"initiatory" imperfect in epic sanskrit

[Guest guest]

Dear list, I wonder if anyone else has felt in reading epic sanskrit that

the imperfect sometimes seems to have what I vaguely recall was called the

initiatory sense in ancient greek (don't have a greek grammar here), that

is, the signification of action

begun and continuing. I do not find this meaning of the imperfect in Kale's

grammar or in Thomas Oberlies' nice new grammar of epic sanskrit, so I guess

it is not a sense described by the old grammarians, but I

sometimes feel that the imperfect in the epics anyway might have this sense.

In this verse from the Vanaparvan of the Bharata:

 

bhiimasya paadau kRtvaa tu sva utsaGge tato balaat|

paryamardata saMhRSTaa kalyaaNii mRdupaaNinaa||

 

I feel this as possibly meaning, "she began to rub" instead of just "she

rubbed".

 

Phillip

[Guest guest]

I believe that it is not so much the "imperfect" ending, but the

basic meaning of the verb root that gives the durative/progressive

sense. The 'initiatory' sense is coming perhaps just from the

context, if this is the first time she is doing this action, rather

than connected with punaH punaH etc. There would be a natural

durative/non-durative distinction between a verb like 'touch' versus

'rub'. There is a whole literature in modern semantics on the types

of verbs and how they combine with the semantics of affixes etc.

For example, in normal English, the progressive use of 'know' such as

'I am knowing him', does not seem correct, because 'know' refers to

the resulting state, rather than the process of arriving at such a

state. On the other hand, something like 'I am watching him' seems

fine, because the verb 'watch' inherently contains a durative sense.

A few bibliographic suggestions in this direction are as follows: 1)

"The effects of aspectual class on the temporal structure of

discourse," In Linguistics and Philosophy, vol. 9, pp. 37-61, 1986;

2) Vendler, Zeno (1967): Linguistics in Philosophy, Ithaca, Cornell

University Press; 3) Kenny, Anthony (1963): Actions, Emotions and

Will, Humanities Press; 4) Ryle, Gilbert (1949): The Concept of Mind,

London; 5) Comrie, Bernard (1976), Aspect: An Introduction to the

Study of Verbal Aspect and Related Problems, Cambridge, Cambridge

University Press. I have myself touched on some of these related

questions in my article "Justification for Verb Root Suppletition in

Sanskrit," in Historische Sprachforschung, Vol. 105 (1992), no. 1,

pp. 18-49.

 

Madhav Deshpande

 

INDOLOGY, phillip.ernest@v... wrote:

> Dear list, I wonder if anyone else has felt in reading epic

sanskrit that

> the imperfect sometimes seems to have what I vaguely recall was

called the

> initiatory sense in ancient greek (don't have a greek grammar here)

, that

> is, the signification of action

> begun and continuing. I do not find this meaning of the imperfect

in Kale's

> grammar or in Thomas Oberlies' nice new grammar of epic sanskrit,

so I guess

> it is not a sense described by the old grammarians, but I

> sometimes feel that the imperfect in the epics anyway might have

this sense.

> In this verse from the Vanaparvan of the Bharata:

>

> bhiimasya paadau kRtvaa tu sva utsaGge tato balaat|

> paryamardata saMhRSTaa kalyaaNii mRdupaaNinaa||

>

> I feel this as possibly meaning, "she began to rub" instead of just

"she

> rubbed".

>

> Phillip