Part 3 — Syntax.
Reading edition
48. Arrangement of words. 1. The invariable rule is this: in a simple sentence all other words must precede the verb; in a compound one all the subordinate verbs in the form of gerunds or supines, and all the coordinate verbs in the form of the root, each closing its own respective clause, must precede the governing verb (examples s. below).—2. The order in which the different cases of substantives belonging to a verb are to be arranged, is rather optional, so that e.g. the agent may either precede or follow its object. Local and temporal adverbs or adverbial phrases are, if possible, put at the head of the sentence.—3. The order of words belonging to a substantive is this: 1. The Genitive, 2. the governing Substantive, 3. the Adjective (unless this is itself put, in the genitive, before; 16), 4. the Pronoun, 5. the Numeral, 6. the indefinite Article: thus, ངའི་བུ་མོ་ཆུང་ངུ་འདི་ ‘this my little daughter’; གོས་དམར་པོ་ཞིག་ ‘a red gown’; གོས་དམར་པོ་ or དམར་པོའི་གོས་ ‘the red gown’; རྒྱལ་ཁམས་ཆེན་པོ་འདི་གསུམ་ ‘these three great kingdoms’. Adverbs precede the word they belong to: ཤིན་ཏུ་ཆེན་པོ་ ‘very great’; ཤིན་ཏུ་མགྱོགས་པར་ཤོག་ ‘come very quickly’.—4. In correlative sentences (cf. 29) the Relative precedes the Demonstrative: གང་ཡོད་པ་དེ་ཐོང་ཞིག་ ‘what there is, give!’ i.e. ‘give whatever you have’, and in comparative sentences the thing with which another is compared, ordinarily precedes this (cf. 17).
49. Use of the cases. As the necessary observations about the instrumental have been made in 30, about the other cases and postpositions partly in 15, partly in 43, it is only the Accusative, that requires a few words more, as it is very often used absolutely (as in Greek). a) Acc. temporalis: མཚན་མོ་ ‘at night’; གསོན་པོའི་ཚེ་ ‘during (his etc.) lifetime’; དེའི་ཚེ, དེ་དུས་ ‘at that time’; ཉི་མ་གཅིག་བསླབས་ནས་ ‘having studied for one day, after one day’s study’.—b) Acc. modalis: དབྱིབས་ཟླུམ་པ་ ‘regarding the size, round’; གཏིང་ཟབ་ཁྱད་ཁྲུ་བརྒྱད་པ་ ‘regarding the depth, eight cubits’ (cf. 12); ཁ་དོག་དུ་བ་ལྟ་བུར་ཡོད་པ་ ‘regarding colour, being like smoke’ (cf. 50, 1, a); རིགས་མཐུན་པ་ ‘with regard to (his) birth, equal’ i.e. ‘of equal birth’. Here ནི་ (42. 1) is very often employed: དབྱིབས་ནི་ཟླུམ་པ་ etc. Nearly in all cases, however, postpositions may be added, and in talking they are preferred to the simple Accusative: མཚན་མོ་ལ་, མཚན་ལ་, དེའི་ཚེ་ན་, དབྱིབས་ལ་ etc.
50. Simple Sentences.—1. Affirmative sentences.—a) the attribute being a noun, the verb: to be, become, remain etc.; མི་འདི་ནི་མཁས་པ་ཡིན་ ‘this man is wise’; འདི་ནི་མི་མཁས་པ་ཞིག་ཡིན་ ‘this is a wise man’. When the verb is འགྱུར་བ་ (to become), གནས་པ་ (to remain) etc. the attribute must be put in the Terminative: སྐྲ་དཀར་པོར་གྱུར་ཏོ་ ‘(his) hair became white’; རྒྱལ་པོ་ཡི་དམ་ལ་བརྟན་པར་གནས་སོ་, vulg: བརྟན་པོ་གནས་པ་ཡིན་ ‘the king remained steadfast on his vow’; in some special cases this may take place, even if the verb is simply ‘to be’: ལུས་གཟུགས་ཐམས་ཅད་མི་འདྲ་སྟེ། རྐང་པ་འབའ་ཞིག་ཁྲ་བོར་འདུག་གོ་ ‘while his whole shape was like a man’s, his foot only was piebald’. b) the attribute being any other verb: རྒྱ་ནག་ཡུལ་གྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་སྔ་མ་ཞིག་གིས་ཡུལ་དེའི་བྱང་ཕྱོགས་སུ་ལྕགས་རི་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཆེན་པོ་ཞིག་བརྩིགས་སོ་ ‘an ancient king of China built a very large wall in the north of that country’.
2. Interrogative sentences.—a) simple: ཁྱོད་ཀྱི་བུ་ཁང་པ་ལ་འདུག་གམ་ ‘is your son in the house?’; དེ་རུ་སུ་ཡོད་ ‘who is there?’; ཅི་ལ་ཡོང་ ‘what do you come for?’, ‘what do you want?’.—རིན་ཙམ་ W (རིན་ག་ཚོད་ C) ‘how much (is) the price?’.
Besides the affix am the later literature and the conversational language of CT has the accentuated interrogative particle ཨེ་ ĕ́, immediately before the verb: ཐབས་ཨེ་ཡོད་ tʽab ĕ́ yöʼ ‘is there any means …?’; ལས་འདི་བྱེད་ཨེ་ནུས་ lā̤ di j̀ĕʼ ĕ́ nṳ̄ ‘can you do this work?’.
The form of a question is also used to express uncertain suppositions (likely to become realized), as: རྗེད་པ་སྲིད་དམ་ ‘is forgetting possible?’ for ‘he may possibly have forgotten it’; ཤི་བ་ཡིན་ནམ་ ‘won’t he die?’; འདི་བདུད་མ་ཡིན་ནམ་ ‘this (apparition) is not the devil, I hope?’.
b) double: ནང་ན་ཡོད་དམ་མེད་ ‘is (he) within or not?’; བདག་ལ་སྦྱིན་དུ་རུང་ངམ་མི་རུང་ ‘is it agreeable (to you i.e. do you consent) to give me (your son) or not?’; ང་འོངས་པ་མི་དགའ་འམ་ཅི་ཉེས་ ‘are you sorry at my arrival, or what (else) is the matter (with you—because you weep)?’.
3. Imperative and Optative or Precative sentences do not require any additional remarks besides what is said in 38.
51. Compound Sentences. After having examined in 41 the different gerunds as the constituent parts of compound sentences, a few examples will suffice for illustration.
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