Tibetan Grammar - verbs

WORK IN PROGRESS (by Stefan J. Eckel): the grammar articles are being edited for wiki publication. During editing, the content might be incomplete, out of sequence or even misleading.

31.Jan.12 The approach to explain Tibetan verbs will be changed to that of the "three thematic relations: Theme, Location, and Agent"

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

[...]

Verbs བྱ་ཚིག་

Note: བྱ་ཚིག་ "action word" is translated as "verb". Even though in English a verb is a word that describes an action or state of being Tibetan grammarians do not classify words describing a mere state of being or existence as བྱ་ཚིག་.

Intransitive and transitive verbs

All important example sentences are taken from either བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་, བུདྡྷ་པཱ་ལི་ཏ་མཱུ་ལ་མ་དྷྱ་མ་ཀ་བྲྀཏྟི་, མཁན་པོ་གཞན་དགའི་སྤྱོད་འཇུག་གི་མཆད་འགྲེལ་, དྭགས་པོའི་ཐར་རྒྱན་, འཇམ་མགོན་ཀོང་སྤྲུལ་གྱི་ཤེས་བྱ་ཀུན་ཁྱབ་མཛོད་, མཁན་པོ་ཀུན་དཔལ་གྱི་སྤྱོད་འཇུག་གི་ཚིག་འགྲེལ་, or འཇམ་མགོན་མི་ཕམ་རྒྱ་མཚོའི་མཁས་འཇུག་.

Introduction to intransitive and transitive verbs

English language

• Intransitive: Not passing over to an object; expressing an action or state that is limited to the agent or subject.
• Transitive: Passing over to an object; expressing an action which is not limited to the agent or subject.

English
Intransitive verbs:	No direct object, might have qualifier, no passive voice: e.g. I go.; I go to the market.; The bird died.
Transitive verbs:	Can have a direct object, can form passive voice: e.g. I buy bread.; The bird was killed by the cat.

There are verbs that can have two objects. These are called ditransitive verbs. In "Douglas gave a vase to him." "vase" is the direct object and "him" is the indirect object.

In English there are verbs that can function as both transitive and intransitive verbs, e.g. "I broke the vase." and "The vase broke." In the second example "broke" can not have an object.

Note: With the help of a prepositional phrase, intransitive verbs can also be used in the passive voice, e.g. "The houses were lived in by hundreds of people."

Tibetan language

In Tibetan the grammar for intransitive and transitive verbs is generally as follows:

Tibetan
Intransitive verbs:	theme / subject: ming tsam (no particle)	qualifier: la don
Transitive verbs:	agent / subject: agentive particle	theme / object: ming tsam

Theme is used here as a convenient term for both the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb - both are in ming tsam. The term will be stretched (beyonds its definition from thematic relations) as far as necessary; (e.g. it will also include patient - undergoes the action and changes its state ). See: Note

Intransitive verbs

བྱིའུ་ཤི། small bird died The small bird died.

to die v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཤི་བ།  འཆི་བ།  འཆི་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

Transitive verbs

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་ཆོས་བསྟན། Buddha        Dharma taught The Buddha taught the Dharma.

to teach v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན་པ།  བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན། past pres. fut. imp.

Verbs with related intransitive and transitive form

འཁོར་ལོ་འཁོར། wheel   turn/spin The wheel turns.

to turn v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ འཁོར་བ།  འཁོར་བ།  འཁོར་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

བདག་གིས་འཁོར་ལོ་སྐོར། I              wheel    turn I turn the wheel.

to turn v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྐོར་བ།  སྐོར་བ།  བསྐོར་བ།  སྐོར། past pres. fut. imp.

The syntactic verb categories

Beside being an explanation of syntactic verb categories in Tibetan us such, this section is chiefly aimed to be an background for the syntactic categories referred to in the main section which is "Classification of verbs according to semantic and syntactic groups".

The three categories of agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive

agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive

The descriptions of verbs types in here will be in sometimes different form the descriptions found in other grammar compilations. The verb types used in here are introduced to mainly deal with three difficulties found with Tibetan verbs:

• There are verbs that have a participant marked with the agentive particle but have no participant in ming tsam.
• There are verbs that are not transitive but have a participant marked with the agentive particle.
• ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ do not correspond to the devision into transitive and intransitive.

The categories used in here will be referred to as "ming tsam intransitive", "agentive transitive" and "agentive directed". These categories are so named with respect to the existence of a participant marked with the agentive particle, the presence or absence of a theme in ming tsam and the nature of the verb.

ming tsam intransitive	no agent	theme in ming tsamf
agentive transitive	agent with the agentive particle	theme in ming tsam
agentive directed	agent with the agentive particle	no theme in ming tsam

The category that sticks out is that of "agentive directed" verbs. The verbs of the agentive transitive and ming tsam intransitive categories are respectively either transitive or intransitive. They are easily classified by the possibility of a given verb to either take an agent (marked with the agentive particle) together with its theme (in ming tsam) or not. In contrast to that the verbs of the agentive directed category include verbs that are intransitive, transitive and "indirect ditransitive". They have in common that they have two participants, one marked with the agentive particle and one with a la don, but no theme in ming tsam.

The subcategories of the agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive verbs

The categories ming tsam intransitive, agentive transitive and agentive directed can be further divided into:

syntactic categorie	syntactic subcategorie	example
ming tsam intransitive	stative copula	linking verbs: theme in ming tsam, (no agent); ཡིན་པ་ "to be, are"
	stative non-volitional	unintentional intransitive verbs that describe a state of being and adjectives: theme in ming tsam, (no agent); ངལ་བ་ "to be tired", བཟང་ "[to be] good, excellent"
	dynamic non-volitional	unintentional intransitive describing an action or change: theme in ""ming tsam"", (no agent); འཆི་བ། "to die"
	dynamic directed	verbs of motion: theme in ming tsam, qualifier with la don; (no agent); འགྲོ་བ་ "to go"
	stative located	verbs of existence, possession; verbs of living; verbs of necessity: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent); ཡོད་པ་ "to exist", "to have", དགོས་པ་ "to be needed"
	stative affective	attitude verbs: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent); དགའ་བ་ "to like"
	stative directed	verbs of dependence: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent); རྟེན་པ་ "to rely, depend"
	agentive	These are the intransitive aspects of the "verbs of absence and presence": theme in ming tsam, qualifier with the agentive particle, (no agent); སྟོང་པ་ "to be empty"
	associative	intransitive "verbs of interrelation": conjunctive and disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison, possession II: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: associative particle དང་, (no agent);
	originative	intransitive verbs of separation; theme in ming tsam, qualifier with the originative particle, (no agent);
	stative irregular	evaluative verbs: theme in ming tsam or with la don or agentive particle; རུང་བ་ "suitable", འཐུས་པ་ "to be sufficient"
agentive transitive	effective	simple transitive verbs where the agent acts upon an theme (object): agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam; འཐུང་བ་ "to drink"
	fruitional	transitive verbs where the theme (object) is not acted upon and the agent is passive, perceiving or obtaining the theme (object); these are fruitional and unintentional verbs: agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam; རྙེད་པ་ "to find", མཐོང་བ་ "to see"
	ditransitive	ditransitive verbs where the action upon the theme (object) by the agent is directed towards a recipient (indirect object); these are verbs expressing any transfer of goods, information or action and verbs expressing to produce something for somebody: agent with agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam, recipient with la don; སྦྱིན་པ་ "to give"
	agentive	the transitive dynamic verbs of the semantic group of the verbs of presence: agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam, qualifier-the material used for the action wtih agentive particle; འགེངས་པ་ "to fill with"
	associative	transitive verbs of interrelation - conjunctive or disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison: theme in ming tsam, qualifier with associative particle: Examples with a stated agent are very difficult to find for this type of verb. If there were to be an example with a stated agent then this agent would be marked with the agentive particle.
	originative	transitive verbs of separation; theme in ming tsam, qualifier with originative particle; Examples with a stated agent are very difficult to find for this type of verb. If there were to be an example with a stated agent then this agent would be marked with the agentive particle.
agentive directed	intransitive dynamic directed	some intentional verbs of perception: perceiver with agentive particle, direction with la don; ལྟ་བ་ "to look" verbs expressing "to make effort, to engage in": the one who makes the effort with agentive particle, that what the effort is towards with la don; འབད་པ་ "to make effort"
	stative directed	ཁྱབ་པ་ "to pervade, permeate, be present throughout" (see below)
	indirect ditransitive	verbs of harm and benefit; that what effects the harm with agentive particle, the recipient-the one or that what is harmed-with la don; གནོས་པ་ "to harm"
	transitive verbs with directed grammar	These are: verbs of mental activity when the "object of interest" is actively engaged in. They then have the theme with la don. དཔྱོད་པ་ "to examine" verbs with referential la don ལ་: verbs expressing identity and equivalence can have their theme with la don ལ་ and the qualifier with la don སུ་ etc.; འཛིན་པ་ "to apprehend (something as something)"

Examples for the categories

This section is an expansion of "1.2.1.2 The subcategories of the agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive verbs" in order to give example sentences for the different categories. The semantic verb categories that are given as example for each category are not necessarily exhaustive.
(For cross reference between semantic and syntactic categories see the main section "Classification of verbs according to semantic and syntactic groups".)

ming tsam intransitive

stative copula - linking verb

linking verbs; ཡིན་པ་ "to be, are"

theme (subject): ming tsam, complement: ming tsam, strict "theme - complement" word order

དམར་པོ་ནི་ཁ་དོག་ཡིན།

red           colour   is

Red is [a] colour.

stative non-volitional intransitive verbs

unintentional intransitive verbs; ངལ་བ་ "to be tired"

theme (subject): ming tsam

སེམས་ངལ་བ། mind   tired mind is tired

to be tired v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ངལ་བ།  ངལ་བ།  ངལ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

stative non-volitional - adjectives

Adjectives can function like stative verbs.; བཟང་ "[to be] good, excellent"
When adjectives are used in this way they lose their second syllable.
E.g.:ངན་པ་ ("bad, inferior") only ངན་ and བཟང་པོ་ ("excellent, good") only བཟང་.

theme (subject): ming tsam

མི་ང་རང་ངན་ཏེ་བླ་མ་བཟང་།

person myself bad lama good

Even though I[' m] bad, [my] Lama [is] good.

dynamic non-volitional

unintentional verbs; འཆི་བ་ "to die", འཆར་བ་ "to arise"

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: direction: la don, origin: originative

ཉི་མ་ཤར། sun arose The sun arose.

to arise v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཤར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

dynamic directed

verbs of motion; འགྲོ་བ་ "to go", མཆོང་བ་ "to jump"

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: direction: la don, origin: originative

ཁོ་ལྷ་སར་ཕྱིན། he Lhasa   went He went to Lhasa.

to go v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཕྱིན་པ་, སོང་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  སོང། past pres. fut. imp.

stative located verbs of existence, possession and verbs of living

verbs of existence and possession; ཡོད་པ་ "to exist" or "to have"

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: the place of existence or the one who has something: la don

བོད་ལ་གཡག་ཡོད།

Tibet bos grunniens exist

There are yaks in Tibet.

stative located verbs of necessity

Verbs of necessity like དགོས་པ་ "to be needed" are closest in grammar to verbs of possession. The need itself is not directed but what is needed is "directed" towards a "location", it is needed at that "location". This is like in the example of the verbs of possession where the person who possess things is the location at which these things exist.

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier, for whom or what it is needed: la don

མྱུ་གུ་ལ་ཆུ་དགོས། sprouts water need Sprouts need water.

to need, to be needed v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

stative affective

verbs of emotion and attitude; དགའ་བ་ "to like"
Note: Some verbs within the "verbs of emotion and attitude" category, e.g. like གུས་པ་ "to respect" can be placed with either stative affective or stative directed verbs.

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier - what the attitude is towards: la don

ཞི་བདེར་དགའ་བ། peace happy like to like peace / wellbeing

to like v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ དགའ་བ།  དགའ་བ།  དགའ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

stative directed

verbs of dependence; རྟེན་པ་ "to rely, depend"

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier - what it is depended upon: la don

འབྲས་བུ་རྒྱུ་དང་རྐྱེན་ལ་བརྟེན་ནོ། ། result cause and conditions depend Results depend on causes and conditions.

to depend (on), to rely (on) v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ བརྟེན་པ།  རྟེན་པ།  བརྟེན་པ།  རྟེན། past pres. fut. imp.

intransitive stative agentive

This is the stative (fruitional) aspect of the "verbs of absence and presence". They express a resultant state, e.g.,སྟོང་པ་ "to be empty".

theme - that which is "missing of something" or "full with something": ming tsam, qualifier - what is "present" or absent, lacking, "that what is empty of": agentive particle

ལུང་པ་ཆུས་སྟོང་པ། land water empty The land is empty of water.

to be empty v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ སྟོངས་པ།   སྟོང་པ།   སྟོང་པ།   past pres. fut. imp.

intransitive dynamic agentive

theme - that which is "full with something": ming tsam, qualifier - what is "present": agentive particle

ཁང་པའི་ནང་དུ་ཆུས་ཁེངས་སོང་། house inside water filled (involuntary past tense auxiliary verb) The inside of the house filled up with water.

to become full v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཁེངས་པ།  ཁེང་བ།  ཁེང་བ།   past pres. fut. imp.

associative

These are the intransitive stative and dynamic verbs of interrelation, the conjunctive / disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison, and possession II. Many of these have irregular grammar and can occur with other particles, i.e. la don or originative.

theme: ming tsam, qualifier: དང་

བློ་དང་འཚམ་པ་

mind   in accord with

in accordance with the mind

originative

These are the intransitive stative and dynamic verbs of separation, and verbs of avoidance.

theme: ming tsam, qualifier: originative particle

ནད་པ་རྣམས་ཚ་གྲང་སོགས་ཀྱི་ནད་ལས་གྲོལ་བར་ག་ལ་ཡོད་དེ་་་་ sick (plural) hot cold etc. illness free "How can this be?!" How could the ill ever become free of their hot, cold etc. disease (if they do not listen to their skilled doctor).

to become free v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ གྲོལ་བ་།  གྲོལ་བ་།   གྲོལ་བ་།   past pres. fut. imp.

stative irregular

evaluative verbs; རུང་བ་ "suitable", འཐུས་པ་ "to be sufficient"

theme: ming tsam, la don or agentive particle

ལས་སུ་རུང་བ།

work   suitable, permissible

acceptable; proper to do

agentive transitive

effective

transitive verbs where the agent acts upon an a theme (object); འཐུང་བ་ "to drink"

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme (object): ming tsam

ཆུ་དེ་བཏུངས་ན། water that drank if [one] drinks that water ...

to become free v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བཏུངས་པ།   འཐུང་བ།   བཏུང་བ།   འཐུངས། past pres. fut. imp.

fruitional

These are fruitional and unintentional verbs. They are transitive verbs where the theme (object) is not acted upon and the agent is passive, perceiving or obtaining the theme (object) like with རྙེད་པ་ "to find", མཐོང་བ་ "to see".
Note: These are classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ in Tibetan grammar.

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme (object): ming tsam

བདུད་རྩི་ལྟ་བུའི་ཆོས་ཤིག་བདག་གིས་རྙེད། nectar like Dharma a/one  I       found I have found this nectar like Dharma.

to find v.t.(!) ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!) རྙེད་པ།  རྙེད་པ།  རྙེད་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

• The agent (subject) བདག་ is marked by the agentive particle.
  

ditransitive

Ditransitive verbs are verbs where the agent's (subject) action upon the theme (object) is directed towards a recipient (indirect object). These verbs express any transfer of goods, information, or action like སྦྱིན་པ་ "to give", or any verb expressing to produce something for somebody.

Agent (subject): agentive particle, theme (object): ming tsam, recipient (indirect object): la don.

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

to give v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར། past pres. fut. imp.

agentive

These are the transitive verbs that belong to of the "verbs of presence" category.; འགེངས་པ་ "to fill"

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier - the material used for the action: agentive particle

གངྒཱའི་བྱེ་མ་གྲངས་སྙེད་ཀྱི། སངས་རྒྱས་ཞིང་རྣམས་མི་གང་གིས། རིན་ཆེན་དག་གིས་ཀུན་བཀང་སྟེ། Ganga grain number find Buddha field (plural) person who jewel    (plural)       all filled if a person would completely fill with jewels, Buddhas fields as many as there are grains of sand in the Ganga ...

to fill v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བཀང་བ།  འགེངས་པ།  དགང་བ།  ཁོང། past pres. fut. imp.

associative

These are the transitive verbs of interrelation.; སྦྲེལ་བ་"to connect, attach, link together"

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier - that which the conjunction is with: associative particle དང་

འཕགས་པའི་བཞེད་པ་དང་སྦྲེལ་བ། noble            wish        connect connected with the noble wish

to connect, attach, link, bind together v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ། past pres. fut. imp.

originative

These are the transitive verbs of separation.; སྐྱོབ་པ་ "to protect"

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier: originative particle

དགྲ་ལས་སྐྱོབ་པ་ enemy   protect protected from the enemy

to protect v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྐྱབས་པ།  སྐྱོབ་པ།  བསྐྱབ་པ།  སྐྱོབས། past pres. fut. imp.

agentive directed

intentional verbs of perception

Intentional verbs of perception can have agentive directed grammar. ལྟ་བ་ (to look) is mostly seen with agentive directed grammar. Other intentional verbs of perception e.g.ཉན་པ་ "to listen" can be seen with either agentive transitive or agentive directed grammar.
Note: These are classified as ཐ་དད་པ་ in Tibetan grammar.

agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier(direction): la don

དཔེ་དེབ་ལ་བལྟ་བ། book         look [one] will look at (/ study) the books

to look v.i. ཐ་དད་པ་ བལྟས་པ།  ལྟ་བ།  བལྟ་བ།  ལྟོས། past pres. fut. imp.

verbs expressing "to make effort, to engage in"

རྩོལ་བ་ "to endeavor, to exert", འབད་པ་ "to make effort"
Note: These are classified as ཐ་དད་པ་ in Tibetan grammar.

agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier - what the effort is towards: la don

ལས་དོན་ལ་རྩོལ་བ། undertaking to endeavor to endeavor in the undertaking

to endeavour v.i. ཐ་དད་པ་ བརྩལ་བ།  རྩོལ་བ།  བརྩལ་བ།  རྩོལ། past pres. fut. imp.

verbs of "comparison"

Verbs of comparison when expressing "to rival" e.g., འགྲན་པ་ "to rival, to challenge, compete with" have agentive directed grammar.

agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier - that what is challenged, competed with: la don

སྲིན་བུ་མེ་ཁྱེར་གྱིས་ཉི་མ་ལ་འགྲན། firefly                sun    challenge The firefly challenges the sun.

to rival, to compete with v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན། past pres. fut. imp.

stative directed

The verb ཁྱབ་པ་ "to pervade" is in Tibetan itself classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ while it is transitive in English.
With the verb ཁྱབ་པ་ "to pervade, permeate, be present throughout" the participant "that pervades" is mostly marked with the agentive particle and the object or space that is pervaded marked with the la don. "That which is pervaded" is considering to be a qualifier in here .
The verb can also occur with "that what pervades" in ming tsam.

agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier - that what is pervaded: la don

སེམས་ཉིད་རང་བྱུང་གི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱིས་འཁོར་འདས་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ་ཀྱང་།

essence of mind self arisen wisdom samsara nirvana all pervade even

even though the self arisen wisdom of the essence of mind pervades all of samsara and nirvana ...