In descriptions of language a
"patient" is typically the word or phrase referring to the person or
entity most directly affected by the action performed by the
agent.  In (1) the noun  kÙ¶:a  is the patient and the pronoun
 m:òøn:ð is the agent:  
Not every patient denotes something that is directly affected by an
action.  The word eb:ll:i  in (2)
refers to something not at all affected by the action expressed by the
verb  dðK::  
But because the grammatical relations of  eb:ll:i to  dðK:
and  hm: in (2) are identical to the
grammatical relation of  kÙ¶:a to
 B:g:a dð and  m:òø in (1),  eb:ll:i in (2) is also counted as a patient. Unlike
the few English parallels (take care of X, make use of X), in
Hindi-Urdu the number of verbal expressions taking  ka or  ki of patient is
very large:  
4. kar ki m:rmm:t: krn:i hò.  
Nearly all of these expressions are ones in which nouns specifying some
kind of action [viz,  en:m:aüN:
'creation' in (3),  m:rmm:t: 'repair' in
(4)] occur with verbs like  kr 'do',
 hað 'become; be done',  dð 'give',  Aa
'come',  m:ar 'strike' and a few
others.  There are also a few stative expressions such as 
X  ka Aadi hað 'be accustomed to 
X': 
 
Es: vy:v:har ka v:h Aadi T:a.
(to be continued)  
To index of grammatical notes.  
To index of  m:lhar.  
Drafted 24-26 May 2001. Part posted 26 May 2001.  
1. m:òøn:ð kÙ¶:a G:r
kñ s:am:n:ð s:ð B:g:a edy:a. 
   'I shooed the dog from in front of the house.' 
2. hm:n:ð G:r kñ s:am:n:ð eb:ll:i
dðK:i 
   'We saw a cat in front of the house.' 
3. AaI0 Xi0 n:I dØen:y:a ka en:m:aüN: kr
rhi hò. 
   'IT is creating a new world.' 
   'I have to fix the car.' 
5. Es: vy:v:har
ka v:h Aadi T:a. 
   'He was used to dealing in this way.' 
   (from Chapter One of  g:aðdan: ) 
        The full list of expressions taking
 ka or  ki
of patient is much too long to give here.  It may in fact be
open-ended.  Among the most frequent are: