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:
| 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
Intransitive Verbs
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Transitive Verbs
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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 and the nature of the verb.
ming tsam intransitive |
no agent | theme in ming tsam |
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
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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"; (example) | |
| <div id="ming tsam intransitive associative"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); (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) | |
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 |
some intentional verbs of perception: perceiver with agentive particle, direction with la don; ལྟ་བ་ "to look"[3]; (example) 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 /indirect transitive directed see [ ] for the discussion about these terms and the verbs |
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"; (example) surface contact verbs; (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 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. 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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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"
Verbs of comparison when expressing "to rival" e.g., འགྲན་པ་ "to rival, to challenge, compete with" have agentive directed grammar.
| agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier - that what is challenged, competed with: la don |
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indirect ditransitive / indirect transitive directed
verbs of benefit and harm
E.g., གནོས་པ་ "to harm", ཕན་པ་ "to benefit"
Verbs of benefit and harm have an agent (subject) with the agentive particle and a recipient (indirect object / qualifier) with a la don. They are here called indirect ditransitive because an action is passing over to a recipient. The recipient is not the theme since he receives the benefit or harm. That which is passed over (the benefit or harm) is not stated as the theme but is inherent within the meaning of the verb.
| agent[8](subject): agentive particle, recipient (indirect object / qualifier): la don |
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surface contact verbs
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 |
| 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 / assertion").
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
Intransitive Verbs Without Qualifier and with la don for Their Qualifier
category: ming tsam intransitive
This section covers those ming tsam intransitive verbs verbs (including the linking verb) that do not have any particular qualifier or have a qualifier that is marked by a la don.
The intransitive verbs without qualifier and with la don for their qualifier are taken together under one heading because for some of those verbs e.g. like the "verbs of living" the qualifier does not constitutes a particular qualifier for the group as such, since most clauses could come a qualifier of space that would be marked by the la don.<rev>Another, almost more important reason is the fact that with one more subheading (due to placing "intransitive verbs" as a higher level heading) the maximum number of subheadings of the wiki would be exceeded.</rev>
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).
3.1.1 Linking Verb, གཏན་འཁེལ་བའི་ཚིག་ "Word of Certainty"
category: ming tsam intransitive - stative copula
| theme (subject): ming tsam, complement[12]: 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: ཡིན་ with partially omitted complement
Non-Volitional Intransitive Verbs and Adjectives
| theme (subject): ming tsam |
Stative Non-Volitional Intransitive 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.[13] |
Dynamic Non-Volitional Intransitive 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 I, 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 I
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 I
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).
"Simple" Transitive Verbs, Unintentional Verbs of Perception, Verbs of Cognition, "Fruitional" Verbs
| agent(subject): agentive particle, theme(object): ming tsam |
"Simple" Transitive 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. |
Ditransitive Verbs
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)[15]: 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. |
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 Expressing "to Make Effort, to Engage In"
category: agentive directed - intransitive dynamic directed
"Verbs expressing 'to make effort, to engage in'" are categorized as ཐ་དད་པ་ while they are not transitive. These verbs have their theme, "the effort" etc. lexicalized in the verb and do not have a theme (object) as a participant [16] (in ming tsam). They do have a direction of the action, "what the effort is toward" marked by la don.[17]
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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
These verbs are similar the category of the verbs of presence with the exception that the effected participant is not 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། | ཁྱབ། | ཁྱབ། | |
| 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[18] 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. |
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.
- ↑ 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 ...
- ↑ 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