In descriptions of language a
"patient" is typically the word or phrase referring to the person or
entity most directly affected by the action performed by the
agent. In (1) the noun kÙ¶:a is the patient and the pronoun
m:òøn:ð is the agent:
Not every patient denotes something that is directly affected by an
action. The word eb:ll:i in (2)
refers to something not at all affected by the action expressed by the
verb dðK::
But because the grammatical relations of eb:ll:i to dðK:
and hm: in (2) are identical to the
grammatical relation of kÙ¶:a to
B:g:a dð and m:òø in (1), eb:ll:i in (2) is also counted as a patient. Unlike
the few English parallels (take care of X, make use of X), in
Hindi-Urdu the number of verbal expressions taking ka or ki of patient is
very large:
4. kar ki m:rmm:t: krn:i hò.
Nearly all of these expressions are ones in which nouns specifying some
kind of action [viz, en:m:aüN:
'creation' in (3), m:rmm:t: 'repair' in
(4)] occur with verbs like kr 'do',
hað 'become; be done', dð 'give', Aa
'come', m:ar 'strike' and a few
others. There are also a few stative expressions such as
X ka Aadi hað 'be accustomed to
X':
Es: vy:v:har ka v:h Aadi T:a.
(to be continued)
To index of grammatical notes.
To index of m:lhar.
Drafted 24-26 May 2001. Part posted 26 May 2001.
1. m:òøn:ð kÙ¶:a G:r
kñ s:am:n:ð s:ð B:g:a edy:a.
'I shooed the dog from in front of the house.'
2. hm:n:ð G:r kñ s:am:n:ð eb:ll:i
dðK:i
'We saw a cat in front of the house.'
3. AaI0 Xi0 n:I dØen:y:a ka en:m:aüN: kr
rhi hò.
'IT is creating a new world.'
'I have to fix the car.'
5. Es: vy:v:har
ka v:h Aadi T:a.
'He was used to dealing in this way.'
(from Chapter One of g:aðdan: )
The full list of expressions taking
ka or ki
of patient is much too long to give here. It may in fact be
open-ended. Among the most frequent are: