Page:A Comparative Grammar of the Modern Aryan Languages of India Vol 3.djvu/44

 STRUCTURE OF VERBAL STEMS. 29

latter may be brought under three heads. First, stems derived from Sanskrit roots with which a preposition has already been compounded, principally ^, f^T, IT, and ^, as utar "descend," nikal "go out," pasar "spread," sankoch "distress." Second, stems formed by reduplication, as jhanjhan " tinkle," tharthar "flutter." Third, stems with an added syllable, as gutak "swallow," ghadt "drag," hirkach, "bind."

It was seen above that in the old world verb there were six phases, and that two of these, the desiderative and intensive, have since been lost. The modern verb having to provide for active, neuter, passive, causal and other phases, has been obliged to have recourse to processes of its own, by which it arrives at the possession of a much wider range than Sanskrit can boast of, and does it too by far simpler means. Partly this result is obtained by ingenious adaptations of Prakrit forms, partly by modifications of, or additions to, its own stems, and partly by combining two stems together. It will first, therefore, be necessary to examine what phases the modern verb has, and then to proceed to examine the processes by which it has provided itself with the necessary forms for each phase.

§ 10. Those phases which are expressed by one word may be

ranged as regards meaning: in a regular scale of grades of ac- es o o o o

t ion, according to the degree and kind of activity they express. In the following scheme we take the neuter as the point of quiescence, and trace degrees which start from it towards a positive pole indicating activity, and a negative pole indicating passivity. ^

Neoatiyb —3 — 2 —1 4l -2 ^3 +4 Positive Pole. < -<• <: * > > :> > Pole.

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S§ 1 ii 1 'Is

= 3