Béu : Chapter 2 : The Noun

..... The 5 basic word types

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All words are derived from these 5 basic types. Actually the fengi "particle" have so many subtypes (often single particles are a subtype to themselves) that it is a bit of a fudge to say that béu has 5 basic types. Maybe more honest to say that béu has 4 groups of words and the behaviour (syntactically) of any word in these 4 groups depends on which group it is in.

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1) fengi = particle ... this is a sort of "hold-all" category for all words (and affixes) that don't neatly fit into the other categories. Interjections, numbers, pronouns, conjunctions, determiners and certain words that would be classed as adverbs in English, are all classed as fengi.

By the way ... all affixes are counter as a type of fengi.

An example is Í .. the preposition indicating the dative.

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2) senko = an object

An example is bàu ... "a man"

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3) olus = material, stuff

An example is moze ... "water"

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4) saidau = adjective

An example is nelau ... "dark blue"

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5) manga = a noun ... its usage is similar to the infinitive in English ... I call it "a verb base" as finite verbs are derived from this form.

An example is twá ... "to meet" or "a meeting" (the concept of "meet" disassociated from any arguments, tense, aspect or whatever).

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..... Senko

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senko is a noun phrase (NP) ... if only one element it is simply a noun of course.

Probably the most "basic" of the basic 5 ... tangible and discrete.

All the elements in it can be thought of fitting into 10 slots.

Below these slots are shown ...

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Slots 1 has only one value. Slot 2 and 3 have two. Slot 4 is restricted to 1731₁₀ values and slot 9 to six.

The words highlighted in red convert the noun phrase (or indeed the sentence in which the NP is embedded) into a question. A blue circle indicates the only mandatory element. Branching arrows indicate multiple possibilities.

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... The head

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Nothing to say here.

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... The adjective

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6) ... the adjective

More than one adjective is allowed. For example ... bàu gèu tiji = the little green man

kái "what type" can appear in this slot. In which case it turns the whole noun phrase (or sentence) into a question. For example ...

bàu gèu kái = what kind of green man ? ... (NP question)

há bàu gèu kái glà timpori = what kind of green man hit the woman ? ... (sentence question)

Numbers can go in this slot also. When in this slot they are ordinal numbers. This is opposed to where the number comes before the head, in which case it is a cardinal number. For example ...

há bàu hói glà timpori = The second man hit the woman (there is a near zero % chance that this construction will cause ambiguity if the two arguments were indefinite)

há	bàu	hói	glà	timp-o-r-i
ERG	man	second	woman	hit-3SG-IND-PAST

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há hói bàu glà timpori = The two men hit the woman

há	hói	bàu	glà	timp-o-r-i
ERG	two	men	woman	hit-3SG-IND-PAST

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Now when you have multiple adjectives they will have a certain order depending upon their sub-category.

This is the same as English ... for example, you always say "the third big black dog" and never "the black third big dog".

béu uses the exact same order as in English but reversed timewise. For example ...

waulo	àu	jutu	léu
dog	black	big	third

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Or, you can say, béu has exactly the same order as English, in terms of proximity to the head.

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... The locative

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7) ... the locative. For example ... bàu gèu tiji pobomau = the little green man on top of the mountain

A locative comprises of a noun plus one of the nine affixes .... pi la mau goi ce dua bene komo ?e

The locative is a type of adjective.

Also a noun plus the affix fi can appear in this slot. This is not giving information about "location" but rather "origin". It is classed as a locative nevertheless.

Only pilamo locatives allowed in the locative slot.

duzu pobomau = The oryx on the mountain

If the location consists of more than one word, the usual rule applies and the pilamo appears as a preposition ...

duzu máu pobo jutu = The oryx on the big mountain

There is a tendance that the longer the locative phrase, the more likely the location will be shunted into a relative clause ...

duzu nài r máu pobo hau?e jutu = The oryx on the big beautiful mountain

All prepositions that are not pilamo lead to the location being shunted into a relative clause. For example ...

polgamo nài r bain gwai.a = "the sailing boat which is among the islands" or simply "the sailing boat among the islands"

Also dá "where" can appear in this slot. In which case it turns the whole noun phrase (or sentence) into a question. For example ...

bàu gèu dá = where is the green man ?

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... The genitive

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8) ... the genitive. For example jwado gèu nambomau yó jene = Jane's big green bird on top of the house

Note that the particle yó is usually dropped when the possessor is next to the head. However as other elements intervene, the likelihood that yó is used increases.

If mín (who) is used instead of jene in the above ... then we would have a question ...

jwado gèu nambomau yó mín = Whose big green bird on top of the house ? = Whose's the big green bird on top of the house ?

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... The determiner

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9) ... the determiner

There are six determiners ... dí (this), dè (that), nái (which), ló (other), èn (some) and ín (any) . For example ...

bàu gèu tiji pobomau dé = that little green man on top of the mountain.

The primary meaning is for comparing two objects that can be seen. Perhaps accompanied by gestures, dé will be appended to the further of the two objects and by way of distinction, dí will be appended to the nearer one. Used very rarely compared to "this" and "that" in English.

nái turns the whole noun phrase (or sentence) into a question. For example ...

bàu gèu tiji nái = which little green man ? ... noun phrase question

bàu gèu tiji nái glà timpori = which little green man hit the woman ? ... sentence question

ló "other" appear in this slot ... bàu gèu tiji ló = "the other little green man" or "another little green man"

èn "some" appear in this slot ... bàu gèu tiji èn = "some little green man" ...... indefinite

ín "any" appear in this slot ... bàu gèu tiji ín = "any little green man" .............. super indefinite

(Note to self : Why was I going to change ní => eni)

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Note ... di.an = "here" or "to here", dene = "there" or "to there" ... (not *dà dí and *dà dè)

One little rule ... if a genitive is present, or we have ló, nái, én or ín included, dí and dè can not be included also but dian "here" and den "there" can occur in the "locative" slot, and this means the same thing.

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( dí and dè can represent direct speech. The appear in conjuction with one of the quotative verbs swé or aika. dè refers back to an utterance already spoken, dí to an utterance that is imminent (see Ch 3.7 ??? ) [ Note to self : this is out of date noe ]

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... The numerative

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4) ... the numerative

These are ...

nò "plural" ... ʔà "one" ... hói "two" ... léu "three" ... iyo "few" ... ega "four" oda "five" ..... hài "many" .... tautaita (1727₁₀) and ú "all"

If you have any word in this slot the head of the NP must be in its singular form.

Only one word is allowed in the numerative slot*.

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láu (how many) can appear in this slot. In which case it turns the whole sentence into a question. For example ...

láu bàu (r) pobomau = How many men (are) on top of the mountain ? .... **

With a more complex NP it is usual to break it up in order to specify exactly which element is being questioned. For example ...

láu bàu gèu tiji pobomau nài doikura = " How many little green men on the mountain that are walking? " ... would be re-phrased as ...

wò bàu gèu tiji pobomau _ láu doikura = w.r.t. the little green man on top of the mountain, how many are walking ? ... or ...

wò bàu tiji pobomau nài doikura _ láu r gèu = w.r.t. the little man on top of the mountain who are walking, how many are green ?

Note ... in the 2 examples above, fì can be substituted for wò. However wò is more felicitous.

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*So how do we translate "all four men" or "none of the men". Well in depends on the situation ... for example ... imagine a story when one man meets three men, after a discussion they decide to go somewhere together. In English, the first S or A argument after they join up would be "all four men" or just "all four". In béu you would use egan "the foursome".

In another situation "all four man" would be translated using the "partitive particle" làu. So ... "all four men" would be ega bàu làu ú.

In a similar way to three out of the four men would be ega bàu làu léu. [ Note ... short for ega bàu làu léu bàu so never ega bàu làu uban]

"none of the four men" => ega bàu làu jù

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**Notice that in English and béu the copula can be dropped. In béu, when we drop the copula, what is left is analized as a NP as opposed to a clause.

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... The relative clause

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10) ... the relative clause (RC)

If the roll of the head of the NP in the RC is absolutive or represented by one of the pilamo, the pilamo is affixed to the relativizer (nài) and the noun can be dropped inside the RC.

If the roll of the head of the NP in the RC is not absolutive and not represented by one of the pilamo, the relativizer has no affix and the noun must be represented by a pronoun in the RC . This is the same way that Arabic structures its RC's.

Take, for example ... yiŋkai nài doikora

yiŋkai	nài	doik-o-r-a
the girl	REL	walk-3SG-IND-PRES

=> the girl who is walking

The clause that has been relativized is "the girl is walking" ... her roll is absolutive.

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And for example ... bàu nàin glás fyori yiŋkaiwo

bàu	nài-n	glá-s	fy-o-r-i	yiŋkai-wo
the man	REL-DAT	women-ERG	tell-3SG-IND-PAST	girl-ABOUT

=> the man to whom the woman told about the girl

The clause that has been relativized is "the woman told about the girl to the man" ... his roll is dative, hence the dative affix on the relativizer.

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And for example ... gwai.a nài polgura ala ʃì

gwai.a	nài	polg-u-r-a	ala	ʃì
the islands	REL	sail-1PL-IND-PRES	between	them

=> "the islands that we are sailing between"

The clause that has been relativized is "we are sailing between the islands" ... well I don't think there is a fancy name for it, but the islands' roll is defined by the preposition "between". "between" is not a pilamo hence no affix on nài and the pronoun in the RC (representing the islands).

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This is discussed in detail nearer the end of this chapter (see the section headed nài).

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... The emphatic particle

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1) ... the emphatic particle is só.

só is used where we would use what is called "right dislocation" in English. For example ...

bàus só glán nori alha = It is the woman to whom the man gave flowers.

bàus só glán nori alha @ = Is it the woman to whom the man gave flowers ?

só might be used in exasperated when somebody can not see something. For example ...

só nendi	"this one !"	só nende	"that one !"
só ndi	"these ones!"	só nde	"those ones !"

This can also used as a sort of vocative case ... not obligatory but can be used before a persons name when trying to get their attention. For example ...

só jene = Hey, Jane

só gì = Hey, you

There is an adjective intensifier sowe "very" ... no doubt related to the above.

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..... Olus

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In this category are such uncountable things such as "water" moze.

There are to differences between this NP and senk NP.

1) Nothing in the numerative slot

2) Usually a "partitive measure phrase" added as an additional slot.

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A NP with olus as head is similar to a NP with senko as head, except the numerative is discarded. A "partitive measure phrase" can be added if you want to specify the quantity.

hói honkoi "two cups" ... is a typical "measure phrase" and làu is the "partitive particle".

So ... an example of a NP with olus as head ...

?azwo pona làu hói honko "two cups of warm milk"

Two extra adjectives are admitted into the adjective slot ... hè "a lot of" and iyo "a little" (Yes ... iyo was formerly in the numerative slot meaning "few")

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A few hundred words have a dual existence ... in one guise olus in another guise senko. With final vowel can be e u a o or i (the last one is especially common) they have a collective meaning. For example ...

bodi	ng-o-r
birds	fly-3SG-IND

=>small birds fly ................. [notice the third person singular agreement on the verb]

However with a change of the final vowel to ai these concepts become countable.

bodai	lail-o-r-a
a small bird	sing-3SG-IND-PRES

=> a small bird is singing

Which can be made plural by putting a number in front (or one of the other numeratives).

léu	bodai	lail-u-r-a
three	small bird	sing-3PL-IND-PRES

=> three small birds are singing

Note .... the singular of some nouns also end in -ai. For example moltai "doctor". These words take a plural by adding an a ... moltai.a "doctors". However the nouns ending in -ai that have a collective equivalent, never mark plurality on the actual word. So "little birds" is nò bodai rather than *bodai.a.

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bodi	birds**	bodai	a small bird
fiʒi	fish	fizai	a fish
yinki	crumpet	yinkai	a young unmarried woman, an attractive girl, a virgin
toti	children	totai	a child
wazbo	distance	wazbai	3,680 m (the unit of distance ... the béu km or mile)
malkufa	cabbages	malkufai	a cabbage

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Words derived using the prefixes mi/mai also pattern with these dual identity words. For example ... beumai = "somebody who believes in béu : beumi = "the entire body of people who believes in béu.

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Remember that all collectives take singular pronouns and, if they are A or S arguments, produce an -o- in slot 1 of the verb (as opposed to -u-).

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There is a prefix -kai, that can theoretically change any saidau or senko into an olus. In practice it is not used that much ... although you do hear it a lot prefixed to animal names ... like when talking about characteristics which are common to an entire species. For example ...

gèu "green" .......... kaigeu "the green ones"

sadu "elephant" ... kaizadu "the elephants" or "elephants" ... as in kaizadu r jodo jini "the elephant is an inteligent animal"

kaizadu	r	jodo	jini
elephant-kind	COP	animal	clever

** Birds smaller than pidgeons are bodi. Birds that are pidgeon size and above are jwadoi (the singular being jwado).

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..... Saidau

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The saidau (adjective) has two uses in béu. It can either be part of a NP or it can be a copular complement. For example ...

bàu gèu = a/the green man

bàu r gèu = a/the man is green

gèu above is a simple adjective. Adjective phrases exist as well.

First there are a number of particles which are placed after an adjective to modify its degree.

An important particle that increases the degree of an adjective is sowe. For example ...

gèu sowe "very green"

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These adjectives can become nouns by froning them with ə, kə and kuwai.

ə gèu = a/the green one

kə gèu = a/the green ones

kuwai gèu = greenness

[ NOTE : I don't think the schwa is visually distinct enough. From now on I will use a plus sign to depict the schwa ]

+,  k+ are historically derived from ?à "one" and kài "type". Actually they are in free variation with their historical counterparts ... a bit like "either" in English can have two pronounciations. When you want to emphasize, you would of course use the phonetically heavier version.

kuwai is a word meaning property/characteristic.

Note ... + gèu sowe = "a/the very green one" ... sowe never modifies a senko.

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Actually these 3 words are also productive with "locatives" and "genitives" as well. For example ...

+ pobomau = the one on top of the mountain

+ yó jene = the one belonging to Jane

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By the way ... determiners and relative clauses can also stand by themselves, but they are unmodified when they do so. (Note to self : are you sure about this ?)

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..... Specifying the roll of a noun

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In total there are 17 cases plus the unmarked case (the absolutive case). The absolutive is not called a case in the béu linguistic tradition : instead it is called "noun base"

These 17 cases are called the pilamoi.

These are attached to a noun and show the relationship of that noun with respect to the rest of the sentence.

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The word pilamo is built up from ;-

pila (v) = to place, to position, to correctly align

pilamo ( n) = the positioner

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Probably the most important case is the ergative (the 11th case). In English it is the order of the verb and the arguments that shows who is the doer and what is the "done to". Namely the A and S argument come before the verb and the O argument after ... [ English is a non-ergative language and hence the A and S argument get treated in the same way.]

In béu, to show who is the doer and what is the "done to", the suffix -s is appended to the A argument. For example ...

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glás bàu timporyə => The woman has hit the man ..... (with "the man" being the O argument)

glá bàus timporyə => The man has hit the woman ...... (with "the man" being the A argument)

bàu doikora => The man is walking ........................... (with "the man" being the S argument) ... [ béu is an ergative language and hence the O and S argument have the same form.]

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The pilamoi are either realized as either affixes or as prepositions.

Whether the pilamoi appears as an suffix or a preposition depends on whether you have a N (noun) or a NP (noun phrase). If you have N the affix is used, if you have NP the preposition is used.

nambodua = beyond the house

dùa nambo yó yinkai hauʔe = beyond the house of the pretty girl

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Note on the script ... If they are realized as affixes then, in the béu script uses a sort of shorthand. That is the affix is represented as one letter.

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Earlier we have seen that when 2 nouns come together the second one qualifies the first.

However this is only true when the words have no pilamo affixed to them. If you have two contiguous nouns suffixed by the same pilamo then they are both considered to contribute equally to the sentence roll specified. For example ...

jonos jenes solbur moze = "John and Jane drink water"

In the absence of an affixed pilamo, to show that two nouns contribute equally to a sentence (instead of the second one qualifying the first) the particle lé should be placed between them. For example ...

jono lé jene maumur = "John and Jane sleep"

Compare the above two examples to jono jene maumor = "Jane's John sleeps" ... that is "the John that is in a relationship with Jane, sleeps".

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.. As parts of speech

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pilamoi of location phrases (i.e. nouns with 1 -> 8 or 15) can be considered adjectives. They must come after a noun or a verb.

pilamoi of motional phrases (i.e. nouns with 13, 14, 16 or 17) can be considered adverbs. They can come in any position because it is understood that they are qualifying the verb.

pilamo phrases defining sentence rolls (i.e. nouns with 9, 10, 11 or 12) can come anywhere. They are considered clause arguments.

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(Note to self : move the below to a different section)

^* [ Notice that in English, you can either say ... "a bird is in the tree" or "in the tree is a bird"

In béu only jwado r ʔupaiʔe is valid ... also note that in this case jwado is not definite because it is left of the verb. That rule doesn't work with the copula. ]

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jenes solbori moʒi lé ʔazwo = "Jane drank water and milk"

jonos jenes bwuri hói sadu lé léu ʔusʔa = John and Jane saw two elephants and three giraffes.

This word is that is never written out in full but has its own symbol. See below ...

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..... Manga

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This corresponds to what is called the "infinitive" in the Western Linguistic tradition or the "masDar" in the Islamic Linguistic tradition.

Let us take solbe meaning "to drink" as an example of a manga.

Now phrases can be built up around maŋga. For example ...

solbe saco = "to drink quickly" or "drinking quickly"

or ... adding more elements ...

solbe moze sacois = "to drink the water quickly" or "drinking the water quickly"

Note that what is the S or O argument in an active clause, in a manga phrase, must immediately follows the manga. Also because saco no longer immediately follows the manga, it must be explicitly tagged as an adverb be the -s suffix.

or ... adding even more elements ...

solbe moze sacois hí jono = "John drinking the water quickly" or "for John to drink the water quickly".

Note that what is the A argument in an active clause, in a manga phrase, comes last and has the particle hí in front of it. (the particle hí is probably related to the particle há somehow)

Note ... other clausal elements ( dative object, time, adverb, instrument, reason, purpose) can be added ... in our example they would come between sacos and hí.

And we can expand the maŋga phrase even more ... it can become the head of what we defined before as the senko phrase.

There are 4 differences between this NP and senk NP.

1) Nothing in the numerative slot

2) Nothing in the genitive slot

3) The pilamo là can not be fronted.

4) The head of the NP is replaced with a heart.

In the example we are using sacois "quickly" can be taken out of the heart, and placed in the senko phrase as saco. In the adjective slot of course.

Also you have a choice as to where you can place any locative. A locative can be placed in the locative slot of the senko phrase, or they can be placed in the heart, just before hí. For example ...

solbe moze sacois nambofi hí jono = "John drinking the water quickly in the house" or "for John to drink the water quickly in the house".

Note ... in a manga phrase, we can not show definiteness by placing an argument before or after the verb (well actually only the S A and O arguments can be tagged for definiteness in this way). All arguments are assumed to be definite if bare, if the have èn "some/a" in front of them, they are indefinite.

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All pilamo can be appended to manga ... but most don't make much sense ... however -tu, -la and -pi appear often.

tore doikatu = "he/she came on foot" or "he/she came by walking"

The -la usuage produced an adjective meaning ... "verbing" at the moment of speach. As with all adjectives it can either be part of a NP or it can be a copular complement. For example ...

bàu doikala = a/the walking man

bàu r doikala = a/the man is walking

Note ... bàu r doikala means exactly the same as bàu doikora.

jonos lailore doikapi = "John sang while walking earlier today"

jonos lailore pí doika tunheun = "John sang while walking to the civic centre earlier today" ... since this is set in the past, we could expect that it was one specific action and maybe we should use doikan rather than doika. And in fact jonos lailore pí doikan tunheun is also acceptable. However you never see *jonos lailore doikanpi.

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Secondly nearly every verb can produce an adjective by the suffixing of la to give the "present participle". For example doika "to walk" or kata "to cut" produce doikala "in the process of walking" and katala "in the process of cutting". When derived from a transitive verb the object can be icluded as well. For example katala lazde "in the process of cutting the grass".

Note ... objects (in an equivalent active clause) can take these participles as well. For example ... lazde jwola kata "grass being cut" ... jwola kata being classed as an adjective phrase as well.

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Note .... bàu katala lazde = bàu nàis katora lazde .................. however the first ... bàu katala lazde is nearly always preferred.

Also note ... pà r katala lazde = (pás) katara lazde .............. however the second ... katara lazde is nearly always preferred.

In both cases the briefer version is chosen.

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And a further note ... "I saw a man cutting the grass" is an English clause. I think Dixon analyses "the man cutting the glass" as a complement clause ??? This sees a bit strange to me. The béu equivalent .... bwari bàu katala lazde is just analyzed as Verb bwari ... Object bàu and Adjective Phrase katala lazde

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..... Mangaun

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English is very chaotic as to the various means it derive nouns from verbs. For example ... "discover" + "y" => the discovery ... "destroy" + "tion" => the destruction ... "run" + ∅ => the run.

béu is a lot more orderly.

mangaun are nouns albeit nouns with a different argument structure to senko and olus. They define a specific instance of the action.

Derived from manga by appending -un (after manga ending is -a or -e, otherwise simply -n is appended.

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solbe = "to drink" or "drinking" => solbeun = "the drinking"

dàu = "to die" or "dying" => dàun = the death

daunau = "to kill" or "killing" => daunaun = "the killing", "the assassination"

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Now the same NP structure as senko can be applied. With one exception ... there can be no genitive as actions are not considered to belong to anyone. Actually the other items in the structure are also quite rare with manguan. The important thing is that the head has been replaced with a heart (my terminology). As you can see the heart has its own structure (as seen in the red box, below).

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For mangaun the wider NP can contain numeratives. For example ...

hói solbeun moze sacois hí jono = "those two times that John drank the water quickly"

In fact, if you come across "times that"in an English text, inevitably it is translated by "numerative" + mangaun.

It can be difficult for an English speaker to grasp the difference between mangaun and manga. In English the semantic difference is often expressed using the definite article. For example ...

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solbe moze hí fanfa = a horse drinking water [ Note to self : I must really thing more about these two lines ]

solbeun moze hí fanfa = the drinking of the water by the horse

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mangaun and manga both can appear as S, A, O, CS and CO arguments ... depending of course on whether we are talking about one specific act or the action in general.

However it is always manga that appear in verb complements. (Note to self ... maybe we can continue the manga/ mangaun distinction into the complement). For example ...

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tomos tumori doika jene = Thomas forced Jane to walk .... [ note doika jene is one element and must stay in this order ]

tomos tumori timpa jene hí jono = Thomas forced John to hit Jane ... [ note timpa jene hí jono is one element an must stay in this order ]

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Above are examples with intransitive and transitive manga respectively.

By the way, when the O argument is senko, tuma is a regular verb, meaning it "to squeaze". For example ...

tomos komo jwuba jene tumori = Thomas squeazed Jane's left buttock

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1) ... mbe = to hold ..... laila = to sing, singing ..... jenes mbor laila bòi = Jane can sing well.

2) ... cùa = to depart ... timpa = to hit, hitting ... jonos cori timpa jene = John stopped hitting Jane

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Note to self : Dixon makes a big deal over the below. [ Note to self : what sort of deal should I make ? ]

1) The killing of the president was an atrocious crime. [ Note to self : "killing" here is a noun ... as identified by "the" and "of the" ]

2) Killing the president was an atrocious crime. [ Note to self : "killing" here is not a noun ... we can call it an infinitive ... as identified by "the president" following immediately ]

You can see that one form "killing" is used in 2 different constructions.

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..... Feŋgi

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The feŋgi or particles are too diverse to say anything meaningful about them here. We will learn them one by one as we go though the ten chapters.

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But just to fill out this section a bit, I will give you two sets of pronouns. One set being the pronouns in their unmarked form* and the other ... the pronouns in their ergative form**.

Here, for a transitive clause, "that which initiates the action" is called the A argument, and "that which is affected by the action" the O argument. Also, for an intransitive verb, the noun is called the S argument. It is convenient to make a distinction between all three cases. I follow RMW Dixon in using this terminology.

In most languages the S argument is marked the same way as the A argument. However in some languages the S argument is marked the same way as the O argument. These are called ergative languages. béu is one of these ergative languages. About a quarter of the world languages are ergative or partly ergative.

Below are the béu pronouns for the S and O arguments. This form can be considered the "unmarked form".

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me	pà	us	wìa	inclusive
		us	yùa	exclusive
you	gì	you	jè
him, her	ò	them	nù
it	ʃì	them	ʃì

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NOTE ... Pronouns differ from nouns in that their tones change between the ergative and the unmarked form. For a normal noun it is sufficient that -s is suffixed. For example ...

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bàu-s	glá	timp-o-r-yə
align=center|woman	hit-3SG-IND-PRF

==> The man has hit the woman

bàu	glá-s	timp-o-r-yə
man	woman-ERG	hit-3SG-IND-PRF

==> The woman has hit the man

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Below are the pronouns in the ergative form.

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I	pás	we	wías
		we	yúas
you	gís	you	jés
he, she	ós	they	nús
it	ʃís	they	ʃís

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jè and jés are the second person plural forms.

There is one other pronoun ... the reflexive pronoun tí. This is always an O argument. Notice that it is the only O argument with a high tone.

* In the Western Linguistic Tradition, these "forms" are called "cases". The English word case used in this sense comes from the Latin casus, which is derived from the verb cadere, "to fall", from the Proto-Indo-European root *ḱad-. The Latin word is a calque of the Greek πτῶσις, ptosis, "falling, fall". The sense is that all other cases are considered to have "fallen" away from the nominative (considered the unmarked form in Latin).

** By the way, there are 17 marked forms in béu ... the ergative being just one of these 17.

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... Intensifiers

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Remember earlier in this chapter, we mentioned the numerative slot (for the senko). To recap, this slot can contain ...

nò "plural" ... ʔà "one" ... hói "two" ... léu "three" ... iyo "few" ... ega "four" ... oda "five" ..... up to ..... tautaita "1727₁₀ ... hài "many"and ú "all"

Below is show how hài and iyo divide up the semantic space of quantity(intensity).

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Now all saidau(adjectives) can be affixed by -ge to form the comparative* form. For example ...

bàu jutu = "the big man" : bàu jutuge = "the bigger man"

This affix can also be used with the numbers ...

juge "more than zero", ?age "more than one" : hoige "more than two" .... up to tautaitage "more than 1727₁₀**

Now -ge can also be affixed to iyo letting us fill in every box of the chart given above ...

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Now when attached to saidau, -ge gives a relative value (i.e. you are comparing one thing with another). However when -ge is attached to a numbers you get an absolute value (i.e. you are not comparing the modified item with anything).

When you want to compare two items as to their numerative value, you must use the particle yú.

(The word yú and the suffix -ge both can be translated as "more", however yú only qualifies nouns and -ge only qualifies adjectives)

jonos byór yú klogau jenewo = "John has more pairs of shoes than Jane"

?ár yú halmai = "I want more apples"

?ár hài halmai = "I want a lot of apples" or "I want many apples"

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Now a number can immediately follow yú. For example ...

?ár yú léu halma = "I want three more apples"

yár yú halmai jenewo = "I have more apples than Jane" ....... [ note ... halma with léu but halmai with yú ]

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To indicate "less" ... use yuyo. For example ...

jenes yór yuyo halmai pawo = "Jane has less apples than me"

jenes yór yuyo hói halma pawo = "Jane has two less apples than me" .... but it would sound better to rephrase these as ...

yár yú halmai jenewo = "I have more apples than Jane" : yár yú hói halmai jenewo = "I have two more apples than Jane"

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*The affix -mo is the superlative for adjectives. When joined to hài and iyo ... we get "the majority" haimo and "the minority" iyomo

**Note ... the words noge, haige and uge do not exist.

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Above we have talked about numeratives and in detail about how to quantify senko.

Below we will touch on how other categories of words have their own intensifiers ...

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hài bàu = many men

moze hè = a lot of water

hè also can qualify verbs. As with normal adverbs, if it doesn't immediately follow the verb it must take the form hewe.

(Note to self : I can't think of a reason you would want to separate hè from its verb)

glá doikori hè = the woman walked a lot

hewe glá doikori = the woman walked a lot

báus timpori glá hewe = the man hit a woman a lot

And also can intensify manga and mangas

solbe hè moze = "to drink a lot of water"

solbe moze hè = "to drink a lot of water"

The above two forms are equally likely to be found. There is a difference in meaning but you would be a real nitpicker to worry about that.

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saidau and saidaun are both intensified by sowe ...

jutu sowe = "very big"

jutun sowe = "the very big one"

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Notice that mangan and saidaun can take two intensifiers ...

hài solben hè wiski = the many times a lot of whisky was drink ... hài solben hè wiski hí pà = the many times I have drunk a lot of whisky

hài gèun sowe = the many very green ones

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We will take about the opposite of intensifiers and other quantifiers in a later chapter. These are a lot rarer. The intensifiers are the ones most commonly used.

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... The 7 types versus basic types

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I have heard of people constucting languages and their main aim from the start was to create a language that contained only nouns or only verbs or what have you. I have always considered this a bit silly ... however it appears that I have arrived at such a position myself ... well at least as to the non-derived (basic form) of the words*.

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The base form of béu verbs are the manga which you can consider an "infinitive" or a "verbal noun". "MaSdar" if you will. To get a finite verb [called a "hook word" in béu] it must go through a derivational process [see Ch 3.1 for more information].

The béu adjectives seem to straddle two categoties ... nouns and adjectives. For example gèu means both "green" and "greenness" ("the green one" is represented by the saidaus gèus). But this is similar to many languages. For example in the English phrase "green is good", "green" must be a noun.

In béu (as in English) gèu will most often occur as an adjective. In béu when gèu must appear as a noun in a position where it might be mistaken for an adjective it is put into a NP with head kuwai ... kuwai = property, quality, attribute, characteristic, feature. So kuwai gèu is a NP meaning "greenness". In English when "green" must appear as a noun in a position where it might be mistaken for an adjective, it is changed into a noun with the affiX "ness" of course.

By the way ... there is one sure way to check if a word is saidau or not. If a word can take the intensifier sowe then the word is saidau (or a saidaun but you know it is saidau if it doesn't end in n)

(Note to self ... what béu word class is kuwai )

As a theoretical basis I am following Basic Theory as forwarded by RMW Dixon in his trilogy of the same name. I don't consider béu to diverge from Basic Theory. Just some of my categories are sub-categories of Basic Theory categories.

*In the chart we are ignoring grammatical words ... the fengi.

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... The main derivation pathways

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Derivational morphology often involves the addition of a derivational suffix or other affix. Such an affix usually applies to words of one lexical category (part of speech) and changes them into words of another such category. For example, the English derivational suffix -ly changes adjectives into adverbs (slow → slowly).

Examples of English derivational patterns and their suffixes:

• adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness)
• adjective-to-verb: -ize (modern → modernize)
• adjective-to-adjective: -ish (red → reddish)
• adjective-to-adverb: -ly (personal → personally)
• noun-to-adjective: -al (recreation → recreational)
• noun-to-verb: -fy (glory → glorify)
• verb-to-adjective: -able (drink → drinkable)
• verb-to-noun (abstract): -ance (deliver → deliverance)
• verb-to-noun (agent): -er (write → writer)

Derivation can be contrasted with inflection, in that derivation produces a new word (a distinct lexeme), whereas inflection produces grammatical variants of the same word.

Generally speaking, inflection applies in more or less regular patterns to all members of a part of speech (for example, nearly every English verb adds -s for the third person singular present tense), while derivation follows less consistent patterns (for example, the nominalizing suffix -ity can be used with the adjectives modern and dense, but not with open or strong).

Derivation can also occur without any change of form, for example telephone (noun) and to telephone. This is known as zero derivation. [ All the above from "wikipedia" under "linguistic derivation" ]

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The diagram below shows the ten main derivational processes which are absolutely fundamental to the working of the language. By the way, the verbal base (equivalent to English infinitive or gerundive I think ??) should be considered a noun.

[1]

Most nouns can be used as adjectives just by placing them directly after the noun they are qualifying. Like "school bus" in English. For example ...

solben moze = a drink of water

Also to indicate possession the possessee is usually just placed after the possessed.

nambo jono = John's house

(Actually there is a particle yó joining the possessed to the possessee ... however it is rarely used. yó is also a noun meaning possessions, yái an item possessed, yáu "to have")

"John's house" => nambo yó jono .... but more usually nambo jono

This is zero derivation and is marked as in the above diagram.

[2]

gèu = green

gèun = the green one

?azwodus = lactose intolerant

?azwoduzan = a/the lactose intolerant one

-s, -n, -u, -i take -an, all other endings take -s (including -ai and -au)

We have already remarked on the saidau => saidaun [ Ch 2.5 ].

[3]

Unadorned adjective can be used as nouns in most situations. This is similar to English ...

klár gèu is ambiguous between "I like green" or "I like the green ones"

To disambiguate ... klár kuwai gèu "I like greenness" / klár nò gèun or klár kaigeu "I like the green ones"

[4]

solbe = to drink

solbeun = the drinking

-s, -n, -e, -a take -un, all other endings take -n (including -ia and -ua)

The difference between these two is that the second represents a specific instance of drinking as opposed to drinking in general.

We have already remarked on the manga => mangan [ Ch 2.7 ].

[5]

yubau = strong

yubako = to strengthen

pona = hot

ponako = to heat up

[6]

kwofan = bicycle

kwofanko = to bicycle

[7]

This will be covered in detail in the next chapter. However here is a quick example ...

solbara moze "I am drinking water"

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solb-a-r-a	moze
drink-1SG-IND-PRES	water

from the verb base solbe "to drink"

[8]

tunheun kwofanaru "I will bicycle to the townhall"

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tunheu-n	kwofan-a-r-u
townhall-DAT	bicycle-1SG-IND-FUT

[9]

pazba yubara "I am strengthening the table"

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pazba	yub-a-r-a
table	strengthen-1SG-IND-PRES

ponara moze "I am heating up some water"

pon-a-r-a	moze
"heat up"-1SG-IND-PRES	water

[10]

-s, -n, -a, -o take -is, all other endings take -s (including -ia and -ua)

saco = fast, sacois = quickly

pudus = timid (of an animal), puduʒis = timidly

yubau = strong, yubaus = strongly

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For [8] and [9] if the root that is to be transformed is monosyllabic, then we need -ko as well as -r-. For example ...

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bàu = man

bauko = to man (exact same meaning as in English)

baukara téu dí = I am manning this position.

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gèu = green

geuko = to make green

geukara pazba dí = I am painting this table green

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You can say, that for monosyllabic words [8] = [6] + [7] and [9] = [5] + [7].

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The remaining two transformations shown on the diagram are for verbalization. Actually the affix -ko is added to all adjectives or nouns in order to make a verb. However in one circumstance this affix is not needed. This is for the R-form based on a multi-syllable adjective or noun. For example ...

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pazba yubaku = strengthen the table (a command)

pazba yubakis = you should strengthen the table

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ponaku moze = heat up some water (a command)

ponakos moze = he/she should heat up some water

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bauku téu dí = man this position (a command)

baukos téu dí = he/she should man this position

naike = sharp : naikeko = to sharpen

keŋkia = salty : keŋkiko = to add salt ... when the adjective ends is a diphthong (and is non-monosylabic) the last vowel is dropped.

keŋkikara = "I am adding salt" .... note not *keŋkara ... this is because keŋkia is a derived word.

sài = colour : saiya = colourful : saiwa = colourless : saiko = to paint (maybe via *saiyako)

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Note ... -ko is possibly an eroded version of gàu ( "to do" or "to make" ).

Note ... There seems to be a method of deriving a two place verb from a one place verb by affixing -n. For example ... diadia = "to happen" : diadian = "to cause". While this mechanism is seen all over the language I have not mentioned it in the chart above. This is because I consider it non-productive. I count daidia and diadian both as base words. In a similar way that English speakers consider "rise" and "raise" independent words, "lie" and "lay" independent words and "sit" and "set" independent words.

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... Index

1. Introduction to Béu
2. Béu : Chapter 1 : The Sounds
3. Béu : Chapter 2 : The Noun
4. Béu : Chapter 3 : The Verb
5. Béu : Chapter 4 : Adjective
6. Béu : Chapter 5 : Questions
7. Béu : Chapter 6 : Derivations
8. Béu : Chapter 7 : Way of Life 1
9. Béu : Chapter 8 : Way of life 2
10. Béu : Chapter 9 : Word Building
11. Béu : Chapter 10 : Gerund Phrase
12. Béu : Discarded Stuff
13. A statistical explanation for the counter-factual/past-tense conflation in conditional sentences