The Classical Tibetan cases and their transcategoriality

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Tournadre: The Classical Tibetan cases
B. illustrations:
a.1) Spatiotemporal origin
The meaning of the ablative is rather specific and much more restricted semantically than
the elative nas. Semantically, it indicates the spatial origin when the figure is on the surface of
the referent (and not inside). Thus for example rta+las babs རྟ་ལས་བབས་ ‘(X) dismounted the
horse.’, X was on the back of the horse (and not inside the horse!). It is the same with:
བྲག་ལས་ལྷུང་ brag+las lhung ‘(X) has fallen from the rock.’. For this meaning, las and nas are
pratically equivalent: བྲག་ནས་ལྷུང་ brag+nas lhung ‘(X) has fallen from the rock.’ and ་རྟ་ནས་བབས་
rta+nas babs ‘(X) dismounted the horse.’.
However in most examples, las does not simply indicate the spatial origin but rather the
origin of a transformation: the object (or the being) from which, something is extracted,
generated or produced. 58 In these cases, the replacement of las by nas is impossible as show
the examples below.
བ་ལས་འོ་མ་བྱུང་ ba+las na [cow+ABL:ORI] ’oma+Ø byung ‘The milk comes from the cow.’,
འོ་མ་ལས་མར་བླངས་’oma+las [milk+ABL:ORI] mar+Ø blangs ‘One take (extract) butter from
milk.’, པི་ཝང་ལས་སྒྲ་སྙན་བྱུང་། ་piwang+las [violin+ABL:ORI] sgra snyan+Ø byung ‘Out of the
piwang (traditional Tibetan violin) came a nice sound.’, མེ་ལས་དྲོད་སྐྱེས། me+las [fire+ ABL:ORI]
drod+Ø skyes ‘Heat comes from the fire.’, མ་ལས་བུ་སྐྱེས་ ma+las [mother+ ABL:ORI] bu+Ø skyes
‘The mother gave birth to a son (litt. From the mother a son was born).’, དཔེ་ཆ་ལས་གོ་བ་རྙེད
dpecha+las [book+ABLORI] goba+Ø rnyed ‘to get understanding from a (traditional) book’,
ཁ་དོག་ཉིད་ལས་བྲོ་བ་ཤེས་་ khadog+nyid+las broba shes ‘to know the taste by the colour itself.’
ལེགས་བཤད་བྱིས་པ་དག་ལས་ཀྱང་། །མཁས་པ་རྣམས་ནི་ཡོངས་སུ་ལེན། legsbshad byispa+dag+las+kyang
[child+PL+ABL:ORI+Also] mkhaspa+rnams+ni yongssu len ‘The scholars get inspiration for
their aphorisms even from children.’, ས་བོན་ལས་མྱུ་གུ་སྐྱེས་ sabon+las [seed+ABL:ORI] myugu skyes
‘A sprout was born from the seed.’.
For this function, the replacement of las by nas is really problematic:
? བ་ནས་འོ་མ་བྱུང་ ba+nas ’oma+Ø byung ‘The milk comes from the cow.’,
? འོ་མ་ནས་མར་བླངས་ ’oma+nas mar+Ø blangs ‘One take (extract) butter from milk.’,
? མ་ནས་བུ་སྐྱེས་ ma+nas bu+Ø skyes ‘A son was born to (litt. from) the mother.’,
? ས་བོན་ནས་མྱུ་གུ་སྐྱེས་ sabon+nas myugu skyes ‘A sprout was born from the seed.’.
The use of nas in the above sentences would be acceptable only if one wants to indicate only
a spatial origin.
a.2) Comparative construction (after a NP)
སྲོག་ཆགས་གྲོག་མ་མིག་མེད་ཀྱང༌། མིག་ལྡན་གཞན་ལས་ལྷག་པར་མགྱོགས། srogchags grogma mig med+kyang mig+ldan
gzhan+las [other+ABL:COMP] lhagpar mgyogs ‘Ants don’t have eyes but are faster than
58 One could say that las has the symmetric value of the transformative function conveyed by the purposive du. See
the purposive section.