Appendix:Hindi verbal derivation

Hindi has a productive verbal derivation process that is applied to both inherited and borrowed verbs. It is characterised by the use of certain suffixes as well as vowel gradation (ablaut).

Intransitive

Intransitive verbal derivations usually treat the subject as the lexical-semantic Patient or Theme of the verb, i.e. they are passive forms of the verb they are derived from; the subject is the one upon whom the verb acts.

These generally take the guṇa grade of their internal vowel. In case where the stem ends in a vowel, a -l- is inserted between the stem and ending for the passivized form.

Examples

Vowel change	Original	New
ā→a	जागना (jāgnā, “to awaken”)	जगना (jagnā, “to wake up”) (less agentive)
ī→i	चीरना (cīrnā, “to split, rend”)	चिरना (cirnā, “to be split”)
ū→u	चूसना (cūsnā, “to suck”)	चुसना (cusnā, “to be sucked”)
e→i	छेड़ना (cheṛnā, “to tease, annoy”)	छिड़ना (chiṛnā, “to be teased, annoyed”)
ai→i
o→u	घोलना (gholnā, “to melt, cause to melt”)	घुलना (ghulnā, “to be melted, to melt by itself”)
	धोना (dhonā, “to wash”)	धुलना (dhulnā, “to be washed”)
au→u

Transitive

These take either the vṛddhī grade or the suffix -आना (-ānā).

Causative

These take either the suffix -आना (-ānā) or -वाना (-vānā) on the intransitive form.

Second causative

These take the suffix -वाना (-vānā) on the intransitive form. Not every verb has one. Their meaning is of the form "to cause x to make y do something (to z)". The y is an animate, agentive instrument.

Deverbal

These take the root of the verb (i.e. without -ना (-nā)) to form a masculine or feminine noun.