Transliteration: 'byed sdud
<phrase> "Separation-inclusion". Grammar term.I. Separation-inclusion is defined in the སུམ་ཅུ་པ་ Thirty Verses q.v. as a pair of functions performed by a specific set of eleven phrase connectors. The eleven connectors used to perform the functions are listed under འབྱེད་སྡུད་ཀྱི་སྒྲ་ "terms of separation-inclusion" q.v. Here is how Yangchen Druppa'i Dorje defines them in his [JWL] (the italics are quotes from the root text).
"གམ་ངམ་དམ་ནམ་བམ་མམ་འམ་རམ་ལམ་སམ་ and ཏམ་ separate and include. Those eleven, གམ་ and so on, are placed to have the meaning of separation of multiple items where they are being separated out of one basis, as in བུམ་པའི་རྒྱུ་ནི་གསེར་རམ། དངུལ་ལམ། ཟངས་སམ། རག་གམ། རྫ་ལས་བྱ་འོ། "The substances used to make pots are gold, silver, brass, bronze, (and/) or terra cotta". They are also placed to have the meaning of inclusion of multiple items which are being put into one basis, as in གསེར་རམ། དངུལ་ལམ། ཟངས་སམ། རག་གམ། རྫ་ལས་བུམ་པ་བྱའོ། "Gold, silver, brass, bronze, and clay are used to make pots".
"Additionally, these eleven are stated to have the meaning of separation where the distinctions is/is not and exists/does not exist are being made, as in ཡིན་ནམ་མིན། "either is or is not" and ཡོད་དམ་མེད། "either exists or does not exist"."
"Their mode of application is the same as concluder's.
"Where there is a forceful ད་, ཏམ་ is obtained, as in: ཕྱིན་ཏམ། གྱུརད་ཏམ། སྩལད་ཏམ།. When there is no ending འམ་ is obtained, as in: ཁའམ།. And when it says, The others are applied to be concordant with the word's ending, it means that it must be applied so that there is concordance with whatever suffix is at the end of the word, as in: སྟག་གམ། བཟང་ངམ། ཡོད་དམ། ཡིན་ནམ། ལབ་བམ། བསམ་མམ། མཐའ་འམ། ཤར་རམ། གསལ་ལམ། བྱས་སམ།."
In other words, when one of these eleven connectors is used for either of these functions, the connector itself serves as a marker that demarcates the individual members of a list. For separation, the connector demarcates items that are being separated out from something else: "such-and-such has the components this and this and this." For inclusion, the connector demarcates items that are being included within something else: "this and this and this belong to such-and-such". In English, a list of more than two items is usually reduced to "this, this, and this" or to "this, this, or this" and the connectors performing these two functions effectively act to produce a list in the same way. Note how the classic example given above of གསེར་རམ། དངུལ་ལམ། ཟངས་སམ། རག་གམ། རྫ་ལས་བུམ་པ་བྱའོ། can mean either "Gold, silver, brass, bronze, and clay are used to make pots" or "Gold, silver, brass, bronze, or clay are used to make pots".
Note how there is also the possibility of these terms functioning as "or" in relation to linking verbs.
II. Separation and inclusion are two of the five functions defined in Tibetan grammar for the དང་ connector. These two functions for དང་ are exactly the same as "listing" functions shown above for the eleven connectors གམ་ and so on, but they do not include the additional function of separation of linking verbs i.e., they do not include "is this or" etc.
Thus, the term དང་ can be substituted in the examples above with no change in meaning e.g., བུམ་པའི་རྒྱུ་ནི་གསེར་དང་། དངུལ་དང་། ཟངས་དང་། རག་དང་། རྫ་ལས་བྱ་འོ། has the same meaning as given above. However, དང་ is usually used a little differently than the eleven connectors.
In standard Tibetan usage, when དང་ is used to separate multiple items of a list, it is usual to place it just once after the first item in the list and then string all of the remaining items of the list together. This is similar to the usual English style of writing a list where the members are written sequentially but with the last member of the group separated from the others by "and". E.g., the above would usually be written བུམ་པའི་རྒྱུ་ནི་གསེར་དང་། དངུལ་ཟངས་རག་རྫ་ལས་བྱ་འོ། "the substances used to make pots are silver, copper, brass, and terra cotta". Alternatively, to provide more clarity, དང་ is placed once after the first item of the list as above but then ཤད་ shad's are placed after each item of the list in order to separate the items, which is effectively the equivalent in Tibetan of writing a comma or semi-colon after each item of the list. E.g., བུམ་པའི་རྒྱུ་ནི་གསེར་དང་། དངུལ། ཟངས། རག རྫ་ལས་བྱ་འོ། with the same meaning again. Only when the sense "this and this and this and this" has to be explicitly provided will the དང་ be written after each member of the list. This should be understood when translations are being made; just as English has its means of emphasis, etc., when making lists, so Tibetan does too. The use of an explicit དང་ after every item in these kinds of lists should be translated with "this and this and this" because that is the sense being deliberately introduced by the writer, just as much as an English writer would resort to using "and" after every item of a list for the purpose of emphasis.
Alternatively, when Buddhist texts were being translated from Sanskrit and the Sanskrit used the equivalent of དང་ and placed it after every item of the list, then the Tibetan would reflect that and have a དང་ in each place. When Yangchen Druppa'i Dorje defines these two functions for the དང་ term in his [JWL] (the italics are quotes from the root text) the examples he gives are from classic, Indian Buddhist texts that have been translated into Tibetan with the consequent use of a དང་ in every position:
"དང་ has the five uses of inclusion, separation, reason, timing, and instruction.
"The so-called "དང་ dang which sits in between phrases" is placed to give five meanings. It is placed to give the meaning of inclusion into a basis of separation at the end, as in མིག་དང་། རྣ་བ་དང་། སྣ་དང་། ལྕེ་དང་། ལུས་རྣམས་ནི་དབང་པོའོ། "eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body are sense faculties". It is placed to give the meaning of the separation from a basis of separation present at the beginning, as in དབང་པོ་ལྔ་ནི་མིག་དང་། རྣ་བ་དང་། སྣ་དང་། ལྕེ་དང་། ལུས་པོ། "the five sense faculties of eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and body"."