The Classical Tibetan cases and their transcategoriality

103
Tournadre: The Classical Tibetan cases
and then cried.’, བདག་གིས་རྩ་རླུང་ཐིག་ལེ་བསྒོམས་ bdag+gis [me+AGT:ERG] rtsa rlung thigle+Ø bsgom
‘I medidated upon the channels, the breath, the essence.’. 48
a2) Instrument, Cause and Manner
ཆང་གིས་བཟི་ chang+gis [beer+AGT:INST] bzi ‘X got drunk with the beer.’ དུག་གིས་ཤི་ dug+gis
[poison+ AGT:CAUS] shi ‘to die of poison’, བླ་མས་ངའི་ལག་པ་ཕྱག་གིས་བཟུང་ blama+s nga+’i lagpa
phyag+gis [AGT:INST] bzung ‘The lama took my hand with his hand.’,
བུ་ཁྱོད་ཀྱིས་ཀྱང་གཞོན་ནུ་ནས་མཐུ་དང་སེར་བས་སྡིག་ཆེན་པོ་བསགས་ bu khyod+kyis kyang gzhonnu+nas mthu dang
serba+s [hail+ AGT:CAUS] sdig chenpo+Ø bsags ‘My son, you too, since your young age,
have accumulated great sins because of magic and hail.’.
a3) Specification
This function is quite peculiar and is linked to specificative adjectival or verbal predicates,
which are always stative. A specificative verb or adjective governs two arguments, one in the
absolutive (in some cases in the dative) and the other in the instrumental. Most adjectival
predicates such as phyug ‘rich’, mtho ‘high’, thung ‘short’, mkhas ‘expert’, ring ‘long’, che ‘big’
may have an argument in the instrumental conveying specification. Some specificative verbs
also trigger the same construction. Among the most frequent, one should mention: khengs
‘to be filled (with)’, bskor ‘to be surrounded by’, g.yogs ‘to be covered by’, brgyan ‘to be
adorned with, ornemented, bejeweled’, spras ‘to adorned with, decorated by’ , gtso ‘to be
chieffed by¨’ (‘with as main figures’), khyab ‘to encompass, to pervade, to be covered with’,
mnar ‘to be oppressed by’, mchod ‘to worship with’. In English, this function is translated by
various prepositions depending on the context: ‘by’, ‘as’, ‘in’, ‘with’ or ‘of ’.
བདེན་པས་སྟོངས། bdenpa+s [truth+AGT:SPEC] stongs ‘devoid of truth’, yontan+gyis [quality+AGT:
SPEC] che ‘great in qualities’, འདོམ་གང་གིས་མཐོ། ་’dom gang+gis [fathom one+AGT: SPEC] mtho
‘high as one fathom (or one armspan)’,ལྷ་མོ་ལ་སྐྱབས་ཡུལ་རྣམས་ཀྱིས་བསྐོར་ནས་བཞུགས། lhamo+la
skyabsyul+rnams+kyis [refuge deities+PL+ AGT:SPEC] bskor+nas bzhugs ‘The goddess is
surrounded by the various deities of the Refuge.’, རིན་པོ་ཆེ་དང་པད་མ་སྣ་ཚོགས་ཀྱིས་སྤྲས། rinpoche dang
padma snatshogs rgyan+gyis [ornament+AGT:SPEC] spras ‘[he/she] was adorned by various
precious stones and lotus.’, འབྲས་བུས་ཕྱུག་པའི་ལྗོན་པའི་རྭ་བས་བསྐོར། ’brasbu+s [fruit+AGT:SPEC]
phyug+pa’i ljonpa+’i rwaba+s [fence+AGT:SPEC] bskor ‘[the place] was surrounded by a
fence of trees with abundant fruits.’.
b1) Adjunctive and causal connective
The agentive may be used directly after the verb to indicate a connexion between two
clauses. However, for this function, the agentive case alone is rarely used, while the elative
case is very frequent (see elative case below).
ཡུད་ཙམ་ངལ་གསོས་ཀྱིས་བསྡད་པ་ཡིན། yud tsam ngal gsos+kyis [rest+ AGT:CO] bsdad+payin ‘We stayed a
while and rested (litt. rest and stay).’. This is equivalent to: ཡུད་ཙམ་ངལ་གསོས་ནས་བསྡད་པ་ཡིན། yud
tsam ngal gsos+nas [rest+ ELA:CO] bsdad+payin ‘We stayed a while and rested.’,
སེམས་འགུལ་ཆེ་ཐེབས་ཀྱིས་བོད་ཀྱི་གཏམ་དཔེ་ཞིག་ཀྱང་དྲན་བྱུང༌། sems ’gul che thebs+kyis [be touched+ AGT:CO]
48 For other illustrations, see Nagano (1997).