Lesson Five [ [ [ — ༡༡༡
instrumental case (རི་བོང་གིས་) and an active verb, "took revenge" (དགྲ་ཤf ལེན་) . It should be
noted that the rabbit i s one of Ti betan folklore"s fam ous trick sters.
2. The second segment consists of two clauses l. གནའ་ར་ བས་སུ་རི་བོང་དང་འི་དམ་སེང་དཀར་པོ་ཞིག་
ནགས་ཚལ་སྟུག་པོ་ཞིག་གི་ནང་གནས་ཏེ་ 2. འཚོ་བ་སྐྱེལ་བཞིན་ཡོད་པ་རེད།་
The first clause begins with a time slot word---—"in the past" (གནའ་ར་ བས་སུ་) . It is
followed by the subject of the two clauses, a rabbit and a white lion (རི་བོང་དང་འདམ་སེང་དཀ་ར་
པོ་ཞིག་) . Note that there is no i nstrum ental particle followi ng the subject. Nornmally this
would conveyi̅that this was not an active construction. However, i n this case it is because
the verbs "to live" ཁཐུན་ ས་) and "to subsi st" (འཚོ་ བ་སྐྱེལ་) do not require the subject ("the
rabbit and thei̅ lion") to be i n the instrumental case. ཚེ་
Following the subject is the object phrase "in a densei̅forest" (ནགས་ཚལ་སྟུག་པོ་ཞིག་གི་
ནང་) . It consists of "forest" (ནགས་ཚལ་) modified by the adjective "dense" (སྟུག་པོ་) and the
i ndefinite article (ཞིག་) . Together these m ean "a dense forest." i̅
They are li nked to the word "inside" (ནང་) by the genitive particle (གི་) so that i̅
together they convey "i nsi de of a dense forest. " It should be noted that the ternn "i nsi de"
almost always is li nked to the phrase or word it modifies by the genitive. Thus, "inside
the restauurant" woul d be ཟ་ཁང་གི་ནང་ལ་ i̅ i̅ i̅
།The dative—locative paticle (e.g., ལ་ in the previous example) is also often used
together with ནང་ conveyi ng "at" or "to" the i nside of. The clause i n the readi ng exercise
couldjust as easily have been written as ནགས་ཚལ་སྟུག་པོ་ཞིག་གི་ནང་ལ་གནས་ However, whether
or not the dative—locative is present, the t anslati on remai ns the །same. i̅ Followi
Followi ngi̅thi s com es the verb གན་ ས་ which means " dwell " or " liv e." T ་ ogether they
convey, "A long time ago, a rabbit and a white lion, lived in a dense ། forest." i̅
i̅This clause is li nk ed to the second cl ause by the gerundive claui̅se connective ཏེ་,
which here functions to convey to the reader that two simu╱taneousactions occurredi
" (along with) living in a dense forest" (ནགས་ཚལ་སྟུག་པོ་ཞིག་གི་ནང་ག་ནས་) something else follows.
i̅Clause two explai ns wh at follows. It consists of a verbal phrase that convey s
"bei ng i n the process of derivi ng their livelihood or subsisti ng" (འཚོ་བ་སྐྱེལ་བཞིན་ཡོད་པ་རེད) . In
other words, " (the rabbit aund lion) were subsisti ng, livi ng i n a dense forest." Note also
that thei̅final verbi̅complement (བཞིན་ཡོད་པ་རེད་) convey s that they were i ni̅the act of doing
som ethi ng, albeit i ni̅this case the acti on is i n the past. Thi s tense dime nsi on is i ndicated
not by the verbs whic h nornmally imply present—usual tense, but rather by གནའ་ར་ བས་སུ་ , the
tempxorali̅word at the start of the story.i̅ ཚེ་ ཚེ་ ཚེ་ ཚེ་ 3.
3. The third segment c0 nsists 0 f a linking sentence རི་བོང་དང་འི་དམ་ ་སེང་གཉིས་ཁྱི་མ་མ་ ཚེས་རེད།
This is a simple linki ng sentence stating that the subject, "the two ot them------lion

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