>Thank you Robert for always giving great answers to my questions,
>very much appreciated. I guess on the active/reflextive present
>participle, when translating from english into Pali we should use
>-nta for active and -maana for reflextive so as to be keeping with
>the the old Pali grammarians, but with the understanding that in the
>Pali texts they could be either/or.
>
>Charles Duroiselle's A practical Grammar of the Pali can be
>downloaded at>
>http://www.tipitaka.net/pali/index.htm
>I find it,as a beginner in Pali to be quite a useful reference.
>
>Thank-you.

Dear Zeb,

Thanks for the reference. I have been looking through it and see that
Duroiselle addresses the attanopada in greater detail in chapter 10.
http://www.tipitaka.net/pali/grammar/chpt10.htm

A couple of comments on what he says:

CD: 355. There are two voices:
CD: (1) The Active, called in Paali: parassapada (lit. a word for another) and
CD: (2) The Reflective in Paali called attanopada (lit. a word for one's self).

There is also the passive voice (kammapada). I guess what Duroiselle means
is that there are only two voices that are indicated by inflections. The
passive voice differs from the other two in that it is formed not by any
change to the inflection, but by the addition of -ya to the stem of the
verb before it is inflected.


CD: 356. The Active Voice, or parassapada may be said to be used, when the
CD: fruit or consequence of the action; expressed by the verb passes on to
CD: another person or thing other than the subject or agent; the Reflective
CD: Voice or attanopada, is used when the fruit or the consequence expressed by
CD: the verb accrues to no one else but to the the agent. The Reflective voice
CD: merely implies that the agent has the ability to do that action or suffer
CD: that state which is denoted by the Root.

CD: 357. It must here be remarked that the Reflective Voice has lost very much
CD: of its importance, and that the distinction between Active and Reflective
CD: has been almost if not altogether effaced, and that the choice between the
CD: Active or Reflective is mostly determined now by metrical exigencies. It
CD: therefore follows the Reflective Voice or the "Middle Voice," as it is also
CD: called, is confined to poetry, and is but rarely found in prose.

Though the attanopada form is less common in prose than the parassapada
form, it isn't by any means rare, especially in the present tense 3rd
person, e.g. labhate instead of labhati. Indeed with certain verbs the
attanopada form is the more common: tapate rather than tapati, bhaasate
rather than bhaasati (shines).

Best wishes,

Robert