पृष्ठम्:Sanskrit Introductory.djvu/३६

3.B.2 Introduction to Nouns A noun, like the verb, has its ultimate origin in a dhatu (root); affixes to the dhatu form the noun-stem (pratipadika) which will have a particular grammatical gender (linga): masculine (pum- linga), feminine (strl- linga), and neuter (napumsaka- linga). To the pratipadika form are added case-endings (sup-vibhakti) which indicate the relationship of the noun to the verb. There are seven such grammatical relationships; and, like the verb, each of these has a singular (eka-vacana), dual (dvi- vacana) , and plural (bahu-vacana) form. The first (prathama) of these is the nominative or naming case, and usually names the subject of a simple sentence or the agent (initiator or instigator of the action) of the verb; the second (dvitlya) case ending generally indicates the immediate destination of the action expressed by the verb, i.e. the direct object of the sentence. The word nara (the pratipadika form, as listed in Monier- Williams' dictionary) means 'man', and with its sup-vibhakti endings appears as: eka-vacana dvi-vacana bahu-vacana prathama narah narau narah dvitlya naram narau naran Other nouns that take this form of declension are asva 'horse', and vrksa 'tree'. Where 'tisthanti' is translated as 'they (pi.) stand', the pronoun 'they' is implied in the verb and it is not necessary to add an explicit Sanskrit pronoun. When the subject of the sentence is explicitly stated, for example 'the men (pi.) stand', then the implied pronoun falls away, and this is translated as 'narah tisthanti'. For verbs having a sense of motion (such as go, walk, run), the destination is expressed in dvitlya. There are some verbs (such as nl) which have both a direct object and a destination, in which case both are expressed in dvitlya. narah asvam vrksam nayate the man leads the horse to the tree. Since the noun endings define the relationship to the verb, the word order is not important (as contrasted with English where it is), and allows the poet for example, to juggle the word order to fit the rules of scansion. Normally however, the verb is found at the end of the sentence, and the subject precedes the object and destination, as in the above example.