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by Stefan J. E.
First Case, མིང་ཙམ་, just the name
Also called: nominative case, "no particle", accusative case, patient role particle "-Ø". This case does not add any particle to the word or changes it any way.
Independent of verb type
Topic
Enumeration, section heading, title
Proleptic
- Proleptic: anticipatory
བྲམ་ཟེ་དབུལ་པོ་དེ་ནི་ཁྱིམ་བདག་གིས་དེ་ལ་བཟའ་དང་བགོ་བ་བྱིན།
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Brahmin poor householder food cloths gave
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(Regarding) that poor Brahmin, the householder gave food and cloth to that (one). The householder gave food and cloth to that poor Brahmin.
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Temporal nominative
- Temporal nominative can also be viewed as a very frequently omitted locative (la don) of time.
དེར་བསྡད་དུས་ same as: དེར་བསྡད་དུས་སུ་
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there stayed time there stayed time la don
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at the time of staying there
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དེའི་ཚེ་ same as: དེའི་ཚེ་ན་
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that time that time la don
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at that (point in) time
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In compound words
- Note: See also "Formation of the Tibetan Words - compounded nouns".
Adjective/verb - adjective/verb
to be happy, glad
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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དགའ་བ།
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དགའ་བ།
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དགའ་བ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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དགའ་སྤྲོ་
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happy joyful
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happy
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- from: དགའ་བ་ adjective, noun, verb:
joyful, happy; joy; to be happy, glad, pleased, to take joy in
to be joyful to enjoy
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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སྤྲོ་བ།
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སྤྲོ་བ།
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སྤྲོ་བ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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སྤྲོ་བ་
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joyful
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to be joyful, to enjoy
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བོད་སྐད་
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Tibet language
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Tibetan language
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Noun - adjective
A noun-adjective combination becomes either just a noun with an adjective (see: " adjectives") or a new word.
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གཏིང་ཟབ་
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bottom, depth deep
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very deep; profound
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རྒྱ་ཆེ་
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extent big
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vast, extensive
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Apposition
སངས་རྒྱས། ཀུན་མཁྱེན། རྐང་གཉིས་གཙོ་བོ། སྐུ་གསུམ་པ། མཁྱེན་ལྔ་པ། འགྲོ་བའི་བླ་མ། རྒྱལ་བ། བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
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Buddha all knowing foot two main kaya three knowledge five being highest victorious Bhagavan
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The Buddha, the Omniscient One, Chief of Humans (bipeds), Victorious One, [Possessor of] the Three Kayas, the One with the Five Knowledges, Lord of Beings, Victorious One, Bhagavan[...]
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Nouns in a list - nominalized clauses in a list
སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་ཚོགས་ཁམས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་དང༌། ཡོན་ཏེན་སངས་རྒྱས་འཕྲིན་ལས་ཐ་མ་སྟེ།
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Buddha Dharma assembly element enlightenment qualities enlightened activity final
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The Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, element, enlightenment, qualities and finally enlightened activity
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རྒྱུ་ནི་འབྱུང་བ་ཆེན་པོ་བཞི་སྟེ། སའི་ཁམས་ནི་སྲ་ཞིང་གཞི་འཛིན་པའི་ལས་བྱེད་པ། ཆུ་ཁམས་གཤེར་ཞིང་སྡུད་པ།
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cause elements great four earth element solid and base to hold action do water element liquid and draw together
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མེ་ཁམས་དྲོ་ཞིང་སྨིན་པ། རླུང་ཁམས་གཡོ་ཞིང་འཕེལ་བར་བྱེད་པའོ།།
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fire element warmth and mature wind element move and increase do
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Causal [forms] are the four great elements. The earth element is solid and is performing the function of support. The water element is liquid and cohesion. The fire element is warmth maturing. The wind element is moving and increasing.
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Dependent on verb type
Most verbs have their patient in ming tsam.
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See: Verb Notes, 1.2.1 patient; Verbs, 2 introduction to classifications of verbs according to their grammar; Verb Notes, 1.2 patient / subject-object / valency: advantages and problems;
Linking verb
Patient (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: ming tsam, strict first patient—then qualifier word order
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དམར་པོ་ནི་ཁ་དོག་ཡིན།
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red colour is
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Red is [a] colour.
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Verbs of existence
Patient: ming tsam, qualifier—place of existence: la don
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མོ་གཤམ་གྱི་བུ་མེད།
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barren women son not exist
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The barren women’s son does not exist.
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Verbs of possession I
Patient—what is owned: ming tsam, qualifier—possessor: la don
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བདག་ལ་གཡག་ཡོད།
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I bos grunniens have
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I have yaks.
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Intransitive verbs
Patient (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: la don
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to arise
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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ཤར་བ།
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འཆར་བ།
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འཆར་བ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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ཉི་མ་ཤར།
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sun arose
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The sun arose.
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to go
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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ཕྱིན་པ་ / སོང་བ།
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འགྲོ་བ།
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འགྲོ་བ།
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སོང།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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ཁོ་ལྷ་སར་ཕྱིན།
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he Lhasa went
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He went to Lhasa.
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Transitive verbs
Agent (subject): agentive particle, patient (object): ming tsam
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to teach
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v.t.
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ཐ་དད་པ་
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བསྟན་པ།
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སྟོན་པ།
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བསྟན་པ།
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སྟོན།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་ཆོས་བསྟན།
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Buddha Dharma taught
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The Buddha taught the Dharma.
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Ditransitive verbs
Agent (subject): agentive particle, patient (object): ming tsam, recipient (indirect object)[1]: la don
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to give
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v.t.
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ཐ་དད་པ་
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སྟེར་བ།
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སྟེར་བ།
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སྟེར་བ།
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སྟེར།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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སྨན་པས་ནད་པ་ལ་སྨན་སྟེར།
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doctor the ill medicine give
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The doctor gives medicine to the ill.
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Verbs with noticeable grammar: verbs of necessity; verbs of absence and "presence"
Verbs of necessity
Qualifier—that which needs: la don, patient—that what is needed: ming tsam
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to need
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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དགོས་པ།
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དགོས་པ།
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དགོས་པ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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མྱུ་གུ་ལ་ཆུ་དགོས།
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sprouts water need
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Sprouts need water.
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In Tibetan, the patient (subject) of the verb དགོས་པ་, to need, is that what is needed, it performs the action to be needed, (the "water" in the example). What or whom needs is the qualifier (the "sprouts"). This is different in English where the patient (subject) of the verb "to need" is the one who needs something. E.g. In "He needs water", "he" is the patient (subject).
Verbs of absence and "presence"
That which is absent / "present": agentive, that which is absent of something: ming tsam
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to be empty
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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སྟོངས་པ།
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སྟོང་པ།
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སྟོང་པ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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ལུང་པ་ཆུས་སྟོང་པ།
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land water empty
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the land is empty of water
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Endnotes
- ↑ also called "addressee" and "beneficiary"