46. Derivation of Substantives. As most of what belongs under this head has already been mentioned in [11]. and [12]. only the formation of abstract nouns remains to be spoken of. 1. The unaltered adjective may be used as an abstract noun, especially with the article བ་, as: གྲང་ ‘the cold is changed into warmth’.—To this may be added the pronoun ཉིད་ (གྲང་ ‘ipsum frigidum’); but this is used scarcely anywhere else than in metaphysical treatises, from whence a few expressions, such as སྟོང་ ‘the vacuum, the absolute rest in deliverance from existence’ have become more generally known.—2. In the case of two correlative ideas existing, frequently the compound of both is used, esp. in common talk, ཆེ་ ‘size’ (lit. ‘large and small’), སྦོམ་ ‘thickness’ (‘thick and thin’), e.g. ཆེ་ ‘the size as much as a mustard-seed’.—3. ཁྱད་ ‘difference’ (or, sometimes, ཚད་, ཚོད་ ‘measure’) is added, མཐོ་ ‘height’, ཕྱུག་ ‘wealth, riches’.—4. Mental qualities are in most cases paraphrased by སེམས་, or བློ་ with a genitive, བཟོད་ ‘mind of suffering, enduring, i.e. patience’, མཁས་ ‘wise mind, wisdom, skill’; དགའ་ ‘mind of rejoicing, [[78]]joy’ (vulg: སེམས་), དད་ ‘mind of belief (also ‘a believing mind’), faith’.—5. Diminutives are formed by adding the termination འུ་, often with an alteration of the preceding vowel: རྟ་ ‘horse’, རྟེའུ་ ‘little horse, foal’; མི་ ‘man’, མིའུ་ ‘little man, dwarf’; རྡོ་ ‘stone’, རྡེའུ་ ‘small stone, calculus’. If a word ends with a consonant, only u is added, and a new syllable formed: ལུག་ ‘sheep’, ལུ་ ‘lamb’.
47. Derivation of Adjectives. 1. Possessive adjectives are regularly expressed by adding the syllable ཅན་, or the phrase དང་, abridged ལྡན་ to any substantive, མགོ་ ‘having a head’; མི་ ‘having the head of a man’; སྐྲ་ ‘having hair, (long-)haired’; རིག་, རིག་ ‘possessing knowledge, learned, wise’; དང་ is never heard in common talk in WT.—2. Adjectives of appurtenance are generally expressed by the genitive of the substantive, གསེར་ ‘of gold, golden’; ཤའི་ ‘the eye of flesh, the carnal, bodily eye’, oppos.: ཤེས་ ‘the eye of knowledge, spiritual eye’.—3. Negative, or privative adjectives are formed in several ways: a) by the simple negative མི་, མི་ ‘unworthy’; མི་ ‘unfit’; མི་ ‘unheard of’. b) by adding མེད་ ‘without’, [[79]]མགོ་ ‘headless’; སྐྱོན་ ‘faultless’. c) by adding the verb བྲལ་(བ་) ‘separated from’, ལུས་, ལུས་ ‘separated from the body, bodiless’.—4. The English adjectives in -able, -ible are expressed by རུང་ ‘to be fit’, added to the Supine, or to the simple Root, འཐང་, འཐུང་ ‘fit for drinking, drinkable’, vulgo: འཐུང་ (from ཉན་ ‘to be able’), འཐུང་ (ཆོག་ ‘permitted, lawful’). [[80]]
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?’.