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.

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

This section contains Tibetan script. Without proper Tibetan rendering support configured, you may see other symbols instead of Tibetan script.

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   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 change 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 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 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

Patient (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: ming tsam, strict "first patient, then qualifier" word order

དམར་པོ་ནི་ཁ་དོག་ཡིན།

red           colour   is

Red is [a] colour.

Intransitive verbs བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་མི་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་—ཐ་མི་དད་པ་

Patient (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: la don

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.

Verbs of motion: འགྲོ་བ་, to go, མཆོང་བ་, to jump.

ཁོ་ལྷ་སར་ཕྱིན། he Lhasa   went He went to Lhasa.

to go v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ཕྱིན་པ་, སོང་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  སོང། past pres. fut. imp.

Unintentional verbs: འཆི་བ་, to die, ལྷུང་བ་, to fall.

Unintentional verbs of feeling: བཀྲེས་པ་, to be hungry, ངལ་བ་, to be tired.

Verbs of emotion, attitude verbs

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

དཔའ་བོ་ལ་གུས་པ་ hero        respect respect towards the hero

to respect v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ གུས་པ།  གུས་པ།  གུས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

Transitive verbs—ཐ་དད་པ་, and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified verbs with transitive grammar

Transitive verbs: agent (subject): agentive particle, patient (object): ming tsam.

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.

Transitive verbs with patient marked by la don

Agent (subject): agentive particle, patient (object): la don.

ཁོས་མོ་ལ་བལྟས། he     she   looked He looked at her.

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

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

to harm v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

Ditransitive verbs

• If the patient (object) of a transitive verb is marked by a la don particle, then it is usually with verbs where the object is only affected by the action expressed, but is not produced or the direct meaning of the action.
  

Agent (subject): agentive particle, patient (object): ming tsam, recipient (indirect object): la don.

• Typical ditransitive verbs are "to give", "to sell", "to bring", "to tell" and generally any verb expressing any transfer of goods, information or action producing something. E.g.: "She gave him ten silver.", "I read the books to him.", "She is baking a cake for him.".

སྨན་པས་ནད་པ་ལ་སྨན་སྟེར། doctor  the ill   medicine give The doctor gives medicine to the ill.

to give v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར། past pres. fut. imp.

ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified verbs with transitive grammar

Unintentional verbs of perception

• to see, མཐོང་བ་; to hear, ཐོས་པ་.

These verbs have an unintentional meaning to them, and have an intentional counterpart. E.g. unintentional "to see", མཐོང་བ་ and intentional "to look", ལྟ་བ་.

མདུན་ལམ་གསལ་པོར་མཐོང་བ། front   way clearly        see to see clearly the way in front

to see v.t.(!) ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!) མཐོང་བ།  མཐོང་བ།  མཐོང་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

The agent (subject) is omitted, the patient (object) མདུན་ལམ་ is in ming tsam.

Verbs of "understanding"

• to understand, ཧ་གོ་བ་; to know, to cognize, ཤེས་པ་; to know, to understand རྟོགས་པ་

ཁོས་ཧ་མ་གོ he   not understand He doesn’t understand.

to understand v.t.(!) ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!) གོ་བ།  གོ་བ།  གོ་བ།  past pres. fut. imp.

ཧ་གོ་བ་ derived from གོ་བ་.

• The agent (subject) ཁོ་ is marked by the agentive particle.

Some "passive / fruitional" verbs

• to benefit, help, ཕན་པ་; to attain, to obtain, འཐོབ་པ་; to find, get, discover, gain, རྙེད་པ་.

Note: The difficulty with ཕན་པ་ is to find an example with a stated agent. In most cases there is only an instrument, source or reason given. The instrument is in the agentive case which effects the action (the benefiting), the action is not done by the patient (the benefited), so ཕན་པ་ has the characteristics of a transitive verb.

བདུད་རྩི་ལྟ་བུའི་ཆོས་ཤིག་བདག་གིས་རྙེད། nectar   like  Dharma a/one   I        found I have found this nectar like Dharma.

to find v.t.(!) ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!) རྙེད་པ།  རྙེད་པ།  རྙེད་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

• The agent (subject) བདག་ is marked by the agentive particle.

ཀུན་དགའ་བོས་དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ཉིད་ཐོབ་བོ།། Ananda           arhat             attained Ananda attained [the state of an] arhat.

to attain v.t.(!) ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!) ཐོབ་པ།  འཐོབ་པ།  འཐོབ་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

བདག་གིས་གཞན་ལ་ཕན་པར་བྱ། I             other       benefit  will (auxiliary verb)' I will benefit others.

to benefit v.t.(!) ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!) ཕན་པ།  ཕན་པ།  ཕན་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

• The agent (subject) བདག་ is marked by the agentive particle the patient (which "experiences" the benefit) marked by ལ་.

སྨན་གྱིས་ནད་ལ་ཕན།

medicine  illness  benefit

The medicine helps against the illness.

Verbs with noticeable grammar

Verbs of necessity

Qualifier, that which needs: la don, patient, that what is needed: ming tsam

མྱུ་གུ་ལ་ཆུ་དགོས། sprouts water need Sprouts need water.

to need v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

Note: In Tibetan, the patient (subject) of the verb དགོས་པ་ "to need" is that what is needed, it "performs" the action "to be needed", (the "water" in the example). What or whom 'needs' is the qualifier (the "sprouts"). This is different in English where the patient (subject) of the verb "to need" is the one who needs something. E.g. In "He needs water", "he" is the patient (subject).

Verbs of absence and "presence"

That which is absent, "present": agentive case, that which is absent of something: ming tsam

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

empty v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ སྟོངས་པ།  སྟོང་པ།  སྟོང་པ།  past pres. fut. imp.

Verbs which change their meaning with different syntaxes

• ཆོག་པ་ either "allowed, permitted" or "to be sufficient"

See: "verbs of evaluation / assertion II", la don, "3.1 Note on classifications for 1.10 verbs with la don", "verbs 'expressing an evaluative status'".

When meaning "allowed, permitted" ཆོག་ comes right after the verb it makes the statement about.

བསམ་འཆར་བཤད་ཆོག

opinion     express  allowed

allowed to express [ones] opinion

When meaning "to be sufficient" then it's patient, it comes after that what is "sufficient" (marked by the agentive particle).

ཇི་སྐད་བཤད་པ་ཁོ་ན་ཉམས་སུ་བླངས་པས་ཆོག་སྟེ།

how  explained  only   practiced         sufficient

to have practiced only as it has been explained is sufficient

Classification of verbs according to their grammar

Transitive verbs

Agent: agentive	patient: ming tsam / la don	recipient: la don	qualifier: la don
subject	object	indirect object	qualifier

"Simple" transitive verbs

Agent: agentive	patient: ming tsam
subject	object

to teach, show v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན་པ།  བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན། past pres. fut. imp.

to kill v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བསད་པ།  གསོད་པ།  གསད་པ།  སོད། past pres. fut. imp.

to drink v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་ བཏུངས་པ།  འཐུང་བ།  བཏུང་བ།  འཐུངས། past pres. fut. imp.

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