Tagged: samāsa
10 pages
Pages with this tag
1: Overview: Pali Essentials
1A concise overview of the Pāḷi language covering key features
6: Grammar: Compounds (`samāsa`)
2How two or more nouns are joined into one compound word, the six kinds of compound and the changes at the end of a compound {316}–{343}
6.1: What a compound is
3A `samāsa` ("compound") {316}, and what happens when words join: endings dropped {317}, a member back in its lemma form {318}.
6.2: The abyayībhāva, a compound with a prefix or a particle first
4A word such as `upanagaraṁ` ("near the town") is a prefix or a particle joined to a noun: an `abyayībhāva` {319}. It is always neuter {320} and keeps one form wherever it stands, `-aṁ` after a compound in `a` {341} and no ending after any other, whose final vowel is shortened {342}–{343}.
6.3: The kammadhāraya, two words for one thing
5A `kammadhāraya` joins two words that name one and the same thing, an adjective and its noun or two nouns: `kaṇhasappo` ("a black snake") is `kaṇho sappo` made into one word {324}. How to tell its kinds apart by the shape of the first member: `mahā` for `mahanta` {330}, a feminine word in its masculine shape {331}–{332}, `a` or `an` for `na` {333}–{334}, `kad` or `kā` for `ku` {335}–{336}.
6.4: The numeral compound
6A word such as `tilokaṁ` ("the three worlds") is a numeral and a noun made into one word, a `digu` {325}. Whatever its members, a `digu` that takes a set as one thing is singular and neuter {321}, so it ends in `-aṁ` like any neuter noun.
6.5: The `tappurisa`: the king's son and the compounds of ② to ⑦
7`rājaputto` ("the king's son") is `rañño putto` made into one word: the first member would carry the ⑥ ending if the two stood apart, and the compound keeps the sense of that ending {327}. The six kinds of `tappurisa` by the ending of the first member, ② to ⑦, and the rule that counts the `kammadhāraya` and the `digu` as `tappurisa` as well {326}.
6.6: bahubbīhi (Compounds that name something else)
8A `bahubbīhi` names something outside its own members: `chinnahattho` is not a hand but "a man whose hand is cut off", and the compound agrees with the noun it describes {328}. How to spot one, the shapes the vutti gives, and the ones the texts are full of.
6.7: `dvanda`, two or more things named together
9A `dvanda` ("pair") joins nouns that English strings together with "and": `samaṇabrāhmaṇā` ("wanderers and brahmins"). It has two shapes, plural when its members are counted {329} and singular neuter when they are taken as one set, `cakkhusotaṁ` ("eye and ear") {322}; some kinds of things take either {323}.
6.8: The end of a compound
10The last member of a compound sometimes changes its shape at the `samāsanta`, the end of the compound: `rājā` ("king") closes a compound as `-rājo`, a feminine word in `ī` or `ū` takes `-ka`, `jāyā` ("wife") becomes `tudaṁ` or `jāni` before `pati` ("husband"), and `dhanu` ("bow") takes `ā`. The four changes {337}–{340}, with one example each.