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''' | |||
{{Grammar articles}} | {{Grammar articles}} | ||
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''by Stefan J. Eckel'' | ''by Stefan J. Eckel'' | ||
=The ''la don'' | =The ''la don'' Particles= | ||
{{Tibetan}} | {{Tibetan}} | ||
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{{gfooter|1}} <small>སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are the different spellings of one particle</small> | {{gfooter|1}} <small>སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are the different spellings of one particle</small> | ||
==Independent of | ==Independent of Verb Type== | ||
===Location in | ===Location in Space=== | ||
====Place of | ====Place of Activity==== | ||
<small>'''Objective case''', Tib. {{gtib|ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་}}</small> | <small>'''Objective case''', Tib. {{gtib|ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་}}</small> | ||
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{{gsample|ཞིང་ལ་ཆུ་འདྲེན།|field water irrigate|to irrigate the field}} | {{gsample|ཞིང་ལ་ཆུ་འདྲེན།|field water irrigate|to irrigate the field}} | ||
<br> | <br> | ||
===Location in | ===Location in Time=== | ||
<small>'''Locative case'''</small> | <small>'''Locative case'''</small> | ||
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===Referential | ===Referential Qualifier=== | ||
Mostly (<small>{{gtib|ལ་}}</small>) | Mostly (<small>{{gtib|ལ་}}</small>) | ||
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|}<br> | |}<br> | ||
===Qualifier of | ===Qualifier of Identity / Equivalence=== | ||
Mostly <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small> | Mostly <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small> | ||
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{{gsample|གཅིག་དུ་མར་སྣང༌།|one many appear|one appearing as many}} | {{gsample|གཅིག་དུ་མར་སྣང༌།|one many appear|one appearing as many}} | ||
===Identity of | ===Identity of Transformation=== | ||
<small>'''Objective case''', Tib. {{gtib|ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་}}</small> | <small>'''Objective case''', Tib. {{gtib|ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་}}</small> | ||
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===Joining of | ===Joining of Noun and Verb=== | ||
<small>'''Objective case''', Tib. {{gtib|ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་}}</small> | <small>'''Objective case''', Tib. {{gtib|ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་}}</small> | ||
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=====Modal | =====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. | 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. | ||
<small>See: [[Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles - Notes#Note_on_classifications_for_Verbs_with_la_don|Note on classifications for verbs with ''la don'']] and [[Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles - Notes#Note_on_ambiguities|Note on ambiguities]] for a further explanation of these relations and the reasons for the coming classifications and their names.</small> | <small>See: [[Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles - Notes#Note_on_classifications_for_Verbs_with_la_don|Note on classifications for verbs with ''la don'']] and [[Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles - Notes#Note_on_ambiguities|Note on ambiguities]] for a further explanation of these relations and the reasons for the coming classifications and their names.</small> | ||
======Expressing a | ======Expressing a Quality====== | ||
''epistemic status'' | ''epistemic status'' | ||
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{{gsample|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}}<br> | {{gsample|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}}<br> | ||
======Expressing a | ======Expressing a Feature====== | ||
{{gsample|ཐོས་པར་སྙན་པ་|to hear pleasant|pleasant to hear}}<br> | {{gsample|ཐོས་པར་སྙན་པ་|to hear pleasant|pleasant to hear}}<br> | ||
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{{gsample|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}}<br> | {{gsample|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}}<br> | ||
====Qualifier of an | ====Qualifier of an Intransitive Verb==== | ||
Mostly <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small> | Mostly <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small> | ||
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{{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}} | ||
====Verbal | ====Verbal Clause as the Theme of a Verb==== | ||
Mostly with <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small> | Mostly with <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small> | ||
The theme | 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 | 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]]. | ||
'''With verbs of "perception and mental activity“''' | '''With verbs of "perception and mental activity“''' | ||
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{{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.}} | ||
====Adverbial / | ====Adverbial / Simultaneity (of Verb-Verb)==== | ||
Mostly <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small> | Mostly <small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small> | ||
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===Coordination=== | ===Coordination=== | ||
====Adverbial / | ====Adverbial / Simultaneity==== | ||
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". | ||
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{{gsample|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.}} | {{gsample|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 | ====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 (and is somewhat under-represented here). | ||
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====The | ====The Coordinating {{gtib|ལ་}} After a Clause==== | ||
{{gsample|ངོ་བོ་སྟོང་ལ་རང་བཞིན་གསལ།|essence empty nature luminous|[its] essence is empty and / while [its] nature is luminous}}<br> | {{gsample|ངོ་བོ་སྟོང་ལ་རང་བཞིན་གསལ།|essence empty nature luminous|[its] essence is empty and / while [its] nature is luminous}}<br> | ||
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===Second | ===Second Pleonastic Particle {{gtib|ན་}}=== | ||
::<small>from πλεονασμóς / pleonasmos "excess"</small> | ::<small>from πλεονασμóς / pleonasmos "excess"</small> | ||
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==Dependent on | ==Dependent on Verb Type== | ||
For the usage of the ''la don'' with verbs | 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|Verbal clause as the theme of a verb]]. | ||
=== | ===Agentive Directed Verb=== | ||
Mostly <small>{{gtib|ལ་}}</small> (<small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small> are less used.) | Mostly <small>{{gtib|ལ་}}</small> (<small>{{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}}</small> are less used.) | ||
The | See [[Tibetan_Grammar - verbs#The Three Categories of agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive|the verb section for agentive directed verbs]]. | ||
''With intentional verbs of perception'' | ''With intentional verbs of perception'' | ||
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'''With verbs expressing mental activity''' | '''With verbs expressing mental activity''' | ||
Verbs like {{gtib|སེམས་པ་}} "to think" and {{gtib|[[སྒོམ་པ་]]}} "to meditate, to cultivate" can have their theme (object) marked with the ''la don'' {{gtib|ལ་}}. If the theme (object) is a whole clause, the ''la don'' {{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}} are used. (See [[#Verbal | Verbs like {{gtib|སེམས་པ་}} "to think" and {{gtib|[[སྒོམ་པ་]]}} "to meditate, to cultivate" can have their theme (object) marked with the ''la don'' {{gtib|ལ་}}. If the theme (object) is a whole clause, the ''la don'' {{gtib|སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་}} are used. (See [[#Verbal Clause as the Theme of a Verb|Verbal clause as the theme of a verb]].) | ||
{{gsample|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]}}<br> | {{gsample|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]}}<br> | ||
{{gsample|རྒྱུ་ལ་དཔྱོད་པ་|cause examine|to examine the cause}} | {{gsample|རྒྱུ་ལ་དཔྱོད་པ་|cause examine|to examine the cause}}<br> | ||
===Recipient ( | ===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). | :A ditransitive verb is a verb that has both a theme (direct object) and a recipient (indirect object). | ||
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===Verbs of | ===Verbs of Motion: Destination=== | ||
<small>'''Objective case''', Tib. {{gtib|ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་}}</small> | <small>'''Objective case''', Tib. {{gtib|ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་}}</small> | ||
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===Qualifier / | ===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. | This is covered above by the usage of the ''la don'' particles for location in space and time, adverbial and so on. | ||
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{{gsample|ཚ་གྲང་གཉིས་ལྷན་ཅིག་ཏུ་མི་གནས།|hot cold two together not stay|The two, hot and cold, don’t remain together.}} | {{gsample|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 | ===Verb of Dependence: qualifier—what it is Depended Upon ''la don''=== | ||
:<small>The ''la don'' {{gtib|ལ་}} is being used most commonly.</small> | :<small>The ''la don'' {{gtib|ལ་}} is being used most commonly.</small> | ||
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===Verbs | ===Attitude Verbs=== | ||
That what the attitude is towards is marked by ''la don'' <small>{{gtib|ལ་}}</small> | That what the attitude is towards is marked by ''la don'' <small>{{gtib|ལ་}}</small> | ||
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===Verbs of | ===Verbs of Necessity=== | ||
* qualifier—that what needs: ''la don'', theme—that what is needed: ''ming tsam'' (no particle) | * qualifier—that what needs: ''la don'', theme—that what is needed: ''ming tsam'' (no particle) | ||
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{{gsample|ལུག་ལ་རྩྭ་དགོས།|sheep grass need|Sheep need grass.}} | {{gsample|ལུག་ལ་རྩྭ་དགོས།|sheep grass need|Sheep need grass.}} | ||
===Verbs of | ===Verbs of Living: Place of Living=== | ||
<small>'''locative case'''</small> | <small>'''locative case'''</small> | ||
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===Verbs of | ===Verbs of Existence: Place of Existence=== | ||
<small>'''locative case'''</small> | <small>'''locative case'''</small> | ||
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===Verb of | ===Verb of Possession=== | ||
<small>'''locative case'''</small> | <small>'''locative case'''</small> | ||
* Possessor: ''la don'', what is owned: ''ming tsam'' (no particle) | * Possessor: ''la don'', what is owned: ''ming tsam'' (no particle) | ||
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===Verbs of | ===Verbs of Avoidance=== | ||
* That which is avoided: | * That which is avoided:voriginative or ''la don'' or ''ming tsam'' | ||
{{gsample|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.}} | {{gsample|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 | ===Verbs Expressing "to Make Effort, to Engage"=== | ||
* What is the effort towards: ''la don'' | * What is the effort towards: ''la don'' | ||
Revision as of 09:52, 31 August 2012
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
| 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. 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་1 which have overlapping usages within these three cases.
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—combined as the la don—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.
1 སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are the different spellings of one particle
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"
|
|
| 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
Mostly (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
Mostly 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
Mostly 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་བ་ |
|
དེ་ལྟ་བུ་ |
|
རྒྱུན་ |
|
རྟག་པ་ |
Qualifier of Identity / Equivalence
Mostly སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་
For reflections 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
Objective case, Tib. ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་
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
Objective case, Tib. ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་
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
Mostly 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."
- "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
Mostly 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
Mostly with 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)
Mostly 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".
In most cases the first statement is a negative statement (has a negated verb).
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. |
Example 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 (and is somewhat under-represented here).
| 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
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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
Mostly ལ་ (སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are less used.)
See the verb section for agentive directed verbs.
With intentional verbs of perception
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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 |