Chapter XI: Derivation

46. Derivation of Substantives. As most of what belongs under this head has already been mentioned in 11. and 12. only the formation of abstract nouns remains to be spoken of. 1. The unaltered adjective may be used as an abstract noun, especially with the article བ་, as: གྲང་བ་དྲོ་བར་འགྱུར་ ‘the cold is changed into warmth’.—To this may be added the pronoun ཉིད་ (གྲང་བ་ཉིད་ ‘ipsum frigidum’); but this is used scarcely anywhere else than in metaphysical treatises, from whence a few expressions, such as སྟོང་པ་ཉིད་ ‘the vacuum, the absolute rest in deliverance from existence’ have become more generally known.—2. In the case of two correlative ideas existing, frequently the compound of both is used, esp. in common talk, ཆེ་ཆུང་ ‘size’ (lit. ‘large and small’), སྦོམ་ཕྲ་ ‘thickness’ (‘thick and thin’), e.g. ཆེ་ཆུང་ནི་ཡུངས་འབྲུ་ཙམ་ ‘the size as much as a mustard-seed’.—3. ཁྱད་ ‘difference’ (or, sometimes, ཚད་, ཚོད་ ‘measure’) is added, མཐོ་ཁྱད་ ‘height’, ཕྱུག་ཁྱད་ ‘wealth, riches’.—4. Mental qualities are in most cases paraphrased by སེམས་, or བློ་ with a genitive, བཟོད་པའི་སེམས་ ‘mind of suffering, enduring, i.e. patience’, མཁས་པའི་བློ་ ‘wise mind, wisdom, skill’; དགའ་བའི་སེམས་ ‘mind of rejoicing, joy’ (vulg: སེམས་དགའ་མོ་), དད་པའི་སེམས་ ‘mind of belief (also ‘a believing mind’), faith’.—5. Diminutives are formed by adding the termination འུ་, often with an alteration of the preceding vowel: རྟ་ ‘horse’, རྟེའུ་ ‘little horse, foal’; མི་ ‘man’, མིའུ་ ‘little man, dwarf’; རྡོ་ ‘stone’, རྡེའུ་ ‘small stone, calculus’. If a word ends with a consonant, only u is added, and a new syllable formed: ལུག་ ‘sheep’, ལུ་གུ་ ‘lamb’.

47. Derivation of Adjectives. 1. Possessive adjectives are regularly expressed by adding the syllable ཅན་, or the phrase དང་ལྡན་པ་, abridged ལྡན་ to any substantive, མགོ་ཅན་ ‘having a head’; མི་མགོ་ཅན་ ‘having the head of a man’; སྐྲ་ཅན་ ‘having hair, (long-)haired’; རིག་པ་ཅན་, རིག་པ་དང་ལྡན་པ་ ‘possessing knowledge, learned, wise’; དང་ལྡན་པ་ is never heard in common talk in WT.—2. Adjectives of appurtenance are generally expressed by the genitive of the substantive, གསེར་གྱི་ ‘of gold, golden’; ཤའི་མིག་ ‘the eye of flesh, the carnal, bodily eye’, oppos.: ཤེས་རབ་ཀྱི་མིག་ ‘the eye of knowledge, spiritual eye’.—3. Negative, or privative adjectives are formed in several ways: a) by the simple negative མི་, མི་འོས་པ་ ‘unworthy’; མི་རུང་བ་ ‘unfit’; མི་ཐོས་པ་ ‘unheard of’. b) by adding མེད་ ‘without’, མགོ་མེད་ ‘headless’; སྐྱོན་མེད་ ‘faultless’. c) by adding the verb བྲལ་(བ་) ‘separated from’, ལུས་དང་བྲལ་བ་, ལུས་བྲལ་ ‘separated from the body, bodiless’.—4. The English adjectives in -able, -ible are expressed by རུང་བ་ ‘to be fit’, added to the Supine, or to the simple Root, འཐང་དུ་རུང་བ་, འཐུང་རུང་ ‘fit for drinking, drinkable’, vulgo: འཐུང་ཉན་ (from ཉན་པ་ ‘to be able’), འཐུང་ཆོག་ (ཆོག་ ‘permitted, lawful’).