Nominal System
Sanskrit is a highly
inflected language with three
grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter)
and three numbers
(singular, plural,
dual). It
has eight
cases:
nominative,
vocative,
accusative,
instrumental,
dative,
ablative,
genitive, and
locative. It has over ten noun
declensions.
One other notable feature of the nominal system is the very common use of
nominal compounds, which may be huge (10+ words) like in some modern languages
like
German language. Nominal compounds occur with various meanings, some
examples of which are:
- Bahuvrihi
-
- Bahuvrihi, or much-rice, denotes a rich person--one who has much rice.
Bahuvrihi compounds refer to a thing which isn't specified in any of the
parts of which the compound is formed. A block-head, for example, is someone
whose head is said to be as thick as a block.
- karmadhariya
-
- A compound in which all of the words specify that to which the compound
refers. A houseboat, for example, is both a house and a boat.
- tatpurusha
-
- There are many tatpurushas (one for each of the nominal cases, and a few
others besides); in a tatpurusha, one component is related to another. For
example, a doghouse is a dative compound, a house for a dog. It
would be called a "caturtitatpurusha" (caturti refers to the fourth
case--that is, the dative). Incidentally, "tatpurusha" is a tatpurusha
("this man"--meaning someone's agent), while "caturtitatpurusha" is a
karmadhariya, being both dative, and a tatpurusha.
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