Tibetan Grammar - verbs

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.

Other articles from the Tibetan Grammar series:
[Tibetan Grammar - Introduction] [Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles] [Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles - Notes] [Tibetan Grammar - verbs]

by Stefan J. E.

Verbs

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. In Tibetan words describing a mere state of being or existence are not seen as verbs (by Tibetan grammarians).

Transitive and intransitive 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 transitive and intransitive 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 which can have two objects 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 general their grammar is:

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

Patient is used here as a convenient term for subject (intransitive verb) and object (transitive verb)—both are mostly in ming tsam (having no particle). It will be stretched beyonds its definition from thematic relations as far as is necessary; (e.g. it will also include theme—undergoes the action but does not change its state, and experiencer—the entity that receives sensory or emotional input). Patient will be used with static verbs as well. See: "5 Note, patient / subject-object / valency : advantages and problems".

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.

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.

མེ་ཏོག་འཆར། flower   blossom The flower blossoms.

to blossom v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཤར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  འཆར་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.

ཁོས་དཔེ་དེབ་ལ་བལྟས། he     book(s)   looked He looked at books.

to look v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བལྟས་པ།  ལྟ་བ།  བལྟ་བ།  ལྟོས། 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.

གངས་ཞུ། snow&nbs;&nbs;&nbs;melt The snow melts.

to melt v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཞུ་བ།  ཞུ་བ།  ཞུ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

ཁོས་གངས་བཞུ། he     snow   melt He melts the snow.

to melt v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བཞུས་པ།  བཞུ་བ།  བཞུ་བ།  བཞུས། past pres. fut. imp.

ཤིང་ལོ་སེར་པོར་འགྱུར། leaves yellow change/turn The leaves turned yellow.

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

མིང་གཞན་དུ་བསྒྱུར་ name   other   change ...changed [the name] into an other name.

to change, to transform v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྒྱུར་བ།  སྒྱུར་བ།  བསྒྱུར་བ།  སྒྱུར། past pres. fut. imp.

Classification of ཐ་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ in relation to transitive and intransitive

• བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ "verb were the action and the doer of the action are different"
• བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་མི་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ "verb were the action and the doer of the action are not different"

In dictionaries

The བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ is the most important Tibetan-Tibetan dictionary. It’s classification of verbs into ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ and ཐ་དད་པ་ has been directly copied into more than one Tibetan-English dictionary, using the Latin-derived categories of intransitive and transitive verbs. Yet it should be noted that some of the verbs which are classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ in the བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ correspond in terms of grammar to transitive verbs and not to intransitive verbs. Even among the Tibetan grammar treatises there is disagreement about the classification into ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ and ཐ་དད་པ་, for example the unintentional verbs of perception are classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ in the བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་, but in other Tibetan-grammar treatises considered to be ཐ་དད་པ་ (Note: they do have the grammar of transitive verbs).

The point is that it could be at times puzzling seeing a verb with transitive grammar being labeled as intransitive verb or classified as {{gtib|ཐ་མི་དད་པ་{{gtib|.

Tibetan classification of ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་

From the Great Tibetan Chinese Dictionary, བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་:

• བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་དད་: རྟགས་ཀྱི་འཇུག་པའི་དགོངས་དོན་ལྟར་དངོས་པོ་གང་ཞིག་ལ་ལས་ཀ་གང་ཞིག་བྱེད་པ་པོ་གཞན་གྱིས་དངོས་སུ་སྒྲུབ་པར་བྱེད་པ།

"'Action and doer different' is, like the intended meaning in the thak jug pa, the doing of whatever work / action in regard to whatever thing by a different (lit. other) doer."

• བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་མི་དད་: རྟགས་ཀྱི་འཇུག་པའི་དགོངས་དོན་ལྟར་དངོས་པོ་གང་ཞིག་ལ་ལས་ཀ་གང་ཞིག་བྱེད་པ་པོ་གཞན་དངོས་སུ་མེད་པར་རང་གི་ངང་གིས་འགྲུབ་པ།

"'Action and doer not different' is, like the intended meaning in the thak jug pa, the naturally coming about of whatever work / action in regard to whatever thing without a different (lit. other) doer."

In short ཐ་དད་པ་ "the action to a thing by a different doer" and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ is the "naturally coming about of the action without a different doer".

ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ are also described through the relation of བདག་ "self" and བཞན་ "other". From the "Great Tibetan Chinese Dictionary" བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་, revering to ཐ་དད་པ་ verbs:

• རྟག་འཇུག་སྐབས་ཀྱི་བྱེད་པ་པོ་དང་བྱ་བའི་ཡུལ་ཡིན་ལ་དེ་ཡང་བྱེད་པོ་གཙོ་ཕལ་དང་བྱེད་པའི་ལས་བཅས་དངོས་པོ་བདག་གི་ཁོངས་སུ་འདུ་བ་དང༌། བྱ་ཡུལ་བྱ་ལས་དང་བཅས་པ་དངོས་པོ་བཞན་གྱི་ཁོངས་སུ་འདུ།

"In the context of the thak jug: when there is a 'doer' and the 'object of the action to be performed', then the 'principal' (agent) and 'complement' (instrument) which are connected with the བྱེད་པའི་ལས་ 'verb function done by an agent' are included within the category དངོས་པོ་བདག་ 'self thing'. The 'object of the action to be performed' which is connected with བྱ་ལས་ 'action done to the object' is included within the category དངོས་པོ་བཞན་ 'other thing'."

This means, a ཐ་དད་པ་ verb is a verb where there is an agent which is different from the patient / object of the action and with that there is བདག་ (self) and བཞན་ (other) and a connection between the two. Viewed from the agent side there is བྱེད་པའི་ལས་ the action that happens at the time when a transitive agent does something to its patient / (object of the verb), viewed from the patient (object) side there is བྱ་ལས་ the action that will happen to the patient (object)—བྱ་ཡུལ་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་བྱ་བ་ "the deed that is connected with the object".

And a ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ verb is a verb where there is no agent with a different patient (object) of the action, so བདག་གཞན་དང་དངོས་སུ་འབྲེལ་བ་མིན།, "there is not an actual connection between བདག་ and བཞན་."

Peter Schwieger, H.G.k.t.S., points out, that except for the verbs of motion, existence and living the categories of ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ matches with the differentiation into voluntary and involuntary verbs and that the difference between ཐ་དད་པ་instant involuntary verbs of perception and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ is made upon the existence or missing of an agens and not the existence or missing of an object.

This comes with the side effect that, for instance, involuntary verbs of perception and mental activity are categorized as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ yet they have their agent (subject) marked with agentive case and their patient (object) in ming tsam (no particle) which is the same for ཐ་དད་པ་ verbs.

Introduction to classifications of verbs according to their grammar

Note: This is not at all exhaustive. It is a short overview about the kind of verbs that can be encountered in Tibetan.

Linking verb

[...]