Continuative Particles

This particle has three markers that are suffix-dependent:

However, its usage can also be formed using other particles such as the ལ་སྒྲ།, ནས་སྒྲ།, as well as ཅིང་ཞིང་ཤིང་། (discussed below).

The usages are divided into three:

1. Connection (མཚམས་སྦྱོར།)
2. Assertion (དམ་བཅའ།)
3. Remainder (གཞན་འདྲེན།)

Other Continuative Particles

Putting together information from the various sections, there are additional particles for a complete list:

• ཏེ། དེ། སྟེ། have been discussed above.
• The ལ་སྒྲ། has been discussed here
• The ནས་སྒྲ། has been discussed here
• Other: ཅིང་། ཞིང་། ཤིང་།

The ཅིང་། ཞིང་། ཤིང་། particles are suffix dependent:

They are:

• Only affixed to verbs and adjectives, not nouns
• Only used for Connection (མཚམས་སྦྱོར།), not for Assertion (དམ་བཅའ།) or Remainder (གཞན་འདྲེན།)

For example:

• “That which is hot and burning.” ཚ་ཞིང་ཚེག་པ།
• “[This] human body is difficult to find, there is no extension of our lifetime, and there are uninterrupted obstructions to it.” མི་ལུས་རྙེད་དཀའ་ཞིང་། ཚེ་ལ་བསྣོན་པ་མེད་ཅིང་། འགྲིབ་བྱེད་བར་མ་ཆད་དུ་ཡོད།

In this sense, they used as an “and”.

Moreover, authors will sometimes use the different “and” words (དང་།, ཅིང་ཞིང་ཤིང་།, ལ་སྒྲ།, and so forth) to create different levels of conjunction.

For example:

• “It is said that [the number of those] dying and migrating from the lower realms and taking rebirth there are like the atoms of the great earth and [the number of those] taking rebirth in the higher realms from there are like the atoms picked up by the tip of a nail; and [the number of those] dying and migrating from the higher realms and taking rebirth in the lower realms are like the atoms of the great earth and [the number of those] taking rebirth in the higher realms from there are like the atoms picked up by the tip of a nail.”
  ངན་འགྲོ་ནས་ཤི་འཕོས་ཏེ་དེར་སྐྱེ་བ་ནི་ས་ཆེན་པོའི་རྡུལ་དང་། དེ་ནས་བདེ་འགྲོར་སྐྱེ་བ་ནི་སོར་མོའི་རྩེ་མོས་བླངས་པའི་རྡུལ་དང་འདྲ་ཞིང་།
  བདེ་འགྲོ་གཉིས་ནས་ཤི་འཕོས་ཏེ་ངན་འགྲོར་སྐྱེ་བ་ནི་ས་ཆེན་པོའི་རྡུལ་དང་། དེ་ནས་བདེ་འགྲོར་སྐྱེ་བ་ནི་ཕྱག་སོར་གྱི་རྩེ་མོས་བཞེས་པའི་རྡུལ་དང་འདྲ་བར་གསུངས།

Although it doesn’t quite show in the English, the four permutations mentioned in the quote are grouped into two pairs:

• It is (A+B)+(C+D)
• Not A+B+C+D

Which makes a difference grammatically, if not mathematically!

There does not seem to be any inherent hierarchy to the “and” words, some being stronger or weaker than others in terms of level of conjunction, that might allow some formulation of these nested “and” words. This would be especially helpful in cases of asymmetry, where we might wonder whether something says (A+B)+C or A+(B+C). Rather, different combinations can be used so long as (or maybe because) their respective grammar rules are followed (such as དང་། being used for nouns etc. while ཅིང་ཞིང་ཤིང་། are for verbs and adjectives, and so forth).

Up a level: Fourteen grammar particles