I took another look at the photocopy of the manuscript, and the
arrangement of the text does suggest that the "This" in the third
sentence of the passage Thorsten quoted refers back to the first
sentence. Of course these are somewhat rough phrases and not entirely
grammatical as sentences, but I think the meaning of the third one is
that _kárienwa_ is a rare past passive participle.

The facet of the arrangement that suggests this is that the second
sentence, "After intransitives often = participle active, _va-nwa_," is
substantially indented from the rest of the text, as if Tolkien may
have meant it as a sort of parenthetical note, with the beginning of
the third sentence lined up horizontally with the first sentence, as
though continuing the interrupted thought. But this is only a
suggestion, since the alignment of the texts on the margin of the
manuscript page is irregular. And it is clear that Tolkien composed
these three sentences is in the order given, i.e. the second sentence
is not a later insertion.

Of the two possible interpretations of the ambiguous "This" in context,
I think its reference to the passive rather than active examples
preceding makes more logical sense as well; since the reason _va-nwa_
can be understood in an active sense is because the verb is inherently
intransitive. In other words the suffix _-nwa_ seems normally to add a
passive sense, or "select" that sense from the two possibilities when
the inherent meaning of the verb is transitive.

I hope this is helpful.

- Chris

--- In lambengolmor@yahoogroups.com, "Thorsten Renk" <trenk@...> wrote:
>
>
> In PE17:68 I find the description of the formation of participles:
>
> "Simple past participle passive _kari-nwa_, adj. _-ina_, after vowel stems
> _-nwa, sinwa, s?na_ 'known, certain, ascertained'. After intransitives
> often = active participle, _va-nwa_. This has a past form _kárienwa_
> (rare)."
>
> As it is printed, 'this' seems to refer to the previously mentioned active
> participle. However, given the style of Tolkien's notes, this may be an
> accident and 'this' may in fact refer back to 'simple past participle
> passive' at the beginning of the sentence. I wonder of anyone with access
> to a copy of the original note could clarify if the text arrangement on
> the original document can provide any clue as to what is meant here?
>
> Thanks,
>
> * Thorsten
>