Participles [active] & Absolute clauses - Part 2

The last post looked at participle acting in passive sentences. In this post we'll continues with participles in active Pali sentences, and specifically Present Participles.

Just as a reminder, in an active sentence, the grammatic subject in nominative and the actor doing the action of the main verb will be the same; and the verb will agree in gender & number with this agent/subject. A transitive verb may also take an object in accusative.

Present Participles (Active)

Present participles in English are easy to spot as they all end with ‘–ing’.
Present participles are used in several ways:

Adjective like:

• as verbal adjectives, (a modifier to a noun)
  The smiling girl..., the bouncing ball...
• as subject complements, (with copula)
  The girl is smiling..., the ball is bouncing...
• in subordinate clauses,
  the girl walked along, bouncing the ball

Verb like:

• in periphrasis - combination with other auxiliary verbs to create aspect,
  The girl will be smiling..., the ball had been bouncing...

Noun like:

• & occasionally as verbal nouns (usually masculine singular)
  Smiling is good..., he hated queueing...

In Pāli, Present Participles occur as modifiers to other nouns or in subordinate clauses, but do not stand alone as finite verbs (though they can function as such with an auxiliary in periphrasis). Thus when not an adjective they are always accompanied by another verb.
Present participles (active), are formed from the present stem of verbs by adding the suffixes –an, -nt or –māna , -ayamāna and declining like nouns. By far the most frequent is -nt which can be attached to most verbs.
These then decline like a/ā.

	Masculine		Neuter		Feminine
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	-aṃ, -anto	-anto, -antā	-aṃ, -antaṃ	-antā -antāni	-antī	-antīyo
Accusative	-antaṃ	-anto, -ante	-antaṃ	-ante, -antāni	-antiṃ

More on the derivation of participles in a future post.

as Adjectives

As adjectives, present participles agree in number, case, & gender with the nouns they qualify (usually preceding but may also follow that noun).

addasaṃ	sāmaṇeraṃ	vehāsaṃ	gacchantaṃ
aor	acc	acc	acc
	m	m	m
sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl
1st			pres. part.
(I) saw	a monk	the sky.	going moving

Taken literally this reads 'I saw a sky going monk' but may better be rendered

'I saw a monk going (flying) through the sky'.

in subordinate clauses

A subordinate clause can act as a modifier to a noun (adjectival), or to a verb or clause (adverbial).

addasā	te	bhikkhū	dūratova	āgacchante
aor	acc	acc	adv	acc
	m	m		m
sgl	pl	pl		pl
3rd per	pn-3rd			pres. part.
he saw	they/those	monks	from afar	coming
he saw the monks, coming from afar

Notice that the present participle ‘āgacchante’ matches its subject ‘the monks’ in case, number & gender. The 3rd person pronoun ‘te’ here could be taken as either ‘those’ or the indefinite ‘the’. The whole phrase ‘the monks coming’ is in accusative indicating it is the object of the main verb ‘he saw’. The fact the main verb is at the beginning of the sentence adds emphasis. It could equally be rendered

'He saw those monks, (who were) coming from afar'.

In Pali, like English, the present participles (both active & passive) tend towards the expression of unfinished or continuing action, so are aligned with the imperfect (progressive) verb aspect rather than the perfect (completed).
When acting as non-finite verbs in a subordinate clause they specify actions that occur at the same time as the action of the main verb. So its common to translate with “while” or “when” + present participle.

saramāno	rodi	saramāno	rodati	saramāno	rodissati
nom	aor	nom		nom	fut
m		m		m
sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl
pres part	3rd	pres part	3rd	pres part	3rd
remembering	wept	remembering	weeps	remembering	will weep
While remembering, he wept		While remembering, he weeps		While remembering, he will weep

Note  the term ‘present’ in present participle does not mean present tense but refers to their simultaneous action with the main verb. In fact they can be used in any tense; as in the three examples above.
An exception to this is the Present participle 'samāna' (from √as) which emphasises a present perfect aspect (having done ??)

Note: the suffix -māna is often identified as the reflexive or middle Present Participle. But as the example above indicates it has lost its reflexive meaning and is used predominantly like a Present participle in active voice.
And a present participle accompanied by the particle ‘pi’  may be rendered as “although,” introducing a concessionary clause. E.g.

‘evam pi aham karonto’  => 'although I act in this way'...

Locative, Genitive & Accusative Absolute clauses

An interesting clause construction involving participles is the absolute clause (not to be confused with absolutives) . Whereas nearly all clauses in Pali take the same agent as the main verb, absolute clauses do not - their agent being different or impersonal (no specific agent).  They are never full sentences in themselves but are in a way separate from the main clause as the agent and action are different from that of the main clause. Eg. 

Barring bad weather, we plan to go to the beach tomorrow

They always involves a participle (usually a present participle) and a noun, pronoun or phrase all in the same case. Their distinguishing feature is that the agent of the participle is non-specific or different from the agent of the main clause. In other words, there will be no word in the main clause that the noun/pronoun or participle modifies. The participle and its subject noun/pronoun should agree in case, gender & number.
In Pali, the absolute clause looses its normal case based meaning and often takes on the sense of:

• ‘although…’, ‘despite…’, ‘even though…’, or ‘disregarding…’ another’s wishes.
• or ‘when’, ‘while’, ‘after’, ‘because’ and ‘although’...

They occur mainly in Locative, sometimes in Genitive & rarely in Accusative case.

Here are some examples:

Accusative Absolute

santaṃ+yeva	kho	pana	paraṃ	lokaṃ	‘natthi	paro	loko’ti	vācaṃ	bhāsati
Acc	ind	ind	Acc	Acc		ind	Nom	Acc	Pres
m			m	m			m	f
sgl			sgl	sgl	sgl		sgl	sgl	sgl
Pres part					3rd				3rd pers
existing also		but	other	world	non-existent	other	world	says	(he) says
But (despite) the other world existing					He says ‘the other world (does) not exist’

Although very rare it is possible to form an absolute in the accusative case. Analyzing the above two clauses: Always tricky, 'sant' here is a present participle derived from atthi, ‘to exist’. It, and the matching noun phrase ‘the other world’ are in accusative masculine. There is no obvious agent expressed so the agent of the main clause is the implied 3rd person ‘he’. This is different from that of the participle (‘the other world’), thus we can place 'despite' at the head of the subordinate clause. For more on Accusative absolutes See Syntax of the Cases.

Genitive absolute

Although more common the genitive absolute is still rare. For more on Genitive absolutes See Syntax of the Cases.

tassa	evaṃ	jānato	evaṃ	passato	kāmāsavā’pi	cittaṃ	vimuccati
gen	adv	gen	adv	gen	abl	nom	pres,act
m		m		m	m	n
sgl		sgl		sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl
pn-dem		pres part		pres part			3rd pers
this, it	thus	knowing	thus	seeing	from desirous inflows	mind	freed
(when) knowing & seeing it thus, his mind (is) freed from desirous inflows

Locative absolutues

By far the most common is the locative absolute, consisting of a noun (or pronoun) and a participle, both in the locative case. While the other absolutes tend to mainly use the present participle, with the locative both past and present participles are common. Present participles tends to carry the meaning ‘when’, ‘while’. And a past participle tends to indicate an event prior to the main clause, ‘after’ ‘because’ and ‘although’. For more on Locative absolutes See Syntax of the Cases.

setamhi	chatte	anuhīramāne	sabbā	ca	disā	viloketi
loc	loc	loc	acc	indec	acc	pres. act
n	n	n	f		f
sgl	sgl	sgl	pl		pl	sgl
		pres part				3rd per
white	umbrella	being suppoted	all every	and	(pl.) regions	looks
he surveys all the regions, while a white parasol is held up (over him)

sabbā disā 'every region' is the object of the verb (he looks). The agent appears to be omitted. anuhīramāne is a present participle meaning 'being supported, held up' with its object 'the white parasol'.

jātiyā	sati	jarā+maraṇaṃ	hotī
loc	loc	nom	pres. act
f	n	n
sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl
	pres part		3rd per
birth	being/is	decay & death	is
(when) birth is		decay & death is

'sati' here is the locative of the present participle sant from atthi (being) – and not sati meaning mindfulness! Also do not confuse the present participle sant with the past participle santa from the verb √sam, meaning ‘calmed’. It is tempting to see this as an absolute but I notice there is a clash in gender between  'jāti'=  f, & 'sati' = m,n. therefore jāti might well be in instrumental meaning 'due to'. (?)  However 'sati' as a present participle is often found in locative absolute constructions to express ‘if, because, such being the case’ - some more examples below - and it does very much fit with the context of the sentence.

atthe sati,  ‘if there be need’;
evam sati,  ‘such being the case’;
payoge sati,  ‘when there is occasion’;
puccāya sati,  ‘if the question be asked’;
ruciyā sati,  ‘had he the desire, if he had the wish’. 

with Auxiliary Verbs

Present participles in peripharis with auxilary verbs are rare. Most often present participles form subordinate clauses. But the odd example exists.

sayāno	'mhi
nom
m
sgl	sgl
	1st
lying	(I) am
I am lying (down)

Here 'mhi (elided form of amhi) is 1st pers. sgl of atthi '(I) am'.

as Verbal nouns

Occasionally if they are not modifying anything, present participles (mostly in masculine singular) can behave like nouns. These are often like agent-nouns referring to ‘the one who’ is the doer of the action.

jānato	passato	āsavānaṃ	khayo	hoti
dat	dat	gen	nom
m	m	m	m
sgl	sgl	pl	sgl	sgl
pres part	pres part			3rd pers
for knowing	for seeing	of pollutants	destruction	is.
For (one) knowing, seeing, destruction of the pollutants occurs

Here the terms in Dative refer to the one who knows and sees - a knower & seer...

The Perfect or Past Participle Active

Any past participle in Pali, as described previously, can be used in an active sense. In addition, there are a rare set of past participles formed by adding -vā or vī  (from –vant) to the past passive participle itself which are then specifically active in meaning.

These are sometimes called the perfect participles active. This participle usually implies the possession of the quality of the participle. Generally they can be translated by placing ‘having’ before the participle, which gives them their perfect aspect.

written -> having written / has written

They are used either as verbs, adjectivally or as complements. As verbs they are active and take an agent in the nominative and may take a patient in the accusative.

antavā	attā	hoti
nom	nom	pres. act
m	m
sgl	sgl	sgl
past part, act		3rd pers
(having) an end	(the) self	is
the self is having an end (limited)

They can often be found in Locative absolute constructions, but they also allow the creation of sentences where the subject of past participles is placed in nominative rather than the instrumental.

Future active participles

According to Warder (pg.104) an active future participle can be formed, but it is hardly ever used: in the entire Pali Canon there is only one example. Collins identifies a few from the future stem:

 mariss + ant -> marissaṃ 

Well, that's about it for participles. Next we'll look at some Verbals in Pali...