यूनिवर्सिटी ऑफ़ मिशिगन
मुझे क्षमा करो : Noun
incorporation in Hindi-Urdu
At first sight the structures in (1)
and (2) look identical. Each has an imperative form of the verb
कर immediately preceded by a feminine
noun:
1. बच्चे को हवा
करो ! 'Fan the child!'
2. बच्चे को क्षमा
करो !
'Forgive the child!'
When put in the simple past tense, however, a striking divergence emerges
between them: In (1') the simple past form की of the verb shows agreement in gender and number
with the feminine singular noun हवा.
In (2'), the form किया shows no
agreement with the noun क्षमा.
1'. हमने बच्चे
को हवा की।
'We fanned the child.'
2'. हमने बच्चे
को क्षमा किया। 'We
forgave the child.'
In (1') the noun हवा 'air' behaves as any
normal direct object in Hindi-Urdu does in its control of agreement in the
simple past. In (2') the noun क्षमा
'forgiveness' has been stripped of its identity as a direct object noun
and "incorporated" into the verb as an integral part of it. As part
of the verb it cannot be a direct object and cannot affect the verb's
form. The form किया in (2') is the
masculine singular default that occurs when there is no eligible noun for
the verb to agree with. In (3) the verb has the masculine singular
form कर दिया in agreement with the noun
अपराध 'crime':
3. बिरादरी ने अपराध
क्षमा कर दिया।
'The caste brotherhood forgave the
offence.'
(from Chapter Eleven of
गोदान. See context.)
The incorporated noun is as if transparent. Agreement, if it occurs
at all, is determined by some other noun. For instance, the noun
भंग 'break', when not incorporated,
is masculine singular as can be seen in phrases like वचन का भंग 'breaking of a promise'. In
(4), however, the verb form कर दी shows
agreement not with भंग but
with the feminine singular noun सभा
'meeting; assembly':
4. मालती ने
मेहता को धन्यवाद देकर सभा भंग कर दी।
'Thanking Mehtâ,
Mâlatî adjourned the meeting.'
(from Chapter Fifteen of
गोदान. See context.)
This transparency or invisibility of the incorporated noun to normal rules
of grammar is not limited to agreement. In (5) the masculine
singular noun स्वीकार, incorporated into
the verbal expression स्वीकार कर 'accept',
is passed over in the passive. Instead the feminine singular noun
सहायता surfaces as the clause's
subject:
5. या कुछ वार्षिक
सहायता स्वीकार की जाय।
'... or let some annual assistance
be accepted.'
(from Chapter Six of गोदान. See context.)
Similarly in (6) the feminine singular noun विदा, incorporated into the verbal expression X
को विदा कर 'see X off, take leave
of X', is passed over in the passive. Instead the dative plural
pronoun उन्हें surfaces as the
subject and the verb assumes the masculine singular default form
किया गया :
6. उन्हें
एक-एक नारंगी देकर विदा किया
गया।
'They were seen off with the gift
of one tangerine each.'
(from Chapter Thirteen of
गोदान. See context.)
Further evidence of the "invisibility" of the incorporated nouns
ख़र्च of ख़र्च कर 'spend' in (7) and बरदाश्त of बरदाश्त
कर 'stand, tolerate' in (8) can be seen in the admissibility of the
negative particle नहीं on their
left. (Normally, the negative particle comes just before the verb.)
7. मैं एक
पैसा भी फ़ालतू नहीं ख़र्च करता।
'I do not waste a single penny.'
(from Chapter Thirty-three of
गोदान. See context.)
8. रूपा यह नहीं बरदाश्त कर
सकती।
'Rûpâ could
not tolerate this...'
(from Chapter Four of
गोदान. See context.)
The number of Hindi-Urdu verbs with
nouns incorporated into them is not very large but includes some very
frequent expressions, such as Y को
X नज़र आ 'X be visible to Y' (9)
and शुरू कर / हो 'begin' (10), (11) and (12), and its
शुद्ध हिन्दी equivalent
आरम्भ कर / हो (13):
9. सहसा उसे एक
लंबा पाईप घास में छिपा नज़र आया,
जिसमें से पानी बह रहा
था।
'Suddenly he spied a long pipe
hidden in the grass out of which water was flowing.'
(from Chapter Eighteen of
गोदान. See context.)
10. भाषण समाप्त करते
ही मिर्ज़ाजी ने हर एक की जेब की तलाशी शुरू कर
दी।
'As soon as he finished the speech
Mirzâjî began searching everybody's pockets.'
(from Chapter Six of गोदान. See context.)
11. सब लड़कियों
ने तालियाँ औरर सीटियाँ बजानी शुरू
कीं।
'All the girls began to whistle and
clap.'
(from Chapter Fifteen of
गोदान. See context.)
12. गाँवों
में बोआई शुरू हो गयी।
'In the villages, sowing began.'
(from Chapter Seventeen of
गोदान. See context.)
13. हम पाठ आरम्भ
करेंगे।
'We will begin the lesson.'
( from बाहरी )
Other noun-incorporating
expressions include:
14. भेंट कर
'present X' : कितनों ही ने
अपना सर्वस्व इसी मिल को भेंट कर दिया
है ( from गोदान )
15. धारण कर
'assume; take on' : पानी की
भाँति हरेक पात्र का रूप धारण कर लेती थी
( गोदान )
16. सहन कर 'tolerate' :
मालती ने कैसे उसे सहन
कर लिया, यह समझना औरर भी
कठिन है। ( गोदान
)
17. बरदाश्त हो
'be controlled' : जयसिंह
से ग़ुस्सा बरदाश्त न हो सका ( चन्द्रकान्ता 1.08.051)
18. तब्दील कर
'change' : क्या आप अपना फ़ैसला तब्दील
नहीं कर सकते ? ( गोदान )
19. विदा हो 'leave,
depart' : मेहता ने कपड़े
पहने औरर विदा हो गये ( गोदान )
20. विदा कर 'send away' :
ताँगे को यहीं से
विदा कर देता हूँ ( गोदान )
21. अर्ज़ कर
'(respectfully) say, submit' : मैं
इन्कॉर्पोरेशन की औरर एक-दो मिसालें अर्ज़ करता
हूँ।
22. ख़र्च हो 'be
spent' : रुपए ख़र्च हो
जाएँगे, नाम हमेशा
के लिए रह जायगा। ( गोदान )
23. ग़ौर कर 'notice' :
माँ शायद उसकी यह हरकत ग़ौर कर रही
थीं ( रबरबैण्ड , अग्रवाल 1969. )
24. वसूल कर
'collect; exact' : मुझसे उस दावत
के सारे रुपए वसूल कर लिये . . .
( गोदान )
25. पार कर
'cross' : उसने जल्दी-जल्दी नदी पार की . . .
( गोदान )
26. प्रदान कर 'bestow' :
उस पर छपी हुई गुलाबी साड़ी
उसे औरर भी शोभा प्रदान कर रही थी।
( गोदान )
27. X को ध्यान आ
'occur to X' : ममी को कुछ ध्यान
हो आया। ( चिड़िया औरर चील by
सुषम बेदी )
28. X को नसीब हो
'for X to get Y' : यह सुख
उन्हें नसीब नहीं हुआ। ( शानो by N.
K. Sinha)
The nouns in some of these expressions are
so well incorporated that there is no direct evidence left that they are
nouns! The धारण of धारण कर 'assume; take up' (15), for instance, does not
exist in the modern language except as part of धारण
कर. Its identity as a noun can only be established
indirectly. It is not an adjective, verb, adverb, or postposition and it
is parallel in formation to other तत्सम
nouns such as कारण 'reason', or निवारण 'prevention', or तारण 'salvation', etc. There are other kinds of
incorporation, of adjectives ( मालूम
कर, मजबूर हो, etc.) and
of verbs ( फ़ील कर, विश कर 'greet', etc.), which suggest that incorporation
occurs mostly as a way of borrowing words from other languages (including
from Sanskrit).
Where do noun incorporating
expressions come from?
With a few exceptions ( शुरू कर, नज़र
आ, पार कर ) the
noun-incorporating expressions of Hindi-Urdu appear to be recent
innovations belonging to a more formal register. One might think
that they were introduced to make up for a shortage of धातु 's or verb roots in Hindi-Urdu. But
in fact older or more rural varieties of the language have numerous verbs
which lack simple counterparts in the modern standard urban language.
Verbs like उपज 'arise; be created'
and नीपन 'create', no longer in common
use, have been replaced by तत्सम
incorporating formations like उत्पन्न
हो and निष्पन्न कर.
Perhaps these replacements reflect the influence on Hindi-Urdu of
Farsi in which noun and adjective incorporating expressions abound.
To exercise on noun-incorporation.
To index of grammatical notes.
To index of मल्हार.
Drafted with input from कुसुम
जैन 26-28 May 2001. Posted 27-28 May 2001. Augmented 31
May - 2 June 2001. Again on 11 June 2001, 17-18 Mar 2003, and 1 July 2004.