263 



Mr. John Morisy (with permission of the Academy) read the fol- 

 lowing paper: — 



On Hindustani Stntax. 



At a very early stage of my Hindustani studies, which began many years 

 ago, several imperfect, and not a few incorrect, statements came in my 

 way while consulting the Grammars. These I was gradually enabled to 

 rectify by a careful analysis of such passages as I found applicable from 

 time to time. That there had been a fair open for such investigations 

 will be easily understood from the fact, that Dr. Forbes, who published 

 his Grammar in 1855, applied the critical rod liberally enough to his 

 most eminent predecessors, not sparing even the native MumMs. But 

 the Doctor himself is not without defects and errors ; and it is to some 

 of the chief of these, in both kinds, that I purpose to devote this short 

 paper, with something of a better temper than is fashionable among our 

 Orientalists. On some of the leading points I have consulted learned 

 friends, to whom, from their long residence in India, the Urdu had be- 

 come almost vernacular. Among them, I may mention Sir James Hig- 

 ginson, whose recognition of my views gave me a confidence which, 

 perhaps, I could not have derived altogether from my own convictions. 

 Instead of multiplying examples, I have chosen a few striking ones, 

 and this choice has rendered very few words sufficient for my purposes. 



The relative and correlative pronouns have been very indistinctly 

 defined. Without entering into minutia, I have arranged such obser- 

 vations as will prove quite satisfactory, and much more intelligible than 

 those to be met with in the Grammars. 



1. When jo and so (or wuh) are used correlatively, jo appears in the 

 secondary clause, which usually comes first in order. Each pronoun 

 with the nearest subsequent verb constitutes a distinct clause ; and this 

 connexion with the nearest verb is scarcely ever departed from, even in 

 verse. 



i- 



J* u vi ^4 J. J») ^ u^J 'b J* ^ 



He, who is a wise boy, without bidding reads his own book in his own 



house. 



ii. j)J ^ ^Jb ^JjJ *jl>J £ ^ IjJ j5>~ 



The medicine which increases the sight of the eye, bring the same. 



In these sentences wuh and so (which we call the antecedents) follow 

 the relative. This may be considered its normal position, when those 



