Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles
Other articles from the Tibetan Grammar series:
[Tibetan Grammar - Introduction] [Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles]
by Stefan J. E.
The 'la don' particles
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This section contains Tibetan script. Without proper Tibetan rendering support configured, you may see other symbols instead of Tibetan script. |
| 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"
|
|
| 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་བ་ |
|
དེ་ལྟ་བུ་ |
|
རྒྱུན་ |
|
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—epistemic 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 |
| ་་་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 |
| 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."
Qualifier - intransitive verb (སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་)
Ability
see: "3.1 Note on classifications"
| སྨྲ་བར་ནུས་པ་ |
| speak able |
| able to speak |
| ཆོས་བྱེད་དུ་མི་ཁོམ། |
| Dharma do not to have time |
| to not have time to practice the Dharma |
Place, time, purpose, etc.
| གཅིག་པུར་དགྲ་རྒོལ་དུ་སོང་ནས་ |
| alone enemy to fight went |
| after he went alone to fight the enemy... |
Identity
Same as "1.7 qualifier of identity / equivalence"
see: "3.2 note on ambiguities"
| སྒྱུ་མ་ལྟ་བུ་མེད་པ་ལ་ཡོད་པར་སྣང་བ་ |
| illusion like not existing existing appear |
| like [an] illusion, not existing appears as existing |
Verbal clause as the patient (object) of a transitive verb (སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་)
The patient (object) of the verb can be a verb or a whole clause itself which is nominalized and marked by the la don. Verbs which have their object/patient normally in མིང་ཙམ་ have in this case their object marked by the la don.
In some of the following examples the usage of the la don can be interpreted in different ways. Yet in most examples the interpretation of a verbal clause as the patient (object) looks less constructed then its alternative; see: 3.2 note on ambiguities.
With verbs of "perception and mental activity“
| ལེན་པར་ཤེས་པ་ |
| to take to know |
| knowing to take; (he) knows to take |
| གང་ན་གདུལ་བྱ་ ཡོད་པ་དེའི་གནས་སུ་འགྲོ་བར་ཤེས་པ་རྫུ་འཕྲུལ་གྱི་ ཡུལ་ མངོན་པར་ཤེས་པ། |
| where one to be tamed exist that place go know miraculous display place super knowledge |
| knowing to go to the place where ever those to be tamed are is the super knowledge [of knowing] the places for miraculous displays |
| བདེ་སྐྱིད་འཐོབ་པར་སེམས་པ། |
| happiness obtain think |
| to think about obtaining happiness |
(Verbs like སེམས་པ་ "to think" can also have their object marked with the la don ལ་, giving it the meaning " to think about, to meditate on"; see: "2.1 patient (object) of a transitive verb" and "Verbs which change their meaning with different syntaxes".
| ཟངས་མདོག་དཔལ་གྱི་རི་བོ་པདྨ་འོད་ཀྱི་ཕོ་བྲང་རྟེན་དང་བརྟེན་པར་བཅས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་དངོས་སུ་བྱོན་ཏེ་ |
| copper-coloured mountain lotus light palace support and supported together all actually came |
| རང་གིས་བསྐྱེད་པའི་དམ་ཚིག་པ་ལ་ཆུ་ལ་ཆུ་བཞག་པ་ལྟར་གཉིས་སུ་མེད་པར་ཐིམ་པར་བསམ། |
| oneself generated samaya-sattva water water put like two not merge/dissolve meditate/think |
| To visualize that the Copper-coloured Mountain, the Palace of Lotus Light, together with all the support and all the supported, actually came and merged indivisibly with the samaya-sattva generated by oneself, like water poured into water. |
| མཉན་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་གྲུ་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་རང་དང་གྲུར་ཞུགས་པའི་མི་ལ་སོགས་པ་ཐམས་ཅད་མཉམ་དུ་ |
| ferry-man called boatmen oneself and boat entered people and so on all together |
| ཆུའི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་འགྲོ་བར་འདོད་པ་ལྟར་ |
| river other side go want like |
| [in regard to generating Bodhicitta] that which is called 'ferry-man' is like boatmen wanting themselves together with all the people etc. on the boat to go to the other side of the river |
Verbs of "communication"
| སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་བསྒོམས་པས་སྡིག་པ་བྱང་བར་གསུངས། |
| shunyata meditated negativity cleaned taught |
| [The Buddha] taught that by meditating on shunyata, negativities are purified. |
| ཞེས་པའི་འགྲེལ་པར། ་་་་་་་་བྱང་སྒྲ་མི་སྙན་ན་ཡོན་ཏན་རིན་ཆེན་བརྩེགས་དང༌། ཁམས་གསུམ་བདེ་རྒྱས་ |
| commentary north Unpleasant Sound qualities precious piled up and realms three bliss expands |
| སྒྲོན་མེའི་མཆོད་རྟེན་གཉིས་བཞུགས་པར་བཤད་དོ།། |
| torch stupa two to remain explained |
| In the commentary on [the quote]....... [it is] explained [that] ...... in the northern continent "Unpleasant Sound" there are the two stupas "piled up [with] precious qualities" and "torch [that] expands the bliss [in] the three realms". |
With verbs of "command, request and supplication" showing the purpose
| ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་བསྟན་བཅོས་འདི་བསྟན་དུ་གསོལ། |
| you shastra this teach to request, supplicate |
| (I) supplicate you to teach this shastra. |
| རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་པར་ཞུས། |
| monastic vows requested |
| [They] requested monastic vows. |
Adverbial / simultaneity (of verb - verb) (སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་)
This usage occurs between two verbs. It can also coordinate a clause within a larger clause or one clause with an other clause (see 1.11.1).
| ཆོས་མ་གསུངས་པར་བཞུགས་ |
| Dharma not taught stayed |
| (He) stayed, (in the manner of / while) not teaching the Dharma. |
| བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ལུས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི་རྒྱད་ལ་ཁྱབ་པར་བཞུགས་ཀྱང༌། |
| Sugatagarbha beings all continuum pervade reside even |
| even though the Sugatagarbha pervadingly resides in the continuum of all beings ... |
| གཞན་ཐམས་ཅད་ནི་ཐེག་དམན་ཉན་ཐོས་པ་ཁོ་ན་ཆེར་དར་ ཞིང་ད་ལྟའང་ མ་ནུབ་པར་བཞུགས་པ་ཡིན་ནོ།། |
| other all Hinayana Shravaka only great spread and now even not sink remain |
| regarding all the other [places] the Hinayana alone spread widely and even now remains without declining (sinking) |
With omission of the la don
(from the same text as the previous example)
| ཐེག་དམན་ཆེར་དར་ད་ལྟའང་མ་ནུབ་བཞུགས། |
| Hinayana great spread now not sink remain |
| [there] the Hinayana spread widely and even now remains without declining (sinking) |