Hi Nina,

Just to add a few remarks to the good answer you got from Stephen,

>Hi Rett, thank you. The example are helpful.
>I still find it difficult to see the difference between tapurisa and
>bahubihi, and especially when there is a combination of the two.
>sword-tp3-fight. tp : why tapurisa?

The reason it's not a bahubbiihi is that sword-fight _is_ a fight.

Suppose you had the (kammadhaaraya, but that's unimportant) compound: "strong-arm".

If by this you mean "an arm which is strong" then it is not a bahubbiihi, because the referent is the arm, which is the final word of the compound.

But suppose the same expression,"strong-arm", were used in a series of epithets for Conan the Barbarian in an epic poem: From the rude North, borne on icy winds, there came Conan the Barbarian, foe-slayer, wolf-tamer, bright-sword, strong-arm, mage-hater....

The expressions "Strong-arm" and "Bright-sword" don't refer to an arm or a sword respectively. If the above were in Sanskrit or Pali they'd refer to Conan, _whose arm is strong_ and _whose sword is bright_. (in English they don't actually work, so the above promising opening to a great poem would be red-penned by the editor)

Foe-slayer and wolf-tamer are not bahubbiihis because Conan really _is_ the slayer, and really _is_ the tamer. So they are mere tappurisas, precisely like in the above example with sword-fight.

Strong-arm, however, is a bahubbiihi because Conan _has_ the arm. The same goes for 'Bright-sword'. One can imagine a wench in a tavern sidling up to Conan and saying 'hi there, bright-sword', or some of the king's henchmen saying to each other 'why don't you go ask Strong-arm over there'. In both cases the referent of the expression is the person being described, not the final member of the compound.

>
>What is the practical use of knowing such differences? Does it prevent going
>wrong in translations?

Yes, because bahubbiihis are not normal in English. We can easily intuit the sense of tappurisas and kammadhaarayas because we have similar compounds in English (and Dutch, I believe). But bahubbiihis aren't normal in English which is why we need to learn the rules. Our intuition won't get us very far with those forms. The same goes for dvandvas which are also exotic sounding to native English speakers.

best regards,

/Rett

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