Non-Case Usages of the Ladons
The Ladon particles can be mistaken for some nouns and verbs:
- ན། can be the verb to be sick.
- ལ། can mean a mountain pass.
- སུ། can mean “who?”
- པར། can mean a picture or photo
- བར། can mean “middle” and would be pronounced differently.
These are usually fairly easy to spot in terms of context and placement.
However, since grammar particles and cases have a མུ་གསུམ། relationship, not all grammar particles are cases. In this context, the ན་སྒྲ། and ལ་སྒྲ། are often used as grammar particles that are not cases and, as such, also not Ladons.
In other words: if it is the ན་སྒྲ། or ལ་སྒྲ། grammar particle, then it is not necessarily a Ladon.
The ན་སྒྲ།
This has many non-Ladon usages (a list of seven types is sometimes given) that are mainly different usages of the conditional “if”.
How to tell the difference?
Since the ན་སྒྲ། is rarely, if ever, used as the Fourth Case marker (see: here), it should never appear affixed directly to verbs unless they are nominalised. Therefore, if it is affixed directly to a verb, then it is not a Ladon.
For example:
- “When [I] go to the market…” ཁྲོམ་ལ་འགྲོ་བ་ན་་་།
This is the Seventh Case Time-marker. - “If [I] go to the market…” ཁྲོམ་ལ་འགྲོ་ན་་་།
This is the non-case usage of the conditional.
Other usages:
- “In summary…” Lit. “If briefly summarised…” མདོར་བསྡུས་ན།
- “To explain [it] extensively…” Lit. “If extensively explained…” རྒྱས་པར་བཤད་ན།
- “How wonderful if all sentient being were to have happiness and the causes of happiness!”
སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་བདེ་བ་དང་བདེ་བའི་རྒྱུ་དང་ལྡན་ན་ཅི་མ་རུང་། - “I was thinking of going to the market.” Lit. “I was thinking if I go to the market.”
ཁྲོམ་ལ་འགྲོ་ན་བསམ་སོང་། (Colloquial)
Summary:
- The ན་སྒྲ། non-case usage is to mark the conditional.
- Contextually, it is used to construct prayers/aspirations, doubts/questions, and other abstract constructions.
- It is included in the Reason Indicators (རྒྱུ་མཚན་སྟོན་པའི་སྒྲ།).
The ལ་སྒྲ།
This is said to have the same meaning as the Emphasis-Conjunction Particles (རྒྱན་སྡུད།), i.e. that the sentence or thought is not complete but will continue. It can usually be translated as “and” or “but”.
As for the ན་སྒྲ།, the way to recognise this is that it will be affixed directly to a verb without nominalising it first.
Hypothetical example:
- “Generating wisdom and the method of engagement.” ཤེས་རབ་བསྐྱེད་ལ་འཇུག་པའི་ཐབས།
The ལ་སྒྲ། cannot be a Second or Seventh Case because it is affixed directly to the verb. If it were a Fourth Case, then the suffix would dictate it should be བསྐྱེད་དུ་འཇུག instead. Therefore, it has to be a non-case usage indicating “and”.
In practice, the difference between these the case and non-case usages will be more pronounced due to the varying structure of the sentence.
More examples:
- “Get up and prostrate.” ཡར་ལངས་ལ་ཕྱག་འཚོལ་ཅིག
- “Something that is an object of knowledge but not impermanent.” ཤེས་བྱ་ཡིན་ལ་མི་རྟག་པ་མ་ཡིན་པའི་མུ།
This usage is quite common and will usually connect two sentences or phrases. For example, one sentence ending in a verb – rather than using a terminating particle to mark it as a separate thought to the next sentence – will affix this ལ་སྒྲ། directly to that verb and in so doing connect it to the next sentence.
To illustrate this:
- “Tashi made food. Tashi ate all the food.” བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཀྱིས་ཁ་ལག་བཟོས་སོ། བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཀྱིས་ཁ་ལག་ཆ་ཚང་བཟས་སོ།
- “Tashi made food and ate it all.” བཀྲ་ཤིས་ཀྱིས་ཁ་ལག་བཟོས་ལ་ཆ་ཚང་བཟས་སོ།
For a more complex example, see the definition of a grammar particle.
Up a level: The eight cases