Tibetan Grammar - agentive 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.

Work on the grammar wiki will resume during 2015.

31.Jan.12 The approach to explain Tibetan verbs will be changed to that of the "three thematic relations: Theme, Location, and Agent" 31.Aug.12 - 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. Gueffroy [fka Eckel])

Agentive Particle - བྱེད་པའི་སྒྲ་ : གིས་, ཀྱིས་, གྱིས་, འིས་, ཡིས་

• Also called: agentive case [particle], instrumental particle, ergative particle

Variants and Spelling

The agentive particle has five variants (allomorphs ): གིས་, ཀྱིས་, གྱིས་, -ས་, ཡིས་. Which one is to be use depends on the last syllable of the word it follows.

Pronouncation

གིས་, ཀྱིས་, གྱིས་ are prounced as /ki/.
N. Tournadre: "In conversation, the three particles གིས་/khi/, ཀྱིས་/kyi/, གྱིས་/khyi/ are pronounced in exactly the same way, as an unstressed syllable: /-ki'/."
ཡིས་ is pronounced /yi/.
ས་ is joined to syllable that do not have a postfix-letter and is not pronounced itself. It changes the pronunciation of the vowels /a/, /o/ and /u/ (of the syllable it is attached to). They become /ä/, /ö/ and /ü/. The vowels /e/ and /i/ are not changed.
E.g.: བུ་མོ་ /bu mo/ "girl" + ས་ = བུ་མོས་ /bu mö/

Spelling

last letter of the syllable marked	spelling of the particle	example: word - word with particle
ག་, ང་	གིས་	བདག་ - བདག་གིས་  ཆང་ - ཆང་གིས་
ད་, བ་, ས་	ཀྱིས་	ངེད་ - ངེད་ཀྱིས་  ཁབ་ - ཁབ་ཀྱིས་  སངས་རྒྱས་ - སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་
ན་, མ་, ར་, ལ་	གྱིས་	རྒྱུན་ - རྒྱུན་གྱིས་  དོམ་ - དོམ་གྱིས་  དར་ - དར་གྱིས་  ཟིལ་ - ཟིལ་གྱིས་
འ་ and no postfix letter	-ས་ or ཡིས་	མདའ་ - མདས་ or མདའ་ཡིས་  ཁ་ - ཁས་ or ཁ་ཡིས་

• When the agentive particle −ས་ is joined to a word that has no postfix letter the ས་ is joined to the word. E.g., རྒྱལ་པོ་ + ས་ → རྒྱལ་པོས་
• When the agentive particle −ས་ is joined to a word that has the postfix letter འ་ then འ་ is dropped and ས་ added instead. E.g., མདའ་ + ས་ → མདའ་ → མདས་

Note: The ས་ after the root letter can either be the agentive particle joined to a word i.e. a word with no postfix letter, a word that has the postfix letter འ་ or it could be part of the word. E.g., བཀས་ could be བཀའ་ (honorific) "word, command, speech" with agentive particle བཀས་ (same meaning as བཀའ་ཡིས་) or it could be བཀས་ "crack, split" without agentive particle. (It would be བཀས་ཀྱིས་ with the agentive particle.)

Note: གྱིས་ is not only the a variant of the agentive it is also གྱིས་ "Do!" the imperative form of བགྱིས་པ་ "to make, to do" (བགྱིས་པ།, བགྱིད་པ།, བགྱི་བ།, གྱིས།; it has the same meaning as བྱེད་པ་ "to make, to do".) This can lead to puzzlement when mistaking one for the other. Often a way to easily check is to look at the postfix letter of the preceding word and see if གྱིས་ as agentive particle is possible. If it is possible (or a typo might be likely) then which one it is needs to be decided through context.

Origin

The naming of this particle as "agentive" comes from its Tibetan name "doing sound", "doing particle" and is a reasonably descriptive naming convention. What should be noticed though is that the origin of the particle is the syllable ས་ "earth, ground, place" joined with the preceding word by means of the connective case or joined directly if the word has no post-fix letter, e.g. ཁོང་ + གི་ + ས་ = ཁོང་གིས་ From བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ "The Great Tibetan [Tibetan] Chinese Dictionary":
བྱེད་པའི་སྒྲ་: འབྲེལ་སྒྲའི་མཐར་ས་སྦྱར་བ་ལྔ་པོ་དེ་ཡིན་ལ་རྣམ་དབྱེ་གསུམ་པའང་ཟེར་བ་དང་...
"Agentive particle: These are the five that are the ས་ joined to the end of the conective case, they are also called the third case."

The western scholar Walter Simon on the origin of the agentive particle:
"Since nas and las have an ablatival meaning, it would seem in keeping with this suggestion [that ' the suffix of the agent is probably identical ' with the final s of nas and las] that s itself had developed the meaning of agency (and instrumentality) from an original ablatival meaning, ..."
"I should like to explain the s as shortened from either sa in the meaning "place" or from so, which is derivative of sa.
In this the agentive particle is very similar to the originative particles ནས་ and ལས་ that are ན་ and ལ་ with an added ས་ trough which the marking of a location and direction (ན་ and ལ་) "where, to [where]" changed into the marking of source and origin, a "place form where [something comes]". In a similar way the agentive particle marks "the place" form where an action originates, the source of an action or situation. To remember this origin of the agentive particle can help to understand the different functions the paricle. [See also: void]

Independent of Verb Type

Instrument

to look agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་ བལྟས་པ།  ལྟ་བ།  ལྟ་བ།  ལྟོས། past pres. fut. imp.

ཁོས་མིག་གིས་གཟུགས་ལ་བལྟས།

he eye form looked

He looked with [his] eyes at the form.

to cut agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་ བཅད་པ།  གཅོད་པ།  གཅད་པ།  ཆོད། past pres. fut. imp.

ཁོས་ཤིང་སྟ་རེས་བཅད།

he wood axe cut

He cut the wood with the axe.

Note: ལྟ་རེ་ "axe" + agentive ས་ = ལྟ་རེས་

Reason

Sometimes it is not a clear line between marking of an instrument or a reason since Tibetan does not make a syntactic distinction (it is simply only the one agentive particle).

• When the agentive particle comes after a nominalized verb, then it is marking a reason or cause. This is a coordination of clauses. It corresponds to the causal coordination of the agentive particle after the root of the verb (see:causal coordination) but does not include the other two possible coordination (see below: agentive particle, coordination).
  

to throw out, abandon, give up, discard agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་ དོར་བ་  འདོར་བ་  དོར་བ་  དོར་ past pres. fut. imp.

སྙིང་རྗེས་སེམས་ཅན་གྱི་དོན་མི་འདོར

compassion sentient beings ་benefit [lit. meaning] not abandon

because of compassion [one] does not abandon [ones intention and activity to accomplish] the benefit of beings

Note: སྙིང་རྗེ་ "compassion" + agentive ས་ = སྙིང་རྗེས་

སྙིང་རྗེས་ཞི་ལ་མི་གནས་པས།

compassion peace not remain

because [they] to not remain in the peace [of Nirvana] due to compassion...

to lose, "gone astray" agentive transitive ' སྟོར་བ།  སྟོར་བ།  སྟོར་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

to guard agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྲུངས་པ།  སྲུང་བ།  བསྲུང་བ།  སྲུངས། past pres. fut. imp.

བ་ལང་མ་བསྲུངས་པས་སྟོར་ཏོ།

oxen not guard lost

Because of not guarding the oxen got lost.

Note: སྟོར་ was in older Tibetan སྟོརད་ which leads to the usage of the completion particle ཏོ.

Adverbial

"to come into existence"; to be produced ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ གྲུབ་པ།  འགྲུབ་པ།  འགྲུབ་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པ་

nature exist, came into existence

naturally existent

Postpositions

These are standard expression that are placed after a word and joined with it by the connective particle or placed directly after it without the connective case.

སྟབས་ཀྱིས་

mode, manner, way; tep, stance, posture

in the manner of; because, therefore, since

དབང་གིས་

power, force, control

by the power of, by means of, due to, under the influence of, in consequence of

སྡིག་པ་མི་དགེ་བའི་དབང་གིས་

evil deeds non virtue due to

due to evil deeds and non virtue[s action ...]

Coordination

The agentive particle is far less often seen after the root of the verb than for example ན་ and ནས་ or the the agentive particle after a nominalized verb (marking reason).
When the agentive particle comes after the root of the verb then out of the following three possible functions the first type (causal) is the common usage, whereas the second and third are rare. The latter two are taken from Nicolas Tournadre, "The Classical Tibetan cases and their transcategoriality, From sacred grammar to modern linguistics".

Note: If a གྱིས་ stands at the end of a clause it could also be the གྱིས་ "Do!" (see: Note on གྱིས་).

Causal

When the agentive particle comes after the root of the verb then in most cases its meaning is same to its function after a nominalized phrase, i.e. stating reason or cause.

to kill, to extinguishing agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་ བསད་པ  གསོད་པ  གསད་པ  སོད past pres. fut. imp.

to give, to donate agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་ བྱིན་པ  སྦྱིན་པ  སྦྱིན་པ  སྦྱིན past pres. fut. imp.

ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ངའི་ཁྱོ་བསད་ཀྱིས་ངའི་ཁྱོ་བྱིན་ཅིག/

you my husband killed my husband give !

Since you killed my husband, give me [a new] (my) husband!

Adjunctive

Nicolas Tournadre:"The agentive may be used directly after the verb to indicate a connexion between two clauses. However, for this function, the agentive case alone is rarely used, ..."

ཡུད་ཙམ་ངལ་གསོས་ཀྱིས་བསྡད་པ་ཡིན།

moment mere fatigue restore stayed

We stayed while and rested (lit. rest and stay).

Nicolas Tournadre states that in this case the agentive expresses the same type of coordination as the originative case ནས་ (expressing "while"):"...'We stayed while and rested (lit. rest and stay).' This is equivalent to: ཡུད་ཙམ་ངལ་གསོས་ནས་བསྡད་པ་ཡིན། ... here the agentive kyis [ཀྱིས་] may be replaced by the elative nas [originative ནས་]."

Adversative

Nicolas Tournadre:"This adversative function is rather rare. For this function, the agentive usually appears twice in a construction involving two verbs, a causative and a resultative verb separated by a negation, ..."
The structure is : Verb (causative)+Agentive+Negation+ Verb (resultative)+Agentive.

ཕྱི་སྣང་བ་བཏུལ་གྱིས་མི་ཐུལ་གྱིས།

outer appearances subdue not subdued

[You try] to subdue the external phenomena but [you will] not [/never] succeed.

བདག་གིས་བཀག་ན་ཡང་མ་ཐུབ་ཀྱིས།

I      stop  even not able

Although I tried to prevent [it], [I] could not.

ལར་རྟགས་དེ་དག་དང་ལྡན་པ་རིགས་ཆད་དུ་གསུང་པ་དེ་ཡང་།  འཁོར་བར་ཡུན་རིང་དུ་འགོར་བ་ལ་དགོངས་པ་ཡིན་གྱིས།

generally sign those endowed family cut-off taught moreover  Samsara duration long take-time intent is

གཏན་ནས་བྱང་ཆུབ་མི་ཐོབ་པ་ནི་མ་ཡིན་ཏེ།

ever-lasting enlightenment not attain not is ...

moreover, that teaching that generally [those] endowed with these characteristics are taught as [being those of] the disconnected family is [of the] intent [of] saying [that they will] spent a long time in Samsara, but [it] is not [that they] will for ever not attain enlightenment ... This teaching about the beings of disconnected family, those endowed with these characteristics has the intention to say that they will remain in Samsara for a long time, but this does not mean that they will never attain enlightenment - [once they make effort they too will attain enlightenment.]

Sentence final

This function has been described by S.V. Beyer: "The modal performance particle -KYis occurs in sentence-final position in direct address where the speaker is making a promise or prediction of an event which is in some way under his control: in this position -KYis constitutes what we will call the PROMISE particle."
Nicolas Tournadre points out: ... Since the grammatical semantic relation with the other functions of the agentive is not obvious, it is not clear whether this marking is historically derived from the agentive."

Note S. V. Beyer: "In some manuscripts we find what is clearly the same particle written -KYi. .... different manuscripts of the same text may sporadically make the same substitution: in the Spo block print of the biography of Mi-la ras-pa, for example, we find the reading mar-pa-dan̄ sprad-gyi [མར་པ་དང་སྤྲད་གྱི།], rather than the reading mar-pa-dan̄ sprad-kyis (མར་པ་དང་སྤྲད་གྱིས།) found in the woodblock prints from Spun̄s-than̄."

to introduce agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་ སྤྲད་པ།  སྤྲོད་པ།  སྤྲད་པ།  སྤྲོད། past pres. fut. imp.

འོ་ན་ངས་མར་པ་དང་སྤྲད་ཀྱིས།

well I Marpa introduce

Well, I will introduce you to Marpa.

to request agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་ ཞུས་པ།  ཞུ་བ།  ཞུ་བ།  ཞུས། past pres. fut. imp.

མ་གནང་ན་ངས་ཞུ་ཡིས།

not give I request / ask

If [he] does not give [them], I will ask [him].

Dependent of Verb Type

agent of an agentive transitive verb

See:Transitive Verbs

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

དཔེ་དེབ་ལ་བལྟ་བ། Buddha  Dharma taught The Buddha taught the Dharma.

to teach agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན་པ།  བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན། past pres. fut. imp.

With Agentive Directed Verbs

With Intentional Verbs of Perception

See: Intentional Verbs of Perception and agentive directed - intransitive dynamic directed

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

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

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

With Verbs Expressing "to make effort, to engage in"

See: Verbs that Express "to Make Effort, to Engage In" and agentive directed - indirect transitive dynamic directed

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

སློབ་སྦྱོང་ལ་འབོད་ཅིག study    make effort imperative particle Make effort in your studies!

to exert oneself, to strive, make effort agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་ འབད་པ།  འབད་པ།  འབད་པ།  འབོད། past pres. fut. imp.

With Verbs of Pervasion

See: Verbs of Pervasion

With Verbs of Benefit or Harm and Hindrance

See: Verbs of Benefit or Harm and Hindrance and agentive directed - indirect ditransitive

agent, (subject) doing the benefit or harm: agentive particle;  recipient, direction (indirect object) - the benefited or harmed: la don ལ་;   (theme - the harm or benefit: lexicalized in the verb)

ནད་ཀྱིས་ལུས་ལ་གནོད། illness   body    to harm The illness harmed the body.

to harm, hurt, injure, damage, undermine agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་ གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།     past pres. fut. imp.

Verbs That Can Take a Referential ལ་ for Their Theme

See: Verbs That Can Take a Referential ལ་ for Their Theme and agentive directed - directed grammar with transitive verbs

འཛིན་པ།	agentive transitive agentive directed		ཐ་དད་པ
to apprehend;...
བཟུང་བ།	འཛིན་པ།	གཟུང་བ།	ཟུང་།
past	pres.	fut.	imp.

་

common structure: agent (subject): agentive particle;   "topic referred to" - theme or direction: referential la don ལ་;  qualifier: la don སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་

ཁྱིམ་ལ་དུར་ཙམ་དུ་འཛིན།

household grave only apprehend

to apprehend a household only as a grave

See also: Verbs with multiple meanings occurring with different syntax.

Verbs of Absence and Presence

See: Verbs of Absence and Presence and
ming tsam intransitive - agentive, agentive transitive agentive

theme: ming tsam, qualifier - that what is absent or "present": agentive particle

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

to be empty ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ སྟོངས་པ།   སྟོང་པ།   སྟོང་པ།   past pres. fut. imp.