him/he does not like another (story).
b. ;a;d :ja ;a;sa;pra;a;na;d ;Ma ga;tva;a tua;Bya;ma;hM ma:n:Ma
d;a;~ya;a;a;madvija sipranadm gatva tubhyam aham mantram
dasyami(Vetalapacavimsati, ed. Emeneau 92.2021)O brahmin, I will
give a mantra to you, (you) having goneto the river Sipranad.
(23) :pa;(a;a;dE ! :pa:= +!a;tya vx!a;Sa;a
ya;e!a;Sa;a;m!a;a;Da;d +va;a;ta:pa;(a;!a;de
;vE!a;na;a;mea;t!a;tpa:= +!a;tya vx!a;Sa;a . . . (! );a;Da;d
+a;va;ya;a;tapascad vai
par
tya vr
s. a yo
s. am adhidravati
pasca
d evainam eta
t par
tya vr
s. n. a . . . (a
)dhidravayati (SB.1.9.2.24)The bull mates with the female
approaching her from be-hind. He makes the bull mate with her, (the
bull) havingapproached her from behind.
(24) a. h;tva;a vxa:Ma ;a;va;a:ja;tya yua;Sma;a;a;Ba;meRa Y;yMa
.sa;h .sa;ea;ma;pa;a;TaH(h)atva vr
tram vijitya yus. mabhir me yam saha somap-
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SOME ISSUES IN SANSKRIT SYNTAX 23
tha(h. ) (KB. 15.2)Having slain Vr
tra, having conquered, this soma-
drinking with you is mine.
b. .sua;=+:a;a;tMa :pua:+:SMa dx ; ;a .~:a;a;a;Ma
;a;*:+:d;a;////a;nta ya;ea;na;yaHsusnatam purus. am dr
s. t.va strn. am klidyanti yonayah.
(Vetalapacavimsatika, ed. Uhle 15.3738)Having seen a
well-bathed/graduated man, womensvaginas get wet.
c. .sa;a ;a;h .~va;a .=+a:ja;Da;a;na;asa hi sva rajadhan
(Kathas. 39.163)for this is my (= the speakers) royal city
(25) I+.tyea;va k+:a;le Zyea;nea;na;a;na;a;ya
Ka;a;d;a;ma;a;na;~ya .sa;pRa;~ya ga:=+lM ta;" +v.yea
;a;na;pa-;a;ta;ta;m,aity eva kale syenena + anya khadyamanasya
sarpasya ga-ralam taddravye nipatitam(Vetalapacavimsati, ed.
Emeneau 76.1113)At that very time, the venom of a snake being eaten
by ahawk, (the hawk) having carried it off, fell into his food.
Faced with such a variety of different structures, some
scholarsmay opt for claiming that there is no purely syntactic
criterion forcontrol and that any element that is somehow salient
may serve ascontroller. This is close to what Zakharyin (1998)
proposes.
A heuristically and theoretically more interesting position is
totry to determine whether some or all of these exceptional
struc-tures can be accounted for by additional generalizations.
This is, of course, what Pan. ini has done for structures
like(19a) by means of A. 3.4.18 (see also A. 3.4.19) and for (19b)
byA. 3.4.20 with A. 3.4.21 taking care of elsewhere. In bothcases
we are probably dealing with some kind of grammaticaliza-tion. The
one in (19b) could be compared to later grammaticaliza-tions such
as adhikr
tya about, adaya with, arabhya (starting)
-
24 H. H. HOCK
from which likewise do not seem to be sensitive to control by
anyparticular constituent.
As far as (20) and (21a) are concerned, these seem to be
pe-culiarities of Vedic prose; see Delbrck 1888: 408. Hock
(1987)accounts for them under the notion reduced-clause structures,
aphenomenon not limited to converbs but also found with
partici-ples.
Example (21a), however, could also be analyzed as compara-ble to
(21b) which, together with (22a), could be and has been taken as
equivalent to Modern Indo-Aryan oblique-experiencer-subject
constructions; see Hook 1976, 1984 for (22a), and Za-kharyin 1998
more generally.
Structures of this sort, however, are extremely rare and, in
theaggregate, no more frequent than structures like (22b) in which
anon-experiencer indirect object controls the converb, or (23)
wherethe converbs dependence on the causee of adhidravayati may
bedittological from the preceding non-causative construction with
a-dhidravati. At any rate, all of these structures are quite rare
andcan be dismissed as occasional examples of loose (or
sloppy)control.9
The examples in (24), by contrast, exemplify a much morecommon
pattern: control by genitive-marked possessor NPs. Thefact that
examples of control by non-kartr
s (in Pan. inis sense) are
especially common with genitive-marked NPs was already notedby
Speijer (1886: 298) who considered these NPs to be exemplarsof his
dative-like genitive category. Focusing on converb and re-flexive
control, as well as word order, I have argued (Hock 1990,1991a)
that Possessor NPs must be recognized as a highly produc-
9Interestingly, if structures like (21b) and (22a) were to be
analyzed asoblique-experiencer-subject constructions or as
forerunners of such construc-tions accusative-marked experiencers
would seem to occur more frequentlythan dative-marked ones. In
Modern Indo-Aryan, it is dative-marking which pre-vails. On the
syntax of ruc see also Cardona 1990; Deshpande 1990.
-
SOME ISSUES IN SANSKRIT SYNTAX 25
tive alternative to kartr
control. (In his very different approach tothe syntax of R
gvedic reflexive sva, Vine (1997) similarly finds
that genitive-marked NPs are the most common alternative to
sub-ject NP controllers.)
Finally, example (25) shows the need for being sensitive
tosyntactic bracketing. The converb anya is controlled by the
kar-tr
(syena) of the participial structure headed by khadyamana, notby
the kartr
(garala) of the matrix-clause verb nipatitam. See the
bracketing in (26). For further discussion see Hock 1986,
1987.10
(26) I+.tyea;va k+:a;leZyea;nea;na;a;na;a;ya
Ka;a;d;a;ma;a;na;~ya.sa;pRa;~ya ga:=+lM ta;" +v.yea
;a;na;pa;a;ta;ta;m,a[ity eva kale[syenena + anya
khadyamanasya]sarpasya garalam taddravye
nipatitam](Vetalapacavimsati, ed. Emeneau 76.1113)At that very
time, the venom of a snake being eaten by ahawk, (the hawk) having
carried it off, fell into his food.
While this phenomenon is not overtly addressed in the Pan.
i-nian tradition, there is nothing in that tradition that would
preventit. Given that their suffixes replace la-karas (A. 3.2.124,
3.4.7071), participles are allowed to have their own kartr
s, and these kar-
tr
s can control converbs (and reflexives) in their own
domain.Complications do however arise because participial
structures
are normally integrated into their matrix clauses without being
setoff by clear boundaries. As a consequence, in very similar
struc-tures, such as (27ab), both involving the participle form
gacchan,
10Speijer (1886: 29798) comes close to realizing the need for
some kindof bracketing by noting that [apparent] control by
locative NPs is common inlocative absolute constructions. Vine
(1997) similarly weighs the possibility thatsome instances of
apparent non-subject control of reflexives may be accountedfor by
something like bracketing.
-
26 H. H. HOCK
it may be either the kartr
of the entire sentence or that of the par-ticipial structure
that controls the converb. In fact, as (27c) shows,it is possible
for one converb to be controlled by one kartr
, another
by the other.
(27) a. .sa ya;a;a;TeRa . . .C+.a;ga;mua;pa;k +:a;ya . . .
ga;.cC+.n,a;DUa;tRa:a;yea;a;a;va;l+.ea;a;k+:taH[sa yajarthe . . .
[chagam upakrya . . . gacchan]dhurtatrayen. a + avalokitah.
](Hitopadesa 43.56)He, having bought a goat for the purpose of
sacrifice . . . ,(as he was) going was noticed by a trio of
rogues.
b. tMa :pua:Ma d;ZRa;a;ya;tva;a;nea;na ga;.cC+*+;f;a;Da:=H
.sa;ma;a;na;a;taH[tam putram darsayitva + anena gaccha jat.adharah.
sa-mantah. ](Vetalapacavimsati, ed. Emeneau 28. 56)Having showed
that boy to him he brought (back) themendicant (as he was)
going.
c. ta;a;///a;nva;a:ja;tya
ya;Ta;a;l+.ea;k+:ma;a;sa;a;na;a;a;na;nd O;;tya;a;b.ra;va;a;t,a[[tan
vijitya yathalokam asnan]indra etya + abravt] (JB 1.156)Indra,
having come up, said to them, (who were) sittingaccording to their
own worlds, having won.
3.5 Double Direct Object constructions and Causatives
In Pan. inis sutras defining karman (28), A. 1.4.51 has met
withconsiderable problems of interpretation. The commentatorial
tra-dition agrees that it is intended to cover double-direct-object
con-structions such as (29), but how it does so does not seem to
havereceived a satisfactory explanation; see Deshpande 1987. The
ev-idence of the textual tradition makes it clear that either of
the twocomplements in these structures behaves like a true direct
object,
-
SOME ISSUES IN SANSKRIT SYNTAX 27
being promotable to surface subject if it occurs by itself
(30).However, if both complements are present, only the more
agen-tive one can be promoted; (31). See Hock 1985, 2012c for
furtherdiscussion; see also Ostler 1979; Van de Walle 1992.
(28) a. k+:tRua:= +a;/////a;psa;ta;ta;mMa k+:mRa ta;Ta;a;yua;M
..ca;a;na;a;/////a;psa;ta;m,akartur psitatamam karma. tathayuktam
canpsitam (A.1.4.4950) That which is most desired by the agent is
ka-rman, and also that which is not desired (but) linked (tothe
action) in the same way;
b. ;k+:a;Ta;tMa ..caakathitam ca (A. 1.4.51)also what (is linked
in the same way and) has not been asyet specified; (?)
c. ga;a;ta;bua;a:;d
;pra;tya;va;sa;a;na;a;TRa;Za;b.d;k+:ma;Ra;k+:mRa;k+:a;a;a;ma;a;a;k+:ta;Ra
.sa .a;Ea &+.k
+:ea:=+nya;ta:=+~ya;m,agatibuddhipratyavasanarthasabdakarmakarmakan.
am a-n. ikarta sa n. au. hr
kror anyatarasyam (A. 1.4.5253)
also the non-causative agent in the causative of rootsmeaning
go, understand, consume, communicate,(and) intransitives, and
(optionally) of hr
and kr
.
(29) a. k+:du b.ra;vaH . . . nXa;n,akad u bravah. . . . nr
n (R
V. 10.10.6) (SPEAK)
What will you say to the men?
b. ta:va;a ya;a;a;ma . . .tat tva yami . . . (R
V. 1.24.11a) (ASK/ENTREAT)
. . . that I request from you.
c. du ;du ;h e! :pa;yaH . . .;a;Sa;m,aduduhre payah. . . . r
s. im (R
V. 9.54.1) (MILK)
They milked the milk (from) the sage.
-
28 H. H. HOCK
d. :de! ;va;a;na;sua-.=+aH y!a;a;ma-.ja;ya>+.s,adevan asurah.
yajam ajayams (MS. 1.9.8) (WIN)The asuras won the sacrifice (from)
the gods.
e. ya;d;mua;Sa;a;ta . . . :p!a;a;Ma ga;aHyad amus. n. ta . . .
pan. m gah. (R
V. 1.93.4) (ROB)
. . . when you robbed the cows (from) the miser.
f. ta;a;nsa;h;~:Ma d;q+.yea;t,atan sahasram dan. d. ayet (Manu
9.234) (PUNISH). . . he should fine/punish them (with) a
thousand.
(30) a. ().~ya va;a;gua;a;d;ta;a Ba;va;a;ta(a)sya vag udita
bhavati (AB. 1.6.12) (SPEAK)His speech is spoken..sa :he ! ;nd e
+a;ea;! ;a;sasa ha + i
ndren. a + ukta
asa (SB. 14.1.1.19)He was addressed by Indra.
b. .=! +a;ya;a;vRa;BUa;a;ta:= +a;ya;tea . . .rayr vbhutir yate .
. . (R
V. 6.21.1) (ASK/ENTREAT)
Great wealth is implored..=+a:ja;a me!a;Da;a;a;Ba:=, IR
+.ya;tear aja medhabhir yate (R
V. 9.65.16)
The king is implored with insight.
c. . . . ;a;pa;ba;tua du ! ;gDa;mM!a;Zua;m,a. . . pibatu dugdham
amsum (R
V. 5.36.1) (MILK)
May he drink the milked (= expressed) soma.11
du ! ;h:a;ntea . . . ;De!a;na;va;ea11Hettrich (1994) cites
dugdho amsuh. (RV 3.36.6d), glossed as der ausge-
molkene Stengel, as an example of the source, rather than the
substance NPbecoming the passive subject. However, the present
example suggests that amsuhas become simply an epithet of soma, the
ingestible substance produced in theritual.
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SOME ISSUES IN SANSKRIT SYNTAX 29
duhyante . . . dhenavo (AV. 7.73.2)The cows are being
milked.
d. .~va;mR!a:+:tva;ta;a ;a:j!a;ta;m,asva`r marutvata jitam
(R
V. 8.76.4) (WIN)
The sun has been conquered by (Indra) accompanied bythe
Maruts.;a;su!a:= +a yu!a;Da;a ;a:j!a;ta;aasur yudha jit a (AV.
1.24.1)The asura woman, defeated in battle.
e. ne!a;de ;v!a na;+;a! I+.va mua;a;Sa;t!a I+.va Z!a;ya;a;ta;a
I! +.ty,a . . .ne
d v eva
nagna
iva mus. itaiva sa
yata i
ty . . . (ROB)
(SB. 1.2.2.16). . . lest he lie naked as it were, robbed as it
were.
(31) a. ;a;va:ja;ya;mua;+:~tEaHvijayam uktas taih. (Kathas.
18.247) (SPEAK). . . (was) told (about) the victory by them.
b. v!a;Za;a;a;ma;nd e +a ya;a;a;.c!a;taHvas am ndren. a yacitah.
(AV. 12.4.50) (ASK/ENTREAT). . . asked by Indra for (his) cow
c. . . . na;Ba;ea du ;h:a;tea ;Gx!a;tMa :pa;yaH. . . nabho
duhyate ghr
tam paya(h. ) (R
V. 9.74.4) (MILK)
The cloud is milked for ghee, milk.12
d. . . . .sa;vRa:$ya;a;a;nMa va;a .ja;a;ya;tea. . . sarvajyanim
va jyate (KS. 29.6) (WIN). . . or he is defeated a complete
defeat.
12Hettrich notes that the example is formally ambiguous, since
both nabhah.and ghr
tam payah. can be both nominative and accusative. The singular
on the
verb and the initial placement of nabhah. favor an
interpretation that nabhah. is thesubject; but agreement with the
nearest antecedent of the conjoined elementsghr
tam and payah. is a possible alternative. Geldner takes ghr
tam and payah. to
be the subject.
-
30 H. H. HOCK
e. ;a;h! ;mea;va :p!a;a;Ra mua;a;S!a;ta;a va;na;a;a;nahimeva
parn. a mus. it a vanani (R
V. 10.68.10) (ROB)
. . . like trees robbed of their leaves by winter13
While this much is known, questions remain. First, it is
notclear why only certain verbs that are subcategorized for two
com-plements have double-direct-object constructions. Even more
puz-zling is why some verbs belonging to the semantic sets
SPEAK,ASK/ENTREAT, MILD, WIN, ROB fail to enter into
double-direct-object constructions. Consider kath which to my
knowledge onlytakes the addressee in the dative, or hr
take away which takes the
ablative for the source person. Presumably, the verbs
participat-ing in the double-direct-object construction must be
specificallylisted in the lexicon (together with alternative case
markings, ifany; see Hock 1985. But this does not explain why many
of theverb classes exhibit similar behavior in other Indo-European
lan-guages; see Hock 2012c.
Problems of a different sort arise regarding A. 1.4.5253
whichclassifies the causees of certain verb classes as karman
(optionallyfor hr
and kr
) and leaves others as kartr
s which, being anabhi-
hita, surface in the instrumental. As Speijer (1886: 3637
withreference) notes, a very different situation obtains in the
classicallanguage, irrespective of verb class:
If one wants to say he causes me to do something, it isby his
impulse I act, there is room for the [accusativecausee], but if it
be meant he gets something done by
13As noted by Hettrich, formally this passage is ambiguous.
However, thecontext favors the interpretation given here: himeva
parn. a mus. it a vanani br
-
haspatinakr
payad valo gah. Like the trees robbed of their leaves by winter,
Valamourned for the cows (taken from him) by Br
haspati. (Geldner: Wie die Bume
ihre vom Frost geraubten Bltter so vermite Vala die von Br
haspati (geraubten)Khe.)
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SOME ISSUES IN SANSKRIT SYNTAX 31
me, I am only the agent or instrument through whichhe acts, the
instrumental is in its place . . .
As shown in Hock 1981, this pragmatically sensitive marking
con-vention is already found in the early Vedic prose texts; see
(32)and (33), where the verb in (32) belongs to the categories of
verbsthat by A. 1.4.52 should take a karman, and the verb in (33)
doesnot. The phenomenon can therefore not be attributed to
post-Pa-n. inian innovation. Rather, the difference between Pan.
ini and thetextual tradition of Madhyadesa most likely reflects a
difference inregional dialect. See Hock 1981, 2012b,c, as well as
Deshpande(1983)s pioneering paper, Pan. ini as a frontier
grammarian.
(32) a. d;a;a;va;pxa;a;T!a;va;a Bua;va;nea;Su!a
;a;pRa;teadyavapr
thiv bhuvanes. u arpite (TS. 4.7.13.2)
Heaven and