Re: Interrogative pronoun at end of sentence

Dear Ven. Nyanatusita,

Two things to note about the Kumārapañha and Khuddakapāṭha:

1. The Kumārapañha is a short summary of AN V 50ff. There we have: eko
pañho eko uddeso ekaṃ veyyākaraṇaṃ etc. So ekaṃ nāma kim is referring to
that.

2. The Khuddakapāṭha is listed as part of the contents of the
Khuddakanikāya in various commentaries of the School of Buddhaghosa. So
it predates the fourth/fifth century. Moreover, the very fact that it
was commented on by Buddhaghosa or, more probably, by someone close to
him in time shows that it was already authoritative and a recognised
part of the Canon. Most probably the source for this was the earlier
Sinhaḷa aṭṭhakathā. I would have thought it must precede the third
century as a compilation. If so, it would belong to the period of the
paracanonical texts, not to the commentarial period.

Lance Cousins

On 03/02/2015 17:46, Nyanatusita nyanatusita@... [palistudy] wrote:
>  Dear Lance,
>>
>> But we don't have examples of this usage from the Pali commentaries,
>> only for the ṭīkā period onwards.
>>
>
> Yes. The tikas were written much later. Possibly there are similar
> catechisms for young students in Brahmanical works.
>
>>
>> On the placing of words at the beginning of the sentence in order to
>> emphasize them, see: Bodhiprasiddhinand, P. (2003). /Word order in early
>> Pāli prose texts/, Oxford. D.Phil.
>>
>
> This has not been published.
>
>>
>> As I read the Majjhimanikāya with students, I find many examples of this
>> practice. In this particular case, the numbers are being deliberately
>> emphasized; so the usage is completely appropriate.
>>
>
> This makes sense. I read that Latin poets also did this since in Latin
> too the case endings of words determine the relation of words to the
> others. In English emphasising in this manner is more difficult
> because of the absence of case endings.
>
>> One could also
>> punctuate differently as Petra suggested, but I do not feel comfortable
>> with a sentence consisting of ekaṃ nāma only.
>>
>
> Yes, it feels odd.
>
> Best wishes,
>                            Bh Nt