Tibetan Grammar - verbs
WORK IN PROGRESS (by Stefan J. Eckel): 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 |
[...]
Verbs བྱ་ཚིག་
Note: 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 Tibetan grammarians do not classify words describing a mere state of being or existence as བྱ་ཚིག་.
Intransitive and Transitive 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 Intransitive and Transitive Verbs
English Language
- Intransitive: Not passing over to an object; expressing an action or state that is limited to the theme 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, 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 that can have two objects. These are 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 Tibetan the grammar for intransitive and transitive verbs is generally as follows:
| Tibetan | ||
| Intransitive verbs: | theme / subject: ming tsam (no particle) | qualifier: la don |
| Transitive verbs: | agent / subject: agentive particle | theme / object: ming tsam |
Theme is used here as a convenient term for both the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb - both are in ming tsam. The term will be stretched (beyonds its definition from thematic relations) as far as necessary; (e.g. it will also include patient - undergoes the action and changes its state ).[1] See: Note
The Intransitive Verb
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The Transitive Verb
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Verbs with Related Intransitive and Transitive Form
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The Syntactic Verb Categories
Beside being an explanation of syntactic verb categories in Tibetan us such, this section is chiefly aimed to be an background for the syntactic categories referred to in the main section which is "Classification of verbs according to semantic and syntactic groups".
The Three Categories of agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive
agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive
The descriptions of verbs types in here will be in sometimes different form the descriptions found in other grammar compilations. The verb types used in here are introduced to mainly deal with three difficulties found with Tibetan verbs:
- There are verbs that have a participant marked with the agentive particle but have no participant in ming tsam.
- There are verbs that are not transitive but have a participant marked with the agentive particle.
- ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ do not correspond to the devision into transitive and intransitive.
The categories used in here will be referred to as "ming tsam intransitive", "agentive transitive" and "agentive directed". These categories are so named with respect to the existence of a participant marked with the agentive particle, the presence or absence of a theme in ming tsam.
ming tsam intransitive |
no agent | theme in ming tsam |
agentive transitive |
agent with the agentive particle | theme in ming tsam |
agentive directed |
participant with the agentive particle | no theme in ming tsam |
The category that sticks out is that of "agentive directed" verbs. The verbs of the agentive transitive and ming tsam intransitive categories are respectively either transitive or intransitive. They are easily classified by the possibility of a given verb to either take an agent (marked with the agentive particle) together with its theme (in ming tsam) or not. In contrast to that the verbs of the agentive directed category include verbs that are intransitive, transitive and "indirect ditransitive". They have in common that they have two participants, one marked with the agentive particle and one with a la don, but no theme in ming tsam.
The Subcategories of The agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive Verbs
The categories ming tsam intransitive, agentive transitive and agentive directed can be further divided into:
| syntactic categorie | syntactic subcategorie | example |
ming tsam intransitive
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stative copula
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linking verbs: theme in ming tsam, (no agent); ཡིན་པ་ "to be, are"; (example) |
stative non-volitional
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unintentional intransitive verbs that describe a state of being and adjectives: theme in ming tsam, (no agent); ངལ་བ་ "to be tired", བཟང་ "[to be] good, excellent"; (example) | |
dynamic non-volitional
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unintentional intransitive describing an action or change: theme in ""ming tsam"", (no agent); འཆི་བ། "to die"; (example) | |
dynamic directed
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verbs of motion: theme in ming tsam, qualifier with la don; (no agent); འགྲོ་བ་ "to go"; (example) | |
stative located
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verbs of existence, possession; verbs of living; verbs of necessity: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent); ཡོད་པ་ "to exist", "to have", དགོས་པ་ "to be needed"; (example) | |
stative affective
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attitude verbs: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent); དགའ་བ་ "to like"; (example) | |
stative directed
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verbs of dependence: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent); རྟེན་པ་ "to rely, depend"; (example) | |
agentive
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These are the intransitive aspects of the "verbs of absence and presence": theme in ming tsam, qualifier with the agentive particle, (no agent); སྟོང་པ་ "to be empty"; (stative agentive example), (dynamic agentive example) | |
associative [2]
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intransitive "verbs of interrelation": conjunctive and disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison, verbs expressing connections of association and possession: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: associative particle དང་, (no agent); (example) | |
originative
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intransitive verbs of separation; theme in ming tsam, qualifier with the originative particle, (no agent); (example) | |
stative irregular
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evaluative verbs: theme in ming tsam or with la don or agentive particle; རུང་བ་ "suitable", འཐུས་པ་ "to be sufficient"; (example) | |
| agentive transitive | effective
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simple transitive verbs where the agent acts upon an theme (object): agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam; འཐུང་བ་ "to drink"; (example) |
fruitional
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transitive verbs where the theme (object) is not acted upon and the agent is passive, perceiving or obtaining the theme (object); these are fruitional and unintentional verbs: agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam; རྙེད་པ་ "to find", མཐོང་བ་ "to see"; (example) | |
ditransitive
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ditransitive verbs where the action upon the theme (object) by the agent is directed towards a recipient (indirect object); these are verbs expressing any transfer of goods, information or action and verbs expressing to produce something for somebody: agent with agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam, recipient with la don; སྦྱིན་པ་ "to give"; (example) surface contact verbs; (example) | |
directed
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these are transitive verbs where the action is not directed towards a recipient us such, but that have a qualifier of space or any other qualifier marked by a la don: agent with agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier: la don; སྦྱོར་བ་ "to connect, to join"; (example) | |
agentive
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the transitive dynamic verbs of the semantic group of the verbs of presence: agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam, qualifier-the material used for the action wtih agentive particle; འགེངས་པ་ "to fill with"; (example) | |
associative
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transitive verbs of interrelation - conjunctive or disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison: theme in ming tsam, qualifier with associative particle; (example) Examples with a stated agent are very difficult to find for this type of verb. If there were to be an example with a stated agent then this agent would be marked with the agentive particle. | |
originative
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transitive verbs of separation; theme in ming tsam, qualifier with originative particle; Examples with a stated agent are very difficult to find for this type of verb. If there were to be an example with a stated agent then this agent would be marked with the agentive particle.; (example) | |
| agentive directed | intransitive dynamic directed see [ ] for the discussion about these verbs
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some intentional verbs of perception: perceiver with agentive particle, direction with la don; ལྟ་བ་ "to look"[3]; (example) |
indirect transitive see [ ] for the discussion about these terms and the verbs
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verbs expressing "to make effort, to engage in": the one who makes the effort with agentive particle, that what the effort is towards with la don; འབད་པ་ "to make effort"; (example) | |
indirect ditransitive see [ ] for the discussion about these terms and the verbs
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verbs of benefit or harm; that what effects the harm with agentive particle, the recipient-the one or that what is harmed-with la don; གནོས་པ་ "to harm"; (example) | |
stative directed
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ཁྱབ་པ་ "to pervade, permeate, be present throughout" (see below) | |
transitive verbs with directed grammar
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These are: verbs of mental activity when the "object of interest" is actively engaged in. They then have the theme (or direction, see below) with la don. དཔྱོད་པ་ "to examine" verbs with referential la don ལ་: verbs expressing identity and equivalence can have their theme with la don ལ་ and the qualifier with la don སུ་ etc.; འཛིན་པ་ "to apprehend (something as something)"; (example) |
Examples for the Categories
This section is an expansion of "1.2.1.2 The subcategories of the agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive verbs" in order to give example sentences for the different categories. The semantic verb categories that are given as example for each category are not necessarily exhaustive.
(For cross reference between semantic and syntactic categories see the main section "Classification of verbs according to semantic and syntactic groups".)
ming tsam intransitive
stative copula - linking verb
linking verbs; ཡིན་པ་ "to be, are"
| theme (subject): ming tsam, complement[4]: ming tsam, strict "theme - complement" word order |
| དམར་པོ་ནི་ཁ་དོག་ཡིན། |
| red colour is |
| Red is [a] colour. |
stative non-volitional
stative non-volitional intransitive verbs
unintentional intransitive verbs; ངལ་བ་ "to be tired"
| theme (subject): ming tsam |
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stative non-volitional - adjectives
Adjectives can function like stative verbs.; བཟང་ "[to be] good, excellent"
When adjectives are used in this way they lose their second syllable.
E.g.:ངན་པ་ ("bad, inferior") only ངན་ and བཟང་པོ་ ("excellent, good") only བཟང་.
| theme (subject): ming tsam |
| མི་ང་རང་ངན་ཏེ་བླ་མ་བཟང་། |
| person myself bad lama good |
| Even though I[' m] bad, [my] Lama [is] good.[5] |
dynamic non-volitional
unintentional verbs; འཆི་བ་ "to die", འཆར་བ་ "to arise"
| theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: direction: la don, origin: originative |
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dynamic directed
verbs of motion; འགྲོ་བ་ "to go", མཆོང་བ་ "to jump"
| theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: direction: la don, origin: originative |
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stative located
stative located verbs of existence, possession and verbs of living
verbs of existence and possession; ཡོད་པ་ "to exist" or "to have"
| theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: the place of existence or the one who has something: la don |
| བོད་ལ་གཡག་ཡོད། |
| Tibet bos grunniens exist |
| There are yaks in Tibet. |
stative located verbs of necessity
Verbs of necessity like དགོས་པ་ "to be needed" are closest in grammar to verbs of possession. The need itself is not directed but what is needed is "directed" towards a "location", it is needed at that "location". This is like in the example of the verbs of possession where the person who possess things is the location at which these things exist.
| theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier, for whom or what it is needed: la don |
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stative affective
attitude verbs (verbs of emotion and attitude); དགའ་བ་ "to like"
Note: Some verbs within the "attitude verbs" category which are (more or less) voluntary e.g. like གུས་པ་ "to respect" could be placed with either stative affective or stative directed verbs.
| theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier - what the attitude is towards: la don |
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stative directed
verbs of dependence; རྟེན་པ་ "to rely, depend"
| theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier - what it is depended upon: la don |
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intransitive agentive
intransitive stative agentive
This is the stative (fruitional) aspect of the "verbs of absence and presence". They express a resultant state, e.g.,སྟོང་པ་ "to be empty".
| theme - that which is "missing of something" or "full with something": ming tsam, qualifier - what is "present" or absent, lacking, "that what is empty of": agentive particle |
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intransitive dynamic agentive
| theme - that which is "full with something": ming tsam, qualifier - what is "present": agentive particle |
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associative
These are the intransitive stative and dynamic verbs of interrelation, the conjunctive / disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison, and verbs expressing connections of association and possession Many of these have irregular grammar and can occur with other particles, i.e. la don or originative.
| theme: ming tsam, qualifier: དང་ |
| བློ་དང་འཚམ་པ་ |
| mind in accord with |
| in accordance with the mind |
originative
These are the intransitive stative and dynamic verbs of separation, and verbs of avoidance.
| theme: ming tsam, qualifier: originative particle |
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stative irregular
evaluative verbs; རུང་བ་ "suitable", འཐུས་པ་ "to be sufficient"
| theme: ming tsam, la don or agentive particle |
| ལས་སུ་རུང་བ། |
| work suitable, permissible |
| acceptable; proper to do |
agentive transitive
effective
transitive verbs where the agent acts upon an a theme (object); འཐུང་བ་ "to drink"
| agent (subject): agentive particle, theme (object): ming tsam |
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fruitional
These are fruitional and unintentional verbs. They are transitive verbs where the theme (object) is not acted upon and the agent is passive, perceiving or obtaining the theme (object) like with རྙེད་པ་ "to find", མཐོང་བ་ "to see".
Note: These are classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ in Tibetan grammar. See Grammar Terms
| agent (subject): agentive particle, theme (object): ming tsam |
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- The agent (subject) བདག་ is marked by the agentive particle.
ditransitive
Ditransitive verbs are verbs where the agent's (subject) action upon the theme (object) is directed towards a recipient (indirect object). These verbs express any transfer of goods, information, or action like སྦྱིན་པ་ "to give", or any verb expressing to produce something for somebody.[6]
| Agent (subject): agentive particle, theme (object): ming tsam, recipient (indirect object)[7]: la don. |
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surface contact verbs
transitive directed
| agent (subject): agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier: la don |
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transitive agentive
These are the transitive verbs that belong to of the "verbs of presence" category.; འགེངས་པ་ "to fill"
| agent (subject): agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier - the material used for the action: agentive particle |
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associative
These are the transitive verbs of interrelation.; སྦྲེལ་བ་"to connect, attach, link together"
| agent (subject): agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier - that which the conjunction is with: associative particle དང་ |
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originative
These are the transitive verbs of separation.; སྐྱོབ་པ་ "to protect"
| agent (subject): agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier: originative particle |
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agentive directed
intransitive dynamic directed
intentional verbs of perception
Intentional verbs of perception can have agentive directed grammar. ལྟ་བ་ (to look) is mostly seen with agentive directed grammar. Other intentional verbs of perception e.g.ཉན་པ་ "to listen" can be seen with either agentive transitive or agentive directed grammar.
Note: These are classified as ཐ་དད་པ་ in Tibetan grammar. See Grammar Terms
| agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier(direction): la don |
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verbs expressing "to make effort, to engage in"
རྩོལ་བ་ "to endeavor, to exert", འབད་པ་ "to make effort"
Note: These are classified as ཐ་དད་པ་ in Tibetan grammar. See Grammar Terms
| agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier - what the effort is towards: la don |
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verbs of comparison / competition
Verbs of comparison when expressing "to rival" e.g., འགྲན་པ་ "to rival, to challenge, compete with" have agentive directed grammar.
Note: For the time being this usage of these verbs is treated as being similar to the grammar of "verbs expressing 'to make effort, to engage in'" since their qualifier, the direction of the action is not directly affected in the way it is in case of "verbs of benefit or harm" and "surface contact verbs". On the other hand when taking in to account the agentive transitive - associative grammar that theses verbs display when expressing "to check and verify, to compare two things" (see below) it may also be argued that they are rather agentive directed.
| agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier - that what is challenged, competed with: la don |
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Note: Since the verbs of comparison display two types of grammar they have a separate category of their own within the main section "Classification of Verbs according to Semantic and Syntactic Groups" below. They are not together with "Agentive Directed Verbs" (with which they share grammar with), but come after "Verbs of Interrelation" (the second type of verbs they share grammar with).
indirect ditransitive
verbs of benefit or harm
E.g., གནོས་པ་ "to harm", ཕན་པ་ "to benefit"
Verbs of benefit or harm and hindrance have an agent (subject) with the agentive particle and a recipient (indirect object / direction) with a la don. They are here called indirect ditransitive because an action is passing over to a recipient. That which is passed over (the benefit or harm) is not stated as the theme but is lexicalized in the verb (inherent within the meaning of the verb) The recipient receives this benefit or harm and can not be the theme..
| agent[8](subject): agentive particle, recipient (indirect object / direction): la don |
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stative directed
The verb ཁྱབ་པ་ "to pervade" is in Tibetan itself classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ while it is transitive in English.
With the verb ཁྱབ་པ་ "to pervade, permeate, be present throughout" the participant "that pervades" is mostly marked with the agentive particle and the object or space that is pervaded marked with the la don. "That which is pervaded" is considering to be a qualifier in here .
The verb can also occur with "that what pervades" in ming tsam.
| agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier - that what is pervaded: la don |
| སེམས་ཉིད་རང་བྱུང་གི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱིས་འཁོར་འདས་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ་ཀྱང་། |
| essence of mind self arisen wisdom samsara nirvana all pervade even |
| even though the self arisen wisdom of the essence of mind pervades all of samsara and nirvana ... |
directed grammar with transitive verbs
verbs of mental activity
verbs of mental activity like དཔྱོད་པ་ when it means "to examine", སེམས་པ་ when it means "to contemplate"
When an agent (subject) is actively engaging in the "object of interest" verbs of mental activity can have the direction of their investigation marked with the la don instead of having a theme in ming tsam. This difference in grammar comes from the difference between "[just] thinking something" and "[directly] investigating something". This could be interpreted either as a case where the theme is in marked with a la don or as being similar to the grammar of intentional verbs of perception like ལྟ་བ་ "to look".
For a further explanation that looks into how particles are used in regard to semantic categories and the action of verbs (e.g. if is directed or not), see: Verbs and Particles - Notes
| agent (subject): agentive particle, theme or qualifier - direction of attention: la don |
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verbs with referential la don
Some verbs can come with a referential la don ལ་. E.g.,འཛིན་པ་ when it means "to apprehend (something as something)" can have that which a statement is made about marked with (a referential) la don ལ་. and the qualifier of identity and equivalence marked with the la don ཏུ་སུ་ etc.. This could be interpreted either as a case where the theme is in marked with the la don or a case where the grammar is similar to that of intentional verbs of perception like ལྟ་བ་ "to look" which has direction of the attention plus a qualifier.
For a further explanation that looks into how particles are used in regard to semantic categories and the action of verbs (e.g. if is directed or not), see: Verbs and Particles - Notes
| agent (subject): agentive particle, theme / direction - what is apprehended: ལ་ , qualifier of identity: སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ |
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Agentive Transitive and ming tsam Intransitive Verbs with Same Type of Qualifier
Within the agentive transitive and ming tsam intransitive verbs there are transitive and intransitive verbs that use the same case marking particles with their particular qualifier. These groups often contain semantic pairs of transitive and intransitive counterparts. (See below: "2.4 semantic pairs or groups")
The following groups of transitive and intransitive verbs can be distinguished based on different case marking particles used for their qualifiers:
| la don | transitive / intransitive - qualifier with the la don particle |
| agentive | transitive / intransitive - qualifier with the agentive particle |
| associative[9] | transitive / intransitive - qualifier with the associative particle |
| originative | transitive / intransitive - qualifier with the originative particle |
E.g.:
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| agentive transitive qualifier with the associative particle དང་ |
ming tsam intransitive qualifier with the associative particle དང་ |
| སྦྲེལ་བ་ ཐ་དད་པ་ | འབྲེལ་བ་ ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ |
| འཕགས་པའི་བཞེད་པ་དང་སྦྲེལ་བ། | འབྲས་བུ་དང་ནི་འབྲེལ་བའི་རྒྱུ། |
| noble wish connect | result connected cause |
| connected with the noble wish | the cause which is connected to the result |
Semantic Pairs or Groups
In Tibetan there are a number of cases where the general meaning of an action can be found to be expressed by different verbs (of a semantic pair or group) belonging to different syntactic categories, with each expressing a more particular aspect of that general meaning. E.g.:
E.g.:
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| agentive transitive qualifier with the agentive particle |
ming tsam intransitive dynamic non-volitional qualifier with the agentive particle |
ming tsam intransitive stative qualifier with the agentive particle |
| འགེངས་པ་ ཐ་དད་པ་ | ཁེང་བ་ ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ | གང་བ་ ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ |
| "to fill up with" the action of doing so |
"to fill with" the process of becoming full |
"to be full" the result of the process |
| བུམ་པ་ཆུས་བཀང་བ། | ཁང་པའི་ནང་དུ་ཆུས་ཁེངས་སོང་། | བུམ་པ་ཆུས་གང་བ། |
| vase water filled | house inside water filled (past auxiliary) | vase water full |
| The vase was filled with water [by someone]. | The inside of the house filled up with water. (an agent can not be stated) |
The vase is full of water. |
verb pair examples:
| intransitive | transitive | ||
| སྐྱེ་ | to be born, to arise | སྐྱེད | to give birth to, to produce |
| འཁུམ་ | to shrink back, to shrivel | སྐུམ་ | to draw back, to contract |
| འཁོར་ | to turn, to rotate | སྐོར་ | to turn [something], to rotate [something] |
| འགྱུར་ | to change, to become, be changed | སྒྱུར་ | to change, to transform, to alter, to correct |
| འགྲུབ་ | to be accomplished, to be produced | སྒྲུབ་ | to accomplish |
| ཆག་ | break, to be broken | གཅོག་ | to break |
| འཕེལ་ | to increase, to improve, to multiply | སྤེལ་ | cause to increase, to develop, to propagate |
| འབྲལ་ | to be separated, to be parted from | ཕྲལ་ | to separate, to part with |
| ཞུ་ | to melt | བཞུ་ | to melt |
Verbs which Change Their Meaning with Different Syntaxes
See: "verbs with multiple meanings occurring with different syntax"
Change of the Meaning with Different Particles
Some verbs change their meaning when a different particle is used for the same participant.
E.g., སེམས་པ་ can mean "to think" when the theme (object) is in ming tsam or "to contemplate" when the theme (or direction see above)[10] is marked with the la don ལ་.
- (Note: If the theme is a whole clause, the la don སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are used. See:"la don—Verbal Clause as Theme")
སེམས་པ་ the theme in ming tsam: "to think"
| དབེན་གནས་ཀྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་བསམས་ནས་ |
| solitary place good qualities thinking |
| thinking of the good qualities of solitary places... |
སེམས་པ་ the theme marked with the la don: "to contemplate, to think about"
| གསུམ་པ་རྙེད་དཀའི་དཔེ་ལ་བསམ་པ་ནི་ |
| third find difficult example contemplate |
| the third: to contemplate about the example of the difficulty of finding [a precious human birth] |
Change of the Meaning when Used as an Auxiliary Verb
Verbs often lose their original meaning partially or completely when used as auxiliary verb. (For example there is no "going" going on in "I'm going to remain unmoving.".)
E.g., in Tibetan the verb ཟིན་པ་ means "to be grasped, to be taken hold of, to be captured" and "to learn by heart, to memorize". When uses as auxiliary verb it expresses the completion of an action.
Some verbs also have a different meaning when used as modal auxiliary verb.[11] E.g., ཆོག་པ་ either "allowed, permitted" as a modal auxiliary verb or "to be sufficient" as verb on its own, (see "Verbs of Evaluation).
When meaning "allowed, permitted" ཆོག་པ་ comes as a modal auxiliary verb right after the verb.
| བསམ་འཆར་བཤད་ཆོག |
| opinion express allowed |
| allowed to express [ones] opinion |
When meaning "to be sufficient" then comes after that which 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 Semantic and Syntactic Groups
Note:
A verb or a semantice group of verbs can have the grammar of two or more syntactic groups.
There are two main reason for this. Both are in relation to the main function of the particles that is of concern here, to show what kind of relation a participant of a clause has to the verb of the clause.
1.) There are overlaps between the functions of different particles. This comes from the fact that some of the Tibetan particles can mark a wide range of different type of participants and if there are two or more particles that can express the same or a similar relation between participant and verb then there is the possibility that the verb is seen with those different particles. E.g. དང་and ལས་ can mark the qualifier of "disjunctive verbs" which leads to the fact that "disjunctive verbs" are ming tsam intransitive associative and ming tsam intransitive originative.
2.) If a verb can have different semantic meanings like སེམས་པ་ "to think" or "to contemplate" (see above) it can have its participants marked with different particles in regard to those different meanings since the participants are of different types.
Note:
Verbs that belong to semantic groups with particular type of qualifiers which are marked with either the agentive particle (གིས་etc.), the originative particles (ལས་, ནས་) , or the associative particle (དང་) and those groups where potentially agentive transitive and ming tsam intransitive verbs come with the same type of qualifier are placed in separate groups (see below).
The first section below will cover those ming tsam intransitive verbs verbs (including the linking verb) that do not have any particular qualifier or have their qualifier marked with the la don, which means that the intransitive verbs without qualifier and with la don for their qualifier are taken together under one heading.
One reason[12] for this is the way "location" is viewed here [note - link void]. The theme of a "change of state verb" and "state of being verb" is a theme in refernce to a location in the same way the theme of a "verb of motion" and "verb of living" is a theme in refernce to a location. The "location" of "change of state" and "state of being" verbs is the state the theme changes to or the state (lexicalized in the verb) it "remains" in.
In this context it needs to be noted that there is a difference between the "location" of three semantic core arguments agent, theme and location and a generic location where an action takes place. [see note - link void] E.g., in "In Berlin, she went to his apartment." "she" is theme and "his apartment" is location whereas "in Berlin" is an adverbial sentence qualifier of place.
Another point to notice is question of the "status" of origin. Even though any motion or change of state originates from somewhere, the qualifier of origin is not included as a core argument [note link void]. Which means that for instance "verbs of motion" are classified as "ming tsam intransitive - dynamic directed" but not as "ming tsam intransitive - dynamic directed / originative". An originative particle is only used to categorize a group of verbs as "intransitive or transitive - originative" when it comes with an unique semantic group, e.g., like the "verbs of separation".
Intransitive Verbs Without Qualifier and with la don for Their Qualifier
category: ming tsam intransitive
Note:see above
Linking Verb, གཏན་འཁེལ་བའི་ཚིག་ "Word of Certainty"
category: ming tsam intransitive - stative copula
| theme (subject): ming tsam, complement[13]: ming tsam, strict "theme - complement" word order |
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| བུམ་པ་འདི་དམར་པོ་ཡིན། |
| vase this red is |
| This vase is red. |
| དམར་པོ་ནི་ཁ་དོག་ཡིན། |
| red colour is |
| Red is [a] colour. |
| རྒྱུ་ནི་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡིན། རྐྱེན་ནི་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་ཡིན། |
| cause bliss gone essence is condition virtuous friend is |
| The cause is the sugathagarbha, the condition is the virtuous friend. |
| དགྲ་བོ་དེ་ཉིད་བཟོད་པ་དེ་ཡི་རྒྱུ་ཡིན་ན། |
| enemy that "very" patience that cause is if |
| If that enemy is the cause of that very patience... |
See also: A ཡིན་ with partially omitted complement
State of Being Verbs and Adjectives
| theme (subject): ming tsam |
State of Being Verbs
category: ming tsam intransitive - stative non-volitional
These are verbs that express a non-controllable state of being.
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| theme: ming tsam |
| སེམས་ངལ་བ། |
| mind tired |
| mind is tired |
Adjectives
category: ming tsam intransitive - stative non-volitional
Adjectives can function like stative verbs in the way that they are used like verbs at the end of a clause.
When adjectives are used in this way they lose their second syllable. E.g.:
ངན་ from "ངན་པ་ "bad, inferior" and བཟང་ from བཟང་པོ་ "excellent, good"
| theme: ming tsam |
| མི་ང་རང་ངན་ཏེ་བླ་མ་བཟང་། |
| person myself bad lama good |
| Even though I[' m] bad, [my] Lama [is] good.[14] |
Non-Volitional Event Verbs
category: ming tsam intransitive - dynamic non-volitional
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| theme: ming tsam |
| བྱིའུ་ཤི། |
| small bird died |
| The small bird died. |
| ཉི་མ་ཤར། |
| sun arose |
| The sun arose. |
| མེ་ཏོག་འཆར། |
| flower blossom (arise) |
| The flower blossoms. |
Intransitive Verbs: of Motion, Living, Existence, Possession, Necessity, Attitude, Dependence
| theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: la don |
Verbs of Motion
category: ming tsam intransitive - dynamic directed
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| theme: ming tsam; qualifier-direction, destination: la don; qualifier-origin: originative |
| ཁོ་ལྷ་སར་འགྲོ། |
| he Lhasa go |
| He goes to Lhasa. |
| གྲོངས་ཁྱེར་འདིར་མགྲོན་ཁང་ཞིག་ལ་འགྲོ་དགོས་སོ། ། |
| city this guest house a go need |
| In this city [you] need to go to a guest house. |
| ལམ་དུ་འཇུག་ |
| path enter |
| setting out on the path, to embark upon the path |
Verbs of Living
category: ming tsam intransitive - stative located
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| theme: ming tsam; qualifier-place of abiding: la don |
| གནས་ངེས་ཅན་ཞིག་ལ་སྡོད་དགོས། |
| place certain a stay need |
| [One] needs to stay at a certain place. |
| ཁོ་ཚོ་གདན་ལ་འདུག་སྟེ་གཏམ་ཤོད་པ། |
| they seat stay talk speak, talk |
| They talk while sitting on a seat. |
| ཁོ་ཡུན་རིང་དུ་གནས་བདེ་བར་དགའ་སྐྱིད་དུ་གནས་སོ། ། |
| he time long place comfort joy happy stay |
| He happily stayed for a long time at a comfortable place. |
| ད་ལྟའི་བར་གནས་པ། |
| today remain |
| remaining until today |
Verbs of Existence and Possession
Verbs of Existence
category: ming tsam intransitive - stative located
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| theme: ming tsam; qualifier-place of existence: la don |
| བོད་ལ་གཡག་ཡོད། |
| Tibet bos grunniens exist |
| There are yaks in Tibet. |
| མོ་གཤམ་གྱི་བུ་མེད། |
| barren women son not exist |
| The barren women’s son does not exist. |
| བོད་ལ་རིལ་མ་ཡོད། |
| Tibet dung exist |
| There is dung in Tibet. |
| འགག་པ་མེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ནི་འདི་ལ་འགག་པ་ཡོད་པ་མ་ཡིན་པའོ། |
| obstructed not exist called this obstruct exist not is |
| [This] what is called unobstructed is: [It] is not the existence of [an] obstruction for this. |
| རི་བོང་གི་རྭ་ལ་སོགས་པ་མེད་པ་དག་ |
| rabbit horn and so on not exist (plural)' |
| non-existing [things like] rabbit’s horn and so on |
| སྣམ་བུ་གྲུབ་ཅིང་ཡོད་པའི་རྐྱེན་རྒྱུ་སྤུན་དག་ཡིན་ནོ།། |
| woolen cloth came into and exists condition threads (plural) is |
| The condition for woolen cloth to have come into existence and to exist are threads. |
| བདེན་པར་ཡོད་པ་ |
| truly existent |
| truly existent |
| རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པ |
| naturally / inherently existent |
| inherently existent |
Verbs of Possession
category: ming tsam intransitive - stative located
Note: The origin of the way possession is expressed comes from "'something' existing at a 'location'" with the location processed as the owner. See Verbs and Particles - Notes
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| theme-what is owned: ming tsam; qualifier-possessor ("to whom it exist"): la don |
| བདག་ལ་གཡག་ཡོད། |
| I bos grunniens have |
| I have yaks. |
| སྐུ་ལ་བསྙུང་གཞི་མི་མངའ། |
| body illness snot have |
| not ill |
| རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཀྱི་བདག་དབང་མི་དམངས་ལ་བདག་པ། |
| country control people belong |
| The power of the country belongs to (is hold by) the people. |
Verbs of Necessity
category: ming tsam intransitive - stative located
See:stative located verbs of necessity above
In Tibetan, the theme of the verb དགོས་པ་ "to need" is that what is needed, it "performs" the action "to be needed", (the "water" in the example below). What or whom it is needed for is the qualifier (the "sprouts"). This is different to how it is understood in English. See: Verbs and Particles - Notes on "need" and theme, subject and dative subject.
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| qualifier-that which needs: la don; theme-that what is needed: ming tsam |
| མྱུ་གུ་ལ་ཆུ་དགོས། |
| sprouts water need |
| Sprouts need water. |
| དེའང་བོད་སྐད་ལ་མི་མཁོ་བའི་དབྱངས་གསལ་རྣམས་དོར། |
| in this regard Tibetan language not need vowel consonant (plural) discarded |
| Regarding this, the vowels and consonants which were not needed for the Tibetan language were discarded. |
Attitude Verbs
category: ming tsam intransitive - stative affective
Note: Some verbs which are (more or less) voluntary e.g.like གུས་པ་ "to have respect" could also be considered to be stative directed.
verbs expressing "to be afraid" can also have their qualifier with the agentive particle; see below
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| theme: ming tsam; qualifier-that which the attitude is towards: la don ( ལ་ ) |
- Note: ལ་ is the most common la don used.
| དཔའ་བོ་ལ་གུས་པ་ |
| hero respect |
| respect towards the hero |
| བྱས་ཉེས་བྱུང་བ་ལ་སྐྱོ། |
| deed wrong occur sad |
| sad about the occurrence of wrong deeds |
| མདུན་དུ་སྤྱང་ཀིར་སྐྲག་པ་དང༌། རྒྱབ་ཏུ་སྟག་ལ་སྐྲག་པ། |
| front wolf afraid and behind tiger afraid |
| In the front afraid of the wolf, in back afraid of the tiger. |
| སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་པ་ལ་དད་པ་ |
| Buddha teachings faith |
| faith in teachings of the Buddha |
| ལུག་རྫི་ལུག་ལ་བྱམས། |
| shepherd sheep kind, loving |
| The shepherd is loving to the sheep. |
With verbs expressing "to be afraid" the agentive particle can mark that which one is afraid of.
| theme: ming tsam; qualifier-that what on is afraid of, the cause, reason to be afraid: agentive particle |
| ཁྱི་རྡོ་དེ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་འཇིགས། |
| dog stone that very fear |
| The dog [just] fears that stone itself. |
| སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཆེན་པོས་སྐྲག་པ་དག་གིས་ |
| suffering great fear (plural)' |
| because of being afraid of great suffering... |
| ཉོན་མོངས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དག་གིས་འཇིགས་པ་མེད། |
| kleshas suffering (plural) fear not have |
| not having [any] fear towards kleshas and suffering |
Verbs of Dependence
category: ming tsam intransitive - stative directed
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| theme: ming tsam qualifier—what it is depended upon: la don ( ལ་ ) |
- Note: ལ་ is the most common la don used.
| འབྲས་བུ་རྒྱུ་དང་རྐྱེན་ལ་བརྟེན་ནོ། ། |
| result cause and conditions depend |
| Results depend on causes and conditions. |
| ཡོན་ཏན་ཆེ་ཆུང་སྦྱང་བརྩོན་ལ་རག་ལས་པ། |
| good quality extent effort depend |
| The extent of good qualities depends on effort. |
| ཕར་ཕྱོགས་ལ་བལྟོས་ནས་ཚུར་ཕྱོགས་གྲུབ། |
| other side depend this side exists, comes about |
| Depending on the other side this side came into existence (exists). |
Transitive Verbs
category: agentive transitive
This section covers those agentive transitive verbs that do not belong to a semantic group that uses a particular type of qualifier.
Verbs that belong to semantic groups with particular type of qualifiers which are marked with either the agentive particle (གིས་etc.), the originative particles (ལས་, ནས་) , or the associative particle (དང་) and those groups where potentially agentive transitive and ming tsam intransitive verbs come with the same type of qualifier are placed in separate groups (see below).
Volitional Action Verbs, Unintentional Verbs of Perception, Verbs of Cognition, "Fruitional" Verbs
| agent(subject): agentive particle, theme(object): ming tsam |
Volitional Action Verbs
category: agentive transitive effective
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| agent (subject): agentive particle; theme (object): ming tsam |
| ཁོ་བོས་ཇ་འཐུང་གིན་ཡོད། |
| myself tea drink (present, continuous tense auxiliary) |
| I'm drinking tea. |
Unintentional Verbs of Perception
category: agentive transitive fruitional
Note: They are transitive verbs which are ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified in Tibetan. See Grammar Terms
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| agent-perceiver (subject): agentive particle; theme (object): ming tsam |
| མདུན་ལམ་གསལ་པོར་མཐོང་བ། |
| front way clearly see |
| to see clearly the way in front |
- The agent (subject) is omitted, the theme (object) མདུན་ལམ་ is in ming tsam.
Verbs of Cognition
category: agentive transitive fruitional
Note: They are transitive verbs which are ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified in Tibetan. See Grammar Terms
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| agent (subject): agentive particle; theme (object): ming tsam |
| ཁོས་ཧ་མ་གོ |
| he not understand |
| He doesn’t understand. |
- The agent (subject) ཁོ་ is marked by the agentive particle.
"Fruitional" Transitive Verbs
category: agentive transitive fruitional
Note: They are transitive verbs which are ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified in Tibetan. See Grammar Terms
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| agent (subject): agentive particle; theme (object): ming tsam |
| བདུད་རྩི་ལྟ་བུའི་ཆོས་ཤིག་བདག་གིས་རྙེད། |
| nectar like Dharma a/one I found |
| I have found this nectar like Dharma. |
- 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. |
[ditr. void]
Surface Contact Verbs
[transf. void]
category: agentive ditransitive
Ditransitive verbs are verbs where the agent's action upon the theme (object) is directed towards a recipient (indirect object). These are verbs expressing any transfer of goods, information or action (like སྦྱིན་པ་ "to give") or any verb expressing to produce something for somebody. 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.".
| agent (subject): agentive particle, theme (object): ming tsam, recipient (indirect object)[17]: la don |
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| མི་གཞན་ཞིག་གིས་རང་ལ་བདེ་སྐྱིད་ཀྱི་འཚོ་བ་སྦྱིན་མི་ཡོང༌། |
| person other a self well-being sustenance give not come |
| We can not be given the sustenance of well-being by another person. |
[com. void]
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Agentive Directed Verbs
category: agentive directed
| agent (subject): agentive particle, direction of the action: la don |
Intentional Verbs of Perception
category: agentive directed - intransitive dynamic directed
Some intentional verbs of perception e.g. like ལྟ་བ་ "to look" have or can have agentive directed grammar. They have the direction of their attention marked with a la don. Their grammar can be irregular.
ལྟ་བ་ is mostly seen with agentive directed grammar. Other intentional verbs of perception (e.g.ཉན་པ་ "to listen") can be seen with either agentive transitive or agentive directed grammar. See Verbs and Particles - Notes.
Note: They are ཐ་དད་པ་ classified in Tibetan (but they do not have a theme in ming tsam. See Grammar Terms).
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| agent (subject): agentive particle; qualifier - direction: la don |
| དཔེ་དེབ་ལ་བལྟ་བ། |
| book look |
| [one] will look at (or study) the books |
Examples for irregular grammar.
Three examples of different grammar with སྣོམ་པ་ "to smell".
| ཇ་ཞིམ་པོའི་དྲི་ལ་སྣོམས། |
| tea fragrant scent smell! |
| Smell the scent of fragrant / delicious tea! |
In this case "what is smelled / sniffed" is marked by the la don (དྲི་ལ་) making it into a direction (qualifier).
In the next two cases "what is smelled" (the theme) is not marked by a la don but in ming tsam and in the second sentence the "nose", the "place of smelling" is marked by the la don (སྣར་) .
| དྲི་མ་སྣོམ། |
| scent smell |
| to smell the scent |
| སྤོས་ཀྱི་དྲི་ཞིམ་སྣར་བསྣམས། |
| fragrance scent nice nose smelled |
| [He] smelled / sniffed the nice scent of the fragrance in his nose. |
Four examples of different grammar with for རེག་པ་ "to touch".
In the first two sentences that which is touching is marked by the agentive particle (ལག་པས་).
| ཆགས་སེམས་ཀྱིས་བུད་མེད་ཀྱི་ཤ་རྗེན་པ་ལ་རེག |
| attachment mind women flesh naked touch |
| to touch a naked women with desire |
| ལག་པས་རེག་ནས་འཇམ་རྩུབ་ཚོར། |
| hand touched soft rough felt |
| The hand touched and the texture (soft-rough) was felt. |
In the next two sentences that which is touching is not marked by the agentive particle (ཤིང་གི་ཡལ་ག་ and རྐང་པ་) but is in ming tsam. The place of touching is marked by the la don as before. (For changes in grammar between voluntary and involuntary usage of the same verb see "Verbs and Particles - Notes".
| ཤིང་གི་ཡལ་ག་མགོ་བོར་རེག |
| tree branch head touched |
| The tree branch touched the head. |
| རྐང་པ་སར་མ་རེག |
| feet ground not touched |
| The feet did not touch the ground. |
Verbs that Express "to Make Effort, to Engage In"
category: agentive directed - indirect transitive dynamic directed
"Verbs expressing 'to make effort, to engage in'" are categorized as "indirect transitive" (and are in Tibetan categorized ཐ་དད་པ་ - if they are transitive or not is still somewhat under discussion). These verbs have their theme, "the effort" etc. lexicalized in the verb and do not have a theme (object) as a participant [18] (in ming tsam). They do have a direction of the action, "what the effort is toward" marked by la don.[19]
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| 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! |
| སྒོ་གསུམ་གྱིས་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འགྲུས་པར་མཛད། |
| door three bodhisattva conduct persevere to make |
| (One) will persevere in the bodhisattva conduct through body, speech and mind. |
- Note: བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སྤྱོད་པ་ is short for བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་
| ལས་དོན་ལ་རྩོལ་བ། |
| undertaking to endeavor |
| to endeavor in the undertaking |
| བྱེད་སྟངས་ནོར་ན་ལས་ལ་བརྩལ་ཀྱང་མི་འགྲུབ། |
| doing way of mistaken if work effort even not accomplished |
| If the way of doing is mistaken, then even though making effort in the work, it will not be accomplished. |
Verbs of Pervasion
category: agentive directed - stative directed and ming tsam intransitive directed or located
These verbs are similar to the verbs of presence with the exception that the effected participant is not in ming tsam. That what is pervaded is marked by la don while that what pervades is marked by either the agentive particle or is in ming tsam.
The verb ཁྱབ་པ་ means "to pervade, permeate, be present throughout" and "it logically pervades", "it follows" when used in logical arguments and debate. Its grammar is irregular.
| ཁྱབ་པ་ | agentive directed | ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ | |
| to pervade, permeate | |||
| ཁྱབ་པ། | ཁྱབ་པ། | ཁྱབ་པ། | |
| past | pres. | fut. | imp. |
| agent (subject): agentive particle; qualifier - direction, space: la don |
| སེམས་ཉིད་རང་བྱུང་གི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱིས་འཁོར་འདས་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ་ཀྱང་། |
| mind itself self arisen wisdom samsara nirvana all pervade even |
| even though the self arisen primordial wisdom [of] the essence of mind, pervades all of samsara and nirvana ... |
| འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམས་ཀྱི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཏིལ་འབྲུ་ལ་མར་གྱིས་ཁྱབ་པ་བཞིན་དུ་གནས་སོ།། |
| world realm sentient being all Tathagata essence sesame seed oil pervade like abide |
| Buddha nature (essence of the Tathagata) abides in all sentient beings of the realms of the world like oil is throughout present within sesame seeds. |
Example with ming tsam intransitive directed or located grammar
| theme: ming tsam; qualifier: la don |
| ཉི་མའི་འོད་ཟེར་ཕྱོགས་མཚམས་ཀུན་ཏུ་ཁྱབ་པ། |
| sun light ray directions[20] all pervade |
| The sun's ray pervade (shone / shine) in all directions (everywhere). |
Example of the debate style usage
| "that what logical follows" (or is claimed to do so): agentive particle |
| མི་ཡིན་ན་སེམས་ཅན་ཡིན་པས་ཁྱབ། |
| human be if sentient being be follows (logically pervades) |
| If [a phenomena] is a human being it follows that [that phenomena] is a sentient being. |
A proposed grammatical structure for this debate style that is in accordance with the grammar of this verb:
With the example above:
"Given the subject of a phenomena, if (ན་) [that phenomena (omitted)] is a human being, it follows (ཁྱབ་) that [that phenomena (omitted - potentially in ming tsam or marked by la don)] is a sentient being."
In general:
"Given the subject of a phenomena, if antecedent—[that phenomena (omitted)] meets the condition (expressed by a clause ending in the root of verb + ན་)—is true, then the consequent logically follows—[that phenomena (omitted — potentially in ming tsam or marked by la don)] is logically pervaded (ཁྱབ་) (which means it has the characteristic expressed) by the proposed consequence."
In short: first protasis—"If (ན་) antecedent is true"—then apodosis—consequent (ཀྱིས་ with an omitted theme) logically follows (ཁྱབ་)."
Verbs of Benefit or Harm and Hindrance
category: agentive directed - indirect ditransitive
Verbs of benefit or harm and hindrance have an agent (subject) marked with agentive particle and a recipient (indirect object / direction) with la don. The action is passing over to a recipient. That what is passed over, the benefit or harm, is not stated as the theme but is lexicalized in the verb (inherent within the meaning of the verb).
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| 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. |
| གྲུབ་མཐའ་ལ་བཀག |
| tenet refuted |
| The philosophical tenet was refuted. |
| སྨན་གྱིས་ནད་ལ་ཕན། |
| medicine illness to benefit |
| The medicine helps against the illness. / The medicine helped [to treat] the illness. |
Verbs Expressing Mental Activity with Directed Grammar
category: agentive directed - directed grammar with transitive verbs
Verbs expressing mental activity like སེམས་པ་ "to think" and སྒོམ་པ་ "to meditate, to cultivate" can have their theme (object) or direction (qualifier) market with the la don (ལ་). See: verbs of mental activity. If the theme (object) is a whole clause then the la don སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are used. See: la don - Verbal Clause as the Theme of a Verb
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| agent (subject): agentive particle; theme / direction (object / qualifier) - direction of attention: la don |
| གསུམ་པ་རྙེད་དཀའི་དཔེ་ལ་བསམ་པ་ནི་ |
| third find difficult example contemplate |
| the third: to contemplate about the example of the difficulty to find [a precious human birth] |
| རྒྱུ་ལ་དཔྱོད་པ་ |
| cause examine |
| to examine the cause |
Verbs That Can Take a Referential ལ་ for Their Theme
verbs with qualifier of identity or equivalence
category: agentive directed - directed grammar with transitive verbs
With transitive verbs that come with a qualifier of identity or equivalence, the theme (object) is often marked with the la don ལ་ and the qualifier of identity or equivalence is marked with the la don སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་.
| 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.
Note on དབྱེ་བ་
category: agentive directed - directed grammar with transitive verbs
་་་་ལ་དབྱེ་ན། ་་་་ "... when [this] is divided [into subdivision] ..." occurs often at the beginning of an enumeration, explanation, etc..
Unusual is (1.) that this is the future form of the verb since in most cases a verb before a conditional ན་ is in the past tense of that verb and (2.) that it differs from the grammar of the present tense འབྱེད་པ་ "to divide" which has a theme, that which is divided, in ming tsam.[21]
| འབྱེད་པ་ | agentive transitive agentive directed |
ཐ་དད་པ་ | |
| to separate, divide, classify; to distinguish, differentiate; to open, uncover | |||
| ཕྱེ་བ། | འབྱེད་པ། | དབྱེ་བ། | ཕྱེས། |
| past | pres. | fut. | imp. |
| in the case of this usage: agent (subject): agentive particle; theme or direction: referential la don ལ་ |
| བེམ་པོ་ལ་དབྱེ་ན། |
| inanimate matter divide |
| if [the category of] material phenomenas is divided ... |
Verbs of Absence and Presence
| theme: ming tsam, qualifier - that what is absent or "present": agentive particle |
Verbs of Absence
category: ming tsam intransitive - agentive
Note: There are no intransitive dynamic or transitive forms of the verbs of absence (with the qualifier marked by the agentive particle). See note below.
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| theme - that which is "missing of something": ming tsam; qualifier - what is absent, lacking, "that what is empty of": agentive particle |
| མི་ཤུགས་ཀྱིས་མི་ཕོང་བ། |
| person strength not lack |
| the person doesn’t lack strength |
| བདག་གིར་ལྟ་བའི་མི་མཐུན་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱིས་སྟོང་པ། |
| mine view not concordant side empty, free |
| free from the non-concordant side of the view of "mine" |
| ལུང་པ་ཆུས་སྟོང་པ། |
| land water empty |
| the land is empty of water |
| ནོར་འཁྲུལ་གྱིས་དབེན་པ། |
| mistake devoid |
| devoid of mistakes |
| དངོས་པོ་ཐམས་ཅད་ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་སྟོང་པའི་ཕྱིར། |
| things all essential nature empty because |
| Because all things are empty of an essential nature... |
| མཚན་མའི་དྲི་མས་དབེན་ལ་ |
| characteristic stains devoid |
| devoid of the stains of characteristics |
A dynamic or transitive form of the verbs of absence would be verbs that express the removal of something. However, the dynamic transitive verbs that express "to remove", "purify", ot "clear away" conform to regular transitive grammar. Similarly, dynamic intransitive verbs that express something "becoming exhausted", "vanishing", or "disappearing" conform to regular intransitive grammar.
For instance དག་པ་ "to be cleansed, to be purified" is the past tense of the verb འདག་པ་ "to become clean, to become purified". In the past tense formདག་པ་ behaves like a verb of absence with "that which is removed" being marked by the agentive particle, while the present and future tense of འདག་པ་ take "that which is to be removed" in ming tsam, with the instrument marked with the agentive particle.
Below are two examples of a resultant state with དག་པ་ "to be purified" and བྲལ་བ་ "to be free of" (which is a disjunctive verb[22]) coming with དྲི་མ་ "stains" - "that which is free of" - marked with the agentive particle (དྲི་མས་).
In contrast to this the next two examples further below are with the present or future tense of འདག་པ་ "to become purified, will become purified" with "that which is going to be purified" occurring in ming tsam, and the instrument being marked with the agentive particle.
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| examples with: theme - which is "devoid of something": ming tsam; qualifier - what is absent: agentive particle |
| སེམས་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་དྲི་མས་རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་དག་པའི་ཕྱིར་ན་ |
| mind essence stain naturally pure because |
| because the essence of mind is inherently pure ..... |
| བློ་བུར་ དྲི་མས་བྲལ་བའི་འོག་མིན་ནི། |
| adventitious stain free akanishtha |
| the Akanishtha which is free of adventitious stains |
| examples with: theme - that what is affected (is going to be removed): ming tsam; instrument - that what produces the effect (of removing something): agentive particle |
| རྒྱུད་འདིའི་ཚིག་ཙམ་བཀླགས་པས་ཀྱང་ སྡིག་སྒྲིབ་ ཚབས་ཆེན་པོ་འདག་པ་དང་། |
| tantra this word merely read even negativity obscuration severe great purify and |
| ... having merely read the word of this tantra will purify extremely severe negative deeds and obscuration, .... |
| ལྟུང་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་བཤགས་པ་ཁོ་ནས་འདག་པར་བཤད་པ་ཡིན་ནོ། ། |
| downfall all confession only purify explain is |
| [...this] is the explanation that all downfalls are purified by means of confession alone. |
Verbs of Presence
The term "presence" is used as the counterpart to "absence".
category: ming tsam intransitive - stative agentive [23]
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category: ming tsam intransitive - dynamic agentive
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category: agentive transitive - agentive
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| theme - that which is affected by the presence: ming tsam; qualifier - that which is present or caused to be present: agentive particle |
category: ming tsam intransitive agentive, ming tsam intransitive - stative agentive
| བུམ་པ་ཆུས་ཁང༌། |
| vase water full |
| The vase is full of water. |
| ཟས་ཀྱིས་གྲོད་པ་འགྲངས་དྲགས་ནས་ན་སོང་། |
| food stomach full 'too' ill became |
| having 'over-filled' the stomach, [he] became ill |
| ཡོན་ཏན་གྱིས་ཕྱུག། |
| qualities rich |
| to be rich in qualities |
| ས་གཞི་ཀོ་བས་མི་ཁེབས་ ཀྱང་ ལྷམ་མཐིལ་ཀོ་བས་གཡོགས་ན་ཆོག་ |
| ground four leather no covered even shoe sole leather cover sufficient |
| even if the four continents are not covered with leather if [one] covers the soles of [one's] shoes with leather [it] will be sufficient |
category: ming tsam intransitive agentive, ming tsam intransitive - dynamic agentive
| ཁང་པའི་ནང་དུ་ཆུས་ཁེངས་སོང༌། |
| house inside water filled (past auxiliary) |
| The inside of the house had filled with water. |
category: agentive transitive agentive, agentive transitive - agentive
| བུམ་པ་ཆུས་བཀང༌། |
| vase water fill |
| The vase was filled with water. |
| བང་མཛོད་ནོར་གྱིས་གཏམས། |
| store-house riches fill |
| [They] filled the store room with valuables. |
| གངས་རིས་བསྐོར། |
| snow mountain surrounded |
| surrounded (circled) by snow mountains |
| གངྒཱའི་བྱེ་མ་གྲངས་སྙེད་ཀྱི། སངས་རྒྱས་ཞིང་རྣམས་མི་གང་གིས། རིན་ཆེན་དག་གིས་ཀུན་བཀང་སྟེ། |
| Ganga grain number find Buddha field (plural) person who jewel (plural) all filled |
| if a person would completely fill with jewels, Buddhas fields as many as there are grains of sand in the Ganga ... |
Verbs of Interrelation: Conjunctive and Disjunctive Verbs, Verbs of Agreement, Verbs Expressing Connections of Association and Possession
| qualifier —that which the connection is with: associative དང་ or la don —that which is being disconnected from: associative དང་, la don or originative ལས་ |
Conjunctive Verbs
Note: The la don can commonly be used as a substitute for the associative particle དང་ with verbs that come with the associative particle. For that reason most or all of these verbs can have either associatve or directed grammar.
Note: The verb སྦྱོར་བ་ "to connect, join, (and many more meanings)" comes frequently with la don instead of the associative particle དང་ . This is much rarer with any other verbs of this category.
Note: The associative particle དང་ is frequently omitted.
category: ming tsam intransitive - associative and less common: ming tsam intransitive - directed
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category: agentive transitive - associative and less common: agentive transitive - directed
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| theme: ming tsam; qualifier - what the connection is with: associative particle དང་ or la don |
category: ming tsam intransitive associative
| འབྲས་བུ་དང་ནི་འབྲེལ་བའི་རྒྱུ། |
| result connected cause |
| the cause which is connected to the result |
| གང་ཚེ་མར་མེ་སྐྱེ་བཞིན་པ། །མུན་པ་དང་ནི་ཕྲད་པ་མེད། |
| when lamp arise (auxiliary) darkness meet not exist |
| When there is the arising of a flame, the meeting with darkness does not exist. |
category: agentive transitive associative (If there is a stated agent then it is marked with the agentive particle.)
| འཕགས་པའི་བཞེད་པ་དང་སྦྲེལ་བ། |
| noble wish connect |
| connected with the noble wish |
| ་་་་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་སྐབས་དེ་དང་སྦྱར་ཏེ། |
| termed, called time that applied |
| applied to that time when called... |
category: agentive transitive directed
| ཉེས་ཅན་ཁྲིམས་ལ་སྦྱོར་བ་ |
| wrong doers law connect |
| criminals are brought to the law |
Note: These verbs can also be used without a qualifier. E.g., སྦྱོར་བ་ in the next example comes without a qualifier. In this example "the palms are (simply) joined (together)" but are not "joined with something".
| ཐལ་མོ་སྦྱར་ནས་གུས་འདུད་ཞུ། |
| palm joined respectfully bow request |
| joining the palms [one] requests respectfully |
Disjunctive Verbs
category: ming tsam intransitive - associative and ming tsam intransitive - originative
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| theme: ming tsam; qualifier - that what is disconnected from: associative particle དང་ or originative ལས་ |
| ཁྲིམས་དང་འགལ་བ། |
| law go against |
| to go against the law |
| བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་བསླབ་པ་ལས་འགལ་བར་མི་བྱེད། |
| bodhisattva training contradict not do |
| not to transgress the Bodhisattva's training |
| དེ་ནི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྒྱུ་དང་བཅས་པ་ལས་བྲལ་བར་འདོད་པའི་གློའོ། |
| That beings all suffering cause have free wish mind (from གློ་སྙིང་) |
| That is the mind of wishing that all beings [may be] freed from suffering together with it’s causes. |
| དེ་ལྟ་ན་ཡང་ལྟ་བའི་བྱ་བ་དང་བྲལ་བའི་ལྟ་བ་ནི་ལྟ་བ་མ་ཡིན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ། |
| being that way even look deed separated look look not is (future auxiliary)' |
| Even being that way, the looking which is separated from the act of looking will not be looking (intentional). |
Verbs of "Agreement"
category: ming tsam intransitive - associative and ming tsam intransitive - directed
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| theme: ming tsam; qualifier - that what is in accord with: associative particle དང་ or la don |
ming tsam intransitive - associative
| སྔ་ཚིག་དང་མཐུན་པ། |
| former words in accord with |
| in accordance with the former words |
| བློ་དང་འཚམ་པ་ |
| mind in accord with |
| in accordance with the mind |
| འཁོར་ལོ་བར་མཐའ་གཉིས་ཀའི་ངེས་དོན་དང་ཆ་མཐུན་པ་ |
| wheel middle last both definitive meaning part accord |
| ...[it] is in accordance with the definitive meaning of both, the middle and last [turning of] the wheel [of Dharma]. |
ming tsam intransitive - directed
| ཐེག་པ་གཞེན་ལ་མི་འཚམས་པ་ |
| vehicles other not accord |
| not in accord with other vehicles |
A "simple agreement" without something to be in agreement with and us such without a particle marking what is in agreement.
| ཁ་གཏིང་གཉིས་མཐུན་ |
| words and thoughts two accord |
| with words and thoughts in accord (united) |
| གལ་ཏེ་གཅིག་གམ་སྙམ་ན། མ་ཡིན་ཏེ། མཚན་ཉིད་མི་མཐུན་པའི་ཕྱིར་ཏེ། |
| in case one ? wonder if not is characteristic not in accord because |
| If [one] wonders:"Are [the self and the skandhas] one?" - [they] are not, because [their] characteristics are not in accordance, ... |
Example with the la don ར་ marking a whole clause.
| དེ་དག་ཀུན་ཀྱང་འཁོར་བའི་རྒྱུ་བདག་ཏུ་འཛིན་པ་སྤངས་ནས་ཐར་པ་མྱང་འདས་ཀྱི་གོ་འཕང་བསྒྲུབ་པར་མཐུན་ནོ།། |
| those all samsara cause self grasp discard liberation nirvana state accomplish accord |
| All those are in accord with discarding the cause of samsara, the grasping at [a] self and accomplishing the state of liberation, Nirvana. |
- Note: མྱང་འདས་ is short for མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་, Nirvana.
- Note: མྱང་འདས་ is short for མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་, Nirvana.
Verbs Expressing Connections of Association and Possession
category: ming tsam intransitive - associative and ming tsam intransitive - directed
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Note: འགྲོགས་པ་ is classified as ཐ་དད་པ་ but there are no indications that it is a transitive verb and it is in its grammar more related to "verbs of motion"—a volitional intransitive verb—than to transitive verbs. There is the theme—that what is accompanying someone etc.—in ming tsam and that what is accompanied marked with the associative particle དང་. If there were to be an agent then this agent would cause two things to accompany each other, which does not match the semantic of the verb and the verb is not seen to be used in that way. It seems that it got its ཐ་དད་པ་ status from the fact that there is an action that "passes over" in the way that there is someone who (or something that) is accompanied and from its volitional character.
| ལྷག་མ་དང་བཅས་པ། |
| remainder have, with |
| with remainder |
| དོན་དང་ལྡན་པའི་བྱ་བ། |
| meaning have work, deed |
| work which has a meaning |
| གྲོགས་དང་འགྲོགས་ནས་གཞན་དུ་ཕྱིན། |
| friend accompany other went |
| keeping company with / in company of [his] friends [he] went to other [places] |
Verbs of Comparison
The Verbs of Comparison are in a separate category of their own because they display two types of grammar (in regard to a theme in ming tsam), that of "Agentive Directed Verbs" and that of agentive transitive associative verbs, the "Verbs of Interrelation"
category: agentive transitive associative and agentive directed - intransitive dynamic directed[24]
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category: agentive transitive associative
| agent: agentive particle; theme - that which is compared: ming tsam; qualifier - what it is compared with: associative particle དང་ |
| ཇོ་ནང་ཀུན་སྙིང་གིས་རྒྱ་དཔེ་དང་བསྡུར་ཏེ་ |
| Taranatha Indian book verified |
| Taranatha verified [the translation] against the Indian [text] |
The next example is without qualifier, since only one argument is needed in this expression. Because the verb has a theme in ming tsam it belongs to this grammar category (even with its meaning being rather that of "competing" like in the examples below with agentive directed grammar).
| རིག་པ་འགྲན་པ་ |
| intelligence match |
| to match wits |
category: agentive directed - intransitive dynamic directed
| agent: agentive particle; direction - what is compared against, rivaled: la don |
| ཤིང་སྡོང་ལ་ཡར་འཛེག་པའི་ལུས་རྩལ་དེ་སྤྲ་དང་སྤྲེའུ་ལ་འགྲན་ཐུབ། |
| tree trunk up climb body skill that monkey and monkey rival able |
| that skill of climbing up trees is able to rival [that of] monkeys |
- Note: ལུས་རྩལ་ normally means "physical exercise", but "physical skill" seems more fitting in this context.
- Note: ལུས་རྩལ་ normally means "physical exercise", but "physical skill" seems more fitting in this context.
| སྲིན་བུ་མེ་ཁྱེར་གྱིས་ཉི་མ་ལ་འགྲན། |
| firefly sun rival |
| the firefly challenges the sun |
| མི་སྡར་མས་དཔའ་བོ་ལ་བསྒྲུན་ཕོད་དམ་མི་ཕོད། |
| coward hero match dare not dare |
| Can a coward dare to match a hero? |
Verbs of Separation and Avoidance
| qualifier —that which somthing is separated from: originative ལས་, —unique to verbs of avoidance: originative ནས་, la don or ming tsam |
Verbs of Separation
category: ming tsam intransitive originative
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category: agentive transitive originative
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| theme: ming tsam; qualifier - that which is separated from: originative ལས་ |
ming tsam intransitive originative
| འཁོར་བ་ལས་གྲོལ་བ། |
| samsara liberated |
| liberated from samsara |
| བློ་ཡུལ་ལས་འདས་པ། |
| mind realm pass beyond |
| gone beyond the realm of mind |
| ལམ་ནོར་བ་ལས་ལྡོག་པ། |
| path mistaken turn away |
| to turn away from the mistaken path |
| བཅིངས་པ་རྣམས་ནི་འཆིང་བ་སྣ་ཚོགས་པ་ལས་གྲོལ་ཞིང་ཐར་བར་གྱུར་ཅིག |
| bound ones (plural) fetters all different kinds liberated freed may come |
| ... [and] my all those who are bound [unfree and imprisoned] be freed and liberated of all the different kind of bindings [fetters, shackles and so on],... |
agentive transitive originative
| དགྲ་ལས་སྐྱོབ་པ་ |
| enemy protect |
| protected from the enemy |
Verbs of Avoidance
category: ming tsamintransitive originative / directed
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with originative (ablative) ལས་
| མཚོན་ཆ་ལས་ཟུར་ཅིག |
| weapon avoid "!" |
| Avoid the weapon! |
| ཆུ་འོག་བྲག་རྡོ་ལས་གཡོལ་བ། |
| water under rocks dodge |
| to avert the under water rocks |
with originative (elative) ནས་
| གཞུང་ལམ་ནས་བཟུར་ཏེ་བྲོས་སོང་། |
| main road avoided escaped (past auxiliary) |
| [He] avoided the main road and escaped |
with la don ལ་
| གཞུང་ལམ་ལ་གཡོལ་ནས་ལམ་ལོག་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ། |
| main road keep away derelict path went |
| Keeping away from the main road, [he] went along a derelict path. |
with la don ར་
| ཉེན་ཁར་གཡོལ་ |
| danger avoid |
| to avoid danger |
with ming tsam
Note: This usage is not uncommon and needs grammatically be treated as a compound verb.
| ལམ་བྱོལ་ནས་ཕྱིན་པ། |
| road turn away went |
| Turning off the road [he] went. |
| ལས་འགན་གཡོལ་བ་ |
| responsibility avoid |
| to avoid responsibility |
Verbs of Evaluation and Assertion
| theme—that which is evaluated or asserted: ming tsam |
Note: The "verbs of evaluation and assertion" are separated into the two categories of the "verbs of assertion" and "verbs of evaluation".[25] This is done because of their difference in grammar and is merely a naming convention since verbs of both categories can evaluate and / or assert. The naming was done in regard to the fact that on one side verbs like རིགས་པ་ "to be logically" and ཐལ་བ་ "to follow logically" are often used to make (philosophical) claims and assertions, whereas on the other side verbs like འགྲིག་པ་ "to be fitting" and ཆོག་པ་ "to be sufficient" rather evaluate a situation.
Note: Some of the coming verbs change their meaning with syntax.
Note: See also:"la don / 3.1 Note on classifications for 1.10 verbs with la don / intransitive verbs / 1.1 expressing a 'quality': evaluative".
Verbs of Assertion
category: ming tsam intransitive - stative non-volitional
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| theme: ming tsam; qualifier: la don |
Note: The theme can also be marked by the la don ར་ when the theme is verb or a clause. See: "la don—Verbal clause as theme"
| དེ་ལྟར་བྱེད་མི་རིགས། |
| like that do not appropriate, logical |
| It is not appropriate to do like that. |
| ཉམས་ལེན་གཞན་ཅི་ཡང་མེད་ཀྱང་རུང་བ་ཡིན་པ། |
| practice other whatever not even permissible is |
| Even [if one] has (/does) not any other practice [then this], it is permissible (/ sufficient). |
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| ལས་སུ་རུང་བ། |
| work suitable, permissible |
| acceptable; proper to do |
- Note: ལས་ "work" is the qualifier and the theme is omitted - "['something'] is permissible as action"
| འཇིགས་སུ་རུང་བ། |
| afraid suitable, appropriate |
| [something that is] appropriate to be in fear of, [something] to be afraid of |
clause (theme) marked by la don ར་ - ཡིན་པར་ཐལ་, ཡིན་པར་མི་རིགས་; qualifier marked by ར་ - བྱ་བར་མི་རུང་
| དེ་ལྟར་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བདག་དང༌། གཞན་དང༌། གཉི་གས་བྱས་པར་སྨྲ་བ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དེ་ནི་བདག་དང༌། |
| like that suffering self, I and others and both made say, state (plural) suffering that self and |
| གཞན་དང༌། གཉི་གས་བྱས་པའི་ཕྱིར་བདག་དང་གཞན་དང་གཉི་གའི་བྱ་བ་ཡིན་པར་ཐལ་བར་འགྱུར་ཏེ |
| others and both made because self and others and both deed is to follow (auxiliary)' |
| དེ་ནི་བྱ་བར་མི་རུང་ངོ། །སྡུག་བསྔལ་དེ་ནི་དེ་དག་གི་བྱ་བ་ཡིན་པར་མི་རིགས་སོ། ། ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན། |
| that deed not appropriate suffering that those deed is not logical "if asked why" |
| In that way, [in regard to] that suffering which is asserted as being produced by self, other or both, [and then] because it is produced by self, other or both it [would] follow that it is the deed of self, other or both. That [suffering] is not appropriate as a deed. [It is] not logical [that] that suffering is their deed. If asked "Why?"... |
Verbs of Evaluation
category: ming tsam intransitive - stative agentive
Note: The grammar of the verbs of this category looks quite unique. These verbs are seen commonly with only one participant which is marked with the agentive particle. Here they are analyzed (see belowsee below) as simple intransitive verbs with an qualifier / instrument / source (marked with the agentive particle).
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| theme (almost never stated): ming tsam; qualifier - that what "causes the state of sufficiency": agentive particle |
| སྨན་འདི་བཏུང་བས་འཐུས། |
| medicine this drink sufficient |
| To drink this medicine will be sufficient. |
| ལུས་ཁམས་ཀྱིས་ལས་དོན་འཕེར་བ། |
| physical constitution task suitable |
| [His] physical constitution was suitable for the task. |
- Note: A literal translation of this unique grammar is close to impossible in any normal English and wouldn't even match the pragmatic meaning. It would read something like this: "The task was in a state of being suitable [to be accomplished] through [the factor of] his physical constitution." see below
| དེ་རིང་ཞུ་རྒྱུ་དེ་ཙམ་གྱིས་འགྲིག་པ་ |
| today said that just fitting |
| what was said will do for today |
| རྩོད་གླེང་འགྲིགས་ན་བཟང༌། |
| discussion agreeable good |
| If the outcome of the discussion is agreeable it is good |
| བཤད་པས་འཐུས། |
| explanation suffice |
| The explanation will suffice. |
| མི་རྟག་པ་སྒོམ་པ་ཁོ་ནས་མི་ཆོག |
| impermanence contemplate only not to be enough |
| To contemplate on impermanence only is not enough. |
- Note: ཁོ་ན་ means "only" and the ས་is the agentive particle making it into ཁོ་ནས་ - the ནས་ is not the originative case.
- Note: ཁོ་ན་ means "only" and the ས་is the agentive particle making it into ཁོ་ནས་ - the ནས་ is not the originative case.
| འགྲོ་འཐུས། |
| go sufficient |
| sufficient to go / it is sufficient [if you] go [instead of...] |
Verbs with Multiple Meanings Occurring with Different Syntax
Notes
A ཡིན་ with a Partially Omitted Complement
ཡིན་ can never have its complement completely omitted but it can have some parts of the complement omitted that are already introduced or inferable.
The first reason why the complement of ཡིན་ can not be completely omitted is that it would be impossible to infer the meaning of the omitted complement and the sentence would have no meaning. When expressing that "x is y" then "x" can be omitted if it can be inferred from context. On the other hand if "y" were to be omitted then there would be no statement made about "x" since "y" is the new information. It is as if one were to say in English: *"This ice cream has the quality of [∅].", without adding the information the sentences is intended to express.
The second reason is that both theme and complement of ཡིན་ are in ming tsam. It would therefore be impossible to differentiate between an omitted theme and an omitted complement.
For these two reasons, 1.) that is syntacticly not possible to differentiate between an omitted theme or complement, and 2.) that completely omitting the complement creates a clause without meaning, one must always assume that if something is (completely) omitted, it is the theme and not the complement.
In regard to this in the example blow the sentences is without a stated complement in ming tsam. It has a statement of reason, shown by means of the དབང་གིས་ ("due to, through the power of") marked by the agentive particle that comes directly before the ཡིན་.
| དེ་ཡང་གོས་ཚོན་ལ་བཙོ་བ་ལས་འཁྲུ་བ་ གལ་ཆེ་བ་ ལྟར་ ཐོས་ བསམ་ སྒོམ་པའི་ ཡོན་ཏན་རང་རྒྱུད་ལ་མི་འབྱུང་བ་འདི་ |
| furthermore cloth colour dye wash more important like hearing reflection meditation qualities one's stream not arise this |
| སྡིག་པ་ མི་དགེ་བའི་དབང་གིས་ཡིན་པས་སྡིག་སྦྱང་ལ་བརྩོན་པ་འདི་ ཤིན་ཏུ་ གཅེས་ གསུངས། |
| negativity non virtue due to is negativity purify exert this extremely crucial, important said |
One thing that must be understood is the difference between ཡིན་ "be, is" and the English "be, is". The English "be" has two [26]different meanings. 1) It is the copula expressing that "x is y", a statement about x's identity, feature, etc.[27]; and 2) it expresses existence: "x is" is the same as "x exists". Unlike the English "be", ཡིན་ is only a copula-it only covers the meaning of "x is y"-but does not include "x exists". ("X exists" is expressed by ཡོད་ in Tibetan.) In the same way as "x exists" can not be expressed with the Tibetan ཡིན་, also "x exists because of y" can not be expressed with ཡིན་.
Similarly, the (abbreviated) example (above) ཡོན་ཏན་མི་འབྱུང་བ་འདི་སྡིག་པ་ མི་དགེ་བའི་དབང་གིས་ཡིན་ can not be interpreted as "this non-arising of qualities exists (is) due to negativity [and] non virtue".
On the other hand "due to negativity [and] non virtue" can not, in itself, be the complement for ཡིན་ because a reason can not be the complement for a linking verb. There can be a reason for "this being that" but the identity or feature of something can not be a reason itself. "X is (/ has the identity of) Y because of Z" is a possible structure but not *"X is / has the identity of [∅] because of Z".
(In the next example the English "is" needs to be replaced by "has the quality of" in order to rule out the meaning of "to exist".) For example one can say: "This ice cream (is /) has the quality of excellence because my grand uncle made it." but not *"This ice cream (is /) has the quality of [∅] because my grand uncle made it." Therefore, there needs to be an omitted complement understood as coming immediately before the ཡིན་.
The solution comes from the fact that Tibetan can and does omit "duplicated" or identical parts of a clause (noun phrases) and in the above example, the omitted identical part—which is needed as the complement—is the same as the theme—ཡོན་ཏན་མི་འབྱུང་བ་འདི་ "this non—arising of qualities".
A literal translation of ཡོན་ཏན་མི་འབྱུང་བ་འདི་སྡིག་པ་ མི་དགེ་བའི་དབང་གིས་ཡིན་ with the omitted part included is: "This non-arising of qualities is [this non-arising of qualities] due to negativity [and] non virtue.". Following this interpretation with an omitted identical participant the translation of དེ་ཡང་གོས་ཚོན་ལ་བཙོ་བ་ལས་འཁྲུ་བ་ གལ་ཆེ་བ་ལྟར་ཐོས་བསམ་སྒོམ་པའི་ ཡོན་ཏན་རང་རྒྱུད་ལ་མི་འབྱུང་བ་འདི་སྡིག་པ་མི་དགེ་བའི་དབང་གིས་ཡིན་པས་སྡིག་སྦྱང་ལ་བརྩོན་པ་འདི་ཤིན་ཏུ་གཅེས་གསུངས། is:
"Furthermore, [it is] said [that] in the same way as it is more important to wash cloth than to dye [them] it is extremely important to make effort to purify negativity, since this non-arising of the qualities of hearing, reflection, [and] meditation in one's stream [of being] is [this non-arising of qualities in one's stream [of being]] due to negativity [and] non virtue."
In general is the omitted part only pragmatically controlled and not fixed (and does not need to be the whole theme), but I can not think of an (even generic) example where it would not need to contain at least a part of the theme,[28] and I would go so far to claim, that a part of the complement that is different form the theme will never be an anaphoric zero argument. (The argument itself can have its own anaphoric zero arguments since an argument itself can have parts of it omitted).
A translation with a part of the theme and a zero anaphora to "the qualities" is:
"...since this non-arising of the qualities of hearing, reflection, [and] meditation in one's stream [of being] is [this non-arising] due to negativity [and] non virtue."
The pragmatic limits of the location of the "arising" are generally set by the phenomena that arises, but since here the location is already stated-"one's stream [of being]"-the information about the location is also anaphorically included in the complement, so that if one takes only a part of the theme as complement [མི་འབྱུང་བ་འདི་] "[this non-arising]" all other parts of the theme are zero-anaphorically included within the complement.
A ཡིན་ at the End of a Section Wihtout a Theme
Note for Verbs of Evaluation
Endnotes
- ↑ It does not refer to the sentence- or discourse-level category of "topic".
- ↑ This term "associative" is used in reference to Nicolas Tournadre (University of Provence and CNRS, Lacito, The Classical Tibetan cases and their transcategoriality, From sacred grammar to modern linguistics, Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 9(2): 87-125). It could also be called "comitative case" or "sociative case".
- ↑ ལྟ་བ་ is mostly seen with agentive directed grammar. Other intentional verbs of perception e.g.ཉན་པ་ "to listen" can be seen with either agentive transitive or agentive directed grammar.
- ↑ The qualifier of a linking verb is usually called "complement". This term is also used here to distinguish it from "qualifiers" that are not in ming tsam.
- ↑ མི་ང་རང་ངན་ཏེ་ lit.:... the person [who is me] myself ... .
- ↑ Typical ditransitive verbs are "to give", "to sell", "to bring", "to tell" and generally any verb expressing any transfer of goods, information or action that produces something. E.g.: "She gave him ten silver.", "I read the books to him.", "She is baking a cake for him.".
- ↑ also called "addressee" and "beneficiary"
- ↑ One difficulty with these verbs is finding an example with a stated agent. In most cases there is only an instrument, source or reason given. This instrument which effects the action comes with the agentive particle.
- ↑ This term "associative" is used in reference to Nicolas Tournadre (University of Provence and CNRS, Lacito, The Classical Tibetan cases and their transcategoriality, From sacred grammar to modern linguistics, Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 9(2): 87-125). It could also be called "comitative case" or "sociative case".
- ↑ See: Verbs and Particles - Notes for the discussion about transitive verbs with agentive directed grammar.
- ↑ This is a type of auxiliary verb that is used to indicate modality – that is, to give more information about the function of the main verb in regard to likelihood, ability, permission, and obligation. English words that are often used to express modality are: may, can, must, ought, will, shall, need, dare, might, could, would, and should.
- ↑ Another reason is the fact that with one more subheading (when placing "intransitive verbs" as one more higher level heading) the maximum number of subheadings of the wiki would be exceeded.
- ↑ The qualifier of a linking verb is usually called "complement". This term is also used here to distinguish it from "qualifiers" that are not in ming tsam.
- ↑ མི་ང་རང་ངན་ཏེ་ lit.:... the person [who is me] myself is bad ...
- ↑ It is also the past tense of (past)མཆིས་པ། (pres.)མཆི་བ། (fut.)མཆི་བ།"to go", "to come"
- ↑ The negation of ཡོད་པ་ is always མེད་པ་ and never *མ་ཡོད་པ་
- ↑ also called "addressee" and "beneficiary"
- ↑ a constituent of the clause that has a relation with the main verb
- ↑ Verbs like "to strive" are intransitive verbs in English, accompanied by a qualifier stating what one is striving for.
S.V.Beyer designates རྩོལ་ and བརྩོན་ as intransitive verbs (S.V.B., The Classic Tibetan Language p.341) and in "A Tibetan Verb Lexicon" for འབད་"to make effort" (p. 131 འབད་ "verb class VI" / "Agentive-Objective Verb") the example given is སྙིང་ནས་གྲོལ་བ་དོན་དུ་གཉེར་བའི་གང་ཟག་གིས། བདག་མེད་པའི་ལྟ་བ་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་ཁོང་དུ་ཆུད་པའི་ཐབས་ལ་འབད་དགོས། "Persons who from the depths of their hearts seek liberation must work at the means of understanding the correct view of selflessness." - ↑ cardinal and intermediate directions
- ↑ དབྱེ་བ་ is either a verb, the future tense of the present tense འབྱེད་པ་ "to divide" or it is the related noun དབྱེ་བ་ "divisions, classification, differentiation", but there is no particular reason to interpret the དབྱེ་ in the example above as an abbreviated noun.
- ↑ See disjunctive verbs below.
- ↑ Note: Nicolas Tournadre in "The Classical Tibetan cases" mentions a few adjectives that can come with the same type of grammar. Nicolas Tournadre, University of Provence and CNRS, Lacito, The Classical Tibetan cases and their transcategoriality, From sacred grammar to modern linguistics, Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 9(2): 87-125.: "a3) Specification: This function is quite peculiar and is linked to specificative adjectival or verbal predicates, which are always stative. A specificative verb or adjective governs two arguments, one in the absolutive [ming tsam] (in some cases in the dative [la don]) and the other in the instrumental [agentive particle]. Most adjectival predicates such as phyug 'rich', mtho 'high', thung 'short', mkhas 'expert', ring 'long', che 'big' may have an argument in the instrumental conveying specification. Some specificative verbs also trigger the same construction. Among the most frequent, one should mention: khengs ‘to be filled (with)’, bskor ‘to be surrounded by’, g.yogs ‘to be covered by’, .... ."
- ↑ See the "Note" about their classification as agentive directed - intransitive dynamic directed in verbs of comparison / competition above.
- ↑ A formerly done split into "verbs of evaluation and assertion I and II" did lead to confusion among students without an academic background. They read "I" as the first person singular pronoun and were wondering about the meaning of the heading—"Verbs of Evaluation and Assertion I (/aɪ/—first person singular pronoun)" .
- ↑ One can also count three if the usage as auxiliary verb is included, or even more if one includes subcategories. E.g.: Expressing "existence" can be split into expressing "existence" ("There is a rabbit.") and "location" ("The rabbit is in the house").
- ↑ The "is" copula can make a range of statements about the theme. E.g.: identity, "The rabbit is the our king."; feature (adjective predication) "The rabbit is furry."; class membership, "This rabbit is an alien." etc..
- ↑ Please tell me if you can.