Noun phrases are fundamental building blocks in Tibetan. They are groups of words that are glued together as a unit, syntactically. It is important to be able to recognize them so that you can begin to recognize the grammar of a Tibetan sentence.
The nine types of noun phrases are:
A mnemonic for remembering this list is 4-5-6. There are four types of noun phrase (the first four in the list above) that do not use a 6th case. There are five types of noun phrases (the last 5 in the list above) that use a 6th case.
Wilson discusses noun phrases on page 193. Wilson, however, only lists five types of noun phrases, not nine. He collapses some of the types into one and does not include verbal noun phrases or adverbial noun phrases.
NOUN-NOUN
Apposition is defined as:
1) the positioning of things side by side or close together, and
2) a relationship between two or more words or phrases in which the two units are grammatically parallel and have the same referent.
In English apposition occurs when two nouns or noun phrases are placed adjacent to each other and one describes or defines the other. Such as: my friend Bill, the teacher at the Dharma farm and the Buddha, Amitāyus. In these examples, one noun is qualifying or modifying another noun (as opposed to an adjective modifying a noun, which is more typical).
Some examples of apposition:
སངས་རྒྱས་ཚེ་དཔག་མེད་
The Buddha Amitāyus
ཁ་དོག་དམར་པོ་
[The] color red
སེམས་ཡིད་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་གསུམ་
mind, intellect, and consciousness--the three
ཀ་བུམ་གཉིས་
pillar and pot--the two
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔའི་སྡོམ་པ་
Bodhisattva vow[s] << TODO: this is not apposition >>
An example of apposition that bears some explanation:
དེ་དག་ཐམས་ཅད་
all of those, [those-all]
This example is notable because it breaks a rule. Generally pluralizing particles such as དག་ and རྣམས་ always terminate a noun phrase. However, in the case above, དེ་དག་ is connected to ཐམས་ཅད་, which leaves the pluralizing particle དག་ awkwardly mired in the middle of the noun phrase, breaking the rule that pluralizing suffix syllables always terminate noun phrases, which is otherwise true.
What is the relationship between དེ་དག་ and ཐམས་ཅད་? Is this really apposition? Wilson on page 195 describes this as apposition, interpreting both དེ་དག་ and ཐམས་ཅད་ as pronouns in apposition to each other: “those, that is to say, all." I'm not convinced here that ཐམས་ཅད་ is not, instead, acting as an adjective that is modifying དེ་དག་, which seems to more closely translate as “all of those," making this an example of a PRONOUN-ADJECTIVE noun phrase and not actually an example of apposition.
Apposition is discussed on pages 194-5 and 200 of Wilson.
NOUN-NOUN-NOUN-NOUN
Nouns in a list is simply a list of nouns. There may or may not be a syntactic particle (དང་) included in the list, which functions roughly as “and” does in English. However, དང་ can occur anywhere in the list or can simply be omitted.
དང་ also functions in other ways, such as marking the qualifier of Class IV verbs of conjunction and disjunction.
Examples of nouns in a list include:
སེམས་ཡིད་རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་
mind, intellect, and consciousness
ས་དང་ཆུ་
earth and water
ས་ཆུ་མེ་རླུང་
earth, water, fire, and wind
NOUN-ADJECTIVE
In Tibetan, adjectives (generally) follow the word they modify. The “big mountain” would be “mountain-big” in Tenglish, or རི་ཆེན་པོ་ in Tibetan. Lexically, the noun and adjective (like the other noun phrases) are a closed box, glued together, and can be declined or used as part of a larger phrase, clause, and sentence.
Some examples:
ཆོས་དུང་དཀར་པོ་ [conch-white]
white conch
སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ [sentient beings-all]
all sentient beings
བུམ་པ་དེ་ [pot-that]
that pot (in this example, “that” is a limiting adjective that is also sometimes used as a pronoun)
སེམས་ཅན་ཕ་རོལ་པོ་ [sentient beings-other]
other people
བསླབ་པ་རིན་པོ་ཆེ་ [training-precious]
precious training
ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོ་ [vehicle-great]
Great Vehicle (i.e., the Mahayana vehicle)
You might wonder (as I did while writing this) what happened with “snow mountains”, or གངས་རི་, since it appears to violate the rule and be an adjective preceding a noun (ADJ-NOUN). This is most likely an example of an adjective-6th-noun, which you'll see a little later, with an omitted 6th case particle, something like གངས་ཀྱི་རི་ or གངས་པའི་རི་
ADVERB+VERBAL NOUN
This is one of the noun phrase types not found in the Wilson list. It is constructed using an adverbial qualifier attached to a verbal noun.
A very common example:
བདེན་པར་ཡོད་པ་
truly existent
In the example above, བདེན་པར་ is the adverbial qualifier. ཡོད་པ་ is the verbal. བདེན་པ means truth or reality (i.e., what exists the way it appears). Adding the ར་, used as a second case-marking particle, marks it as an adverbial qualifier, turning the noun into “truly," an adverb, modifying the verb ཡོད་ (to exist), which is itself turned into a verbal by the པ་, changing the verb “to exist” into the noun “existent”.
Two more examples below. Notice the use of གྱིས་ and ཀྱིས་ as syntactic particles marking an adverb (not as 3rd-case marking particles).
རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པ་
inherently established
ངོ་བོ་ཉིད་ཀྱིས་གྲུབ་པ་
inherent existence or establishment; established by way of its own entity
NOUN+6th+NOUN
Two nouns joined by a sixth case is a large category of noun phrases that are very common. Wilson pp. 645-646 covers this topic (as well as pronoun-noun and adjective-noun phrases). Wilson goes into a little more detail than is probably necessary categorizing these types of noun phrases into sub-categories, but it is important to understand that there are different flavors: possessive connective and type connective being two main flavors.
Saying “my hand” entails a very different relationship between “my” and “hand” as compared to the relationship between “faith" and “conviction” in “faith of conviction," for example, even though they are both two nouns joined by a 6th case particle.
Examples:
ཤར་ཕྱོགས་ཀྱི་ཡོལ་
a land in the east
(type connective)
བོད་ཀྱི་རྒྱལ་པོ་
king of Tibet
(field of activity connective)
ཡིད་ཆོས་ཀྱི་དད་པ་
faith of conviction
(type connective - this one is mistakenly categorized as apposition by Wilson)
མདོའི་དཔེ་ཆ་
a book of sutras
(compositional connective)
Here's a fun example from a text on Bodhisattva vows:
NOUN-6TH-NOUN-ADJECTIVE-ADJECTIVE-PLURALER
བོད་ཀྱི་བླ་མ་སྔ་མ་ཕལ་ཆེ་བ་དག་
most early Tibetan scholars or most prior Tibetan lamas
བོད་ Tibet
བླ་མ་ Lama, guru; literally: heavy or not-high; in this case taken to mean scholar
སྔ་མ་ former, earlier, prior, early
ཕལ་ཆེ་བ་ most
དག་ pluralizer
This example demonstrates how longer, more complex noun phrases are built. It also demonstrates how a pluralizer (དག་) can terminate a noun phrase. A pluralizer is a pluralizing suffix syllable (Wilson pp. 170) that is an optional suffix syllable not necessarily part of a word or noun phrase that explicitly pluralizes it.
The pluralizing suffix syllables are རྣམས་, དག་, ཅག་, ཚོ་. These are a clue that you've found the end of a noun or noun phrase because they will be not found within a noun phrase--they always terminate it (with the exception of དེ་དག་ཐམས་ཅད་ discussed above--there's always an exception).
Exactly like noun-6th-noun except the first noun is a pronoun. These will generally be possessive, showing ownership or possession of the noun.
ངའི་ལག་པ་
my hand
(possessive connective)
བདག་ཅག་གི་སྟོན་པ་
our teacher
(possessive connective)
ADJECTIVE-6th-NOUN
Adjectives can be linked to nouns that follow them using a 6th case marking particle. This is less common than the NOUN-ADJECTIVE noun phrase, but still frequently seen.
Examples:
ནག་པོའི་ཆོས་
black dharma
དམ་པའི་ཆོས་
excellent doctrine
མི་དགེ་བའི་བསམ་པ་
nonvirtuous attitude
The first example above (black dharma, ནག་པོའི་ཆོས་) is part of a larger phrase: ནག་པོའི་ཆོས་བཞི་, or, the four black dharmas. This term is part of an enumeration of the four black dharmas (ནག་པོའི་ཆོས་བཞི་) and the four white dharmas (དཀར་པོའི་ཆོས་བཞི་)--or, perhaps more correctly but less literally known as the four unwholesome and four wholesome dharmas, which are important in the path of the Bodhisattva for protecting and nurturing Bodhichitta.
These phrases demonstrate both ways of combining adjectives with nouns in noun phrases: adjective-6th-noun and noun-adjective.
[ [ ADJECTIVE-6TH-NOUN ] ADJECTIVE ]
ནག་པོའི་ཆོས་ is an adjective-6th-noun phrase which is itself modified by the adjective བཞི (four). Thus it's not “the four dharmas that are black” but instead “the four black dharmas."
Notice that དཀར་པོའི་ཆོས་བཞི་ ends with a number and that ཀ་བུམ་གཉིས་ (pillar and pot--the two) also ends with a number. However, the number in the former is an adjective and the number in the latter is a noun in apposition to other nouns. It is common to see noun phrases end in numbers in this fashion and it is important to understand the difference in meaning between an appositional usage and an adjective usage.
Verbals are verbs turned into nouns or adjectives by adding a པ་ or བ་ suffix. See Wilson pp. 156. To the left in a sentence they function as a verb; to the right the function as a noun or adjective. As such, they can form noun phrases with other nouns.
For example, take the canonical agentive verb paradigm:
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་ཆོས་བསྡེན་
[The] Buddha taught [the] doctrine.
We can turn this into a verbal noun phrase like so:
ཆོས་བསྡེན་པའི་སངས་རྒྱས་
[the] Buddha that taught [the] doctrine
Also:
སངས་རྒྱས་ཀྱིས་བསྡེན་པའི་ཆོས་
[the] doctrine taught by [the] Buddha
Here's an example that combines an adverbial qualifier plus verbal noun phrase with a verbal noun phrase:
མ་ལུས་པར་སྤངས་པའི་ཐར་པ་
liberation that abandons without residue
NOUN+6TH+POSTPOSITIONAL
Postpositionals are so called because they follow the word they modify, connected by a 6th case. They act in a manner similar to a syntactic particle except that, unlike syntactic particles, postpositionals can be declined (have a case marking particle attached to them). See Wilson pp. 137. Postpositions commonly indicate time, place, relative position, or purpose.
དེ་ཡི་མདུན་ལ་
in front of that
རང་གི་མདུན་དུ་
in front of one's self
Here's a phrase from རྒྱུད་བླ་མ་, Maitreya's Great Vehicle Treatise on the Sublime Continuum, that includes a nice postpositional.
ཐུབ་པའི་རྗེས་སྐྱེས་སྲས
sons born of the Buddha (Ranjung Yeshe)
children born from [the mind of] the Subduer (Hopkins)
This is from a verse of poetry, so we can assume that syllables may be left out pretty much willy-nilly and the grammar is often unspecified. As such, judging from the translation of the phrase, there is likely an omitted པའི་ between སྐྱེས་ and སྲས. Still, notice the difference between the Hopkins translation of that phrase and the Rangjung Yeshe translation.
The actual verse in question with two different translations is shown below.
ཐེག་མཆོག་ལ་མོས་ས་བོན་ཤེས་རབ་ནི། །
སངས་རྒྱས་ཆོས་བསྐྱེད་མ་དང་བསམ་གཏན་གྱི། །
བདེ་བའི་མངལ་གནས་སྙིང་རྗེའི་མ་མ་ཅན། །
གང་ཡིན་དེ་དག་ཐུབ་པའི་རྗེས་སྐྱེས་སྲས། །
Those whose seed is aspiration for the supreme yana, whose
mother is prajna, originator of the buddha's qualities, for
whom meditative stability is a comfortable womb and
compassion a nanny — these are sons of buddhas born.
[Katie Holmes]
Those who have the seed which is devotion to the Supreme Vehicle,
The mother which is the wisdom giving birth to the Buddha qualities,
The womb which is the bliss of concentration, and the nurse which is compassion
Are the [Bodhisattva] children born from [the mind of] the Subduer.
[Hopkins]
Wilson pp. 170, 195, 662
Nouns and noun phrases in Tibetan do not by themselves specify plurality. བུམ་པ་, for example, can be a pot, the pot, the pots, pots in general, and pot (the singular generality or universal). There's no way to know other than context. It is not explicitly specified by the words themselves. Because of this, it is common to see nouns and noun phrases explicitly pluralized using plurazlier particles:
རྣམས་ དག་ ཅག་ ཚོ་
For similar reasons, it is common to see དེ་, དེ་དག་, and འདི་ (that, those, and this) following nouns and noun phrases. They serve to make the noun or noun phrase concrete and specific, referring to a specific pot or pots, for example, “that pot,” “those pots,” or “this pot." Numbers used as adjectives serve a similar purpose, specifying the number of the items described in the noun phrase.
The particle ཞིག་ serves more or less as an indefinite article (Wilson pp. 659). Sometimes it is translated as a or an, other times it is untranslated or untranslatable, but serves the function of implying a singular, indefinite noun. “A” pot, as opposed to “the” pot or just “pot.”
ཞིག་ has other uses as well, however. When used with ཙམ་, as in ཙམ་ཞིག་, it becomes an adverbial modifier meaning merely or only. It's also a the past tense of a verb meaning destroy, perish, or disintegrate. Further, when used following a core verb, it is one of three imperative marking particles (ཅིག་, ཞིག་, ཤིག་).
Here's an interesting example of a pluralizing particle:
བློ་དང་ལྡན་པ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ནི།
those possessing intelligence
the intelligent, the wise one's
བློ་དང་ལྡན་པ་ is a noun phrase built from the Class IV nominative-syntactic verb ལྡན་པ་ that means possessing intelligence. This phrase has been used frequently enough that it has become a word in its own right. The རྣམས་ that follows it tells us a couple important things: 1) we are talking about actual people, and 2) there are more than one of them. If we saw བློ་དང་ལྡན་པ་ in isolation, without the རྣམས་ཀྱིས་ནི།, potentially this phrase could be a verbal phrase making a statement about “possessing intelligence” in the abstract, such as “possessing intelligence is good” (a rather inane example, but makes the point).
Once the རྣམས་ is there, we know for sure we're talking about some people who possess intelligence. This is further reinforced by the 3rd-case agentive marker, ཀྱིས་, and to some degree the ནི, which is often used to set off the subject from the rest of the sentence (although this is by no means a sure rule).
Here's another example.
བདེར་གཤེགས་རྣམས་ཀྱི་སྲས་
son of [the] Sugatas
བདེར་གཤེགས་ is short for བདེ་བར་གཤེགས་པ་, which means literally [happy-ly-went] or one-gone-to-bliss. This is the translation for the Sanskrit term sugata. It is pluralized by the རྣམས་, after which it is joined to son (སྲས་, honorific register) using a 6th case. This is thus a VERRBAL NOUN-6TH-NOUN noun phrase.
Another example:
གཞན་པའི་ལམ་དག་ལྟ་ཅི་སྨོས།
what use is it to mention other paths
In the example above, ལྟ་ཅི་སྨོས་ is a verb phrase that means “what use is it to mention.” གཞན་པའི་ལམ་ is “other paths” (ADJ-6TH-NOUN). And that noun phrase is terminated with the pluralizer དག་.
ཞིག་ is NOT a pluralizer. One of its functions is as an indefinite article marker. Equivalent to “a” or “an” in English. Think: “a” person versus “the” person or “those" persons. It functions somewhat in the way of the pluralizers, however, in a sense in that it terminates noun phrases and marks the phrase as a thing. Take the following example.
དེ་འདྲ་བའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་སྐྱེ་བ་ཞིག་དགོས་སོ།
One needs a generation of compassion similar to that.
དེ་འདྲ་བའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་ compassion similar to that
སྐྱེ་བ་ generation
ཞིག་ indefinite article marking particle
དགོས་ (verb) must, need
སོ། terminating particle
In the example about, ཞིག་ tells us that what one needs is “a generation," explicitly nominalizing སྐྱེ་བ་ with the indefinite article. It could have been written, in contrast: དེ་འདྲ་བའི་སྙིང་རྗེ་སྐྱེ་དགོས་. This would have changed the phrase to mean one must generate compassion similar to that. The difference being “one must generate” versus “one needs a generation of …” Perhaps not a huge difference in meaning in this situation, but a clear distinction in grammar and syntax.
ཞིག་ is also commonly seen as part of the phrase ཇི་འདྲ་ཞིག་ལ་, which means similar to that or in that way. Take the example below.
སྒོ་གསུམ་གྱི་དགེ་བའི་རྩ་བ་ཤིན་ཏུ་ཆེ་བ་དང་ཆུང་བ་ཇི་འདྲ་ཞིག་ལ་སློབ་ཀྱང་
… even if one trains in that way, in the very great and small roots of virtue of the three doors …
སྒོ་གསུམ་ three doors
དགེ་བ virtue
རྩ་བ་ root
ཤིན་ཏུ་ཆེ་བ་ very great
ཆུང་བ་ small
ཇི་འདྲ་བ་ཞིག་ལ་ in that way, similar to that
ཀྱང་ can mean almost any interjection: and, or, but, even, regardless. Here is means “even," but that's only knowable because of context not included above.
Another example:
དགྲ་གཉེན་བར་མ་ཇི་འདྲ་ཞིག་ལ་དམིགས་
[enemies, friends, [and] neutrals, in that way, observe]
… in that way take as the object of observation friends enemies and strangers …
Here's the larger context:
སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་ཅེས་པའི་སྤྱི་ཡོངས་སུ་ལུས་པ་མ་ཡིན་པར་དགྲ་གཉེན་བར་མ་ཇི་འདྲ་ཞིག་ལ་དམིགས་བཀར་ཏེ་བསྒོམས་
Without leaving all sentient beings as the generality “sentient beings”, in this way, take enemies, friends, and strangers as your object and meditate on them individually.
One more example:
ཚོགས་ལམ་ལ་ཞུགས་པ་ལ་ཡོན་ཏན་ཇི་འདྲ་ཞིག་རྒྱུད་ལ་སྐྱེ་དགོས་པ་མ་ཤེས་ཤིང་།
With respect to practicing the path of accumulation, one has not understood the need for good qualities such as that to arise within one's mindstream and …