Exploring Traditional Pali Grammar 7
Saddaniiti discusses double obects
Since the 'double accusative' has been a topic of
discussion recently I thought I'd try seeing if
this topic is discussed in traditional Pali
grammar, as a complement to the examples which
have been brought up from Sanskrit grammar.
Calling this phenomena 'double accusative' as I
have done is actually misleading, and the term
'double object' is better. The reasoning behind
this is as follows. Look at this example:
devadatto pa.n.dita.m pañha.m pucchati. Devadatta
asks the wise man a question. Here there is
indeed a double accusative, but this is a surface
level phenomenon. The same underlying set of
relationships could be expressed in the passive
with: devadattena pañha.m puttho pa.n.dito. This
would still be described as having two objects,
the question and the wise man, only now one of
the objects is placed in the nominative!, while
the agent (devadatta) is put in the instrumental.
Hence in the context of traditional grammar it's
better to avoid the term 'double accusative' and
prefer the term 'double object'.
So far I've located one passage where Aggava.msa
discusses verbs taking double objects in
Saddaniiti. If anyone knows of more I'd be very
interested in hearing about them.
I've broken the text into two short sections,
each with its own glossary and notes/questions.
In the vutti to sutta 551, in the kaarakakappa,
or chapter on the uses of the cases (Smith p.
692), Aggava.msa writes:
"he leads the goat to the village", "the brahmin
asks Yaññadatta for a blanket", "He begs the rich
man for money", "He addressed the king about
this"; in these and others "goat" and so on are
called the direct object, "village" and so on the
indirect object.
Notes:
I believe that "'goat' and so on" refers to the
first obect in each example, i.e. goat,
Yaññadatta, the rich man, the king.
Likewise "'village' and so on" would refer to the
second object in each example, i.e. village,
blanket, money, this.
Do kathitakamma/akathitakamma correspond to
vuttakamma/avuttakamma in Bhante Pandita's
Relational Grammar doc ?
Words:
aja: goat
abravi: aorist < bruuti say, speak, tell
kathitakamma: literally 'declared object' direct object
kamma: (in grammar) object (of a verb), patient
kambala: (wool) blanket, sweater
gaama: village
dhana.m: wealth
nayati: leads
bhikkhati: beg (someone for something)
yaacati: request, beg
samiddha: rich, illustrious, successful
He continues by explaining why the one object is
kathitakamma while the other is akathitakamma. I
don't really follow his reasoning, so if anyone
can help, that would be great. My translation is
very tentative. This is clearly part of a wider
grammatical system, so looking at it in isolation
can be a bit difficult. Still it's interesting
just to see how the topic of double objects is
taken up:
Text, part two:
tathaa hi 'aja.m gaama.m nayatii' ti ettha ajo
kathitakamma.m / dvikammikaaya nayanakiriyaaya
pattum icchitatarattaa, gaamo pana appadhaanattaa
akathitakamma.m, esa nayo itaresu pi.
Translation:
Further, "he leads the goat to the village";
here the goat is the direct object / because of
its greater desirability (icchitatarattaa) to be
attained (pattum) through the action of leading
(nayanakiriyaaya) which has a dual object
(dvikammikaaya), 'village' however, because of
the lack of exertion, is the indirect object,
this method (applies) to the others as well.
Notes: here the idea of 'desirability' seems to
be a special grammatical term, rather than an
expression of what the agent _wants_ Because
obviously in the two examples involving begging
or requesting, the agent most desires the money
or blanket respectively, yet it's the person he
begs from which is accorded most desireable
status. So somehow the above is expressing a
grammatical feature of how the verbs work, where
one of the two objects is somehow more directly
the focus of the action. For example you lead the
_goat_, you don't lead the village etc.
Words:
appadhaana: a-(p)padhaana ???
icchita-tara-tta.m: desirable-more-ness, greater
desirability (-ttaa is the ablative form, hence,
'because of its greater desirability'
ettha: here, in this case
kiriyaa: verbal action, verb
dvikammika: having two objects
naya: method, procedure
nayana: leading, the act of leading
nayanakiriyaa: the verbal action of leading
pattu.m: infinitive, to attain, obtain