View source for Tibetan Grammar - agentive particle

*Also called: agentive case [particle], instrumental particle, ergative particle<br>

'''WORK IN PROGRESS''' (by Stefan J. Gueffroy<ref>adopted by </ref> [fka Eckel]: the grammar articles are being edited for wiki publication. During editing, the content might be incomplete, out of sequence or even misleading.

Work on the grammar wiki will resume during 2015.

31.Jan.12 The approach to explain Tibetan verbs will be changed to that of the "three thematic relations: Theme, Location, and Agent" 31.Aug.12 - there will be discrepancies to the other grammar section until they are matched with it 

=Agentive Particle=

==origin==

The naming of this particle as "agentive" comes from its Tibetan name "doing sound", "doing particle" and is a reasonably descriptive naming convention. What should be noticed though is that the origin of the particle is the syllable {{gtib|ས་}} "earth, ground, place" joined with the preceding word by means of the connective case or joined directly if the word has no post-fix letter, e.g. {{gtib|ཁོང་}} + {{gtib|གི་}} + {{gtib|ས་}} = {{gtib|ཁོང་གིས་}}
From {{gtib|བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་}} "The Great Tibetan [Tibetan] Chinese Dictionary":<br>
{{gtib|བྱེད་པའི་སྒྲ་: འབྲེལ་སྒྲའི་མཐར་ས་སྦྱར་བ་ལྔ་པོ་དེ་ཡིན་ལ་རྣམ་དབྱེ་གསུམ་པའང་ཟེར་བ་དང་}}...<br>
"Agentive particle: These are the five that are the {{gtib|ས་}} joined to the end of the conective case, they are also called the third case."<br>

The western scholar Walter Simon on the origin of the agentive particle:<br>
"Since ''nas'' and ''las'' have an ablatival meaning, it would seem in keeping with this suggestion [that ' ''the suffix of the agent is probably identical'' ' with the final ''s'' of ''nas'' and ''las''] that ''s'' itself had developed the meaning of agency (and instrumentality) from an original ablatival meaning, ..."<br>
"I should like to explain the ''s'' as shortened from either ''sa'' in the meaning "place" or from ''so'', which is derivative of ''sa''.<ref>Walter Simon, Certain Tibetan Suffixes and Their Combinations, Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies, Vol. 5, No. 3/4 (Jan., 1941), pp. 372-391</ref><br>
In this the agentive particle is very similar to the originative particles {{gtib|ནས་}} and {{gtib|ལས་}} that are {{gtib|ན་}} and {{gtib|ལ་}} with an added {{gtib|ས་}} trough which the marking of a location and direction ({{gtib|ན་}} and {{gtib|ལ་}}) "where, to [where]" changed into the marking of source and origin, a "place form where [something comes]".
In a similar way the agentive particle marks "the place" form where an action originates, the source of an action or situation. To remember this origin of the agentive particle can help to understand the different functions the paricle.<br>

==independent of verb type==

===instrument===
{{gfverb|བལྟས་པ།|ལྟ་བ།|ལྟ་བ།|ལྟོས།|to look|agentive directed|ཐ་དད་པ་}}
{{gsample|ཁོས་མིག་གིས་གཟུགས་ལ་བལྟས།|he  eye      form   looked|He looked with [his] eyes at the form.}}<br>
{{gfverb|བཅད་པ།|གཅོད་པ།|གཅད་པ།|ཆོད།|to cut|agentive transitive|ཐ་དད་པ་}}
{{gsample|ཁོས་ཤིང་སྟ་རེས་བཅད།|he  wood axe  cut|He cut the wood with the axe.}}
Note: {{gtib|ལྟ་རེ་}} "axe" + agentive {{gtib|ས་}} = {{gtib|ལྟ་རེས་}}<br>

===reason===
{{gfverb|བསྲུངས་པ།|སྲུང་བ།|བསྲུང་བ།|སྲུངས།|to guard|agentive transitive|ཐ་དད་པ་}}
{{gsample|བ་ལང་མ་བསྲུངས་པས་སྟོར་ཏོ།|oxen  not guard    lost|Because of not guarding the oxen got lost.}}
{{gfverb|སྟོར་བ།|སྟོར་བ།|སྟོར་བ།||to lose, "gone astray"|agentive transitive|}} 
Note: {{gtib|སྟོར་}} was in older Tibetan {{gtib|སྟོརད་}} which leads to the usage of the [[Completion particle, full stop, སླར་བསྡུ་, རྫོགས་ཚིག་|completion particle]] {{gtib|ཏོ}}<br>

[...]