The Fourth Case – Purpose

དགོས་པ་དང་། བྱ་བ་གཉིས་སོ་སོར་འབྱེད་ཅིང་། བྱ་བ་དེས་བྱ་ཡུལ་ཉིད་དམ། བྱ་ཡུལ་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་ལས་གང་གི་ཆེད་དུ་ཕན་གནོད་བྱེད་པ་ཉེ་བར་སྟོན་པའི་རྐྱེན།
Meaning: A particle differentiating the purpose and the activity; indicating what indirect object or direct object related to the indirect object is benefitted or harmed by the activity.

The Fourth Case marks the purpose (ཆེད་དུ་བྱ་བ།) or objective (བྱ་བའི་དོན་གྱི་ཡུལ།) for doing some verb or what is being benefitted by the verb.

For example:

• “Going to cut wood” ཤིང་གཅོད་དུ་འགྲོ།
  The action of going is being done in order to cut the wood.

In general, the Fourth Case should always be affixed to a verb. This is because we always do things for verbs, never for nouns etc. We don't earn money in order to house, but in order to buy a house; we may say we plant a seed for the fruit, but really it's in order to grow the fruit and later eat the fruit; and so forth.

As such, it should usually be clear when the Fourth Case is being used, since it is the only Ladon affixed directly to verbs (i.e. without nominalising them).

When it is affixed to a noun, then there is some implicit verb associated with it.
For example: ཞིང་ལ་ཆུ་འདྲེན།
This could be translated as either:

• “Bringing water to the field.” (Second Case)
• “Bringing water for the field.” (Fourth Case)

The main argument for an implicit verb is that the field is not really what is being benefitted or the purpose of bringing the water. It could be an empty field, so there would be no benefit whatsoever, or we can say that what is actually being benefitted are the seeds in the field (making them grow) and not the field itself. As such, using barley as an example, the sentence seems to implicitly say something like:

• “Bringing water in order to grow barley in the field.” ཞིང་ལ་ནས་སྐྱེ་བའི་ཆེད་དུ་ཆུ་འདྲེན།

Please note that the Ladon now marking the field is the Seventh Case, not the Fourth.

Fourth Case clarifiers:

• ཆེད་དུ། ཕྱིར་དུ། སླད་དུ། དོན་དུ།
• ཆེད་ལ། ཕྱིར་ལ། དོན་ལ། (སླད་ལ། not used)

These are connected to the verb using a Sixth Case (see above example) but can be abbreviated as in the second example below.

They can also be connected to nouns, but will still retain the sense of there being an implicit verb. For example:

• བདེ་བའི་ཆེད་དུ།
  Literally “in order for happiness” but implies a verb in relation to that happiness, i.e. “in order to get / have / attain happiness”.
• སེམས་བསྐྱེད་པ་ནི་གཞན་དོན་ཕྱིར། ཡང་དག་རྫོགས་པའི་བྱང་ཆུབ་འདོད།
  “Mind generation is the wish for perfect complete enlightenment for the welfare of others.”
  Here, it implies "in order to enact the welfare of others"

Summary

• The Fourth Case marks the purpose or benefit of the action, or why that action is being done.
• It will connect verbs with other verbs to create a “doing X in order to do Y” constructions, e.g. ཤིང་གཅོད་དུ་འགྲོ།
• If it is affixed to a noun, then there is an implicit verb relating to that noun and which is the actual purpose.
• For further clarity, the ཆེད། ཕྱིར། སླད། དོན། particles are used.

Up a level: The eight cases