Tibetan Grammar - verbs: Difference between revisions

From Rigpa Wiki
Jump to navigation Jump to search
mNo edit summary
mNo edit summary
Line 77: Line 77:


====Verbs with related intransitive and transitive form====
====Verbs with related intransitive and transitive form====
{{Gvsample|འཁོར་ལོ་འཁོར།|wheel&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;turn/spin|The wheel turns.|འཁོར་བ།|འཁོར་བ།|འཁོར་བ།| |to turn|v.i.|ཐ་མི་དད་པ་}}<br>
{{Gvsample|བདག་གིས་འཁོར་ལོ་སྐོར།|I&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;wheel&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;turn|I turn the wheel.|བསྐོར་བ།|སྐོར་བ།|བསྐོར་བ།|སྐོར།|to turn|v.t.|ཐ་དད་པ་}}<br>
{{Gvsample|གངས་ཞུ།|snow&nbs;&nbs;&nbs;melt|The snow melts.|ཞུ་བ།|ཞུ་བ།|ཞུ་བ།| |to melt|v.i.|ཐ་མི་དད་པ་}}<br>
{{Gvsample|ཁོས་གངས་བཞུ།|he&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;snow&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;melt|He melts the snow.|བཞུས་པ།|བཞུ་བ།|བཞུ་བ།|བཞུས།|to melt|v.t.|ཐ་དད་པ་}}<br>
{{Gvsample|ཤིང་ལོ་སེར་པོར་འགྱུར།|leaves yellow change/turn|The leaves turned yellow.|འགྱུར་བ།|འགྱུར་བ།|འགྱུར་བ།| |to turn, to become|v.i.|ཐ་མི་དད་པ་}}<br>
{{Gvsample|མིང་གཞན་དུ་བསྒྱུར་|name&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;other&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;change|...changed [the name] into an other name.|བསྒྱུར་བ།|སྒྱུར་བ།|བསྒྱུར་བ།|སྒྱུར།|to change, to transform|v.t.|ཐ་དད་པ་}}
===Classification of {{gtib|ཐ་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་}} and {{gtib|ཐ་མི་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་}} in relation to transitive and intransitive===
* {{gtib|བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་}}  "verb were the action and the doer of the action are different"
* {{gtib|བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་མི་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་}} "verb were the action and the doer of the action are not different"
'''In dictionaries'''
The {{gtib|བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་}} is the most important Tibetan-Tibetan dictionary. It’s classification of verbs into {{gtib|ཐ་མི་དད་པ་}} and {{gtib|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 {{gtib|ཐ་མི་དད་པ་}} in the {{gtib|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 {{gtib|ཐ་མི་དད་པ་}} and {{gtib|ཐ་དད་པ་}}, for example the unintentional verbs of perception are classified as {{gtib|ཐ་མི་དད་པ་}} in the {{gtib|བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་}}, but in other Tibetan-grammar treatises considered to be {{gtib|ཐ་དད་པ་}} (Note: they do have the grammar of ''transitive verbs'').<ref>See: [["2.3 transitive verbs  (ཐ་དད་པ་) and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified verbs with transitive grammar"]]</ref>
The point is that it could be at times puzzling seeing a verb with ''transitive grammar'' being labeled as ''intransitive verb'' or classified as {{gtib|ཐ་མི་དད་པ་{{gtib|.
===Tibetan classification of {{gtib|ཐ་དད་པ་}} and {{gtib|ཐ་མི་དད་པ་}}===
From the ''Great Tibetan Chinese Dictionary'', {{gtib|བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་}}:
* {{gtib|བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་དད་}}: {{gtib|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."
* {{gtib|བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་མི་དད་}}: {{gtib|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 {{gtib|ཐ་དད་པ་}} "the action to a thing by a different doer" and {{gtib|ཐ་མི་དད་པ་}} is the "naturally coming about of the action without a different doer".
{{gtib|ཐ་དད་པ་}} and {{gtib|ཐ་མི་དད་པ་}} are also described through the relation of བདག་ "self" and བཞན་ "other". From the "Great Tibetan Chinese Dictionary" {{gtib|བོད་རྒྱ་ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་}}, revering to {{gtib|ཐ་དད་པ་}} verbs:
* {{gtib|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 {{gtib|བྱེད་པའི་ལས་}} 'verb function done by an agent' are included within the category {{gtib|དངོས་པོ་བདག་}} 'self thing'. The 'object of the action to be performed' which is connected with {{gtib|བྱ་ལས་}} 'action done to the object' is included within the category {{gtib|དངོས་པོ་བཞན་}} 'other thing'."
This means, a {{gtib|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 {{gtib|བདག་}} (self) and {{gtib|བཞན་}} (other) and a connection between the two. Viewed from the agent side there is {{gtib|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 {{gtib|བྱ་ལས་}} the action that will happen to the patient (object)&mdash;{{gtib|བྱ་ཡུལ་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་བྱ་བ་}} "the deed that is connected with the object".
And a {{gtib|ཐ་མི་དད་པ་}} verb is a verb where there is no agent with a different patient (object) of the action, so {{gtib|བདག་གཞན་དང་དངོས་སུ་འབྲེལ་བ་མིན།}}, "there is not an actual connection between {{gtib|བདག་}} and {{gtib|བཞན་}}."
Peter Schwieger, H.G.k.t.S., points out, that except for the verbs of motion, existence and living the categories of  {{gtib|ཐ་དད་པ་}}  and {{gtib|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.<ref>'''Peter Schwieger''': H.G.k.t.S. p.75, n.1: ''Wesentlich für die Differenzierung ཐ་དད་པ་ und ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ist mithin nicht das Vorhandensein oder Fehlen eines Objektes, sondern das Vorhandensein oder Fehlen des Agens.''&mdash;Essential for the differentiation between ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ therefore is not existence or non-existence of an object, but the existence or non-existence of an agent."</ref>
This comes with the side effect that, for instance, involuntary verbs of perception and mental activity are categorized as {{gtib|ཐ་མི་དད་པ་}} yet they have their ''agent'' (subject) marked with agentive case and their ''patient'' (object) in ''ming tsam'' (no particle) which is the same for {{gtib|ཐ་དད་པ་}} verbs.
==Introduction to classifications of verbs according to their grammar==
'''Note:''' This is not at all exhaustive. It is a short overview about the kind of verbs that can be encountered in Tibetan.
===Linking verb===
<!--
<!--
འཁོར་ལོ་འཁོར།
patient (subject): ming tsam qualifier: ming tsam strict "first patient - then qualifier" word order
བདག་གིས་འཁོར་ལོ་སྐོར།
 
wheel     turn/spin
དམར་པོ་ནི་ཁ་དོག་ཡིན།
I                  wheel    turn
 
The wheel turns.
red            colour  is
I turn the wheel.
 
འཁོར་བ། འཁོར་བ། འཁོར་བ། ༼ཐ་མི་དད་པ༽
Red is [a] colour.
བསྐོར་བ། སྐོར་བ། བསྐོར་བ། སྐོར། ༼ཐ་དད་པ༽
 
 
 
 
 
 
2.2 intransitive verbs བྱ་བྱེད་ཐ་མི་དད་པའི་བྱ་ཚིག་  -  ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
 
patient (subject): ming tsam qualifier: la don
 
ཉི་མ་ཤར།
ཤར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  འཆར་བ།
sun    arose
 
The sun arose.
 
verbs of motion
འགྲོ་བ་ མཆོང་བ་            
to go to jump
 
ཁོ་ལྷ་སར་ཕྱིན།
ཕྱིན་པ་ / སོང་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  སོང།
he Lhasa  went
 
He went to Lhasa.
 
 
unintentional verbs
འཆི་བ་ ལྷུང་བ་
to die                  to fall
 
 
unintentional verbs of feeling
བཀྲེས་པ་ ངལ་བ་
to be hungry to be tired
 
 
verbs of emotion / attitude verbs
 
patient (subject): ming tsam qualifier  - that which the attitude is towards: la don
 
དཔའ་བོ་ལ་གུས་པ་
གུས་པ།  གུས་པ།  གུས་པ།
hero          respect
 
respect towards the hero
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2.3 transitive verbs  (ཐ་དད་པ་) and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified verbs with transitive grammar
 
transitive verbs:
 
agent (subject): agentive particle patient (object): ming tsam
 
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་ཆོས་བསྟན།
བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན་པ།  བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན།
Buddha          Dharma taught
 
The Buddha taught the Dharma.
 
 
agent (subject): agentive particle patient (object): la don 2
 
ཁོས་མོ་ལ་བལྟས།
བལྟས་པ།  ལྟ་བ།  བལྟ་བ།  ལྟོས།
he      she    looked
 
He looked at her.
 
ནད་ཀྱིས་ལུས་ལ་གནོད།
གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།
illness    body    to harm
 
The illness harmed the body.
 
 
ditransitive verbs3:
 
agent (subject): agentive particle            patient (object): ming tsam              recipient (indirect object)4: la don
 
སྨན་པས་ནད་པ་ལ་སྨན་སྟེར།
སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར།
doctor  the ill  medicine give
 
The doctor gives medicine to the ill.
 
ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified verbs with transitive grammar are:
 
unintentional verbs of perception
མཐོང་བ་  ཐོས་པ་
to see to hear
 
These verbs have an unintentional meaning to them, and  have an intentional counterpart. E.g. unintentional "to see" མཐོང་བ་ and intentional "to look" ལྟ་བ་.
མདུན་ལམ་གསལ་པོར་མཐོང་བ།
མཐོང་བ།  མཐོང་བ།  མཐོང་བ།  ༼ཐ་མི་དད་པ༽
front  way clearly          see
 
to see clearly the way in front
The agent (subject) is omitted, the patient (object) མདུན་ལམ་ is in ming tsam.
 
 
verbs of "understanding"
 
ཧ་གོ་བ་ ཤེས་པ་ རྟོགས་པ་
to understand to know, to cognize to know, to understand
 
ཁོས་ཧ་མ་གོ
ཧ་གོ་བ་ derived from    གོ་བ།  གོ་བ།  གོ་བ།  ༼ཐ་མི་དད་པ༽
he  not understand
 
He doesn’t understand
The agent (subject) ཁོ་ is marked by the agentive particle.
 
 
some "passive / fruitional" verbs 
 
ཕན་པ་5  འཐོབ་པ་ རྙེད་པ་
to benefit, help to attain, to obtain to find, get, discover,  gain
 
བདུད་རྩི་ལྟ་བུའི་ཆོས་ཤིག་བདག་གིས་རྙེད།
རྙེད་པ།  རྙེད་པ།  རྙེད་པ།  ༼ཐ་མི་དད་པ༽
nectar    like  Dharma a/one  I          found
 
I have found this nectar like Dharma.
The agent (subject) བདག་ is marked by the agentive particle.
 
ཀུན་དགའ་བོས་དགྲ་བཅོམ་པ་ཉིད་ཐོབ་བོ།།
ཐོབ་པ། འཐོབ་པ། འཐོབ་པ།  ༼ཐ་མི་དད་པ༽
Ananda             arhat                attained
 
Ananda attained [the state of an] arhat.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
བདག་གིས་གཞན་ལ་ཕན་པར་བྱ།6
ཕན་པ།  ཕན་པ།  ཕན་པ།  ༼ཐ་མི་དད་པ༽
I                other        benefit  will (auxiliary verb)
 
I will benefit others.
The agent (subject) བདག་ is marked by the agentive particle the patient (which "experiences" the benefit) marked by ལ་.
 
སྨན་གྱིས་ནད་ལ་ཕན། 
 
medicine  illness  benefit
 
The medicine helps against the illness.
 
 
2.4 verbs with noticeable grammar
 
verbs of necessity
 
qualifier  / that which needs: la don   patient / that what is needed: ming tsam
 
མྱུ་གུ་ལ་ཆུ་དགོས།
དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  ༼ཐ་མི་དད་པ༽
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
 
ལུང་པ་ཆུས་སྟོང་པ།
སྟོངས་པ།  སྟོང་པ།  སྟོང་པ།  ༼ཐ་མི་དད་པ༽
land    water  empty
 
the land is empty of water         
 
 
 
 
 
2.5 verbs which change their meaning with different syntaxes
 
ཆོག་པ་ either "allowed, permitted" or "to be sufficient"
(see: "verbs of evaluation / assertion II"; see: "la don", "3.1 Note on classifications for 1.10 verbs with la don", "verbs 'expressing an evaluative status'")
 
When meaning "allowed, permitted" ཆོག་ comes right after the verb it makes the statement about.
བསམ་འཆར་བཤད་ཆོག
 
opinion      express  allowed
 
allowed to express [ones] opinion
 
When meaning "to be sufficient" then it's patient, it comes after that what is "sufficient" (marked by the agentive particle).
 
ཇི་སྐད་བཤད་པ་ཁོ་ན་ཉམས་སུ་བླངས་པས་ཆོག་སྟེ།
 
how  explained  only    practiced          sufficient
 
to have practiced only as it has been explained is sufficient
 
 
3  classification of verbs according to their grammar
 
 
3.1  transitive verbs:
 
agent: agentive     
subject          
patient: ming tsam / la don
object
recipient: la don
indirect object
qualifier: la don
qualifier
 
     
3.1.1 "simple" transitive verbs
 
agent: agentive
subject          
patient: ming tsam
object
 
སྟོན་པ་  བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན་པ།  བསྟན་་པ།  སྟོན།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
གསོད་པ་  བསད་པ།  གསོད་པ།  གསད་པ།  སོད།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
to teach, show, illustrate
to kill
འཐུང་བ་  བཏུངས་པ།  འཐུང་བ།  བཏུང་བ།  འཐུངས།  - ཐ་དད་པ
 
to drink
 
 
ཁོས་ཇ་འཐུང༌།
 
he    tea  drink
 
He drinks tea.
 
3.1.2 ditransitive verbs
 
agent: agentive
subject          
patient: ming tsam
object
recipient: la don
indirect object
 
སྦྱིན་པ་  བྱིན་པ།  སྦྱིན་པ།  སྦྱིན་པ།  སྦྱིན།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
 
to give
 
 
མི་གཞན་ཞིག་གིས་རང་ལ་བདེ་སྐྱིད་ཀྱི་འཚོ་བ་སྦྱིན་མི་ཡོང༌།
 
person other a      self    well-being sustenance give not come
 
We can not be given the sustenance of well-being by another person.
 
3.1.3 transitive verbs with la don for the patient - intentional verbs of perception, verbs of benefit / harm, expressing mental activity, with qualifier of identity / equivalence
 
agent: agentive
subject          
patient: la don
object
 
3.1.3.1  intentional verbs of perception*
*Their grammar can be irregular.
 
ལྟ་བ་  བལྟས་པ།  ལྟ་བ།  བལྟ་བ།  ལྟོས།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
སྣོམ་པ་  བསྣམས་པ།  སྣོམ་པ།  བསྣམ་པ།  སྣོམས།    - ཐ་དད་པ་
to look
to smell (actively); to hold, carry
རེག་པ་  རེག་པ།  རེག་པ།  རེག་པ།  རེག  - ཐ་དད་པ་
 
to touch
 
 
ཁོས་མོ་ལ་བལྟས།
 
he    she    looked 
 
He looked at her.
 
ཇ་ཞིམ་པོའི་དྲི་ལ་སྣོམས།
 
tea fragrant  scent  smell!
 
Smell the scent of fragrant / delicious tea!
 
In this case the patient is marked by the la don (དྲི་ལ་).
In the next two cases the patient is not marked by the la don but in ming tsam and in the second sentence the "nose", the "place of smelling" (སྣར་) is marked by the la don.
དྲི་མ་སྣོམ།
 
scent smell
 
to smell the scent
སྤོས་ཀྱི་དྲི་ཞིམ་སྣར་བསྣམས།
 
fragrance scent nice nose smelled
 
[He] smelled / sniffed the nice scent of the fragrance in his nose.
 
ཆགས་སེམས་ཀྱིས་བུད་མེད་ཀྱི་ཤ་རྗེན་པ་ལ་རེག
 
attachment mind    women  flesh naked    touch
 
to touch a naked women with desire
 
ལག་པས་རེག་ནས་འཇམ་རྩུབ་ཚོར།
 
hand      touched      soft  rough  felt
 
The hand touched and the texture (soft-rough) was felt.
 
 
In these sentences that which is touching is marked by the agentive particle (ལག་པས་).
In the next sentences that which is touching is not marked by the agentive particle (ཤིང་གི་ཡལ་ག་ and རྐང་པ་), is in ming tsam. The patient / place of touching is marked by the la don as seen before.7
 
ཤིང་གི་ཡལ་ག་མགོ་བོར་རེག
 
tree      branch    head      touched
 
The tree branch touched the head.
 
རྐང་པ་སར་མ་རེག
 
feet  ground not touched
 
The feet did not touch the ground.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3.1.3.2 verbs of benefit / harm
 
agent (subject), doing the harm / benefit: agentive case patient (object) - the harmed / benefited: la don (ལ་)
གནོད་པ་  གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
འགོག་པ་  བཀག་པ།  འགོག་པ།  དགག་པ།  ཁོག  - ཐ་དད་པ་
to harm, hurt, injure, damage, undermine
to stop, block,  negate, refute
ཕན་པ་  ཕན་པ།  ཕན་པ།  ཕན་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(t.g.)8
 
to benefit, be of help
 
 
ནད་ཀྱིས་ལུས་ལ་གནོད།
 
illness  body    to harm
 
The illness harmed the body.
 
གྲུབ་མཐའ་ལ་བཀག
 
tenet       refuted
 
The philosophical tenet was refuted.
 
སྨན་གྱིས་ནད་ལ་ཕན།
 
medicine illness  to benefit
 
The medicine helps against the illness.
The medicine helped [to treat] the illness.
 
 
3.1.3.3 verbs expressing mental activity
 
Verbs expressing mental activity like སེམས་པ་ "to think" and སྒོམ་པ་ "to meditate, to cultivate" can have their patient (object)  market with the la don (ལ་). If the patient (object) again is a whole clause then the la dons སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are used. (see: "la don, 1.10.3")
 
སེམས་པ་  བསམས་པ།  སེམས་པ།  བསམ་པ།  སོམས།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
དཔྱོད་པ་  དཔྱད་པ།  དཔྱོད་པ།  དཔྱད་པ།  དཔྱོད།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
to think,  to contemplate
to examine, to analyze, investigate
 
གསུམ་པ་རྙེད་དཀའི་དཔེ་ལ་བསམ་པ་ནི་
 
third    find difficult example contemplate
 
the third: to contemplate about the example of the difficulty to find [a precious human birth]
 
རྒྱུ་ལ་དཔྱོད་པ་
 
cause examine
 
to examine the cause
 
 
3.1.3.4 verbs with qualifier of identity / equivalence
 
When transitive verbs come with a qualifier of identity, the patient (object) is often marked with the ལ་ (la don) and the qualifier is marked with the སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་(la don) .
 
འཛིན་པ་  བཟུང་བ།  འཛིན་པ།  གཟུང་བ།  ཟུང་།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
to apprehend; ...
 
 
ཁྱིམ་ལ་    དུར་ཙམ་དུ་འཛིན།
 
household grave only  apprehend
 
to apprehend a household only as a grave
 
For some more transitive verbs "with la don" see below: 4. verbs with multiple meanings (occurring with different syntax).
 
3.1.4 intransitive verbs with transitive grammar - verbs expressing "to make effort, to engage"
 
what the effort is towards: la don
 
འབད་པ་  འབད་པ།  འབད་པ།  འབད་པ།  འབོད།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
འགྲུས་པ་  འགྲུས་པ།  འགྲུས་པ།  འགྲུས་པ།  འགྲུས།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
to exert oneself, to strive, make effort
to persevere, to be diligence,  to be industrious
རྩོལ་བ་  བརྩལ་བ།  རྩོལ་བ།  བརྩལ་བ།  རྩོལ།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
 
to endeavor, make effort, exert,
 
 
One note at the beginning: It is easy, "what the effort is towards: la don", thats it. The following short discussion about the categorization will hardly ever (which means 'never') be of concern when reading Tibetan.
 
Verbs like "to strive" are intransitive verbs in English with a qualifier stating what one is striving for, and S.V.Beyer places རྩོལ་ and བརྩོན་ with intransitive verbs9.  In "A Tibetan Verb Lexicon" འབད་10 and རྩོལ་11 are classified as transitive. The example given is སྙིང་ནས་གྲོལ་བ་དོན་དུ་གཉེར་བའི་གང་ཟག་གིས། བདག་མེད་པའི་ལྟ་བ་རྣམ་པར་དག་པ་ཁོང་དུ་ཆུད་པའི་ཐབས་ལ་འབད་དགོས། "Persons who from the depths of their hearts seek liberation must work at the means of understanding the correct view of selflessness." As it is rather difficult to find a sufficient number of examples with a stated agent (subject) (in a reasonable time frame) that example has to do for now.
Considering these verbs as transitive would come with the problem that it would make "what the effort is towards" the patient, while it is merely a qualifier.
If it can be demonstrated that verbs like རྩོལ་བ་ frequently  have their subject marked with the agentive case, which is quite possible due to the existence of an agent, and at the same time do not fall into the categories of verbs of motion and living, then what we are left with is an intransitive verb where the agent substitutes the patient (or the patient is marked by the agentive case). Please see: "5 Note, patient  / subject-object / valency : advantages and problems" for an attempt on this phenomena.
But as stated above "what the effort is towards: la don". That will do the job.
 
སློབ་སྦྱོང་ལ་འབོད་ཅིག
 
study    make effort imperative particle
 
Make effort in your studies!
 
སྒོ་གསུམ་གྱིས་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་འགྲུས་པར་མཛད།
 
door three    bodhisattva conduct *  persevere  to make
*short for བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་
(One) will persevere in the bodhisattva conduct through body, speech and mind.
 
ལས་དོན་ལ་རྩོལ་བ།
 
undertaking  to endeavor
 
to endeavor in the undertaking
 
  བྱེད་སྟངས་  ནོར་  ན་ལས་ལ་བརྩལ་ཀྱང་མི་འགྲུབ།
 
doing way of mistaken if  work  effort even not accomplished
 
If the way of doing is mistaken, then even though making effort in the work, it will not be accomplished.
 
 
3.2  linking verb, གཏན་འཁེལ་བའི་ཚིག་ "word of certainty":
 
patient12: ming tsam     
subject          
qualifier: ming tsam
complement
strict "patient - qualifier" word order
 
ཡིན་པ་ 
མ་ཡིན་པ་ = མིན་པ་
ལགས་
is / are
is not
is / are
 
བུམ་པ་འདི་དམར་པོ་ཡིན།
 
vase      this  red        is   
 
This vase is red.
དམར་པོ་ནི་ཁ་དོག་ཡིན།
 
red            colour  is
 
Red is [a] colour.
 
 
རྒྱུ་ནི་བདེ་གཤེགས་སྙིང་པོ་ཡིན། རྐྱེན་ནི་དགེ་བའི་བཤེས་གཉེན་ཡིན།
 
cause  bliss gone    essence is                condition  virtuous  friend        is
 
The cause is the sugathagarbha, the condition is the virtuous friend.
 
དགྲ་བོ་ དེ་ ཉིད་  བཟོད་པ་དེ་ཡི་རྒྱུ་ཡིན་ན།
 
enemy that "very" patience that  cause is if
 
If that enemy is the cause of that very patience...
 
 
3.3 intransitive verbs13: verbs of possession, existence, living, motion, dependence, emotion / attitude, necessity
 
patient: ming tsam     
subject          
qualifier: la don
qualifier
 
 
The "qualifier of space and time" are not actual particularities of "verbs of existence, living, motion" but part of the la don "1.1 location in space", "1.2  location in time", and originative case "1.4.2.  beginning of a confined sequence or extent of space, time and enumerations" and occur with other verbs as well.
 
3.3.1 verbs of possession I
 
patient - what is owned: ming tsam            qualifier - possessor: la don
 
ཡོད་པ་      མེད་པ་14
མངའ་བ་  མངའ་བ།  མངའ་བ།  མངའ་བ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to have          not to have
to have, to possess
བདག་པ་  བདག་པ།  བདག་པ།  བདག་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
 
to be owned, belong to, controlled, governed
 
 
བདག་ལ་གཡག་ཡོད།
 
I  bos grunniens have
 
I have yaks.         
 
 
སྐུ་ལ་བསྙུང་གཞི་མི་མངའ།
 
body    illness    snot have
 
not ill
 
རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཀྱི་བདག་དབང་མི་དམངས་ལ་བདག་པ།
 
country        control        people            belong
 
The power of the country belongs to (/is hold by) the people.
 
 
3.3.2 verbs of existence
 
patient: ming tsam            qualifier - place of existence: la don
 
ཡོད་པ་      མེད་པ་15
གདའ་
to exist          not to exist
exist / to be there
མཆིས་པ་
འགྲུབ་པ་  གྲུབ་པ།  འགྲུབ་པ།  འགྲུབ་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to exist
to come into existence
 
བོད་ལ་གཡག་ཡོད།
 
Tibet  bos grunniens exist
 
There are yaks in Tibet.
 
མོ་གཤམ་གྱི་བུ་མེད།
 
barren women son not exist
 
The barren women’s son does not exist.
 
བོད་ལ་རིལ་མ་ཡོད།
 
Tibet  dung      exist
 
There is dung in Tibet.
 
འགག་པ་མེད་པ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ནི་འདི་ལ་འགག་པ་ཡོད་པ་མ་ཡིན་པའོ།
 
obstructed not exist  called    this    obstruct    exist  not is
 
[This] what is called unobstructed is: [It] is not the existence of [an] obstruction for this.
 
 
 
རི་བོང་གི་རྭ་ལ་སོགས་པ་མེད་པ་དག་
 
rabbit    horn and so on  not exist (plural)
 
non-existing [things like] rabbit’s horn and so on
 
        སྣམ་བུ་  གྲུབ་  ཅིང་ཡོད་པའི་རྐྱེན་    རྒྱུ་སྤུན་དག་ཡིན་ནོ།།
 
woolen cloth  came into  and exists  condition threads (plural) is
 
The condition for woolen cloth to have come into existence and to exist are threads.
 
བདེན་པར་ཡོད་པ་
རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པ་
truly      existent           
naturally / inherently existent
truly existent
inherently existent
 
 
3.3.3 verbs of living
 
patient: ming tsam            qualifier - qualifier of space and time: la don
 
གནས་པ་  གནས་པ།  གནས་པ།  གནས་པ།
འདུག་པ་  འདུག་པ།  འདུག་པ།  འདུག་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to abide, stay
to stay, be present
སྡོད་པ་  བསྡད་པ།  སྡོད་པ།  བསྡད་པ།  སྡོད།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
བཞུགས་པ་  བཞུགས་པ། བཞུགས་པ། བཞུགས་པ། བཞུགས། - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to stay, to live, to reside
to  stay, honorific for སྡོད་པ་
 
གནས་ངེས་ཅན་ཞིག་ལ་སྡོད་དགོས།
 
place    certain    a      stay    need
 
[One] needs to stay at a certain place.
 
ཁོ་ཚོ་གདན་ལ་འདུག་སྟེ་གཏམ་ཤོད་པ།
 
they    seat      stay        talk    speak, talk
 
They talk while sitting on a seat.
 
ཁོ་ཡུན་རིང་དུ་གནས་བདེ་བར་དགའ་སྐྱིད་དུ་གནས་སོ།  །
 
he time  long  place  comfort    joy    happy  stay
 
He happily stayed for a long time at a comfortable place.
ད་ལྟའི་བར་གནས་པ།
 
today          remain
 
remaining until today
3.3.4 verbs of motion
 
patient: ming tsam            qualifier - destination, qualifier of space and time: la don
 
འགྲོ་བ་  ཕྱིན་པ་ / སོང་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  སོང།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འཇུག་པ་  ཞུགས་པ།  འཇུག་པ།  འཇུག་པ།  ཞུགས།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to go
to enter, setting out on (the path)
 
ཁོ་ལྷ་སར་འགྲོ།
 
he Lhasa  go
 
He goes to Lhasa.
 
གྲོངས་ཁྱེར་འདིར་མགྲོན་ཁང་ཞིག་ལ་འགྲོ་དགོས་སོ།  །
 
city            this    guest house  a          go  need
 
In this city [you] need to go to a guest house.
 
ལམ་དུ་འཇུག་
 
path        enter
 
setting out on the path, to embark upon the path
 
 
3.3.5 verbs of dependence
 
patient: ming tsam qualifier - what it is depended upon: la don (ལ་)*
* "ལ་" is the most common
རྟེན་པ་བརྟེན་པ།  རྟེན་པ།  བརྟེན་པ།  རྟེན།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
རག་ལས་པ་
to rely, depend
to  rely, depend
ལྟོས་པ་  བལྟོས་པ།  ལྟོས་པ།  ལྟོས་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
 
to be related, dependent
 
 
འབྲས་བུ་རྒྱུ་དང་རྐྱེན་ལ་བརྟེན་ནོ།  །
 
result  cause and conditions depend
 
Results depend on causes and conditions.                     
 
ཡོན་ཏན་  ཆེ་ཆུང་  སྦྱང་བརྩོན་ལ་རག་ལས་པ།
 
good quality extent  effort          depend
 
The extent of good qualities depends on effort.
 
ཕར་ཕྱོགས་ལ་བལྟོས་ནས་ཚུར་ཕྱོགས་གྲུབ།
 
other side        depend      this side    exists / comes about
 
Depending on the other side this side came into existence (/ exists).
 
 
3.3.6 verbs of emotion / attitude verbs
patient: ming tsam qualifier - that which the attitude is towards: la don (ལ་)*
* "ལ་" is the most common
སྐྲག་པ་  སྐྲག་པ།  སྐྲག་པ།  སྐྲག་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
སྐྱོ་བ་  སྐྱོ་བ།  སྐྱོ་བ།  སྐྱོ་བ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ
to be afraid, be frightened
to be sad
བྱམས་པ་  བྱམས་པ།  བྱམས་པ།  བྱམས་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ
དད་པ་  དད་པ།  དད་པ།  དད་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to love
to have faith
གུས་པ་  གུས་པ།  གུས་པ།  གུས་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ
འཇིགས་པ་  འཇིགས་པ།  འཇིགས་པ།  འཇིགས་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to have respect
to fear
 
དཔའ་བོ་ལ་གུས་པ་
 
hero            respect
 
respect towards the hero
   
  བྱས་ཉེས་བྱུང་བ་ལ་སྐྱོ།
 
deed wrong  occur  sad
 
sad about the occurrence of wrong deeds     
མདུན་དུ་སྤྱང་ཀིར་སྐྲག་པ་དང༌།    རྒྱབ་ཏུ་སྟག་ལ་སྐྲག་པ།
 
front        wolf    afraid  and        behind  tiger    afraid
 
In the front afraid of the wolf, in back afraid of the tiger.
 
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱི་བསྟན་པ་ལ་དད་པ་
 
Buddha          teachings    faith
 
faith in teachings of the Buddha
 
ལུག་རྫི་ལུག་ལ་བྱམས།
 
shepherd sheep  kind, loving
 
The shepherd is loving to the sheep.
With verbs expressing "to be afraid" the agentive case is also used to mark that which one is afraid of.
 
ཁྱི་ རྡོ་ དེ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་འཇིགས།
 
dog stone that very  fear
 
The dog [just] fears that stone itself.
 
སྡུག་བསྔལ་ཆེན་པོས་སྐྲག་པ་དག་གིས་
 
suffering      great        fear      (plural)
 
because of being afraid of great suffering...
 
ཉོན་མོངས་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དག་གིས་འཇིགས་པ་མེད།
 
kleshas      suffering     (plural)          fear      not have
 
not having [any] fear towards kleshas and suffering
 
 
3.3.7 verbs of necessity
 
See above "2.4 verbs with noticeable grammar - verbs of necessity"
 
patient - that what is needed: ming tsam                              qualifier - that which needs: la don  (ལ་)                                                                
* "ལ་" is the most common
དགོས་པ་  དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
མཁོ་བ་  མཁོ་བ།  མཁོ་བ།  མཁོ་བ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to need
to need, to require
 
མྱུ་གུ་ལ་ཆུ་དགོས།
 
sprouts water need
 
Sprouts need water.
 
              དེའང་བོད་སྐད་ལ་  མི་མཁོ་བའི་དབྱངས་གསལ་རྣམས་དོར།
 
in this regard Tibetan language not need    vowel  consonant (plural) discarded
 
Regarding this, the vowels and consonants which were not needed for the Tibetan language were discarded.
 
 
 
 
 
3.4 verbs of separation and avoidance
 
patient: ming tsam     
         
qualifier - that which is separated from: originative  ལས་ (most common)
                  or  originative ནས་ , la don or ming tsam
 
 
3.4.1 verbs of separation
 
qualifier - that which is separated from: originative ལས་
 
གྲོལ་བ་  བཀྲོལ་བ།  འགྲོལ་བ།  དགྲོལ་བ།  ཁྲོལ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འདའ་བ་  འདས་པ།  འདའ་བ།  འདའ་བ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to liberate, free, release
to pass, surpass, transcend, to go beyond
སྐྱོབ་པ་  བསྐྱབས་པ།  སྐྱོབ་པ།  བསྐྱབ་པ།  སྐྱོབས།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
ཐར་བ་  ཐར་བ།  ཐར་བ།  ཐར་བ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to protect
liberation, freedom, emancipation
ལྡོག་པ་  ལྡོག་པ།  ལྡོག་པ།  ལྡོག་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
 
turning away from, to reverse
 
 
འཁོར་བ་ལས་གྲོལ་བ།
 
samsara        liberated
 
liberated from samsara
 
དགྲ་ལས་སྐྱོབ་པ་
 
enemy    protect
 
protected from the enemy
 
བློ་ཡུལ་ལས་འདས་པ།
 
mind realm  pass beyond
 
gone beyond the realm of mind
 
ལམ་ནོར་བ་ལས་ལྡོག་པ།
 
path mistaken  turn away
 
turn away from the mistaken path     
 
 
 
 
 
3.4.2 verbs of avoidance
 
qualifier - that which is avoided (irregular): originative, la don or ming tsam
 
འཛུར་བ་  བཟུར་བ།  འཛུར་བ།  གཟུར་བ།  ཟུར།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
འབྱོལ་བ་  བྱོལ་བ།  འབྱོལ་བ།  འབྱོལ་བ།  བྱོལ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to avoid , dodge, stay away from
turn away, give way, turn aside
གཡོལ་བ་  གཡོལ་བ།  གཡོལ་བ།  གཡོལ་བ།  གཡོལ།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
 
keep away, avert, dodge
 
 
མཚོན་ཆ་ལས་ཟུར་ཅིག
 
weapon      avoid  " !"
 
Avoid the weapon!
 
གཞུང་ལམ་ནས་བཟུར་ཏེ་བྲོས་སོང་།
 
main road      avoided  escaped (past auxiliary)
 
[He] avoided the main road and escaped
 
ལམ་བྱོལ་ནས་ཕྱིན་པ།
 
road turn away  went
 
Turning off the road [he] went.
 
ཆུ་འོག་བྲག་རྡོ་ལས་གཡོལ་བ།
 
water under rocks      dodge
 
to avert the under water rocks
 
གཞུང་ལམ་ལ་གཡོལ་ནས་ལམ་ལོག་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ།
 
main road    keep away  derelict path  went
 
Keeping away from the main road, [he] went along a derelict path.
 
 
 
 
3.5 verbs of absence and "presence"
 
patient: ming tsam     
         
qualifier:  - that which is absent / "present": agentive case
qualifier
 
3.5.1 verbs of absence
 
patient - that which is absent of something: ming tsam qualifier - that which is absent: agentive case
 
སྟོང་པ་  སྟོངས་པ།  སྟོང་པ།  སྟོང་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
དབེན་པ་  དབེན་པ།  དབེན་པ།  དབེན་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be empty
to be devoid of, isolated
དབུལ་བ་  དབུལ་བ།  དབུལ་བ།  དབུལ་བ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཕོང་བ་  ཕོངས་པ།  ཕོང་བ།  ཕོང་བ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to lack, be poor
to lack, be short of, destitute
 
མི་ཤུགས་ཀྱིས་མི་ཕོང་བ།
 
person strength not lack
 
the person doesn’t lack strength   
 
བདག་གིར་ལྟ་བའི་མི་མཐུན་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱིས་སྟོང་པ།
 
mine    view  not concordant side      empty / free
 
free from the non-concordant side of the view of  "mine"
 
ལུང་པ་ཆུས་སྟོང་པ།
 
land  water  empty
 
the land is empty of water
 
ནོར་འཁྲུལ་གྱིས་དབེན་པ།
 
mistake              devoid
 
devoid of mistakes
 
དངོས་པོ་ཐམས་ཅད་ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་སྟོང་པའི་ཕྱིར།
 
things        all    essential nature  empty  because
 
Because all things are empty of an essential nature...
 
མཚན་མའི་དྲི་མས་དབེན་ལ་
 
characteristic stains devoid
 
devoid of the stains of characteristics
3.5.2 verbs of "presence"*
 
patient - that which is effected by the "presence": ming tsam          qualifier - that which is "present": agentive case
 
* Here the term "presence" is used as the counter part to "absence" and is not to be taken very literately
(if you know of a better way to name these verbs after their  function (with one or two words) please let me know)
 
གང་བ་  གང་པ།  གང་བ།  གང་བ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཁེང་བ་  ཁེངས་པ།  ཁེང་བ། ཁེང་བ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be full (result of the process of being filled)
to fill up with,  fill with (the process of becoming full)
འགེངས་པ་  བཀང་བ།  འགེངས་པ། དགང་བ། ཁོང༌།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
གཏམས་པ་  གཏམས་པ།  གཏམས་པ།  གཏམས་པ།  གཏོམས།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
to fill, to fill up with
to fill, to fill to capacity, to pack with, cram with
འགྲང་བ་  འགྲངས་པ། འགྲང་བ། འགྲང་བ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
 
to be satiated, to be full
 
 
བུམ་པ་ཆུས་ཁང༌།
 
vase  water  full
 
The vase is full of water.
 
ཁང་པའི་ནང་དུ་ཆུས་ཁེངས་སོང༌།
 
house  inside  water filled  (past auxiliary)
 
The inside of the house had filled with water.
 
བུམ་པ་ཆུས་བཀང༌།
 
vase  water  fill
 
The vase was filled with water.
 
བང་མཛོད་ནོར་གྱིས་གཏམས།
 
store-house riches    fill
 
[They] filled the store room  with valuables.
 
 
ཟས་ཀྱིས་གྲོད་པ་འགྲངས་དྲགས་ནས་ན་སོང་།
 
food    stomach    full        'too'      ill  became
 
having 'over-filled' the stomach, [he] became ill
 
 
 
 
 
 
3.6 verbs that express connection / disconnection: conjunctive / disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison, possession II
 
qualifier - that which the connection is with: དང་ , la don or originative
 
3.6.1 conjunctive verbs I - ཐ་མི་དད་པ
patient: ming tsam qualifier - that which the conjunction is with: དང་ *
* frequently omitted
 
འབྲེལ་བ་  འབྲེལ་བ།  འབྲེལ་བ།  འབྲེལ་བ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འཕྲད་པ་  ཕྲད་པ།  འཕྲད་པ།  འཕྲད་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be related, connected
to meet, encounter, connect with
 
འབྲས་བུ་དང་ནི་འབྲེལ་བའི་རྒྱུ།
 
result            connected  cause
 
the cause which is connected to the result
 
གང་ཚེ་མར་མེ་སྐྱེ་བཞིན་པ། །མུན་པ་དང་ནི་ཕྲད་པ་མེད།
 
when    lamp  arise (auxiliary)  darkness    meet    not exist
 
When there is the arising of a flame, the meeting with darkness does not exist.
 
 
3.6.2 conjunctive verbs II  - ཐ་དད་པ་
qualifier - that which the conjunction is with:  དང་  or la don*
* While the verb སྦྱོར་བ་ (which has a number of meanings) frequently uses the la don, they are very rarely seen with other verbs.
 
སྦྱོར་བ་  སྦྱར་བ།  སྦྱོར་བ།  སྦྱར་བ།  སྦྱོར།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
སྦྲེལ་བ་  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
to connect, join, apply, unite
to connect, attach, link, bind together
 
འཕགས་པའི་བཞེད་པ་དང་སྦྲེལ་བ།
 
noble              wish          connect
 
connected with the noble wish
 
་་་་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་སྐབས་དེ་དང་སྦྱར་ཏེ།
 
termed, called  time  that  applied
 
applied to that time when called ...
 
ཉེས་ཅན་ཁྲིམས་ལ་སྦྱོར་བ་
 
wrong doers law    connect
 
criminals are brought to the law
 
without qualifier marked by དང་
the palms are simply joined and not joined with something
ཐལ་མོ་སྦྱར་ནས་གུས་འདུད་ཞུ།
 
palm    joined  respectfully bow  request
 
joining the palms [one] requests respectfully
 
 
3.6.3  disjunctive verbs
qualifier - that which is "disjointed" from: དང་  or originative  ལས་
 
འབྲལ་བ་  བྲལ་བ།  འབྲལ་བ།  འབྲལ་བ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འགལ་བ་  འགལ་བ།  འགལ་བ།  འགལ་བ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to separate; to be free from
to contradict, go against
 
ཁྲིམས་དང་འགལ་བ།
 
law            go against
 
to go against the law
 
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་བསླབ་པ་ལས་འགལ་བར་མི་བྱེད།
 
bodhisattva                 training        contradict  not do
 
not to transgress the Bodhisattva's training
 
དེ་ནི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྒྱུ་དང་བཅས་པ་ལས་བྲལ་བར་འདོད་པའི་གློའོ།
 
That  beings            all      suffering  cause      have          free          wish    mind (from གློ་སྙིང་)
 
That is the mind of wishing that all beings [may be] freed from suffering together with it’s causes.
          དེ་ལྟ་ན་ཡང་ལྟ་བའི་བྱ་བ་དང་བྲལ་བའི་ལྟ་བ་ནི་ལྟ་བ་མ་ཡིན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།
 
being that way even look    deed  separated    look      look    not is    (future auxiliary)
 
Even being that way, the looking which is separated from the act of looking will not be looking (intentional).
 
 
rare with ལ་
ཞེན་པ་ལ་བྲལ་བ་
 
attachment separated
 
to be free from attachment
 
 
3.6.4 verbs of "agreement"
 
patient (subject): ming tsam qualifier - that what is in accord with:  དང་  or la don      
མཐུན་པ་  མཐུན་པ།  མཐུན་པ།  མཐུན་པ། - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འཚམ་པ་  འཚམས་པ། འཚམ་པ། འཚམ་པ། - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
conform to, in accordance with, to be in harmony
in accord with, suitable
 
སྔ་ཚིག་དང་མཐུན་པ།
 
former words in accord with
 
in accordance with the former words
 
བློ་དང་འཚམ་པ་
 
mind  in accord withs
 
in accordance with the mind
 
འཁོར་ལོ་བར་མཐའ་གཉིས་ཀའི་ངེས་དོན་དང་ཆ་མཐུན་པ་
 
wheel middle  last   both  definitive meaning part accord
 
... [it] is in accordance with the definitive meaning of both, the middle and last [turning of] the wheel [of Dharma].
 
ཐེག་པ་གཞེན་ལ་མི་འཚམས་པ་
 
vehicles other    not  accord
 
not in accord with other vehicles
 
ཁ་གཏིང་གཉིས་མཐུན་
 
words and thoughts two accord
 
with words and thoughts in accord (united)
 
དེ་དག་ཀུན་ཀྱང་འཁོར་བའི་རྒྱུ་བདག་ཏུ་འཛིན་པ་སྤངས་ནས་ཐར་པ་མྱང་འདས་ཀྱི་གོ་འཕང་བསྒྲུབ་པར་མཐུན་ནོ།།
 
those  all          samsara  cause self    grasp    discard    liberation  nirvana*          state    accomplish  accord
 
All those are in accord with discarding the cause of samsara, the grasping at [a] self and accomplishing the state of liberation, Nirvana.  (* མྱང་འདས short for མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་)
གལ་ཏེ་གཅིག་གམ་སྙམ་ན། མ་ཡིན་ཏེ། མཚན་ཉིད་མི་མཐུན་པའི་ཕྱིར་ཏེ།
 
in case  one  ?  wonder if  not is    characteristic not in accord because
 
If [one] wonders:"Are [the self and the skandhas] one?"  - [they] are not, because [their] characteristics are not in accordance, .... .
 
 
3.6.5 verbs of "comparison"
 
patient - that what is compared: ming tsam qualifier - what it is compared against:  དང་  or la don      
འགྲན་པ་  འགྲན་པ། འགྲན་པ། འགྲན་པ། འགྲན།  - ཐ་དད་པ་
སྡུར་བ་  བསྡུར་བ། སྡུར་བ། བསྡུར་བ། སྡུར། - ཐ་དད་པ་
to match, to rival, to compete with, to challenge
to compare against, to check and verify
སྒྲུན་པ་  བསྒྲུན་པ། སྒྲུན་པ། བསྒྲུན་པ། སྒྲུན། - ཐ་དད་པ་ old for འགྲན་པ་
 
to match against, to compare two things
 
 
རིག་པ་འགྲན་པ་
 
intelligence match
 
to match wits
 
ཇོ་ནང་ཀུན་སྙིང་གིས་རྒྱ་དཔེ་དང་བསྡུར་ཏེ་
 
Taranatha            Indian book  verified
 
Taranatha verified [the translation] against the Indian [text]
 
ཤིང་སྡོང་ལ་ཡར་འཛེག་པའི་ལུས་རྩལ་དེ་སྤྲ་དང་སྤྲེའུ་ལ་འགྲན་ཐུབ།
 
tree trunk  up    climb    body skill* that monkey and monkey rival  able
 
that skill of climbing up trees is able to rival [that of] monkeys
(* ལུས་རྩལ་ normally means "physical exercise", but "physical skill" seems more fitting in this context)
 
སྲིན་བུ་མེ་ཁྱེར་གྱིས་ཉི་མ་ལ་འགྲན།
 
firefly                    sun        rival
 
the firefly rivals the sun
 
མི་སྡར་མས་དཔའ་བོ་ལ་བསྒྲུན་ཕོད་དམ་མི་ཕོད།
 
coward        hero          match dare      not dare
 
Can a coward dare to match a hero?
 
 
 
3.6.6 verbs of possession II
 
patient: ming tsam qualifier:  དང་  or la don*
*see the chapter on la don "la don substitute for དང་ with verbs using དང་
 
ལྡན་པ་
བཅས་པ་
to have, possess, together with
together with, having
 
ལྷག་མ་དང་བཅས་པ།
 
remainder    have, with
 
with remainder
 
དོན་དང་ལྡན་པའི་བྱ་བ།
 
meaning  have    work, deed
 
work which has a meaning
 
 
3.7 verbs of evaluation / assertion
 
patient (subject) - that which is evaluated or asserted: ming tsam, la don, agentive case
   
The coming verbs can be rather flexible in their grammar, having their patient (subject) in ming tsam or marked by the la don and others having their patient (subject) in ming tsam or agentive case. Some of them change their meaning with syntax.
See:"la don / 3.1 Note on classifications for 1.10 verbs with la don / intransitive verbs / 1.1 expressing a 'quality': evaluative"
 
 
3.7.1 verbs of evaluation / assertion I
 
patient: la don or patient: ming tsam qualifier: la don
     
རུང་བ་  རུང་བ།  རུང་བ།  རུང་བ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
རིགས་པ་  རིགས་པ། རིགས་པ། རིགས་པ། - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
suitable, permissible, appropriate
be logical, tenable, fits, appropriate
འཐད་པ་  འཐད་པ།  འཐད་པ།  འཐད་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཐལ་བ་  ཐལ་བ།  ཐལ་བ།  ཐལ་བ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
be admissible, acceptable, valid,  to follow logically
to  follow logically
   
ལས་སུ་རུང་བ།
 
work  suitable, permissible
 
acceptable; proper to do 
 
  དེ་ལྟར་བྱེད་མི་རིགས།
 
like that do not appropriate, logical
 
It is not appropriate to do like that.
 
ཉམས་ལེན་གཞན་ཅི་ཡང་མེད་ཀྱང་རུང་བ་ཡིན་པ།
 
practice    other whatever not even  permissible is
 
Even [if one] has (/does) not any other practice [then this], it is permissible (/ sufficient).
 
གང་ཡང་རུང་བ་
སུའང་རུང་བ་
what, which
who
whatever is appropriate; any given, whichever
any appropriate;  whomever
 
དེ་ལྟར་སྡུག་བསྔལ་བདག་དང༌། གཞན་དང༌། གཉི་གས་བྱས་པར་སྨྲ་བ་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དེ་ནི་བདག་དང༌།
like that suffering  self, I and    others  and    both      made  say, state  (plural)  suffering  that    self    and 
གཞན་དང༌། གཉི་གས་བྱས་པའི་ཕྱིར་བདག་དང་གཞན་དང་གཉི་གའི་བྱ་བ་ཡིན་པར་ཐལ་བར་འགྱུར་ཏེ
others  and    both      made  because self  and others and  both      deed  is      to follow  (auxiliary)
དེ་ནི་བྱ་བར་མི་རུང་ངོ། །སྡུག་བསྔལ་དེ་ནི་དེ་དག་གི་བྱ་བ་ཡིན་པར་མི་རིགས་སོ། ། ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་ཞེ་ན།
that deed  not appropriate  suffering that  those      deed  is        not  logical        "if  asked why"
In that way, [in regard to] that suffering which is asserted as being produced by self, other or both, [and then] because it is produced by self, other or both it [would] follow that it is the deed of self, other or both. That [suffering] is not appropriate as a deed. [It is] not logical [that] that suffering is their deed. If asked "Why?".  ......
 
 
3.7.2 verbs of evaluation / assertion II
 
patient: agentive case or patient: ming tsam
     
With these verbs occurs the rare case where the patient might need be understood as being in the agentive case. In the example below it is the "drinking of the medicine" that is "sufficient". (This case is quite different from the one of "Verbs expressing 'to make effort, to engage'", in their case it is a volitional action with the one preforming the action in the agentive case and a 'direction' for that action; see above). The best way to view this might be as having a verb complement in the agentive case, substituting the patient. Or in another way, they are monovalent verbs which need to have their complement in the agentive case.
 
སྨན་འདི་བཏུང་བས་འཐུས།
 
medicine this drink sufficient
 
To drink this medicine will be sufficient.
 
Just as an experiment, one other way to interpret this without the patient / verb complement in the agentive case would be to include a second, identical, omitted participant which would be the patient ** སྨན་འདི་བཏུང་བ་ནི་སྨན་འདི་བཏུང་བས་འཐུས།  "drinking this medicine will be sufficient by drinking this medicine". While this is clearly too constructed it could point to the origin of this structure from something "being sufficient" to becoming itself the "instrument-patient-verb complement".
Any ideas, examples, research on origin, interpretation etc. are very welcome.
 
 
ཆོག་པ་  ཆོག་པ་ ཆོག་པ། ཆོག་པ།  ཆོག་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འཐུས་པ་  འཐུས་པ། འཐུས་པ། འཐུས་པ། - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be sufficient
to be sufficient, this will do instead of..., it will do
འགྲིག་པ་  འགྲིགས་པ། འགྲིག་པ། འགྲིག་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
 
to be fitting, agreeable, matching, suitable
 
   
འགྲོ་འཐུས།
 
go  sufficient
 
sufficient to go / sufficient [if you] go [instead of...]
 
དེ་རིང་ཞུ་རྒྱུ་དེ་ཙམ་གྱིས་འགྲིག་པ་
 
today said  that just      fitting
 
what was said will do for today
 
རྩོད་གླེང་འགྲིགས་ན་བཟང༌།
 
discussion agreeable  good
 
If the outcome of the discussion is agreeable it is good
 
བཤད་པས་འཐུས།
 
explanation suffice
 
The explanation will suffice.
 
 
4  verbs with multiple meanings occurring with different syntax
 
This is a intended as a short introduction with a few selected examples.
 
4.1  ཆོག་པ་  ཆོག་པ་ ཆོག་པ། ཆོག་པ།  ཆོག་པ།  - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
   
1. "to be sufficient, to be acceptable"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ : ལོང་བ་དང༌། ལྡང་བ།
2. "to be allowed, to be permissible"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ : རུང་བ་དང༌། འགྲིག་པ།
 
1. "to be sufficient"; the agentive case marking the patient, that what is sufficient;
This is a rare cases where the patient is in the agentive case.
 
གོང་གསལ་དེ་དག་གིས་ཆོག
 
above clarified these    sufficient
 
[what] was said above will suffice
 
2. "to be allowed"; patient (another verb) in ming tsam
 
བསམ་འཆར་བཤད་ཆོག
 
opinion  express allowed
 
to be allowed to express [one's] opinion
 
 
4.2 སྤྱོད་པ་ སྤྱད་པ། སྤྱོད་པ། སྤྱད་པ། སྤྱོད།  ཐ་དད་པ་
   
1. "to engage in, to enter, behave, carry out, conduct oneself, practice"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ : འཇུག་པའམ་བྱེད་པ།
2. "experience, undergo, enjoy, to use"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ : ཉམས་སུ་མྱོང་པའམ་བེད་སྤྱོད་པ།
 
1. "to engage"; what one engages in is in ming tsam or la don
 
བྱ་བ་ངན་པ་དོར་ནས་བཟང་པོ་འབའ་ཞིག་སྤྱོད་པ།
 
deed evil  abandoned  good    only      engage
 
having abandoned evil actions, [he] engaged in only good
 
2. "to experience"; what one experiences is marked by la don
 
སྡུག་བསྔལ་ལ་སྤྱོད་པ།
 
suffering      experience
 
to experience suffering
 
 
4.3  ཆགས་པ་ ཆགས་པ། ཆགས་པ། ཆགས་པ། - ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
   
1. "to be attached, to desire, to crave for"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ : འདོད་པ་
2. "to be situated, to be put /staying in a certain way"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ : གནས་པའམ་འཇགས་པ།
3. "to happen, to occur, to become, to be produced"; ཚིག་མཛོད་ཆེན་མོ་ : བྱུང་བ་དང། གྲུབ་པ།
 
1. "to be attached"; with the la don marking what the attachment is towards
 
རི་བོང་ཚང་ལ་ཆགས་པ།
 
rabbit home  attached
 
The rabbit is attached to [it's] burrow.
 
 
 
 
2. "to be situated"; with la don as qualifier (adverbial, identity, space, etc.)
 
ས་བཞིན་དུ་ཆགས་པ་དང༌། རྡོ་བཞིན་དུ་གནས་པ།
 
earth like  settled    and    stone like    remain
 
[a person that is] settled like the earth and unmoving like a stone - (a very reliable and steady person)
 
དགོན་པ་དེ་ཐང་ཆུང་ཆུང་ཞིག་གི་སྟེང་ལ་ཆགས་ས།
 
monastery that plain small a    on      situated  (together with ས་ "site, location" in the following bigger context)
 
that monastery is situated on a small plain, [this] site ....
 
3. "to occur, to become"; what is occurring etc. is in ming tsam. If the one / thing that became "something" is stated, then both are in ming tsam and the grammar is like that of a linking verb.
 
འབྲས་བུ་ཆགས་པ།
 
result        occurred
 
the result occurred
 
བཙའ་ཆགས་པ།
 
rust      became
 
[it] became rusty
 
མེ་ཏོག་འདི་ཆེན་པོ་ཆགས།
 
flower this big    became
 
this flower became big
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 




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༽




1.2 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།
5 Note, patient  / subject-object / valency : advantages and problems
"'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".
"Patient" here is used as a convenient term for subject (intransitive verb) and object (transitive verb) (mostly in the ming tsam case - marked by no particle - 'just the word')16 and is stretched beyonds its definition from thematic relations; (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) - it is used with static verbs as well.  
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".
In general the patient is that which experiences the action. In  many cases17 it is equal to the object of a transitive verb. The difference is that 'patient' is based explicitly on its relationship to the verb, whereas object is based primarily on its relationship to the subject.
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་ ".
In Tibetan where the type of verb governs the usage of the respective particles for their agent, patient and particular qualifiers it can be seen as fitting to use these verb dependent categories (of patient and agent).18  Moreover it is much easier to explain Tibetan when having a single term that covers the subject of an intransitive verb and the object a transitive verb.


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
In Tibetan the patient is in roughly 90% of all cases in the ming tsam, which makes at an advantage for beginners to use "patient". It is easy for them to understand that they need to look for 'something' in ming tsam in order to find the patient of the clause / sentence, particularly given the fact that the agent of a transitive verb is often omitted.
It is also quite straight forward to classify the grammar of (almost all) verbs using the cases in which their patient and qualifier are in. Later again it is easy to describe verb-verb relations in terms of a verb coming together with either a patient or a qualifier.


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.
However this also comes with problems. These come as a side effect of the strong distinction Tibetan makes between voluntary and involuntary verbs. For instance the voluntary "verbs of perception" and "verbs of benefit and harm" have their agent (subject) in the agentive case and their patient (object) marked with the la don. It might  not be that 'nice' to have some patients with the la don, but nevertheless, with for instance "to look" "that what is looked at" can still easily be processed as the patient.
Yet la don are generally used for marking qualifier and reference. So these verbs look somewhat more like verbs that have their subject marked with the agentive case - because the action is voluntary with a clearly defined agent - and the patient is more a 'direction' that the action is directed towards.
Now, from this group of verbs that have the subject marked with the agentive case and the "direction"s of their action marked with the la don comes one type of verb where "patient" just does not work anymore - the Verbs expressing "to make effort, to engage" (3.1.3.3).
These verbs, like "to strive", are intransitive in English but in Tibetan their categorization is  ཐ་དད་པ་ (there is an example given a verb lexicon with the subject marked with the agentive case19) and their is no great reason to believe that this should not be the norm for these verbs. They are intentionally, have a clear agent and are not quite "verbs of motion or living". The trouble is that they do not have an object but only a direction which the effort etc. is towards. The only one experiencing or undergoing the action is the subject, as in the case of an intransitive verb. So what we are left with is an intransitive verb that has the grammar of a transitive verb but without an object. The agent substitutes the patient in this case.


Why that long explanation? Firstly, it is a further explanation for the Verbs expressing "to make effort, to engage" and secondly to show that in the case of these verbs an explanation with subject and qualifier would have been far easier. Yet it is the belief of the compiler and writer that the (agent)-patient-qualifier approach has the greater overall advantages.
-->
-->



Revision as of 08:07, 19 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 (having no particle). 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".

Intransitive verbs

བྱིའུ་ཤི།
small bird died
The small bird died.
to die v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཤི་བ།  འཆི་བ།  འཆི་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


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


མེ་ཏོག་འཆར།
flower   blossom
The flower blossoms.
to blossom v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཤར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  འཆར་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


Transitive verbs

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


ཁོས་དཔེ་དེབ་ལ་བལྟས།
he     book(s)   looked
He looked at books.
to look v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
བལྟས་པ།  ལྟ་བ།  བལྟ་བ།  ལྟོས།
past pres. fut. imp.


Verbs with related intransitive and transitive form

འཁོར་ལོ་འཁོར།
wheel   turn/spin
The wheel turns.
to turn v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འཁོར་བ།  འཁོར་བ།  འཁོར་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


བདག་གིས་འཁོར་ལོ་སྐོར།
I              wheel    turn
I turn the wheel.
to turn v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
བསྐོར་བ།  སྐོར་བ།  བསྐོར་བ།  སྐོར།
past pres. fut. imp.


གངས་ཞུ།
snow&nbs;&nbs;&nbs;melt
The snow melts.
to melt v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཞུ་བ།  ཞུ་བ།  ཞུ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


ཁོས་གངས་བཞུ།
he     snow   melt
He melts the snow.
to melt v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
བཞུས་པ།  བཞུ་བ།  བཞུ་བ།  བཞུས།
past pres. fut. imp.


ཤིང་ལོ་སེར་པོར་འགྱུར།
leaves yellow change/turn
The leaves turned yellow.
to turn, to become v.i. ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འགྱུར་བ།  འགྱུར་བ།  འགྱུར་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


མིང་གཞན་དུ་བསྒྱུར་
name   other   change
...changed [the name] into an other name.
to change, to transform v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
བསྒྱུར་བ།  སྒྱུར་བ།  བསྒྱུར་བ།  སྒྱུར།
past pres. fut. imp.


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 {{gtib|ཐ་མི་དད་པ་{{gtib|.

Tibetan classification of ཐ་དད་པ་ and 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 (no particle) which is the same for ཐ་དད་པ་ verbs.


Introduction to classifications of verbs according to their grammar

Note: This is not at all exhaustive. It is a short overview about the kind of verbs that can be encountered in Tibetan.


Linking verb

[...]

Endnotes

  1. See: "2.3 transitive verbs (ཐ་དད་པ་) and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified verbs with transitive grammar"
  2. Peter Schwieger: H.G.k.t.S. p.75, n.1: Wesentlich für die Differenzierung ཐ་དད་པ་ und ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ ist mithin nicht das Vorhandensein oder Fehlen eines Objektes, sondern das Vorhandensein oder Fehlen des Agens.—Essential for the differentiation between ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ therefore is not existence or non-existence of an object, but the existence or non-existence of an agent."