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Participles [active] & Absolute clauses - Part 2

active participles 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:
Verb like:
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
sglsgl
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...

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