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.
31.Jan.12 The approach to explain Tibetan verbs will be changed to that of the "three thematic relations: Theme, Location, and Agent"
| 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 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 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:
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| 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
Intransitive verbs
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Transitive verbs
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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 and the nature of the verb.
| ming tsam intransitive | no agent | theme in ming tsamf |
| agentive transitive | agent with the agentive particle | theme in ming tsam |
| agentive directed | agent 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 | stative copula | linking verbs: theme in ming tsam, (no agent); ཡིན་པ་ "to be, are" |
| stative non-volitional | 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" | |
| dynamic non-volitional | unintentional intransitive describing an action or change: theme in ""ming tsam"", (no agent); འཆི་བ། "to die" | |
| dynamic directed | verbs of motion: theme in ming tsam, qualifier with la don; (no agent); འགྲོ་བ་ "to go" | |
| stative located | 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" | |
| stative affective | attitude verbs: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent); དགའ་བ་ "to like" | |
| stative directed | verbs of dependence: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent); རྟེན་པ་ "to rely, depend" | |
| agentive | 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" | |
| associative[2] | intransitive "verbs of interrelation": conjunctive and disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison, possession II: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: associative particle དང་, (no agent); | |
| originative | intransitive verbs of separation; theme in ming tsam, qualifier with the originative particle, (no agent); | |
| stative irregular | evaluative verbs: theme in ming tsam or with la don or agentive particle; རུང་བ་ "suitable", འཐུས་པ་ "to be sufficient" | |
| agentive transitive | effective | simple transitive verbs where the agent acts upon an theme (object): agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam; འཐུང་བ་ "to drink" |
| fruitional | 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" | |
| ditransitive | 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" | |
| agentive | 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" | |
| associative | transitive verbs of interrelation - conjunctive or disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison: theme in ming tsam, qualifier with associative 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. | |
| originative | 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. | |
| agentive directed | intransitive dynamic directed | some intentional verbs of perception: perceiver with agentive particle, direction with la don; ལྟ་བ་ "to look"[3] 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" |
| stative directed | ཁྱབ་པ་ "to pervade, permeate, be present throughout" (see below) | |
| indirect ditransitive | verbs of harm and benefit; that what effects the harm with agentive particle, the recipient-the one or that what is harmed-with la don; གནོས་པ་ "to harm" | |
| transitive verbs with directed grammar | These are: verbs of mental activity when the "object of interest" is actively engaged in. They then have the theme 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)" |
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
verbs of emotion and attitude; དགའ་བ་ "to like"
Note: Some verbs within the "verbs of emotion and attitude" category, e.g. like གུས་པ་ "to respect" can 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 possession II. 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.
| 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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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
verbs expressing "to make effort, to engage in"
verbs of "comparison"
stative directed
indirect ditransitive
directed grammar with transitive verbs
Verbs of mental activity
verbs with referential la don
agentive transitive and ming tsam intransitive verbs with same type of qualifier
semantic pairs or groups
verbs which change their meaning with different syntaxes
change of the meaning with different particles
change of the meaning when used as an auxiliary verb
Classification of verbs according to semantic and syntactic groups
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"