Part III.
Syntax.
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་ ‘this my little daughter’; གོས་ ‘a red gown’; གོས་ or དམར་ ‘the red gown’; རྒྱལ་ ‘these three great kingdoms’. Adverbs precede the word they belong to: ཤིན་ ‘very great’; ཤིན་ ‘come very quickly’.—[81]4. In correlative sentences (cf. 29) the Relative precedes the Demonstrative: གང་ ‘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་ ‘at night’; གསོན་ ‘during (his etc.) lifetime’; དེའི་, དེ་ ‘at that time’; ཉི་ ‘having studied for one day, after one day’s study’.—b) Acc. modalis: དབྱིབས་ ‘regarding the size, round’; གཏིང་ ‘regarding the depth, eight cubits’ (cf. 12); ཁ་ ‘regarding colour, being like smoke’ (cf. 50, 1, a); རིགས་ ‘with regard to (his) birth, equal’ i.e. ‘of equal birth’. Here ནི་ (42. 1) is very often employed: དབྱིབས་ etc. Nearly in all cases, however, postpositions may be added, and in talking they are preferred to the simple Accusative: མཚན་, མཚན་, དེའི་, དབྱིབས་ etc. [82]
50. Simple Sentences.—1. Affirmative sentences.—a) the attribute being a noun, the verb: to be, become, remain etc.; མི་ ‘this man is wise’; འདི་ ‘this is a wise man’. When the verb is འགྱུར་ (to become), གནས་ (to remain) etc. the attribute must be put in the Terminative: སྐྲ་ ‘(his) hair became white’; རྒྱལ་, vulg: བརྟན་ ‘the king remained steadfast on his vow’; in some special cases this may take place, even if the verb is simply ‘to be’: ལུས་ ‘while his whole shape was like a man’s, his foot only was piebald’. b) the attribute being any other verb: རྒྱ་ ‘an ancient king of China built a very large wall in the north of that country’.
2. Interrogative sentences.—a) simple: ཁྱོད་ ‘is your son in the house?’; དེ་ ‘who is there?’; ཅི་ ‘what do you come for?’, ‘what do you want?’.—རིན་ W (རིན་ C) ‘how much (is) the price?’.
Besides the affix am the later literature and the conversational [83]language of CT has the accentuated interrogative particle ཨེ་ ĕ́, immediately before the verb: ཐབས་ tʽab ĕ́ yöʼ ‘is there any means …?’; ལས་ 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་ ‘is forgetting possible?’ for ‘he may possibly have forgotten it’; ཤི་ ‘won’t he die?’; འདི་ ‘this (apparition) is not the devil, I hope?’.
b) double: ནང་ ‘is (he) within or not?’; བདག་ ‘is it agreeable (to you i.e. do you consent) to give me (your son) or not?’; ང་ ‘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.
1. Compound sentences, for the most part coordinative: རྒྱལ་1། བཟང་2ལ་[84]ཆད་3། བྲེ་4། མི་5༎ ‘The king having given a law, the good were given rewards, the bad punished, measures and weights arranged, and people taught letters (i.e. reading and writing)’.
2. subordinate sentences: དེར་6བུད་7བུ་8མཁས་9འདི་10བསྒོའོ། །ཁྱོད་11གང་12བུ་13ཅེས་14། བུའི་15བུ་16སྣད་17མི་18དྲངས་19དྲག་20[85]མ་21དྲངས་22ཀྱི་23། དྲང་24སྨྲོས་25ཅེས་26བུ་ ‘There being certain two women quarrelling about one boy, the king (being) wise of understanding having examined (the case) thus ordered: You two, having seized from each (side) a hand of the boy, pull, and who gets him, (she) may carry him off.—When he had so spoken, she who was not the boy’s mother, because she had no compassion for the boy, not fearing (she might) hurt (him), pulled with what force she had. She who (in truth) was the boy’s mother, because she had compassion with the boy, fearing (she might) hurt (him), though she was able by force, did not pull hard. The king said to her who had pulled hard: “Because this, not being your son, is the other woman’s son, say (it) outright”. When he had so spoken, as he had turned out to be the son of the gentle puller, (she) carried off the boy’. [86]
18 termin. of inf. used as adverb, 41. B. 2. b. ↑