kirtu wrote:WOW! I had thought that perhaps the if itself was implied and that the la functioned like the preposition to.
The Sumcupa doesn't distinguish the unique case usages of the 7
la don (
la su ra ru du tu na), and doesn't discus non-case usages at all. In reality the different
la don are not interchangeable, and
la &
na have distinct functions, unrelated to case, when they occur after verbs or adverbs. The
tshig mdzod chen mo lists 8 non-case functions of
na, almost all of which can be reduced to variations on "if/when" (I've selected the easiest examples for each):
1) distinguishing a point of view:
མདོར་བསྡུས་ན་ in brief (lit. if one were to abbreviate)
2) indicating a cause:
མེ་ཡོད་ན་དུ་བ་འབྱུང་ when there is fire, smoke will appear
ས་བོན་བཏབ་ན་འབྲས་བུ་སྐྱེ་ if seeds had been planted, fruit would grow
3) indicating the aim of an action:
ནད་མེད་ན་སྨན་པ་ཅིའི་ཕྱིར་བསྟེན་ if there is no illness, why take medicine?
4) indicating a contradiction:
ཁོ་རང་མཁས་པ་ཡིན་པར་གྲགས་ནའང་བཟང་ངན་གྱི་དབྱེ་བ་འབྱེད་མི་ཤེས་པའི་རྨོངས་པ་ཞིག་རེད་འདུག although (lit. even if) he's renowned as a wise man, I can see that he's a fool who can't tell right from wrong
5) indicating the difficulty of accepting something:
ཁྱི་ལའང་འཇིགས་ན་སེང་གེ་ལ་བཤད་མི་དགོས་ if [you're] afraid of just a dog, no need to speak of a lion!
6) to ascertain something about the following, contrasted phrase:
དུད་འགྲོ་རྣམས་ཤིན་ཏུ་རྨོངས་ན་མིའང་དེ་ལྟར་འདུག while animals may be extremely ignorant, people are also like that!
འབྲོག་པས་ཞིང་འདེབས་མི་ཤེས་ན་སོ་ནམ་པས་ཞིང་ཁ་འདེབས་མི་ཤེས་པའང་འདུག while nomads may not know how to plant fields, there's also some farmers who don't know how to plant a field!
7) expressing a hope/wish
ངལ་རྩོལ་མི་དམངས་ཚང་མ་བཅིངས་འགྲོལ་ཐོབ་ན་ཅི་མ་རུང་ how wonderful it would be if all the working classes were to obtain freedom from their bonds! (nice bit of communist vocab)
8) indicating doubt:
ས་བོན་ནི་བཏབ་ཟིན་ན་འདི་ལས་མྱུ་གུ་འབྱུང་ངམ་མི་འབྱུང་ if the seed had already been planted, shouldn't a sprout grow from it? (lit. would a sprout grow out of it or not?)
Are there tables of particles and verbs for this?
Not that I know of. The Jäschke and Chandradas dictionaries are outdated for technical vocabulary, but most entries include excellent quotations to show how the words are used in actual Tibetan texts. Other than reading a lot of basic Tibetan texts (easier with a good, literal translation as a guide), I found this the most useful tool.