Hi Charles,

>
>General question: Is there a "usual" Pali sentence structure, e.g., in
>Latin the "usual" structure is subject, indirect object, direct object,
>adverbial phrases, verb - but everything can get mixed around for
>emphasis or variety, and the sense can still be worked out because of
>the inflections.
>

Pali is considered an SOV language (like Latin). I'm not sure about
the patterns for indirect object or adverbials. This is interesting
stuff.

>E.g., in 3, I worked it out as "Maya.m narapati.m disvaa agamimhaa" -
>the only difference is the word order, so they're the same, right?

Your version sounds more like standard idiomatic Pali than the
solution quoted below. But the word order in Ong Peng's version
occurs fairly often also. Perhaps to get the sense 'came' agamimhaa
should read aagamimhaa (aa- prefix, a- augment, gam- root, -imhaa
suffix)?

>
>In 4, however, I worked it out as "Aha.m gantvaa kavino vadi.m" - again
>the only difference is the word order, although - to my mind - there IS
>a difference. I would translate this back into English as "I went and
>spoke to the poet", whereas, "Aha.m kavino gantvaa avadi.m" I would
>translate back as "I went to the poet and spoke". Am I thinking too
>much?
>

The object of motion should be put in the accusative, not dat/gen so
that should read kavi.m (rather than kavino).

About the word order differences there, tough call (for me anyway).
One of the strengths of Warder over the other intro to Pali books
commonly used here is that Warder uses real canonical prose
(sentences culled from the Diighanikaaya). So one way to approach
your question might be to watch for examples in genuine texts. I'd be
very interested in whatever you might find. The constructed examples
in books treating Pali as a productive language are (to me anyway)
less reliable as models.

best regards

/Rett

>
>3. We saw the king and came.
> maya.m / disvaa / narapati.m / agamimhaa
> Narapati.m disvaa maya.m agamimhaa.
>
>4. I went and spoke to the poet.
> aha.m / gantvaa / avadi.m / kavino
> Aha.m kavino gantvaa avadi.m.