A Theory of Pali tense

One of the main problems facing the novice student learning Pali is understanding the many terms and technical phrases littering the grammar guides. The theory of Pali verbs and verbal tense systems as described in the mainly Victorian Pali grammar guides employs many grammatical terms (often borrowed from Latin) to describe systems that were detailed by early Pali grammarians who themselves were usually following Paninian Sanskrit grammars.

No wonder then that the modern reader can often feel overwhelmed. So this is an attempt to explain what's going on.

The first thing to note here is that we are only talking about morphology & derivation (how the verbs are formed) and not functionality (the roles they play in a sentence).

Verb roots, stems, bases and personal endings

As we have discussed previously in a post on Pali verb conjugation the fabrication of an inflected Pali verb consists in several stages. For the Present Indicative:

root → stem      (by one of 7 classes of root conjugation)

stem → base     (by addition of infixes)

base → inflected verb    (by addition of personal endings)

Working through this list, roughly:

• the 7 root conjugation classes are merely a differentiation of how the roots form their present stem,
• the infixes indicate the tense/mood while,
• the personal endings indicate the number and person (singular or plural; 1st, 2nd or 3rd person etc.);

The Tense Sytems as described in Pali grammars are a more formal approach to this process.

Pali Language Tense Systems

Now according to theory, supposedly there are four primary verb stems from which the tenses can be derived:

1. Present stem,
   The present stem of a verb is derived by one of the 7 root conjugations.
2. Aorist stem,
   The aorist stem consists of the bare root with or without strengthening of the root vowel.
3. Perfect stem,
   The perfect stem consists of the reduplicated root with or without strengthening of the root vowel.
4. Future stem,
   The future stem is formed by adding -(i)ssa- to the root. When the root ends in a consonant, the connecting vowel -i- is generally inserted.

So from various manipulations of the root we end up with four distinct stems - present, aorist, perfect and future. And all the inflected verbs are then derived from one of these four stems, so they get referred to as the four tense systems.

Primary tenses

There is nothing special about the tense systems. The term is just referring to the stem on which the verb is based. Present tense verbs are formed from the present stem, past from the aorist, future from future etc. And each has sub-divisions.

1. The Present system:
   
   • The indicative; 
   • The imperfect; 
   • The imperative; 
   • The optative;  
   • The present participle.
2. The Aorist system.
3. The Perfect system:
   • The perfect tense;   
   • The perfect participle.
4. The Future system:
   
   • The future tense; 
   • The conditional; 
   • The future participle.

Now this breakdown can be confusing, because:

• the true Present imperfect verb is rare (only two or three stray occurrences) and it's almost impossible to distinguish from the Aorist forms.
• The Perfect stem is also very rare in the early Pali literature and so these are sometimes ignored completely by grammar guides. As a result the true Perfect participle has almost entirely disappeared. However, the past particle is often called a perfect participle but this is unrelated to the perfect stem!
• And the same really applies to the true Future participle, although there is what's termed future passive participle it is unrelated to the future stem system, being actually a verbal adjective.

So the above breakdown of the tense systems, as laid out in most grammar guides, is based on the underlying structure due to its Vedic/Sanskrit origins. However, this sturcture is more theoretical than absolute, and, in practice is often deviated from.

Overview of Verb Morphology

Ok, in principle then, from a given root, one of the four stems can be derived. (But as we'll ignore the perfect stem, there's only three in practice.) To these stems, modal infixes and personal endings are then added  to create an inflected verb.
From the present stem, we can derive the indicative, the imperative or optative moods. This is through a combination of infixes and personal endings (singular or plural; 1st, 2nd or 3rd person). To the aorist stem, the aorist (past) personal endings and to the future stem the future tense and conditional endings. And these are termed the Primary derivations .

General vs Special bases 

Sometimes you will see the present stem (and its moods) referred to as 'special tenses' or 'special bases'. This is because the present stem is formed in  different ways from different verb roots (via the seven root conjugations). Whereas the aorist stem, the perfect stem, and the future stems are each formed in one general way, which is supposedly directly from the root.
As Duroiselle points out this is 'more fictitious than real' as all of the tenses can be formed on either the root or the present stem!

So, it is not so straightforward as one tense type being formed on one stem type, because, the present stem gets used as the base for all the tenses - as highlighted in the table above. For instance, the Aorist is supposed to be formed from the root but as a matter of fact, it is formed on either the root or the present stem. The imperfect is theoretically formed on the present stem, while the Aorist proper, on the root; but it has become difficult in practice, to distinguish an imperfect verb form from an Aorist and so two tenses have merged to become almost indistinguishable.

Primary vs Secondary personal Endings

Now just to confuse you (more) the term primary/secondary gets used in relation to the personal endings as well as overall verb derivation. The personal endings of verbs can be arranged into two groups called primary & secondary endings. Neither should this be confused with active/reflexive endings. The voice of the verb is also distinguished by the personal ending, but both primary & secondary endings maybe either active or reflexive.

	Primary			Secondary
	Active	Reflexive		Active	Reflexive
Singlr:
3rd pers.	-ti	-te		-(i)t	-tha
2nd pers.	-si	-se		-(i)s	-tho
1st pers.	-mi	-e		-aṃ	-ṃ, -aṃ
Plural:
3rd pers.	-nti	-nte, -re		-u, -uṃ	-re, -raṃ
2nd pers.	-tha	-vhe		-tha	-vho
1st pers.	-ma	-mhe		-ma	-mhase

So it seems, the systems of the future and aorist originally were formed just on their own stems, but formation on the present stem has crept in over time. Which means,

• future tense verbs can be formed in two ways, either by adding -(i)ssa- to the root, creating the future base, or by adding -(i)ssa- to the present stem. To these, the primary personal endings are added.
• The conditional mood is similar: it can be either on the future base (formed on the root) or on the future base (formed on the present stem); to this the secondary personal ending are used and the prefixing of the augment a- is required.
• The aorist (past tense) verb is created by adding the secondary personal endings either directly or by the insertion of one of three affixes -a-, -s(i)- or -i(s)- and these go by various names. The affix -i(s)- can also be added to present stems which end in -e (7th conj class & causatives), while -s(i)- can be added to present stems ending in -a.
• Of course, the present indicative take the primary personal endings While the optative takes both primary & secondary, and the imperative has it's own 'special' endings.

With the secondary endings, especially the consonants -t & -s of the 3rd & 2nd person active the rules of sandhi and assimilation are regularly applied, interacting with the infixes, so it is often simpler to combine them & collapse them down into a single paradigm set of endings as has been done in previous posts.

• Present Indicative
• • Imperative & Optative Moods
• Aorist
• Future & Conditional mood

As a result, not every grammar guide makes this distinction between primary & secondary personal endings. Most grammar guides combine the infix with the personal ending to produce a unique set of 'personal endings' for each tense/mood. But I thought it would be worth explaining to the reader.

Here's a summary tutorial:

Mechanics of Verb Inflection

An introductory tutorial looking at the basic mechanics of Verb Inflection [conjugation] in the Pali language. It explains the terms: 'root, stem & base' as well as words such as 'affix, suffix & infi...

Non-finite verbs

The the above is dealing with finite verbs. A “finite” verb form denotes a verb that is inflected for tense/mood/aspect, number, & person etc. A “non-finite” verb form is not marked for tense, mood, aspect, etc. Non-finite verbal forms include:

• participles (when not finite),
• verbal nouns:
  • infinitives,
  • absolutives,
• and other verbal adjectives.

Participles

Participles are a kind of verbal adjectives formed from a verb root. Like verbs, they divide into Present, Past and Future; and each group can again be divided into Active and Passive. Being in the nature of adjectives most decline in the three genders - agreeing with their nouns (subjects), in number, gender and case..

I have elaborated on the syntax of participle use in previous posts and under the discussion on passive sentences. Each of the present, perfect, and future systems theoretically has a participle, but as I noted above although there are participles called perfect & future they are not formed on the perfect or future stems. However, the present system does have a participles formed from the present stem and then declined. Along side these there are several other participles form from verb roots and unrelated to the tense systems.

• Present stem:
  • Present participle,
  • Present (reflexive) participle
  • Present (passive) participle
• Directly from roots:
  • Past Participle
  • Perfect or Past (active) Participle
  • future passive participle

These all decline to indicate, case, number and gender like nouns. I give more detail on participle formation in another post.

Indeclinable Non-Finites, Verb Nouns

There are a few Indeclinable forms of non-finite verbs, which functional as verbal nouns and so are often called verbals, namely the infinitive, & the absolutive.

Infinitives serve to express the meaning of the verb in the abstract, without regard to tense, aspect, mood, or person. They may be translated into English by “to …” or “for the purpose of …”, “in order to …” Infinitives are formed by adding one of the following suffixes to the root: -tuṁ; -tave; -tuye; -tāye. Infinitives are used both actively and passively.

Absolutives or Gerunds are formed by means of the suffixes: -tvā; -tvāna; -tūna; -ya or -tya (-cca). The suffix -tvā is the most common form. The other forms are used as substitutes for -tvā and are found in poetry much more than in prose.

Primary vs secondary derivation - or Derived verbs

Primary verbs (which are all the ones talked about above) are formed directly from roots by various modifications of the root itself and by the addition of different suffixes as described above. 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. We've covered Secondary derived verbs in some detail in a previous post.

	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-

Thus from every primary verb stem, five secondary stems can be derived in theory:

1. Passive: The passive is used to indicate that the subject is the recipient of the action expressed by the verb root.
2. Causative: The causative is used to indicate causation. It is extensively used in Paḷi.
3. Desiderative: The desiderative is used to indicate the wish or the desire to do or be what is expressed by the simple root. The desiderative is not extensively used in Paḷi.
4. Intensive: The intensive (also called “frequentive”) is used to indicate the frequent repetition or the intensification of the action expressed by the verb root. The intensive is not extensively used in Paḷi.
5. Denominative: Denominatives are nouns that have been converted into verbs. They occur frequently in Paḷi.

These secondary derivations, in theory, can be performed before any of the primary verb tenses but, with the Exception of the causative, they are not conjugated in all tenses and voices, mainly occurring in the present indicative & aorist.

Well that concludes my look at the Tense systems. I think it's more theoretical than practical and is focused on morphological derivation rather than practical identification or use of the tenses.


Next Formation of participles in Pali....

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