Revision as of 02:52, 17 February 2011

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.

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

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་.

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
Intransitive verbs:	No direct object, might have qualifier, no passive voice: e.g. I go.; I go to the market.; The bird died.
Transitive verbs:	Can have a direct object, can form passive voice: e.g. I buy bread.; The bird was killed by the cat.

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:


Tibetan
Intransitive verbs:	patient / subject: ming tsam (no particle)	qualifier: la don
Transitive verbs:	agent / subject: agentive particle	patient / object: ming tsam or la don

"Patient" is used here as a convenient term for subject (intransitive verb) and object (transitive verb)—both are mostly in ming tsam. 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".

[...]

Endnotes

@@ Line 8: / Line 8: @@
 =Verbs=
 {{gtib|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==
+{| class="wikitable" style="color:black;background-color:#e0f8f8; padding: 5px; border: 1px solid #ccc;" cellspacing="5" border="0"
+|+
+|-
+| 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་.
+|}
+===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.
+{| class="wikitable" style="color:black;background-color:#f0f8f8; padding: 5px; border: 1px solid #ccc;" cellspacing="5" border="0"
+|+
+|-
+|'''English'''
+|-
+|Intransitive verbs:
+|No direct object, might have qualifier, no passive voice: e.g. I go.; I go to the market.; The bird died.
+|-
+|Transitive verbs:
+|Can have a direct object, can form passive voice: e.g. I buy bread.; The bird was killed by the cat.
+|-
+|}
+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:
+{| class="wikitable" style="color:black;background-color:#f0f8f8; padding: 5px; border: 1px solid #ccc;" cellspacing="5" border="0"
+|+
+|-
+|'''Tibetan'''
+|-
+|Intransitive verbs:
+|patient / subject: [[ming tsam|''ming tsam'']] (no particle)
+|qualifier: [[la don|''la don'']]
+|-
+|Transitive verbs:
+|agent / subject: [[agentive]] particle
+|patient  / object: [[ming tsam|''ming tsam'']] or [[la don|''la don'']]
+|-
+|}
+"Patient" is used here as a convenient term for subject (intransitive verb) and object (transitive verb)&mdash;both are mostly in ming tsam. It will be stretched beyonds its definition from thematic relations as far as is necessary; (e.g. it will also include theme&mdash;undergoes the action but does not change its state, and experiencer&mdash;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།
+ཤི་བ།  འཆི་བ།  འཆི་བ།
+small bird died
+The small bird died.
+ཉི་མ་ཤར།
+ཤར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  འཆར་བ།
+sun    arose
+The sun arose.
+མེ་ཏོག་འཆར།
+ཤར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  འཆར་བ།
+flower   blossom
+The flower blossoms.
+ transitive verbs
+སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་ཆོས་བསྟན།
+བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན་པ།  བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན།
+Buddha          Dharma taught
+The Buddha taught the Dharma.
+ཁོས་དཔེ་དེབ་ལ་བལྟས།
+བལྟས་པ།  ལྟ་བ།  བལྟ་བ།  ལྟོས།
+he      book(s)   looked
+He looked at books.
+verbs with related intransitive and transitive form
+འཁོར་ལོ་འཁོར།
+བདག་གིས་འཁོར་ལོ་སྐོར།
+wheel     turn/spin
+I                  wheel    turn
+The wheel turns.
+I turn the wheel.
+འཁོར་བ།  འཁོར་བ།  འཁོར་བ།  ༼ཐ་མི་དད་པ༽
+བསྐོར་བ།  སྐོར་བ།  བསྐོར་བ།  སྐོར།  ༼ཐ་དད་པ༽
+གངས་ཞུ།
+ཁོས་གངས་བཞུ།
+snow   melt
+he      snow   melt
+The snow melts.
+He melts the snow.
+ཞུ་བ།  ཞུ་བ།  ཞུ་བ།  ༼ཐ་མི་དད་པ༽
+བཞུས་པ།  བཞུ་བ།  བཞུ་བ།  བཞུས།  ༼ཐ་དད་པ༽
+ཤིང་ལོ་སེར་པོར་འགྱུར།
+མིང་གཞན་དུ་བསྒྱུར་
+leaves yellow change/turn
+name   other    change
+The leaves turned yellow.
+...changed [the name] into an other name.
+འགྱུར་བ།  འགྱུར་བ།  འགྱུར་བ།  ༼ཐ་མི་དད་པ༽
+བསྒྱུར་བ།  སྒྱུར་བ།  བསྒྱུར་བ།  སྒྱུར།  ༼ཐ་དད་པ༽
+.2 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 ཐ་མི་དད་པ་.
+Tibetan classification of  ཐ་དད་པ་ - 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, H.G.k.t.S., points out, 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.2
+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 which is the same for  ཐ་དད་པ་ verbs.
+-->
 '''<nowiki>[</nowiki>...<nowiki>]</nowiki>'''

Tibetan Grammar - verbs: Difference between revisions