Hi John, Ole, Abhinavagupta and group,


John wrote:

> If I were to
>say in Pali, "Tomorrow I will go to the village and buy a mango", I
>think it would be something like "Suve gaama.m gantva amba.m
>ki.nissaami." Here both actions occur in the future, including the
>action of "going" indicated by the gerund. This could also be
>translated in English, as "Tomorrow, having gone to the village, I
>will buy a mango", but, as a native English speaker, I can assure you
>that this construction would be much less frequently used than the former.
>
>The gerund usually just indicates action preceding other actions, that
>is, the relative past, and does not necessarily describe the absolute
>past.

Ole wrote:

>The so-called gerund denotes in general an action preceding the action
>denoted by the finite verb. The example below claims aproximately: "Having
>entered the wood with their bows and killed the dear they will surely bring
>(it) back with them."
> > > 5.Addhaa te dhanuuni aadaaya vana.m pavisitvaa miga.m maaretvaa
> > > aanessanti.
>

I'd like to add a couple of references to round off these clear explanations and exemplifications:

"The gerund is not only subordinate to another verb but also expresses a certain temporal relation to that verb. The rule is that the action expressed by the gerund in time precedes that of the principal verb." Hendriksen, Hans, _Syntax of the Infinite Verb Forms of Pali_, Copenhagen 1944, §41, p 112

From Hendriksen's notes:

Kacc VII 2,15 (§566) pubbakaal-ekakattukaana.m tuuna tvaana tvaa vaa.
Sadd §1150, and vol I (Smith edition) p 311, 24-29

Both Kacc and Sadd provide examples of the gerund together with a finite verb in the future tense (Kacc: akaatuuna puñña.m kilamissanti ‚ Sadd: akaatuuna puñña.m kilissanti sattaa (not future!), Sadd: sutvaa jaanissaama, mantetvaa jaanissaama, bhutvaa gamissati).

The Kacc and Sadd examples are untraced AFAIK, so it would be helpful to find a couple of clear-cut examples of gerunds together with future-tense verbs in the literature (both canonical and commentarial).

best regards,

/Rett