{{gsample|ཁྱིམ་ལ་དུར་ཙམ་དུ་འཛིན།|household grave only apprehend|to apprehend a household only as a grave}}<br>
{{gsample|ཁྱིམ་ལ་དུར་ཙམ་དུ་[[འཛིན་|འཛིན]]།|household grave only apprehend|to apprehend a household only as a grave}}<br>
For some more transitive verbs "with ''la don''" see below: [[4. verbs with multiple meanings (occurring with different syntax)]].
For some more transitive verbs "with ''la don''" see below: [[#Verbs with multiple meanings occurring with different syntax|Verbs with multiple meanings occurring with different syntax]].
====Intransitive verbs with transitive grammar—verbs expressing "to make effort, to engage"====
====Intransitive verbs with transitive grammar—verbs expressing "to make effort, to engage"====
Revision as of 11:50, 31 March 2011
WORK IN PROGRESS: the grammar articles are being edited for wiki publication. During editing, the content might be incomplete, out of sequence or even misleading.
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. In Tibetan words describing a mere state of being or existence are not seen as verbs (by Tibetan grammarians).
Transitive and intransitive 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 transitive and intransitive 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 which can have two objects 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."
Patient is used here as a convenient term for subject (intransitive verb) and object (transitive verb)—both are mostly in ming tsam (having no particle). It will be stretched beyonds its definition from thematic relations as far as is necessary; (e.g. it will also include theme—undergoes the action but does not change its state, and experiencer—the entity that receives sensory or emotional input). Patient will be used with static verbs as well. See: "5 Note, patient / subject-object / valency : advantages and problems".
Intransitive verbs
བྱིའུ་ཤི།
small bird died
The small bird died.
to die
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཤི་བ།
འཆི་བ།
འཆི་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
ཉི་མ་ཤར།
sun arose
The sun arose.
to arise
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཤར་བ།
འཆར་བ།
འཆར་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
མེ་ཏོག་འཆར།
flower blossom
The flower blossoms.
to blossom
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཤར་བ།
འཆར་བ།
འཆར་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
Transitive verbs
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་ཆོས་བསྟན།
Buddha Dharma taught
The Buddha taught the Dharma.
to teach
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ་
བསྟན་པ།
སྟོན་པ།
བསྟན་པ།
སྟོན།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
ནད་ཀྱིས་ལུས་ལ་གནོད།
illness body to harm
The illness harmed the body.
to harm
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ་
གནོད་པ།
གནོད་པ།
གནོད་པ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
Verbs with related intransitive and transitive form
འཁོར་ལོ་འཁོར།
wheel turn/spin
The wheel turns.
to turn
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འཁོར་བ།
འཁོར་བ།
འཁོར་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
བདག་གིས་འཁོར་ལོ་སྐོར།
I wheel turn
I turn the wheel.
to turn
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ་
བསྐོར་བ།
སྐོར་བ།
བསྐོར་བ།
སྐོར།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
གངས་ཞུ།
snow melt
The snow melts.
to melt
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཞུ་བ།
ཞུ་བ།
ཞུ་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
ཁོས་གངས་བཞུ།
he snow melt
He melts the snow.
to melt
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ་
བཞུས་པ།
བཞུ་བ།
བཞུ་བ།
བཞུས།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
ཤིང་ལོ་སེར་པོར་འགྱུར།
leaves yellow change/turn
The leaves turned yellow.
to change
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འགྱུར་བ།
འགྱུར་བ།
འགྱུར་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
མིང་གཞན་དུ་བསྒྱུར་
name other change
...changed [the name] into an other name.
to change
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ་
བསྒྱུར་བ།
སྒྱུར་བ།
བསྒྱུར་བ།
སྒྱུར།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
Classification of ཐ་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ in relation to transitive and intransitive
བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ "verb were the action and the doer of the action are different"
བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་མི་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་ "verb were the action and the doer of the action are not different"
In dictionaries
The བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ is the most important Tibetan-Tibetan dictionary. It’s classification of verbs into ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ and ཐ་དད་པ་ has been directly copied into more than one Tibetan-English dictionary, using the Latin-derived categories of intransitive and transitive verbs. Yet it should be noted that some of the verbs which are classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ in the བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ correspond in terms of grammar to transitive verbs and not to intransitive verbs. Even among the Tibetan grammar treatises there is disagreement about the classification into ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ and ཐ་དད་པ་, for example the unintentional verbs of perception are classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ in the བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་, but in other Tibetan-grammar treatises considered to be ཐ་དད་པ་ (Note: they do have the grammar of transitive verbs).[1]
The point is that it could be at times puzzling seeing a verb with transitive grammar being labeled as intransitive verb or classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་.
Tibetan classification of ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
From the Great Tibetan Chinese Dictionary, བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་:
"'Action and doer different' is, like the intended meaning in the thak jug pa, the doing of whatever work / action in regard to whatever thing by a different (lit. other) doer."
"'Action and doer not different' is, like the intended meaning in the thak jug pa, the naturally coming about of whatever work / action in regard to whatever thing without a different (lit. other) doer."
In short ཐ་དད་པ་ "the action to a thing by a different doer" and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ is the "naturally coming about of the action without a different doer".
ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ are also described through the relation of བདག་ "self" and བཞན་ "other". From the "Great Tibetan Chinese Dictionary" བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་, revering to ཐ་དད་པ་ verbs:
"In the context of the thak jug: when there is a 'doer' and the 'object of the action to be performed', then the 'principal' (agent) and 'complement' (instrument) which are connected with the བྱེད་པའི་ལས་ 'verb function done by an agent' are included within the category དངོས་པོ་བདག་ 'self thing'. The 'object of the action to be performed' which is connected with བྱ་ལས་ 'action done to the object' is included within the category དངོས་པོ་བཞན་ 'other thing'."
This means, a ཐ་དད་པ་ verb is a verb where there is an agent which is different from the patient / object of the action and with that there is བདག་ (self) and བཞན་ (other) and a connection between the two. Viewed from the agent side there is བྱེད་པའི་ལས་ the action that happens at the time when a transitive agent does something to its patient / (object of the verb), viewed from the patient (object) side there is བྱ་ལས་ the action that will happen to the patient (object)—བྱ་ཡུལ་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་བྱ་བ་ "the deed that is connected with the object".
And a ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ verb is a verb where there is no agent with a different patient (object) of the action, so བདག་གཞན་དང་དངོས་སུ་འབྲེལ་བ་མིན།, "there is not an actual connection between བདག་ and བཞན་."
Peter Schwieger points out[2] that except for the verbs of motion, existence and living the categories of ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ matches with the differentiation into voluntary and involuntary verbs and that the difference between ཐ་དད་པ་instant involuntary verbs of perception and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ is made upon the existence or missing of an agens and not the existence or missing of an object.[3]
This comes with the side effect that, for instance, involuntary verbs of perception and mental activity are categorized as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ yet they have their agent (subject) marked with agentive case and their patient (object) in ming tsam (no particle) which is the same for ཐ་དད་པ་ verbs.
Introduction to classifications of verbs according to their grammar
Note: This is not at all exhaustive. It is a short overview about the kind of verbs that can be encountered in Tibetan.
Linking verb
Patient (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: ming tsam, strict "first patient, then qualifier" word order
If the patient (object) of a transitive verb is marked by a la don particle, then it is usually with verbs where the object is only affected by the action expressed, but is not produced or the direct meaning of the action.
Agent (subject): agentive particle, patient (object): ming tsam, recipient (indirect object): la don.
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.".
སྨན་པས་ནད་པ་ལ་སྨན་སྟེར།
doctor the ill medicine give
The doctor gives medicine to the ill.
to give
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ་
སྟེར་བ།
སྟེར་བ།
སྟེར་བ།
སྟེར།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified verbs with transitive grammar
Unintentional verbs of perception
to see, མཐོང་བ་; to hear, ཐོས་པ་.
These verbs have an unintentional meaning to them, and have an intentional counterpart. E.g. unintentional "to see", མཐོང་བ་ and intentional "to look", ལྟ་བ་.
མདུན་ལམ་གསལ་པོར་མཐོང་བ།
front way clearly see
to see clearly the way in front
to see
v.t.(!)
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!)
མཐོང་བ།
མཐོང་བ།
མཐོང་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
The agent (subject) is omitted, the patient (object) མདུན་ལམ་ is in ming tsam.
Verbs of "understanding"
to understand, ཧ་གོ་བ་; to know, to cognize, ཤེས་པ་; to know, to understand རྟོགས་པ་
ཁོས་ཧ་མ་གོ
he not understand
He doesn’t understand.
to understand
v.t.(!)
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!)
གོ་བ།
གོ་བ།
གོ་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
ཧ་གོ་བ་ derived from གོ་བ་.
The agent (subject) ཁོ་ is marked by the agentive particle.
Some "passive / fruitional" verbs
to benefit, help, ཕན་པ་; to attain, to obtain, འཐོབ་པ་; to find, get, discover, gain, རྙེད་པ་.
Note: The difficulty with ཕན་པ་ is to find an example with a stated agent. In most cases there is only an instrument, source or reason given. The instrument is in the agentive case which effects the action (the benefiting), the action is not done by the patient (the benefited), so ཕན་པ་ has the characteristics of a transitive verb.
བདུད་རྩི་ལྟ་བུའི་ཆོས་ཤིག་བདག་གིས་རྙེད།
nectar like Dharma a/one I found
I have found this nectar like Dharma.
to find
v.t.(!)
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!)
རྙེད་པ།
རྙེད་པ།
རྙེད་པ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
The agent (subject) བདག་ is marked by the agentive particle.
The agent (subject) བདག་ is marked by the agentive particle the patient (which "experiences" the benefit) marked by ལ་.
སྨན་གྱིས་ནད་ལ་ཕན།
medicine illness benefit
The medicine helps against the illness.
Verbs with noticeable grammar
Verbs of necessity
Qualifier, that which needs: la don, patient, that what is needed: ming tsam
མྱུ་གུ་ལ་ཆུ་དགོས།
sprouts water need
Sprouts need water.
to need
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
དགོས་པ།
དགོས་པ།
དགོས་པ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
Note: 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 case, that which is absent of something: ming tsam
ལུང་པ་ཆུས་སྟོང་པ།
land water empty
The land is empty of water.
empty
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
སྟོངས་པ།
སྟོང་པ།
སྟོང་པ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
Verbs which change their meaning with different syntaxes
ཆོག་པ་ either "allowed, permitted" or "to be sufficient"
person other a self well-being sustenance give not come
We can not be given the sustenance of well-being by another person.
Transitive verbs with la don for the patient—intentional verbs of perception, of benefit or harm, of expressing mental activity, with qualifier of identity, equivalence
In this case, the patient is marked by the la don: དྲི་ལ་.
In the next two cases the patient is not marked by the la don but in ming tsam and in the second sentence the "nose", the "place of smelling" སྣར་ is marked by the la don.
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.
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 these sentences that which is touching is marked by the agentive particle: ལག་པས་.
the third: to contemplate about the example of the difficulty to find [a precious human birth]
རྒྱུ་ལ་དཔྱོད་པ་
cause examine
to examine the cause
Verbs with qualifier of identity / equivalence
When transitive verbs come with a qualifier of identity, the patient (object) is often marked with the la don ལ་ and the qualifier is marked with the la dons སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་.
Intransitive verbs with transitive grammar—verbs expressing "to make effort, to engage"
What the effort is towards: la don
to strive
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ་
འབད་པ།
འབད་པ།
འབད་པ།
འབོད།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to persevere
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ་
འགྲུས་པ།
འགྲུས་པ།
འགྲུས་པ།
འགྲུས།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to endeavour
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ་
བརྩལ་བ།
རྩོལ་བ།
བརྩལ་བ།
རྩོལ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
One note at the beginning: It is easy, "what the effort is towards: la don", that's it. The following short discussion about the categorization will hardly ever (which means 'never') be of concern when reading Tibetan.
Verbs like "to strive" are intransitive verbs in English with a qualifier stating what one is striving for, and S.V. Beyer places རྩོལ་ and བརྩོན་ with intransitive verbs.[5] In A Tibetan Verb Lexicon འབད་[6] and རྩོལ་[7] are classified as transitive. 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." As it is rather difficult to find a sufficient number of examples with a stated agent (subject) (in a reasonable time frame) that example has to do for now.
Considering these verbs as transitive would come with the problem that it would make "what the effort is towards" the patient, while it is merely a qualifier.
If it can be demonstrated that verbs like རྩོལ་བ་ frequently have their subject marked with the agentive case, which is quite possible due to the existence of an agent, and at the same time do not fall into the categories of verbs of motion and living, then what we are left with is an intransitive verb where the agent substitutes the patient (or the patient is marked by the agentive case). Please see: "5 Note, patient / subject-object / valency : advantages and problems" for an attempt on this phenomena.
But as stated above "what the effort is towards: la don". That will do the job.
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.
Linking verb, གཏན་འཁེལ་བའི་ཚིག་ "word of certainty"
Patient: ming tsam
qualifier: ming tsam
strictpatient—qualifier word order.
subject
complement
Note: The patient of a static verb is often called theme; its qualifier is also called complement.
Patient—that what is needed: ming tsam, Qualifier—that which needs: la don ལ་
Note: ལ་ is the most common la don.
to need
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
དགོས་པ།
དགོས་པ།
དགོས་པ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to require
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
མཁོ་བ།
མཁོ་བ།
མཁོ་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
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.
Verbs of separation and avoidance
Patient:ming tsam, qualifier—that which is separated from: originative ལས་ (most common), or originative ནས་, la don or ming tsam.
Verbs of separation
Qualifier—that which is separated from: originative ལས་.
to liberate
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
བཀྲོལ་བ།
འགྲོལ་བ།
དགྲོལ་བ།
ཁྲོལ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to transcend
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འདས་པ།
འདའ་བ།
འདའ་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to protect
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ་
བསྐྱབས་པ།
སྐྱོབ་པ།
བསྐྱབ་པ།
སྐྱོབས།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to liberate
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཐར་བ།
ཐར་བ།
ཐར་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to reverse
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ལྡོག་པ།
ལྡོག་པ།
ལྡོག་པ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
འཁོར་བ་ལས་གྲོལ་བ།
samsara liberated
liberated from samsara
དགྲ་ལས་སྐྱོབ་པ་
enemy protect
protected from the enemy
བློ་ཡུལ་ལས་འདས་པ།
mind realm pass beyond
gone beyond the realm of mind
ལམ་ནོར་བ་ལས་ལྡོག་པ།
path mistaken turn away
turn away from the mistaken path
Verbs of avoidance
Qualifier—that which is avoided (irregular): originative, la don or ming tsam.
to avoid
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ་
བཟུར་བ།
འཛུར་བ།
གཟུར་བ།
ཟུར།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to turn away
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
བྱོལ་བ།
འབྱོལ་བ།
འབྱོལ་བ།
བྱོལ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to keep away
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ
གཡོལ་བ།
གཡོལ་བ།
གཡོལ་བ།
གཡོལ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
མཚོན་ཆ་ལས་ཟུར་ཅིག
weapon avoid "!"
Avoid the weapon!
གཞུང་ལམ་ནས་བཟུར་ཏེ་བྲོས་སོང་།
main road avoided escaped (past auxiliary)
[He] avoided the main road and escaped
ལམ་བྱོལ་ནས་ཕྱིན་པ།
road turn away went
Turning off the road [he] went.
ཆུ་འོག་བྲག་རྡོ་ལས་གཡོལ་བ།
water under rocks dodge
to avert the under water rocks
གཞུང་ལམ་ལ་གཡོལ་ནས་ལམ་ལོག་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།
main road keep away derelict path went
Keeping away from the main road, [he] went along a derelict path.
Verbs of absence and "presence"
Patient:ming tsam, Qualifier—that which is absent or "present": agentive case
Verbs of absence
Patient—that which is absent of something: ming tsam, Qualifier—that which is absent: agentive case
to be empty
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
སྟོངས་པ།
སྟོང་པ།
སྟོང་པ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to be devoid of
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
དབེན་པ།
དབེན་པ།
དབེན་པ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to lack
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
དབུལ་བ།
དབུལ་བ།
དབུལ་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to lack
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཕོངས་པ།
ཕོང་བ།
ཕོང་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
མི་ཤུགས་ཀྱིས་མི་ཕོང་བ།
person strength not lack
the person doesn’t lack strength
བདག་གིར་ལྟ་བའི་མི་མཐུན་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱིས་སྟོང་པ།
mine view not concordant side empty, free
free from the non-concordant side of the view of "mine"
ལུང་པ་ཆུས་སྟོང་པ།
land water empty
the land is empty of water
ནོར་འཁྲུལ་གྱིས་དབེན་པ།
mistake devoid
devoid of mistakes
དངོས་པོ་ཐམས་ཅད་ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་སྟོང་པའི་ཕྱིར།
things all essential nature empty because
Because all things are empty of an essential nature...
མཚན་མའི་དྲི་མས་དབེན་ལ་
characteristic stains devoid
devoid of the stains of characteristics
Verbs of "presence"
Note: Here the term "presence" is used as the counter part to "absence" and is not to be taken very literately. (if you know of a better way to name these verbs after their function (with one or two words) please let me know)
Patient—that which is effected by the "presence": ming tsam, Qualifier—that which is "present": agentive case.
to be full
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
གང་པ།
གང་བ།
གང་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to fill up with
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཁེངས་པ།
ཁེང་བ།
ཁེང་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to fill
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ་
བཀང་བ།
འགེངས་པ།
དགང་བ།
ཁོང༌།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to fill, to pack with
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ་
གཏམས་པ།
གཏམས་པ།
གཏམས་པ།
གཏོམས།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to be full
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འགྲངས་པ།
འགྲང་བ།
འགྲང་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
བུམ་པ་ཆུས་ཁང༌།
vase water full
The vase is full of water.
ཁང་པའི་ནང་དུ་ཆུས་ཁེངས་སོང༌།
house inside water filled (past auxiliary)'
The inside of the house had filled with water.
བུམ་པ་ཆུས་བཀང༌།
vase water fill
The vase was filled with water.
བང་མཛོད་ནོར་གྱིས་གཏམས།
store-house riches fill
[They] filled the store room with valuables.
ཟས་ཀྱིས་གྲོད་པ་འགྲངས་དྲགས་ནས་ན་སོང་།
food stomach full 'too' ill became
having 'over-filled' the stomach, [he] became ill
Verbs that express connection or disconnection: conjunctive, disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison, verbs of possession II
Qualifier—that which the connection is with: དང་, la don or originative.
Conjunctive verbs I—ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
Patient:ming tsam, Qualifier—that which the conjunction is with: དང་
Note: The དང་ is frequently omitted.
to be related, connected
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འབྲེལ་བ།
འབྲེལ་བ།
འབྲེལ་བ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to meet
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཕྲད་པ།
འཕྲད་པ།
འཕྲད་པ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
འབྲས་བུ་དང་ནི་འབྲེལ་བའི་རྒྱུ།
result connected cause
the cause which is connected to the result
གང་ཚེ་མར་མེ་སྐྱེ་བཞིན་པ། །མུན་པ་དང་ནི་ཕྲད་པ་མེད།
when lamp arise (auxiliary) darkness meet not exist
When there is the arising of a flame, the meeting with darkness does not exist.
Conjunctive verbs II—ཐ་དད་པ་
Qualifier—that which the conjunction is with: དང་ or la don
Note: While the verb སྦྱོར་བ་ (which has a number of meanings) frequently uses the la don, they are very rarely seen with other verbs.
to connect, join, apply, unite
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ་
སྦྱར་བ།
སྦྱོར་བ།
སྦྱར་བ།
སྦྱོར།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to connect, attach, link, bind together
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ་
སྦྲེལ་བ།
སྦྲེལ་བ།
སྦྲེལ་བ།
སྦྲེལ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
འཕགས་པའི་བཞེད་པ་དང་སྦྲེལ་བ།
noble wish connect
connected with the noble wish
་་་་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་སྐབས་དེ་དང་སྦྱར་ཏེ།
termed, called time that applied
applied to that time when called...
ཉེས་ཅན་ཁྲིམས་ལ་སྦྱོར་བ་
wrong doers law connect
criminals are brought to the law
Without qualifier marked by དང་
ཐལ་མོ་སྦྱར་ནས་གུས་འདུད་ཞུ།
palm joined respectfully bow request
joining the palms [one] requests respectfully
the palms are simply joined and not joined with something.
Disjunctive verbs
Qualifier—that which is "disjointed" from: དང་ or originative ལས་.
ལྡན་པ་, to have, possess, together with; བཅས་པ་, together with, having.
ལྷག་མ་དང་བཅས་པ།
remainder have, with
with remainder
དོན་དང་ལྡན་པའི་བྱ་བ།
meaning have work, deed
work which has a meaning
Verbs of evaluation, assertion
Patient (subject)—that which is evaluated or asserted: ming tsam, la don, or agentive case.
The following verbs can be rather flexible in their grammar, having their patient (subject) in ming tsam or marked by the la don and others having their patient (subject) in ming tsam or agentive case. Some of them change their meaning with syntax.
that deed not appropriate suffering that those deed is not logical "if asked why"
In that way, [in regard to] that suffering which is asserted as being produced by self, other or both, [and then] because it is produced by self, other or both it [would] follow that it is the deed of self, other or both. That [suffering] is not appropriate as a deed. [It is] not logical [that] that suffering is their deed. If asked "Why?"...
Verbs of evaluation, assertion II
Patient:agentive case, or Patient:ming tsam
With these verbs occurs the rare case where the patient might need be understood as being in the agentive case. In the example below it is the "drinking of the medicine" that is "sufficient". (This case is quite different from the one of "Verbs expressing 'to make effort, to engage'", in their case it is a volitional action with the one preforming the action in the agentive case and a 'direction' for that action; see above). The best way to view this might be as having a verb complement in the agentive case, substituting the patient. Or in another way, they are monovalent verbs which need to have their complement in the agentive case.
སྨན་འདི་བཏུང་བས་འཐུས།
medicine this drink sufficient
To drink this medicine will be sufficient.
Just as an experiment, one other way to interpret this without the patient / verb complement in the agentive case would be to include a second, identical, omitted participant which would be the patient: སྨན་འདི་བཏུང་བ་ནི་སྨན་འདི་བཏུང་བས་འཐུས།, "drinking this medicine will be sufficient by drinking this medicine". While this is clearly too constructed it could point to the origin of this structure from something "being sufficient" to becoming itself the "instrument-patient-verb complement".
Any ideas, examples, research on origin, interpretation etc. are very welcome.
to be sufficient
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཆོག་པ།
ཆོག་པ།
ཆོག་པ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to be sufficient this will do instead of it will do
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འཐུས་པ།
འཐུས་པ།
འཐུས་པ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
to be fitting agreeable matching, suitable
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འགྲིགས་པ།
འགྲིག་པ།
འགྲིག་པ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
འགྲོ་འཐུས།
go sufficient
sufficient to go / sufficient [if you] go [instead of...]
དེ་རིང་ཞུ་རྒྱུ་དེ་ཙམ་གྱིས་འགྲིག་པ་
today said that just fitting
what was said will do for today
རྩོད་གླེང་འགྲིགས་ན་བཟང༌།
discussion agreeable good
If the outcome of the discussion is agreeable it is good
བཤད་པས་འཐུས།
explanation suffice
The explanation will suffice.
Verbs with multiple meanings occurring with different syntax
This is a intended as a short introduction with a few selected examples.
ཆོག་པ་, to be sufficient or to be allowed
1. "to be sufficient, to be acceptable"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་: ལོང་བ་དང༌། ལྡང་བ།
2. "to be allowed, to be permissible"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་: རུང་བ་དང༌། འགྲིག་པ།
1. to be sufficient acceptable 2. allowed permissible
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཆོག་པ།
ཆོག་པ།
ཆོག་པ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
1. "to be sufficient"; the agentive case marking the patient, that what is sufficient.
This is a rare cases where the patient is in the agentive case.
གོང་གསལ་དེ་དག་གིས་ཆོག
above clarified these sufficient
[what] was said above will suffice
2. "to be allowed"; patient (another verb) in ming tsam
བསམ་འཆར་བཤད་ཆོག
opinion express allowed
to be allowed to express [one's] opinion
སྤྱོད་པ་: to enter, practice or to experience, enjoy
1. "to engage in, to enter, behave, carry out, conduct oneself, practice"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་: འཇུག་པའམ་བྱེད་པ།
2. "experience, undergo, enjoy, to use"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་: ཉམས་སུ་མྱོང་པའམ་བེད་སྤྱོད་པ།
1. to engage in 2. to experience
v.t.
ཐ་དད་པ་
སྤྱད་པ།
སྤྱོད་པ།
སྤྱད་པ།
སྤྱོད།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
1. "to engage"; what one engages in is in ming tsam or la don
བྱ་བ་ངན་པ་དོར་ནས་བཟང་པོ་འབའ་ཞིག་སྤྱོད་པ།
deed evil abandoned good only engage
having abandoned evil actions, [he] engaged in only good
2. "to experience"; what one experiences is marked by la don
སྡུག་བསྔལ་ལ་སྤྱོད་པ།
suffering experience
to experience suffering
ཆགས་པ་: to be attached, or to be situated, or to happen
1. "to be attached, to desire, to crave for"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་: འདོད་པ་
2. "to be situated, to be put /staying in a certain way"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་: གནས་པའམ་འཇགས་པ།
3. "to happen, to occur, to become, to be produced"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་: བྱུང་བ་དང། གྲུབ་པ།
1. to be attached 2.to be situated 3. to happen
v.i.
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཆགས་པ།
ཆགས་པ།
ཆགས་པ།
past
pres.
fut.
imp.
1. "to be attached"; with the la don marking what the attachment is towards
རི་བོང་ཚང་ལ་ཆགས་པ།
rabbit home attached
The rabbit is attached to [it's] burrow.
2. "to be situated"; with la don as qualifier (adverbial, identity, space, etc.)
ས་བཞིན་དུ་ཆགས་པ་དང༌། རྡོ་བཞིན་དུ་གནས་པ།
earth like settled and stone like remain
[a person that is] settled like the earth and unmoving like a stone—(a very reliable and steady person)
<bt>
དགོན་པ་དེ་ཐང་ཆུང་ཆུང་ཞིག་གི་སྟེང་ལ་ཆགས་ས།
monastery that plain small a on situated (together with ས་ "site, location" in the following bigger context)
that monastery is situated on a small plain, [this] site...
3. "to occur, to become"; what is occurring etc. is in ming tsam. If the one / thing that became "something" is stated, then both are in ming tsam and the grammar is like that of a linking verb.
↑Peter Schwieger:Handbuch zur Grammatik der klassischen tibetischen Schriftsprache., 2009.
↑Peter Schwieger:Handbuch zur Grammatik der klassischen tibetischen Schriftsprache p.75, n.1: Wesentlich für die Differenzierung ཐ་དད་པ་ und ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ist mithin nicht das Vorhandensein oder Fehlen eines Objektes, sondern das Vorhandensein oder Fehlen des Agens.—Essential for the differentiation between ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ therefore is not existence or non-existence of an object, but the existence or non-existence of an agent."
↑This example is taken from A Tibetan Verb Lexicon by P.G.Hackett (which states Prajnakaramati's Commentary to the Bodhicaryavatara as source). Interestingly, there the verb ཕན་པ་ is classified as "Class III Nominative-Objective Verb" which means an intransitive verb with a qualifier marked by the la don, which seems to be rather miss-matched with the given example (having a stated agent in the agentive case and the one experiencing the benefit གཞན་ marked by the la don).
↑S.V. Beyer:The Classical Tibetan Language, p. 341
↑Paul G. Hackett:A Tibetan Verb Lexicon, p.131, འབད་ "verb class VI" / "Agentive-Objective Verb".
↑Paul G. Hackett:A Tibetan Verb Lexicon, p.147, རྩོལ་ as "verb class V" / "Agentive-Nominative Verb" with a noun example (རྩོལ་བ་ "exertion")