Clauses & Relative Pronouns - Part 1

First let’s look at what a clause is and explain some terminology. Learning this terminology helps when reading grammar guides like Warder.

Clauses - an overview

Previously I said that sentence consisted in a noun phrase + a verb phrase. Strictly this is the description of a clause. A sentence can involve one or more clauses joined by conjunctions.

clause noun verb John shouted		clause pronoun verb everybody waved
	conj
	and

A clause always has a subject and a verb - even if the subject is implied or indefinite.
Whereas, Phrases are groups of words that act as a unit, often playing the role of a noun or verb, which are then built up to form clauses. A phrase formally is one or more words that act as one of the parts of speech i.e. a noun, a verb, a preposition etc. A phrase may act as the subject but it doesn't possess a subject itself.

There are different ways to classify clauses. One is as independent vs. dependent / subordinate. An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence, while a subordinate clause requires an independent clause in order for it to make sense. The two clauses in the example above are both independent clauses as either one can stand as a sentence on its own. Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet) are used to join independent clauses to make a compound sentence.

clause noun verb John shouted		sub-clause verb adverb waved excitedly
	conj
	and

Now in this example the second clause is subordinate to the first as it only makes sense when joined to the first independent clause. In this situation the first clause is sometimes termed the main clause and its verb is the main (or finite) verb of the sentence. The subject of the subordinate clause is implied, being the same as that of the main clause. An independent clause joined to one or more subordinate clauses is called a complex sentence.
Subordinating conjunctions are used to join dependent and independent clauses. English has a wide range of subordinate conjunctions: 'that, if, though, although, because, when, while, after, before' etc. which can be grouped by purpose:

• Causative: as, because, in order that, since, so that,
• Comparative: although, as though, just as, while,
• Conditional: if, in case, provided that, unless,
• Spacial: where, wherever,
• Temporal: after, as soon as, before, once, until, when, while.

Relative Clauses

Relative clauses start with relative pronouns which act as subordinating conjunctions to create a subordinate relative clause.  In English these are clauses starting with pronouns such as: 'who, that, which, whose, where, when'. etc. In Pali, they are formed from declensions of the pronoun 'ya', like we saw in the last post.

OK so far so good, so lets break down a sentence.

The man, who visited yesterday, stole a book

The main clause of this sentence is ‘the man stole a book’. Embedded into this is the relative clause ‘who visited yesterday’. The relative pronoun ‘who’ refers to ‘the man’ in the main cause (technically called the antecedent). Sometimes a pronoun is included in the main clause; this is then called a co-relative and also refers back to ‘the man’.

Main clause
	relative clause relative pronoun   who visited yesterday
antecedent		co-relative
The man		he	stole a book

Whereas English embeds, Pali separates out the relative and main clauses, usually placing the relative clause first (though this can be reversed for emphasis or to imply a question).

relative clause relative pronoun antecedent   who the man visited yesterday

main clause co-relative   he stole a book

The relative clause can be identified due it always beginning with a relative pronoun or relative adverb. The main clause usually starts with a co-relative (either a demonstrative or personal pronoun). Notice the difference in position of the antecedent between the English and Pali  sentences.

So in order to unscramble a relative construction in Pali,  the antecedent must first be identified and then moved to the beginning of the translated clause. To do this, the relative pronoun will agree in number and gender with its antecedent noun (or pronoun). Note, in Pali if the antecedent, is a noun, it is placed in the relative clause but if it is a pronoun it remains in the main clause.

Pali Relative clauses in 'ya' & 'ta' stems

The various inflections of the pronouns 'ya' (relative) and 'ta' (3rd pers / demonstrative) form the majority of relative clauses in Pali. So let's work through an example:

relative clause ye dhammā na manasi-karaṇīyā, nom nom indec nom m m   m pl pl   pl pn-rel     fut pass part which/ what phenomena not ought to pay attention phenomena which (one) ought not pay attention

main clause te dhamme manasi-karoti acc acc pres. act m m   pl pl sgl     3rd pers they/ those phenomena (he) pays attention (to) those phenomena he pays attention

Firstly, the relative pronoun must match the antecedent in gender & number if it is present in the relative clause. Here it must be ‘dhammā’ as  ‘manasikaraṇīyā’ although the right gender & number, is a participle and the antecedent must be a noun or pronoun. So ‘dhammā’ is to what the relative pronoun and the co-relative both refer. The main verb abides by the normal rules having its subject (the antecedent) in nominative and its object in accusative, though it seems to have lost its plurality.

They can be a bit tricky to get your head round, so here's another.

relative clause yā buddhānaṃ sāmukkaṃsikā dhamma+desanā nom dat/gen nom nom f m f f sgl pl sgl sgl pn-rel       whatever of the Buddhas praised (the) exposition of dhamma	main clause taṃ pakāsesi acc past cause f   sgl sgl pn-dem 3rd pers that (he) made known
whatever exposition of dhamma (is) praised of the Buddhas, that (he) made known

Note: sāmukkaṃsika is an adjective form of samukkaṃsati 'praises' (lit: to drag-up). Again, the relative pronoun must match the antecedent in gender & number if it is present in the relative clause. Here it must be Dhammadesanā. So this is to what the relative pronoun and the co-relative both refer. It is that which is both ‘praised by the Buddhas’ and ‘made known’.

He made known the the exposition of dhamma, which the Buddhas praise

Remember, if the antecedent, is a noun, it is placed in the relative clause but if it is a pronoun it remains in the main clause. There was an example in the last post:

relative clause yo maṃ passati nom acc pres, act. m m   sgl sgl sgl pn-rel pn-1st 3rd pers who me (he) sees (He) who sees me

main clause so dhammaṃ passati nom acc pres, act. m m   sgl sgl sgl pn-3rd   3rd pers he (the) dhamma sees He sees the dhamma

Literally:

He, who sees me, sees the Dhamma.

Here's a video intro to Relative pronouns & clauses in Pali:

Learn Pali Grammar: Relative Pronouns & Clauses #1

In this Pali language tutorial we take a look at the grammar of relative pronouns & relative clauses both in English and the Pali language.

Empty Relatives

Relative pronouns yaṃ & yathā are sometimes ‘empty’; meaning they serve simply as markers of the clause and if necessary can be translated as ‘that’, 'as', or 'so'.

main clause			relative clause
dhammatā	esā,	bhikkhave,	yaṃ	sukhino	cittaṃ	samādhiyati
nom	nom	voc	acc	dat/gen,	nom	pres pass
f	f	m		m	m
sgl	sgl	pl	sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl
	pn-dem
natural law	it/this	O monks	which/ what	(one) at ease	the mind	calm (for)
this (is) a natural law, o monks			that the mind (is) calm for (one) at ease

Relative + Demonstrative pronouns

A demonstrative pronoun immediately following a relative can mean something like: ‘that which’, ‘he who’ or just 'which/whatever'. If there is no relative clause then it may just be emphatic ‘just as’… especially if followed by an emphatic (y)eva ‘just this’…

relative clause					main clause
yo	so	satto	paṭhamaṃ	upapanno	tassa	evaṃ	hoti
nom	nom	nom	adv	nom	dat/gen	adv	pres, act
m	m	m		m	m
sgl	sgl	sgl		sgl	sgl		sgl
pn-rel	pn-dem			past part	pn-3rd		3rd pers
which/ what	he/that	being	firstly	arose	of he, his, its	thus	is
that being, who arose first, of him thus is…

'Yena - Tena' Constructions

Although the accusative case is often used to express the destination of motion, an alternative form is to use a ‘yena –tena’ relative clause construction. This literally translates as ‘where…there…’ in locative. The destination of the verb’s motion follows ‘yena’ and usually the thing doing the moving and the verb follows the ‘tena’ term. This results in constructions like:

Relative clause relative pronoun   where the ascetic

Main clause co-relative   there the minister approaches

And now some examples in Pali:

		relative clause			main clause
te	brāhmaṇā	yena	kūṭadanto	brāhmaṇo	ten’	upasaṅkamiṃsu
nom	nom	adv	nom	nom	adv	aor, act
m	m		m	m
pl	pl		sgl	sgl		pl
pn-3rd		adv-rel			adv-rel	3rd pers
those	brahmins	where	kūṭadanta	the brahmin	there	(they) approached
Those Brahmins approached Kūṭadanta the Brahmin

To analyse this sentence, we can see the verb agrees with its subject, being ‘those bramins’ in plural 3rd pers. The relative pronoun ‘yena’ agrees with its object: the phrase ‘Kūṭadanta the Brahmin’. Notice within a ‘yena – tena’ clause the destination (i.e. the yena part) is expressed in the nominative case – and not the accusative.

			relative clause			main clause
ehi	tvaṃ,	māṇavaka,	yena	samaṇo	ānando	ten’	upasaṅkama
imp	nom	voc	adv	nom	nom	adv	imp
		m		m	m
sgl	sgl	sgl		sgl	sgl		sgl
2nd pers	pn-2nd		adv-rel			adv-rel	2nd pers
come here	you	young man	where	the recluse	ānanda	there	(you) go/approach
Young man! Come here! (& you) go to the recluse Ananda

In this example, the verb of the yena - tena clause is a 2nd person imperative of ‘to approach’ i.e. an insistent go! As the name suggests, the imperative form of verbs express commands but also invitations or wishes. However, the 2nd person is usually reserved for commands. A verb’s subject is identified by a noun/pronoun in identical number & person, here it is the pronoun ‘you’.

Imperative verbs (when not part of a yena - tena construction) often occur at the beginning of a sentence. Here ‘ehi’ is the imperative of eti ‘to come’ and this is accompanied by a noun in vocative case which denotes a form of address similar to ‘dear sir’, or in this case ‘Young man’.

A second post on Pali clauses will follow.

But in the next post we'll look at The passive voice and passive sentences in Pali.