types of rulesmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1393

pANini rules can be classified in four groups --

definition rules

command rules

headline rules

talkaround rules

definition rulesmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1394

definition rules explain the meaning of terms.

Examples --

rule adeGguNaH teaches: " guNa " means "the vowels a e o ".

rule svatantraHkartA teaches: " doer " means who acts on his own.

Most definition rules have the defined term at the very end. The exception to that is rule 11001 vRddhirAdaic, that should have been Adaij vRddhiH, but had the word vRddhis moved to the front for good luck (vRddhi also means "prosperity").

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command rulesmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1395

command rules tell us to do something. Most of them say "replace this with that when this and that happens".

Examples:

Rule ikoyaNaci "replace ik with yaN before vowel" is a command rule.

So is rule vartamAne laT "add laT after a root to mean that the action is happening".

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headline rulesmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1396

headline rules tell us something about the rules that come after them.

An example of that is 61072 saMhitAyAm "when not before a pause". All this rule does is trickling the word saMhitAyAm "when not before a pause" to the following rules, namely all rules from 61073 checa to 61157. Those do not work before a pause.

Another headline rule is pUrvatrAsiddham "the changes made by the following rules do not affect earlier rules". Unlike saMhitAyAm, this rule is not just trickling a word to the next rules -- it teaches that the next rules work in a special way.

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talkaround rulesmmmmmmmmm ^ M- C+ 1397

talkaround rules teach how to understand other rules.

Example 1 --

Rule AdguNaH says --

"after a A, guNa "

But because of the talkaround rule ikoguNavRddhI, that must be understood to mean --

"after a A, replace ik with guNa "

Example 2 --

Rule ur at literally says "of R, at"

But because of the talkaround rule tapara,

which teaches "at means a"

and of the talkaround rule SaSThI,

which teaches " 'of whatever ' in a rule may mean ' replace whatever' "

we may figure out that "of R, at" stands for "replace R with a".

And then because of the talkaround rule uraNra, that must be understood to mean --

" replace R with ar "

And then because of the trickle, this means

"replace R of a stammer with ar"

and we can then figure out, because of rule halAdizze, that we have to replace the r of a stammer with a.

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