There are four classes of nominative verbs. All but the first class, nominative-nominative (or linking verbs), have multiple sub-types.
Class I - nominative-nominative / linking verbs
Class II - nominative-locative
Class III - nominative-objective
Class IV - nominative-syntactic
Linking verbs are the only Type I verb.
There are many irregular instances in which an agentive-nominative verb occurs as a nominative-nominative verb. Let me repeat that. Agentive-nominative verbs frequently appear with the agent in the nominative.
nominative nominative
Subject → Complement → ← Linking Verb
བུམ་པ་མི་རྟག་པ་ཡིན།
Pots are impermanent.
If you see a linking verb with only one term, the term is always the complement. In other words, if you see A-ཡིན, A is the complement and not the subject, which is unstated.
[Something] is color.
ཁ་དོག་ཡིན།
Nominative-locative verbs take their subject in the nominative but require for full expression of meaning an object or qualifier in the 7th/locative case.
There are four types of Type II nominative-locative verbs.
Express that the subject exists, sometimes with a location expressed by a locative qualifier.
Examples: ཡོད་, མེད་, གདའ་, མཆིས་, མངའ་, and some uses of གྲུབ་
locative nominative
[Qualifier] → Subject → ← Verb of Existence
ནམ་མཁའི་མེ་ཏོག་མེད།
Sky flowers do not exist.
བོད་ལ་རི་ཡོད།
There are mountains in Tibet.
གྲུབ་ is sometimes used in a way equivalent to ཡོད་, but it typically has an adverbial and not a locative qualifier. Adverbial qualifiers may be marked either by objective (2nd, la-group) case marking particles or through a non-case usage of the 3rd-case particles such as གིས་ or through a non-case usage of the particle ནས་.
Compare the following uses showing both locative and adverbial qualifiers.
བདེན་པར་ཡོད་པ།
Truly existent.
བདེན་པར་གྲུབ་པ།
Truly existent/established.
རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་གྲུབ་པ།
Inherently existent.
Express that the subject lives, dwells, or abides--often in a place and or time marked by a qualifier.
Examples: གནས་, བཞིགས་, སྡོད་
nominative locative
Subject → Qualifier → ← Verb of Living
ཁོང་ཡུལ་དེ་ལ་དུས་དེར་བསྡད།
He lived in that area at that time.
Express that the subject depends on the locative qualifier.
Examples: རྟེན་, རག་ལས་, ལྟོས་
nominative locative
Subject → Qualifier → ← Verb of Living
འབྲས་བུ་རྒྱུ་ལ་བརྟེན།
Effects depend on causes.
Examples: སྐྱོ་, ཁྲོ་, འཁྲུལ་, གུས་, ངོམས་, ཆགས་, འཇིགས་, དད་, བྱམས་, མོས་, ཞེན་, མཁས་
nominative locative
Subject → Qualifier → ← Attitude Verb
སྟོན་པ་ཐབས་ལ་མཁས།
The Teacher [Buddha] is skilled in methods [of liberation]
Class III verbs take their subjects in the nominative but require for full expression of meaning a qualifier in the second or objective case.
Three types:
Examples: འགྲོ, འོང་, བྱོན་
nominative objective
Subject → Qualifier → ← Verb of Motion
རང་ཉིད་གཅིག་བུ་འཇིག་རྟེན་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་འགྲོ།
One goes alone to the next world.
Examples: སྐྱེ་, འཁོར་, གོམས་, སྣང་, ཐིམ་
nominative
Subject → ← Nominative Action Verb
འཁོར་ལོ་འཁོར།
The wheel turns.
nominative objective
Subject → Qualifier → ← Nominative Action Verb
འོད་ཟེར་རང་ལ་ཐིམ།
Light rays dissolve into us.
nominative objective adverbial identity
Subject → Qualifier → Qualifier → ← Nominative Action Verb
གངས་རི་མིག་ཤེས་ལ་སྔོན་པོར་སྣང།
The snow mountain appears blue to the visual consciousness.
The verb གྱུར་ is often used lexically equivalent to ཡིན་ but syntactically similar to ཡོད་. It is typically used in this way as a verbal adjective ending a clause. The objective case qualifier is an instance of existential identity.
Linking syntax is notable because it is an exception to the rule that a verb's subject always precedes the verb. Where generally Tibetan linking verbs say A-B-IS, the linking syntax can be used to say B-IS-A.
objective identity metaphoric
Qualifier → ← Verb of Existence → [Subject]
རང་གི་འབྲས་བུར་གྱུར་པའི་ཡོན་ཏན།
the good qualities that are its own effects
Examples: རུང་, རིགས་, འཐད་, ཐལ་
Rhetorical verbs are like verbs of existence in that the syntax can be complete with only a subject in the nominative case.
SUBJECT + VERB
… is correct, … is suitable, … logically follows
However, unlike verbs of existence, most may also be used with an infinitive phrase marked by the 2nd case to mean something like To … is correct.
INFINITIVE PHRASE-2ND + VERB
to (whatever is marked by the 2nd case) is correct.
Often, when they have qualifiers, those qualifiers are marked by an objective case marker (2nd) existential identity. This qualification is the reason for including the quasi-existential use of the verb གྱུར་ among the rhetorical verbs.
nominative
Subject → ← Rhetorical Verb
དེ་གཉིས་ཀ་ཡང་མི་རིགས་སོ།
Both of these are also incorrect.
nominative objective
Subject → Complement → ← Rhetorical Verb
ཕུང་པོ་ལ་བརྟེན་ནས་བཏགས་པའི་གང་ཟག་ཕུང་པོར་མི་རུང།
The person imputed in dependence on the aggregates is not admissible as an aggregate.
དབང་པོ་གཟུགས་ཅན་པ་ཚད་མར་མི་རུང།
A physical sense power is not admissible as a prime cognizer.
unstated objective
[Subject] → Complement → ← Rhetorical Verb
གཞན་དུ་ན་ངོ་པོ་ཉིད་མེད་པ་དོན་དམ་མོ་ཞེས་སྨྲ་བར་མི་རིགས་ཏེ།
Otherwise, it would not be correct to say that lack of identity is an ultimate.
Nominative-syntactic verbs have subjects in the nominative case and objects marked by a syntactic particle.
Four types:
These verbs have 5th case qualifiers, which denote that from which the verb separates the subject.
Examples: གྲོལis free; ཐར་ is liberated, is freed; འདའ་ is beyond, transcends; ལྡོག་
nominative fifth case
Subject → Qualifier → ← Separative Verb
[They them]selves are free from cyclic existence.
རང་ཉིད་འཁོར་བ་ལས་ཐར་
Note that there are also agentive verbs that take fifth case qualifiers, but they are not included in this class of nominative verbs.
Have qualifiers marked by syntactic particles otherwise used to mark the objective / 3rd case.
Examples for absence: སྟོང་, དབེན་, དབུལ་, ཕོངས་
Examples for containment: བསྡུས་, ཁེངས་, ཕྱུག་
nominative syntactic particle
Subject → Qualifier → ← Separative Verb
All phenomena are empty of inherent existence.
ཆོས་ཐམས་ཅད་རང་བཞིན་གྱིས་ཡོད་པས་སྟོང་ངོ།
Forests are isolated from commotion and …
ནགས་ཚལ་འདུ་འཛིས་དབེན་ཞིང་...
included within the [psychophysical] continuum
རྒྱུད་ཀྱིས་བསྡུས་པ།
These verbs use syntactic particle དང་ to mark that which relates to the subject.
Examples: འབྲེལ་, ཕྲད་, བཅས་, མཐུན་
nominative syntactic particle
Subject → Qualifier → ← Conjunctive Verb
If we meet with the unpleasant, …
ང་རང་མི་སྡུག་པ་དང་ཕྲད་ན།
These verbs use syntactic particle དང་ to mark that from which the verb separates the subject.
Examples: བྲལ་, འགལ་
nominative syntactic particle
Subject → Qualifier → ← Conjunctive Verb
Such a mind is free of attachment.
བློ་དེ་འདྲ་ཆགས་པ་དང་བྲལ།