Non-Finite verbs [Verbals]: Infinitives & Absolutives

In the last couple of posts I’ve been looking at verb participles. They are a verb form that although called past & present actually have little to do with tense/time and are mainly associated with verb aspect – the extent to which an action is completed. When they are not playing in the role of main (finite) verb of a sentence they are called non-finite (or infinite) verbs as they aren't 'limited' by tense. In other words, a non-finite verb is any verb that is not the main tense marked verb of the sentence.

As such they tend to act or function as verbal adjectives and are thus often called 'Verbals'. Verbal adjectives act like verbs - in that they form a verb phrase, possibly taking objects and other dependents and modifiers of verbs - however that verb phrase then plays the role of an attributive adjective in the larger sentence.

In Pali they can be divided into two groups:

• declinable &
• non- or indeclinable. 

Participles form the declinable group - taking case like nouns. In this post we’ll look at the indeclinable types of which there are two:

• the infinitive &
• the absolutive. 

And also for completeness mention some nouns acting as verbs and verbs acting as nouns i.e. the agent noun, abstract nouns and action nouns.

Infinitives 

In English infinitives are the ‘to’ expression of verbs. The infinitive form of ‘play’ is ‘to play’, ‘go’, ‘to go’ etc. The infinitive expresses the sense ‘for the purpose of’, or ‘in order to’. They imply a wish or desire ‘to do something’.

John left home to play football.

Although formed from verbs, they function like nouns and can be employed in various roles. For example:

To wait seemed foolish.   (subject)
Everyone wanted to go.  (direct object)
His ambition is to fly.   (subject complement)
He lacked the strength to resist.  (adjective)
We must study to learn.   (adverb)

The infinitive in Pali is usually formed by adding the suffix -(i)tuṃ to the present stem or, in historical forms, to the verbal root. Other infinitive suffixes, inherited from Vedic are: –tave, -tuye, -tāye, -tase . However the suffix -tuṁ is by far the most common. They are indeclinable and thus take no personal endings.

puccha -ituṃ = pucchituṃ   to ask
vihara -ituṃ = viharituṃ    to dwell
√gam -tuṃ = gantuṃ   to go
mara -tuye = marituye   to die

Like English, they are mainly used to express purpose - overlapping in meaning with the dative noun case (of purpose) and dative nouns in -āya may often be used with an infinitive sense.

pañhaṃ	pucchituṃ	āgacchanti
acc	infin	pres, act
m
sgl		pl
		3rd pers
a question	to ask	they approach
they approach (in order) to ask a question

buddhānaṃ	sāsanaṃ	manasi	kātuṃ
dat/gen	nom/acc	loc	infin
m	n	m
pl	sgl	sgl
the buddhas’	teaching	in mind	to do
to do in mind (to give thought to) the teaching of the Buddhas

Infinitives can be used in either active or passive sentences without changing form. To translate the active is trivial eg. pucchituṃ ‘to ask’, but with the passive occurrence we need in English to substitute the past participle eg. ‘to be asked’ in order to maintain the passive voice.

Absolutives [Gerund]

The absolutive verb form is sometimes referred to by European Pali scholars as a gerund. This is a little confusing as traditional English grammar uses this term but in a different sense! (that of action nouns, so be warned). Also the absolutive/gerund shouldn’t be confused with a gerundive or for that matter the absolute clause constructions.

Absolutives can be compared to the present participle. Where the present participle indicates an action that occurs at the same time as the main verb, the absolutive verb form indicates an action that came before or along side the main verb. Eg.

Having ridden his bike, Jack had a puncture.

In Pali they take the ending –tvā, -tvāna sometimes -āya or -ya (cca) and being indeclinable take no case, number or gender (which has lead some to describe absolutives as "indeclinable past participles"). The suffix -tvā is the most common and -ya is generally only used with verbs which are prefixed.

upasaṅkamitvā = having approached
karitvā = having done
gantvā = having gone
uṭṭhāya = having stood up
ādāya = having taken
vivicca (-ya) = having become separated

It is typical to translate the absolutive verb as:

having done x…" or "when he had x …" "after he had x … 

yānā	paccorohitvā	pattiko’va	ārāmaṃ	pāvisi
abl	absol	nom	acc	aor, act
n		m	m
sgl		sgl	sgl	sgl
				3rd pers
from a carriage	having alighted	on foot	park	he entered
having alight from a carriage, he entered the park on foot

The agent of the absolutive clause, like with most Pali clauses, is the same as that of the main verb. And as absolutives usually appear at the end of a subordinate clause, this makes them helpful when parsing sentence structure. It’s typical for a Pali sentence to be string of clauses each with a separate patient (i.e. the thing affected) terminating with a participle or absolutive, all preceding the main clause and verb. In this way the same agent can be described as performing series of actions.

yathābhūtaṃ	viditvā	kāma’taṇhaṃ	pahāya
adverb	absol	acc	absol
		f
		sgl
as it is, (reality)	having known	thirst & want	having left
having understood the reality, & having let go thirst & want

kāma’pariḷāhaṃ	paṭivinodetvā	vigata’pipāso	ajjhattaṃ	vūpasanta’citto	viharāmi
acc	absol	nom	adv	nom	pres, act
f		m		m
sgl		sgl		sgl	sgl
					1st pers
burning want	having driven out	being without thirst	personally, inwardly,	calmed heart	I abide
having driven out burning want, and being without thirst, I inwardly abide heart subdued

Having said the absolutive verb indicates an action that came before the main verb eg. "Having done this, he then did that."; this is the commonest use; but there are constructions in which the absolutive refers to some ongoing action that is simultaneous with the main verb.
For example,

she walks holding a parasol

in Pali would be

sā chattaṃ gahetvā gacchati

literally,

she, having held a parasol, walks

It can also be rendered by a past tense verb followed by the conjunction "and": Eg. gantva, "he went and...". The absolutive is extensively used in Pali, in this type of connective construction, and practically does away with the conjunctional equivalent to the English "and" connecting two phrases or clauses.

 Agent nouns

An agent noun (not to be confused with an action noun) is a noun formed from a verb and refers to the ‘doer’ of the action. In English, such nouns are often formed by adding the suffix ‘-er’ or '-or'; e.g. 

leader" "speaker" "deceiver" "teacher" "assessor

In Pali the suffix –(i)tar is added to the verb root, and -aka, -ika, -in, -vi(n) to verbs in compounds.
As example: 

√kar -> kattar, kāraka, kārika, kārin  => a doer
√bhās -> bhāsitar, bhāsaka, => a speaker
√dass -> dassāvin => one who sees

Agent-noun endings are sometimes combined with causative stems:

paññā + āpe + tar => Paññāpetar = one who causes wisdom. 

These are then declined like nouns taking case, number & gender.

saggaṃ	gacchanti	dāyakā
acc	pres,act	nom
m		m
sgl	pl	pl
	3rd pers
place of happiness	they go	givers
givers go to heaven

Since agent nouns representing an action, often take an object of that action. In Pali, this object is placed either in the accusative or in the genitive case.

abhijānāsi	no	tvaṃ	mahārāja	imaṃ	pañhaṃ	aññe	samaṇa+brāhmaṇe	pucchitā
pres,act	indec	nom/acc	voc	acc	acc	acc	acc	nom
			m		m	m	m	m
sgl		sgl	sgl	sgl	sgl	pl	pl	sgl
2nd pers
(do) you not remember great king				this question		other recluses & brahmins		an asker
(do) you not remember, great king, (being) an asker of this question to other recluses & brahmins

In this example there is a double accusative as is common with verbs of speech indicating 'what was said' and 'to whom'. English tends to use the genitive for the object of agent nouns. Eg. ‘he is an asker of questions’,  ‘He is a giver of gifts’ etc.

Abstract nouns

Abstract nouns describe a quality rather than a tangible object. They include emotions and states of being as well as ideas & concepts. In English they often end in –ness, -tion, -ity, -ment etc.  

In Pali they are formed from nouns or adjectival stems by adding the suffixes: -a, -ava, -ka, –tta, -ttana, -tā & -yā.

garu -> gārava => heaviness
manuñña ->  manuññaka => loveliness

They then decline like nouns in –a/ā.

Action-nouns are a type of abstract noun formed from a verbal root.

Action nouns

Action nouns are almost the reverse of agent nouns; denoting the general idea of an event without referring to an agent and are thus similar to the infinitive in sense ie. 

Seeing is the function of the eyes.

They are verb form, often those in –ana, -a, -nā, -taṃ, -tā,  which are used as verbal nouns in a sentence.  Being nouns, they decline  taking case etc. See Warder pg.138 and Perniola pg. 381 for more.


From here you may wish to look at Subordinate clauses in Pali. Or move on to an overview of the theory of tense systems in Pali.