Page:Sanskrit Grammar by Whitney p1.djvu/65

 of the elements of words and of words as elements of the sentence; then will be taken up the subject of inflection, under the two heads of declension and conjugation; and an account of the classes of uninflected words will follow.

a. The formation of conjugational stems (tense and mode-stems; also participles and infinitive) will be taught, as is usual, in connection with the processes of conjugational inflection; that of uninflected words, in connection with the various classes of those words. But the general subject of derivation, or the formation of declinable stems, will be taken up by itself later (chap. XVII.); and it will be followed by an account of the formation of compound stems (chap. XVIII.).

108. It is by no means to be expected of beginners in the language that they will attempt to master the rules of euphonic combination in a body, before going on to learn the paradigms of inflection. On the contrary, the leading paradigms of declension may best be learned outright, without attention, or with only a minimum of attention, to euphonic rulerule. [sic] In taking up conjugation, however, it is practically, as well as theoretically, better to learn the forms as combinations of stem and ending, with attention to such laws of combination as apply in the particular cases concerned. The rules of external combination, governing the make-up of the sentence out of words, should be grappled with only when the student is prepared to begin the reading or the formation of sentences.

109. The rules of combination ( putting together) are in some respects different, according as they apply—

a. to the internal make-up of a word, by the addition of derivative and inflectional endings to roots and stems;

b. to the more external putting together of stems to make compound stems, and the yet looser and more accidental collocation of words in the sentence;

c. Hence they are usually divided into rules of internal combination, and rules of external combination.