Tibetan Grammar - verbs

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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
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.



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.



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.



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
stative copula
linking verbs: theme in ming tsam, (no agent);
ཡིན་པ་ "to be, are"; (example)
stative non-volitional
unintentional intransitive verbs that describe a state of being and adjectives: theme in ming tsam, (no agent);
ངལ་བ་ "to be tired", བཟང་ "[to be] good, excellent"; (example)
dynamic non-volitional
unintentional intransitive describing an action or change: theme in ""ming tsam"", (no agent);
འཆི་བ། "to die"; (example)
dynamic directed
verbs of motion: theme in ming tsam, qualifier with la don; (no agent);
འགྲོ་བ་ "to go"; (example)
stative located
verbs of existence, possession; verbs of living; verbs of necessity: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent);
ཡོད་པ་ "to exist", "to have", དགོས་པ་ "to be needed"; (example)
stative affective
attitude verbs: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent);
དགའ་བ་ "to like"; (example)
stative directed
verbs of dependence: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent);
རྟེན་པ་ "to rely, depend"; (example)
agentive These are the intransitive aspects of the "verbs of absence and presence": theme in ming tsam, qualifier with the agentive particle, (no agent);
སྟོང་པ་ "to be empty"; (example)
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 intransitive verbs of separation; theme in ming tsam, qualifier with the originative particle, (no agent); (example)
stative irregular 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
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
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
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 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 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 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 ཁྱབ་པ་ "to pervade, permeate, be present throughout" (see below)
transitive verbs with directed grammar These are:
verbs of mental activity when the "object of interest" is actively engaged in. They then have the theme (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


སེམས་ངལ་བ།
mind   tired
mind is tired
to be tired v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ངལ་བ།  ངལ་བ།  ངལ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.



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


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.



dynamic directed

verbs of motion; འགྲོ་བ་ "to go", མཆོང་བ་ "to jump"

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: direction: la don, origin: originative


ཁོ་ལྷ་སར་ཕྱིན།
he Lhasa   went
He went to Lhasa.
to go v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཕྱིན་པ་, སོང་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  སོང།
past pres. fut. imp.



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


མྱུ་གུ་ལ་ཆུ་དགོས།
sprouts water need
Sprouts need water.
to need, to be needed v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.



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


ཞི་བདེར་དགའ་བ།
peace happy like
to like peace / wellbeing
to like v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
དགའ་བ།  དགའ་བ།  དགའ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.



stative directed

verbs of dependence; རྟེན་པ་ "to rely, depend"

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier - what it is depended upon: la don


འབྲས་བུ་རྒྱུ་དང་རྐྱེན་ལ་བརྟེན་ནོ། །
result cause and conditions depend
Results depend on causes and conditions.
to depend (on), to rely (on) v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
བརྟེན་པ།  རྟེན་པ།  བརྟེན་པ།  རྟེན།
past pres. fut. imp.



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


ལུང་པ་ཆུས་སྟོང་པ།
land water empty
The land is empty of water.
to be empty v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
སྟོངས་པ།   སྟོང་པ།   སྟོང་པ།  
past pres. fut. imp.



intransitive dynamic agentive
theme - that which is "full with something": ming tsam, qualifier - what is "present": agentive particle


ཁང་པའི་ནང་དུ་ཆུས་ཁེངས་སོང་།
house inside water filled (involuntary past tense auxiliary verb)
The inside of the house filled up with water.
to become full v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཁེངས་པ།  ཁེང་བ།  ཁེང་བ།  
past pres. fut. imp.



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


ནད་པ་རྣམས་ཚ་གྲང་སོགས་ཀྱི་ནད་ལས་གྲོལ་བར་ག་ལ་ཡོད་དེ་་་་
sick (plural) hot cold etc. illness free "How can this be?!"
How could the ill ever become free of their hot, cold etc. disease (if they do not listen to their skilled doctor).
to become free v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
གྲོལ་བ་།  གྲོལ་བ་།   གྲོལ་བ་།  
past pres. fut. imp.



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


ཆུ་དེ་བཏུངས་ན།
water that drank
if [one] drinks that water ...
to become free v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
བཏུངས་པ།   འཐུང་བ།   བཏུང་བ།   འཐུངས།
past pres. fut. imp.



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


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.


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.


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.



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


གངྒཱའི་བྱེ་མ་གྲངས་སྙེད་ཀྱི། སངས་རྒྱས་ཞིང་རྣམས་མི་གང་གིས། རིན་ཆེན་དག་གིས་ཀུན་བཀང་སྟེ།
Ganga grain number find Buddha field (plural) person who jewel    (plural)       all filled
if a person would completely fill with jewels, Buddhas fields as many as there are grains of sand in the Ganga ...
to fill v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
བཀང་བ།  འགེངས་པ།  དགང་བ།  ཁོང།
past pres. fut. imp.



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་


འཕགས་པའི་བཞེད་པ་དང་སྦྲེལ་བ།
noble            wish        connect
connected with the noble wish
to connect, attach, link, bind together v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ།
past pres. fut. imp.



originative

These are the transitive verbs of separation.; སྐྱོབ་པ་ "to protect"

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier: originative particle


དགྲ་ལས་སྐྱོབ་པ་
enemy   protect
protected from the enemy
to protect v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
བསྐྱབས་པ།  སྐྱོབ་པ།  བསྐྱབ་པ།  སྐྱོབས།
past pres. fut. imp.



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


དཔེ་དེབ་ལ་བལྟ་བ།
book         look
[one] will look at (/ study) the books
to look v.i. ཐ་དད་པ་
བལྟས་པ།  ལྟ་བ།  བལྟ་བ།  ལྟོས།
past pres. fut. imp.



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


ལས་དོན་ལ་རྩོལ་བ།
undertaking to endeavor
to endeavor in the undertaking
to endeavour v.i. ཐ་དད་པ་
བརྩལ་བ།  རྩོལ་བ།  བརྩལ་བ།  རྩོལ།
past pres. fut. imp.



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


སྲིན་བུ་མེ་ཁྱེར་གྱིས་ཉི་མ་ལ་འགྲན།
firefly                sun    challenge
The firefly challenges the sun.
to rival, to compete with v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན།
past pres. fut. imp.



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


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.



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


རྒྱུ་ལ་དཔྱོད་པ་
cause examine
to examine the cause
to analyse v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
དཔྱད་པ།  དཔྱོད་པ།  དཔྱད་པ།  དཔྱོད།
past pres. fut. imp.



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་


ཁྱིམ་ལ་དུར་ཙམ་དུ་འཛིན
household grave only apprehend
to apprehend a household only as a grave
to apprehend;... v.t. ཐ་དད་པ
བཟུང་བ།  འཛིན་པ།  གཟུང་བ།  ཟུང་།
past pres. fut. imp.



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.:

སྦྲེལ་བ་ agentive transitve ཐ་དད་པ་
to connect, attach, link, bind together
སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ།
past pres. fut. imp.
འབྲེལ་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be related, connected
འབྲེལ་བ།   འབྲེལ་བ།   འབྲེལ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


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.:

འགེངས་པ་ agentive transitve ཐ་དད་པ་
to fill, to fill up with
སྦབཀང་བ།  འགེངས་པ།  དགང་བ།  ཁོང༌།
past pres. fut. imp.
ཁེང་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to fill with, to fill up with
ཁེངས་པ།  ཁེང་བ།  ཁེང་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
གང་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be full
འགྲངས་པ།  འགྲང་བ།  འགྲང་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


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


ཡིན་པ་ ming tsam intransitive
is / are
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 
ལགས་ ming tsam intransitive
is /are
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 
མིན་པ་ ming tsam intransitive
(abbreviation of མ་ཡིན་པ་)
is not / are not
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 


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.

བཀྲེས་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be hungry
བཀྲེས་པ།  བཀྲེས་པ།  བཀྲེས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
ངལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be tired
ངལ་བ།  ངལ་བ།  ངལ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
ན་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be ill, to be in pain
ན་བ།  ན་བ།  ན་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


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

འཆི་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to die
ཤི་བ།  འཆི་བ།  འཆི་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
འཆར་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to arise
ཤར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  འཆར་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


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

འགྲོ་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to go
ཕྱིན་པ་ / སོང་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  སོང་།
past pres. fut. imp.
འཇུག་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to enter, setting out on (a path)
ཞུགས་པ།  འཇུག་པ།  འཇུག་པ།  ཞུགས།
past pres. fut. imp.


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

གནས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to abide, stay
གནས་པ།  གནས་པ།  གནས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
འདུག་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to stay, be present
འདུག་པ།  འདུག་པ།  འདུག་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
སྡོད་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to stay, to live, to reside
བསྡད་པ།  སྡོད་པ།  བསྡད་པ།  སྡོད།
past pres. fut. imp.
བཞུགས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to stay, (honorific for སྡོད་པ་)
བཞུགས་པ།  བཞུགས་པ།  བཞུགས་པ།  བཞུགས།
past pres. fut. imp.


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

ཡོད་པ་ ming tsam intransitive
to exist
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 
གདའ་ ming tsam intransitive
to exist, to be there
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 
མཆིས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive
to exist
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 
མེད་པ་ ming tsam intransitive
not to exist
The negation of ཡོད་པ་ is always མེད་པ་ and never *མ་ཡོད་པ་
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 
འགྲུབ་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to come into existence, to be existent;
(to be produced; to be accomplished, to be done; to be proven)
གྲུབ་པ།  འགྲུབ་པ།  འགྲུབ་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


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

ཡོད་པ་ ming tsam intransitive
to have
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 
མེད་པ་ ming tsam intransitive
not to exist[14]
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 
མངའ་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
tto have, to possess
མངའ་བ།  མངའ་བ།  མངའ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
བདག་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be owned, belong to, controlled, governed
བདག་པ།  བདག་པ།  བདག་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
བདོག་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to have; to exist [for something some where]
བདོག་པ།  བདོག་པ།  བདོག་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


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.

དགོས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
toneed, to be need
དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
མཁོ་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to need, to require, to be require
མཁོ་བ།  མཁོ་བ།  མཁོ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


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

སྐྲག་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be afraid
སྐྲག་པ།  སྐྲག་པ།  སྐྲག་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
སྐྱོ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be sad
སྐྱོ་བ།  སྐྱོ་བ།  སྐྱོ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
བྱམས་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to love
བྱམས་པ།  བྱམས་པ།  བྱམས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
དད་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to have faith
དད་པ།  དད་པ།  དད་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
གུས་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to have respect
གུས་པ།  གུས་པ།  གུས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
འཇིགས་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to fear
འཇིགས་པ།  འཇིགས་པ།  འཇིགས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


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

རྟེན་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to depend, to rely
རྟེན་པ།  རྟེན་པ།  བརྟེན་པ།  རྟེན།
past pres. fut. imp.
ལྟོས་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be related, to be dependent
བལྟོས་པ།  ལྟོས་པ།  ལྟོས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
རག་ལས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive
to rely, to depend
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 


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

སྟོན་པ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to teach, show
བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན་པ།  བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན།
past pres. fut. imp.
གསོད་པ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to kill
བསད་པ།  གསོད་པ།  གསད་པ།  སོད།
past pres. fut. imp.
འཐུང་བ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to drink
བཏུངས་པ།  འཐུང་བ།  བཏུང་བ།  འཐུངས།
past pres. fut. imp.


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

མཐོང་བ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to see
མཐོང་བ།  མཐོང་བ།  མཐོང་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
ཐོས་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to hear
ཐོས་པ།  ཐོས་པ།  ཐོས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


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

ཧ་གོ་བ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to understand, to comprehend (derived from གོ་བ་ to understand,
comprehend; to notice; to hear [and comprehend])
གོ་བ།  གོ་བ།  གོ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
ཤེས་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to know, to cognize
ཤེས་པ།  ཤེས་པ།  ཤེས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
རྟོགས་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to know, to understand
རྟོགས་པ།  རྟོགས་པ།  རྟོགས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


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

འཐོབ་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to attain, to obtain
ཐོབ་པ།  འཐོབ་པ།  འཐོབ་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
རྙེད་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to find, get, discover, gain
རྙེད་པ།  རྙེད་པ།  རྙེད་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


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 tsamrecipient (indirect object)[15]: la don


སྦྱིན་པ་ agentive ditransitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to give
བྱིན་པ།  སྦྱིན་པ།  སྦྱིན་པ།  སྦྱིན།
past pres. fut. imp.
སྟེར་བ་ agentive ditransitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to give, to bestow, to present
སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར།
past pres. fut. imp.


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).

ལྟ་བ་ agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་
to look
བལྟས་པ།  ལྟ་བ།  བལྟ་བ།  ལྟོས།
past pres. fut. imp.
སྣོམ་པ་ agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་
to smell (actively); (also: to hold, carry)
བསྣམས་པ།  སྣོམ་པ།  བསྣམ་པ།  སྣོམས།
past pres. fut. imp.
རེག་པ་ agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་
to touch
རེག་པ།  རེག་པ།  རེག་པ།  རེག
past pres. fut. imp.


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]

འབད་པ། agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་
to exert oneself, to strive, make effort
འབད་པ།  འབད་པ།  འབད་པ།  འབོད།
past pres. fut. imp.
འགྲུས་པ། agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་
to persevere, to be diligence, to be industrious
འགྲུས་པ།  འགྲུས་པ།  འགྲུས་པ།  འགྲུས།
past pres. fut. imp.
རྩོལ་བ། agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་
to endeavour, make effort, exert
བརྩལ་བ།  རྩོལ་བ།  བརྩལ་བ།  རྩོལ།
past pres. fut. imp.


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.




Endnotes

  1. It does not refer to the sentence- or discourse-level category of "topic".
  2. 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".
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. མི་ང་རང་ངན་ཏེ་ lit.:... the person [who is me] myself ... .
  6. 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.".
  7. also called "addressee" and "beneficiary"
  8. 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.
  9. 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".
  10. See: Verbs and Particles - Notes for the discussion about transitive verbs with agentive directed grammar.
  11. 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.
  12. 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.
  13. མི་ང་རང་ངན་ཏེ་ lit.:... the person [who is me] myself is bad ...
  14. The negation of ཡོད་པ་ is always མེད་པ་ and never *མ་ཡོད་པ་
  15. also called "addressee" and "beneficiary"
  16. a constituent of the clause that has a relation with the main verb
  17. 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."