Some verbs like to look ལྟ་བ་ or to listen ཉན་པ་ take a ལ་དོན་ on the object.
- Is there a trick to know which verbs take ལ་དོན་?
- When deciding between སའི་ and པའི་ for relativizing do we do it based on (1) whether the object is direct / indirect or (2) whether the object takes ལ་དོན་ or not?
Example: The book which I am looking at is very expensive then which one would be?
- ངས་ལྟ་བཞིན་པའི་དེབ་དེ་གོང་ཆེན་པོ་འདུག
- ངས་ལྟ་སའི་དེབ་དེ་གོང་ཆེན་པོ་འདུག
I was using Claude to see what ལ་དོན་ cases apply to the sentences we are dealing with at our level and I extracted this. Which effectively destroys the mental rule I had that direct objects are not marked with ལ་དོན་. My SLC friend then with the example sentence above made me rethink.
The three case-functions the la-don covers:
2nd case — las su bya ba (ལས་སུ་བྱ་བ་), the object/patient. This is the la-don’s “direct object” use, as with ལྟ་: ཁོ་ལ་ལྟ་ (kho la lta) “look at him” — ལ་ marks the patient.
4th case — dgos ched (དགོས་ཆེད་), the dative/recipient/beneficiary. This is the “indirect object” use: ཁོ་ལ་དེབ་སྤྲོད་ (kho la deb sprod) “give the book to him” — ལ་ marks the recipient (him), while the book (དེབ་) is a bare absolutive direct object.
7th case — gnas gzhi (གནས་གཞི་), the locative (“in / at / on”): ནང་ལ་ (nang la) “inside,” ཁྲི་ལ་ (khri la) “on the throne.”
Is this valid? How do we write relative clauses for each case then?
Answer
The ལ་དོན་ cases (2nd, 4th and 7th) are correct.
Looking or Looking At?
In the case of ལྟ་ — to look, to look at —, or ཉན་ — to listen, to listen to — depending on how you use the verb the object will take a ལ་དོན་ or not.
When saying The book I was looking is expensive, you are not looking at the book really — you are not putting the attention on the fact of moving your head and attention towards that object—, you are simply viewing it — No ལ་དོན།
Looking at on the other hand is more direct — Object marked by ལ་དོན།
| Case | Example |
|---|---|
| Takes ལ་དོན་ (to look at) | ངས་ལྟ་སའི་བྱ་དེ་མགྱོག་པོར་འཕུར་སོང་ད། |
| Does not take ལ་དོན་ (to look, view) | ངས་ལྟ་བཞིན་པའི་དེབ་དེ་གོང་ཆེན་པོ་འདུག |