Tibetan Grammar - Connective Particle

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

Connective Particle—འབྲེལ་བའི་སྒྲ་: གི་ཀྱི་གྱི་འི་ཡི་

• Also called: relation particle; genitive particle; connective case [particle]
  

The connective cases connects nouns and noun phrases with other nouns, noun phrases and adjectives. Of the two connected parts it is the second that is "said more about", that is modified etc. by the first part. E.g. དམ་པའི་ཆོས་ with དམ་པ་ "noble" coming first and being joined by the connective particle འི་ to ཆོས་ "Dharma" identifying it to be the "noble Dharma". The usage of the connective case is always independent of the clause's verb, it does not mark the function of any of the participants of the clause in relation to the verb. The connective particle is also used to coordinate clauses. In this usage it comes after the root of the verb.

The categories below are for illustration of the types of connections that occur with the connective case and are not exhaustive as such. Some of these categories can be further expanded while others can be merged. Some examples might belong to more than one category or, on the other hand, some might not fit neatly into any of them, e.g.

བདག་ཅག་གི་སྟོན་པ་

we        teacher

our teacher

བདག་ཅག་གི་སྟོན་པ་ "our teacher" might be classed with "possessive connective", yet as it is an epithet of the Buddha himself it does not seem quite fitting when thinking of the Tibetan term for the "possessive connective" which is described by བདག་པོ་ "owner". The usual "quick fix" would be to place it with "modification" and does not cause any trouble with the English meaning of the term, but with the Tibetan explanation for "modification-connective" being the connection of the ཁྱད་ཆོས་ "feature, quality" and the bases for these features ཁྱད་གཞི་ it again does not seem to be quite fitting. It might also be placed in "field of activity connective" or in a new extra category of "metaphorical field of activity connective". One solution would be to introduce a category like "simple connections" or "miscellaneous connections" to include all those connections that seem not to fit otherwise. Since that would not add anything new to support the understanding of the different type of connections expressed by the connective case, this is not done here.

Connecting Nouns and Pronouns With Nouns

Possessive Connective

• Also called: ownership, possession
  
• Tibetan grammatical term: བདག་པོ་དང་དངོས་པོའི་འབྲེལ་བ་
  

བདག་གི་གོས་

I clothes

my clothes

ངའི་ལག་པ་

I hand}

my hand

སུའི་ཁང་པ།

who house

Whose house?

Modification

• Also called: type connective, relation of modifier and modified
  
• Tibetan grammatical terms: ཁྱད་ཆོས་དང་ཁྱད་ཆོས་ཅན་གྱི་འབྲེལ་བ་, ཁྱད་གཞི་དང་ཁྱད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་འབྲེལ་བ་
  

གསེར་གྱི་ཁ་དོག་

gold colour

golden colour, colour of gold

སྙིགས་དུས་ཀྱི་ཚེ་

degeneration time time

time of degeneration

མི་དགེ་བའི་ལས་

non-virtue karma

karma of non-virtue

ཉིན་མོའི་སྐར་མ་

daytime star

stars at daytime

Note: This is one of the cases where the usual rendering of he connective case by using the English "of" (saying "this of that") does not work.

ཐེག་པ་མཆོག་གི་གདམས་པ་

yana supreme instruction

instruction of the supreme yana

Relation of Location

Relation of Location and Inhabitants

• Tibetan grammatical terms: གནས་གཞི་དང་གནས་ཆོས་ཀྱི་འབྲེལ་བ་
  

དཀྱིལ་འཁོར་གྱི་ལྷ་

mandala deity

deities of the mandala

སྙིང་གའི་བླ་མ་

eart centre lama

the lama in the heart centre

Note: An other cases where "of" does not work as translation.

Field of Activity Connective

བོད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་

Tibet king

king of Tibet

cause and result

Relation of Cause and Result

• Tibetan grammatical term: རྒྱུ་འབྲས་ཀྱི་འབྲེལ་བ་
  

ནས་ཀྱི་མྱུ་གུ་

barley sprout

barley-sprout, seedling of barley

Relation of Origination, Causal Relation

• Tibetan grammatical term: དེ་འབྱུང་འབྲེལ་གྱི་འབྲེལ་བ་
  

ཉི་མའི་འོད་ཟེར་

sun light rays

rays of sun

སྦྱིན་པའི་བསོན་ནམས་

generosity merit

merit from / of generosity

Relation of the Source / Origin and the Originated

• Tibetan grammatical term: འབྱུང་ཁུངས་དང་འབྱུང་ཁུངས་ཅན་གྱི་འབྲེལ་བ་
  

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་ཆོས་

Buddha Dharma

the Dharma of the Buddha

Relation of Agency

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་པ་

Buddha teaching

the teachings of the Buddha

བླ་མའི་བཀའ་

lama command, word

the lama's command

Relation of Result

བདེ་འགྲོའི་རྒྱུ་

pleasant go cause

the cause of [the birth in] higher realms

Separative

ལམ་ལྔའི་གཉིས་པ་

path five second

second of the five path

Destination

བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་ལམ་

enlightenment path

path to enlightenment

Note: An other cases where "of" does not work as translation.

Apprehended Object and That Which Apprehends

• Tibetan grammatical term: ཡུལ་དང་ཡུལ་ཅན་གྱི་འབྲེལ་བ་
  

མིག་ཤེས་ཀྱི་གཟུང་བྱ་

eye consciousness held object

the held object of the eye consciousness

སྒྲ་ཡི་ཤེས་པ་

sound consciousness, awareness

consciousness (that knows) sound; the knowing of sound

Composition

Relation of Part and Whole

• Tibetan grammatical term: ཡན་ལག་དང་ཡན་ལག་ཅན་གྱི་འབྲེལ་བ་
  

ལྗོན་ཤིང་གི་འདབ་མ་

tree leaves

leaves of the tree

ཤིང་སྡོང་གི་ཡལ་ག་

tree branch

branches of the tree

Relation of Essence and That What Is Of That Essence

• Tibetan grammatical term: རང་བཞིན་དང་རང་བཞིན་ཅན་གྱི་འབྲེལ་བ་
  

གསེར་གྱི་ཨ་ལོང་

gold ear ring

golden ear ring

Compositional Relation

འཕགས་པའི་དགེ་འདུན་

noble ones sangha

sangha of noble ones

མདོའི་དཔེ་ཆ་

sutra book

book of sutras

རུས་པའི་རྒྱན་

bone ornament

ornament [made] of bones

Metaphorical Relation

སྙིང་རྗེའི་ཆུ་

compassion water

water of compassion

Adjectives, Verbal Adjectives

Adjectives can be used directly with nouns in two ways.

• They can be placed after the noun (in ming tsam) without the usage of any particle. E.g.,རི་དཀར་པོ་ "white mountain". See: Tibetan Grammar - Adjectives
  
• They can be placed before the noun with the conective particle between the adjective and the noun.
  

Adjectives

དཀར་པོའི་ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་

white Dharma all

all white/virtue Dharmas

དོན་དམ་པའི་བདེན་པ་

ultimate truth

ultimate truth

Verbal Adjective

Note: The verb that is used as a verbal adjective is always nominalized.

See also: connecting phrases and clauses with nouns or noun-phrases

གཉིད་པའི་བུ་མོ་འདི་

to sleep girl this

this sleeping girl; this girl [who] sleeps

Apposition

Specific to General

དུད་འགྲོ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་ངན་འགྲོ་

animals and so on bad go /lower realms

lower realms of animals and so on; lower realms [like that of] animals and so on

བདག་ཅག་ལ་སོགས་པའི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་

we and so on sentient beings all

all sentient beings [like] us and so on

Apposition - Relation of Same Identity / Essence

• Tibetan grammatical term: གཞི་ཆོས་ངོ་བོ་གཅིག་པའི་འབྲེལ་བ་
  

འཆི་བདག་གི་གཤིན་རྗེ་

death lord Yama

Yama, the lord of death; Yama, [who is] the lord of death

Postpositions and Postpositional Structures

Postpositions come with the connective case before them, joining them to the word they follow.

Note:

As the great scholar and pioneer of Tibetan, Alexander Csoma de Körös wrote: "The compound postpositions require, in general, the genitive case [here: connective case] before them. But sometimes the genitive signs being dropped, they are put after the nominative [here: ming tsam], like the simple postpositions [here: case-marking particles]."

ཁང་པའི་ནང་ལ་

house in to, inside

into the house; inside the house

In Alexander Csoma de Körös, the example ཁང་པའི་ནང་ན་ is given. ཁང་པ་ means "house" and ནང་ "inside" or "home". So what this compound expresses is "at the inside of the house", where by "house" is qualifying "inside". (For example in Kham ནང་ལ་འགྲོ་ is the common way to say "to go home",ནང་ being the noun "inside" / "home".) This means that like in the case of ནང་ some of the words treated as postpositions are just nouns with a qualifier, (and actually all postpositions originated from nouns (indicated by the connective case they come with) - and so did the case marking particles as well).
Nevertheless, looking at the meaning expressed by these it seems reasonable to treat them as postpositions here.

དུ་བ་ཡོད་པའི་ཕྱིར་

smoke exist because

... because there is smoke

ཞིང་ལ་ཆུ་གཏོང་བའི་སླད་དུ་ཡུར་བ་བཟོ།

field water to send in order to canal make, construct

to construct water canals in order to irrigate the fields

ཁོང་གི་མདུན་ལ་

he in front of

in front of him

Multiple Connections

མིའི་ལུས་ཀྱི་རྒྱུ་
human body cause
མིའི་  ལུས་
human body
human, human [birth]
མིའི་ལུས་ཀྱི་	རྒྱུ་
human [birth]	cause
the cause for [attaining a] human [birth]

བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་བཞེད་སྲོལ་མ་ཉམས་པའི་ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་
Kagyu          great          tradition    not  corrupted    Mahamudra
བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་	བཞེད་སྲོལ་མ་ཉམས་པ་
Kagyu        great	tradition    not  corrupted
the uncorrupted tradition of the precious Kagyu
བཀའ་བརྒྱུད་རིན་པོ་ཆེའི་བཞེད་སྲོལ་མ་ཉམས་པའི་		ཕྱག་རྒྱ་ཆེན་པོ་
the uncorrupted tradition of the precious Kagyu		Mahamudra
Translation as apposition: Mahamudra, the uncorrupted tradition of the precious Kagyu Translation as qualifier: Mahamudra of the uncorrupted tradition of the precious Kagyu

Connecting Phrases and Clauses with Nouns or Noun-Phrases

• Note: Most of the upcoming examples in this section are generic.

The Basic Structure

A clause qualifying or modifying the following noun or noun-phrase is a very common structure in Tibetan sentences. In essences this structure very simple, with an argument [noun] on the right and the verbal adjective (qualifier ) to the left (of the connective particle). The qualified noun itself is then commonly a part of a bigger clause.
In the simple example of two nouns ཉི་མའི་འོད་ཟེར་ "the light rays of the sun" the qualifier ཉི་མ་ "sun" (left position) is joined to the argument (right position) འོད་ཟེར་ "light rays" with the connective case.
In the same way a clause can be the qualifier. If a clause is taken as qualifier the structure is the same with only difference that the qualifier is a clause with a nominalized verb.
E.g., with

འཆར་བ།	ming tsam intransitive		ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to arise, rise, appearing, emerge, shine; visible, apparent
ཤར་བ།	འཆར་བ།	འཆར་བ།
past	pres.	fut.	imp.

ཉི་མ་འཆར་བ་ "the sun rises" as qualifier (left position) for འོད་ཟེར་ "light rays" in

ཉི་མ་འཆར་བའི་འོད་ཟེར་

sun arise light rays

the light rays of the rising sun

The verb of the modifying clause is always nominalized (e.g., བསྟན་པ་ , འགྲོ་བ་) and the connective particle is added. (པ་ / བ་ with connective particle become པའི་ / བའི་, e.g., བསྟན་པའི་, འགྲོ་བའི་).

ཇ་བླུགས་པའི་བུ་མོ་

tea poured girl

the girl who poured the tea

In "the girl who poured the tea" the phrase qualifies the girl (and singles her out as that girl who poured the tea) and "the girl" is a noun that can be part of a bigger clause.

ཇ་བླུགས་པའི་བུ་མོ་འདི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་ལ་ཕྱིན།

tea poured girl this city went

This girl who poured the tea went to the city.

དེ་ཉིད་ དཀར་པོ་ཡིན་པའི་གནས་ཚུལ་

that itself white is situation /actual condition

the actual condition of that [conch shell] itself being white

མཁྲིས་ནད་ཅན་ལ་ དུང་ སེར་པོར་ སྣང་ཚེ་ དེ་ཉིད་དཀར་པོ་ཡིན་པའི་གནས་ཚུལ་ཤེས་ཀྱང་སེར་སྣང་མི་ལྡོག་ལ།

jaundice having one conch shell yellow appear time itself white is actual condition know even yellow appear not reverse [coord.]

when for some with jaundice the conch shell appears [to be] yellow, then even though knowing the actual condition which is that [the conch shell] itself is white, [it] will not stop (reverse) the yellow appearance [of the conch shell]

The Clause and the Noun

"Reintegrating" the Noun

The connection between the noun and the clause / phrase can be such that the noun could meaningfully appear in the clause as a part of the clause itself. It could be understood as a "missing" participant of the clause and so to speak be "reintegrated" in to it. The occurrence of this kind of connection is much more common with nouns that are not abstract, but it is not guaranteed, e.g. in above ཉི་མ་འཆར་བའི་འོད་ཟེར་"the light rays of the rising sun" the "light rays" are not a "missing" participant for "rising".

"reintegrating" the noun:

ཆོས་བསྟན་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་

dharma taught Buddha

The Buddha who taught the dharma.

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་ཆོས་བསྟན་

Buddha dharma taught

The Buddha taught the dharma.

ཇ་བླུགས་པའི་བུ་མོ་

tea poured girl

the girl who poured the tea

བུ་མོས་ཇ་བླུགས།

girl tea poured

The girl poured the tea.

There are cases where the noun can be "reintegrated" in a grammatically correct way but the resultant clause would make a false or illogical statement. This can easily occur when the qualified noun is part of a bigger clause with a negated verb.

The མོ་གཤམ་ལ་སྐྱེས་པའི་ཕྲུ་གུ་ "the child" qualified by the phrase "who was born by the barren woman" is still a valid as a noun to be made statement about in the bigger clause. But "reintegrated" it would become:

མོ་གཤམ་ལ་ཕྲུ་གུ་སྐྱེས།

barren woman child born

[A] child was born by the barren woman.

This sentence is a simple statement that is strictly speaking false since by definition she can not be called a barren woman.

Connecting Clause to "Subject", "Object", "Qualifier"

One way Joe Wilson uses to name these connections is by looking at the function the noun would have in the clause. J. Wilson: "It is useful when analyzing clauses and sentences to name these connectives after the grammatical function the nouns that follow them would play were they to appear in the clause that precedes them. Thus, verbals may be followed by different sorts of clause connectives: ..." With that he names the connection respectively "connecting clause to 'subject'", "connecting clause to 'object'" etc.. At the same time he makes it very clear thats the qualified nouns are not the subject, object etc.: "... [they] are not the actual subjects ...; they are, rather, metaphoric subjects. The actual subject of the verb occurs before it. to its left, not after it. ... "
J. Wilson lists the four of: clause connected to "subject", "object", "qualifier" and "complement". In here is added "connecting clause to 'indirect object / recipient'".
Wilson's "connecting clause to 'complement'" is replaced by "connecting a clause with a linking Verb and complement to the 'theme'".

connecting clause to "subject"

ཆོས་སྟོན་པའི་བླ་མ་

Dharma teach lama

the lama who teaches the Dharma

connecting clause to "indirect object / recipient"

སྨན་པས་སྨན་སྟེར་བའི་ནད་པ་

doctor medicine gave the ill

the ill to whom the doctor gave medicine

connecting clause to "qualifier"

བླ་མས་ཆོས་སྟོན་པའི་གྲོང་ཁྱེར་

lama teach Dharma city

the city in which the lama teaches the Dharma

connecting a clause with a linking Verb and complement to the "theme"

རྣམ་གྲངས་མ་ཡིན་པའི་དོན་དམ་

categorizations not is absolute, ultimate

the absolute that is not categorized; uncategorized absolute

Coordination

• When the conecetive particle comes after the root of a verb it coordinates the clauses it comes in between. This expresses often a scene of "even though" the first action of the first verb takes place the action of second verb occurs. It is often translated as "even though [it is this, it is not this]", "but", "yet", "although".
  

འཁོར་བའི་རྩ་བ་མ་རིག་པ་ཡིན་མོད་ཀྱི་འཁོར་བར་ཡང་སྲིད་འཕེན་པ་པོ་སྲིད་པ་ཡིན་པས།

samsara root ignorance is indeed samsara again exist propelling force becoming is

even though the root of samsara is ignorance indeed, since the propelling force to be reborn in samsara is becoming ...

འདོད་ཚུལ་མི་འདྲ་བ་ཡོད་མོད་ཀྱི་འདིར་བཀོད་པ་ནི་

view point different exist of course here arrangement

there are of course different view points [on this], yet the way it is arranged here [by including ...]

• With this kind of coordination of "it is not this not but it is that" (and reverse) the second clause can also be in accordance with the first one.
  

རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ལ་མཁས་པ་ནི་བཞི་པའི་གཉེན་པོར་འགྱུར་བ་ཡིན་ཏེ།

dependent [origination] learned fourth antidote becomes is

བདག་གིས་བྱེད་པ་མ་ཡིན་གྱི་རྒྱུ་རྐྱེན་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཙམ་གྱི་སྣང་བ་ལས་བྱུང་བའི་ཕྱིར་རོ།།

self         doing   not  is  but cause condition dependent connection just manifestation occur because

being learned about dependent [origination] is the antidote to the forth [way of grasping at the self, the grasping at the self as the creator] because [one knows that it] is not [a] doing [/creation] by the self but is [a] occurrence due to the manifestation of [nothing else than] just the dependent connection of causes and conditions