Tibetan Grammar - 'la don' particles

From Rigpa Wiki
Revision as of 08:13, 15 February 2011 by Domschl (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

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

by Stefan J. E.

The 'la don' particles

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"

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 qualityepistemic 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 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 #Adverbial / simultaneity).

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)



Coordination

Adverbial / simultaneity

This is similar to #1.10.12 - check this link, seems to be wrong, but here the clause is not directly before the second verb. The meaning is again that of "simultaneity" or "adverbial".

In most cases the first statement is a negative statement (has a negated verb).

First clause with negated verb

ཡོན་ཏན་དང་ལྡན་ན་སྐྱེ་བོ་ཀུན།     མ་བསྡུས་པར་ཡང་རང་ཉིད་འདུ།
good qualities possess person all     not gathered         one self gather
If (a person) possess good qualities everybody will gather (around them) of their own accord without being gathered (by someone).


མར་མེ་གཅིག་ལས་གཅིག་སྦར་ན་སྔ་མ་ལ་མ་ལྟོས་པར་ཕྱི་མ་མེད་
butter lamp one    one   lit   if  former not  rely    latter not exist
if [one] lights one butter lamp from an another, without relying on the former the latter [does] not exist.


ཇི་ལྟར་ན་ལེགས་པར་གསུངས་པ་ཡིན་ཞེ་ན།  ་་་་༌།  རེས་འགའ་བ་མ་ཡིན་པར་རྒྱུན་དུ་གསུངས་པའི་ཕྱིར་དང༌།
'
how    well/excellent  taught      is               occasionally   not is     continuously taught   because and


གཅིག་གིས་གཅིག་ལ་ཞེ་སྡང་མི་བསྐྱེད་པར་རང་གི་སྔོན་བྱས་ཀྱི་ལས་ངན་སྨིན་པ་ཤེས་པར་བྱས་ནས་བཟོད་བསྲན་བསྐྱེད་དགོས་ཏེ་
one           one  aggression not generate  self   earlier done   action bad mature know           forbearance  generate need
[They should] not generate aggression for one another but knowing that it is the maturation of their own past negative actions they should generate forbearance.


Example with a positive first clause

རིགས་པ་དང་ལུང་གིས་རབ་ཏུ་བསྟན་པར་རང་གི་འདོད་པ་གྲུབ་
logic         scripture  fully demonstrate  ones  assertion  established
[With] fully demonstrating through logic and scriptures one's assertion is established.


The temporal and conditional ན་ after a clause

Note: This is the most used function of ན་ vastly outnumbering all it's others (and is somewhat under-represented here).

ཉན་ཐོས་ཀྱི་མདོ་སྡེ་མཐོང་ན་ཉན་ཐོས་ལ་དད་དེ།
Shravaka    sutra    see     Shravaka  faith
if / when [they] see the Shravaka-sutras, [they] will have faith in the Shravakas


The coordinating ལ་ after a clause

ངོ་བོ་སྟོང་ལ་རང་བཞིན་གསལ།
essence empty  nature    luminous
[its] essence is empty and / while [its] nature is luminous


ཚིག་འཛིན་ལ་དོན་མི་འཛིན་པ།
word retain   meaning retain
to remember the words, [but] not to remember the meaning


་་་དགེ་འདུན་དཀོན་མཆོག་ལ་མོས་ཤིང་གུས་ལ་སེམས་དང་བའོ། །
  sangha       jewel       devotion respect   mind  clear / delighted, sincere
....[having] towards the Jewel of the Sangha devotion, respect and great faith


གལ་ཏེ་གཅིག་གམ་སྙམ་ན།   མ་ཡིན་ཏེ།   མཚན་ཉིད་མི་མཐུན་པའི་ཕྱིར་ཏེ།   ཕུང་པོ་ནི་མི་རྟག་པ་དང་
in case   one   ?      wonder    not  is  characteristic not in accord because      skandhas impermanent and
དུ་མ་སྤུངས་པ་དང་གཞན་དབང་ཅན་ཡིན་ལ།   བདག་ནི་རྟག་པ་དང་གཅིག་པུ་དང་རང་དབང་ཅན་དུ་འཛིན་པའི་ཕྱིར་རོ།   །
many gathered and  other-controlled  are la don  self  permanent and singular self-controlled     grasped because
If [one] were to wonder, [are the self and the skandhas] one? - [they] are not, because the [their] characteristics are not in accordance - while the skandhas are impermanent, a gathering of many and other-controlled, the self is grasped at as permanent, singular and self-controlled.


The same type of coordination occurs with adjectives.

གསལ་ལ་ཟླུམ་པའི་ཟླ་བ།
clear     round     moon
the clear and round moon


ཐག་པ་སྲ་ལ་    གྲིམ་པ་ཞིག
rope   solid / hard  tight / firm
a solid and firm rope


Postpositions