Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/415

 present-system, are in their ultimate origin denominative; and that many apparent roots are of the same character. The denominatives which are so called differ from these only in that their origin is recent and undisguised.

1054. The grammarians teach that any noun-stem in the language may be converted, without other addition than that of an अ (as union-vowel enabling it to be inflected according to the second general conjugation) into a present-stem, and conjugated as such.

a. But such formations are rare in actual use. The RV. has a few isolated and doubtful examples, the clearest of which is he heals, from  physician; it is made like a form of the root-class;  seems to be its imperfect according to the nasal class; and  he rules appears to be a denominative of  master; other possible cases are  etc.,,  etc., , ,. From the other older texts are quotable (TS.),  (TB.),  (ṢB.),  (ÇÇS.). And a considerable number of instances, mostly isolated, are found in the later language: e. g. (MBh.),  (Pañc.),  (Çatr.),  (SD.),  (SD.),  (Pras.),  (Pras.).

1055. In general, the base of denominative conjugation is made from the noun-stem by means of the conjugation-sign य, which has the accent.

a. The identity of this with the  of the so-called causative conjugation, as making with the final  of a noun-stem the causative-sign, is hardly to be questioned. What relation it sustains to the of the -class (759), of the passive (768), and of the derivative intensive stem (1016), is much more doubtful.

1056. Intermediate between the denominative and causative conjugations stands a class of verbs, plainly denominative in origin, but having the causative accent. Examples, beginning to appear at the earliest period of the language, are speaks, takes counsel, (from, √ + ),  commemorates (from , √ praise),  or - makes an object of, seeks (from  goal, object),  depicts (from  color),  or - gives the how of anything, relates (from  how?), and so on. These, along with like forms from roots which have no other present-system (though they may make scattering forms outside that system from the root directly), or which have this beside other present-systems without causative meaning, are reckoned by the grammarians as a separate conjugation-class, the -class (above, 607, 775).