The Sixth Case – Connective
གང་དང་འབྲེལ་བའི་ཡུལ་དང་འབྲེལ་ཆོས་སམ། རྟེན་དང་བརྟེན་པའམ། ཡན་ལག་ཅན་དང་ཡན་ལག་རྣམས་སོ་སོར་འབྱེད་ཅིང་།
འབྲེལ་ཆོས་དེ་ཉིད་འབྲེལ་ཡུལ་གང་གི་ཡིན་པ་ཉེ་བར་སྟོན་པ་དང་། ནང་གསེས་ཕྱི་ཚིག་འགལ་བའམ། མི་མཐུན་པའི་དོན་སྟོན་པའི་རྐྱེན།
Meaning: A particle differentiating the relating-object and related-object, the support and supported, as well as the parts and parts-possessor; it indicates which related-object an object is related to. Its subdivision indicates subsequent words to be contradictory or discordant.
In general, the Sixth Case is used to connect nouns and is most commonly translated as “of”:
- “The branches of a tree.” ཤིང་གི་ཡལ་ག
- “The rays of the sun.” ཉི་མའི་འོད་ཟེར།
- “Ripples of water.” ཆུའི་གཉེར་མ།
In fact, it is impossible to have two nouns in the First Case (i.e. unmarked by any grammar particle) next to each other in a sentence without either connecting them with a Sixth Case or some other grammar particle. If two nouns are seen as such, then there is an implicit appositional Continuative Particle.
In this way, the main use of the Sixth Case is to connect two nouns as:
- Support and supported (རྟེན་དང་བརྟེན་པ།)
- Part and part-possessor (ཆ་དང་ཆ་ཅན། ཡན་ལག་དང་ཡན་ལག་ཅན།)
- Related objects (འབྲེལ་ཡུལ་དང་འབྲེལ་ཆོས།)
- Instance and generality (སྤྱི་དང་བྱེ་བྲག)
For example, “My hand.” (ངའི་ལག་པ།):
- I am the support and my hand is the supported, i.e. “my hand” cannot exist without “me”
- My hand is the part and I am the part-possessor
- My hand relates to me
- There are many hands in the world, but I am talking about a particular one that is mine.
These constructions can also utilise nominalised verbs:
- “The path leading to Buddhahood.” སངས་རྒྱས་སུ་བགྲོད་པའི་ལམ།
- “The responsibility of liberating all sentient beings.” སེམས་ཅན་ཐམས་ཅད་སྒྲོལ་བའི་ཁུར།
These examples show the Sixth Case indicating a type or instance:
- There are many paths, but we are talking about the one leading to enlightenment
- There are many responsibilities, but we are talking about the one of liberating all sentient beings.
However, they can also be considered as an adjectival construction, i.e. it is the “leading to enlightenment” path, just as one one might say the “long path”.
Other uses are more adjectival and do not indicate a type:
- “Beloved sentient beings.” ཡིད་དུ་འོང་བའི་སེམས་ཅན།
- “The three lower realms, such as animals and so forth.” དུད་འགྲོ་ལ་སོགས་པའི་ངན་འགྲོ་གསུམ།
On the other hand, there is no need for a Sixth Case to directly connect a noun with its adjective:
- “Dry wood” ཤིང་སྐམ་པོ།
- “A long [piece of] iron” ལྕགས་རིང་པོ།
- “A small diamond” ཕ་ལམ་ཆུང་ངུ་།
Like the Ladons and Third Case, also the Sixth Case cannot be affixed directly to verbs, the verbs must be nominalised first. Abbreviations of certain phrases are considered to be nouns and as such seem to circumvent this rule, for example:
- “Striving awareness” དོན་གཉེར་གྱི་བློ། = “The awareness striving for the goal” དོན་དུ་གཉེར་བའི་བློ།
- “Non-conceptual consciousness” རྟོག་མེད་ཀྱི་ཤེས་པ། = “A consciousness lacking conceptuality” རྟོག་པ་མེད་པའི་ཤེས་པ།
The subdivision mentioned in the meaning of the Sixth Case refers to the particle being affixed directly to a verb, where it becomes similar in meaning to the Contrasting Emphasis Emphasis-Conjunction Particles (རྒྱན་སྡུད།) and can usually be translated as a “but”. In fact, many will explain that this is a non-case usage of the particle rather than being included in the sixth case.
For example:
- “The Gelongs wear red and yellow, but do not wear black and white.”
དགེ་སློང་གིས་གོས་དམར་སེར་གྱོན་པ་ཡིན་གྱི་ནག་པོ་དང་དཀར་པོ་ནི་མི་གྱོན། - “Wood catches fire, but water does not.” ཤིང་ལ་མེ་འབར་གྱི་ཆུ་ལ་ནི་མིན་ནོ།
In the latter, མེ་འབར་གྱི། can be substituted for the following while retaining a similar meaning:
- མེ་འབར་བར་འགྱུར་ཡང་། མེ་འབར་བ་མ་གཏོགས། མེ་འབར་བ་ལས།
Up a level: The eight cases