Page:The history of the Bengali language (1920).pdf/307

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LECTURE XIV
285

(denoting mental acts generally) were reduced wholly to noun forms; 'ইচ্ছ' to wish, 'চিন্ত' to think, 'পূজ' to worship, etc., are not allowed now to be declined as verbs and such forms as 'ইচ্ছিল' 'চিন্তিবে' and 'পূজিছ' are regarded as archaic or obsolete.

The peculiarity of the forms 'মেরে ফেল' (kill outright), 'ফেলে দাও' (throw away), 'জুটে পড়' or 'যোগ দাও' (join up), 'সরে পড়' (get away), সেরে নাও (finish up), etc., need be explained. That 'ফেল,' 'দাও' 'পড়,' etc., are mere stress-giving adjuncts and are not verbs in reality, cannot be easily noticed on account of the fact that these mere emphasis-indicating adjuncts take the tense-forming as well as other suffixes. It may be seen, that when emphasis is not put upon the verbal phrases of this class, the adjuncts naturally fall off; compare the sentences 'কাপড় ছেড়েছি' and 'কাজ সেরেছি' in contrast with 'কাপড় ছেড়ে ফেলেছি' and 'কাজ সেরে নিয়েছি.' It is amusing to note that the Pandits, considering the emphasis-indicating adjuncts to be the real verbs, sanskritise some of these verbal phrases in a highly ridiculous manner; not seeing that 'দেওয়া' in 'যোগ দেওয়া,' does not mean 'giving,' they use the hideous phrase 'যোগদান করা' for 'যোগ দেওয়া'; in their mania to sanskritise Bengali phrases and idioms, they forget also that the word 'দান' does not signify simple 'giving' in Bengali, but that it signifies 'giving away' or 'making a gift in charity.' The full absurdity of the situation will be realised, if in the analogy of 'যোগদান করা,' the phrases 'ছেড়ে ফেল' and 'সরে পড়' be sanskritised into 'ছেড়ে নিক্ষেপ কর' and 'সরে পতিত হও.'

Some verbs do not usually take suffixes in declension and exist as decayed forms of old verbs; when these verbs are used, additional verbs as auxiliaries are joined to them; as usual the added adjuncts are only changed in conjugation. The verb 'কাড়া' 'to snatch away' is in use, but independently it cannot take verbal suffixes. 'সে কাড়িল,'