Relative and Correlative Pronouns
From Paul Hackett, Learning Classical Tibetan, pp.45
In contemporary English, simple relative pronouns mark adjectival clauses and function as connectives linking a clause and the main part of a sentence – for example, the word whom in the sentence, “He wrote to the person with whom he met last week.” In Tibetan, (and Sanskrit), such constructions require both a relative and a correlative pronoun. To illustrate, were the above example sentence rendered in such a form, using relative and correlative pronouns, it would read something like, “To that person he meet last week, to him he wrote.”
Some relative-correlative pairs are:
གང་ལ་ལ་ (whosoever) ←→ དེ་ (him, her, etc.)
གང་ (that, whatsoever) ←→ འདི་ / དེ་ ([just] this, [just] that)
གང་ཞིག་ (whosoever) ←→ དེ་ / དེ་དག་ (him, her / those two, them altogether)
ཇི་སྲིད་དུ་ (for so long as) ←→ ད་དུང་ (for just that long)
ཇི་སྲིད་དུ་ (as long as) ←→ དེ་སྲིད་དུ་ (for that long)
ཇི་ལྟར་ (just as …) ←→ དེ་ལྟར་ / དེ་བཞིག་ (just so, … / like that …)
གང་ཡིན་པ་ (whatsoever) ←→ དེ་ཉིད་ (just that, that very thing, etc…)
¶ Example #1
Here is an example from the Heart Sūtra.
།རིགས་ཀྱི་བུ་གང་ལ་ལ་ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ཟབ་མོ་སྤྱོད་པ་སྤྱད་པར་འདོད་པ་དེས་ཇི་ལྟར་བསླབ་པར་བྱ།
How should a child of noble family who wishes to practice the profound perfection of wisdom train?
རིགས་ཀྱི་བུ་ child of the lineage
གང་ལ་ལ་ whosoever (relative pronoun)
ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ཟབ་མོ་ profound perfection of wisdom
ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་ཕ་རོལ་ཏུ་ཕྱིན་པ་ [wisdom - 6th - to the other side - gone] perfection of wisdom
ཟབ་མོ་ profound
སྤྱོད་པ་ practice
སྤྱད་པར་འདོད་པ་ desire to practice
དེས་ correlative pronoun དེ་ with third case agentive ས་
ཇི་ལྟར་ how
བསླབ་པར་བྱ། should train
It literally this says something like:
A child of the lineage whosoever wishes to practice the practice of the profound perfection of wisdom, they how should train?
We can simplify this for the purposes of demonstrating the relative-correlative:
།རིགས་ཀྱི་བུ་གང་ལ་ལ་ … སྤྱད་པར་འདོད་པ་ དེས་ཇི་ལྟར་བསླབ་པར་བྱ།
A child of the lineage whosoever wishes to train …, how should they train?
The important point is that the relative pronoun (གང་ལ་ལ་) introduces the subordinate clause (རིགས་ཀྱི་བུ་གང་ལ་ལ་…སྤྱད་པར་འདོད་པ་) while the correlative pronoun (དེ་) relates the subordinate clause to the main clause (དེས་ཇི་ལྟར་བསླབ་པར་བྱ།).
Notice how the English is translated using a single relative pronoun, who, to introduce a relative clause. The relative clause is underlined below. It is a dependent clause because it does not express a complete thought. The main clause of the sentence, what would be the correlative clause in Tibetan, is a complete thought: How should a child of noble family train?
How should a child of noble family who wishes to practice the profound perfection of wisdom train?
¶ Example #2
Here's another example of a relative-correlative from Tsong-kha-pa's Three Principal Aspects of the Path. The relative pronoun གང་ཞིག་ introduces a long subordinate clause that spans the first three lines. The correlative pronoun དེ་ relates the main clause (the fourth line) to the subordinate clause. I've included three different translations as it's interesting to see how different translators handle this.
གང་ཞིག་འཁོར་འདས་ཆོས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་ཀྱི།
རྒྱུ་འབྲས་ནམ་ཡང་བསླུ་བ་མེད་མཐོང་ཞིང་།
དམིགས་པའི་གཏད་སོ་གང་ཡིན་ཀུན་ཞིག་པ།
དེ་ནི་སངས་རྒྱས་དགྱེས་པའི་ལམ་ལ་ཞུགས།
William Magee's translation (UMA Tibet):
Whoever sees the cause and effect of all phenomena of cyclic existence
and nirvana as completely inevitable,
And thoroughly destroy the observed object –
They enter the path that pleases the Buddha.
Paul Hackett's translation (Learning Classical Tibetan):
Whosoever sees the effects of the causes of all phenomena of
Cyclic existence and nirvana as completely inevitable,
And thoroughly destroys the mode of apprehension of objects,
They enter the path with regard to which the Buddha is pleased. (Hackett, Learning Classical Tibetan, pp. 146)
Adam Percy's translation (Lotsawa House):
The one who sees that cause and effect operate infallibly
For all the phenomena of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa,
And for whom any objects of conceptual focus have subsided,
Has set out upon the path delighting all the buddhas.
གང་ཞིག་ relative pronoun whosoever
འཁོར་འདས་ samsara and nirvana, short for འཁོར་བ་དང་མྱ་ངན་ལས་འདས་པ་
ཆོས་རྣམས་ཐམས་ཅད་ all phenomena (the རྣམས་ seems a little unnecessary with the ཐམས་ཅད་)
ཀྱི་ 6th case connective
རྒྱུ་ cause
འབྲས་ effect
རྒྱུ་འབྲས་ effect[s] of the cause[s] (reading it with an omitted 6th case: རྒྱུ་[ཡི་]འབྲས་)ནམ་ཡང་་ ever, always, absolutely
བསླུ་བ་མེད་ inevitable, without deceiving, non-deceptive, incontrovertible
མཐོང་ see, perceive
ཞིང་ and
དམིགས་པའི་གཏད་སོ་ object of observation – this gets translated as object of observation, but དམིགས་པ་ alone is object of observation. གཏད་སོ་ is focal point. So techincally དམིགས་པའི་གཏད་སོ་ is focal point of [the type] object of observation, which can be reduced in English to object of observation without losing any meaning.
གཏད་སོ་ focal point, [aim-place period]
གང་ཡིན་ which is
ཀུན་ all
ཞིག་ destroy
དེ་ correlative pronoun they (དེ་ is just a pronoun, but it's used as a correlative pronoun here in relation to the relative pronoun གང་ཞིག་)
ནི་ separative particle
སངས་རྒྱས་ Buddha
དགྱེས་པའི་ལམ་ path that is pleasing
ལ་ 2nd case destination
ཞུགས་ enter
For the purposes of demonstrating the relative-correlative, we could reduce the quote significantly.
གང་ཞིག་མཐོང་དེ་ཞུགས།
Whosoever sees, they abide.
Whosoever sees, that [person] abides.
In the very abbreviated from above, the relative clause is གང་ཞིག་མཐོང་. The correlative clause is དེ་ཞུགས་. The relative clause (whosoever sees) is a dependent clause. It does not express a full idea. The correlative clause is the main clause of the sentence (they abide, that [person] abides]) and does express a full idea.
Notice that in English this would be written a single relative pronoun: The person who sees abides.
¶ Example #3
Here is a quote from a Presentation of the Three Vows (སྡོམ་པ་གསུམ་གྱི་རྣམ་པར་བཞག་པ་མདོར་བསྡུས་) by མཁས་གྲུབ་ (Kay-drup, one of Tsong-kha-pa's chief disciples), from the Bodhisattva vows section.
ཇེ་སྲིད་དུ་ཀུན་རྫོབ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་བཅོས་མ་མ་ཡིན་པའི་མྱོང་བ་རྒྱུད་ལ་སྐྱེས་པས་མ་ཟིན་པ་དེ་སྲིད་དུ་བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔུའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ལ་སློབ་པའི་དོན་མེད་
For so long as the conventional mind of enlightenment is not held due to an arising of an uncontrived experience in one's mindstream, [for as long as that] there is no meaningful practice of the deeds of a bodhisattva…
ཇེ་སྲིད་དུ་ relative pronoun, for so long as
ཀུན་རྫོབ་བྱང་ཆུབ་ཀྱི་སེམས་ conventional bodhichitta (mind of enlightenment)
བཅོས་ fabricated, made up, artificial
བཅོས་མ་མ་ཡིན་པ་ uncontrived, genuine, non-fabricated, not-artificial
བཅོས་མ་མ་ཡིན་པའི་མྱོང་བ་ uncontrived experience
རྒྱུད་ལ་ in [one's] mindstream (or mental continuum)
སྐྱེས་ be born, be produced, arise
མ་ཟིན་པ་ not conjoined with, not entered, not grasped, not done (with)
དེ་སྲིད་དུ་ correlative pronoun, just that long
བྱང་ཆུབ་སེམས་དཔུའི་སྤྱོད་པ་ deeds of a bodhisattva
སློབ་པའི་དོན་ meaningful practice
མེད་ not
¶ Example #4
Here's another example from the Three Principal Aspects of the Path. You can see this example analyzed in context in the text section.
སྣང་བ་རྟེན་འབྲེལ་བསླུ་བ་མེད་པ་དང་།
སྟོང་པ་ཁས་ལེན་བྲལ་བའི་གོ་བ་གཉིས།
ཇི་སྲིད་སོ་སོར་སྣང་བ་དེ་སྲིད་དུ།
ད་དུང་ཐུབ་པའི་དགོངས་པ་རྟོགས་པ་མེད།
Literal(ish) translation:
The realization of appearances, the infallibility of dependent-arising,
and the realization of emptiness, the non-assertion [of inherent existence] – the two –
as long as [they] appear individually,
for that long, still there is no realization of the thought of Śākyamuni Buddha.
Magee / Hopkins translation:
As long as the two, the realization of appearances – the infallibility of dependent-arising –
And the realization of emptiness – the non-assertion [of inherent existence],
Seem to be separate, [for that long],
There is still no realization of the thought of Śākyamuni Buddha
ཁས་ལེན་ [by-mouth-take] assert, accept
བྲལ་བ་ separate, free from, lack, devoid
གོ་བ་ understanding, understand
གཉིས་ two
ཇི་སྲིད་ as long as
སོ་སོར་ individually, individual, separate, distinct
དེ་སྲིད་དུ་ just so long as
ད་དུང་ still
ཐུབ་པ་ muni, Subduer, epithet for Buddha
དགོངས་པ་རྟོགས་པ་ realization of the thought
མེད་ not [exist]
This example is somewhat complicated becuas the first two lines are the subject of the verb of the relative clause (སྣང་བ་). That is to say, they are what appears. The relative pronoun (ཇི་སྲིད་) is after these two lines. The correlative pronoun (དེ་སྲིད་དུ) is at the end of line three.
We can actually simplify the relative clause by removing the first two lines (they standing in for the first two lines):
RELATIVE CLAUSE:
ཇི་སྲིད་སོ་སོར་སྣང་བ་
as long as [they] appear to be separate,
CORRELATIVE CLAUSE:
དེ་སྲིད་དུ།ད་དུང་ཐུབ་པའི་དགོངས་པ་རྟོགས་པ་མེད།
for that long, still there is no realization of the thought of Śākyamuni Buddha.
¶ Example #5
An example from the Madhyamakāvatāra, Introduction to the Middle Way, by Chandrakiriti (Ch. 6, V. 80). Translation by Thubten Jinpa. The relative-correlative pair is in the second two lines: གང་གིས་ and དེ.
ཐ་སྙད་བདེན་པ་ཐབས་སུ་གྱུར་པ་དང་། །
དོན་དམ་བདེན་པ་ཐབས་བྱུང་གྱུར་པ་སྟེ། །
དེ་གཉིས་རྣམ་དབྱེ་གང་གིས་མི་ཤེས་པ། །
དེ་ནི་རྣམ་རྟོག་ལོག་པས་ལམ་ངན་ཞུགས། །
The conventional truth is the means,
while the ultimate truth is its end.
Those who fail to know the distinction between the two
will enter wrong paths through false conceptualization.
A more literal translation of the second two lines that emphasizes the relative-correlative might be:
Whosoever does not know the distinction beween the two
That person will enter wrong paths due to false concepts
Notice how as per usual, the relative-correlative can be collapsed in English and only the relative pronoun is needed. Also, I feel like pointing out the usual caveat that “that person” is neither singular nor plural and could easily be “those persons.”
¶ Example #6
Here's an example from Śāntideva's Bodhicaryāvatāra. Chapter 1, verse 5. Below you see a great example of a relative-correlative pair. The relative pronoun is ཇི་ལྟར་ and the correlative pronoun is དེ་བཞིན་ (Just as …., likewise …).
ཇི་ལྟར་མཚན་མོ་མུན་ནག་སྤྲིན་རུམ་ན། །
གློག་འགྱུ་སྐད་ཅིག་རབ་སྣང་སྟོན་པ་ལྟར། །
དེ་བཞིན་སངས་རྒྱས་མཐུ་ཡིས་བརྒྱ་ལམ་ན། །
འཇིག་རྟེན་བསོད་ནམས་བློ་གྲོས་ཐང་འགའ་འབྱུང༌། །
Just as a flash of lightning, for an instant, reveals brilliantly illuminated [things],
On a dark night under heavy clouds, just
Like that, through the power of the Buddha, occasionally,
Thoughts of [engaging in] merit in the world, for a few moments, occur.
(Hackett)
Just as a flash of lightning on a dark, cloudy night
For an instant brightly illuminates all,
Likewise in this world, through the might of Buddha,
A wholesome thought rarely and briefly appears.
(Batchelor)