Samāsa (compound) in Pāli Grammar

Language, 2015

Classical Sanskrit is well known for making extensive use of compounding. I argue, within a lexicalist framework, that the major rules of compounding in Sanskrit can be most appropriately characterized in syntactic, not morphological, terms. That is, Classical Sanskrit 'compounds' are in fact very often syntactic phrases. The syntactic analysis proposed captures the fact that compound formation is closer to a morphological process than other aspects of syntax, and so permits some acknowledgment of the gradient nature of the word-phrase divide, even within a strictly lexicalist theory.*

2nd edition, Mandalay, 1915) (Editor's note: the following is based of the Medieval Pàëi prosody Vuttodaya, and should not be taken as a guide to Canonical prosody. There are a number of mistakes in it, as the author doesn't seem to have understood his source completely, these have been corrected in the text with the original cited in the notes. Despite various shortcomings the work presents a succinct account of Pàëi prosody during the Medieval period. I have used the metrical markings that are standard on this website though Duroiselle occasionally used other marks to distinguish syllablic weight (or length as stated here). All footnotes in this article are by the present writer)

A 30-page guide to the verb and noun forms in Pāli, together with a guide to syntax, with examples and notes.

2023

The aims, methods and rationales of the present Māgadhabhāsā (Pāḷi) grammar are as follows: (a) Lubricating access to the information contained in numerous modern Pāḷi grammars written in English by collating the dispersed material contained within them. People who wish to learn about grammatical rules and principles – either on a broader spectrum or at all – are compelled to track them down in the thicket of the widely scattered grammar inventories as separately given by the various available grammars. These works, mostly fine and outstanding works of scholarship in their own right, each individually often contain valuable data and perspectives not found in the other ones, and these are attempted to be distilled and presented with this Pāḷi grammar. (b) Facilitating identification of and providing explicit reference to most of the grammatical rules contained in the Kaccāyanabyākaraṇaṃ (Kaccāyana), the oldest extant Pāḷi grammar, as well as to selected ones from other traditional grammars. Most copiously consulted grammars in English medium were: Ānandamaitreya, B. (2012). Pali made easy. Buddhadatta, A. P. (1997). The new Pali course (Vols. I–II). Collins, S. (2006). A Pali grammar for students. Dhammajoti (2018). Reading Buddhist Pāḷi texts. Duroiselle, C. (1997). Practical grammar of the Pali language. Frankfurter, O. (1883). Handbook of Pali. Gair, J. W., & Karunatillake, W. (1998). A new course in reading Pāli. Kaccāyana Pāli Vyākaraṇaṃ (Vol. 2; 2016) (Thitzana, Trans.) Ñāṇadhaja (2011). Light on the pronunciation of Pāḷi. Oberlies, T. (2019). Pāli grammar. The language of the canonical texts of Theravāda Buddhism – Phonology and morphology (Vol. I). Perniola, V. (1997). Pali grammar. Warder, A. K. (1967). Pali metre. Warder, A. K. (2001). Introduction to Pali. Yindee, P. P. (2018). A contrastive study of Pali and English. Traditional grammars which were utilized (except for Kaccāyana, mainly, but not exclusively, used for the chapter on Pāḷi pronunciation): Kaccāyanabyākaraṇaṃ (1999). Vipassana Research Institute. Moggallānavyākaraṇaṃ (1999). Vipassana Research Institute. Padarūpasiddhi (1999). Vipassana Research Institute. Saddanītippakaraṇaṃ I (1999). Vipassana Research Institute. Saddanītippakaraṇaṃ II (1999). Vipassana Research Institute. Vidyabhusana, S & Punnananda (Eds.) (1935). Bālāvatāra – An elementary Pali grammar abridged for the undergraduate course.

Dimasa is Tibeto-Burman language (Boro-Garo group) spoken in Assam (India). This introductory Dimasa Grammar gives an idea of the phonology and the morphology of the language. The first encouragements and help came from the late G.K. Thaosen in Haflong. This Grammar was published in 2008 on the Brahmaputra Studies website, along with a short Dimasa lexicon, which can also be downloaded here from the category 'paper'.

And languages all come from the most distant historical (and of course pre-historical) times. It was invented by Homo Sapiens 150,000 years ago, on the basis of the vocal practices of their ancestors or predecessors (Homo Ergaster , or some apes ), and it has evolved since then in a myriad of forms. But no matter what the level reached by this or that language may be, it has developed a full communicational discourse and it has never forgotten and totally rejected the means of its origins. To illustrate this historical survival of what Lévy-Bruhl called “primitive” in our modern languages I will use a little bit of prose by Walt Whitman again: “Mild, foolish, dough-colored, simpering face; black cloth suit-shad-bellied, single-breasted coat, with low standing collar all round, vest buttoned close to throat, knees a little bent, toes turned out, and chin down. Episcopalian deacon.” (Walt Whitman, "Street Yarn", in Life Illustrated, August 16, 1856; in New York Dissected, E. Holloway and R. Adimari, eds, Rufus Rockwell Wilson, 1936) Mephistopheles is totally wrong. In language the past is not what is no more and the future is not what is not yet. In language the past is always present and the future is always being born, I mean breath-borne, to life every minute one person speaks. The concept of primitiveness in that context is just irrelevant.

1969

The present study, a slightly revised version of the author's 1968 Ph.D. thesis presented to the University of Chicago, investigates compound formation in Thai. Chapter 1 summarizes the transformational generative theory on which the study is based, discusses the concept that Thai is a "simple" language in comparison with English, and briefly outlines the structure of Thai noun phrases, Chapter 2 outlines the development of transformational grammar and presents the base component of a transformational grammar. Chapter 3 discusses the use of transformations and describes the transformational rules needed to generate the structures directly underlying the compounds themselves. Chapter 4, working from the assumption that most Thai noun compounds are derived from noun phrases in which sentences have been embedded as relative clauses, demonstrates how certain structures generated by the grammar proposed in the earlier chapters can be converted into Thai noun compounds. Compounds are analyzed by type. Chapter 5 is dedicated to the small subset of noun compounds considered to be learned compounds and offers solutions to the problems presented by such forms.

Aggacara, 2013

This information found in this booklet is largely extracted from Introduction part of Pāḷi Dictionary “Dhatvattha Pangon” written by Ashin Kumāra in Burmese. The purpose is to give readers more knowledge on nature of Pāḷi roots, types of Pāḷi roots, suffixes etc. When flowers with fragrant smell, beautiful color and beautiful forms are systematically tied as garlands, they will make people’s mind happy and cheerful. In the same way, Pāḷi roots are like the flowers, the group of letters are like the strings that tied the flowers, the meaning of roots are like the flower fragrant, and examples are like the colors. The classification and explanation on roots and suffix are like the flowers are divided into types, and then further explained with examples. We hope that this work may cause the heart of people who research on the Pāḷi to be cheerful like seeing a garland of flowers. This is version 2.

2022

This paper provides the first detailed analysis of the models for classing nouns found in the early Pali exegetical texts traditionally assigned to the fifth-century monk-scholar Buddhaghosa. It identifies three fourfold models and argues that: (a) each model has a distinctive distribution; (b) the original occurrence in each model serves a specific purpose, which can be identified through studying the relation between these original occurrences and their respective context; (c) Buddhaghosa did not invent these models but repurposed pre-existing models to fit specific exegetical needs; (d) Buddhaghosa's reuse of these inherited models is consistent with his view expressed elsewhere that Pali is a sacred, perfect language; and (e) in developing these models, the unknown authors combined influences from the Pali canon and Sanskrit grammatical sources. Finally, I briefly consider whether studying the models sheds new light on the early history of Pali grammar.

A Descriptive Study of Bengali Words, 2025

Keeping the observations made by earlier scholars in sight as well as taking all the questions into consideration, in this chapter, I have attempted to present a systematic discussion on strategies and methods adopted in compound word formation in modern Bengali with regard to the changes that take place in the original structures of the constituent words[1]. I have also tried to analyze the surface form of Bengali compound words to show how the formative members are combined together to generate the final forms; if there is a morphophonemic process that underlies this operation; and if the semantic load of the formative members is affected at the time combining words for generating compounds. To accomplish these goals, I have analyzed a large number of compound words retrieved meticulously from the Bengali text corpus database, which is very rich with various types of compound words marked with different forms and meanings. In a step-by-step process, I have discussed various approaches proposed by earlier scholars for treating compound words (Section 7.2); referred to some of the earlier studies on Bengali compounds (Section 7.3); identified the types of Bengali compounds (Section 7.4), defined the form and structure of compound nouns and adjectives (Section 7.5), and have discussed the concept of headedness with regard to Bengali compound words available in the language (Section 7.6).

Indian linguistics, 2003

Apres avoir passe en revue les etudes realisees sur le verbe compose en marathi (langue de l'Asie du Sud), l'A. prend pour point de depart les perspectives de la grammaire traditionnelle concernant cette categorie pour examiner ses criteres d'identification, c'est-a-dire pour definir ce qu'est le verbe compose en marathi