Book Reviews

Author(s): J W De Jong
Publisher: J W De Jong

Page 14

136
REVIEWS
the learning of Sanskrit grammar and the reading of exercises. Schlerath's book can certainly be helpful in explaining in class the rules of word-formation. A student who uses it for his own study will often be unable to find a word. Schlerath's book would have gained much in usefulness if he had added an alphabetical index of words at the end. If set in small type, this would not have substantially augmented the number of pages.
The vocabulary was composed in Mexico and this explains probably not only the fact that the meanings are given also in Spanish, but also why sometimes explanations are given only in Spanish, for instance: ajra-m. pasture, field // Weide, Feld // pasto ("a donde se conduce el ganado"), campo. In several places Schlerath refers to Mayrhofer and Wackernagel, works which are usually not used by students. In indicating the meanings Schlerath has probably made much use of Monier-Williams' dictionary. In some cases he could have corrected the meanings given in it by referring to recent studies such as, for instance, Emeneau's article on kila, Khalu and nünam (IIJ 11, pp. 241-266). The IIJ is referred to on p. 136, n. 1 (for a second root 2 math-"to rub" cf. Narten, IIJ 4, 1960, 121 sqq.). Schlerath gives as only English equivalent for kila 'indeed'. It would have been better to render it with it is said' (cf. Emeneau, IIJ 11, p. 244).
Most elementary grammars give a list of preverbs but without indicating that they are not only used in forming verbal compounds but also in forming nominal compounds. It would have been useful if Schlerath had indicated this clearly. It must be rather confusing for a student to find, for instance, ni, nis and vi only designated as adverbs: ni (adv.) down; nis (adv.) out, forth, away; vi (adv.) separated from one another, off, away. Other preverbs are listed without any further qualification: apa away, off, on the outside of;ava down from, off; ud up, upwards, on, over, above. Reading these meanings, a student would probably expect to find apa, ava and ud used both as adverbs and as pre- or postpositions. On p. 3 Schlerath quotes ati as atio, indicating that it occurs as first member of a compound. However, sam is written sam- (prefix expressing conjugation). On p. 110 he writes pārśve and pārsvam but on p. 195 we find sakha-at the end of compounds: accompanied by. Elsewhere is used to indicate letters which have to be supplied, for instance, p. 23 uttama (ud-to; superl.).
Schlerath's work is the only one of this kind and, for this reason, one would like to see it appear in a revised edition and provided with an index. In such a form it would certainly render useful services to both teachers and students.
Australian National University
J. W. DE JONG
NOTE
1 P. vii, note 3 correct 3.2.1.1 to 2.1.1.
J.-M. Verpoorten, L'ordre des mots dans l'Aitareya-brāhmana (Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Philosophie et Lettres de l'Université de Liège, Fasc. CCXVI). Paris, Société d'Edition "Les Belles Lettres", 1977.438 pp. 75 fr.
Le premier monographe consacré à l'étude de l'ordre des mots dans un brāhmana est le travail de Delbrück paru en 1878: Die altindische Wortfolge aus dem Çatapatha-Brāhmana dargestellt. Comme le rappelle M. Verpoorten dans son introduction, plusieurs savants se sont occupés du problème de l'ordre des mots dans les brāhmaṇa mais sans en faire l'objet principal de leurs recherches. Ce sont surtout les travaux d'A. Minard qui sont riches en observations précieuses sur l'ordre des mots, en particulier, dans le Satapatha-brāhmana: La subordination dans la prose védique (Paris, 1936); Trois énigmes sur les cent chemins, I-II (Paris, 1949-1956).