Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles: Difference between revisions

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'''WORK IN PROGRESS''': the grammar articles are being edited for wiki publication. During editing, the content might be incomplete, out of sequence or even misleading.
'''WORK IN PROGRESS''': the grammar articles are being edited for wiki publication. During editing, the content might be incomplete, out of sequence or even misleading.
'''In the verb section the approach to explain Tibetan verbs is changed to that of the "three thematic relations: Theme, Location, and Agent" - there will be discrepancies to the other grammar section until they are matched with it'''
'''In the verb section the approach to explain Tibetan verbs is changed to that of the "three thematic relations: Theme, Location, and Agent" - there will be discrepancies to the other grammar section until they are matched with it'''<br>
'''2017''' - The treatment of the ''la don'' particles will be (in time) changed into that of three different particles - which they are.


{{Grammar articles}}
{{Grammar articles}}


''by Stefan J. Eckel''
''by Stefan J. Gueffroy<ref>recently adopted</ref> <small>[fka Eckel]</small>''


=The ''la don'' Particles=
=The ''la don'' Particles=
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|+
|+
|-
|-
|width="70%" valign="top"|'''Case'''  
|width="65%" valign="top"|'''Case'''  
|width="30%" valign="top"|'''Particles'''
|width="35%" valign="top"|'''Particles'''
|-
|-
|Second Case: Objective Case, {{gtib|ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་}}
|Second Case: Objective Case, {{gtib|ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་}}
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|}
|}


Each of these three Tibetan cases refer to the same set of seven particles. These are the ''la don'' particles {{gtib|ལ་, ན་, སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ར་}}. The ''la don'' particles are in essence three particles {{gtib|ལ་}}, {{gtib|ན་}} and {{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}{{gfooter|1}} which have overlapping usages within these three cases.
Each of these three Tibetan cases refer to the same set of seven particles. These are the ''la don'' particles {{gtib|ལ་ན་སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}. The ''la don'' particles are in essence three particles {{gtib|ལ་}}, {{gtib|ན་}} and {{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}(which are the five different spellings of one particle) which have overlapping usages within these three cases.<br>


'''Note:''' There is no connection between the fact that there are three particles and three cases. The three cases come from Sanskrit grammar which was used to describe Tibetan grammar. It is a coincidence that the three Tibetan particles&mdash;combined as the ''la don''&mdash;express functions found in the three Sanskrit cases. The three different particles of the ''la don'' are not identical in their usage. And though Tibetan grammarians generally try to establish an at least nominal equivalence among them, practically this equivalence does not appear. Because of their overlapping usage and the Tibetan way of combining them as ''la don'' these three particles are treated together. An exclusive or predominate usage of the particles for a given function will be pointed out.
There is no connection between the fact that the ''la don'' are actually three different particles and the fact that Tibetan place them together into three cases coming from Sanskrit i.e. Objective Case {{gtib|ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་}}, Purposive Case {{gtib|དགོས་ཆེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་}}, Locative Case {{gtib|རྟེན་གནས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་}}.<br>
It is simply a coincidence that there are three Tibetan particles-combined as the ''la don''-that have overlapping functions which are similar to those found in the three Sanskrit cases.<br>


{{gfooter|1}} <small>སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are the different spellings of one particle</small>
This is not in any way to disregard the feats of the great Tibetan grammarians and must not and by no means be understood as a lack of appreciation of their marvelous works. Please refer to Nicolas Tournadre in "The Classical Tibetan cases and their transcategoriality, From sacred grammar to modern linguistics"<ref>Nicolas Tournadre, University of Provence and CNRS, Lacito, The Classical Tibetan cases and their transcategoriality, From sacred grammar to modern linguistics, Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 9(2): 87-125</ref> for a presentation on the particular value, importance and uniqueness of the Tibetan grammar literature.<br>
 
 
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"
|-
| align="center" style="color:black;background-color:#f0f8f8;width:27%"| three different case marking particle
| align="center" style="color:black;background-color:#f0f8f8;width:27%"| combined into one group
| align="center" style="color:black;background-color:#f0f8f8;width:46%"| applied to three different cases taken form Sanskrit
|-
| align="center" valign="middle" | {{Boxinbox||&nbsp;{{gtib|ལ་}}&nbsp;}}<br>{{Boxinbox||&nbsp;{{gtib|ན་}}&nbsp;}}<br>{{Boxinbox||&nbsp;{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}&nbsp;}}
| align="center" valign="middle" | {{Boxinbox| &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;''la don''|&nbsp;{{gtib| ལ་ན་སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}&nbsp;}}
| align="center" valign="middle" | {{Boxinbox|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;{{gtib| ལ་ན་སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}|Objective Case <small>{{gtib| ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་}}</small>}}<br> {{Boxinbox|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;{{gtib| ལ་ན་སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}|Purposive Case <small>{{gtib|དགོས་ཆེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་}}</small>}}<br>{{Boxinbox|&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;{{gtib| ལ་ན་སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}|Locative Case <small>{{gtib|རྟེན་གནས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་}}</small>}}
|}
<br>
The three different particles of the ''la don'' are not identical in their function.<ref>Nicolas Tournadre (ibid.) proposes Tibetan to have teen cases all together, three of those in regard to the different the ''la don'': Dative <small>{{gtib|ལ་}}</small> , Locative <small>{{gtib|ན་}}</small> and Purposive <small>{{gtib|དུ་}}</small>.</ref> And though they might at times presented as generally to be at least nominal equivalent in their function, practically this equivalence does not appear.<br>
Because of their overlapping usage and the Tibetan way of combining them as ''la don'' these three particles are treated here together. (An exclusive or predominate usage of the particles for a given function will be pointed out.)
 
<br>
==Overview of the Functions==
 
'''Note''': not all functions are included in the overview
 
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0"
|-
| style="width:13%"| &nbsp; || style="color:black;background-color:#f0f8f8;width:29%"|{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}} || style="color:black;background-color:#f0f8f8;width:29%"|{{gtib|ལ་}}|| style="color:black;background-color:#f0f8f8;width:29%"|{{gtib|ན་}}
|-
| rowspan="9" valign="top" | '''functions within a clause'''
| valign="top" | [[#Location in Space|location in space and time]] <!-- column 1 occupied by cell functions within a clause -->
| [[#Location in Space|location in space and time]]
| [[#Location in Space|location in space and time]];<br>[[#adverb of time with na|adverbs of time]]
|-
| valign="top" | &nbsp; <!-- column 1 occupied by cell functions within a clause -->
| [[#Referential Qualifier|referential]]
| &nbsp;
|-
| valign="top" | &nbsp; <!-- column 1 occupied by cell functions within a clause -->
| [[#Topical|topical]]
| &nbsp;
|-
| valign="top" | &nbsp; <!-- column 1 occupied by cell functions within a clause -->
| [[#Dependent on Verb Type|recipient, purpose,<br>direction of the action of a verb]]
| &nbsp;
|-
| valign="top" | [[#Adverbial|adverbs]] <!-- column 1 occupied by cell functions within a clause -->
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|-
| valign="top" | [[#Qualifier of Identity / Equivalence|qualifier of identity,<br>qualifier of equivalence]] <!-- column 1 occupied by cell functions within a clause -->
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|-
| valign="top" | [[#Identity of Transformation|identity of transformation]] <!-- column 1 occupied by cell functions within a clause -->
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|-
| valign="top" | [[#Verbs with la don|verb - verb connection,<br>verb - adjective connection]] <!-- column 1 occupied by cell functions within a clause -->
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|-
| valign="top" | [[#la don as substitute for དང་ with verbs using དང་|substitute for associative particle {{gtib|དང་}} ]] <!-- column 1 occupied by cell functions within a clause -->
| &nbsp;
| &nbsp;
|-
| valign="top" | '''coordination of clauses'''
| valign="top" | [[#Adverbial / Simultaneity|adverbial / simultaneity]]
| valign="top" | [[#The Coordinating ལ་ After a Clause|simultaneity: "while", "and",<br>"while (this is that is not)"]]
| valign="top" | [[#The Temporal and Conditional ན་ After a Clause|conditional and temporal<br>"if", "when"]]
|-
|}
<br>


==Independent of Verb Type==
==Independent of Verb Type==
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{{gsample|དུས་དང་གནས་སྐབས་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ་འཆི་བ་ཁོ་ན་སྒོམས།|time&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;circumstance &nbsp;&nbsp;all &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;death &nbsp;&nbsp;only meditate|At all times and circumstances meditate only on death.}}
{{gsample|དུས་དང་གནས་སྐབས་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ་འཆི་བ་ཁོ་ན་སྒོམས།|time&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;circumstance &nbsp;&nbsp;all &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;death &nbsp;&nbsp;only meditate|At all times and circumstances meditate only on death.}}


'''Adverb of time with ན་'''
<div id="adverb of time with na">'''Adverb of Time with ན་'''</div>


from {{gtib|སྔ་མ་}}: "in the past, before, past time, earlier"  
from {{gtib|སྔ་མ་}}: "in the past, before, past time, earlier"  
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===Referential Qualifier===
===Referential Qualifier===
Mostly (<small>{{gtib|ལ་}}</small>)
A referential qualifier is marked by <small>{{gtib|ལ་}}</small>.


{{gsample|མོ་ལ་བུ་ཞིག་སྐྱེས།|she child a born|A child was born to her.}}<br>
{{gsample|མོ་ལ་བུ་ཞིག་སྐྱེས།|she child a born|A child was born to her.}}<br>
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===Topical===
===Topical===
Mostly  <small>{{gtib|ལ་}}</small>
A topical element can be marked by <small>{{gtib|ལ་}}</small>


{{gsample|དང་པོ་ལ།|first|regarding the first}}<br>
{{gsample|དང་པོ་ལ།|first|regarding the first}}<br>
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===Adverbial===
===Adverbial===
Mostly  <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small>
Only <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small>


{{gsample|ཁོང་གིས་གསལ་བར་བཤད།|he&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;clear&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;explained|He explained clearly.}}<br>
{{gsample|ཁོང་གིས་གསལ་བར་བཤད།|he&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;clear&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;explained|He explained clearly.}}<br>
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===Qualifier of Identity / Equivalence===
===Qualifier of Identity / Equivalence===
Mostly  <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small>
Only <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small>


<small>For reflections about ambiguities see: [[Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles - Notes#Note_on_ambiguities|Note on ambiguities]].</small>
<small>For a note about ambiguities see: [[Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles - Notes#Note_on_ambiguities|Note on ambiguities]].</small>


{{gsample|མི་དེ་རྣམས་ཆེ་བར་སྣང༌།|human those big to appear|Those people appear as big.}}<br>
{{gsample|མི་དེ་རྣམས་ཆེ་བར་སྣང༌།|human those big to appear|Those people appear as big.}}<br>
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{{gsample|ཁྱིམ་ལ་དུར་ཙམ་དུ་འཛིན།|household grave only&nbsp;&nbsp;apprehend|to apprehend a household merely as a grave}}<br>
{{gsample|ཁྱིམ་ལ་དུར་ཙམ་དུ་འཛིན།|household grave only&nbsp;&nbsp;apprehend|to apprehend a household merely as a grave}}<br>


{{gsample|གཅིག་དུ་མར་སྣང༌།|one&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;many&nbsp;&nbsp;appear|one appearing as many}}
{{gsample|གཅིག་དུ་མར་སྣང༌།|one&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;many&nbsp;&nbsp;appear|one appearing as many}}<br>


===Identity of Transformation===
===Identity of Transformation===
<small>'''Objective case''', Tib. {{gtib|ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་}}</small>


What something is transformed into is marked by <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small>
What something is transformed into is marked by <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small>
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===Joining of Noun and Verb===
===Joining of Noun and Verb===
<small>'''Objective case''', Tib. {{gtib|ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་}}</small>


With <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small>
With <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small>
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====Direct verb-verb relation====
====Direct verb-verb relation====
Mostly <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small>
Only <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small>
 
=====Verb and auxiliary verb=====
=====Verb and auxiliary verb=====


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====Qualifier of an Intransitive Verb====
====Qualifier of an Intransitive Verb====
Mostly <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small>
Only <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small>


'''Ability'''
'''Ability'''
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<small>see: [[Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles - Notes#Note_on_ambiguities|Note on ambiguities]]</small>
<small>see: [[Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles - Notes#Note_on_ambiguities|Note on ambiguities]]</small>


{{gsample|སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུ་མེད་པ་ལ་ཡོད་པར་སྣང་བ་|illusion like not existing existing appear|like [an] illusion, not existing appears as existing}}
{{gsample|སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུ་མེད་པ་ལ་ཡོད་པར་སྣང་བ་|illusion like not existing existing appear|like [an] illusion, not existing appears as existing}}<br>


====Verbal Clause as the Theme of a Verb====
====Verbal Clause as the Theme of a Verb====
Mostly with  <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small>
Only <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small>


The theme of the verb can be a verb or a whole clause itself which is nominalized and marked by the ''la don''. Verbs which have their theme (intransitive subject, transitive object) normally in {{gtib|མིང་ཙམ་}} have in this case their object marked by the la ''don'' {{gtib|ར་}}.
The theme of the verb can be a verb or a whole clause itself which is nominalized and marked by the ''la don''. Verbs which have their theme (intransitive subject, transitive object) normally in {{gtib|མིང་ཙམ་}} have in this case their object marked by the la ''don'' {{gtib|ར་}}.


In some of the following examples the usage of the ''la don'' can be interpreted in different ways. Yet in most examples the interpretation of a verbal clause as the theme looks less constructed then its alternative; see: [[Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles - Notes#Note_on_ambiguities|Note on ambiguities]].
In some of the following examples the usage of the ''la don'' can be interpreted in different ways. Yet in most examples the interpretation of a verbal clause as the theme looks less constructed then its alternative; see: [[Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles - Notes#Note_on_ambiguities|Note on ambiguities]].
 
<br>
'''With verbs of "perception and mental activity“'''
'''With verbs of "perception and mental activity“'''


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{{gsample|ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་བསྟན་བཅོས་འདི་བསྟན་དུ་གསོལ།|you&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;shastra&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;this&nbsp;&nbsp;teach&nbsp;&nbsp;to request, supplicate|(I) supplicate you to teach this shastra.}}<br>
{{gsample|ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་བསྟན་བཅོས་འདི་བསྟན་དུ་གསོལ།|you&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;shastra&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;this&nbsp;&nbsp;teach&nbsp;&nbsp;to request, supplicate|(I) supplicate you to teach this shastra.}}<br>


{{gsample|རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་པར་ཞུས།|monastic vows requested|[They] requested monastic vows.}}
{{gsample|རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་པར་ཞུས།|monastic vows requested|[They] requested monastic vows.}}<br>


====Adverbial / Simultaneity (of Verb-Verb)====
====Adverbial / Simultaneity (of Verb-Verb)====
Mostly <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small>
Only <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small>


This usage occurs between two verbs. It can also coordinate a clause within a larger clause or one clause with an other clause (see [[#Adverbial / simultaneity|Adverbial / simultaneity]]).  
This usage occurs between two verbs. It can also coordinate a clause within a larger clause or one clause with an other clause (see [[#Adverbial / simultaneity|Adverbial / simultaneity]]).  
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<small>(from the same text as the previous example)</small>
<small>(from the same text as the previous example)</small>


{{gsample|ཐེག་དམན་ཆེར་དར་ད་ལྟའང་མ་ནུབ་བཞུགས།|Hinayana&nbsp;&nbsp;great spread now&nbsp;&nbsp;not sink&nbsp;&nbsp;remain|[there] the Hinayana spread widely and even now remains without declining (sinking)}}
{{gsample|ཐེག་དམན་ཆེར་དར་ད་ལྟའང་མ་ནུབ་བཞུགས།|Hinayana&nbsp;&nbsp;great spread now&nbsp;&nbsp;not sink&nbsp;&nbsp;remain|[there] the Hinayana spread widely and even now remains without declining (sinking)}}<br>


===Coordination===
===Coordination===
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This is similar to [[#Adverbial / simultaneity (of verb-verb)|Adverbial / simultaneity (of verb-verb)]], but here the clause is not directly before the second verb. The meaning is again that of "simultaneity" or "adverbial".
This is similar to [[#Adverbial / simultaneity (of verb-verb)|Adverbial / simultaneity (of verb-verb)]], but here the clause is not directly before the second verb. The meaning is again that of "simultaneity" or "adverbial".


In most cases the first statement is a negative statement (has a negated verb).


'''First clause with negated verb'''
'''First clause with negated verb'''
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{{gsample|གཅིག་གིས་གཅིག་ལ་ཞེ་སྡང་མི་བསྐྱེད་པར་རང་གི་སྔོན་བྱས་ཀྱི་ལས་ངན་སྨིན་པ་ཤེས་པར་བྱས་ནས་བཟོད་བསྲན་བསྐྱེད་དགོས་ཏེ་|one&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;one&nbsp;&nbsp;aggression not generate&nbsp;&nbsp;self&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;earlier done&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;action bad mature  know&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;forbearance&nbsp;&nbsp;generate need|[They should] not generate aggression for one another but knowing that it is the maturation of their own past negative actions they should generate forbearance.}}<br>
{{gsample|གཅིག་གིས་གཅིག་ལ་ཞེ་སྡང་མི་བསྐྱེད་པར་རང་གི་སྔོན་བྱས་ཀྱི་ལས་ངན་སྨིན་པ་ཤེས་པར་བྱས་ནས་བཟོད་བསྲན་བསྐྱེད་དགོས་ཏེ་|one&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;one&nbsp;&nbsp;aggression not generate&nbsp;&nbsp;self&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;earlier done&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;action bad mature  know&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;forbearance&nbsp;&nbsp;generate need|[They should] not generate aggression for one another but knowing that it is the maturation of their own past negative actions they should generate forbearance.}}<br>


''Example with a positive first clause''
''With a positive first clause''


{{gsample|རིགས་པ་དང་ལུང་གིས་རབ་ཏུ་བསྟན་པར་རང་གི་འདོད་པ་གྲུབ་|logic&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;scripture&nbsp;&nbsp;fully demonstrate&nbsp;&nbsp;ones&nbsp;&nbsp;assertion&nbsp;&nbsp;established|[With] fully demonstrating through logic and scriptures one's assertion is established.}}
{{gsample|རིགས་པ་དང་ལུང་གིས་རབ་ཏུ་བསྟན་པར་རང་གི་འདོད་པ་གྲུབ་|logic&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;scripture&nbsp;&nbsp;fully demonstrate&nbsp;&nbsp;ones&nbsp;&nbsp;assertion&nbsp;&nbsp;established|[With] fully demonstrating through logic and scriptures one's assertion is established.}}<br>


====The Temporal and Conditional {{gtib|ན་}}  After a Clause====
====The Temporal and Conditional {{gtib|ན་}}  After a Clause====
Note: This is the most used function of  {{gtib|ན་}} vastly outnumbering all it's others (and is somewhat under-represented here).
Note: This is the most used function of  {{gtib|ན་}} vastly outnumbering all it's others usages<ref>and is somewhat under-represented here</ref>.


{{gsample|ཉན་ཐོས་ཀྱི་མདོ་སྡེ་མཐོང་ན་ཉན་ཐོས་ལ་དད་དེ།|Shravaka&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;sutra&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;see&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Shravaka&nbsp;&nbsp;faith|if / when [they] see the Shravaka-sutras, [they] will have faith in the Shravakas}}
{{gsample|ཉན་ཐོས་ཀྱི་མདོ་སྡེ་མཐོང་ན་ཉན་ཐོས་ལ་དད་དེ།|Shravaka&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;sutra&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;see&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Shravaka&nbsp;&nbsp;faith|if / when [they] see the Shravaka-sutras, [they] will have faith in the Shravakas}}
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{{gsample|གསལ་ལ་ཟླུམ་པའི་ཟླ་བ།|clear&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;round&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;moon|the clear and round moon}}<br>
{{gsample|གསལ་ལ་ཟླུམ་པའི་ཟླ་བ།|clear&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;round&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;moon|the clear and round moon}}<br>


{{gsample|ཐག་པ་སྲ་ལ་&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;གྲིམ་པ་ཞིག|rope&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;solid / hard&nbsp;&nbsp;tight / firm|a solid and firm rope}}
{{gsample|ཐག་པ་སྲ་ལ་&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;གྲིམ་པ་ཞིག|rope&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;solid / hard&nbsp;&nbsp;tight / firm|a solid and firm rope}}<br>


===Postpositions===
===Postpositions===
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'''purpose'''
'''purpose'''


{| class="wikitable" cellspacing="0" border="0"
{{gsample|ཆེད་དུ་&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;དོན་དུ་&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ཕྱིར་དུ་&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;སླད་དུ་| |all four express: "for the purpose of, , in order to, for the sake of"}}<br>
|+
|-
|{{gsample|ཆེད་དུ་| |all four express: "for the purpose of, in order to, for the sake of"}}
|{{gsample|དོན་དུ་| |&nbsp;}}
|{{gsample|ཕྱིར་དུ་| |&nbsp;}}
|{{gsample|སླད་དུ་| |&nbsp;}}
|}
 


===Second Pleonastic Particle {{gtib|ན་}}===
===Second Pleonastic Particle {{gtib|ན་}}===
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===Agentive Directed Verb===
===Agentive Directed Verb===


Mostly  <small>{{gtib|ལ་}}</small> (<small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small> are less used.)
Commonly <small>{{gtib|ལ་}}</small> (<small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small> only as substitute for <small>{{gtib|ལ་}}</small> .)
 


See [[Tibetan_Grammar - verbs#The Three Categories of agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive|the verb section for agentive directed verbs]].
See [[Tibetan_Grammar - verbs#The Three Categories of agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive|the verb section for agentive directed verbs]].
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{{gsample|ཞེན་པ་ལ་བྲལ་བ་|clinging&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;to be freed from|to be freed from clinging}}
{{gsample|ཞེན་པ་ལ་བྲལ་བ་|clinging&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;to be freed from|to be freed from clinging}}
=Endnotes=
<references/>




[[Category:Tibetan Grammar]]
[[Category:Tibetan Grammar]]

Latest revision as of 09:53, 10 May 2021

WORK IN PROGRESS: the grammar articles are being edited for wiki publication. During editing, the content might be incomplete, out of sequence or even misleading. In the verb section the approach to explain Tibetan verbs is changed to that of the "three thematic relations: Theme, Location, and Agent" - there will be discrepancies to the other grammar section until they are matched with it
2017 - The treatment of the la don particles will be (in time) changed into that of three different particles - which they are.

Articles on Tibetan Grammar
1. Introduction
2. Formation of the Tibetan Syllable
3. Formation of the Tibetan Word
4. First case: ming tsam
5. agentive particle
6. Connective Particle
7. La don particles
8. La don particles—Notes
9. Originative case
10. Verbs
11. Verbs—Notes
12. Syntactic particles

by Stefan J. Gueffroy[1] [fka Eckel]

The la don Particles

 This section contains Tibetan script. Without proper Tibetan rendering support configured, you may see other symbols instead of Tibetan script.
Case Particles
Second Case: Objective Case, ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་ སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་
Fourth Case: Purposive Case, དགོས་ཆེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་ སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་
Seventh Case: Locative Case, རྟེན་གནས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་ སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་

Each of these three Tibetan cases refer to the same set of seven particles. These are the la don particles ལ་ན་སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་. The la don particles are in essence three particles ལ་, ན་ and སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་(which are the five different spellings of one particle) which have overlapping usages within these three cases.

There is no connection between the fact that the la don are actually three different particles and the fact that Tibetan place them together into three cases coming from Sanskrit i.e. Objective Case ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་, Purposive Case དགོས་ཆེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་, Locative Case རྟེན་གནས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་.
It is simply a coincidence that there are three Tibetan particles-combined as the la don-that have overlapping functions which are similar to those found in the three Sanskrit cases.

This is not in any way to disregard the feats of the great Tibetan grammarians and must not and by no means be understood as a lack of appreciation of their marvelous works. Please refer to Nicolas Tournadre in "The Classical Tibetan cases and their transcategoriality, From sacred grammar to modern linguistics"[2] for a presentation on the particular value, importance and uniqueness of the Tibetan grammar literature.


three different case marking particle combined into one group applied to three different cases taken form Sanskrit
 ལ་ 

 ན་ 

 སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ 
   la don
  ལ་ན་སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ 
    ལ་ན་སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་
Objective Case ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་

    ལ་ན་སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་
Purposive Case དགོས་ཆེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་

    ལ་ན་སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་
Locative Case རྟེན་གནས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་


The three different particles of the la don are not identical in their function.[3] And though they might at times presented as generally to be at least nominal equivalent in their function, practically this equivalence does not appear.
Because of their overlapping usage and the Tibetan way of combining them as la don these three particles are treated here together. (An exclusive or predominate usage of the particles for a given function will be pointed out.)


Overview of the Functions

Note: not all functions are included in the overview

  སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ ལ་ ན་
functions within a clause location in space and time location in space and time location in space and time;
adverbs of time
  referential  
  topical  
  recipient, purpose,
direction of the action of a verb 		 
adverbs    
qualifier of identity,
qualifier of equivalence 		   
identity of transformation    
verb - verb connection,
verb - adjective connection 		   
substitute for associative particle དང་    
coordination of clauses adverbial / simultaneity simultaneity: "while", "and",
"while (this is that is not)" 		conditional and temporal
"if", "when"


Independent of Verb Type

Location in Space

Place of Activity

Objective case, Tib. ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་རྒྱ་གར་ལ་ཆོས་བསྟན།
Buddha          India      Dharma taught
The Buddha taught the Dharma in India.

Direction

ཞིང་ལ་ཆུ་འདྲེན།
field water irrigate
to irrigate the field


Location in Time

Locative case

དེའི་ཚེ་ན་
that time
at that time


ཁོ་ཡུན་རིང་དུ་ལྷ་སར་བསྡད།
he time long Lhasa stayed
He stayed a long time in Lhasa.


དུས་དང་གནས་སྐབས་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ་འཆི་བ་ཁོ་ན་སྒོམས།
time     circumstance   all            death   only meditate
At all times and circumstances meditate only on death.
Adverb of Time with ན་

from སྔ་མ་: "in the past, before, past time, earlier"

སྔ་ན
earlier, previously
སྔ་ན་མེད་པ་
previously nonexistent


དུས་སྔ་མ་ནས་ད་ལྟའི་བར་
time former now until
from former times to now

Note: also སྔར་ "in the past, preceding, former, before", with a frozen la don (see: "frozen particles")

སྔར་ནས་འདྲིས་པའི་གྲོགས་པོ་
past  to be acquainted  friend
the friend [one] is acquainted with from the past


Purpose

ཞིང་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ལོ་ཏོག་སྨིན་པ་ལ་ཆུ་འདྲེན།
farmer pl.        the crop  ripen     water irrigate
The farmers irrigate for the ripening of the crop.


Referential Qualifier

A referential qualifier is marked by ལ་.

མོ་ལ་བུ་ཞིག་སྐྱེས།
she child a born
A child was born to her.


ང་ལ་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་སྡིག་པའི་ལས་མི་ཆུང་ངོ།།
I     you      evil     deeds not small
For me your evil deeds are not small.


སེམས་ཅན་ཆེན་པོ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་བུ་གཅིག་པ་དང་འདྲ།
Mahasattva          all             son   same    similar, like
Mahasattva was for everyone like their son.


གཟུགས་བརྙན་གྱི་བུད་མེད་ལ་བུད་མེད་དོ་སྙམ་
image, reflection  woman   woman    to think
to think in regard to an image of a woman [that it is] a woman


Topical

A topical element can be marked by ལ་

དང་པོ་ལ།
first
regarding the first


དང་པོ་རང་ལུགས་བཞག་པ་ལ།
first   own system  to define; to put
firstly, [in regard to] the presentation of our own position


་་་་༌། དེ་ལ་ཡིད་ཆེས་པའི་དད་པ་ནི།
       that      trust              faith
in regard to that, the trusting faith:


Adverbial

Only སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

ཁོང་གིས་གསལ་བར་བཤད།
he          clear        explained
He explained clearly.


བདེན་པར་ཡོད་པ
truth          exist
truly existent


མྱུར་དུ་
quick, swift
quickly, swiftly
 མྱུར་བ་


དེ་ལྟ་བུར་ཡོད་པ་
that like  be
to be like that
 དེ་ལྟ་བུ་


རྒྱུན་དུ་
continuum
continuously
 རྒྱུན་


རྟག་ཏུ་
permanent
always, constantly, permanently
 རྟག་པ་


Qualifier of Identity / Equivalence

Only སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

For a note about ambiguities see: Note on ambiguities.

མི་དེ་རྣམས་ཆེ་བར་སྣང༌།
human those big to appear
Those people appear as big.


ཁྱིམ་ལ་དུར་ཙམ་དུ་འཛིན།
household grave only  apprehend
to apprehend a household merely as a grave


གཅིག་དུ་མར་སྣང༌།
one    many  appear
one appearing as many


Identity of Transformation

What something is transformed into is marked by སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

མཁས་པར་འགྱུར་བ
learned      to become, change into
to become learned


ལྷ་རུ་གྱུར་
god   became
became a god


དུམ་བུར་གཅོད་པ་
pieces      cut
to cut (something) in to pieces


རྒྱལ་པོས་ནི་སྟ་རེས་མགོ་བོ་དུམ་བུར་གསེས།
king           axe     head    pieces     split, shred
The king split the head into pieces with an axe.


Joining of Noun and Verb

With སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

These may form new lexicalized2 words.

འོད་དུ་འཚེར་བ་
light    to emit, shine, to be bright
to emit light, to be bright


ཉམས་སུ་ལེན་
experiences to take
to practice


ཉམས་སུ་མྱོང་བ་
experiences to experience
to experience


2 To make or coin a new word or accept a new word into the lexicon of a language.

Verbs with la don

The topic here is the usage of the la don particles directly between a (nominalized) verb or a clause ending in a verb and another verb or adjective. e.g.: བླང་བར་རུང་. This usage quite often expresses an infinitive construction or gerund from an English point of view. (There are different approaches and opinions on how to treat this grammatically.)

For the usage between clauses see: Coordination.

See: Note on classifications for verbs with la don and Note on omissions.

Direct verb-verb relation

Only སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

Verb and auxiliary verb
རྙེད་པར་འགྱུར།
find    future auxiliary
(one) will find / obtain


རྒྱལ་པོ་བསྲུང་བར་ཡོང༌།
king     protect  future / to come
the king will be protected


ཕྲུ་གུ་སྐྱེས་སུ་ཟིན་ཀྱང་་་
child born  past auxiliary even
even though the child was (already) born, ...


Modal Relation

Modality: covering expressions of how the world (situation, circumstances) might be and should be; this includes expressions of necessity, permissibility and probability, and negations of these.

See: Note on classifications for verbs with la don and Note on ambiguities for a further explanation of these relations and the reasons for the coming classifications and their names.

Expressing a Quality

epistemic status

མྱུར་དུ་འཆི་བར་ངེས་པས་
soon     die     certain
because it is certain [that one] will die soon ...


Evaluative status

གཅིག་པུ་འགྲོ་དགོས་
alone     go    need    (omitted བར་ between the two verbs)
(one) needs to go alone


ཇི་ཙམ་ལེན་ནུས་པ་དེ་ཙམ་བླང་བར་རུང་སྟེ།
as much take able that just take  appropriate
just as much as [one] is able to take on [it] is appropriate to take on


Expressing a Feature
ཐོས་པར་སྙན་པ་
to hear  pleasant
pleasant to hear


་་་འདུལ་བར་སླ་བ་ལ་སེམས་ལྟ་བུ་གཞན་མ་གཟིགས།
tame         easier   mind   like other not seen
....in regard to being easy to tame [I] have not seen anything like the mind
"In this world, if tamed and brought onto the path) there is nothing other (that will obey and) is as easy to be tamed like the mind."
ཕྲད་པར་ཤིན་ཏུ་དཀའ།
to meet extremely difficult
extremely difficult to meet


སངས་རྒྱས་ཉག་གཅིག་མ་གཏོགས་གཞན་དག་གིས་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྟོགས་པར་དཀའ་སྟེ།
Buddha       only       except        other       extremely understand difficult
Apart from for the Buddha, for all others [this] is extremely difficult to understand


Qualifier of an Intransitive Verb

Only སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

Ability

see: Note on classifications for verbs with la don

སྨྲ་བར་ནུས་པ་
speak   able
able to speak


ཆོས་བྱེད་དུ་མི་ཁོམ།
Dharma do not to have time
to not have time to practice the Dharma


Place, time, purpose, etc.

གཅིག་པུར་དགྲ་རྒོལ་དུ་སོང་ནས་
alone     enemy  to fight  went
after he went alone to fight the enemy...


Identity

Same as Qualifier of identity / equivalence

see: Note on ambiguities

སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུ་མེད་པ་ལ་ཡོད་པར་སྣང་བ་
illusion like not existing existing appear
like [an] illusion, not existing appears as existing


Verbal Clause as the Theme of a Verb

Only སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

The theme of the verb can be a verb or a whole clause itself which is nominalized and marked by the la don. Verbs which have their theme (intransitive subject, transitive object) normally in མིང་ཙམ་ have in this case their object marked by the la don ར་.

In some of the following examples the usage of the la don can be interpreted in different ways. Yet in most examples the interpretation of a verbal clause as the theme looks less constructed then its alternative; see: Note on ambiguities.
With verbs of "perception and mental activity“

ལེན་པར་ཤེས་པ་
to take    to know
knowing to take; (he) knows to take


གང་ན་གདུལ་བྱ་ ཡོད་པ་དེའི་གནས་སུ་འགྲོ་བར་ཤེས་པ་རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་ ཡུལ་ མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ།
where one to be tamed exist that    place   go     know miraculous display place super knowledge
knowing to go to the place where ever those to be tamed are is the super knowledge [of knowing] the places for miraculous displays


བདེ་སྐྱིད་འཐོབ་པར་སེམས་པ།
happiness obtain     think
to think about obtaining happiness


Verbs like སེམས་པ་ "to think" can also have their object marked with the la don ལ་, giving it the meaning " to think about, to meditate on"; see: Patient (object) of a transitive verb and Verbs which change their meaning with different syntaxes.

ཟངས་མདོག་དཔལ་གྱི་རི་བོ་པདྨ་འོད་ཀྱི་ཕོ་བྲང་རྟེན་དང་བརྟེན་པར་བཅས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་དངོས་སུ་བྱོན་ཏེ་
copper-coloured mountain lotus light palace support and supported together    all    actually came
རང་གིས་བསྐྱེད་པའི་དམ་ཚིག་པ་ལ་ཆུ་ལ་ཆུ་བཞག་པ་ལྟར་གཉིས་སུ་མེད་པར་ཐིམ་པར་བསམ།
oneself   generated  samaya-sattva water water put    like    two    not   merge/dissolve  meditate/think
To visualize that the Copper-coloured Mountain, the Palace of Lotus Light, together with all the support and all the supported, actually came and merged indivisibly with the samaya-sattva generated by oneself, like water poured into water.


མཉན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་གྲུ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་རང་དང་གྲུར་ཞུགས་པའི་མི་ལ་སོགས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་མཉམ་དུ་
ferry-man  called  boatmen     oneself and boat entered  people and so on    all      together
ཆུའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་འགྲོ་བར་འདོད་པ་ལྟར་
river other side   go      want     like
[in regard to generating Bodhicitta] that which is called 'ferry-man' is like boatmen wanting themselves together with all the people etc. on the boat to go to the other side of the river


Verbs of "communication"

སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་བསྒོམས་པས་སྡིག་པ་བྱང་བར་གསུངས།
shunyata  meditated  negativity  cleaned  taught
[The Buddha] taught that by meditating on shunyata, negativities are purified.


ཞེས་པའི་འགྲེལ་པར། ་་་་་་་་བྱང་སྒྲ་མི་སྙན་ན་ཡོན་ཏན་རིན་ཆེན་བརྩེགས་དང༌། ཁམས་གསུམ་བདེ་རྒྱས་
commentary          north Unpleasant Sound qualities precious piled up and   realms three bliss expands
སྒྲོན་མེའི་མཆོད་རྟེན་གཉིས་བཞུགས་པར་བཤད་དོ།།
torch        stupa     two   to remain    explained
In the commentary on [the quote]....... [it is] explained [that] ...... in the northern continent "Unpleasant Sound" there are the two stupas "piled up [with] precious qualities" and "torch [that] expands the bliss [in] the three realms".


With verbs of "command, request and supplication" showing the purpose

ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་བསྟན་བཅོས་འདི་བསྟན་དུ་གསོལ།
you          shastra      this  teach  to request, supplicate
(I) supplicate you to teach this shastra.


རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་པར་ཞུས།
monastic vows requested
[They] requested monastic vows.


Adverbial / Simultaneity (of Verb-Verb)

Only སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

This usage occurs between two verbs. It can also coordinate a clause within a larger clause or one clause with an other clause (see Adverbial / simultaneity).

ཆོས་མ་གསུངས་པར་བཞུགས་
Dharma  not taught    stayed
(He) stayed, (in the manner of / while) not teaching the Dharma.


བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ལུས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་རྒྱད་ལ་ཁྱབ་པར་བཞུགས་ཀྱང༌།
Sugatagarbha        beings      all         continuum   pervade  reside  even
even though the Sugatagarbha pervadingly resides in the continuum of all beings ...


གཞན་ཐམས་ཅད་ནི་ཐེག་དམན་ཉན་ཐོས་པ་ཁོ་ན་ཆེར་དར་  ཞིང་ད་ལྟའང་ མ་ནུབ་པར་བཞུགས་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།།
other   all            Hinayana  Shravaka  only great spread and  now even  not sink       remain
regarding all the other [places] the Hinayana alone spread widely and even now remains without declining (sinking)


With omission of the la don

(from the same text as the previous example)

ཐེག་དམན་ཆེར་དར་ད་ལྟའང་མ་ནུབ་བཞུགས།
Hinayana  great spread now  not sink  remain
[there] the Hinayana spread widely and even now remains without declining (sinking)


Coordination

Adverbial / Simultaneity

This is similar to Adverbial / simultaneity (of verb-verb), but here the clause is not directly before the second verb. The meaning is again that of "simultaneity" or "adverbial".


First clause with negated verb

ཡོན་ཏན་དང་ལྡན་ན་སྐྱེ་བོ་ཀུན།     མ་བསྡུས་པར་ཡང་རང་ཉིད་འདུ།
good qualities possess person all     not gathered         one self gather
If (a person) possess good qualities everybody will gather (around them) of their own accord without being gathered (by someone).


མར་མེ་གཅིག་ལས་གཅིག་སྦར་ན་སྔ་མ་ལ་མ་ལྟོས་པར་ཕྱི་མ་མེད་
butter lamp one    one   lit   if  former not  rely    latter not exist
if [one] lights one butter lamp from an another, without relying on the former the latter [does] not exist.


ཇི་ལྟར་ན་ལེགས་པར་གསུངས་པ་ཡིན་ཞེ་ན།  ་་་་༌།  རེས་འགའ་བ་མ་ཡིན་པར་རྒྱུན་དུ་གསུངས་པའི་ཕྱིར་དང༌།
how    well/excellent  taught      is               occasionally   not is     continuously taught   because and
If one were to asked in what way is [it] well taught. ...because [it] is not [just] occasionally but continuously taught, and ...


གཅིག་གིས་གཅིག་ལ་ཞེ་སྡང་མི་བསྐྱེད་པར་རང་གི་སྔོན་བྱས་ཀྱི་ལས་ངན་སྨིན་པ་ཤེས་པར་བྱས་ནས་བཟོད་བསྲན་བསྐྱེད་དགོས་ཏེ་
one           one  aggression not generate  self   earlier done   action bad mature know           forbearance  generate need
[They should] not generate aggression for one another but knowing that it is the maturation of their own past negative actions they should generate forbearance.


With a positive first clause

རིགས་པ་དང་ལུང་གིས་རབ་ཏུ་བསྟན་པར་རང་གི་འདོད་པ་གྲུབ་
logic         scripture  fully demonstrate  ones  assertion  established
[With] fully demonstrating through logic and scriptures one's assertion is established.


The Temporal and Conditional ན་ After a Clause

Note: This is the most used function of ན་ vastly outnumbering all it's others usages[4].

ཉན་ཐོས་ཀྱི་མདོ་སྡེ་མཐོང་ན་ཉན་ཐོས་ལ་དད་དེ།
Shravaka    sutra    see     Shravaka  faith
if / when [they] see the Shravaka-sutras, [they] will have faith in the Shravakas


The Coordinating ལ་ After a Clause

ངོ་བོ་སྟོང་ལ་རང་བཞིན་གསལ།
essence empty  nature    luminous
[its] essence is empty and / while [its] nature is luminous


ཚིག་འཛིན་ལ་དོན་མི་འཛིན་པ།
word retain   meaning retain
to remember the words, [but] not to remember the meaning


་་་དགེ་འདུན་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་མོས་ཤིང་གུས་ལ་སེམས་དང་བའོ། །
  sangha       jewel       devotion respect   mind  clear / delighted, sincere
....[having] towards the Jewel of the Sangha devotion, respect and great faith


གལ་ཏེ་གཅིག་གམ་སྙམ་ན།   མ་ཡིན་ཏེ།   མཚན་ཉིད་མི་མཐུན་པའི་ཕྱིར་ཏེ།   ཕུང་པོ་ནི་མི་རྟག་པ་དང་
in case   one   ?      wonder    not  is  characteristic not in accord because      skandhas impermanent and
དུ་མ་སྤུངས་པ་དང་གཞན་དབང་ཅན་ཡིན་ལ།   བདག་ནི་རྟག་པ་དང་གཅིག་པུ་དང་རང་དབང་ཅན་དུ་འཛིན་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ།   །
many gathered and  other-controlled  are la don  self  permanent and singular self-controlled     grasped because
If [one] were to wonder, [are the self and the skandhas] one? - [they] are not, because the [their] characteristics are not in accordance - while the skandhas are impermanent, a gathering of many and other-controlled, the self is grasped at as permanent, singular and self-controlled.


The same type of coordination occurs with adjectives.

གསལ་ལ་ཟླུམ་པའི་ཟླ་བ།
clear     round     moon
the clear and round moon


ཐག་པ་སྲ་ལ་    གྲིམ་པ་ཞིག
rope   solid / hard  tight / firm
a solid and firm rope


Postpositions

local

ནང་དུ་
in
inside, into
ཁྱིམ་གྱི་ནང་དུ་
house    inside
inside the house, into the house
ནང་ན་
 
inside
བར་དུ་   བར་ན་
 
in between


purpose

ཆེད་དུ་    དོན་དུ་    ཕྱིར་དུ་    སླད་དུ་
all four express: "for the purpose of, , in order to, for the sake of"


Second Pleonastic Particle ན་

from πλεονασμóς / pleonasmos "excess"

See also "two particles after another x.xx.x"

When ན་ stands as second particle after another particle (mostly agentive - reason), it doesn’t add any meaning (beside making it easier to spot that the agentive case is marking a reason).

རྒྱུ་དེས་ན་
cause that
because of / through that cause


ན་ for ཞེ་ན་

ན་ stands for ཞེ་ན་ after a clause where the clause is a question with an interrogative pronoun.

ཞེ་ན་ / ཅེ་ན་ / ཤེ་ན་ translated as "If one asks..." is short for ཅེས་སྨྲས་པ་ན་ "if one says ..." J.Rockwell Jr., pg. 145, 12.3
དུས་ནམ་ནས་འཁྲུལ་ན།
time     when  confused
If one were to ask: "Since when have [they] been confused?"



Dependent on Verb Type

For the usage of the la don with verbs that can have a verbal clause as the theme, see: Verbal clause as the theme of a verb.


Agentive Directed Verb

Commonly ལ་ (སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ only as substitute for ལ་ .)


See the verb section for agentive directed verbs.


With intentional verbs of perception

ཁོས་མོ་ལ་བལྟས།
he   she     looked
He looked at her.
ཁོ་ལ་མོས་བལྟས།
he  she      looked
She looked at him.

Verbs of benefit / harm

གཟུགས་པོར་ནད་ཀྱིས་འདེབས་པ།
body     illness      hit, strike
The body is struck by a disease.
Source: བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ།

With verbs expressing mental activity

Verbs like སེམས་པ་ "to think" and སྒོམ་པ་ "to meditate, to cultivate" can have their theme (object) marked with the la don ལ་. If the theme (object) is a whole clause, the la don སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are used. (See Verbal clause as the theme of a verb.)

གསུམ་པ་རྙེད་དཀའི་དཔེ་ལ་བསམ་པ་ནི་
third    find difficult example contemplate
the third: to contemplate about the example of the difficulty of finding [a precious human birth]


རྒྱུ་ལ་དཔྱོད་པ་
cause examine
to examine the cause


Recipient (Indirect Object) of a Ditransitive Verb

A ditransitive verb is a verb that has both a theme (direct object) and a recipient (indirect object).

Mostly ལ་, sometimes སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

Note: In Tibetan grammar (following the Sanskrit model) the recipient (indirect object) of a ditransitive verb, where the action brings no direct nor indirect benefit to it, and the recipient to which the action does bring direct or indirect benefit are considered to be in different cases ( both are marked by the la don). The former would be in the objective case ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་, the latter the purposive case དགོས་ཆེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་.

སྔོན་གཤེགས་དཔའ་བོའི་སྐུ་གདུང་ལ་མེ་ཏོག་གི་ཕྲེང་བ་འབུལ་བ།
former gone  heroes  tomb, reliquary  flower  garland   offer
Offering flower garlands to the tombs of the heroes of former times.


སྨན་པས་ནད་པ་ལ་སྨན་སྟེར།
doctor  the ill   medicine give
The doctor gives medicine to the ill. (direct benefit)


ཚོགས་རྫོགས་པའི་ཕྱིར་དུ་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་མཆོད་པ་འབུལ།
accumulation complete order to jewel offerings offer
To offer offerings to the (three) jewels, in order to complete the accumulations. (indirect benefit)


Verbs of Motion: Destination

Objective case, Tib. ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་

གྲོང་ཁྱེར་འདིར་འགྲོ་
city     this     go
to go to this city


ལམ་དུ་འཇུག་
path       enter
setting out on the path


Qualifier / Complement of an Intransitive Verb

This is covered above by the usage of the la don particles for location in space and time, adverbial and so on.

For other usage together with verbs see Direct verb-verb relation and Qualifier of an intransitive verb.

ཚ་གྲང་གཉིས་ལྷན་ཅིག་ཏུ་མི་གནས།
hot cold two   together    not stay
The two, hot and cold, don’t remain together.

Verb of Dependence: qualifier—what it is Depended Upon la don

The la don ལ་ is being used most commonly.
འབྲས་བུ་རྒྱུ་དང་རྐྱེན་ལ་བརྟེན།
result  cause and  conditions depend
Results depend on causes and conditions.


ཚུལ་འདིར་བརྟེན་ནས་
approach this adhere
adhering to this approach...


Attitude Verbs

That what the attitude is towards is marked by la don ལ་

In the བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་, those are ཐ་མི་དད་པ་-classified verbs.
དཔའ་བོ་ལ་གུས་པ་
hero        respect
respect towards the hero


དཀའ་ཚེགས་གང་ལའང་མི་སྐྲག
hardship    what ever    not  afraid
not afraid of whatever hardship


Verbs of Necessity

  • qualifier—that what needs: la don, theme—that what is needed: ming tsam (no particle)
མྱུ་གུ་ལ་ཆུ་དགོས།
sprouts water need
Sprouts need water.


ལུག་ལ་རྩྭ་དགོས།
sheep  grass need
Sheep need grass.

Verbs of Living: Place of Living

locative case

ཁོ་ཡུན་རིང་དུ་ལྷ་སར་བསྡད།
he time long  Lhasa   stayed
He stayed in Lhasa for a long time.


Verbs of Existence: Place of Existence

locative case

བོད་ལ་གཡག་ཡོད།
Tibet bos grunniens exist
There are yaks in Tibet.


Inclusion

བོད་མི་ལ་མཁས་པ་མང་པོ་ཡོད།
Tibetan    learned   many   are
There are many learned-ones among Tibetans.


Verb of Possession

locative case

  • Possessor: la don, what is owned: ming tsam (no particle)
བདག་ལ་གཡག་ཡོད།
I    bos grunniens have
I have yaks.


Verbs of Avoidance

  • That which is avoided:voriginative or la don or ming tsam
གཞུང་ལམ་ལ་གཡོལ་ནས་ལམ་ལོག་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།
main road     keep away  worn away path  went
Avoiding the main road, he went on the derelict path.


Verbs Expressing "to Make Effort, to Engage"

  • What is the effort towards: la don
ལས་དོན་ལ་རྩོལ་བ།
undertaking  to endeavor
to endeavor in the undertaking


la don as substitute for དང་ with verbs using དང་

སྙིང་རྗེར་ལྡན་པ་
compassion possess
to have compassion


ཞེན་པ་ལ་བྲལ་བ་
clinging   to be freed from
to be freed from clinging


Endnotes

  1. ↑ recently adopted
  2. ↑ Nicolas Tournadre, University of Provence and CNRS, Lacito, The Classical Tibetan cases and their transcategoriality, From sacred grammar to modern linguistics, Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 9(2): 87-125
  3. ↑ Nicolas Tournadre (ibid.) proposes Tibetan to have teen cases all together, three of those in regard to the different the la don: Dative ལ་ , Locative ན་ and Purposive དུ་.
  4. ↑ and is somewhat under-represented here
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