Non-Finite Forms Infinitives

Abstract

Abstract The infinitive is in origin a case form of a verbal noun which has become a fixture of the verb system, substituting under certain circumstances for a finite (person-marked) verb. While the use of verbal nouns as absolutes in this way may have begun in the parent speech, no particular set of forms was standard. By contrast, in most attested IE languages, including Sanskrit (from the Epic period on), G, and L, the range of infinitive forms and the formal relationships they bear to finite stems are to a large extent predictable. But the systems seen in these languages are only the end points of an evolution which is no more than well underway in the Rigveda, which therefore provides a window on history. In the absence of the Vedic information we would simply have said that the regular Skt. infin. in -tum (as seen in gantum ‘to go’ and janitum ‘to beget’) and the L supine in -tum continued a PIE form of absolute verbal noun. More or less simple statements could be made about all other infinitive forms, the only hint of a more complex story being the lack of agreement from group to group. The evidence provided by the Rigveda makes it unnecessary to speculate on why this is: its 700-odd forms that may be confidently taken as infinitives are made from a variety of noun stems and cases, amounting to thirty-five different types in all.