Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles

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

The 'la don' particles

Case Particles
Second Case: Objective Case, ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་ སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་
Fourth Case: Purposive Case, དགོས་ཆེད་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་ སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་
Seventh Case: Locative Case, རྟེན་གནས་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་ སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ན་, ར་, ལ་

Each of these three Tibetan cases refer to the same set of seven particles. These are the la don particles ལ་, ན་, སུ་, རུ་, ཏུ་, དུ་, ར་. The la don particles are in essence three particles ལ་, ན་ and སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་1 which have overlapping usages within these three cases.

Note: There is no connection between the fact that there are three particles and three cases. The three cases come from Sanskrit grammar which was used to describe Tibetan grammar. It is a coincidence that the three Tibetan particles—combined as the la don—express functions found in the three Sanskrit cases. The three different particles of the la don are not identical in their usage. And though Tibetan grammarians generally try to establish an at least nominal equivalence among them, practically this equivalence does not appear. Because of their overlapping usage and the Tibetan way of combining them as la don these three particles are treated together. An exclusive or predominate usage of the particles for a given function will be pointed out.

1 སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are the different spellings of one particle

Independent of verb type

Location in space

Place of activity

(Tib. ལས་སུ་བྱ་བའི་སྒྲ་, Objective case)

སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་རྒྱ་གར་ལ་ཆོས་བསྟན།
Buddha          India      Dharma taught
The Buddha taught the Dharma in India.

Direction

ཞིང་ལ་ཆུ་འདྲེན།
field water irrigate
to irrigate the field


Location in time

Locative case

དེའི་ཚེ་ན་
that time
at that time


ཁོ་ཡུན་རིང་དུ་ལྷ་སར་བསྡད།
he time long Lhasa stayed
He stayed a long time in Lhasa.


དུས་དང་གནས་སྐབས་ཐམས་ཅད་དུ་འཆི་བ་ཁོ་ན་སྒོམས།
time     circumstance   all            death   only meditate
At all times and circumstances meditate only on death.

Adverb of time with ན་

from སྔ་མ་: "in the past, before, past time, earlier"

སྔ་ན
earlier, previously
སྔ་ན་མེད་པ་
previously nonexistent


དུས་སྔ་མ་ནས་ད་ལྟའི་བར་
time former now until
from former times to now

Note: also སྔར་ "in the past, preceding, former, before", with a frozen la don (see: "frozen particles")

སྔར་ནས་འདྲིས་པའི་གྲོགས་པོ་
past  to be acquainted  friend
the friend [one] is acquainted with from the past


Purpose

ཞིང་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ལོ་ཏོག་སྨིན་པ་ལ་ཆུ་འདྲེན།
farmer pl.        the crop  ripen     water irrigate
The farmers irrigate for the ripening of the crop.


Referential qualifier (ལ་)

མོ་ལ་བུ་ཞིག་སྐྱེས།
she child a born
A child was born to her.


ང་ལ་ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་སྡིག་པའི་ལས་མི་ཆུང་ངོ།།
I     you      evil     deeds not small
For me your evil deeds are not small.


སེམས་ཅན་ཆེན་པོ་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་བུ་གཅིག་པ་དང་འདྲ།
Mahasattva          all             son   same    similar, like
Mahasattva was for everyone like their son.


གཟུགས་བརྙན་གྱི་བུད་མེད་ལ་བུད་མེད་དོ་སྙམ་
image, reflection  woman   woman    to think
to think in regard to an image of a woman [that it is] a woman


Topical (ལ་)

དང་པོ་ལ།
first
regarding the first


དང་པོ་རང་ལུགས་བཞག་པ་ལ།
first   own system  to define; to put
firstly, [in regard to] the presentation of our own position


་་་་༌། དེ་ལ་ཡིད་ཆེས་པའི་དད་པ་ནི།
       that      trust              faith
in regard to that, the trusting faith:


Adverbial (སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་)

ཁོང་གིས་གསལ་བར་བཤད།
he          clear        explained
He explained clearly.


བདེན་པར་ཡོད་པ
truth          exist
truly existent


མྱུར་དུ་
quick, swift
quickly, swiftly
མྱུར་བ་
དེ་ལྟ་བུར་ཡོད་པ་
that like  be
to be like that
དེ་ལྟ་བུ་
རྒྱུན་དུ་
continuum
continuously
རྒྱུན་
རྟག་ཏུ་
permanent
always, constantly, permanently
རྟག་པ་


Qualifier of identity / equivalence (སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་)

For reflections about ambiguities see: "3.2 Note on ambiguities".

མི་དེ་རྣམས་ཆེ་བར་སྣང༌།
human those big to appear
Those people appear as big.


ཁྱིམ་ལ་དུར་ཙམ་དུ་འཛིན།
household grave only  apprehend
to apprehend a household merely as a grave


གཅིག་དུ་མར་སྣང༌།
one    many  appear
one appearing as many


Identity of transformation: what something is transformed into marked by (སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་)

Objective case

མཁས་པར་འགྱུར་བ
learned      to become, change into
to become learned


ལྷ་རུ་གྱུར་
god   became
became a god


དུམ་བུར་གཅོད་པ་
pieces      cut
to cut (something) in to pieces


རྒྱལ་པོས་ནི་སྟ་རེས་མགོ་བོ་དུམ་བུར་གསེས།
king           axe     head    pieces     split, shred
The king split the head into pieces with an axe.


Joining of noun and verb (སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་)

Objective case

These may form new lexicalized2 words.

འོད་དུ་འཚེར་བ་
light    to emit, shine, to be bright
to emit light, to be bright


ཉམས་སུ་  ལེན་
experiences to take
to practice


ཉམས་སུ་   མྱོང་བ་
experiences to experience
to experience


2 To make or coin a new word or accept a new word into the lexicon of a language.


Verbs with la don

The topic here is the usage of the la don particles directly between a (nominalized) verb or a clause ending in a verb and another verb or adjective. e.g.: བླང་བར་རུང་. This usage quite often expresses an infinitive construction or gerund from an English point of view. (There are different approaches and opinions on how to treat this grammatically.) For the usage between clauses see: "1.11 coordination".

See: "3.1 Note on classifications" and "3.3 Note on omissions".

Direct verb - verb relation (སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་)

Verb and auxiliary verb
རྙེད་པར་འགྱུར།
find    future auxiliary
(one) will find / obtain


རྒྱལ་པོ་བསྲུང་བར་ཡོང༌།
king     protect  future / to come
the king will be protected


ཕྲུ་གུ་སྐྱེས་སུ་ཟིན་ཀྱང་་་
child born  past auxiliary even
even though the child was (already) born, ...


Modal3 relation

See: "3.1 Note on classifications" and "3.2 note on ambiguities" for a further explanation of these relations and the reasons for the coming classifications and their names.

Expressing a quality&mdashepistemic status

མྱུར་དུ་འཆི་བར་ངེས་པས་
soon—————die——————certain
because it is certain [that one] will die soon ...


evaluative status

གཅིག་པུ་འགྲོ་དགོས་
alone—————go————need————(omitted བར་ between the two verbs)
(one) needs to go alone


ཇི་ཙམ་ལེན་ནུས་པ་དེ་ཙམ་བླང་བར་རུང་སྟེ།
as much take able that just take——appropriate
just as much as [one] is able to take on [it] is appropriate to take on


expressing a feature

ཐོས་པར་སྙན་པ་
to hear——pleasant
pleasant to hear

<btr>

་་་འདུལ་བར་སླ་བ་ལ་སེམས་ལྟ་བུ་གཞན་མ་གཟིགས།tame        easier  mind   like other not seen
....in regard to being easy to tame [I] have not seen anything like the mind4
{{{3}}}


ཕྲད་པར་ཤིན་ཏུ་དཀའ།
to meet extremely difficult
extremely difficult to meet


སངས་རྒྱས་ཉག་གཅིག་མ་གཏོགས་གཞན་དག་གིས་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྟོགས་པར་དཀའ་སྟེ།
Buddha       only       except        other       extremely understand difficult
Apart from for the Buddha, for all others [this] is extremely difficult to understand


3 Modality: covering expressions of how the world (situation, circumstances) might be and should be; this includes expressions of necessity, permissibility and probability, and negations of these.

4 "(In this world, if tamed and brought onto the path) there is nothing other (that will obey and) is as easy to be tamed like the mind."