Re: Vis. text and word derivations.

Dear members, a new member has recently joined us. Welcome to
the group, Christine! I hope you find it of some help in your studies.

Dear Nina,

N: Question: what kind of compound is: vedakakaarakanibbutagamakaabhaavato
It is interesting.

Jim: It's a cha.t.thitappurisa compound (the cha.t.thi refers to the sixth
or genitive case). This is how I resolve it: vedakakaarakanibbutagamakaana.m
(gen. pl.) abhaavato (because of the absence of . . .). The first part
(vedakakaarakanibbutagamakaana.m) is itself an itaretaradvandva compound and
the 'nibbuta' within it is also a compound (a kammadhaaraya). A compound
itself can contain several compounds.

Nina: Qu 2: I expected another negation here, after kiriyavaa: kaarako na,
kiriyaava vijjati;

Jim: I think it may be okay without a negation. When in doubt it is good to
compare different edns. for accuracy and to check the .tiikaa just to make
sure. If there was a negation there I think 'kiriyaava vijjati' would have
read 'kiriyaa na vijjati'. I can check this out after I return to the
cottage early next week.

Nina: Q. 3: pumaa, pumo is man, why pumaa, is it another word, a sandhi?

Jim: pumaa (not in PED under puman) is the regular nominative sing. form of
the stem 'puman' like 'raajaa' & 'attaa'. pumo comes from a different stem
(puma) and is declined like 'puriso'.

Nina: Another matter: word derivations. We try so hard to find the meaning,
for
example, of apilaapana, not floating away. I have read that some linguists
sometimes frown on Buddhaghosa's word derivations. Is there a discrepancy
between ideas of that time and of our time? But this would not bother me,
because his ideas were to make the meaning of the teachings clearer, not
linguistics. Therefore, I wonder whether we may go too far in finding the
derivation of a word when it is difficult to find. In many instances
derivations really help, they are good, also with regard to linguistics, but
should we not think of the goal in the first place? To me there are limits
to the usefulness of word derivations, or am I wrong here? I think also of
the word associations or, as it is said, word play, of Buddhaghosa. I think
he just had in mind to convey the real meaning of the teachings. Am I
correct here or is it that people are in this time unable to find the
derivation of a certain word and put the blame on Buddhaghosa?
Nina.

Jim: I see the commentaries of Buddhaghosa and suchlike as an indispensable
guide for Pali students, translators, and scholars alike. We'd be much worse
off if it weren't for these commentaries and we should be grateful that they
are still around to help us out. I don't know if we can ever go too far in
finding the right derivation of a word no matter how difficult that may be
since such an investigation might lead to recovering a lost meaning or
clearing up some doubt arising from the different readings. I think it is
very good to examine and verify the reliability of a text or its commentary.
How far one wants to go in this regard is entirely up to the individual. As
to myself, I like to know how Pali words are derived according to the
commentaries and the grammatical treatises and I will go to any length to
find out. There is a lot of valuable linguistic information given in the
commentaries which may not be so obvious at first. The gloss on 'ekaayano'
is a good example of showing the various types of compounds that can be read
into it. Note that ayano interpreted as ayitabbo is similar to the one of
vi~n~na.na (in a passage that some use to show that nibbaana is a mind
state) to vijaanitabba (cognizable).

Best wishes,
Jim


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