The Vedic Passive Optative and Its Functional Equivalents

IT IS WELL KNOWN THAT THE OPTATIVE of the -yate passive does not occur in early Vedic, but Whitney's formulation of this fact (Grammar ? 77 ld)-No forms of the passive optative chance to occur (my italics) in RV or AV-implies that their absence is accidental. Accident does seem, superficially, to be a reasonable explanation, given that the -yate passive is not fully developed and distinguished from the 'yate intransitive at this period.' Yet, one might wonder why other modal forms, passive imperatives (e.g., badhyantam IV.57.4, vrgcantdm X.87.18, yujydtdm AV XIV.1.64) and subjunctives (bhriyate V.31.12) do occur in these texts. Indeed, closer investigation suggests that the lack of passive optatives results from deliberate avoidance, and that the semantic/syntactic slot that they would occupy is instead filled by non-finite forms in predicative function. How can we conclude that the passive optative is systematically avoided? By expanding our view of the passive system beyond the limits of the morphological passive, the -yate forms. It is hardly necessary to say that the category passive is expressed in early Vedic at least as often by other formations: most notably by medially inflected forms of any type of stem and by the past participle, with or without copula. Within this considerably larger body of material we still find that the optative is marginal at best. There is one undeniable example of a passively used medial optative, staveta in V. 18.1, and another likely example in a popular verse

Arithmetic · Linguistics · Syntax · Historical Linguistics and Language Studies · Linguistics and language evolution · Mathematics · Philosophy · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation

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