The Dang Particle
The Thirty divides the དང་སྒྲ། into five usages:
- Conjunction (སྡུད་པ།)
- Disjunction (འབྱེད་པ)
- Reason (རྒྱུ་མཚན།)
- Occasion (ཚེ་སྐབས།)
- Imperative (གདམས་ངག)
However, although there are slightly different usages among them, this particle can easily be considered to be the equivalent to the English “and”. As such, the main usage is what might be called conjunction and the other categories are different (mainly contextual) flavours of it.
The དང་སྒྲ། is mainly used for nouns and nominalised verbs; whereas non-nominalised verbs and adjectives will use the ཅིང་ཞིང་ཤིང་། continuative particles. Verbs can also use the non-case ལ་སྒྲ། (see here) and the Sixth Case (འབྲེལ་སྒྲ།) to similar effect.
Both the Conjunction (སྡུད་པ།) and Disjunction (འབྱེད་པ) relate to listing things, in the manner of “x and y and z…”. For example:
- “The four seasons are summer, winter, autumn, and spring.” རྣམ་དུས་བཞི་ནི། དབྱར་དང་། དགུན་དང་། སྟོན་དང་། དཔྱིད་དོ།
- “There are two [types of] opportunities: those depending on oneself and those depending on others.”
འབྱོར་བ་ལ་གཉིས། རང་འབྱོར་དང་། གཞན་འབྱོར་རོ། - “Each of the ten non-virtues must be complete with the four: basis, intention, performance, and completion.” མི་དགེ་བ་བཅུ་རེ་རེ་ལ་ཡང་གཞི་དང་བསམ་པ་དང་སྦྱོར་བ་དང་མཐར་ཐུག་བཞི་བཞི་ཚང་དགོས།
Some grammar texts will explain the difference between these two usages as relating to whether the number comes before or after the list, and say that the second usage is equivalent to the Disjunctive-Conjunction Particles (འབྱེད་སྡུད།) which is also used to make lists. However, that difference seems to be lost in the English.
As with English, it is common not to have a དང་སྒྲ། after every item of the list but only one marking either the first or last item. For example:
- “The opportunities depending on others are five: the Buddha came, he taught the Dharma, the Dharma remains, there are followers of it, and there are those with compassion for others.”
གཞན་འབྱོར་ནི། སངས་རྒྱས་བྱོན་པ། དེས་དམ་ཆོས་སྟོན་པ། བསྟན་པ་གནས་པ། དེའི་རྗེས་སུ་འཇུག་པ་ཡོད་པ། གཞན་ཕྱིར་སྙིང་བརྩེ་བ་དང་ལྔའོ།
However, it could be argued that this is a different usage of the དང་སྒྲ།, either as:
- A syntactical particle, e.g. དང་གཅིག “One with… / Same as…”, or
- An abbreviation of དང་བཅས་ཏེ།, using the above example: “…together with there being those with compassion for others, making five.”
This will be discussed below.
The Reason (རྒྱུ་མཚན།) and Occasion (ཚེ་སྐབས།) usages are also very similar and the grammar texts admit they are not mutually exclusive. This mainly relates to connecting nominalised verbs in terms of:
- Being cause and effect (i.e. reason རྒྱུ་མཚན།) or
- Related temporally: being either simultaneous or sequential.
For example:
- “I saw a tiger and got scared.” སྟག་མཐོང་བ་དང་སེམས་ལ་འཇིག་སྐྲག་སྐྱེས།
- “There was lightening in the sky and thunder sounded.” ནམ་མཁར་གློག་འཁྱུག་པ་དང་འབྲུག་སྒྲ་སྒྲོག
- “They see all sentient beings as their mothers and their joy increases.”
སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་མར་མཐོང་བ་དང་དགའ་སྤྲོ་འཕེལ།
It must be admitted that there are different flavours for the “and” used in these sentences, but they are subtle. Using the first example, it could mean:
- “I got scared because I saw a tiger.” (Reason)
- “I got scared when I saw a tiger.” (Occasion)
- “I saw a tiger and got scared.” (Simultaneous)
- “I saw a tiger and then got scared.” (Sequential)
Finally, there is the Imperative (གདམས་ངག). For example:
- “Look!” ལྟོས་དང་།
- “Listen!” ཉོན་དང་།
There is yet another important usage of the དང་སྒྲ། as a syntactical particle for a variety of verbs and auxiliaries.
For example:
- “May all sentient beings be free from suffering.” སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་སྡུག་བསྔལ་དང་བྲལ་གྱུར་ཅིག
- “May all sentient beings be endowed with happiness.” སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་བདེ་བ་དང་ལྡན་གྱུར་ཅིག
These དང་སྒྲ། can almost be seen as an extension of these verbs and auxiliaries. For example:
- དང་ལྡན་པ། དང་བྲལ་བ། དང་འབྲེལ་བ། དང་བཅས་པ། དང་གཅིག་པ། དང་ཕྲད་པ། དང་མཐུན་པ།
Up a level: Fourteen grammar particles