Tibetan Grammar - verbs: Difference between revisions

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'''WORK IN PROGRESS''' (''by Stefan J. Eckel''): the grammar articles are being edited for wiki publication. During editing, the content might be incomplete, out of sequence or even misleading.<br>
'''WORK IN PROGRESS''' (''by Stefan J. Gueffroy<ref>recently adopted</ref> <small>[fka Eckel]</small>''): the grammar articles are being edited for wiki publication. During editing, the content might be incomplete, out of sequence or even misleading.<br>


Work on the grammar wiki will resume during 2015.<br>
Work on the grammar wiki will resume during 2015.<br>

Revision as of 14:54, 18 August 2016

WORK IN PROGRESS (by Stefan J. Gueffroy[1] [fka Eckel]): the grammar articles are being edited for wiki publication. During editing, the content might be incomplete, out of sequence or even misleading.

Work on the grammar wiki will resume during 2015.

31.Jan.12 The approach to explain Tibetan verbs will be changed to that of the "three thematic relations: Theme, Location, and Agent" 31.Aug.12 - there will be discrepancies to the other grammar section until they are matched with it

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


[...]


Verbs བྱ་ཚིག་

Note: 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 Tibetan grammarians do not classify words describing a mere state of being or existence as བྱ་ཚིག་.

Intransitive and Transitive 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 Intransitive and Transitive Verbs

English Language

  • Intransitive: Not passing over to an object; expressing an action or state that is limited to the theme 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, 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 that can have two objects. These are 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 Tibetan the grammar for intransitive and transitive verbs is generally as follows:

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


Theme is used here as a convenient term for both the subject of an intransitive verb and the object of a transitive verb - both are in ming tsam. The term will be stretched (beyonds its definition from thematic relations) as far as necessary; (e.g. it will also include patient - undergoes the action and changes its state ).[2] See: Note


The Intransitive Verb
བྱིའུ་ཤི།
small bird died
The small bird died.
to die ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཤི་བ།  འཆི་བ།  འཆི་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


The Transitive Verb
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.


Verbs with Related Intransitive and Transitive Form
འཁོར་ལོ་འཁོར།
wheel   turn/spin
The wheel turns.
to turn ming tsam intransitive 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.


The Syntactic Verb Categories

Beside being an explanation of syntactic verb categories in Tibetan us such, this section is chiefly aimed to be an background for the syntactic categories referred to in the main section which is "Classification of verbs according to semantic and syntactic groups".


The Three Categories of agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive

agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive

The descriptions of verbs types in here will be in sometimes different form the descriptions found in other grammar compilations. The verb types used in here are introduced to mainly deal with three difficulties found with Tibetan verbs:

  • There are verbs that have a participant marked with the agentive particle but have no participant in ming tsam.
  • There are verbs that are not transitive but have a participant marked with the agentive particle.
  • ཐ་དད་པ་ and ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ do not correspond to the devision into transitive and intransitive.

The categories used in here will be referred to as "ming tsam intransitive", "agentive transitive" and "agentive directed". These categories are so named with respect to the existence of a participant marked with the agentive particle, the presence or absence of a theme in ming tsam.


ming tsam intransitive
no agent theme in ming tsam
agentive transitive
agent with the agentive particle theme in ming tsam
agentive directed
participant with the agentive particle no theme in ming tsam


The category that sticks out is that of "agentive directed" verbs. The verbs of the agentive transitive and ming tsam intransitive categories are respectively either transitive or intransitive. They are easily classified by the possibility of a given verb to either take an agent (marked with the agentive particle) together with its theme (in ming tsam) or not. In contrast to that the verbs of the agentive directed category include verbs that are intransitive, transitive and "indirect ditransitive". They have in common that they have two participants, one marked with the agentive particle and one with a la don, but no theme in ming tsam.

The Subcategories of The agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive Verbs

The categories ming tsam intransitive, agentive transitive and agentive directed can be further divided into:



syntactic categorie syntactic subcategorie example
ming tsam intransitive
stative copula
linking verbs: theme in ming tsam, (no agent);
ཡིན་པ་ "to be, are"; (example)
stative non-volitional
unintentional intransitive verbs that describe a state of being and adjectives: theme in ming tsam, (no agent);
ངལ་བ་ "to be tired", བཟང་ "[to be] good, excellent"; (example)
dynamic non-volitional
unintentional intransitive describing an action or change: theme in ""ming tsam"", (no agent);
འཆི་བ། "to die"; (example)
dynamic directed
verbs of motion: theme in ming tsam, qualifier with la don; (no agent);
འགྲོ་བ་ "to go"; (example)
stative located
verbs of existence, possession; verbs of living; verbs of necessity: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent);
ཡོད་པ་ "to exist", "to have", དགོས་པ་ "to be needed"; (example)
stative affective
attitude verbs: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent);
དགའ་བ་ "to like"; (example)
stative directed
verbs of dependence: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: la don, (no agent);
རྟེན་པ་ "to rely, depend"; (example)
agentive
These are the intransitive aspects of the "verbs of absence and presence": theme in ming tsam, qualifier with the agentive particle, (no agent);
སྟོང་པ་ "to be empty"; (stative agentive example), (dynamic agentive example)
associative
[3]
intransitive "verbs of interrelation": conjunctive and disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison, verbs expressing connections of association and possession: theme in ming tsam, qualifier: associative particle དང་, (no agent); (example)
originative
intransitive verbs of separation; theme in ming tsam, qualifier with the originative particle, (no agent); (example)
stative irregular
evaluative verbs: theme in ming tsam or with la don or agentive particle;
རུང་བ་ "suitable", འཐུས་པ་ "to be sufficient"; (example)
agentive transitive
effective
simple transitive verbs where the agent acts upon an theme (object): agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam;
འཐུང་བ་ "to drink"; (example)
fruitional
transitive verbs where the theme (object) is not acted upon and the agent is passive, perceiving or obtaining the theme (object); these are fruitional and unintentional verbs: agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam;
རྙེད་པ་ "to find", མཐོང་བ་ "to see"; (example)
ditransitive
ditransitive verbs where the action upon the theme (object) by the agent is directed towards a recipient (indirect object); these are verbs expressing any transfer of goods, information or action and verbs expressing to produce something for somebody: agent with agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam, recipient with la don;
སྦྱིན་པ་ "to give"; (example)
surface contact verbs; (example)
directed
these are transitive verbs where the action is not directed towards a recipient us such, but that have a qualifier of space or any other qualifier marked by a la don: agent with agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier: la don;
སྦྱོར་བ་ "to connect, to join"; (example)
agentive
the transitive dynamic verbs of the semantic group of the verbs of presence: agent with agentive particle, theme in ming tsam, qualifier-the material used for the action wtih agentive particle;
འགེངས་པ་ "to fill with"; (example)
associative
transitive verbs of interrelation - conjunctive or disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison: theme in ming tsam, qualifier with associative particle; (example)
Examples with a stated agent are very difficult to find for this type of verb. If there were to be an example with a stated agent then this agent would be marked with the agentive particle.
originative
transitive verbs of separation; theme in ming tsam, qualifier with originative particle;
Examples with a stated agent are very difficult to find for this type of verb. If there were to be an example with a stated agent then this agent would be marked with the agentive particle.; (example)
agentive directed
intransitive dynamic directed
see [ ] for the discussion about these verbs
some intentional verbs of perception: perceiver with agentive particle, direction with la don;
ལྟ་བ་ "to look"[4]; (example)
indirect transitive
see [ ] for the discussion about these terms and the verbs
verbs expressing "to make effort, to engage in": the one who makes the effort with agentive particle, that what the effort is towards with la don;
འབད་པ་ "to make effort"; (example)
indirect ditransitive
see [ ] for the discussion about these terms and the verbs
verbs of benefit or harm; that what effects the harm with agentive particle, the recipient-the one or that what is harmed-with la don;
གནོས་པ་ "to harm"; (example)
stative directed
ཁྱབ་པ་ "to pervade, permeate, be present throughout" (see below)
transitive verbs with directed grammar
These are:
verbs of mental activity when the "object of interest" is actively engaged in. They then have the theme (or direction, see below) with la don.
དཔྱོད་པ་ "to examine"
verbs with referential la don ལ་: verbs expressing identity and equivalence can have their theme with la don ལ་ and the qualifier with la don སུ་ etc.;
འཛིན་པ་ "to apprehend (something as something)"; (example)


Examples for the Categories

This section is an expansion of "1.2.1.2 The subcategories of the agentive transitive, agentive directed and ming tsam intransitive verbs" in order to give example sentences for the different categories. The semantic verb categories that are given as example for each category are not necessarily exhaustive.
(For cross reference between semantic and syntactic categories see the main section "Classification of verbs according to semantic and syntactic groups".)


ming tsam intransitive

stative copula - linking verb

linking verbs; ཡིན་པ་ "to be, are"

theme (subject): ming tsam, complement[5]: ming tsam, strict "theme - complement" word order


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


stative non-volitional
stative non-volitional intransitive verbs

unintentional intransitive verbs; ངལ་བ་ "to be tired"

theme (subject): ming tsam


སེམས་ངལ་བ།
mind   tired
mind is tired
to be tired ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ངལ་བ།  ངལ་བ།  ངལ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.



stative non-volitional - adjectives

Adjectives can function like stative verbs.; བཟང་ "[to be] good, excellent"
When adjectives are used in this way they lose their second syllable.
E.g.:ངན་པ་ ("bad, inferior") only ངན་ and བཟང་པོ་ ("excellent, good") only བཟང་.

theme (subject): ming tsam


མི་ང་རང་ངན་ཏེ་བླ་མ་བཟང་།
person myself bad lama good
Even though I[' m] bad, [my] Lama [is] good.[6]



dynamic non-volitional

unintentional verbs; འཆི་བ་ "to die", འཆར་བ་ "to arise"

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: direction: la don, origin: originative


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



dynamic directed

verbs of motion; འགྲོ་བ་ "to go", མཆོང་བ་ "to jump"

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: direction: la don, origin: originative


ཁོ་ལྷ་སར་ཕྱིན།
he Lhasa   went
He went to Lhasa.
to go ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཕྱིན་པ་, སོང་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  སོང།
past pres. fut. imp.



stative located
stative located verbs of existence, possession and verbs of living

verbs of existence and possession; ཡོད་པ་ "to exist" or "to have"

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier: the place of existence or the one who has something: la don


བོད་ལ་གཡག་ཡོད།
Tibet bos grunniens exist
There are yaks in Tibet.



stative located verbs of necessity

Verbs of necessity like དགོས་པ་ "to be needed" are closest in grammar to verbs of possession. The need itself is not directed but what is needed is "directed" towards a "location", it is needed at that "location". This is like in the example of the verbs of possession where the person who possess things is the location at which these things exist.

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier, for whom or what it is needed: la don


མྱུ་གུ་ལ་ཆུ་དགོས།
sprouts water need
Sprouts need water.
to need, to be needed ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.



stative affective

attitude verbs (verbs of emotion and attitude); དགའ་བ་ "to like"
Note: Some verbs within the "attitude verbs" category which are (more or less) voluntary e.g. like གུས་པ་ "to respect" could be placed with either stative affective or stative directed verbs.

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier - what the attitude is towards: la don


ཞི་བདེར་དགའ་བ།
peace happy like
to like peace / wellbeing
to like ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
དགའ་བ།  དགའ་བ།  དགའ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.



stative directed

verbs of dependence; རྟེན་པ་ "to rely, depend"

theme (subject): ming tsam, qualifier - what it is depended upon: la don


འབྲས་བུ་རྒྱུ་དང་རྐྱེན་ལ་བརྟེན་ནོ། །
result cause and conditions depend
Results depend on causes and conditions.
to depend (on), to rely (on) ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
བརྟེན་པ།  རྟེན་པ།  བརྟེན་པ།  རྟེན།
past pres. fut. imp.



intransitive agentive
intransitive stative agentive

This is the stative (fruitional) aspect of the "verbs of absence and presence". They express a resultant state, e.g.,སྟོང་པ་ "to be empty".

theme - that which is "missing of something" or "full with something": ming tsam, qualifier - what is "present" or absent, lacking, "that what is empty of": agentive particle


ལུང་པ་ཆུས་སྟོང་པ།
land water empty
The land is empty of water.
to be empty ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
སྟོངས་པ།   སྟོང་པ།   སྟོང་པ།  
past pres. fut. imp.



intransitive dynamic agentive
theme - that which is "full with something": ming tsam, qualifier - what is "present": agentive particle


ཁང་པའི་ནང་དུ་ཆུས་ཁེངས་སོང་།
house inside water filled (involuntary past tense auxiliary verb)
The inside of the house filled up with water.
to become full ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
ཁེངས་པ།  ཁེང་བ།  ཁེང་བ།  
past pres. fut. imp.



associative

These are the intransitive stative and dynamic verbs of interrelation, the conjunctive / disjunctive verbs, verbs of agreement, comparison, and verbs expressing connections of association and possession Many of these have irregular grammar and can occur with other particles, i.e. la don or originative.

theme: ming tsam, qualifier: དང་


བློ་དང་འཚམ་པ་
mind   in accord with
in accordance with the mind



originative

These are the intransitive stative and dynamic verbs of separation, and verbs of avoidance.

theme: ming tsam, qualifier: originative particle


ནད་པ་རྣམས་ཚ་གྲང་སོགས་ཀྱི་ནད་ལས་གྲོལ་བར་ག་ལ་ཡོད་དེ་་་་
sick (plural) hot cold etc. illness free "How can this be?!"
How could the ill ever become free of their hot, cold etc. disease (if they do not listen to their skilled doctor).
to become free ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
གྲོལ་བ་།  གྲོལ་བ་།   གྲོལ་བ་།  
past pres. fut. imp.



stative irregular

evaluative verbs; རུང་བ་ "suitable", འཐུས་པ་ "to be sufficient"

theme: ming tsam, la don or agentive particle


ལས་སུ་རུང་བ།
work   suitable, permissible
acceptable; proper to do



agentive transitive

effective

transitive verbs where the agent acts upon an a theme (object); འཐུང་བ་ "to drink"

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme (object): ming tsam


ཆུ་དེ་བཏུངས་ན།
water that drank
if [one] drinks that water ...
to become free v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
བཏུངས་པ།   འཐུང་བ།   བཏུང་བ།   འཐུངས།
past pres. fut. imp.



fruitional

These are fruitional and unintentional verbs. They are transitive verbs where the theme (object) is not acted upon and the agent is passive, perceiving or obtaining the theme (object) like with རྙེད་པ་ "to find", མཐོང་བ་ "to see".
Note: These are classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ in Tibetan grammar. See Grammar Terms

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme (object): ming tsam


བདུད་རྩི་ལྟ་བུའི་ཆོས་ཤིག་བདག་གིས་རྙེད།
nectar like Dharma a/one  I       found
I have found this nectar like Dharma.
to find v.t.(!) ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!)
རྙེད་པ།  རྙེད་པ།  རྙེད་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
  • The agent (subject) བདག་ is marked by the agentive particle.


ditransitive

Ditransitive verbs are verbs where the agent's (subject) action upon the theme (object) is directed towards a recipient (indirect object). These verbs express any transfer of goods, information, or action like སྦྱིན་པ་ "to give", or any verb expressing to produce something for somebody.[7]

Agent (subject): agentive particle, theme (object): ming tsam, recipient (indirect object)[8]: la don.


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



surface contact verbs


transitive directed
agent (subject): agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier: la don


ཉེས་ཅན་ཁྲིམས་ལ་སྦྱོར་བ་
wrong doers law     connect
criminals are brought to the law
to connect, to join, to apply, to unite v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
སྦྱར་བ།  སྦྱོར་བ།  སྦྱར་བ།  སྦྱོར།
past pres. fut. imp.



transitive agentive

These are the transitive verbs that belong to of the "verbs of presence" category.; འགེངས་པ་ "to fill"

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier - the material used for the action: agentive particle


གངྒཱའི་བྱེ་མ་གྲངས་སྙེད་ཀྱི། སངས་རྒྱས་ཞིང་རྣམས་མི་གང་གིས། རིན་ཆེན་དག་གིས་ཀུན་བཀང་སྟེ།
Ganga grain number find Buddha field (plural) person who jewel    (plural)       all filled
if a person would completely fill with jewels, Buddhas fields as many as there are grains of sand in the Ganga ...
to fill v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
བཀང་བ།  འགེངས་པ།  དགང་བ།  ཁོང།
past pres. fut. imp.



associative

These are the transitive verbs of interrelation.; སྦྲེལ་བ་"to connect, attach, link together"

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier - that which the conjunction is with: associative particle དང་


འཕགས་པའི་བཞེད་པ་དང་སྦྲེལ་བ།
noble            wish        connect
connected with the noble wish
to connect, attach, link, bind together v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ།
past pres. fut. imp.



originative

These are the transitive verbs of separation.; སྐྱོབ་པ་ "to protect"

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme: ming tsam, qualifier: originative particle


དགྲ་ལས་སྐྱོབ་པ་
enemy   protect
protected from the enemy
to protect v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
བསྐྱབས་པ།  སྐྱོབ་པ།  བསྐྱབ་པ།  སྐྱོབས།
past pres. fut. imp.



agentive directed

intransitive dynamic directed
intentional verbs of perception

Intentional verbs of perception can have agentive directed grammar. ལྟ་བ་ (to look) is mostly seen with agentive directed grammar. Other intentional verbs of perception e.g.ཉན་པ་ "to listen" can be seen with either agentive transitive or agentive directed grammar.
Note: These are classified as ཐ་དད་པ་ in Tibetan grammar. See Grammar Terms

agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier(direction): la don


དཔེ་དེབ་ལ་བལྟ་བ།
book         look
[one] will look at (/ study) the books
to look agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་
བལྟས་པ།  ལྟ་བ།  བལྟ་བ།  ལྟོས།
past pres. fut. imp.



verbs expressing "to make effort, to engage in"

རྩོལ་བ་ "to endeavor, to exert", འབད་པ་ "to make effort"
Note: These are classified as ཐ་དད་པ་ in Tibetan grammar. See Grammar Terms

agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier - what the effort is towards: la don


ལས་དོན་ལ་རྩོལ་བ།
undertaking to endeavor
to endeavor in the undertaking
to endeavour ' ཐ་དད་པ་
བརྩལ་བ།  རྩོལ་བ།  བརྩལ་བ།  རྩོལ།
past pres. fut. imp.



verbs of comparison / competition

Verbs of comparison when expressing "to rival" e.g., འགྲན་པ་ "to rival, to challenge, compete with" have agentive directed grammar.

Note: For the time being this usage of these verbs is treated as being similar to the grammar of "verbs expressing 'to make effort, to engage in'" since their qualifier, the direction of the action is not directly affected in the way it is in case of "verbs of benefit or harm" and "surface contact verbs". On the other hand when taking in to account the agentive transitive - associative grammar that theses verbs display when expressing "to check and verify, to compare two things" (see below) it may also be argued that they are rather agentive directed.

agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier - that what is challenged, competed with: la don


སྲིན་བུ་མེ་ཁྱེར་གྱིས་ཉི་མ་ལ་འགྲན།
firefly                sun    challenge
The firefly challenges the sun.
to rival, to compete with ' ཐ་དད་པ་
འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན།
past pres. fut. imp.


Note: Since the verbs of comparison display two types of grammar they have a separate category of their own within the main section "Classification of Verbs according to Semantic and Syntactic Groups" below. They are not together with "Agentive Directed Verbs" (with which they share grammar with), but come after "Verbs of Interrelation" (the second type of verbs they share grammar with).


indirect ditransitive
verbs of benefit or harm

E.g., གནོས་པ་ "to harm", ཕན་པ་ "to benefit"
Verbs of benefit or harm and hindrance have an agent (subject) with the agentive particle and a recipient (indirect object / direction) with a la don. They are here called indirect ditransitive because an action is passing over to a recipient. That which is passed over (the benefit or harm) is not stated as the theme but is lexicalized in the verb (inherent within the meaning of the verb) The recipient receives this benefit or harm and can not be the theme..

agent[9](subject): agentive particle, recipient (indirect object / direction): la don


ནད་ཀྱིས་ལུས་ལ་གནོད།
illness   body   to harm
The illness harmed the body.
to harm v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.




stative directed

The verb ཁྱབ་པ་ "to pervade" is in Tibetan itself classified as ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ while it is transitive in English.
With the verb ཁྱབ་པ་ "to pervade, permeate, be present throughout" the participant "that pervades" is mostly marked with the agentive particle and the object or space that is pervaded marked with the la don. "That which is pervaded" is considering to be a qualifier in here .
The verb can also occur with "that what pervades" in ming tsam.

agent (subject): agentive particle, qualifier - that what is pervaded: la don


སེམས་ཉིད་རང་བྱུང་གི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱིས་འཁོར་འདས་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ་ཀྱང་།
essence of mind self arisen wisdom samsara nirvana all pervade even
even though the self arisen wisdom of the essence of mind pervades all of samsara and nirvana ...



directed grammar with transitive verbs
verbs of mental activity

verbs of mental activity like དཔྱོད་པ་ when it means "to examine", སེམས་པ་ when it means "to contemplate" When an agent (subject) is actively engaging in the "object of interest" verbs of mental activity can have the direction of their investigation marked with the la don instead of having a theme in ming tsam. This difference in grammar comes from the difference between "[just] thinking something" and "[directly] investigating something". This could be interpreted either as a case where the theme is in marked with a la don or as being similar to the grammar of intentional verbs of perception like ལྟ་བ་ "to look".
For a further explanation that looks into how particles are used in regard to semantic categories and the action of verbs (e.g. if is directed or not), see: Verbs and Particles - Notes

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme or qualifier - direction of attention: la don


རྒྱུ་ལ་དཔྱོད་པ་
cause examine
to examine the cause
to analyse v.t. ཐ་དད་པ་
དཔྱད་པ།  དཔྱོད་པ།  དཔྱད་པ།  དཔྱོད།
past pres. fut. imp.



verbs with referential la don

Some verbs can come with a referential la don ལ་. E.g.,འཛིན་པ་ when it means "to apprehend (something as something)" can have that which a statement is made about marked with (a referential) la don ལ་. and the qualifier of identity and equivalence marked with the la don ཏུ་སུ་ etc.. This could be interpreted either as a case where the theme is in marked with the la don or a case where the grammar is similar to that of intentional verbs of perception like ལྟ་བ་ "to look" which has direction of the attention plus a qualifier.
For a further explanation that looks into how particles are used in regard to semantic categories and the action of verbs (e.g. if is directed or not), see: Verbs and Particles - Notes

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme / direction - what is apprehended: ལ་ , qualifier of identity: སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་


ཁྱིམ་ལ་དུར་ཙམ་དུ་འཛིན
household grave only apprehend
to apprehend a household only as a grave
to apprehend;... v.t. ཐ་དད་པ
བཟུང་བ།  འཛིན་པ།  གཟུང་བ།  ཟུང་།
past pres. fut. imp.



Agentive Transitive and ming tsam Intransitive Verbs with Same Type of Qualifier

Within the agentive transitive and ming tsam intransitive verbs there are transitive and intransitive verbs that use the same case marking particles with their particular qualifier. These groups often contain semantic pairs of transitive and intransitive counterparts. (See below: "2.4 semantic pairs or groups")

The following groups of transitive and intransitive verbs can be distinguished based on different case marking particles used for their qualifiers:

la don transitive / intransitive - qualifier with the la don particle
agentive transitive / intransitive - qualifier with the agentive particle
associative[10] transitive / intransitive - qualifier with the associative particle
originative transitive / intransitive - qualifier with the originative particle


E.g.:

སྦྲེལ་བ་ agentive transitve ཐ་དད་པ་
to connect, attach, link, bind together
སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ།
past pres. fut. imp.
འབྲེལ་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be related, connected
འབྲེལ་བ།   འབྲེལ་བ།   འབྲེལ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


agentive transitive
 qualifier with the associative particle དང་      
ming tsam intransitive
 qualifier with the associative particle དང་      
སྦྲེལ་བ་    ཐ་དད་པ་ འབྲེལ་བ་    ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
འཕགས་པའི་བཞེད་པ་དང་སྦྲེལ་བ། འབྲས་བུ་དང་ནི་འབྲེལ་བའི་རྒྱུ།
noble          wish      connect result      connected  cause
connected with the noble wish the cause which is connected to the result


Semantic Pairs or Groups

In Tibetan there are a number of cases where the general meaning of an action can be found to be expressed by different verbs (of a semantic pair or group) belonging to different syntactic categories, with each expressing a more particular aspect of that general meaning. E.g.:

E.g.:

འགེངས་པ་ agentive transitve ཐ་དད་པ་
to fill, to fill up with
བཀང་བ།  འགེངས་པ།  དགང་བ།  ཁོང༌།
past pres. fut. imp.
ཁེང་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to fill with, to fill up with
ཁེངས་པ།  ཁེང་བ།  ཁེང་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
གང་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be full
འགྲངས་པ།  འགྲང་བ།  འགྲང་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


agentive transitive
    qualifier with the agentive particle    
 ming tsam intransitive dynamic non-volitional 
    qualifier with the agentive particle    
ming tsam intransitive stative
    qualifier with the agentive particle    
འགེངས་པ་    ཐ་དད་པ་ ཁེང་བ་     ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ གང་བ་     ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
"to fill up with"
the action of doing so
"to fill with"
the process of becoming full
"to be full"
the result of the process
བུམ་པ་ཆུས་བཀང་བ། ཁང་པའི་ནང་དུ་ཆུས་ཁེངས་སོང་། བུམ་པ་ཆུས་གང་བ།
vase  water  filled house inside water  filled (past auxiliary) vase  water full
The vase was filled with water [by someone]. The inside of the house filled up with water.
(an agent can not be stated)
The vase is full of water.


verb pair examples:

intransitive transitive
སྐྱེ་ to be born, to arise སྐྱེད to give birth to, to produce
འཁུམ་ to shrink back, to shrivel སྐུམ་ to draw back, to contract
འཁོར་ to turn, to rotate སྐོར་ to turn [something], to rotate [something]
འགྱུར་ to change, to become, be changed སྒྱུར་ to change, to transform, to alter, to correct
འགྲུབ་ to be accomplished, to be produced སྒྲུབ་ to accomplish
ཆག་ break, to be broken གཅོག་ to break
འཕེལ་ to increase, to improve, to multiply སྤེལ་ cause to increase, to develop, to propagate
འབྲལ་ to be separated, to be parted from ཕྲལ་ to separate, to part with
ཞུ་ to melt བཞུ་ to melt


Verbs which Change Their Meaning with Different Syntaxes

See: "verbs with multiple meanings occurring with different syntax"

Change of the Meaning with Different Particles

Some verbs change their meaning when a different particle is used for the same participant.
E.g., སེམས་པ་ can mean "to think" when the theme (object) is in ming tsam or "to contemplate" when the theme (or direction see above)[11] is marked with the la don ལ་.

(Note: If the theme is a whole clause, the la don སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are used. See:"la don—Verbal Clause as Theme")


སེམས་པ་ the theme in ming tsam: "to think"

དབེན་གནས་ཀྱི་ཡོན་ཏན་བསམས་ནས་
solitary place good qualities thinking
thinking of the good qualities of solitary places...


སེམས་པ་ the theme marked with the la don: "to contemplate, to think about"

གསུམ་པ་རྙེད་དཀའི་དཔེ་ལ་བསམ་པ་ནི་
third  find difficult example contemplate
the third: to contemplate about the example of the difficulty of finding [a precious human birth]



Change of the Meaning when Used as an Auxiliary Verb

Verbs often lose their original meaning partially or completely when used as auxiliary verb. (For example there is no "going" going on in "I'm going to remain unmoving.".)
E.g., in Tibetan the verb ཟིན་པ་ means "to be grasped, to be taken hold of, to be captured" and "to learn by heart, to memorize". When uses as auxiliary verb it expresses the completion of an action.

Some verbs also have a different meaning when used as modal auxiliary verb.[12] E.g., ཆོག་པ་ either "allowed, permitted" as a modal auxiliary verb or "to be sufficient" as verb on its own, (see "Verbs of Evaluation).

When meaning "allowed, permitted" ཆོག་པ་ comes as a modal auxiliary verb right after the verb.

བསམ་འཆར་བཤད་ཆོག
opinion     express  allowed
allowed to express [ones] opinion


When meaning "to be sufficient" then comes after that which 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




Classification of Verbs According to Semantic and Syntactic Groups

Note:
A verb or a semantice group of verbs can have the grammar of two or more syntactic groups.
There are two main reason for this. Both are in relation to the main function of the particles that is of concern here, to show what kind of relation a participant of a clause has to the verb of the clause.
1.) There are overlaps between the functions of different particles. This comes from the fact that some of the Tibetan particles can mark a wide range of different type of participants and if there are two or more particles that can express the same or a similar relation between participant and verb then there is the possibility that the verb is seen with those different particles. E.g. དང་and ལས་ can mark the qualifier of "disjunctive verbs" which leads to the fact that "disjunctive verbs" are ming tsam intransitive associative and ming tsam intransitive originative.
2.) If a verb can have different semantic meanings like སེམས་པ་ "to think" or "to contemplate" (see above) it can have its participants marked with different particles in regard to those different meanings since the participants are of different types.


Note:
Verbs that belong to semantic groups with particular type of qualifiers which are marked with either the agentive particle (གིས་etc.), the originative particles (ལས་, ནས་) , or the associative particle (དང་) and those groups where potentially agentive transitive and ming tsam intransitive verbs come with the same type of qualifier are placed in separate groups (see below).


Note:

The first section below will cover those ming tsam intransitive verbs verbs (including the linking verb) that do not have any particular qualifier or have their qualifier marked with the la don, which means that the intransitive verbs without qualifier and with la don for their qualifier are taken together under one heading.
One reason[13] for this is the way "location" is viewed here [note - link void]. The theme of a "change of state verb" and "state of being verb" is a theme in refernce to a location in the same way the theme of a "verb of motion" and "verb of living" is a theme in refernce to a location. The "location" of "change of state" and "state of being" verbs is the state the theme changes to or the state (lexicalized in the verb) it "remains" in.
In this context it needs to be noted that there is a difference between the "location" of three semantic core arguments agent, theme and location and a generic location where an action takes place. [see note - link void] E.g., in "In Berlin, she went to his apartment." "she" is theme and "his apartment" is location whereas "in Berlin" is an adverbial sentence qualifier of place.
Another point to notice is question of the "status" of origin. Even though any motion or change of state originates from somewhere, the qualifier of origin is not included as a core argument [note link void]. Which means that for instance "verbs of motion" are classified as "ming tsam intransitive - dynamic directed" but not as "ming tsam intransitive - dynamic directed / originative". An originative particle is only used to categorize a group of verbs as "intransitive or transitive - originative" when it comes with an unique semantic group, e.g., like the "verbs of separation".


Intransitive Verbs Without Qualifier and with la don for Their Qualifier


category: ming tsam intransitive

Note:see above

Linking Verb, གཏན་འཁེལ་བའི་ཚིག་ "Word of Certainty"

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative copula

theme (subject): ming tsam, complement[14]: ming tsam, strict "theme - complement" word order


ཡིན་པ་ ming tsam intransitive
is / are
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 
ལགས་ ming tsam intransitive
is /are
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 
མིན་པ་ ming tsam intransitive
(abbreviation of མ་ཡིན་པ་)
is not / are not
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 


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...



See also: A ཡིན་ with partially omitted complement


State of Being Verbs and Adjectives

theme (subject): ming tsam


State of Being Verbs

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative non-volitional
These are verbs that express a non-controllable state of being.

བཀྲེས་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be hungry
བཀྲེས་པ།  བཀྲེས་པ།  བཀྲེས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
ངལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be tired
ངལ་བ།  ངལ་བ།  ངལ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
ན་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be ill, to be in pain
ན་བ།  ན་བ།  ན་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


theme: ming tsam


སེམས་ངལ་བ།
mind   tired
mind is tired


Adjectives

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative non-volitional

Adjectives can function like stative verbs in the way that they are used like verbs at the end of a clause. When adjectives are used in this way they lose their second syllable. E.g.:
ངན་ from "ངན་པ་ "bad, inferior" and བཟང་ from བཟང་པོ་ "excellent, good"


theme: ming tsam


མི་ང་རང་ངན་ཏེ་བླ་མ་བཟང་།
person myself bad lama good
Even though I[' m] bad, [my] Lama [is] good.[15]



Non-Volitional Event Verbs

category: ming tsam intransitive - dynamic non-volitional

འཆི་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to die
ཤི་བ།  འཆི་བ།  འཆི་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
འཆར་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to arise
ཤར་བ།  འཆར་བ།  འཆར་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


theme: ming tsam


བྱིའུ་ཤི།
small bird died
The small bird died.


ཉི་མ་ཤར།
sun   arose
The sun arose.


མེ་ཏོག་འཆར།
flower blossom (arise)
The flower blossoms.



Intransitive Verbs: of Motion, Living, Existence, Possession, Necessity, Attitude, Dependence

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


Verbs of Motion

category: ming tsam intransitive - dynamic directed

འགྲོ་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to go
ཕྱིན་པ་ / སོང་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  འགྲོ་བ།  སོང་།
past pres. fut. imp.
འཇུག་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to enter, setting out on (a path)
ཞུགས་པ།  འཇུག་པ།  འཇུག་པ།  ཞུགས།
past pres. fut. imp.


theme: ming tsam;  qualifier-direction, destination: la don;  qualifier-origin: originative


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



Verbs of Living

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative located

གནས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to abide, stay
གནས་པ།  གནས་པ།  གནས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
འདུག་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to stay, be present
འདུག་པ།  འདུག་པ།  འདུག་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
སྡོད་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to stay, to live, to reside
བསྡད་པ།  སྡོད་པ།  བསྡད་པ།  སྡོད།
past pres. fut. imp.
བཞུགས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to stay, (honorific for སྡོད་པ་)
བཞུགས་པ།  བཞུགས་པ།  བཞུགས་པ།  བཞུགས།
past pres. fut. imp.


theme: ming tsam;  qualifier-place of abiding: la don


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



Verbs of Existence and Possession
Verbs of Existence

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative located

ཡོད་པ་ ming tsam intransitive
to exist
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 
གདའ་ ming tsam intransitive
to exist, to be there
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 
མཆིས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive
to exist[16]
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 
མེད་པ་ ming tsam intransitive
not to exist
The negation of ཡོད་པ་ is always མེད་པ་ and never *མ་ཡོད་པ་
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 
འགྲུབ་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to come into existence, to be existent;
(to be produced; to be accomplished, to be done; to be proven)
གྲུབ་པ།  འགྲུབ་པ།  འགྲུབ་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


theme: ming tsam;  qualifier-place of existence: la don


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་
truly     existent
truly existent


རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པ
naturally / inherently existent
inherently existent



Verbs of Possession

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative located
Note: The origin of the way possession is expressed comes from "'something' existing at a 'location'" with the location processed as the owner. See Verbs and Particles - Notes

ཡོད་པ་ ming tsam intransitive
to have
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 
མེད་པ་ ming tsam intransitive
not to exist[17]
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 
མངའ་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to have, to possess
མངའ་བ།  མངའ་བ།  མངའ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
བདག་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be owned, belong to, controlled, governed
བདག་པ།  བདག་པ།  བདག་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
བདོག་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to have; to exist [for something some where]
བདོག་པ།  བདོག་པ།  བདོག་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


theme-what is owned: ming tsam;  qualifier-possessor ("to whom it exist"): la don


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.



Verbs of Necessity

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative located

See:stative located verbs of necessity above
In Tibetan, the theme of the verb དགོས་པ་ "to need" is that what is needed, it "performs" the action "to be needed", (the "water" in the example below). What or whom it is needed for is the qualifier (the "sprouts"). This is different to how it is understood in English. See: Verbs and Particles - Notes on "need" and theme, subject and dative subject.

དགོས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
toneed, to be need
དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ།  དགོས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
མཁོ་བ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to need, to require, to be require
མཁོ་བ།  མཁོ་བ།  མཁོ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


qualifier-that which needs: la don;  theme-that what is needed: ming tsam


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.



Attitude Verbs

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative affective
Note: Some verbs which are (more or less) voluntary e.g.like གུས་པ་ "to have respect" could also be considered to be stative directed.

verbs expressing "to be afraid" can also have their qualifier with the agentive particle; see below

སྐྲག་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be afraid
སྐྲག་པ།  སྐྲག་པ།  སྐྲག་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
སྐྱོ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be sad
སྐྱོ་བ།  སྐྱོ་བ།  སྐྱོ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
བྱམས་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to love
བྱམས་པ།  བྱམས་པ།  བྱམས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
དད་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to have faith
དད་པ།  དད་པ།  དད་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
གུས་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to have respect
གུས་པ།  གུས་པ།  གུས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
འཇིགས་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to fear
འཇིགས་པ།  འཇིགས་པ།  འཇིགས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


theme: ming tsam;  qualifier-that which the attitude is towards: la don ( ལ་ )
Note: ལ་ is the most common la don used.


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 particle can mark that which one is afraid of.

theme: ming tsam;  qualifier-that what on is afraid of, the cause, reason to be afraid: agentive particle


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



Verbs of Dependence

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative directed

རྟེན་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to depend, to rely
རྟེན་པ།  རྟེན་པ།  བརྟེན་པ།  རྟེན།
past pres. fut. imp.
ལྟོས་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be related, to be dependent
བལྟོས་པ།  ལྟོས་པ།  ལྟོས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
རག་ལས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive
to rely, to depend
note: no ཐ་དད་པ་ཐ་མི་དད་པ་/ tense 


theme: ming tsam  qualifier—what it is depended upon: la don ( ལ་ )
Note: ལ་ is the most common la don used.


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).



Transitive Verbs


category: agentive transitive

This section covers those agentive transitive verbs that do not belong to a semantic group that uses a particular type of qualifier. Verbs that belong to semantic groups with particular type of qualifiers which are marked with either the agentive particle (གིས་etc.), the originative particles (ལས་, ནས་) , or the associative particle (དང་) and those groups where potentially agentive transitive and ming tsam intransitive verbs come with the same type of qualifier are placed in separate groups (see below).

Volitional Action Verbs, Unintentional Verbs of Perception, Verbs of Cognition, "Fruitional" Verbs

agent(subject): agentive particle, theme(object): ming tsam


Volitional Action Verbs

category: agentive transitive effective

གསོད་པ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to kill
བསད་པ།  གསོད་པ།  གསད་པ།  སོད།
past pres. fut. imp.
འཐུང་བ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to drink
བཏུངས་པ།  འཐུང་བ།  བཏུང་བ།  འཐུངས།
past pres. fut. imp.


agent (subject): agentive particle;  theme (object): ming tsam


ཁོ་བོས་ཇ་འཐུང་གིན་ཡོད།
myself tea drink (present, continuous tense auxiliary)
I'm drinking tea.



Unintentional Verbs of Perception

category: agentive transitive fruitional
Note: They are transitive verbs which are ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified in Tibetan. See Grammar Terms

མཐོང་བ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to see
མཐོང་བ།  མཐོང་བ།  མཐོང་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
ཐོས་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to hear
ཐོས་པ།  ཐོས་པ།  ཐོས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


agent-perceiver (subject): agentive particle;  theme (object): ming tsam


མདུན་ལམ་གསལ་པོར་མཐོང་བ།
front   way clearly        see
to see clearly the way in front


  • The agent (subject) is omitted, the theme (object) མདུན་ལམ་ is in ming tsam.


Verbs of Cognition

category: agentive transitive fruitional
Note: They are transitive verbs which are ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified in Tibetan. See Grammar Terms

ཧ་གོ་བ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to understand, to comprehend (derived from གོ་བ་ to understand,
comprehend; to notice; to hear [and comprehend])
གོ་བ།  གོ་བ།  གོ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
ཤེས་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to know, to cognize
ཤེས་པ།  ཤེས་པ།  ཤེས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
རྟོགས་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to know, to understand
རྟོགས་པ།  རྟོགས་པ།  རྟོགས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


agent (subject): agentive particle;  theme (object): ming tsam


ཁོས་ཧ་མ་གོ
he   not understand
He doesn’t understand.


  • The agent (subject) ཁོ་ is marked by the agentive particle.


"Fruitional" Transitive Verbs

category: agentive transitive fruitional
Note: They are transitive verbs which are ཐ་མི་དད་པ་ classified in Tibetan. See Grammar Terms

འཐོབ་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to attain, to obtain
ཐོབ་པ།  འཐོབ་པ།  འཐོབ་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
རྙེད་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to find, get, discover, gain
རྙེད་པ།  རྙེད་པ།  རྙེད་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


agent (subject): agentive particle;  theme (object): ming tsam


བདུད་རྩི་ལྟ་བུའི་ཆོས་ཤིག་བདག་གིས་རྙེད།
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།།
Ananda           arhat             attained
Ananda attained [the state of an] arhat.



[ditr. void]


Surface Contact Verbs


[transf. void]

category: agentive ditransitive

Ditransitive verbs are verbs where the agent's action upon the theme (object) is directed towards a recipient (indirect object). These are verbs expressing any transfer of goods, information or action (like སྦྱིན་པ་ "to give") or any verb expressing to produce something for somebody. Typical ditransitive verbs are "to give", "to sell", "to bring", "to tell" and generally any verb expressing any transfer of goods, information or action producing something. E.g.: "She gave him ten silver.", "I read the books to him.", "She is baking a cake for him.".

agent (subject): agentive particle, theme (object): ming tsamrecipient (indirect object)[18]: la don


སྦྱིན་པ་ agentive ditransitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to give
བྱིན་པ།  སྦྱིན་པ།  སྦྱིན་པ།  སྦྱིན།
past pres. fut. imp.
སྟེར་བ་ agentive ditransitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to give, to bestow, to present
སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར་བ།  སྟེར།
past pres. fut. imp.


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.



[com. void]
སྟོན་པ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to teach, show
བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན་པ།  བསྟན་པ།  སྟོན།
past pres. fut. imp.



Agentive Directed Verbs

category: agentive directed

agent (subject): agentive particle, direction of the action: la don


Intentional Verbs of Perception

category: agentive directed - intransitive dynamic directed

Some intentional verbs of perception e.g. like ལྟ་བ་ "to look" have or can have agentive directed grammar. They have the direction of their attention marked with a la don. Their grammar can be irregular.
ལྟ་བ་ is mostly seen with agentive directed grammar. Other intentional verbs of perception (e.g.ཉན་པ་ "to listen") can be seen with either agentive transitive or agentive directed grammar. See Verbs and Particles - Notes.
Note: They are ཐ་དད་པ་ classified in Tibetan (but they do not have a theme in ming tsam. See Grammar Terms).

ལྟ་བ་ agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་
to look
བལྟས་པ།  ལྟ་བ།  བལྟ་བ།  ལྟོས།
past pres. fut. imp.
སྣོམ་པ་ agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་
to smell (actively); (also: to hold, carry)
བསྣམས་པ།  སྣོམ་པ།  བསྣམ་པ།  སྣོམས།
past pres. fut. imp.
རེག་པ་ agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་
to touch
རེག་པ།  རེག་པ།  རེག་པ།  རེག
past pres. fut. imp.


agent (subject): agentive particle;  qualifier - direction: la don


དཔེ་དེབ་ལ་བལྟ་བ།
book    look
[one] will look at (or study) the books



Examples for irregular grammar.

Three examples of different grammar with སྣོམ་པ་ "to smell".

ཇ་ཞིམ་པོའི་དྲི་ལ་སྣོམས།
tea fragrant scent smell!
Smell the scent of fragrant / delicious tea!


In this case "what is smelled / sniffed" is marked by the la don (དྲི་ལ་) making it into a direction (qualifier).

In the next two cases "what is smelled" (the theme) is not marked by a la don but in ming tsam and in the second sentence the "nose", the "place of smelling" is marked by the la don (སྣར་) .

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.



Four examples of different grammar with for རེག་པ་ "to touch". In the first two sentences that which is touching is marked by the agentive particle (ལག་པས་).

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 the next two sentences that which is touching is not marked by the agentive particle (ཤིང་གི་ཡལ་ག་ and རྐང་པ་) but is in ming tsam. The place of touching is marked by the la don as before. (For changes in grammar between voluntary and involuntary usage of the same verb see "Verbs and Particles - Notes".

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.



Verbs that Express "to Make Effort, to Engage In"

category: agentive directed - indirect transitive dynamic directed

"Verbs expressing 'to make effort, to engage in'" are categorized as "indirect transitive" (and are in Tibetan categorized ཐ་དད་པ་ - if they are transitive or not is still somewhat under discussion). These verbs have their theme, "the effort" etc. lexicalized in the verb and do not have a theme (object) as a participant [19] (in ming tsam). They do have a direction of the action, "what the effort is toward" marked by la don.[20]

འབད་པ། agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་
to exert oneself, to strive, make effort
འབད་པ།  འབད་པ།  འབད་པ།  འབོད།
past pres. fut. imp.
འགྲུས་པ། agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་
to persevere, to be diligence, to be industrious
འགྲུས་པ།  འགྲུས་པ།  འགྲུས་པ།  འགྲུས།
past pres. fut. imp.
རྩོལ་བ། agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་
to endeavour, make effort, exert
བརྩལ་བ།  རྩོལ་བ།  བརྩལ་བ།  རྩོལ།
past pres. fut. imp.


agent (subject): agentive particle;  qualifier, direction - what the effort is towards: la don


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
(One) will persevere in the bodhisattva conduct through body, speech and mind.
Note: བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སྤྱོད་པ་ is short for བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྤྱོད་པ་


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.



Verbs of Pervasion

category: agentive directed - stative directed and ming tsam intransitive directed or located


These verbs are similar to the verbs of presence with the exception that the effected participant is not in ming tsam. That what is pervaded is marked by la don while that what pervades is marked by either the agentive particle or is in ming tsam. The verb ཁྱབ་པ་ means "to pervade, permeate, be present throughout" and "it logically pervades", "it follows" when used in logical arguments and debate. Its grammar is irregular.

ཁྱབ་པ་ agentive directed ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to pervade, permeate
ཁྱབ་པ།  ཁྱབ་པ།  ཁྱབ་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


agent (subject): agentive particle;  qualifier - direction, space: la don


སེམས་ཉིད་རང་བྱུང་གི་ཡེ་ཤེས་ཀྱིས་འཁོར་འདས་ཀུན་ལ་ཁྱབ་ཀྱང་།
mind itself self arisen wisdom samsara nirvana all  pervade even
even though the self arisen primordial wisdom [of] the essence of mind, pervades all of samsara and nirvana ...


འཇིག་རྟེན་གྱི་ཁམས་ཀྱི་སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ལ་དེ་བཞིན་གཤེགས་པའི་སྙིང་པོ་ཏིལ་འབྲུ་ལ་མར་གྱིས་ཁྱབ་པ་བཞིན་དུ་གནས་སོ།།
world          realm    sentient being all         Tathagata              essence sesame seed oil         pervade     like    abide
Buddha nature (essence of the Tathagata) abides in all sentient beings of the realms of the world like oil is throughout present within sesame seeds.



Example with ming tsam intransitive directed or located grammar

theme: ming tsam;  qualifier: la don


ཉི་མའི་འོད་ཟེར་ཕྱོགས་མཚམས་ཀུན་ཏུ་ཁྱབ་པ།
sun   light ray   directions[21]   all   pervade
The sun's ray pervade (shone / shine) in all directions (everywhere).



Example of the debate style usage

"that what logical follows" (or is claimed to do so): agentive particle


མི་ཡིན་ན་སེམས་ཅན་ཡིན་པས་ཁྱབ།
human be if sentient being be follows (logically pervades)
If [a phenomena] is a human being it follows that [that phenomena] is a sentient being.



A proposed grammatical structure for this debate style that is in accordance with the grammar of this verb:
With the example above:
"Given the subject of a phenomena, if (ན་) [that phenomena (omitted)] is a human being, it follows (ཁྱབ་) that [that phenomena (omitted - potentially in ming tsam or marked by la don)] is a sentient being."
In general:
"Given the subject of a phenomena, if antecedent—[that phenomena (omitted)] meets the condition (expressed by a clause ending in the root of verb + ན་)—is true, then the consequent logically follows—[that phenomena (omitted — potentially in ming tsam or marked by la don)] is logically pervaded (ཁྱབ་) (which means it has the characteristic expressed) by the proposed consequence."
In short: first protasis—"If (ན་) antecedent is true"—then apodosis—consequent (ཀྱིས་ with an omitted theme) logically follows (ཁྱབ་)."


Verbs of Benefit or Harm and Hindrance

category: agentive directed - indirect ditransitive

Verbs of benefit or harm and hindrance have an agent (subject) marked with agentive particle and a recipient (indirect object / direction) with la don. The action is passing over to a recipient. That what is passed over, the benefit or harm, is not stated as the theme but is lexicalized in the verb (inherent within the meaning of the verb).

གནོད་པ། agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་
to harm, hurt, injure, damage, undermine
གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ།  གནོད་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
འགོག་པ། agentive directed ཐ་དད་པ་
to stop, block, negate, refute
བཀག་པ།  འགོག་པ།  དགག་པ།  ཁོག
past pres. fut. imp.
ཕན་པ། agentive directed ཐ་མི་དད་པ་(!)
to benefit, be of help
ཕན་པ།  ཕན་པ།  ཕན་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


agent, (subject) doing the benefit or harm: agentive particle;  recipient, direction (indirect object) - the benefited or harmed: la don ལ་;  (theme - the harm or benefit: lexicalized in the verb)


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.



Verbs Expressing Mental Activity with Directed Grammar

category: agentive directed - directed grammar with transitive verbs

Verbs expressing mental activity like སེམས་པ་ "to think" and སྒོམ་པ་ "to meditate, to cultivate" can have their theme (object) or direction (qualifier) market with the la don (ལ་). See: verbs of mental activity. If the theme (object) is a whole clause then the la don སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་ are used. See: la don - Verbal Clause as the Theme of a Verb

སེམས་པ། agentive transitive
agentive directed
ཐ་དད་པ་
to think
བསམས་པ།  སེམས་པ།  བསམ་པ།  སོམས།
past pres. fut. imp.
དཔྱོད་པ། agentive transitive
agentive directed
ཐ་དད་པ་
to analyse
དཔྱད་པ།  དཔྱོད་པ།  དཔྱད་པ།  དཔྱོད།
past pres. fut. imp.


agent (subject): agentive particle;  theme / direction (object / qualifier) - direction of attention: la don


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


Verbs That Can Take a Referential ལ་ for Their Theme

verbs with qualifier of identity or equivalence

category: agentive directed - directed grammar with transitive verbs

With transitive verbs that come with a qualifier of identity or equivalence, the theme (object) is often marked with the la don ལ་ and the qualifier of identity or equivalence is marked with the la don སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་.

འཛིན་པ། agentive transitive
agentive directed
ཐ་དད་པ
to apprehend;...
བཟུང་བ།  འཛིན་པ།  གཟུང་བ།  ཟུང་།
past pres. fut. imp.


common structure: agent (subject): agentive particle;   "topic referred to" - theme or direction: referential la don ལ་;  qualifier: la don སུ་རུ་ཏུ་དུ་ར་


ཁྱིམ་ལ་དུར་ཙམ་དུ་འཛིན
household grave only apprehend
to apprehend a household only as a grave


See also: Verbs with multiple meanings occurring with different syntax.


Note on དབྱེ་བ་

category: agentive directed - directed grammar with transitive verbs

་་་་ལ་དབྱེ་ན། ་་་་ "... when [this] is divided [into subdivision] ..." occurs often at the beginning of an enumeration, explanation, etc..
Unusual is (1.) that this is the future form of the verb since in most cases a verb before a conditional ན་ is in the past tense of that verb and (2.) that it differs from the grammar of the present tense འབྱེད་པ་ "to divide" which has a theme, that which is divided, in ming tsam.[22]

འབྱེད་པ་ agentive transitive
agentive directed
ཐ་དད་པ་
to separate, divide, classify; to distinguish,
differentiate; to open, uncover
ཕྱེ་བ།  འབྱེད་པ།  དབྱེ་བ།  ཕྱེས།
past pres. fut. imp.


in the case of this usage: agent (subject): agentive particle;  theme or direction: referential la don ལ་


བེམ་པོ་ལ་དབྱེ་ན།
inanimate matter divide
if [the category of] material phenomenas is divided ...



Verbs of Absence and Presence

theme: ming tsam, qualifier - that what is absent or "present": agentive particle


Verbs of Absence

category: ming tsam intransitive - agentive
Note: There are no intransitive dynamic or transitive forms of the verbs of absence (with the qualifier marked by the agentive particle). See note below.

སྟོང་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be empty
སྟོངས་པ།  སྟོང་པ།  སྟོང་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
དབེན་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be devoid of, isolated
དབེན་པ།  དབེན་པ།  དབེན་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
དབུལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to lack, be poor
དབུལ་བ།  དབུལ་བ།  དབུལ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
ཕོང་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to lack, be short of, destitute
ཕོངས་པ།  ཕོང་བ།  ཕོང་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


theme - that which is "missing of something": ming tsam;  qualifier - what is absent, lacking, "that what is empty of": agentive particle


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



Note:

A dynamic or transitive form of the verbs of absence would be verbs that express the removal of something. However, the dynamic transitive verbs that express "to remove", "purify", ot "clear away" conform to regular transitive grammar. Similarly, dynamic intransitive verbs that express something "becoming exhausted", "vanishing", or "disappearing" conform to regular intransitive grammar.

For instance དག་པ་ "to be cleansed, to be purified" is the past tense of the verb འདག་པ་ "to become clean, to become purified". In the past tense formདག་པ་ behaves like a verb of absence with "that which is removed" being marked by the agentive particle, while the present and future tense of འདག་པ་ take "that which is to be removed" in ming tsam, with the instrument marked with the agentive particle.

Below are two examples of a resultant state with དག་པ་ "to be purified" and བྲལ་བ་ "to be free of" (which is a disjunctive verb[23]) coming with དྲི་མ་ "stains" - "that which is free of" - marked with the agentive particle (དྲི་མས་).

In contrast to this the next two examples further below are with the present or future tense of འདག་པ་ "to become purified, will become purified" with "that which is going to be purified" occurring in ming tsam, and the instrument being marked with the agentive particle.

འདག་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to become clean, to be purified
དག་པ།  འདག་པ།  འདག་པ 
past pres. fut. imp.
འབྲལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be free from, to separate
བྲལ་བ།  འབྲལ་བ།  འབྲལ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


examples with: theme - which is "devoid of something": ming tsam;  qualifier - what is absent: agentive particle


སེམས་ཀྱི་ངོ་བོ་དྲི་མས་རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་དག་པའི་ཕྱིར་ན་
mind  essence stain naturally    pure    because
because the essence of mind is inherently pure .....


      བློ་བུར་ དྲི་མས་བྲལ་བའི་འོག་མིན་ནི།
adventitious stain  free    akanishtha
the Akanishtha which is free of adventitious stains



examples with: theme - that what is affected (is going to be removed): ming tsam;  instrument - that what produces the effect (of removing something): agentive particle


རྒྱུད་འདིའི་ཚིག་ཙམ་བཀླགས་པས་ཀྱང་ སྡིག་སྒྲིབ་ ཚབས་ཆེན་པོ་འདག་པ་དང་།
tantra this word merely read    even negativity obscuration severe great purify and
... having merely read the word of this tantra will purify extremely severe negative deeds and obscuration, ....


ལྟུང་བ་ཐམས་ཅད་བཤགས་པ་ཁོ་ནས་འདག་པར་བཤད་པ་ཡིན་ནོ། །
downfall all    confession only      purify    explain    is
[...this] is the explanation that all downfalls are purified by means of confession alone.



Verbs of Presence

The term "presence" is used as the counterpart to "absence".

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative agentive [24]

གང་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be full (result of the process of being filled)
གང་པ།  གང་བ།  གང་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
འགྲང་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be satiated, to be full
འགྲངས་པ།  འགྲང་བ།  འགྲང་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
ཁེབས་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be covered, to be veiled
ཁེབས་པ།  ཁེབས་པ།  ཁེབས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
ཕྱུག་པ་ ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be rich in, to have an abundance of
ཕྱུག་པ།  ཕྱུག་པ།  ཕྱུག་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.



category: ming tsam intransitive - dynamic agentive

ཁེང་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to fill up with, fill with (the process of becoming full)
ཁེངས་པ།  ཁེང་བ།  ཁེང་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.



category: agentive transitive - agentive

འགེངས་པ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to fill, to fill up with
བཀང་བ།  འགེངས་པ།  དགང་བ།  ཁོང༌།
past pres. fut. imp.
གཏམས་པ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to fill, to fill to capacity, to pack with, cram with
གཏམས་པ།  གཏམས་པ།  གཏམས་པ།  གཏོམས།
past pres. fut. imp.
འགེབས་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to cover
བཀབ་པ།  འགེབས་པ།  དགབ་པ།  ཁོབ།
past pres. fut. imp.
གཡོག་པ་ agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to cover
གཡོགས་པ།  གཡོག་པ།  གཡོག་པ།  གཡོགས།
past pres. fut. imp.
བསྐོར་བ་ agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to surround, to encircle; (to spin, rotate)
བསྐོར་བ།  སྐོར་བ།  བསྐོར་བ།  སྐོར།
past pres. fut. imp.


theme - that which is affected by the presence: ming tsam;  qualifier - that which is present or caused to be present: agentive particle


category: ming tsam intransitive agentive, ming tsam intransitive - stative agentive

བུམ་པ་ཆུས་ཁང༌།
vase   water  full
The vase is full of water.


ཟས་ཀྱིས་གྲོད་པ་འགྲངས་དྲགས་ནས་ན་སོང་།
food    stomach   full        'too'      ill   became
having 'over-filled' the stomach, [he] became ill


ཡོན་ཏན་གྱིས་ཕྱུག།
qualities  rich
to be rich in qualities


    ས་གཞི་ཀོ་བས་མི་ཁེབས་  ཀྱང་  ལྷམ་མཐིལ་ཀོ་བས་གཡོགས་ན་ཆོག་
ground four leather no covered even shoe sole leather cover    sufficient
even if the four continents are not covered with leather if [one] covers the soles of [one's] shoes with leather [it] will be sufficient



category: ming tsam intransitive agentive, ming tsam intransitive - dynamic agentive

ཁང་པའི་ནང་དུ་ཆུས་ཁེངས་སོང༌།
house  inside  water filled   (past auxiliary)
The inside of the house had filled with water.



category: agentive transitive agentive, agentive transitive - agentive

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.


གངས་རིས་བསྐོར།
snow mountain surrounded
surrounded (circled) by snow mountains


གངྒཱའི་བྱེ་མ་གྲངས་སྙེད་ཀྱི། སངས་རྒྱས་ཞིང་རྣམས་མི་གང་གིས། རིན་ཆེན་དག་གིས་ཀུན་བཀང་སྟེ།
Ganga grain number find  Buddha  field  (plural) person who  jewel (plural)  all  filled
if a person would completely fill with jewels, Buddhas fields as many as there are grains of sand in the Ganga ...



Verbs of Interrelation: Conjunctive and Disjunctive Verbs, Verbs of Agreement, Verbs Expressing Connections of Association and Possession

qualifier —that which the connection is with: associative དང་ or la don

            —that which is being disconnected from: associative དང་, la don or originative ལས་


Conjunctive Verbs

Note: The la don can commonly be used as a substitute for the associative particle དང་ with verbs that come with the associative particle. For that reason most or all of these verbs can have either associatve or directed grammar.
Note: The verb སྦྱོར་བ་ "to connect, join, (and many more meanings)" comes frequently with la don instead of the associative particle དང་ . This is much rarer with any other verbs of this category.
Note: The associative particle དང་ is frequently omitted.

category: ming tsam intransitive - associative and less common: ming tsam intransitive - directed

འབྲེལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be related, connected
འབྲེལ་བ།  འབྲེལ་བ།  འབྲེལ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
འཕྲད་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to meet
ཕྲད་པ།  འཕྲད་པ།  འཕྲད་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


category: agentive transitive - associative and less common: agentive transitive - directed

སྦྱོར་བ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to connect, join, to apply, unite
སྦྱར་བ།  སྦྱོར་བ།  སྦྱར་བ།  སྦྱོར།
past pres. fut. imp.
སྦྲེལ་བ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to connect, attach, to link, bind together
སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ་བ།  སྦྲེལ།
past pres. fut. imp.


theme: ming tsam;  qualifier - what the connection is with: associative particle དང་ or la don


category: ming tsam intransitive associative

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.



category: agentive transitive associative (If there is a stated agent then it is marked with the agentive particle.)

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...



category: agentive transitive directed

ཉེས་ཅན་ཁྲིམས་ལ་སྦྱོར་བ་
wrong doers law     connect
criminals are brought to the law



Note: These verbs can also be used without a qualifier. E.g., སྦྱོར་བ་ in the next example comes without a qualifier. In this example "the palms are (simply) joined (together)" but are not "joined with something".

ཐལ་མོ་སྦྱར་ནས་གུས་འདུད་ཞུ།
palm    joined  respectfully bow  request
joining the palms [one] requests respectfully



Disjunctive Verbs

category: ming tsam intransitive - associative and ming tsam intransitive - originative

འབྲལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be free from, to be separated
བྲལ་བ།  འབྲལ་བ།  འབྲལ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
འགལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to contradict, to go against
འགལ་བ།  འགལ་བ།  འགལ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


theme: ming tsam;  qualifier - that what is disconnected from: associative particle དང་ or originative ལས་


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).



Verbs of "Agreement"

category: ming tsam intransitive - associative and ming tsam intransitive - directed

མཐུན་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
conform to, to be in accordance with, be in harmony
མཐུན་པ།  མཐུན་པ།  མཐུན་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
འཚམ་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
in accord with, suitable
འཚམས་པ།  འཚམ་པ།  འཚམ་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


theme: ming tsam;  qualifier - that what is in accord with: associative particle དང་ or la don


ming tsam intransitive - associative

སྔ་ཚིག་དང་མཐུན་པ།
former words in accord with
in accordance with the former words


བློ་དང་འཚམ་པ་
mind   in accord with
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].


ming tsam intransitive - directed

ཐེག་པ་གཞེན་ལ་མི་འཚམས་པ་
vehicles other     not  accord
not in accord with other vehicles



A "simple agreement" without something to be in agreement with and us such without a particle marking what is in agreement.

ཁ་གཏིང་གཉིས་མཐུན་
words and thoughts two accord
with words and thoughts in accord (united)


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, ...


Example with the la don ར་ marking a whole clause.

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.
Note: མྱང་འདས་ is short for མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་, Nirvana.


Verbs Expressing Connections of Association and Possession

category: ming tsam intransitive - associative and ming tsam intransitive - directed

ལྡན་པ། ming tsam intransitive '
to have, possess, together with
     
past pres. fut. imp.
བཅས་པ། ming tsam intransitive '
together with
     
past pres. fut. imp.
འགྲོགས་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to accompany, to keep company with,
to associate with
འགྲོགས་པ།  འགྲོགས་པ།  འགྲོགས་པ།  འགྲོགས།
past pres. fut. imp.


Note: འགྲོགས་པ་ is classified as ཐ་དད་པ་ but there are no indications that it is a transitive verb and it is in its grammar more related to "verbs of motion"—a volitional intransitive verb—than to transitive verbs. There is the theme—that what is accompanying someone etc.—in ming tsam and that what is accompanied marked with the associative particle དང་. If there were to be an agent then this agent would cause two things to accompany each other, which does not match the semantic of the verb and the verb is not seen to be used in that way. It seems that it got its ཐ་དད་པ་ status from the fact that there is an action that "passes over" in the way that there is someone who (or something that) is accompanied and from its volitional character.


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


གྲོགས་དང་འགྲོགས་ནས་གཞན་དུ་ཕྱིན།
friend accompany other went
keeping company with / in company of [his] friends [he] went to other [places]



Verbs of Comparison

The Verbs of Comparison are in a separate category of their own because they display two types of grammar (in regard to a theme in ming tsam), that of "Agentive Directed Verbs" and that of agentive transitive associative verbs, the "Verbs of Interrelation"

category: agentive transitive associative and agentive directed - intransitive dynamic directed[25]

འགྲན་པ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to match, to rival
to compete with, to challenge
འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན་པ།  འགྲན།
past pres. fut. imp.
སྡུར་བ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to compare against
to check and verify
བསྡུར་བ།  སྡུར་བ།  བསྡུར་བ།  སྡུར།
past pres. fut. imp.
སྒྲུན་པ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to match against, to compare to things
old for འགྲན་པ་
བསྒྲུན་པ།  སྒྲུན་པ།  བསྒྲུན་པ།  སྒྲུན།
past pres. fut. imp.


category: agentive transitive associative

agent: agentive particle;  theme - that which is compared: ming tsam;  qualifier - what it is compared with: associative particle དང་


ཇོ་ནང་ཀུན་སྙིང་གིས་རྒྱ་དཔེ་དང་བསྡུར་ཏེ་
Taranatha       Indian book   verified
Taranatha verified [the translation] against the Indian [text]


The next example is without qualifier, since only one argument is needed in this expression. Because the verb has a theme in ming tsam it belongs to this grammar category (even with its meaning being rather that of "competing" like in the examples below with agentive directed grammar).

རིག་པ་འགྲན་པ་
intelligence match
to match wits



category: agentive directed - intransitive dynamic directed

agent: agentive particle;  direction - what is compared against, rivaled: la don


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
Note: 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 challenges 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?



Verbs of Separation and Avoidance

qualifier —that which somthing is separated from: originative ལས་,

            —unique to verbs of avoidance: originative ནས་, la don or ming tsam


Verbs of Separation

category: ming tsam intransitive originative

ཐར་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be liberate, to be freed
ཐར་བ།  ཐར་བ།  ཐར་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
གྲོལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to get out, be freed from; to be untied, released;
to close, conclude
གྲོལ་བ།  གྲོལ་བ།  གྲོལ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
ལྡོག་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to reverse
ལྡོག་པ།  ལྡོག་པ།  ལྡོག་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
འདའ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to transcend
འདས་པ།  འདའ་བ།  འདའ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


category: agentive transitive originative

འགྲོལ་བ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to liberate
བཀྲོལ་བ།  འགྲོལ་བ།  དགྲོལ་བ།  ཁྲོལ།
past pres. fut. imp.
སྒྲོལ་བ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to liberate. to rescue, to save;
བསྒྲལ་བ།  སྒྲོལ་བ།  བསྒྲལ་བ།  སྒྲོལ།
past pres. fut. imp.
སྐྱོབ་པ། agentive transitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to protect
བསྐྱབས་པ།  སྐྱོབ་པ།  བསྐྱབ་པ།  སྐྱོབས།
past pres. fut. imp.


theme: ming tsam;  qualifier - that which is separated from: originative ལས་


ming tsam intransitive originative

འཁོར་བ་ལས་གྲོལ་བ།
samsara      liberated
liberated from samsara


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
to turn away from the mistaken path


  བཅིངས་པ་རྣམས་ནི་འཆིང་བ་སྣ་ཚོགས་པ་ལས་གྲོལ་ཞིང་ཐར་བར་གྱུར་ཅིག
bound ones (plural) fetters all different kinds liberated freed may come
... [and] my all those who are bound [unfree and imprisoned] be freed and liberated of all the different kind of bindings [fetters, shackles and so on],...



agentive transitive originative

དགྲ་ལས་སྐྱོབ་པ་
enemy   protect
protected from the enemy



Verbs of Avoidance

category: ming tsamintransitive originative / directed

འཛུར་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་དད་པ་
to avoid
བཟུར་བ།  འཛུར་བ།  གཟུར་བ།  ཟུར།
past pres. fut. imp.
འབྱོལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to turn away
བྱོལ་བ།  འབྱོལ་བ།  འབྱོལ་བ།  བྱོལ།
past pres. fut. imp.
གཡོལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་དད་པ
to keep away
གཡོལ་བ།  གཡོལ་བ།  གཡོལ་བ།  གཡོལ།
past pres. fut. imp.


with originative (ablative) ལས་

མཚོན་ཆ་ལས་ཟུར་ཅིག
weapon      avoid  "!"
Avoid the weapon!


ཆུ་འོག་བྲག་རྡོ་ལས་གཡོལ་བ།
water under rocks     dodge
to avert the under water rocks


with originative (elative) ནས་

གཞུང་ལམ་ནས་བཟུར་ཏེ་བྲོས་སོང་།
main road    avoided escaped (past auxiliary)
[He] avoided the main road and escaped


with la don ལ་

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.


with la don ར་

ཉེན་ཁར་གཡོལ་
danger avoid
to avoid danger


with ming tsam
Note: This usage is not uncommon and needs grammatically be treated as a compound verb.

ལམ་བྱོལ་ནས་ཕྱིན་པ།
road turn away  went
Turning off the road [he] went.


ལས་འགན་གཡོལ་བ་
responsibility avoid
to avoid responsibility



Verbs of Evaluation and Assertion

theme—that which is evaluated or asserted: ming tsam


Note: The "verbs of evaluation and assertion" are separated into the two categories of the "verbs of assertion" and "verbs of evaluation".[26] This is done because of their difference in grammar and is merely a naming convention since verbs of both categories can evaluate and / or assert. The naming was done in regard to the fact that on one side verbs like རིགས་པ་ "to be logically" and ཐལ་བ་ "to follow logically" are often used to make (philosophical) claims and assertions, whereas on the other side verbs like འགྲིག་པ་ "to be fitting" and ཆོག་པ་ "to be sufficient" rather evaluate a situation.

Note: Some of the coming verbs change their meaning with syntax.

Note: See also:"la don / 3.1 Note on classifications for 1.10 verbs with la don / intransitive verbs / 1.1 expressing a 'quality': evaluative".


Verbs of Assertion

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative non-volitional

རུང་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
suitable, permissible
appropriate
རུང་བ།  རུང་བ།  རུང་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
རིགས་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
be logical tenable,
fits, appropriate
རིགས་པ།  རིགས་པ།  རིགས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
འཐད་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
be admissible
acceptable, valid
to follow logically
འཐད་པ།  འཐད་པ།  འཐད་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
ཐལ་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to follow logically
ཐལ་བ།  ཐལ་བ།  ཐལ་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


theme: ming tsam;  qualifier: la don


Note: The theme can also be marked by the la don ར་ when the theme is verb or a clause. See: "la don—Verbal clause as theme"

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་
what, which
whatever is appropriate; any given, whichever
སུའང་རུང་བ་
who
any appropriate; whomever


ལས་སུ་རུང་བ།
work   suitable, permissible
acceptable; proper to do
Note: ལས་ "work" is the qualifier and the theme is omitted - "['something'] is permissible as action"
འཇིགས་སུ་རུང་བ།
afraid   suitable, appropriate
[something that is] appropriate to be in fear of, [something] to be afraid of


clause (theme) marked by la don ར་ - ཡིན་པར་ཐལ་, ཡིན་པར་མི་རིགས་; qualifier marked by ར་ - བྱ་བར་མི་རུང་

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?"...


Verbs of Evaluation

category: ming tsam intransitive - stative agentive

Note: The grammar of the verbs of this category looks quite unique. These verbs are seen commonly with only one participant which is marked with the agentive particle. Here they are analyzed (see belowsee below) as simple intransitive verbs with an qualifier / instrument / source (marked with the agentive particle).

ཆོག་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be sufficient
ཆོག་པ།  ཆོག་པ།  ཆོག་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
འཐུས་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be sufficient, this will do instead of, it will do
འཐུས་པ།  འཐུས་པ།  འཐུས་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
འཕེར་བ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be suitable, to be appropriate
འཕེར་བ།  འཕེར་བ།  འཕེར་བ། 
past pres. fut. imp.
འགྲིག་པ། ming tsam intransitive ཐ་མི་དད་པ་
to be fitting, agreeable, matching, suitable
འགྲིགས་པ།  འགྲིག་པ།  འགྲིག་པ། 
past pres. fut. imp.


theme (almost never stated): ming tsam;  qualifier - that what "causes the state of sufficiency": agentive particle


སྨན་འདི་བཏུང་བས་འཐུས།
medicine this drink sufficient
To drink this medicine will be sufficient.


     ལུས་ཁམས་ཀྱིས་ལས་དོན་འཕེར་བ།
physical constitution  task suitable
[His] physical constitution was suitable for the task.
Note: A literal translation of this unique grammar is close to impossible in any normal English and wouldn't even match the pragmatic meaning. It would read something like this: "The task was in a state of being suitable [to be accomplished] through [the factor of] his physical constitution." see below


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.


མི་རྟག་པ་སྒོམ་པ་ཁོ་ནས་མི་ཆོག
impermanence contemplate only not to be enough
To contemplate on impermanence only is not enough.
Note: ཁོ་ན་ means "only" and the ས་is the agentive particle making it into ཁོ་ནས་ - the ནས་ is not the originative case.


འགྲོ་འཐུས།
go sufficient
sufficient to go / it is sufficient [if you] go [instead of...]



Verbs with Multiple Meanings Occurring with Different Syntax

Notes

A ཡིན་ with a Partially Omitted Complement

ཡིན་ can never have its complement completely omitted but it can have some parts of the complement omitted that are already introduced or inferable.
The first reason why the complement of ཡིན་ can not be completely omitted is that it would be impossible to infer the meaning of the omitted complement and the sentence would have no meaning. When expressing that "x is y" then "x" can be omitted if it can be inferred from context. On the other hand if "y" were to be omitted then there would be no statement made about "x" since "y" is the new information. It is as if one were to say in English: *"This ice cream has the quality of [∅].", without adding the information the sentences is intended to express.
The second reason is that both theme and complement of ཡིན་ are in ming tsam. It would therefore be impossible to differentiate between an omitted theme and an omitted complement.

For these two reasons, 1.) that is syntacticly not possible to differentiate between an omitted theme or complement, and 2.) that completely omitting the complement creates a clause without meaning, one must always assume that if something is (completely) omitted, it is the theme and not the complement.

In regard to this in the example below the sentences is without a stated complement in ming tsam. It has a statement of reason, shown by means of the དབང་གིས་ ("due to, through the power of") marked by the agentive particle that comes directly before the ཡིན་.

       དེ་ཡང་གོས་ཚོན་ལ་བཙོ་བ་ལས་འཁྲུ་བ་ གལ་ཆེ་བ་ ལྟར་ ཐོས་ བསམ་ སྒོམ་པའི་ ཡོན་ཏན་རང་རྒྱུད་ལ་མི་འབྱུང་བ་འདི་
furthermore cloth colour dye   wash more important like hearing reflection meditation qualities one's stream not arise this
སྡིག་པ་ མི་དགེ་བའི་དབང་གིས་ཡིན་པས་སྡིག་སྦྱང་ལ་བརྩོན་པ་འདི་ ཤིན་ཏུ་ གཅེས་ གསུངས།
negativity non virtue   due to   is   negativity purify exert  this extremely crucial, important said

One thing that must be understood is the difference between ཡིན་ "be, is" and the English "be, is". The English "be" has two [27]different meanings. 1) It is the copula expressing that "x is y", a statement about x's identity, feature, etc.[28]; and 2) it expresses existence: "x is" is the same as "x exists". Unlike the English "be", ཡིན་ is only a copula-it only covers the meaning of "x is y"-but does not include "x exists". ("X exists" is expressed by ཡོད་ in Tibetan.) In the same way as "x exists" can not be expressed with the Tibetan ཡིན་, also "x exists because of y" can not be expressed with ཡིན་.
Similarly, the (abbreviated) example (above) ཡོན་ཏན་མི་འབྱུང་བ་འདི་སྡིག་པ་ མི་དགེ་བའི་དབང་གིས་ཡིན་ can not be interpreted as "this non-arising of qualities exists (is) due to negativity [and] non virtue".

On the other hand "due to negativity [and] non virtue" can not, in itself, be the complement for ཡིན་ because a reason can not be the complement for a linking verb. There can be a reason for "this being that" but the identity or feature of something can not be a reason itself. "X is (/ has the identity of) Y because of Z" is a possible structure but not *"X is / has the identity of [∅] because of Z". (In the next example the English "is" needs to be replaced by "has the quality of" in order to rule out the meaning of "to exist".) For example one can say: "This ice cream (is /) has the quality of excellence because my grand uncle made it." but not *"This ice cream (is /) has the quality of [∅] because my grand uncle made it." Therefore, there needs to be an omitted complement understood as coming immediately before the ཡིན་.
The solution comes from the fact that Tibetan can and does omit "duplicated" or identical parts of a clause (noun phrases) and in the above example, the omitted identical part—which is needed as the complement—is the same as the theme—ཡོན་ཏན་མི་འབྱུང་བ་འདི་ "this non—arising of qualities".
A literal translation of ཡོན་ཏན་མི་འབྱུང་བ་འདི་སྡིག་པ་ མི་དགེ་བའི་དབང་གིས་ཡིན་ with the omitted part included is: "This non-arising of qualities is [this non-arising of qualities] due to negativity [and] non virtue.". Following this interpretation with an omitted identical participant the translation of དེ་ཡང་གོས་ཚོན་ལ་བཙོ་བ་ལས་འཁྲུ་བ་ གལ་ཆེ་བ་ལྟར་ཐོས་བསམ་སྒོམ་པའི་ ཡོན་ཏན་རང་རྒྱུད་ལ་མི་འབྱུང་བ་འདི་སྡིག་པ་མི་དགེ་བའི་དབང་གིས་ཡིན་པས་སྡིག་སྦྱང་ལ་བརྩོན་པ་འདི་ཤིན་ཏུ་གཅེས་གསུངས། is:
"Furthermore, [it is] said [that] in the same way as it is more important to wash cloth than to dye [them] it is extremely important to make effort to purify negativity, since this non-arising of the qualities of hearing, reflection, [and] meditation in one's stream [of being] is [this non-arising of qualities in one's stream [of being]] due to negativity [and] non virtue."

In general is the omitted part only pragmatically controlled and not fixed (and does not need to be the whole theme), but I can not think of an (even generic) example where it would not need to contain at least a part of the theme,[29] and I would go so far to claim, that a part of the complement that is different form the theme will never be an anaphoric zero argument. (The argument itself can have its own anaphoric zero arguments since an argument itself can have parts of it omitted).

A translation with a part of the theme and a zero anaphora to "the qualities" is:
"...since this non-arising of the qualities of hearing, reflection, [and] meditation in one's stream [of being] is [this non-arising] due to negativity [and] non virtue."

The pragmatic limits of the location of the "arising" are generally set by the phenomena that arises, but since here the location is already stated-"one's stream [of being]"-the information about the location is also anaphorically included in the complement, so that if one takes only a part of the theme as complement [མི་འབྱུང་བ་འདི་] "[this non-arising]" all other parts of the theme are zero-anaphorically included within the complement.


A ཡིན་ at the End of a Section Wihtout a Theme

Note for Verbs of Evaluation

Endnotes

  1. recently adopted
  2. It does not refer to the sentence- or discourse-level category of "topic".
  3. This term "associative" is used in reference to Nicolas Tournadre (University of Provence and CNRS, Lacito, The Classical Tibetan cases and their transcategoriality, From sacred grammar to modern linguistics, Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 9(2): 87-125). It could also be called "comitative case" or "sociative case".
  4. ལྟ་བ་ is mostly seen with agentive directed grammar. Other intentional verbs of perception e.g.ཉན་པ་ "to listen" can be seen with either agentive transitive or agentive directed grammar.
  5. The qualifier of a linking verb is usually called "complement". This term is also used here to distinguish it from "qualifiers" that are not in ming tsam.
  6. མི་ང་རང་ངན་ཏེ་ lit.:... the person [who is me] myself ... .
  7. Typical ditransitive verbs are "to give", "to sell", "to bring", "to tell" and generally any verb expressing any transfer of goods, information or action that produces something. E.g.: "She gave him ten silver.", "I read the books to him.", "She is baking a cake for him.".
  8. also called "addressee" and "beneficiary"
  9. One difficulty with these verbs is finding an example with a stated agent. In most cases there is only an instrument, source or reason given. This instrument which effects the action comes with the agentive particle.
  10. This term "associative" is used in reference to Nicolas Tournadre (University of Provence and CNRS, Lacito, The Classical Tibetan cases and their transcategoriality, From sacred grammar to modern linguistics, Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 9(2): 87-125). It could also be called "comitative case" or "sociative case".
  11. See: Verbs and Particles - Notes for the discussion about transitive verbs with agentive directed grammar.
  12. This is a type of auxiliary verb that is used to indicate modality – that is, to give more information about the function of the main verb in regard to likelihood, ability, permission, and obligation. English words that are often used to express modality are: may, can, must, ought, will, shall, need, dare, might, could, would, and should.
  13. Another reason is the fact that with one more subheading (when placing "intransitive verbs" as one more higher level heading) the maximum number of subheadings of the wiki would be exceeded.
  14. The qualifier of a linking verb is usually called "complement". This term is also used here to distinguish it from "qualifiers" that are not in ming tsam.
  15. མི་ང་རང་ངན་ཏེ་ lit.:... the person [who is me] myself is bad ...
  16. It is also the past tense of (past)མཆིས་པ། (pres.)མཆི་བ། (fut.)མཆི་བ།"to go", "to come"
  17. The negation of ཡོད་པ་ is always མེད་པ་ and never *མ་ཡོད་པ་
  18. also called "addressee" and "beneficiary"
  19. a constituent of the clause that has a relation with the main verb
  20. Verbs like "to strive" are intransitive verbs in English, accompanied by a qualifier stating what one is striving for.
    S.V.Beyer designates རྩོལ་ and བརྩོན་ as intransitive verbs (S.V.B., The Classic Tibetan Language p.341) and in "A Tibetan Verb Lexicon" for འབད་"to make effort" (p. 131 འབད་ "verb class VI" / "Agentive-Objective Verb") 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."
  21. cardinal and intermediate directions
  22. དབྱེ་བ་ is either a verb, the future tense of the present tense འབྱེད་པ་ "to divide" or it is the related noun དབྱེ་བ་ "divisions, classification, differentiation", but there is no particular reason to interpret the དབྱེ་ in the example above as an abbreviated noun.
  23. See disjunctive verbs below.
  24. Note: Nicolas Tournadre in "The Classical Tibetan cases" mentions a few adjectives that can come with the same type of grammar. Nicolas Tournadre, University of Provence and CNRS, Lacito, The Classical Tibetan cases and their transcategoriality, From sacred grammar to modern linguistics, Himalayan Linguistics, Vol. 9(2): 87-125.: "a3) Specification: This function is quite peculiar and is linked to specificative adjectival or verbal predicates, which are always stative. A specificative verb or adjective governs two arguments, one in the absolutive [ming tsam] (in some cases in the dative [la don]) and the other in the instrumental [agentive particle]. Most adjectival predicates such as phyug 'rich', mtho 'high', thung 'short', mkhas 'expert', ring 'long', che 'big' may have an argument in the instrumental conveying specification. Some specificative verbs also trigger the same construction. Among the most frequent, one should mention: khengs ‘to be filled (with)’, bskor ‘to be surrounded by’, g.yogs ‘to be covered by’, .... ."
  25. See the "Note" about their classification as agentive directed - intransitive dynamic directed in verbs of comparison / competition above.
  26. A formerly done split into "verbs of evaluation and assertion I and II" did lead to confusion among students without an academic background. They read "I" as the first person singular pronoun and were wondering about the meaning of the heading—"Verbs of Evaluation and Assertion I (/aɪ/—first person singular pronoun)" .
  27. One can also count three if the usage as auxiliary verb is included, or even more if one includes subcategories. E.g.: Expressing "existence" can be split into expressing "existence" ("There is a rabbit.") and "location" ("The rabbit is in the house").
  28. The "is" copula can make a range of statements about the theme. E.g.: identity, "The rabbit is the our king."; feature (adjective predication) "The rabbit is furry."; class membership, "This rabbit is an alien." etc..
  29. Please tell me if you can.