བྱེད་སྒྲ་ byed sgra

Alternative names: n/a

English names: agentive particle

Pronunciation

In Ütsang dialect:

བྱེད་སྒྲ་ byed sgra: chedra

Overview

The བྱེད་སྒྲ་ <byed sgra> is a dependent particle with five different forms:

• གིས་ gi
• ཀྱིས་ kyi
• ས་ sa
  • This is pronounced “sa” when discussing it as a particle, like saying “the particle sa.” However, in actual usage it is joined as a suffix letter, and therefore is transliterated simply as “s.” For example, the word ངས་ <ngas> is composed of ང་ <nga> + ས་ <s>, where the latter is the agentive particle sa.
• ཡིས་ yi
• གྱིས་ gyi

Meaning

The term བྱེད་སྒྲ་ <byed sgra> is short for བྱེད་པ་པོའི་སྒྲ་ <byed pa po’i sgra>, which means “agentive particle” (or literally “sound of the doer”). These particles are called “agentive particles” because they are primarily (but not exclusively) used to mark the agent of a sentence; that is, the entity that is performing an action on or to some other entity.

In the stock sentence བདག་གིས་ཁྱོད་ལ་བརྡ་སྤྲོད་བསྟན། <bdag gis khyod la brda sprod bstan> “I taught grammar to you”:

• བདག་གིས་ <bdag gis> is the word བདག་ <bdag> “I” marked with the particle གིས་ <gis> to show that it is the agent of the sentence. In other words, it is the entity doing the teaching to the other entity.
• ཁྱོད་ལ་ <khyod la> is the word ཁྱོད་ <khyod> “you” marked with the particle ལ་ <la> to show that it is the target of the sentence. In other words, it is the entity to which the action is ultimately being directed.
• བརྡ་སྤྲོད་ <brda sprod> is the word བརྡ་སྤྲོད་ <brda sprod> “grammar” left unmarked, which indicates that it is the patient of the sentence. In other words, it is the entity that is directly undergoing the action described by the verb (i.e. it is being taught).
• བསྟན་ <bstan> “taught” is the verb.

These roles (agent, patient, verb) are called “arguments of the verb” or “verbal arguments”. There is much that could be said about arguments, but this brief overview must suffice for now. To summarize: the agentive particle marks the entity that is doing an action on or to some other entity. Hence, it is called the “sound of the doer”.

Uses

The agentive particles are used for:

• In traditional grammar:
  • 3rd case: བྱེད་སྒྲ་ <byed sgra>
    • Technically, the third case can be subdivided into two types of entity:
      • བྱེད་པ་པོ་ <byed pa po> the agent (discussed above)
        • In this context, it is typically left untranslated, or (with intransitive verbs) it might be translated as “by” (e.g. “You were taught by me”). When it is left untranslated, it must correspond to the subject of the English sentence, and never the object.
        • e.g. བདག་གིས་བསྟན། <bdag gis bstan> “I taught.” (STZL)
        • e.g. ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ཉན། <khyod kyis nyan> “You listened.” (STZL)
      • བྱེད་པ་ <byed pa> the instrument; i.e. the tool with which an action is being done.
        • In this context, it is typically translated as “with” or “by”.
        • e.g. ངས་སྟ་རེས་ཤིང་སྡོང་གཅོད། <ngas sta res shing sdong gcod> “I cut the tree with an axe.”
        • The above sentence has two different arguments marked with an agentive particle: ངས་ <ngas>, the agent, and སྟ་རེས་ <sta res>, the instrument.
• In linguistics:
  • One nominal use:
    • the agentive case
    • the instrumental case
  • One verbal use:
    • a reason (“because”)

Note that the third case is also called the བྱེད་སྒྲ་ <byed sgra>. Thus, the word བྱེད་སྒྲ་ <byed sgra> can be used to refer either to these five particles, or to the third case. The context clarifies which meaning is intended.

Joining

The བྱེད་སྒྲ་ <byed sgra> particles are joined as follows:

After this letter:	Use this particle:	Examples and notes:
ག་ g ང་ ng	གིས་ gis	བདག་གིས་ bdag gis གང་གིས་ gang gis
ད་ d བ་ b ས་ s	ཀྱིས་ kyis	ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ khyod kyis རྒྱལ་ཁབ་ཀྱིས་ rgyal khab kyis ཤུགས་ཀྱིས་ shugs kyis
འ་ ‘ or syllables without a suffix letter	ས་ sa (in transliteration, just “s”, not “sa”)	After འ་ it replaces the འ་: མདའ་ mda’ > མདས་ mdas After syllables without a suffix letter it is added within the same syllable: དེ་ de > དེས་ des
འ་ ‘ or syllables without a suffix letter	ཡིས་ yis	After འ་: མདའ་ཡིས་ mda’ yis After syllables without a suffix letter: དེ་ཡིས་ de yis
ན་ n མ་ m ར་ r ལ་ l	གྱིས་ gyis	སྨན་གྱིས་ sman gyis སྒམ་གྱིས་ sgam gyis གསེར་གྱིས་ gser gyis དངུལ་གྱིས་ dngul gyis

Abbreviations

STZL: སི་ཏུའི་ཞལ་ལུང་ <si tu’i zhal lung>, a famous Tibetan grammar text.