Tibetan Grammar - First case 'ming tsam' - just the name

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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.

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

by Stefan J. E.

First Case, མིང་ཙམ་, just the name

This section contains Tibetan script. Without proper Tibetan rendering support configured, you may see other symbols instead of Tibetan script.

Also called: nominative case, "no particle", accusative case, patient role particle "-Ø". This case does not add any particle to the word or changes it any way.


Independent of verb type

Topic

Enumeration, section heading, title

དང་པོ།
first
firstly


Proleptic

Proleptic: anticipatory
བྲམ་ཟེ་དབུལ་པོ་དེ་ནི་ཁྱིམ་བདག་གིས་དེ་ལ་བཟའ་དང་བགོ་བ་བྱིན།
Brahmin  poor       householder            food       cloths   gave
(Regarding) that poor Brahmin, the householder gave food and cloth to that (one).
The householder gave food and cloth to that poor Brahmin.


Temporal nominative

Temporal nominative can also be viewed as a very frequently omitted locative (la don) of time.


དེར་བསྡད་དུས་ same as: དེར་བསྡད་དུས་སུ་
there stayed time            there stayed time la don
at the time of staying there


དེའི་ཚེ་ same as: དེའི་ཚེ་ན་
that time            that time la don
at that (point in) time


In compound words

Note: See also "Formation of the Tibetan Words - compounded nouns".

Adjective/verb - adjective/verb

to be happy, glad v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
དགའ་བ།  དགའ་བ།  དགའ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
དགའ་སྤྲོ་
happy joyful
happy
  • from: དགའ་བ་ adjective, noun, verb:

joyful, happy; joy; to be happy, glad, pleased, to take joy in

to be joyful
to enjoy
v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
སྤྲོ་བ།  སྤྲོ་བ།  སྤྲོ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
སྤྲོ་བ་
joyful
to be joyful, to enjoy


བོད་སྐད་
Tibet language
Tibetan language


Noun - adjective

A noun-adjective combination becomes either just a noun with an adjective (see: " adjectives") or a new word.


གཏིང་ཟབ་
bottom, depth  deep
very deep; profound


རྒྱ་ཆེ་
extent big
vast, extensive


Apposition

སངས་རྒྱས། ཀུན་མཁྱེན། རྐང་གཉིས་གཙོ་བོ། སྐུ་གསུམ་པ། མཁྱེན་ལྔ་པ། འགྲོ་བའི་བླ་མ། རྒྱལ་བ། བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས།
Buddha    all knowing   foot two    main  kaya  three knowledge five being highest victorious Bhagavan
The Buddha, the Omniscient One, Chief of Humans (bipeds), Victorious One, [Possessor of] the Three Kayas, the One with the Five Knowledges, Lord of Beings, Victorious One, Bhagavan[...]


Nouns in a list - nominalized clauses in a list

སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་ཚོགས་ཁམས་དང་བྱང་ཆུབ་དང༌། ཡོན་ཏེན་སངས་རྒྱས་འཕྲིན་ལས་ཐ་མ་སྟེ།
Buddha Dharma assembly element enlightenment qualities enlightened activity final
The Buddha, Dharma, Sangha, element, enlightenment, qualities and finally enlightened activity


རྒྱུ་ནི་འབྱུང་བ་ཆེན་པོ་བཞི་སྟེ། སའི་ཁམས་ནི་སྲ་ཞིང་གཞི་འཛིན་པའི་ལས་བྱེད་པ། ཆུ་ཁམས་གཤེར་ཞིང་སྡུད་པ།
cause elements great four earth element solid and base to hold action do water element liquid and draw together
མེ་ཁམས་དྲོ་ཞིང་སྨིན་པ། རླུང་ཁམས་གཡོ་ཞིང་འཕེལ་བར་བྱེད་པའོ།།
fire element warmth and mature wind element move and increase do
Causal [forms] are the four great elements. The earth element is solid and is performing the function of support. The water element is liquid and cohesion. The fire element is warmth maturing. The wind element is moving and increasing.


Dependent on verb type

Most verbs have their patient in ming tsam.


See: Verb Notes, 1.2.1 patient; Verbs, 2 introduction to classifications of verbs according to their grammar; Verb Notes, 1.2 patient / subject-object / valency: advantages and problems;

Linking verb

Patient (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: ming tsam, strict first patient—then qualifier word order


དམར་པོ་ནི་ཁ་དོག་ཡིན།
red          colour   is
Red is [a] colour.

Verbs of existence

Patient: ming tsam, qualifier—place of existence: la don


མོ་གཤམ་གྱི་བུ་མེད།
barren women son not exist
The barren women’s son does not exist.


Verbs of possession I

Patient—what is owned: ming tsam, qualifier—possessor: la don


བདག་ལ་གཡག་ཡོད།
I bos grunniens have
I have yaks.

Intransitive verbs

Patient (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: la don


to arise v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཤར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  འཆར་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
ཉི་མ་ཤར།
sun  arose
The sun arose.


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


Transitive verbs

Agent (subject): agentive particle, patient (object): ming tsam


to teach v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན་པ།  བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན།
past pres. fut. imp.
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་ཆོས་བསྟན།
Buddha         Dharma taught
The Buddha taught the Dharma.


Ditransitive verbs

Agent (subject): agentive particle, patient (object): ming tsam, recipient (indirect object)[1]: la don


to give v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར།
past pres. fut. imp.
སྨན་པས་ནད་པ་ལ་སྨན་སྟེར།
doctor  the ill   medicine give
The doctor gives medicine to the ill.


Verbs with noticeable grammar: verbs of necessity; verbs of absence and "presence"

Verbs of necessity

Qualifier—that which needs: la don, patient—that what is needed: ming tsam


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


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, that which is absent of something: ming tsam


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


Endnotes

  1. also called "addressee" and "beneficiary"