Ellipsis, brachylogy and other forms of brevity in speech in ... - DWC

4 ELLIPSIS, BRACHYLOGY AND OTHER FORMS OF BREVITY
(créations instantanées, haplologie) ou phonétique (allitération, éventuellement
rime)".6)
There does not even appear to exist a communis opinio about the extent
to which this phenomenon, be it economy or exaggerated brevity, clumsiness
or subtlety, is characteristic of Vedic literature. "Le plus souvent, en
effet, ce qu'on décrit sous ce nom, de manière purement empirique, c'est
Ie fait qu'à une phrase prise dans une langue donnée, il manque un élément
plus ou moins important dont la nécessité semble résulter de ce que d'autres
langues l'emploient - et notamment la langue propre à l'auteur de cette
constatation".7) It is therefore not the least important part of my plan
in writing this article to draw up a short inventory of the phenomena
vaguely described as 'ellipsis' or 'brevity', to detine them and to make an
attempt to assign them their place in the framework of historical syntax.
Like many other translators Geldner has "die zum Verständnis notwendigen
Ergänzungen in ( ) hinzugefügt".8) Although it of ten is a matter
of opinion, how far this procedure, if once adopted, should be applied, and
many bracketings encountered in Geldner's volumes are therefore hardly
discussable, some preliminary remarks may, in connection with the other
topics touched upon in this publication, be made here. Passing over such
instances as :!;tV. 1, 34, 5 devatata "bei (versammelter) Götterschar",
interpretations or elucidations of the type 1, 43, 9 rtasya "des (Welt)gesetzes",
1, 48, 7 ayukta "(zur Fahrt) angespannt", 1, 61, 10 abhi srava];,
"auf Ruhm (ausgehend)" or 1, 62, 4 "(im Bunde) mit" without comment,9)
attention may fust be drawn to 1, 51, 15 where nama];, is, not incorrectly,
rendered by "Huldigungs(lied)" . Here we encounter a difficulty of frequent
occurrence: many ancient Indian terms do not only denote a more or less
'abstract' 'idea', but also the manifestation of that 'idea'; of ten we rather
should say that the 'idea' fust and foremost exists in and through its
manifestations. Thus nama];, may stand for "bow, adoration, salutation",
and for "the text conveying the adoration". As the sons are in a comparable
way representatives of the father, rudra];, in 1, 64, 3 need not be rendered
by "Rudra(söhne)".
Occasionally the addition of a bracketed word may however mislead
the reader so as to suggest the occurrence of a real ellipsis. :!;tV. 1, 26, 2 it
reads ni no hota ... / sada ... manmabhi];, / agne divitmata vaca];,: a translation
"mit Dichtungen, mit glanzvoller Rede (geladen)" is of course
warranted, but the instrumental which expresses the 'accompaniment' of
6) Renou, Histoire de la langue sanskrite, Lyon 1956, p. 21. For alliteration,
figura etymologica etc. see my book Stylistic repetition in the Veda, Amsterdam 1959.
7) Renou, Le problème de l'ellipse dans Ie J;tgveda, Études védiques et pät;linéennes,
!, Paris 1955, p . 29ff. The publication of this important chapter kept me from
writing these pages for some years.
8) Geldner, Rig-veda übersetzt, 12, p . X.
9) That is not to say that one would subscribe to all these interpretations without
the least reserve: cf. e.g. 1, 175,2; 180,6 "Lohnherr".