Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles - Notes

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Other articles from the Tibetan Grammar series:
[Tibetan Grammar - Introduction] [Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles] [Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles - Notes]

by Stefan J. E.

The la don particles—Notes

These notes are note merely on la don particles alone. Some of the topics here could be moved to the verb section or be a section on their own. Yet as the grammatical structures covered all have a la don (though omitted at times), it is included in this chapter for now.

Note on classifications for Verbs with la don

See: Verbs with la don

Introduction

This is about the classifications in chapter Verbs with la don, where a verb or adjective has a verb or clause directly preceding it. The main topic of concern is the subcategories in Modal relation.

A verb-verb structure is placed in Direct verb-verb relation or Modal relation when the patient of the verb is replaced by a verb complement (see below).

Even though an auxiliary verb can be clearly viewed as a verb with its patient replaced by a verb complement,[1] auxiliary verbs are singled out Verb and auxiliary verb[2]

"Modal auxiliary verbs" will not be used as a category as such, for the reason that the verbs used as a second verb in Modal relation express some kind of modal relation, while grammatically they function in different ways. In Adverbial / simultaneity (of verb-verb) the verb / clause is an adverbial qualifier that works in the same way for both transitive and intransitive verbs and can be seen as a form of Adverbial / simultaneity.

Because adjectives connected with verbs can have the same structure and grammar as "verb-verb" relations with intransitive verbs, and considering the character of Tibetan adjectives in general, here it is reasonable to treat verbs and adjectives together. "Verbs with adjectives" are part of Expressing a quality and Expressing a feature. E.g., ཐོས་པར་སྙན་ "pleasant to hear"[3] belongs to Expressing a feature.

The difference in structures, which is the topic here, is in terms of the relation between the first and the second verb. That is, looking at whether the first verb / clause is a qualifier, patient[4] or complement[5] of the second verb.[6] These differences are more complex when the second verb is an intransitive verb and they will be covered first, looking at the structure, function and meaning expressed.


Intransitive verbs

First we will look at whether the first verb is a qualifier, patient or complement.

If the two verbs have a coreferential participant—the agent or patient of the first verb is also the patient of the second verb—then the first verb can not be the patient of the second verb.

In བརྒལ་བར་མི་ནུས། "not able to cross (over)" or "not being able in terms of crossing (over)" བརྒལ་བ་ is qualifying ནུས་, both verbs have a coreferential participant—the patient for both verbs—this means there is not one person who is "unable", and another (non-coreferential) performing the action "to cross (over)".

Whereas in གསུངས་པར་མངོན་པ་ "[it is] apparent [that the Buddha] taught..." the verb གསུངས་པ་ the fact that "[the Buddha] taught" is what is "apparent" while "the Buddha" did the action "taught" but did not "apparent" nor is here "the Buddha" "apparent".

In accordance with the observed fact that Tibetan has no dummy patient[7] (meaning no dummy patient / subject for intransitive verbs and no dummy patient / object for transitive verbs), there cannot be an (omitted) "it"[8] as the patient for མངོན་པ་. The clause ending in གསུངས་པ་ becomes the verb complement for མངོན་པ་.[9] The first verb / clause functions as the "patient-substitute" for the second verb, མངོན་པ་ making a statement about the clause ending in གསུངས་པ་—གསུངས་པ་ is མངོན་པ་.

There is a difference in meaning between a clause with an "actual" patient (subject) and this complement construction (as somewhat expected with the difference in structure / syntax). E.g. (generic), with a verb as complement for དཀའ་བ་ in འགྲོ་བར་དཀའ་ "difficult to go", the verb / the action འགྲོ་བ་ itself is qualified (see below), and this is a statement about a general action, a fact stated about "going" (which could be further qualified with ལྷ་སར་ "to Lhasa", ད་ལོ་ "this year" etc.), but not about an actual event. Whereas in འགྲོ་བ་འདི་དཀའ་ "this going is difficult" with འགྲོ་བ་འདི་ as "actual" patient for དཀའ་བ་ it refers to a specific event, a statement about a noun consisting of a nominalized verb.

In the first example, the complement construction, a statement about of the action itself is expressed. This relation is often described as an auxiliary and modal auxiliary relation and can already be found in early Tibetan texts. མྱི་དབུལ་པོའི་ཁ་ནས་སྲིད་ལ་ཕན་པའི་ཚིག་བཟང་པོ་བདེན་པ་ཞིག་ཟེར་ན་ཡང་སུས་ཀྱང་མྱི་ཉན་བར་ཡོང་ངོ༌།[10] "Though a good and true word, beneficial to life, is spoken from the mouth of a poor man, [it] 'will come' that no one listens / no one would listen". The same structure was later used to translate the complex Sanskrit tense system into Tibetan with help of བྱེད་, འགྱུར་, etc.

The usage of this structure with auxiliary verbs and occurrences like ཤིན་ཏུ་རྟོགས་པར་དཀའ་ "extremely difficult to understand" with ཤིན་ཏུ་ referring to དཀའ་ shows that the relation between the two verbs can be very close, yet one can still see how the second verb makes a statement about the first.

With this as a basis the divisions within intransitive verbs (as the second verb) are as follows:

Case 1. The first verb is the complement:
Case 1.1 Expressing a "quality": epistemic, evaluative
Case 1.2 Expressing a "feature"
Case 2. The first verb is a qualifier:
Case 2.1 Involuntary 1,
Case 2.2 Involuntary 2,
Case 2.3 Voluntary

Case 1. The first verb / clause functions as the complement of the second verb

Note: Here intransitive verbs and adjectives function in the same way.

In this structure the second verb makes a statement about the first "patient verb"[11] (together with its clause). There are two main types of statements expressed.

Case 1.1: expressing a "quality" which has no direct effect on the "patient verb"

E.g. epistemic[12] status like མངོན་པ་ "evident, apparent", བདེན་པ་ "true", ངེས་པ་ "certain", སྲིད་པ་ "be possible", སྣང་བ་ "apparent" and evaluative status with "verbs of evaluation" like རིགས་པ་ "logical, fitting", རུང་བ་ "suitable, appropriate", འོས་པ་ "appropriate, worthy", འཐད་པ་ "logically acceptable, feasible, correct" and also དགོས་པ་ "needed"

  • Epistemic status: གསུངས་པར་མངོན་ "[it is] apparent [that the Buddha] taught ..... "
In ཐུགས་བསྐྱེད་པའི་ཁྱད་པར་སོགས་དགོངས་གཞི་མང་པོས་ཐ་དད་དུ་གསུངས་པར་མངོན་པས། "[It is] apparent [that the Buddha] because of many intentions taught the specifics and so on of generating the mind [in various ways which explain them] differently." མངོན་པ་ "be apparent, be evident" expresses the epistemic status of གསུངས་པ་ "taught".
Here a statement about the "patient verb" / the clause is made without affecting the verb itself. The action itself is unaffected and functions as before, and there is no direct effect on the participants within the qualified clause. E.g. (generic), in ཁོང་ཕྱིན། "he went" and ཁོང་ཕྱིན་པར་མངོན། "[it is] apparent / clear [that] he went" the way in which the action "went" happened doesn't change.[13]
(This structure can sometimes be translated as an infinitive construction, yet it can always be translated as "[it is] >verb< [that] >"patient verb"<".)
རྒྱ་ཡུལ་དུ། བོད་ལྟ་བུར་ཐུན་མོང་དུ་གསང་སྔགས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་པ་དར་བ་ནི་མ་བྱུང་བར་སྣང་ཞིང༌། "It is apparent that in China the general spread of the teachings of secret mantra did not occur like [it did] in Tibet."
  • Evaluative status: Here the verb-verb connection is the same as in 'epistemic status'.
In མྱ་ངན་བྱ་བར་འོས། "appropriate to [feel] sorrow" that what is འོས་ "appropriate" is མྱ་ངན་བྱ་བ་ "to [feel] sorrow". In གསུམ་པ་མི་འཛིན་པ་ལྔ་ནི།་་་་་་་་ལོག་པར་འཛིན་པ་དང་ལྔ་སྤངས་དགོས་ "Third: the five incorrect ways of remembering: .....[and] "wrong remembering", those five need to be abandoned." It is the སྤངས་ "abandoning" that is དགོས་ "needed".
Note: The same structure occurs with verbs of evaluation (if the patient in the agentive case is accepted.)

See "verbs of evaluation / assertion II" about these verbs which are an exception, having their patient in the agentive case.

སྨན་འདི་བཏུངས་བས་འཐུས། "to drink this medicine will be sufficient"; ཇི་སྐད་བཤད་པ་ཁོ་ན་ཉམས་སུ་བླངས་པས་ཆོག་སྟེ། "to have practiced only as it has been explained will be sufficient"; བཏུངས་བ་ and བླངས་པ་ (together with their clauses) are the patient for འཐུས་ and Template:Gtibཆོག་.

Case 1.2: expressing a "feature"

E.g. like དཀའ་བ་ "difficult", སླ་བ་ "easy", སྙན་པ་ "pleasant (to hear)" which has a direct effect on the "patient verb".

  • Expressing a feature: སྦྱང་བར་དཀའ་ "difficult to purify"
In Tibetan the reason why one uses the future form of the verb comes from the fact that the action of the "patient verb" is not actually happening, but is abstract. It is only a statement about an abstract or potential action. So it is not the present tense form (with its factual or general character), nor the past (with its completion character) but the future with its necessitive character (or "anticipated but not as yet completed"[14] character) that is used.[15]
In རྟག་ཏུ་ལྟ་བ་སྣ་ཚོགས་པའི། །ཁྱིམ་པའི་ལྟ་བ་སྦྱང་བར་དཀའ།། "The views of the householders of various views of permanence are difficult to purify.": the verb དཀའ་ "be difficult" "becomes a feature" of the action སྦྱང་བ་ "to purify"; the action itself is expressed as "difficult" to do. This is what is meant by having a "direct effect on the 'patient verb'". As a direct result of this change to the action itself there will be an effect on a potential participant of the clause (it will be more difficult for the person who is purifying).
(This structure is translated most easily as an infinitive construction.)
A (rather rare) example with a stated subject: འཇིག་རྟེན་པ་དག་གིས་རྟོགས་པར་དཀའ་ཞིང༌། "[this] is difficult to understand for worldly persons "


Case 2: The first verb / clause is a qualifier for the second verb.

The second verb will be further categorized into involuntary and voluntary.

Case 2.1: Involuntary 1: "ability"

One group of verbs which the second verb can belong to are static verbs which express an ability, ནུས་པ་ "be able", ཕོད་པ་ "to be able, to dare", ཐུབ་པ་ "be able" and also ཁོམ་པ་ "to have time to, be (time-wise) free to". བསྲུང་བར་ནུས་ "able to protect"

The first verb / clause is a qualifier for the second and belongs to "qualifier-verb". It is placed in a subcategory of its own here as there is also a pragmatic "modal relation" between the two verbs, which expresses the "ability" to do the action of the first verb. There is some similarity to the direct verb-verb relation (above) in expressing a modal relation. (It is easiest to translate them as infinitive constructions.) (It is placed in "1.10.2 qualifier - intransitive verb" "ability")

Case 2.2: Involuntary 2: "qualifier-verb"

The second verb can also be any intransitive verb which can have a clause as a qualifier like the "qualifier of identity / equivalence"; it makes no difference whether the qualifier is a noun, adjective or clause. This is just a type of qualifier without a "direct" relation between the first and the second verb and therefore it is placed in the category of "qualifier-verb".

འཁོར་ལོ་ནི་གདུལ་བྱའི་རྒྱུད་ལ་འཕོ་བར་སྣང་བས་ནའམ། "[it is called] chakra because it appears to enter (move into) the stream [of being] of the ones to be tamed and ..."

Case 2.3: Voluntary

These can have a clause as a qualifier like the involuntary verbs.

E.g., in ལེན་དུ་འོངས་ "come to take" the qualifier states a purpose or reason.

བདག་སློབ་དཔོན་གྱི་བསོད་སྙོམས་ལེན་དུ་འོངས་སོ།། "I came to receive the alms for my master."

Again, since this is a type of qualifier without a particular relation between the two verbs, it is also placed into the category of "qualifier-verb".

Note: A clause together with ཡོང་ "to come" is more likely to be an auxiliary construction. (see: 1.10.1 verb and auxiliary verb, and the Chapter on auxiliary verbs x.xx.x)

སེང་གེ་གང་ན་འདུག་པར་སོང་ངོ༌།། "[He] went to where the lion was." (here སོང་ is not an auxiliary verb)

Endnotes

  1. ↑ S.V. Beyer: The Classical Tibetan Language, p.339.
  2. ↑ Auxiliary verbs form a periphrastic construction. As function words they add information like future tense, completion etc. to a content word but have no meaning on their own (in that structure). E.g., in སྐྱེས་སུ་ཟིན་ "[the child] was born" the auxiliary verb ཟིན་པ་ (which otherwise means "to grasp, hold" ) expresses that the birth is completed. One needs to know the function of the auxiliary verb in order to know the expressed meaning. On the other hand, in ཞི་བར་སྣུས་ "able to pacify" the verb སྣུས་པ་ "to be able" expresses the ability to do the action. The expressed meaning is clear from knowing the verbs themselves.
  3. ↑ Note: A. Csoma de Koros and M. Hahn describe these verb-adjective relations as the equivalent to the Latin supine, like: mirabile dictu, "wonderful to say", "wonderful in terms of saying (it)". In this case "to say, to relate" qualifies "wonderful". (In Latin supines in the ablative are used with certain adjectives to show respect or specification.)
  4. ↑ "Patient" will not follow the definition where it has to undergo a change to be the "patient". It will also include "theme" (undergoes the action but does not change its state). In general: with intransitive verbs, linking verbs and verbs of existence the patient is what is otherwise called the "subject" of these verbs; with transitive it is the "object".
  5. ↑ In general: a complement is a word, phrase or clause that is needed to complete the meaning of a sentence. A verb complement is different in nature from a verb object (patient); an object (patient) is the recipient of the action expressed by the verb, but a complement serves to describe or explain the action expressed by the verb. S.V. Beyer:“ In a verb complement construction, a nominalized proposition adverbially modifies a verb head."
  6. ↑ This is inspired by and based on S.V. Beyer 's approach. However it might look different as he describes it by the requirement of coreferential participants with intransitive and transitive "verb heads". see: The Classical Tibetan Language, pg.338 et sqq.
  7. ↑ In Tibetan each event (action or state of being expressed by a verb) needs to have a stated or understood patient.
  8. ↑ In English "it" like in "It snows." is a dummy subject.
  9. ↑ S.V. Beyer: "...the complement replaces the patient of its intransitive verb head: in such a construction, the verb has no patient participant."
  10. ↑ The Classical Tibetan Language, p.340.
  11. ↑ The first verb is given the name "patient verb" here, (merely to give it a name). This comes from viewing it as the patient of the second verb, where the second verb says something about the first. This way of naming it differs (but is not mutually exclusive) to the description of it as a complement, where the first verb is thought of as describing or explaining the action expressed by the second verb.
  12. ↑ In general "epistemic" has a wider meaning (a speaker's evaluation or judgment of, degree of confidence in, or belief of the knowledge upon which a proposition is based) than the way it used in here, where it only refers to the speaker's judgment of the situation.
  13. ↑ There may or may not be a pragmatic effect on a participant, depending on the context. E.g. (generic), ཁོང་འཆི་བར་ངེས། "[it is] certain [that] he will die" might have some impact on him, while in ཁོང་ཤི་བར་མངོན། "[it is] evident [that] he died", the fact that it is "evident" might not bother him much anymore.
  14. ↑ S. V. Beyer: The Classical Tibetan Language, p.261
  15. ↑ In English also the future tense is not just about expressing 'future'. E.g., if A says: "He will leave now. He will not stay." it only expresses A's opinion about the future, but nothing about B's coming action.
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