Auxiliary constructions are a sub-type of verbal infinitive compounds. However, they are a very important and commonly used type and are getting their own section here to reflect this. For more info, see Hackett pp. 19-26, Wilson pp.617-621. Hackett's coverage of auxiliaries is more complete and up-to-date than Wilson's.
Verbal infinitive forms can also be used in all constructions with the various auxiliary verbs, such as བྱེད་ and འགྱུར་. There are many auxiliaries besides these two and the use of auxiliaries in Tibetan has not been fully categorized.
བྱེད་ (and honorific forms མཛད་ and བགྱིད་) have three main uses as an auxiliary verb:
བྱེད་ is typically used with present བྱེད་ or future བྱ་, but sometimes བྱས་
When NOT used as an auxiliary verb, བྱེད་ is a Class V agentive-nominative verb that means: do, take, cause, make, perform, serve, accomplish, and refer (to). It is a very common verb that is used all the time. Hackett pp. 296-306. Just from the number of pages it covers in Hackett you can tell how important it is and how many different uses it has.
It is a four-form verb that has different spellings for all four tense.
present: བྱེད་ past: བྱས་ future: བྱ་ imperative: བྱོས་
When NOT used as an auxiliary verb, མཛད་ is an honorific Class V verb that means do, make, act, and compose. Hackett p. 374. It has only two different spellings:
present: མཛད་ past: མཛད་ future: མཛད་ imperative: མཛོད་
When NOT used as an auxiliary verb, བགྱིད་ is an honorific (?) Class V verb that means make and to be made. It takes on the sense of to do when used as an auxiliary. It has three different spellings:
present: བགྱིད་ past: བགྱིད་ future: བགྱི་ imperative: གྱིས་
When used with Class II, III, and IV, the auxiliary verb བྱེད་ renders the causative form.
In general, three varieties of this construction occur:
For example:
འཇིགས་ to be afraid, Class II
འཇིགས་པར་བྱེད་ to cause to be afraid, functions like a Class V verb
Notice that this causative construction changes a Class II (nominative-locative) verb into a Class V (agentive-nominative) verb phrase. If one used the verb འཇིགས་ by itself, the subject would be in the nominative:
ཁོ་འཇིགས་ He/she is afraid.
But when used with the causative, the agent is in the third case and the object is in the first:
ཁོས་ང་འཇིགས་པར་བྱེད་ He/she caused me to be afraid.
Frequently, however, the agent in the causative constructions are unstated, resulting in something similar to the English passive voice:
ང་འཇིགས་པར་བྱེད་ I am caused to be afraid. Or more literally: [something unstated] causes fear in me.
And even the object is often omitted:
འཇིགས་པར་བྱེད་ [one] was caused to be afraid. [one] was made afraid. [one] became afraid.
The causative usage apparently violates the rule of thumb “if two verbs go a-walking, the first does the talking.” In this case, it seems like the second verb, the agentive verb, appears to decide the grammar of the sentence or clause.
Here's another example, a Class III verb used with a causative:
ཉམས་ to degenerate, to fall, to be destroyed, Class III
ཉམས་པར་བྱེད་ to destroy, to render destitute, functions like a Class V
The army of the enemy is destroyed. (Hackett p. 164)
དགྲ་ཡི་རིགས་ནི་ཉམས་པར་བྱེད།
Below is a good example of a causative imperative.
Do not be made to be afraid!
ཁྱེད་ཅག་འཇིགས་པར་མ་བྱེད་ཅིག་
འཇིགས་ is a Class II nominative-locative, but when used in this auxiliary causative construction, acts as a Class V agentive-nominative. However, in this case, the agent, the thing that might be causing the fear, which would be in the 3rd case, is unstated, leaving on the object, you, in the nominative. However, when combined with the imperative, in English, the you is dropped.
Another example of the causative:
That learned one … causes delight
མཁས་པ་དེ་ནི་…དགའ་བར་བྱེད།
An example of the honorific causative:
O Bhagavan, the perfection of wisdom is that which bestows light.
བཅོམ་ལྡན་འདས། །ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ནི། །སྣང་བར་བགྱིད་པ་ལགས་སོ།
When used with Class V and VI verbs, བྱེད་ and བགྱིད་ produce a causative form that is reflexive in nature. Thus agentive-nominative and agentive-objective verbs can be used in a way where the agent acts on themselves.
གསོད་པར་བྱེད་
cause [one's self] to be killed
It would be easy to mistake the example above to say cause [someone else] to be killed. However, because གསོད་ is a Class V agentive verb, when used in this construction it is reflexive.
Thus, sometimes [they] even kill themselves.
འདི་ལྟར་རེས་འགའ་བདག་ཉིད་ཀྱང་གསོད་པར་བྱེད།
Another example. དམིགས་ is a Class VI verb that primarily means to observer, to perceive, to objectify, to visualize, and to take as an object. (Hackett pp. 348). In the example below, it is used with an an auxiliary (དམིགས་པར་བྱེད་) and has a causative emphatic reflexive meaning to objectify or to be objectified.
Just so, objects are [those things that have] the defining character of the condition of being objectifiable.
དེ་ལྟར་ན་ཡུལ་རྣམས་ནི་དམིགས་པར་བྱེད་པའི་རྐྱེན་གྱི་མཚན་ཉིད་ཡིན།
In the next example, we see འགོད་པར་བྱེད་ used reflexively, a Class V that means to establish (one's self or itself) (Hackett p. 81).
[Each system] established each successively higher and higher system as unmistaken.
[systems higher and higher establish themselves as unmistaken]
གོང་མ་གོང་མའི་ལུགས་ཕྱིན་ཅི་མ་ལོག་པ་རྣམས་ལ་འགོད་པར་བྱེད།
འཇུག་ is an explicitly non-reflexive causative verb that means cause, urge, or entice. It takes its verb in the simple infinitive.
present: འཇུག་ past: བཅུག་ future: གཞུགས་ imperative: ཆུག་
Using འཇུག་ or one of its other forms with a simple infinitive (as opposed to verbal infinitive used by auxiliaries) conveys a strong causative sense. When used as a causative agent, འཇུག་ then governs the syntax of the sentence, something auxiliary verbs generally do not do (< todo is this true? seems to contradict causative use of byed above >).
See Hackett p. 20 and Wilson p. 617 for discussions of this verb used as a causative. Note the distinction being made here: འཇུག་ is a causative verb but not an auxiliary.
When used as a causative, འཇུག་ takes the simple infinitive (verb + སུ་, ར་, རུ་, དུ་, ཏུ་), not the verbal infinitive (verb + པར་), which is what auxiliaries use.
It is not the case that [one] has been made to experience the effects of actions accumulated by others.
གཞན་གྱིས་བསགས་པའི་ལས་ཀྱི་འབྲས་བུ་མྱོང་དུ་བཅུག་པ་མིན་པ།
these [beings] compelled me to perform various types of activities (Hackett p. 298)
དེ་དག་གིས་ང་ལས་རྣམ་པ་སྣ་ཚོགས་བྱེད་དུ་བཅུག
When used with other causatives, you get sentences like the following:
Thus, there is no one at all who causes [themselves] to be killed or is caused to be killed.
དེ་ལ་གསོད་པར་བྱེད་པའམ། གསོད་དུ་བཅུག་པ་འགའ་ཡང་མེད་དོ།
འཇུག་ can also be used to express a need that is externally caused, the deontic causative.
[external circumstances dictate that] it is necessary to read that book
དེབ་དེ་ཀློག་ཏུ་བཅུག་
[it] must be taken as the object of negation (Hopkins, p. 298)
དགག་བྱར་བྱེད་དགོས་པ།
When used in text translated from Sanskrit, the auxiliary བྱེད་ is used to explicitly indicate the active voice (parasmaipada) termination rather than a causative construction. However, if a reflexive pronoun is used, then this may also indicate a reflexive causative.
For example:
[One who] fears [committing] unvirtuous acts … (Hopkins p. 147)
སྡིག་པའི་ལས་ལ་འཇིགས་བྱེད་པས།
The [sandalwood] breeze of the Malaya [Mountains] produces delight for the world
མ་ལ་ཡ་ཡི་རླུང་གིས་ནི་། །འཇིག་རྟེན་དགའ་བ་སྐྱེད་པར་བྱེད།
[It] grants long life and freedom from illness.
ཚེ་དང་ནད་ནད་མེད་པ་སྟེར་བར་བྱེད་པ།
མཛད་ likewise indicates Sanskrit active voice termination. However, it is used specifically to indicate that a Sanskrit verb that typically takes the middle voice (ātmanepada) termination has been rendered into an active voice construction.
“The construction can indicate the full range of implications of the active-voice termination of the original Sanskrit verb, such as the agency of the verb functioning for the benefit of an “other” (the para - in parasmaipada) rather than the benefit of the actual agent - a reflexive activity, as indicated by a middle-voice termination. However, there are a number of variations (or exceptions) to this general rule. As with the original Sanskrit, when a pronoun explicitly indicating the reflexivity of a verbal activity occurs, or if the verbal activity is inherently reflexive (“to eat”, etc.), the verb + པར་བྱེད་ construction can be used (particularly in a causative sense)." - p. 459 Blue Hackett
Parasmaipada, ‘A voice for another,' the active voice, is one of two voices in which verbs in Sanskrit are conjugated, the other being atmanepada, the passive voice.
Parasmaipada words usually describe the activity done by others or result occurring to others, for instance, “he feels happy”. Atmanepada, contrary to the former one is a self-serving one. Here the verb describes the activity done by itself or result occurring to the self, for instance, “I feel happy” – From learnsanskritlanguage.com
When the subject is the agent or doer of the action, the verb is in the active voice. When the subject is the patient, target or undergoer of the action, the verb is said to be in the passive voice. When the subject both performs and receives the action expressed by the verb, the verb is in the middle voice.
Emphatic voice strengthens of emphasizes the action described by the verb. In English, we have a similar sense when we say things like, “I do love Tibetan,” or, “I do wish you would stop doing that!”
For example, ལྟ་, means to look (at), and when used with a བྱེད་, it becomes to gaze intently.
[With her] lower lip quivering and gazing intently … (Hopkins pp. 193)
མཆུ་ནི་གཡོ་ཞིང་ལྟ་བར་བྱེད་
Another example, དཔྱོད་(པར་)བྱེད་ is a Class V meaning to analyze, to engage in analysis (Hackett pp. 274).
Whatsoever is an object found by [the sort of] valid cognition that engages in the analysis of conventionalities …
ཐ་སྙད་དཔྱོད་བྱེད་ཀྱི་ཚད་མས་རྙེད་དོན་གང་ཞིག་ ...
གསོར་བྱེད་ is a Class V verb that means to brandish (Hackett pp. 459)
His hand brandishes again and again the supreme vajra.
རང་གི་ལག་གིས་རྡོ་རྗེ་མཆོག་ཡང་དང་ཡང་དུ་གསོར་བྱེད་པ།
Four main uses:
When NOT used as an auxiliary, འགྱུར་ is a Class III verb (present: འགྱུར་ past: གྱུར་ future: འགྱུར་ imperative: གྱུར་, Hackett p. 84) that means to be, to become, to come to be. For example སྡུག་བསྔལ་རྒྱུར་གྱུར་པ་, [it] has become a cause of suffering. And: འབྲས་བུར་ཡང་འགྱུར་རོ།, [it] also is an effect. The ར་ in both of those examples is a 2nd case marker marking the object of the Class III nominative-objective verb and is not marking an infinitive. (< todo Jess asks what's the source of this explanation? I'm curious about this use of ‘object’ of intransitive verb.)
འགྱུར་ is often used as an auxiliary to indicate transformation: becoming …, or coming to be … This usage occurs most often with Class II verbs.
By the gesture of looking [at them], [they] are stopped and become invisible. (Hackett p. 270)
ཕྱག་རྒྱ་མཐོང་བ་ཙམ་གྱིས་འགག་པར་འགྱུར་ཞིང་མི་སྣང་བར་འགྱུར་རོ།
By means of the yoga of mesmerization [means] becoming mesmerizing; it is explained in conjunction with the explanation of being a lord of men.
སྒེག་པའི་སྦྱོར་བ་ཡིས་ནི་སྒེག་པར་འགྱུར་ཏེ་མི་ཡི་བདག་པོ་བཞད་པའི་སྦྱོར་བས་བཞད་པའོ།
At [such] a time when we, ourselves, have become uncertain about what to do,...
རང་ཉིད་ཅི་བྱ་གཏོལ་མེད་གྱུར་པའི་ཚེ།
འགྱུར་ is also used to indicate the “perfective” aspect. In general, this is used to indicate that the verbal action is being viewed as a whole or in an abstract sense.
It is seen in statements that refer to a future event in an abstract or hypothetical sense, such as prophecy or the implications of a subjective statement.
During some cycles of years, there will be no teachings of the Buddha. (Hackett p.344)
ལོ་བསྒོར་འགའ་ཡི་བར་སངས་རྒྱས་བསྟན་པ་མེད་པར་འགྱུར།
Since a thing abides, annihilation does not occur, …
གང་ཕྱིར་དངོས་པོ་འཇུག་འགྱུར་བ། དེས་ན་ཆད་པར་མི་འགྱུར་ཞིང་།
When the two types of selflessness are seen, the seed of existence will be destroyed.
བདག་མེད་རྣམ་པ་གཉིས་མཐོང་ན། །སྲིད་པའི་ས་བོན་འགག་པར་འགྱུར།
A monk named “Pel” will liberate the evil king
དཔལ་ཞེས་བྱ་བའི་དགེ་སློང་གིས། །སྡིག་ཅན་རྒྱལ་པོ་སྒྲོལ་བར་འགྱུར།
འགྱུར་ can be used to explicitly indicate the Sanskrit middle-voice (ātmanepada) termination in texts translated from Sanskrit in the way that བྱེད་ can be used to indicate the Sanskrit passive-voice (parasmaipada) termination.
A particular characteristic of the Sanskrit middle-voice (ātmanepada) termination is that it conveys a reflexive sense to the verbal action. This carries over to Tibetan and is used both as a representation of the middle-voice termination and sometimes to simultaneously indicate the perfective as well.
“While the use of this construction can be loosely described as placing emphasis on the passive voice in the action of the verb, what is actually being indicated is the middle-voice termination of the original Sanskrit verb with its full range of implications - primarily, the verbal activity being reflexive.” Blue Hackett, pp. 491
[Your] thesis, as well, will fail. (Hackett pp. 164)
དམ་བཅས་པ་ཡང་ཉམས་པར་འགྱུར།
[Your] thesis is negated by what has already been accepted and by common knowledge.
ཁས་བླངས་པ་དང་གྲགས་པ་ཡིས། །དམ་བཅས་པ་ལ་གནོད་པར་འགྱུར།
Consequently, the Fatalist’ (Niyativadin) thesis is not false.
དེ་ཡི་ཕྱིར་ན་ཕྱྭ་སྨྲ་བ། །རྣམས་ཀྱི་ཕྱོགས་ནི་ལོག་མི་འགྱུར།
Especially with Class V and VI verbs, འགྱུར་ is used to explicitly emphasize the future tense of an event. This occurs in both the positive and negative constructions of the auxiliary and overlaps with a weak form of the precative (expressing a wish or desire). It is also used in forming rhetorical questions (verb + མི་འགྱུར་ཞིག་ན་).
[He] will remember [all previous] lives. (Hackett pp. 221)
སྐྱེ་བ་དྲན་པར་འགྱུར་རོ།
What will a mind deprived of the sense faculties do even though it has gone [to the object]? (Hackett pp.298)
དབང་པོ་རྣམས་དང་བྲལ་སེམས་ཀྱིས། །སོང་སྟེའང་ཅི་ཞིག་བྱེད་པར་འགྱུར།
Three main uses:
གྱུར་ is used to indicate the imperfective aspect (in contrast to འགྱུར་, which can indicate the perfective). The imperfective represents an action that is repeated, habitual, or otherwise occurring in the past and ongoing.
Not long after that, there came to be an outpost of foreign merchants. (Hackett pp. 413)
དེ་དང་ཧ་ཅང་མི་རིང་བ་ཞིག་ན་ཚོང་དཔོན་འགྲོན་པོ་ཞིག་གི་ཁྱིམ་ཡོད་པར་གྱུར་ཏོ།་
A past-tense verb combined with གྱུར་ as an auxiliary verb indicates the past-perfect tense: a completed action. For example ཞིག་ (to dissolve) and ཞིག་པར་གྱུར་ (to have dissolved). This is used with verbs that have an inherently complete goal or semantic endpoint, telic verbs.
if one has endured [abided/remained within] a strict fast [for] one night (1)
མཚན་མོ་གཅིག་སྨྱུང་བར་གནས་པར་གྱུར་ན་
At that time, the venerable Subhūti joined that assembly and sat down. (Hackett pp. 229)
ཡང་དེ་ཚེ་ཚེ་དང་ལྡན་པ་རབ་འབྱོར་འཁོར་དེ་ཉིད་དུ་འདུས་པར་གྱུར་ཏེ་འདུག་གོ
In the example above, འདུས་, is the past tense of དུས་, a Class II verb that means: to be included, to be among, to gather (together), to be composed, etc… (Hackett pp. 229). When འདུས་ is used in this auxiliary construction, འདུས་པར་གྱུར་, it can be understood as meaning unite with or join.
Subjunctive expresses a hypothetical situation, a situation contrary to facts, or one that expresses a hope, doubt, or wish. An example of subjective in English is “I wish Tibetan were easier!” “were” in that sentence is in the subjunctive.
In Tibetan, this is often expressed using verb + པར་གྱུར་. Frequently this is seen in combination with if-statements of the form “if A were the case, something would be B” Something like: “If Tibetan were easy, I would be happy.”
Even if a self were to exist… (Hackett, pp. 413)
བདག་ནི་ཡོད་པར་གྱུར་ནའང་
This is expressed like: A པར་གྱུར་ན་ B པར་འགྱུར།
If [this practice] were to be fully perfected, then [the yidam] would bestow yogic feats. (2)
།གལ་ཏེ་ཡོངས་སུ་རྫོགས་པར་གྱུར་ན་དེ་ནས་དངོས་གྲུབ་སྟེར་བར་འགྱུར་རོ།
The same verbs used to form the present causative can be used to form the past and future causative by using the respective past and future forms of the verbs.
Verb + པར་བྱ་ is used to convey two meanings:
When the same construction is formed with the future tense form of the honorific action verb བགྱི་, the emphatic future becomes the emphatic future causative. This is used specifically in the sense of verbal activity being provoked by an outside agent or event. When used with Class V and VI verbs, it often has a reflexive sense.
Future causative:
[That which] will bring about freedom from disease and … (Hackett pp. 344)
ནད་མེད་བྱ་དང་ (note the omitted པར་)
They will arise from the body when [it] is dying. (Hackett pp. 320)
འཆི་བའི་ལུས་ལས་འབྱུར་བར་འགྱུར།
Past causative:
Having eradicated even the slightest sign of the ordained [Sangha] (Hackett pp. 344)
རབ་ཏུ་བྱུང་བའི་རྟགས་ཙམ་ཡང་མེད་པར་བྱས་ཏེ།
Optative:
[one] should remember this meaning on all occasions … (Hackett pp. 221)
ཀུན་གྱི་ཚེ་དོན་དེ་ཉིད་དྲན་པར་བྱ།
Common beings should be told, "You are not free from suffering."
ཁྱོད་སྡུག་ཆགས་བྲལ་མེད་དོ་ཞེས། །སོ་སོའི་སྐྱེ་བོ་བསྟན་བྱ་ (omitted པར་)
བྱས་, the past tense of བྱེད་, forms the past causative or emphatic. The exact tense depends on the tense of the core verb that precedes it. The same holds for the honorific forms མཛད་ and བགྱིས་
Two constructions form the simple imperative:
Don't confuse this with the precative, which expresses a wish or a request, not a command.
The passive imperative is formed by:
It can also be formed in the honorific using མཛོད་ and གྱིས་
An verb is said to be in a “perfect” tense if the action is completed. For example, a sentence using the present perfect in English is “I have studied Tibetan.” The past perfect: “I had studied.” The future perfect: “I will have studied.” In each example, the action being indicated by the perfect tense verb is understood to be completed.
Precative expresses a wish or request. Similar to an “aspirational imperative.”
For so long as they cycle [in cyclic existence, may they] never degenerate from [a state of] bliss. (Hackett pp 164)
དེ་དག་འཁོར་བ་ཇི་སྲིད་དུ། ནམ་ཡང་བདེ་ལས་ཉམས་མ་གྱུར།
May no sentient beings whatsoever suffer.
འགའ་ཡང་སྡུག་མ་གྱུར།
1) ral pa gyen brdzes kyi rtog pa chen po, W4CZ5369:94:41: [sde dge par khang chen mo] [18 cent]
2) rdo rje sa 'og ces bya ba'i rgyud kyi rgyal po chen po, W4CZ5369:94:528: [sde dge par khang chen mo] [18 cent]