language question

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam: This is a question for the sanskritologists or any Indian language speakers.

This morning when I was helping my friend with ESL we encountered the concept of connotation. Words in English have positive, negative, or neutral connotation. It can vary from person to person or from context to context, but has to do with the feeling of a word. My friend had difficulty. The example used was 'lazy' being negative, yet the similar word 'relaxed' being positive. Since the whole concept of positive/negative reeks of duality, I am wondering if Sanskrit in its non-dual nature is missing connotation completely.

A similar vein is gender. French nouns have genders attached, even when there is no real gender, like a ship or a tree. Does Sanskrit have gender where its not needed?

Yajvan?

Aum namasivaya

[saidevo]

namaste EM.

01. Here are the different forms of the English word 'lazy' in Sanskrit:

• lazy, adj.--alas, tAMdril, jaDa, manda, maMthara, taMdrAlu, maMdagati, etc.
• lazily, adv.--alasvat, jaDavat, maMdaM, jADajnena
• laziness, noun--AlAsyaM, mAMdhaM, jaDatA, tAMdrikA, taMdralutA, etc.

and for the word 'relax':

• relax, v.t.--shithilIkRu, shrath-shraMth, vigal, visRuj, etc.
relax, v.i.--shithilIbhU, shlath, maMdAyate, etc.
relaxation, noun--shaithilyaM, visraMsaH, mukti, etc.
relaxed, adj.--shithilita, shithila, shalatha, mukta.

Please note that the different words grouped for the same English word have different shades of meaning. For example, while the term alas is the direct equivalent of lazy, meaning 'inactive, without energy, idle', jaDa means inert, and manda means dull. Similarly, the term 'relax' also means 'loosen', hence the various Sanskrit synonyms for it, which includes mukti--liberation.

Thus, most Sanskrit words are related by connotations at the physical, mental and spiritual levels.

02. Sanskrit, as a language, is not non-dual in nature. As against the two numbers in English, singular and plural, it has three numbers: singular, dual, plural. The three numbers for the word tree are vRkShaH, vRkShau, vRkShAH, respectively.

03. As for the gender, Sanskrit has three: male, female and neuter. Every noun in Sanskrit has a gender attached to it: for example, rAmaH--Rama, sarpaH--serpent, vRkShaH--tree, are male nouns; sItA--Sita, latA--creeper, DolA--cradle are female nouns; and danam--money, vanam--garden and phalam--fruit, are neuter nouns. In English, I understand that the gender is not attached (correct me if I am wrong), so words like country and ship are usually treated as female nouns.

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam Saidevo: Nandri. I am still not sure as to the extent of the connotation in negativity/positivity. The term lazy in English is an insult, ofter used behind someone's back and not to their face. Whereas relaxed is quite complimentary. Connotation varies in degrees.

Yet when I read the Tirrukkural, the English versions use negative connotation, but that could just be the translator's bias coming through. Two different translations will have differing words with different connotations. Must be difficult to translate connotation, or implied meaning.

One thing for sure: language is subtle, and has greater impact than what may appear.

Aum Namasivaya