Dear Nina

Thank you for forwarding to me your post to Pali list. I think I have
some comments.

You wrote:

>we are used to the trilineair translations, but the relation of word to
>word is important in order to penetrate to the deep meaning of the texts.
>
>

I must admit I don't understand the term "trilinear translations" Would
you please explain?

>Bhante:
>
>A.2. Nominal Identity (Denominative) Relation1 [NID]
> The special feature of this relation is the indeclinable "naama" meaning
>"by name". Otherwise, it is similar to the Nominal Identity (ordinary)
>relation.
>e.g.saro Nandaa naama = (The) lake (is) Nandaa by name, i.e., called Nandaa.
>saro ---> Nandaa (NID)
>
>
>N: We could also say: what is designated by the name Nandaa? It is a lake.
>
>

Perhaps you mean that that short sentence can also be translated as
"What designated by the name Nandaa is a lake" However, if the content
of the sentence, or the translation in this case, is to change, the
relations inherent in the sentence must also change. In this case, you
must reverse the direction of the relation as follows to justify the new
version:

Nandaa (naama) ---> saro (NIO)

*** The content of the translated version of a Pali sentence must
correspond to, and be justified by, the set of relationships therein. ***

>Text Vis: viirabhaavo viiriya.m. ta.m ussahanalakkha.na.m,
>'Energy' (viriya) is the state of one who is vigorous (viraa).
>Its characteristic is marshalling (driving).
>
>

I'd like to discuss the second sentence. It is a perfect example of NIO.
ta.m ---> ussahanalakkha.na.m (NIO) [Note that they of the same case,
gender and number, and thereby, possibly of the same content]

Now a problem arises. The pronoun "ta.m" refers to "viiriya"(a sort of
cetasika) mentioned in the preceding sentence; how could it be identical
with "ussahanalakkha.na.m" meaning "the characteristic of marshaling
(driving)"?

This problem can be solved by explaining " ussahanalakkha.na.m" as a
relative compound (bahubbiihi samaasa) It should be literally translated
as "one having the characteristic of marshaling". Then the whole
sentence should be translated as follows:

"This is one (i.e., a type of cetasika) having the characteristic of
marshaling"

>The Tiika to this passage:
>Viirabhaavoti yena viiro naama hoti, so dhammoti attho.
>As to the words, the state of one who is vigorous, that a vigorous person,
>someone who is so called, actually is a dhamma (so dhammoti attho).
>
>

Let's see the word "Viirabhaavoti" first. It is what we call a
sa.mva.n.netabba ( I have tentatively translated it as "commented
unit"), some word or phrase quoted by commentators to comment upon. We
usually view such a word as an indeclinable compound to be translated as
"the word viirabhaavo", etc.. In this sentence, it can be viewed as
having genitive case and related to "attho" in Possessor relation (POS).

viirabhaavoti ---> attho (POS)

The whole clause "yena viiro naama hoti, so dhammoti" is viewed as an
indeclinable compound related to "attho" in Nominal Identity (NIO) relation.

yena viiro naama hoti, so dhammoti ---> attho (NIO)

Then we can do the preliminary translation as "'yena viiro naama hoti,
so dhammo' is the meaning of the word 'viirabhaavo'"

Now we can analyze that clause "yena, etc." further. You see, "yena" is
a relative pronoun identical with "so" in the following clause. I will
give the relations directly.

yena ---> hoti (CAU) [ See the Causality relation for the Instrumental
case in RG]
viiro (naama) --- hoti (DASD) [See the Double Active Subject
(Denominative) relation in RG]

If you check with RG, you would notice that DASD requires two active
subjects; here there is only one, namely, "viiro". Where is another?

Here we should introduce the Principle of Text Insertion
(/paa.thasesa/), which permits inserting certain text if something is
missing with the relation required. It is nothing but ellipsis in other
words.

In this context, we may insert "yokoci = 'someone'" Then the relation
would become like this:

yokoci ---> hoti (DASD - P) [Double Active Subject (Denominative) -
Primary Subject relation]
viiro ---> hoti (DASD - S) [Double Active Subject (Denominative) -
Secondary Subject relation]

Then the translation of the relative clause would be as follows:

"One by which (someone) is named a hero ..."

You see, it is not complete yet in English syntax.

Now for "so dhammo".

so ---> dhammo (IAD) [See the Identical Adjective relation in RG]
dhammo ---> ?

We must apply the text insertion again because "dhammo" is hanging in
the air, i.e., nothing to be related to.

In this context, we may insert "viirabhaavo" Then:

dhammo ---> viirabhaavo (NIO)

Then the relative clause and the following one can be combined to be
translated as:

"That dhamma by which (someone) is named a hero is /viirabhaava/"

Then the whole sentence can be translated as:

The meaning "That dhamma by which (someone) is named a hero (is
/viirabhaava/)" is the sense of "viirabhaava"

Here we should note an important point: in this example, the scope of
/iti/ is " yena viiro naama hoti, so dhammo" One principle of RG is that
such a clause must be self-contained. In other words, all necessary
relations must be defined complete within the scope.* No word in the
scope can be related to another out of the scope*.

Nina, don't you think your example is too difficult for beginners? I
think it is.

with metta

Ven. Pandita


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