Causative & other Secondary verb derivations - Verb Conjugation - Part 4

The Pali verb tenses/moods discussed so far are termed primary derivations. What is known as a secondary stem can be developed from a primary stem by the addition of a new 'secondary infix or by the replacement of an existing suffix.

√kar	Primary base
prefix	Pres. stem	modal infix		Personal Ending
-	karo	eyya		si		present, opt 2nd per, sgl
=> kareyyāsi
	Secondary base
prefix	Pres. stem	sec infix	modal infix	Personal Ending
-	karo	iya	eyya	si		present, pass opt 2nd per, sgl
=> kariyeyyāsi

Counter-intuitively, a secondary inflection usually precedes the primary inflection!

There are 5 secondary verb derivations:

Passive:  is used to turn a transitive verb into the passive voice
Causative:  is used with instructions. It is extensively used in Paḷi.
Desiderative:  is used to indicate a wish or the desire. The desiderative is not extensively used in Paḷi.
Intensive: The intensive (also called “frequentive”) is used to indicate the frequent repetition or the intensification of the action expressed. The intensive is not extensively used in Paḷi.
Denominative: are nouns that have been converted into verbs. They are rare except in poetry.

Overview of Secondary infixes

The passive, causative, desirative and intensive are all distinguished by modification to the root or present stem

	Secondary Base
Passive	√root	-ya-	+ Any tense/ mood infix	+ Personal Ending
	Pres. stem	-iya-
Causative	√root	-(p)aya- -(p)e-
	Pres. stem	-āpaya- -āpe-
	(Duplication)
Desiderative	√root√root	-sa-
Intensive	√root√root	-a- -ya-

It maybe interesting to note that the secondary derived forms represent five grades of action of increasing strength of desire.

Though in theory derivative verbs can be conjugated from any of the six primary verb tenses/moods, fortunately they occur mainly in the present indicative tense and active voice! The major exceptions being the causative which can modify any tense particularly the imperative, aorist, future (and even participles) and the passive that has a few aorist forms.

Passive Indicative verbs

A transitive verb may be turned into the passive indicative by adding the infix -(i)ya- to either the verb root or to the present stem.creating what is called the passive stem. We've covered the use of passive sentence constructions previously. This method of forming the passive verb is rare and in this form it is the verb infix which shows whether the verb is active or passive (and not the personal endings which are 'active').

Because this derivation is sometimes hard to spot, it's worth spending some time looking at how they are derived.

Bomhard gives the following details on formation of the passive verb stem:

• When the root ends in a vowel, -ya- is added directly, the root vowel frequently undergoing change.
• When the root ends in a single consonant, -ya- is generally added directly, and the preceding consonant may be changed in accordance with the regular rules of assimilation. [see Assimilation below].
• When the root ends in a consonant cluster or a single consonant that does not readily double (generally r or h), -ya- is added with the connecting vowel -ī-, yielding -īya-. Sometimes, -īya- is added to the present stem.

Frequently the -ya infix is assimilated into the final consonant of the root, and sometimes its presence has to be inferred purely from the doubling of this consonant. (see Assimilation below) and also because they are similar to the third conjugation. I stress again that as a translator the intricacies of how to form verbs is not important, we just need to be able to recognise the structure.

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Assimilation of '-y'

We haven't covered Sandhi (joining) in any detail yet, but as a guide I include here this table that describes what happens when a consonant is joined to -y-; the consonant being generally doubled and the -y lost:

Assimilation of y

k+y	→	kk		g+y	→	gg		n+y	→	ññ
kh+y	→	kkh		gh+y	→	ggh		m+y	→	mm
c+y	→	cc		j+y	→	jj		l+y	→	ll
ch+y	→	cch		jh+y	→	jjh		v+y	→	bb
t+y	→	cc		d+y	→	jj or dd		s+y	→	ss
th+y	→	cch		dh+y	→	jjh or ddh		h+y	→	yh
p+y	→	pp		b+y	→	bb		r+y	→	yr
ph+y	→	pph		bh+y	→	bbh		r+iy	→	yir

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The passive stem then generally takes the present indicative endings. An Aorist passive is sometimes formed by adding the aorist endings to the passive stem. And Future passive verbs are formed by adding the future ending inflections to passive stems.

Passive stem:
Root	Passive infix	+ ending
√vac	+ ya	+ ti	(present 3rd)
1vuccati			It is spoken
√han	+ ya	+ iṁsu	(aor.)
haññiṁsu			They were killed
√kar	+ īya	+ māno	(Present Participle)
kariyamāno			is being done
√pahā	+ īya	+ issati	(future)
pahīyissati			it will be given up

¹roots beginning with √va- change to √vu- to indicate the passive and this is a way to distinguishing them from future passive participles.

As with all types of passive voice the agent of the verb (if present) is put in Instrumental case. The patient (object) is put in normative and in agrees in person and number.

Causative derivative verbs

Causatives are often used with instructions or orders. They are generally used when,

A makes B do something to C

For instance, the sentence:

"tathāgato saṁghena bāhiyassa sarīra-kiccaṁ kāresi"

The Buddha made the Sangha do Bāhiya’s body-work (funeral)

Here, the Buddha is the one who instructs, and the sangha are the ones instructed to do the funeral.
In English, there are two verbs, made and do, which each takes their own subject and object.  A causative sentence in Pali, always has two subjects and two objects, but one verb! In essence, the one verb plays two roles.
The verb kāresi is composed of kara + e + si which are respectively root, causative infix, and verb personal ending. The causative infix can be translated by such verbs as 'make, get, let, have, has' and so on, while the root provides the meaning of the second verb - the action caused.

subject	causal	object
		subject	root verb	object
A	makes	B	do	C

tathāgato	saṅghena	bāhiyassa	sarīra	'kiccaṃ	kāresi
nom	ins	gen		acc	aor
m	m	m		n
sgl	sgl	sgl		sgl	sgl
					3rd
the Enlighten One.	sangha	Bāhiya (an ascetic)	body	work, duty	caused to do
The Buddha, (made) the Sangha do the 'body-work' of Bāhiya

The noun 'sangha' can be seen as both a subject of the verb kara 'doing', the ones doing the funeral; and also an object of the causative, the ones being caused to act. This root-subject/causal-object is often placed in the accusative (forming a double acc) or instrumental case (and sometime in genitive). Then as might be expected the causal-subject 'tathagato' takes the nominative, and the root-object 'sarīra-kiccaṁ' takes the accusative.

In this way, the causative of an intransitive verb may take one patient (the causal-object) and as such the verb may be said to become 'transitive'. Likewise, the causative of a verb which ordinarily takes two accusatives may take three patients i.e. 'the king instructed the minister to tell the guard, the password'. Though I suspect there are no occurrences in the Nikayas.

The causative maybe formed from either the root or (rarely) the present stem by adding the particle -aya-, often contracted to -e-, or adding the particle -āpaya-, which is often contracted to -paya-, -āpe- or -pe-.

The roots and present bases ending in ā and the roots of the 7th conjugation (those ending in -e) take the infixes -āpe and -āpaya. The other roots and verbal bases can take all affixes. Also when not followed by a double consonant, the  the first vowel in the root (radical vowel) often undergoes the so-called "Vuddhi substitution", which literally means "growth/strengthen" in Pali, and which consists in the substitution of o for u and e for i.

This is then becomes the causative stem to which any of the six primary verb endings can be added. For instance, in the present indicative: 

• bhāva + e + ti = bhāveti. 

 Present Indicative

	Singular	Plural
3rd pers	bhāveti	bhāventi
2nd pers	bhāvesi	bhāvetha
1st pers	bhāvemi	bhāvema

 Imperative

	Singular	Plural
3rd pers	bhāvetu	bhāventu
2nd pers	bhāvehi	bhāvetha
1st pers	bhāvemi	bhāvema

Optative

	Singular	Plural
3rd pers	bhāveyya	bhāveyyuṁ
2nd pers	bhāveyyāsi	bhāveyyātha
1st pers	bhāveyyaṁ	bhāveyyāma

 Past/Aorist

	Singular	Plural
3rd pers	bhāvesi	bhāvesuṁ
2nd pers	bhāvesi	bhāvittha
1st pers	bhāvesiṁ	bhāvimha

Future

	Singular	Plural
3rd pers	bhāvessati	bhāvessanti
2nd pers	bhāvessasi	bhāvessatha
1st pers	bhāvessāmi	bhāvessāma

Double causatives

The infixes -pe- or -āpe- are also used to create what is termed a double causative. For instance,

ropeti is the causative of √ruh (‘to grow’) and means ‘to plant’ (literally: ‘to cause to grow’). 

From this a double causative can be formed by adding a second causative infix -āpe-; thus

ropeti becomes rope+āpe+ti  = ropāpeti (‘to cause to plant’).

Casual passive

A passive form of a causal verb can be made by joining the suffix ya of the Passive to the Causative Base, but this is extremely rare in the canon.
In English this would be someting like:

A teacher made a book be read by a student

See Duroiselle for more detail.

Desiderative derivative verbs

The desiderative and the intensive have been preserved only in a few ancient forms derived directly from Sanskrit and are largely restricted to poetry. Desideratives are used generally with the meaning 'wishing to', 'desiring to' without the need for other verbs.

The root is reduplicated, the duplicated root syllable being in a weak form, and the infix -sa-, -cha- or -kha- is added to form a stem which is inflected with the present indicative endings. For instance, √(s)su (to hear) becomes su+ssū+sa to which the present ending -ti can be added forming sussūsati (wishing to hear).

Other examples:

pi+pā+sa -ti = pipāsati    wishing to drink - thirsty
va+vac+sa -ti = vavakkhati   wishing to speak

The rules of re-duplication can be found in Duroiselle's Pali grammar pg 83.

Intensive derivative verbs

This secondary  conjugation is very occasionally used to mean that the action of the verb is done very strongly or frequently, or that the state signified is severe. Again the root is reduplicated with the prefixed root sometimes being strong, and the infix -ya- or -a- is added to form the intensive stem.

lā+lap+ya -ti = lālappati    talking alot
can+cal+a -ti = cañcalati   moves to & fro, wobbles

Denominatives

Denominatives are verbs that have been formed from nouns - actually any form of non-verbs ie. noun stems, pronouns or adjectives. Examples in English:

black -> blacken;
a brush -> to brush;
a hand -> to hand;

In Pali,  the stem is usually conjugated according to the 7th conjugation using the infix e/āya, thus they may be created from any noun stem by adding the infix:

-āya-, -aya-, -e-; -a-; -īya-, -iya- & -āpe-.

They can appear similar to passive bases except they are formed on noun stems rather than verb stems. They then take the personal verb endings in indicative - and also passive or causative derivative infixes too.

In Pali denominatives confer to a noun the notions 'to be or act like', 'to make', or 'to experience' and are rare except in poetry.

sukha + āya -ti = sukhāyati    he is happy
mettā +āya -ti = mettāyati   he is loving
piya +āya -ti = piyāyati     he holds dear
sadda + āya -ti = saddāyati    he makes a sound
rasa + īya -ti = rasīyati     he experiences taste, he relishes
magga + a -ti = maggati     he follows a path, he tracks, he hunts

They can be distinguished from causatives too due to being formed from noun stems rather than verb stems.



This completes our look at the formation of conjugated verbs in the Pali language. Pali Verbals next....