Pali Adjectival Suffixes

In this post we'll look at how both nouns and verbs can be formed into adjectives by use of suffixes. (And though a little off subject, how they can be formed for other uses...). It follows on from the post on participles in Pali.

What is an adjective?

It's probably worth pointing out, in these posts I've been happily talking about word classes - nouns, verb, adjectives etc - without really defining what I mean. Linguists have categorised words as belonging to certain groups. And we are told that a noun is the name of a person, place, thing or idea; a verb is an action or state; while an adjective is a description word that tells us more about a noun.

The question arises 'how do we know?' Some words appear to belong to two or more categories:

cold : 'I have a cold' (noun) or 'it is a cold night' (adj)
smile : 'the monk smiled' (verb) or 'I like your smile' (noun)

Well, first, there are morphological differences, ie. verbs tend to take tense, as in 'smiled' above; then there are functional differences - how the terms are actually being used in a specific sentence. The important point is that when a word is said to be a verb or an adjective etc. we are usually referring to how it is used rather than as something intrinsic to the word itself.

Adjectives tend to describe states, properties or attributes of things. This category tends to be used in one of two ways; either as a modifier of a noun or as a predicate in an equational sentence. for instance the adjective 'wise' can be used:

a wise man,
the man is wise,
the man, who is wise,... 

We seen already that a substantive noun can be attributed  in Pali -  have qualities added to it - through either adjectives, complements or in apposition. And these all fall under the term attributive because they describe, or add, a quality to another substantive noun.

Nominal Adjectives

Now although Pali has words which are specifically adjectival in meaning, it doesn't really distinguish between nouns and adjectives. So any noun stem can be turned into an adjective by use of certain suffixes.

Pali Stems ending in vat/vant, mat/mant - the possessive suffix

By nominal here I mean based on a noun. So a nominal possessive is a noun stem that has a possessive suffix added to it.

-vant, or -vat before nouns stems in a/ā,
-(v)in also to stems in a,
-mant, or -mat to the other stem endings

(Note some grammar guides shorten these suffixes to -vā, -vī & -mā.).

Nouns stems ending in the above suffixes have the sense of 'possessing the quality of...' and can be often be rendered in English by adding -ed to the noun. For instance,

bhaga, good fortune; bhagavant, possessing good fortune = blessed
pakkha, wing; pakkhin, possessing wings = winged
anga, limb; angin, having limbs = limbed
cakkhu, eye; cakkhumant, having eyes = clear sighted

Used as straight adjectives, of course, these terms will be declined to agree with the substantive they are describing - in case, gender and number.

And like other adjectives in Pali, a noun taking vant/mant/(v)in, can also stand alone as a substantive it its own right, meaning 'the one who possesses such a quality'. Eg.

pakkhin, a winged one = a bird
bhagavant, a blessed one = buddha

agārin one who has or inhabits a house, = a householder
agārinī a housewife

The declension of these nominal adjectives is similar to that of present & past participles seen previously however the masculine singular -vat declines now as -vā rather than -vaṃ.
Note: If you want to download these tables see the end of this section...

Thus for -vā:

-vā	Masculine (like -at/-ant)		Neuter (like -at/-ant)		Feminine (like -atī/-antī)
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	-vā, -vanto	-vanto, -vantā	-vaṃ, -vanta	-vantāni, -vantā.	-vatī, -vantī.	-vatī, -vatiyo, -vantī, -vantiyo
Vocative	-vā, -va	-vanto	-va, -vaṃ
Accusative	-vaṃ, -vantaṃ.	-vante.	-vaṃ, -vantaṃ		-vatiṃ, -vantiṃ.
Instrumental	-vatā, -vantena	-vantehi -vantebhi	-vatā, -vantena.	-vantehi -vantebhi	-vatiyā, -vantiyā.	-vatīhi, -vatībhi, -vantīhi, -vantībhi.
Ablative	-vatā, -vantā, -vantasmā, -vantamhā.		-vatā, -vantā, -vantasmā, -vantamhā.
Dative	-vato, -vantassa	-vataṃ, -vantānaṃ	-vato, -vantassa.	-vataṃ, -vantānaṃ.		-vatīnaṃ, -vantīnaṃ.
Genitive
Locative	-vati, -vante, -vantasmiṃ, -vantamhi.	-vantesu	-vati, -vante, -vantasmiṃ, -vantamhi.	-vantesu	-vatiyā, -vatiyaṃ, -vantiyā, -vantiyaṃ.	-vantīsu, -vatīsu.

And -mā:

-mā	Masculine (like -at/-ant)		Neuter (like -at/-ant)		Feminine (like -atī/-antī)
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	-mā, -manto	-manto, -mantā	-maṃ, -manta	-mantāni, -mantā.	-matī, -mantī.	-matī, -matiyo, -mantī, -mantiyo
Vocative	-mā, -ma	-manto	-ma, -maṃ
Accusative	-maṃ, -mantaṃ.	-mante.	-maṃ, -mantaṃ		-matiṃ, -mantiṃ.
Instrumental	-matā, -mantena	-mantehi -mantebhi	-matā, -mantena.	-mantehi -mantebhi	-matiyā, -mantiyā.	-matīhi, -matībhi, -mantīhi, -mantībhi.
Ablative	-matā, -mantā, -mantasmā, -mantamhā.		-matā, -mantā, -mantasmā, -mantamhā.
Dative	-mato, -mantassa	-mataṃ, -mantānaṃ	-mato, -mantassa.	-mataṃ, -mantānaṃ.		-matīnaṃ, -mantīnaṃ.
Genitive
Locative	-mati, -mante, -mantasmiṃ, -mantamhi.	-mantesu	-mati, -mante, -mantasmiṃ, -mantamhi.	-mantesu	-matiyā, -matiyaṃ, -mantiyā, -mantiyaṃ.	-mantīsu, -matīsu.

And the ending -(v)in, the v is optional with nouns as possessives.
Thus -(v)in / -(v)ī:

–(v)ī	Masculine (like –ī/in)		Neuter (like –?)		Feminine (like -ī/in)
	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
Nominative	-(v)ī	-(v)ino	-(v)i, -(v)iṃ	-(v)īni, -(v)ī	-(v)inī	-(v)iniyo
Vocative	-	-			-	-
Accusative	-(v)iṃ, -(v)inaṃ	-(v)ino			-(v)iṃ	-(v)iniyo
Instrumental	-(v)inā	-(v)ihi, -(v)īhi	-(v)inā	-(v)ihi, -(v)īhi	-(v)iniyā	-(v)inīhi
Ablative	-(v)inā, -(v)ismā, -(v)imhā		-(v)inā, -(v)ito, -(v)ismā, -(v)imhā
Dative	-(v)ino	-(v)inaṃ, -(v)īnaṃ	-(v)ino	-(v)inaṃ, -(v)īnaṃ		-(v)inīnaṃ
Genitive			-(v)ino, -(v)issa
Locative	-(v)ini, -(v)ismiṃ, -(v)imhi	-(v)isu, -(v)īsu	-(v)ismiṃ, -(v)imhi	-(v)isu, -(v)īsu	-(v)iniyā, -(v)iniyaṃ	-(v)inīsu

Download

Adjectival declension tables

Comparatives

One other slightly confusing thing is that adjectives ending in -mat/mant, -vat/vant, and -(v)in drop these suffixes before the comparative and superlative suffixes which are formed directly on the stem. For instance:

guṇavant possessed of good qualities, = virtuous,
- comparative guṇiyo, more virtuous
- superlative guṇiṭṭha; most virtuous

Finally for nouns, it might might be worth adding that they can be made into verbs too using Denominative endings. 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.

Verbal adjectives

We seen previously that verb stems can be used in a strictly non-verb manner - functioning as a subject, in/direct object, subject complement, adjective, or adverb in a sentence. These include:

participles: both past & present (though in Pali past participles may act as finite verbs too)
& verbals: infinitives & absolutives

We've seen already that present participles can be formed by the use of the possessive suffixes -vat/vant; and active forms of past participles from -vat/vant/vin. The declension of these participles (based on verb stems) and nominal adjectives (from noun stems) only differs in the masculine singular. So care must be taken to distinguish a word formed on a verbal base from that of a noun.

But I've also come across another verb form...

Verbal stems in -(v)in

Above I've listed -(v)in as an alternative for -vant for noun stems in -a.

Verb stems can also take the suffix -in but then also act as possessive adjectives. I have not found many Pali grammar guides which specifically describes verb forms ending with -in (Duroiselle pg 102), but in Coulson's 'Teach Yourself Sanskrit' it appears that such verbs can be rendered in English by adding -ing. For instance:

anupassati, to contemplate; anupassin contemplating
√kar, to do; kārin doing
carati to walk; cārin walking, practicing

These are thus a type of verbal adjective, similar to present participles, but tending to act as adjectives. They may also sometimes be called attributive verbs.

As there is little information in the available Pali grammars, it is unclear if these verbal adjectives can also stand alone as substantive nouns to mean 'one who possesses such quality', (as with nominal possessives above).

But I note that the PED dictionary describes both adjectivally and as agents the following:

aticarati, to transgress, commit adultery; aticārin transgressing; aticārinī an adulteress
kayati to buy; kayin buying or a buyer, one who buys

 Though I can't be sure as I don't have a reference.

Anyway they seem to decline like the table -(v)in above but without the (v). Also verb stems ending -ā add -(y)in...

Here the reader maybe reminded of the so called agent nouns (Warder pg 209) which are formed from a verb but refers to the ‘doer’ of the verb. In English, such nouns are often formed by adding the suffix ‘-er’; e.g.

‘lead-er’, ‘speak-er’, ‘deceiv-er’, ‘teach-er’, etc.

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



Well I'll put up more examples of translation in the next post: Satipatthana Sutta - part 1