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.
by Stefan J. E.
Verbs
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་.
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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
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Intransitive verbs:
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No direct object, might have qualifier, no passive voice: e.g. I go.; I go to the market.; The bird died.
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Transitive verbs:
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Can have a direct object, can form passive voice: e.g. I buy bread.; The bird was killed by the cat.
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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."
Tibetan language
In general their grammar is:
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།
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small bird died
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The small bird died.
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to die
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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ཤི་བ།
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འཆི་བ།
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འཆི་བ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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ཉི་མ་ཤར།
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sun arose
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The sun arose.
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to arise
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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ཤར་བ།
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འཆར་བ།
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འཆར་བ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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མེ་ཏོག་འཆར།
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flower blossom
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The flower blossoms.
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to blossom
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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ཤར་བ།
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འཆར་བ།
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འཆར་བ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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Transitive verbs
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་ཆོས་བསྟན།
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Buddha Dharma taught
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The Buddha taught the Dharma.
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to teach
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v.t.
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ཐ་དད་པ་
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བསྟན་པ།
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སྟོན་པ།
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བསྟན་པ།
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སྟོན།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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ཁོས་དཔེ་དེབ་ལ་བལྟས།
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he book(s) looked
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He looked at books.
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to look
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v.t.
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ཐ་དད་པ་
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བལྟས་པ།
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ལྟ་བ།
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བལྟ་བ།
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ལྟོས།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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Verbs with related intransitive and transitive form
འཁོར་ལོ་འཁོར།
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wheel turn/spin
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The wheel turns.
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to turn
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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འཁོར་བ།
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འཁོར་བ།
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འཁོར་བ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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བདག་གིས་འཁོར་ལོ་སྐོར།
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I wheel turn
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I turn the wheel.
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to turn
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v.t.
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ཐ་དད་པ་
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བསྐོར་བ།
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སྐོར་བ།
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བསྐོར་བ།
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སྐོར།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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གངས་ཞུ།
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snow melt
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The snow melts.
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to melt
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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ཞུ་བ།
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ཞུ་བ།
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ཞུ་བ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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ཁོས་གངས་བཞུ།
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he snow melt
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He melts the snow.
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to melt
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v.t.
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ཐ་དད་པ་
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བཞུས་པ།
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བཞུ་བ།
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བཞུ་བ།
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བཞུས།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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ཤིང་ལོ་སེར་པོར་འགྱུར།
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leaves yellow change/turn
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The leaves turned yellow.
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to change
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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འགྱུར་བ།
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འགྱུར་བ།
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འགྱུར་བ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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མིང་གཞན་དུ་བསྒྱུར་
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name other change
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...changed [the name] into an other name.
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to change
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v.t.
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ཐ་དད་པ་
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བསྒྱུར་བ།
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སྒྱུར་བ།
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བསྒྱུར་བ།
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སྒྱུར།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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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 {{gtib|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་:
- བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་དད་: རྟགས་ཀྱི་འཇུག་པའི་དགོངས་དོན་ལྟར་དངོས་པོ་གང་ཞིག་ལ་ལས་ཀ་གང་ཞིག་བྱེད་པ་པོ་གཞན་གྱིས་དངོས་སུ་སྒྲུབ་པར་བྱེད་པ།
- "'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."
- བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་མི་དད་: རྟགས་ཀྱི་འཇུག་པའི་དགོངས་དོན་ལྟར་དངོས་པོ་གང་ཞིག་ལ་ལས་ཀ་གང་ཞིག་བྱེད་པ་པོ་གཞན་དངོས་སུ་མེད་པར་རང་གི་ངང་གིས་འགྲུབ་པ།
- "'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:
- རྟག་འཇུག་སྐབས་ཀྱི་བྱེད་པ་པོ་དང་བྱ་བའི་ཡུལ་ཡིན་ལ་དེ་ཡང་བྱེད་པོ་གཙོ་ཕལ་དང་བྱེད་པའི་ལས་བཅས་དངོས་པོ་བདག་གི་ཁོངས་སུ་འདུ་བ་དང༌། བྱ་ཡུལ་བྱ་ལས་དང་བཅས་པ་དངོས་པོ་བཞན་གྱི་ཁོངས་སུ་འདུ།
- "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
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དམར་པོ་ནི་ཁ་དོག་ཡིན།
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red colour is
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Red is [a] colour.
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Intransitive verbs བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་མི་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་—ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
Patient (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: la don
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ཉི་མ་ཤར།
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sun arose
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The sun arose.
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to arise
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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ཤར་བ།
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འཆར་བ།
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འཆར་བ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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Verbs of motion: འགྲོ་བ་, to go, མཆོང་བ་, to jump.
ཁོ་ལྷ་སར་ཕྱིན།
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he Lhasa went
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He went to Lhasa.
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to go
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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ཕྱིན་པ་, སོང་བ།
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འགྲོ་བ།
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འགྲོ་བ།
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སོང།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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Unintentional verbs: འཆི་བ་, to die, ལྷུང་བ་, to fall.
Unintentional verbs of feeling: བཀྲེས་པ་, to be hungry, ངལ་བ་, to be tired.
Verbs of emotion, attitude verbs
Patient (subject): ming tsam, qualifier, that which the attitude is towards: la don.
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དཔའ་བོ་ལ་གུས་པ་
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hero respect
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respect towards the hero
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to respect
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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གུས་པ།
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གུས་པ།
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གུས་པ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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Transitive verbs—ཐ་དད་པ་, and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified verbs with transitive grammar
Transitive verbs: agent (subject): agentive particle, patient (object): ming tsam.
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སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་ཆོས་བསྟན།
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Buddha Dharma taught
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The Buddha taught the Dharma.
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to teach
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v.t.
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ཐ་དད་པ་
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བསྟན་པ།
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སྟོན་པ།
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བསྟན་པ།
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སྟོན།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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Transitive verbs with patient marked by la don
Agent (subject): agentive particle, patient (object): la don.
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ཁོས་མོ་ལ་བལྟས།
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he she looked
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He looked at her.
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to look
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v.t.
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ཐ་དད་པ་
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བལྟས་པ།
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ལྟ་བ།
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བལྟ་བ།
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ལྟོས།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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ནད་ཀྱིས་ལུས་ལ་གནོད།
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illness body to harm
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The illness harmed the body.
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to harm
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v.t.
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ཐ་དད་པ་
|
གནོད་པ།
|
གནོད་པ།
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གནོད་པ།
|
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past
|
pres.
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fut.
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imp.
|
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Ditransitive verbs
- 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.
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- 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།
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doctor the ill medicine give
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The doctor gives medicine to the ill.
|
|
to give
|
v.t.
|
ཐ་དད་པ་
|
སྟེར་བ།
|
སྟེར་བ།
|
སྟེར་བ།
|
སྟེར།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
|
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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།
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front way clearly see
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to see clearly the way in front
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to see
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v.t.(!)
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!)
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མཐོང་བ།
|
མཐོང་བ།
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མཐོང་བ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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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
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he not understand
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He doesn’t understand.
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to understand
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v.t.(!)
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!)
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གོ་བ།
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གོ་བ།
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གོ་བ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
|
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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།
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nectar like Dharma a/one I found
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I have found this nectar like Dharma.
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to find
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v.t.(!)
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!)
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རྙེད་པ།
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རྙེད་པ།
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རྙེད་པ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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- The agent (subject) བདག་ is marked by the agentive particle.
ཀུན་དགའ་བོས་དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ཉིད་ཐོབ་བོ།།
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Ananda arhat attained
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Ananda attained [the state of an] arhat.
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to attain
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v.t.(!)
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!)
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ཐོབ་པ།
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འཐོབ་པ།
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འཐོབ་པ།
|
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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བདག་གིས་གཞན་ལ་ཕན་པར་བྱ།
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I other benefit will (auxiliary verb)'
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I will benefit others.[4]
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to benefit
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v.t.(!)
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!)
|
ཕན་པ།
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ཕན་པ།
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ཕན་པ།
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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- The agent (subject) བདག་ is marked by the agentive particle the patient (which "experiences" the benefit) marked by ལ་.
སྨན་གྱིས་ནད་ལ་ཕན།
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medicine illness benefit
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The medicine helps against the illness.
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Verbs with noticeable grammar
Verbs of necessity
Qualifier, that which needs: la don, patient, that what is needed: ming tsam
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མྱུ་གུ་ལ་ཆུ་དགོས།
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sprouts water need
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Sprouts need water.
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to need
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
|
དགོས་པ།
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དགོས་པ།
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དགོས་པ།
|
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
|
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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
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ལུང་པ་ཆུས་སྟོང་པ།
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land water empty
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The land is empty of water.
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empty
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v.i.
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ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
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སྟོངས་པ།
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སྟོང་པ།
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སྟོང་པ།
|
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past
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pres.
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fut.
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imp.
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Verbs which change their meaning with different syntaxes
- ཆོག་པ་ either "allowed, permitted" or "to be sufficient"
See: "verbs of evaluation / assertion II", la don, "3.1 Note on classifications for 1.10 verbs with la don", "verbs 'expressing an evaluative status'".
When meaning "allowed, permitted" ཆོག་ comes right after the verb it makes the statement about.
བསམ་འཆར་བཤད་ཆོག
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opinion express allowed
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allowed to express [ones] opinion
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When meaning "to be sufficient" then it's patient, it comes after that what is "sufficient" (marked by the agentive particle).
ཇི་སྐད་བཤད་པ་ཁོ་ན་ཉམས་སུ་བླངས་པས་ཆོག་སྟེ།
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how explained only practiced sufficient
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to have practiced only as it has been explained is sufficient
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Classification of verbs according to their grammar
Transitive verbs
{
སྔ་ཚིག་དང་མཐུན་པ།
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former words in accord with
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in accordance with the former words
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བློ་དང་འཚམ་པ་
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mind in accord with
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in accordance with the mind
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འཁོར་ལོ་བར་མཐའ་གཉིས་ཀའི་ངེས་དོན་དང་ཆ་མཐུན་པ་
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wheel middle last both definitive meaning part accord
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...[it] is in accordance with the definitive meaning of both, the middle and last [turning of] the wheel [of Dharma].
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ཐེག་པ་གཞེན་ལ་མི་འཚམས་པ་
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vehicles other not accord
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not in accord with other vehicles
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ཁ་གཏིང་གཉིས་མཐུན་
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words and thoughts two accord
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with words and thoughts in accord (united)
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དེ་དག་ཀུན་ཀྱང་འཁོར་བའི་རྒྱུ་བདག་ཏུ་འཛིན་པ་སྤངས་ནས་ཐར་པ་མྱང་འདས་ཀྱི་གོ་འཕང་བསྒྲུབ་པར་མཐུན་ནོ།།
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those all samsara cause self grasp discard liberation nirvana state accomplish accord
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All those are in accord with discarding the cause of samsara, the grasping at [a] self and accomplishing the state of liberation, Nirvana.
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- Note: མྱང་འདས་ is short for མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་, Nirvana.
གལ་ཏེ་གཅིག་གམ་སྙམ་ན། མ་ཡིན་ཏེ། མཚན་ཉིད་མི་མཐུན་པའི་ཕྱིར་ཏེ།
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in case one ? wonder if not is characteristic not in accord because
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If [one] wonders:"Are [the self and the skandhas] one?" - [they] are not, because [their] characteristics are not in accordance, ...
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Verbs of "comparison"
Patient—that what is compared: ming tsam, Qualifier—what it is compared against: དང་ or la don
|
to match, to rival to compete with to challenge
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v.t.
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ཐ་དད་པ་
|
འགྲན་པ།
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འགྲན་པ།
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འགྲན་པ།
|
འགྲན།
|
past
|
pres.
|
fut.
|
imp.
|
|
to compare against to check and verify
|
v.t.
|
ཐ་དད་པ་
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བསྡུར་བ།
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སྡུར་བ།
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བསྡུར་བ།
|
སྡུར།
|
past
|
pres.
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fut.
|
imp.
|
|
to match against to compare to things old for འགྲན་པ་
|
v.t.
|
ཐ་དད་པ་
|
བསྒྲུན་པ།
|
སྒྲུན་པ།
|
བསྒྲུན་པ།
|
སྒྲུན།
|
past
|
pres.
|
fut.
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imp.
|
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རིག་པ་འགྲན་པ་
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intelligence match
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to match wits
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ཇོ་ནང་ཀུན་སྙིང་གིས་རྒྱ་དཔེ་དང་བསྡུར་ཏེ་
|
Taranatha Indian book verified
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Taranatha verified [the translation] against the Indian [text]
|
ཤིང་སྡོང་ལ་ཡར་འཛེག་པའི་ལུས་རྩལ་དེ་སྤྲ་དང་སྤྲེའུ་ལ་འགྲན་ཐུབ།
|
tree trunk up climb body skill that monkey and monkey rival able
|
that skill of climbing up trees is able to rival [that of] monkeys
|
- Note: ལུས་རྩལ་ normally means "physical exercise", but "physical skill" seems more fitting in this context.
སྲིན་བུ་མེ་ཁྱེར་གྱིས་ཉི་མ་ལ་འགྲན།
|
firefly sun rival
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the firefly rivals the sun
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མི་སྡར་མས་དཔའ་བོ་ལ་བསྒྲུན་ཕོད་དམ་མི་ཕོད།
|
coward hero match dare not dare
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Can a coward dare to match a hero?
|
Verbs of possession II
Patient: ming tsam, Qualifier: དང་ or la don
|
- Note: see the chapter on la don "la don substitute for དང་ with verbs using དང་
- ལྡན་པ་, to have, possess, together with; བཅས་པ་, together with, having.
ལྷག་མ་དང་བཅས་པ།
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remainder have, with
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with remainder
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དོན་དང་ལྡན་པའི་བྱ་བ།
|
meaning have work, deed
|
work which has a meaning
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Verbs of evaluation, assertion
[...]
Endnotes
- ↑ See: Transitive verbs—ཐ་དད་པ་, and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified verbs with transitive grammar.
- ↑ 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).