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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. E.

Verbs—Notes

How the categories of 'transitive' and 'intransitive' are used here

In order to categorize Tibetan verbs according to their grammar the categories of 'transitive' and 'intransitive' will be used. The way it will be determined if a verb should be labeled 'transitive' or 'intransitive' will not entirely match the general rule for these categories.

Generally:

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.

The categorization will be in regard to the presence of an agent in the agentive case. In a number of cases this will lead to differences in regard to their English counterparts.

For instance the English word "love" is transitive. There is 'somebody / thing' that is loved. In Tibetan "love" is an unintentional verb and has no agent marked with the agentive case (it is classified in as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་). Having these characteristics it will be categorized as an intransitive verb, in the category "verbs of emotion / attitude verbs" and its grammar described as:


Patient (subject): ming tsam, and qualifier—that which the attitude is towards: la don.


ལུག་རྫི་ལུག་ལ་བྱམས།
shepherd sheep kind, loving
The shepherd is loving to the sheep.

In most cases this way of dealing with Tibetan verbs leads to a straight forward way of categorizing them. Yet it does lead to problems with some 'transitive verbs with la don' (see below) and can obscure the fact that divalent intransitive verbs are simply the unintentional counterpart of intentional transitive (divalent) 'verbs with la don' (see below).

Classification as Patient, subject-object, and valency: advantages and problems

Patient

Patient here is used as a convenient term for the

subject of an intransitive verb and the
object of a transitive verb.

These two are mostly in the ming tsam case—marked by no particle—'just the word'.^[1] The term Patient is stretched beyonds its definition from thematic relations; 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 is also used with static verbs.^[2]

In general the patient is that which experiences the action. In many cases^[3] it is equal to the object of a transitive verb. The difference between it and an object is that patient is based explicitly on its relationship to the verb, whereas the object is defined primarily through its relationship to the subject.

In Tibetan where the type of verb governs the usage of the respective particles for their agent, patient and particular qualifiers it can be fitting to use these verb dependent categories (of patient and agent) in order to describe the grammar of verbs.^[4]

Moreover it is much easier to explain Tibetan using a single term that covers the subject of an intransitive verb and the object a transitive verb. In Tibetan the patient is in 90+% of all cases in ming tsam, which makes the use of "patient" an advantage for beginners. It is easy to keep in mind that one needs to look for 'something' in ming tsam in order to find the patient of the clause / sentence. (Whereas looking for the subject of a transitive verb could be quite disheartening, given that it is so often omitted.)

In the most part it is straight forward to classify the grammar of verbs using the cases in which their patient, qualifier and agent, if present, are in. It is also easy to describe verb-verb relations in terms of a verb with either a patient (complement) or a qualifier.

However some verbs are problematic when using 'patient'. In order to see where these problems come from there will be an overview of Tibetan verbs with an attempt to use valency as a way of ordering them.

Endnotes

↑ S. V. Beyer: The Classical Tibetan Language, p.259-260: "Intransitive verbs occur with a patient; transitive verbs occur with both a patient and an agency. [...] Tibetan—syntactically identify the intransitive and transitive patients. In Tibetan they both given the patient role particle.
↑ In S. V. Beyer's approach, ibid., p.263: "The patient of an event is the participant that suffers, endures, or undergoes the particular state, process, or action; the patient is the one the event happens to"
↑ It is for instance not the case in English passive constructions. For example, in the active voice phrase "The snow leopard bites the dog", the dog is both the patient and the direct object. By contrast, in the passive voice phrase "The dog is bitten by the snow leopard", the dog is still the patient, but now stands as the phrase's subject; while the snow leopard is only the agent.
↑ This is far less useful, if at all, for spoken Tibetan where the subject is the ruling factor for the auxiliary verbs and with the occurrence of a fluid-S Split ergative in regard to the degree of volition.

[1] S. V. Beyer: The Classical Tibetan Language, p.259-260: "Intransitive verbs occur with a patient; transitive verbs occur with both a patient and an agency. [...] Tibetan—syntactically identify the intransitive and transitive patients. In Tibetan they both given the patient role particle.

[2] In S. V. Beyer's approach, ibid., p.263: "The patient of an event is the participant that suffers, endures, or undergoes the particular state, process, or action; the patient is the one the event happens to"

[3] It is for instance not the case in English passive constructions. For example, in the active voice phrase "The snow leopard bites the dog", the dog is both the patient and the direct object. By contrast, in the passive voice phrase "The dog is bitten by the snow leopard", the dog is still the patient, but now stands as the phrase's subject; while the snow leopard is only the agent.

[4] This is far less useful, if at all, for spoken Tibetan where the subject is the ruling factor for the auxiliary verbs and with the occurrence of a fluid-S Split ergative in regard to the degree of volition.

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Tibetan Grammar - verbs - notes: Difference between revisions