Béu : Chapter 2 : The Noun: Difference between revisions

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== ..... The 7 types of word==
== ..... The 5 basic word types==


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All words belong to one of the following 7 categories ...
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) '''feŋgi''' = 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 '''feŋgi'''.
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'''.


An example is '''Í''' .. the preposition indicating the dative.
By the way ... all affixes are counted as a type of '''fengi'''.


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An example is '''wò''' .. the preposition indicating the oblique case.
 
[[Image:TW_517.png]]


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2) '''seŋko''' = object
2) '''kenʒi''' = an object


An example is '''bàu''' ... "a man"
An example is '''bàu''' ... "a man"
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5) '''maŋga''' = verb
5) '''manga''' = a verb in its base form (citation form). When used "actively" it will take its '''r'''-form, '''u'''-form or '''i'''-form.


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


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6) '''maŋgas''' = a noun derived from a verb. A  '''maŋgas''' represents one instance of the activity denoted by the  '''maŋga'''.  For example ...
[[Image:SW_062.png]]
 
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'''twás''' ... "a\the meeting" : '''nò twás''' ... "a\the meetings"
== ..... Kenʒi==


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7) '''saidaus''' = a noun derived from an adjective. The  '''saidaus''' means one object possessing the property denoted by the  '''saidau'''.
'''kenʒi''' can mean "noun". It can also mean "noun phrase" (NP).


An example is  '''nelaus''' = a/the dark blue one : '''nò nelaus''' = a/the dark blue ones
.


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


[[Image:TW_516.png]]
The noun can take six types of modifiers. These six types must come in a certain order ...


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The '''maŋgas''' and  '''saidaus''' are transparently derived from the  '''maŋga''' and  '''saidau''' so there is no need to list them separately in a dictionary.  
[[Image:SW_070.png]]


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== ..... Saidaus==
In the above diagram, an descending arrow followed by a bar indicates a closed set. A descending arrow by itself indicates an open set. Branching arrows indicate multiple possibilities.


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The head of the NP can be referred to as '''kenʒita'''. Usually it is called this by lay people and by linguists when the concept is first brought up. However, thereafter it is usually referred to as '''húa''' meaning "head".


'''saidaus''' is a noun or noun phrase derived from a adjective ... ['''saidaus baga''' is a noun derived from a adjective : '''saidaus kaza''' is a noun phrase derived from a adjective]
'''kenʒita''' is '''kenʒi''' plus the diminutive suffix. '''kenʒi''' can also take the augmentative suffix -'''uma'''. '''kenzuma''' "extended noun phrase" is a normal  '''kenʒi''', with either a relative clause (RC) appended to the right or a partitive appended to the left hand side


'''saidaus kaza''' can have 8 possible elements. These elements are exactly the same'''*''' ones as are available for a noun (see the section '''Seŋko''' below)
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. But even these elements can be dropped on occasion ... when they are understood from context or the preceding conversation. When we have one adjective, and the head is understood, '''ɘ''' can be substituted for the head, '''''' if the head is plural.


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'''ɘ gèu''' = a/the green one : '''kɘ gèu''' = a/the green ones


Actually '''saidaus''' can be derived from "locatives" and "genitives" as well as from '''saidau'''. For example ...
These two particles can also be used with other noun modifiers, however not always mandators with non-adjective modifiers.


'''pobomaus''' = the one on top of the mountain
'''ɘ nái''' = which one : '''kɘ nái''' = which ones


'''yós jene''' = the one belonging to Jane
'''kɘ dí''' = these ones : '''ɘ dè''' = this one


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However '''nái''', '''dí''' and '''dè''' can constitute NP's by themselves. A bit like English


'''*''' There is one small difference. '''sowe''' can be an adjective to a '''saidaus''' but not to a '''seŋko'''. '''sowe''' is an adjective intensifier ( i.e. "very). So ...
Looking at the chart above might give you a false impression of '''béu''' noun phrases. The number of modifiers within a noun phrase is usually only one or two. When there is two, they must occur in a certain order, hence the necessity of the chart above. I don't think it would be easy to process a noun phrase with six modifiers, probably some of them would be shunted off into a RC with an initial copula. A noun phrase can take multiple RC's. They can stand beside each other in a sort of apposition.


'''gèu''' = green, '''gèus''' = a/the green one, '''gèus sowe''' = a/the very green one,
I should make one further point here. The particles '''ú''' "all" and '''''' "no" can appear to the left of the head. They can also appear in the quantity slot.


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== ..... Maŋgas==
=== ... Quality===


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In English there are various means to derive noun from a verb. For example ... "discover" + "y" => discovery ... "destroy" + "?tion" => destruction ... "run" + ∅ => a/the run
More than one adjective is allowed in this slot. For example ... '''bàu gèu tiji''' = the little green man


In '''béu''' there is one way to derive nouns from verbs and it is 100% productive ... you simply append '''s''' to the infinitive.
'''kái''' meaning "what type" can also appear in this slot. In which case it turns the whole noun phrase (or sentence) into a question. For example ...


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


'''maŋgas''' is a noun derived from a verb or a noun phrase derived from a verb,
'''há bàu gèu kái glà timpori''' = what kind of green man hit the woman ? ... (sentence question)


'''maŋgas baga''' => verbal noun
Now when you have multiple adjectives they will have a certain order depending upon their sub-category.


'''maŋgas kaza''' =>verbal noun phrase
This is the same as English ... for example, you always say "the third big black dog" and never "the black third big dog".


The order for building up '''maŋgas kaza''' is ...
'''béu''' uses the exact same order as in English but the other way around.


1) ... a numerative
'''béu''' has two adjectives that come in this slot that are worth mentioning. They might have claims to particle-hood, but I guess their appearance in this slot marks them as adjectives. No reason that they can't be both.


2) ... the '''maŋgas''' (mandatory)
1) ... '''''' = "other"


3) ... a determiner    ('''''' '''''' '''''' or '''nái''') ... but actually these are quite uncommon elements in '''maŋgas kaza'''
The semantics of this word remind me of the semantics of '''tuge'''/'''jige'''. With the relative quantifiers the speech participants have agreed on the number/amount relevant to the situation. '''tuge'''/'''jige''' are used to change this value. Similarly '''''' is used in a situation where the speech participants have agreed on the population (of whatever noun category) under consideration but one of them wants to expand this population.


4) ... the S or O argument (unmarked)
2) ... '''laubo''' = enough


5) ... the A argument (if it exists) precededed by the particle '''hí''' ... this particle is quite rare and only exists in this environment ... perhaps related to the '''pilamo''' '''há'''.
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6) ... other clausal elements (for example time, adverb'''*''', instrument, reason, purpose ) can be added now.
=== ... Quantity===


[ actually an emphatic particle can be put at the front of all this lot and a relative clause put at the end ... but these usages are so uncommon, that I decided not to list them ]
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'''*'''If an adverb ending in -'''we''' finds itself up against the '''maŋgas''', the -'''we''' affix will be dropped.
This slot is very interesting ...


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[[Image:SW_071.png]]


All '''pilamo''' can be appended just as to a normal NP.
The above chart is split into ''definite'' and ''vague'' sections. All the items under ''definite'' represent an integer (or "the empty set" or "the full set"). The items under ''vague'' represent an approximate number/amount. This section is further divided into ''discrete'' and ''non-discrete'' (i.e. countable.non-countable).


One '''pilamo''' that is often found with '''maŋgas''' and that is -'''pi'''. For example ...
'''''' modifies both discrete and non-discrete. It means a moderate amount ... some value between zero and "all". It does NOT mean "indefinite" ... "some man" is '''bàu èn''', not '''*bàu yè'''.


'''jono doikore tunheun lailaspi''' = John walked to the civic centre earlier today singing.
This word can be used to mark plurality (together with '''iyo''' and '''hài''') for those nouns that can not be pluralized in themselves. For example ... '''húa''', "head" : '''húa yè''', "heads".


This doesn't mean that he sang all through his journey ... just that part* of the journey was accompanied by singing. (* the part that we are considering)
'''jí jí''' and '''jía''' are about equally common and mean the same thing. However '''jía''' tends to be used in more formal situations and '''jí jí''' in less formal.


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English is very untidy when it comes to verbal nouns. Consider ...
'''láu''' (how many) can appear in this slot. In which case it turns the NP (and hence the clause containing the NP) into a question. For example ...


1) The killing of the president was an atrocious crime.
'''bàu jutu láu''' = "How many men are big ?" or "How many big men ?" ???????????


2) Killing the president was an atrocious crime.
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You can see that one form "killing" is used in 2 different constructions. By the way ... "killing" in (1) is considered more noun-like.
The chart above shows only the terms used for ''absolute'' quantity ????????????????? It does not cover, what I call ''relative'' quantity. Let me explain ...


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Imagine the speaker and the hearer both have an idea of the number/amount relevant to a situation but one of them wants to change this number/amount. The amount he wants to change this agreed number/amount by, I call the ''relative quantity''. It can be positive or negative. When positive we use the word '''tuge''' "more" ... when negative we use the word '''jige''' "less" '''*'''. For example ...


'''turi waudo tuge''' = more dogs came
{|
|-
!  t-u-r-i  || waudo || tuge
|-
|  come-{{small|3PL-IND-PST}}  || dog || more
|}
These to particles can be modified by some (most) of the terms given in the chart above. They can be modified by any of the terms hi-lighted in orange.
[[Image:Sw_060.png]]


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For example ... '''bía tuge ima''' = two more beers please"


== ..... Maŋga==
Note : actually '''jía''' and '''tundu''' are not applicable to '''kenʒi'''. They are only applicable to '''olus'''


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This corresponds to what is called "infinitive" or "masDar" in other languages.
'''*''' These words might be derived somehow from '''jutu''' "big" and '''tiji''' "small" ... along with the comparative suffix -'''ge''' '''**'''.  


But in certain circumstances '''maŋga''' can be thought of as a noun. (Actually '''maŋgas''' has a better claim to nounhood ... after all it is discrete).
The comparative suffix can be appended to any adjectives. For example ... '''jini''' "clever" => '''jinige''' "cleverer" : '''hau?e''' "beautiful" => '''hau?ege''' "more beautiful"


For instance they can be the S O or A argument in a clause. I guess that is their biggest claim to nounhood.
There is also a superlative suffix ... -'''mo'''. So '''jinimo''' "cleverest" amd '''hau?emo''' "most beautiful"


Another place they appear is as complements'''*''' of active verbs (live verbs). Two examples of this usage are given below ...
'''**''' There is an independant word '''gé''' which might be related to the comparative suffix. It is a particle that always comes in twos. For example ... '''gé tundu ... gé bói''' "the more the merrier".


1) ... '''blèu''' = to hold ..... '''laila''' = to sing, singing ..... '''jenes blor laila bòi''' = Jane can sing well.
Sometimes you coma across '''bù tuge''' "no more". This should be analysed as a contraction of '''bù ?ár tuge''' "I don't want more".


2) ... '''cùa''' = to depart ... '''timpa''' = to hit, hitting ...  '''jonos cori timpa jene''' = John stopped hitting Jane
'''***''' Perhaps '''wóin''' is related to the verb '''gwói''' "to pass by" plus the past participle -'''in'''.


'''*''' Since all live transitive verbs in '''béu''' are capable of taking a noun complement (object), this usuage can not be said to make them appear any less noun-like, however restrictions/differences in the elements comprising '''maŋga baga''' compaired to '''seŋko baga''' plus there inability to take all the 17 '''pilamoi''' do make them appear less noun-like .... Actually I prefer not to talk about nouns, verbs and what have you but to stick to the 7 word types'''**''' which I have devised for '''béu'''. However out of pity for the reader (yes ... you) I quite often revisit the terminology of the Western Linguistic Tradition.
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'''**''' Namely ... '''feŋgi  seŋko olus saidau maŋga maŋgas''' and '''saidaus'''
=== ... Ownership===


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'''maŋga''' =>  infinitive OR  infinitive phrase
Basically you can just stick a personal name, a pronoun or any NP in here and the head noun will be considered owned by the object inserted here.
 
Sometimes, the particle '''''' precedes the object inserted.


'''maŋga baga''' => infinitive
For example '''jwado gèu yó jene''' = Jane's big green bird


'''maŋga kaza''' => infinitive phrase
Note that the particle '''''' is usually dropped when the possessor is next to the head. However as other elements intervene, the likelihood that '''yó''' is used increases.


The order for building up '''maŋgas kaza''' is ...
If '''mín''' (who) is stuck in this slot ... then we have a question. For example ...


1) ... the '''maŋga''' always comes first
'''jwado gèu yó mín''' = Whose big green bird ? = Whose's the big green bird ?


2) ... the O'''*''' argument  (unmarked)
There can be ambiguity with some '''kenʒi''' possessing a genitive. For example ...


3) AN "AS YET UNDECIDED" QUESTION IS WHETHER "S" OR "A" arguments can be expressed on a MP '''manga phrase'''
Does '''waudo bàu dí''' mean "the dog of this man" or "this dog of the man" ?


4) ... other clausal elements (for example dative object, time, adverb'''**''', instrument, reason, purpose) can be added now.
To get around this, we have a special rule ...


'''*'''When talking about these arguments we are thinking as if the '''maŋga''' has been brought to life. And we have a verb in its r-form, n-form, i-form or u-form. Then the A O and S arguments would live up to their name. However the A O and S arguments we are talking about here are merely elements in a noun phrase (or infinitive phrase if you will), as opposed to arguments in a clause.
"If anything is in the ownership slot, '''''' and '''''' never appear in the determiner slot. Instead they appear as '''dían''' "here" and '''dene''' "there" in the locative slot"


'''**'''If an adverb ending in -'''we''' finds itself up against the '''maŋga''', the -'''we''' affix will be dropped.
Note ... sometimes ownership as such is not what is of interest, it is if a person has actual physical possession. In this case '''''' is not used. But the object takes '''pila?o''' 2.
 
'''jwado gèu là''' ''Long John Silver'' '''catora''' = The big green bird (on Long John's shoulder presumably) is chatting away.
 
Actually segments showing actually physical possession like the example above, go in the locative slot which we will cover next.


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All '''pilamo''' can be appended to '''maŋga''' ... -'''tu''' and -'''la''' often appear with '''maŋga'''
=== ... Location===


The -'''tu''' usuage is actually exactly the same as the English ... "by ''verb''ing"
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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 ...
Ordinal numbers appear in this slot. The ordinal numbers are ...


'''bàu doikala''' = a/the walking man
[[Image:SW_066.png]]


'''bàu r doikala''' = a/the man is walking
You will notice that there are two words for first ... '''da?a''' and '''dahua'''. They are both equally common, but '''da?a''' tends to occur in the presence of '''dima''' or '''duya''' while '''dahua''' tends to occur in the presence of '''dauci'''.
 
Note ... '''bàu r doikala''' = '''bàu doikora''' ... exactly the same.


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== ..... Saidau==
Proper locatives comprise a noun plus one of the 9 '''pila?oi''' ....  '''pi la mau goi ce do bene komo ni'''. For example ...


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'''duzu pobomau''' = The oryx on the mountain


The '''saidau''' has two uses in the '''béu'''. It can either be part of a NP or it can be a copular complement. For example ...
Also '''pila?o''' 14 turns up in this slot. These items are strictly not giving information about "location" but rather "origin". They are classed as a locatives nevertheless. For example ...


'''bàu gèu''' = a/the green man
'''bàu glazgofi''' = a/the man from Glasgow


'''bàu r gèu''' = a/the man is green
If the location consists of more than one word, the usual rule applies and the '''pila?o''' appears as a preposition ...


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'''duzu máu pobo jutu''' = The oryx on the big mountain


== ..... Olus==
There is a tendance that  the longer the locative item, the more likely the locative item will be shunted into a relative clause ...


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


The '''olus kaza''' has the same stucture as '''seŋko kaza''' (see the next section) except there are three additional elements ... elements (9), (10) and (11)
'''nài r máu pobo hau?e jutu''' is a relative clause. We will cover RC's in a bit.


(9) is always '''làu''' a particle (10) is a  "number" and (11) is the '''holder'''
All prepositions that are not '''pila?o''' lead to the location being shunted into a relative clause. For example ...


'''ʔazwo pona làu hói hoŋko''' = two cups of hot milk
'''polga?o nài r fiagan gwai''' = "the sailing boat which is among the islands" or simply "the sailing boat among the islands"


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'''ʔazwo''' = milk
Also '''''' "where" can appear in this slot. In which case it turns the noun phrase into a question. For example ...


'''pona''' = hot
'''bàu gèu dá''' = where is the green man ?


'''hói''' = two .......... (10)
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'''hoŋko''' = cup ..... (11)
Addendum ... To keep things simple I refrained from mentioning this before but time can also be expressed in this slot. For example "the turmoil '''''' 1300's". Actually location AND time can both be in this slot at the same time. For example "the anger '''pí''' Iceland '''jé''' 1950's ...".


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Note nouns denoting quality are '''olus''' through derived originally from '''saidau'''. For example ...
'''*''' Probably derived from '''uci''' "tail".
 
'''nelaumi''' = blueness (from '''nelau''' "dark blue") and '''geumai''' = greenness (from '''gèu''' "green")


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== ..... Seŋko==
=== ... Determiner===


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'''seŋko''' => noun OR noun phrase
There are five of these ... '''''' (this), '''dè''' (that), '''nái''' (which), '''èn''' (some) and '''ín''' (any) . For example ...


'''seŋko baga''' => noun
'''''' and '''dè''' are called demonstratives in the WLT. They will be covered in the section after next.


'''seŋko kaza''' => noun phrase
'''nái''' turns the whole noun phrase into a question. For example ...


'''seŋko''' can have upto 8 elements.
'''bàu gèu tiji nái''' = which little green man ? ... noun phrase question
 
Below is shown the order in which they must occur.


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And of course, if a NP represents a question, any clause containing this NP will also be a question. For example ...


[[Image:TW_569.png]]
'''bàu gèu tiji nái glà timpori ''' = which little green man hit the woman ? ... a clause AND a question


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


Elements 1, 2, and 7 have restricted membership, if fact element 1 has only one possibility, the word ''''''. The words with red background 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.
'''ín''' "any" appear in this slot ...  '''bàu gèu tiji ín''' = "any little green man" .............. super indefinite


=== ... The head===
There is one little rule to remember ...


..
"Only one item is allowed in this slot, so if you want an indefinite as well as a demonstrative, the demonstrative is shunted off to the locative slot and given the form '''dían''' or '''dene'''."


3) ... the head \ '''seŋko baga'''  
I guess this is logical in a way. '''dí''' and '''dè''' were originally associated with pointing. But when the object is indefinite, how can you point ? "here" or "there" is about as definite as you can get.


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=== ... The adjective===
=== ... Side-note re demonstratives===


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4) ... the adjective
'''dí''' "this" and '''dè''' "that" are two words that orientate and focus the hearer's attention on an object (or location '''*''') in the speech situation. These words are called demonstratives in the WLT.


More than one adjective is allowed. For example ... '''bàu gèu tiji''' = the little green man
According to Holger [ Diessel (1999:57) ] ...


'''kái''' "what type" can appear in this slot. In which case it turns the whole noun phrase (or sentence) into a question. For example ...
i) A demonstrative can be construed as an argument in its own right. That is, it can constitute a NP without any additional elements.


'''bàu gèu kái''' = what kind of green man ? ... noun phrase question
ii) A demonstrative can co-occur with a noun in a NP. That is, it can be a noun modifier.


'''bàu gèu kái glà timpori''' = what kind of green man hit the woman ? ... sentence question
iii)'''*''' A demonstatives can function as a verb modifier. It specifies (the) location (where something happens **).


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'''*''' Perhaps in a more earlier version of the WLT "location" and (iii) would not be included in the definition of determiner. English and '''béu''' conform to this earlier version of the WLT. However I think it is a good idea when considering all the world's languages, to use this wider definition of "demonstrative".


=== ... The locative===
"**" Perhaps in a language where a copula is not routinely used "where something happens" would not necessarily be appropriate.


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And here are examples of the above three functions (in English) ...


5) ... the locative. For example ... '''bàu gèu tiji pobomau''' = the little green man on top of the mountain
a) ''This'' is excellent.


A locative comprises of a noun plus one of the nine affixes ....  '''pi la mau goi ce dua bene komo ?e'''
b) ''That'' guy is an idiot.


The locative is a type of adjective.  
c) ''Here'' we do things differently.


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.
Diachronically, these three functions can run into each other. Function (a) and function (b) are particularly close. They have the exact same form in English, but no confusion can occur, because "this/that:b" can be deduced to be inside a NP by the rules of English grammar. Most languages in the world (70%) have identical forms for "this/that:a" and "this/that:b". Of the languages that do not have identical forms, the difference can be quite subtle. For example in Thai นี่ [ '''nii''' falling tone ] is "this:a" and นี้  [ '''nii''' high tone ] is "this:b". ........... [see WALS 42A]


Note ... if the noun taking the affix is a noun phrase ... well it is not possible to use the affix but you must use the stand alone term (see the section "the Case system" later on in this chapter). For example ...
Some languages lack (a). For example, in Korean, to express "this:a" you must say "ce il" meaning "this thing". So (b) used instead of (a)


to say "the little green man on top of the big mountain" =>  '''bàu gèu tiji máu pobo jutu'''
Some languages lack (b). They would say something like "the guy here" instead of "this guy". So (c) instead of (b)


The above is called an ENP (extended noun phrase) ... it comprises  '''bàu gèu tiji''' (NP 1) +  '''máu'''  +  '''pobo jutu''' (NP 2)
Some languages lack (c). They would say something like "this place we do things differently" instead of "here we do things differently". So (b) instead of (c.)


Also '''''' "where" can appear in this slot. In which case it turns the whole noun phrase (or sentence) into a question. For example ...
[ And while we are talking on this area, perhaps we should mention 3rd person pronouns (see WALS 43A). Some languages lack 3rd person pronouns. They cover this function by saying something like "this" or "that guy" ...  A further point of interest (well, I find it interesting anyway) is that the English ''he'' and ''here'' are cognates. Going back to a P.I.E. form meaning (a) or (b). ''-r'' was a ProtoGermanic adverbial suffix. ]


'''bàu gèu dá''' = where is the green man ?
'''béu''' patterns pretty much like English (and the pattern of English is not atypical of the world's languages) ...


..
'''dí''' = "this:a" : '''dè''' = "that:a"
 
=== ... The genitive===


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'''dí''' = "this:b" : '''dè''' = "that:b"


6) ... the genitive. For example '''jwado gèu nambomau yó jene''' = Jane's big green bird on top of the house
'''dían''' = "this:c" (i.e. "here") : '''dene''' = "that.c" (i.e. "there")


Note that the particle '''''' is usually dropped when the possessor is next to the head. However as other elements intervene, the likelihood that '''''' is used increases.
I was originally thinking of just appending the '''béu''' adverbial suffix -'''is''' to produce (c). But rejected that idea in order to get more phonological contrast between ...


If '''mín''' (who) is used instead of '''jene''' in the above ... then we would have a question ...
(A) "this:c" and "that.c", (B) "this/that:a/b" and "this/that:c"


'''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 ?
With '''dían''' there is a hint that it might be derived from '''dí''' plus '''pila?o''' 15. And also with '''dene''' ... a hint that it might have the same origin. But who can tell. These things are lost in the mists of time.


..
..


=== ... The determiner===
=== ... Further uses of '''dí''' and '''dè''' ===


..
..


7) ... the determiner
If we first hear a plural noun articulated in a conversation, the most likely meaning we would assigned to it would be the universal set. For example '''moltai.a'''. There is a more explicit means to express the universal set. For example ... '''kài moltai''' = "doctor.kind" but this construction is seldom used.
 
An example of usage is ... '''moltai.a súr jini''' = "doctors are clever"


There are two determiners ... '''dí ''' (this)  and '''dè''' (that). For example ...  
OK ... now lets zoom in a bit. To zoom in we need to take in or give out some narrative. So now we hear the following ....


'''bàu gèu tiji pobomau dé  ''' = that little green man on top of the mountain.
<b>Next week British junior doctors will withhold many services in protest against the long hour expected of them</b>


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.
OK ... after hearing that ... '''moltai.a dè''' would be taken to mean "British junior doctors"


'''nái''' (which) can appear in this slot. In which case it turns the whole noun phrase (or sentence) into a question. For example ...
OK ... lets hear a further bit of narrative ...


'''bàu gèu tiji nái''' = which little green man ? ... noun phrase question
<b>Much to the disgruntlement of the senior doctors who will have a hard week ahead of them making up for the short fall. </b>


'''bàu gèu tiji nái glà timpori ''' = which little green man hit the woman ? ... sentence question
OK ... after hearing that ...  '''moltai.a dè''' would be taken to mean "British senior doctors". So, what '''dè''' refers to doesn't persist long, Our perspective is continually changing.


Also '''lò''' "other" appear in this slot ... '''bàu gèu tiji lò''' = "the other little green man" or "another little green man"
[ I can't help thinking that the proximate/obviate system existing in Plains Cree would be very useful. You could keep track of two protagonists through a discourse without reverting to full NPs. But I guess there are cognative reasons why it is difficult to use. Well, if it was easy to use, it would be far more wide-spread. It must be very useful. ]


Note ... '''dían''' => here, '''dèn''' => there ... not '''*dà dí''' and '''*dà dè'''
This is in normal discourse. However if some objects are physically pointed out '''*''' when first introduced (and presumably they stay in sight for the duration of the discourse) what '''dí''' and '''dè''' referred to would persist.


Note ...  '''dí '''  '''dè''' never appear independently as they do in English and many other languages. For example "this is good" => '''nèn dí r bòi''' .... literally "this THING is good"
So we can see that '''dè''' points back in time. It brings to the top of consciousness, the last set of doctors talked about.


Actually the above expression usually amalgamate to one word ... '''nendi r bòi''' "this is good" ... '''nende r bòi''' "that is good"
..


Note  ... '''nò nendi''' is further contracted to => '''n̩di''' and '''nò nende''' => '''n̩de''' .... these are syllabic nasals ... the only two occurances of this sound in '''béu'''
In a narrative many objects are encountered. If a newly introduced object is marked by '''''' it means that the object is important to the narrative and you will shortly be getting more information about it. The process is not exactly the inverse of '''anaphora'''. But one is compatible with "information given in the past leading to easy identification of which object in particular we are talking about. The other is compatible with "in the near future I will give you information about this object and you will be able to identify which object in particular I am talking about as well as I can"


..
'''béu''' and English are exactly the same in this respect.


[[Image:TW_575.png]]
'''*''' Not necessarily by using a finger ... a gesture with the head ... or even the orientation of the eyes can suffice.


..
..


Note that there is a short hand way to write these four words (shown on the RHS of the above diagram). Actually the long hand versions (shown on the LHS of the above diagram) are never used.
== ..... Kenzuma==


----
..
One little rule ... if a genitive is present, the determiners '''dí''' and '''dè''' can not be included. However '''dían''' "here" and '''dèn''' "there" can occur in the "locative" slot and we get the same meaning. If a genitive is absent, we do not get '''dían''' and '''dèn''' in the locative slot.


..
'''béu''' also has what I call an extended noun phrase. An extended noun phrase is a normal NP with either a partitive appended to the LHS, or a RC appended to the RHS.


=== ... The numerative===
The example below shows an extended noun phrase '''kenzuma''' with both a partitive AND an RC ...


..
..


2) ... the numerative
[[Image:SW_090.png]]


These are ...


'''jù''' "no" ... '''ʔà''' "one" ... '''hói''' "two" ... '''léu''' "three" ... '''iyo''' "few" ... '''ega''' "four" '''oda''' "five" ..... '''hài''' "many" .... '''tautaita''' "1727<u>10</u> and '''ú''' "all"
{|
|-
! || uya ||  wì  || yiŋkai  || ofa || nài || tunheu-h || doik-u-r-a
|-
| ..... ||three ||  of  || girl || five || {{small|REL}}  || townhall-{{small|DAT}} || walk-{{small|3PL-IND-PRES}}
|}
..... Three of the five girls that are walking to the townhall.


The two "selectives"  ...  '''ín''' "any" and '''èn''' "some"  go in this slot as well.
..


Only one word is allowed in the numerative slot (be it a selective or a numerative).
=== ... The relative clause===


..
..


'''láu''' (how many) can appear in this slot. In which case it turns the whole sentence into a question. For example ...
The '''béu''' relative clause is pretty similar to the English relative clause. However not exactly so.


'''láu bàu (r) pobomau''' = How many men (are) on top of the mountain ? .... '''*'''
A relative clause is a clause that modifies a NP of course. I think the best way to explain how the '''béu''' RC  works is to give three examples. Each example will demonstrate a subtype of RC. In each example I will reconstitute the plain clause (PC) underlying the RC by looking at the NP and the RC.


With more complex '''seŋko baga''' it is usual to break it up in order to specify exactly which element is being questioned. For example ...
(1)


'''láu bàu gèu tiji pobomau nài doikura''' = " How many little green men on the  mountain that are walking? " ... would be re-phrased as ...
{|
|-
! yiŋkai || ofa ||nài  || doik-u-r-a
|-
| the girl || five ||  {{small|REL}}  || walk-{{small|3PL-IND-PRES}}
|} => the five girls who are walking
 
NP = '''yiŋkai ofa''' : RC = '''nài doikura''' => PC = '''yiŋkai ofa doikura''' "five girls are walking" ....... notice that '''nài''' is binned.


'''wò bàu gèu tiji pobomau _ láu doikura''' = w.r.t. the little green man on top of the mountain, how many are walking ? ... or ...
In the above PC  '''yiŋkai''' is absolutive.  


'''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 ?
(2)


Note ... in the 2 examples above, '''fì''' can be substituted for '''wò'''. However '''wò''' is more felicitous.
{|
|-
! bàu || nài-h  || glá-s || fy-o-r-i || yiŋkai-wo
|-
| the man ||  {{small|REL-DAT}}  || women-{{small|ERG}}  || tell-{{small|3SG-IND-PAST}}  || girl-{{small|ABOUT}}
|} => the man to whom the woman told about the girl


'''*''' 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).
NP = '''bàu''' : RC = '''nàih glás fyori yiŋkaiwo''' => PC = '''bàuh glás fyori yiŋkaiwo''' ............ notice that '''nài''' is again binned. Also -'''h''' has to find some other word to stick on to.


..
In the above PC '''bàu''' is dative.  


=== ... The relative clause===
(3)


..
{|
|-
! gwai.a || nài  || polg-ai-r-a || fía || ?ode
|-
| the islands ||  {{small|REL}}  || sail-{{small|1PL.INC-IND-PRES}}  || between || them
|} => "the islands that we are sailing between"


8) ... the relative clause
NP = '''gwaia''' : RC = '''nài polgaira fía ?ode''' => PC = '''polgaira fía gwaia''' ......................  '''nài''' is again binned. Also '''?ode''' is discarded. The NP must be positioned behind '''fía''', the preposition that governs it.


Relative clauses "RC" work pretty much the same as English relative clauses. The relativizer is '''nài''' (that, who). Here are some examples ...
In the above PC '''gwaia''' is not absolutive, also not adorned by a '''pila?o'''. Instead it exists in a prepositional phrase. For this reason, a pronoun '''?ode''' is needed in the RC to represent the NP


'''yiŋkai nài doikoryə''' = the girl that has walked
..


'''bàu nài glás timporyə''' = the man whom the woman has hit
I believe that Arabic structures its RC in a similar way to the above.


'''glá nàis bàu timporyə''' = the woman who has hit the man
..


'''bàu nàin glás fyori yiŋkaiwo''' = the man to whom the woman told about the girl
OK ... you should all be experts in RC's now. You just run backward the 3 NP + RC => PC processes.


'''glá naiji bàus bundoryə nambo''' = the woman for whom the man has built a house
..


All the '''pilamo''' can be appended to the relativizer to specify what roll the noun would have in the relative clause if it was a simple clause.
This is discussed in greater detail in CH5.


..
..


=== ... The emphatic particle===
=== ... The partitive===


..
..


1) ... the emphatic particle is ''''''.
A few sections back I mentioned '''ló''' ... the '''béu''' equivalent to "other/others/the other/another/the others".


'''''' is used where we would use what is called  "right dislocation" in English. For example ...
'''''' is used where the speech participants have agreed on the population (of whatever noun category) under consideration but one of them wants to expand this population.  


'''bàus só glán nori alha''' = It is the woman to whom the man gave flowers.
This expansion is a bit like "a shot in the dark", the speech participant requesting additional items usually is in the dark as to that additional items are available. Because of this, there is only one word ''''''. I mean, if the speech participant requesting additional items had an idea about what additional items were available, he could add more detail along with his request. Perhaps we would have '''donu''' meaning "another with a bell", '''doni''' meaning "another with a whistle" ... well O.K. I am being a bit facetious ... but you understand what I am getting at.


'''bàus só glán nori alha @''' = Is it the woman to whom the man gave flowers ?
Now '''''' is used to expand the population under consideration ... to increase the scope of the conversation ... to sort of "zoom out".


'''''' might be used in exasperated when somebody can not see something. For example ...
Now sometimes it is necessary to "zoom in". For instance suppose you heard "three of the doctors decided to stop off at the pub on the way home" within  larger narrative. After this point, these three doctors could be referred to as ''they''. The main-protagonists/subject/topic have been reduced from eight to three. Zooming in is not a shot in the dark. The population under consideration is a known concept. The usual method is to specify the "new scope" plus the "original scope" in some sort of construction. The languages of the world all have methods for zooming in ... usually some quite simple construction, often involving a particle which has evolved from "from"/"out of". '''''' is the particle used in '''béu'''. Some examples of its use ...


{|border=1
'''ú wì moltai''' = all of the doctors
|align=center| '''só nendi'''
 
|align=center| "this one !"
'''yè wì moltai''' = some of the doctore = several of those doctors = a number of those doctors
|align=center| '''só nende'''
|align=center| "that one !"
|-
|align=center| '''só ndi '''
|align=center| "these ones!"
|align=center| '''só nde'''
|align=center| "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 ...
'''jù wì moltai''' = none of the doctors


'''só jene''' = Hey, Jane
'''tontu wì moltai dí''' = the majority of these doctors


'''só gì''' = Hey, you
'''a?a lú tuge wì moltai dè''' more = one or more of those doctors


There is also an ajective intensifier '''sowe''', which is no doubt related to the above.
'''hài wì moltai dè''' = many of those doctors


..
'''ima ín wì moltai dè''' = any two of those doctors


== ..... Feŋgi==
'''moltai wì bawa dí''' = the doctors out of these men


[ Note ... '''ú wì moltai''' = "all of the doctors" is pretty similar to '''ú moltai''' and '''moltai ú''' ... similarly these expressions with '''jù'''. Nothing really to worry about. You have similar flexibility in many languages (including English). Perhaps '''ú wì moltai''' stresses that no "zooming" is happening. Perhaps '''ú moltai''' is used for generic statements such as '''ú moltai r jini''' "all doctors are clever". Perhaps '''moltai ú''' is used in non-generic statements such as '''moltai ú ture tìa pà''' "all the doctors came to my home this morning" ]
..
..


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.
I suppose the nearest equivalent of '''wì''' is "of". However '''wì''' has not so many functions as "of". For "belonging to", '''''' is used. For "relating to"/"connected with". '''wò''' is used.
 
[Still thinking if '''wì''' should be involved with "a glass of milk"/"a heart of gold"]


..
..


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'''**'''.
Pronouns are used in partitives in the same way as NP's.


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.
'''a?a wì pài''' = "one of us"


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.
'''ima wì onde''' = "two of them"


Below are the '''béu''' pronouns for the S and O arguments. This form can be considered the "unmarked form".
'''há ima wì onde glá timpura''' = "two of them are hitting the woman"


..
[ I guess English is a bit stange w.r.t. plural pronoun. I mean ... why not "*two of they are walking" {following the pattern "they are walking"} instead of "two of them are walking" ]


{| border=1
----
  |align=center| me
  |align=center| '''pà'''
  |align=center| us
  |align=center| '''wìa'''
  |align=center| inclusive
  |-
  |align=center|
  |align=center|
  |align=center| us
  |align=center|  '''yùa'''
  |align=center| exclusive
  |-
  |align=center| you
  |align=center| '''gì'''
  |align=center| you
  |align=center| '''jè'''
  |-
  |align=center| him, her
  |align=center| '''ò'''
  |align=center| them
  |align=center| '''nù'''
  |-
  |align=center| it
  |align=center| '''ʃì'''
  |align=center| them
  |align=center| '''ʃì'''
    |}


..
Two other numeratives that we haven't mentioned yet are '''tontu''' "the majority"/"most" and '''tonji''' "the minority".


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 ...
'''ton''' = bit/part/section ... '''tontu''' <= '''ton jutu''' ... '''tonji''' <= '''ton tiji''' ... '''toŋko''' = to seperate ???


..
..


{|
== ... 16 useful little words==
|-
! bàu-s ||align=center| glá || timp-o-r-yə
|-
| man-{{small|ERG}} |align=center|woman||align=center| hit-{{small|3SG-IND-PRF}}
|} ==> The man has hit the woman


..


{|  
{| border=1
|-
  |align=center| '''jupu'''
! bàu ||align=center| glá-s || timp-o-r-yə
  |align=center| nobody
|-
  |align=center| '''upu'''
| man ||align=center| woman-{{small|ERG}}|| hit-{{small|3SG-IND-PRF}}
  |align=center| everybody
|} ==> The woman has hit the man
  |-
  |align=center| '''juku'''
  |align=center| never
  |align=center| '''uku'''
  |align=center| always
  |-
  |align=center| '''juda'''
  |align=center| nowhere
  |align=center| '''uda'''
  |align=center| everywhere
  |-
  |align=center| '''jufen'''
  |align=center| nothing
  |align=center| '''ufen'''
  |align=center| everything
|}


..
..


Below are the pronouns in the ergative form.
The above are obviously eroded forms of '''jú pú''', '''ú pú''', ...  etc. etc.


..
..


{| border=1
{| border=1
  |align=center| I
   |align=center| '''pu.en'''  
   |align=center| '''pás'''
   |align=center| somebody
   |align=center| we
   |align=center| '''pu.in'''
   |align=center| '''wías'''
   |align=center| anybody
  |-
   |
   |align=center|  
   |align=center| '''kyu.en'''  
   |align=center|
   |align=center| sometime
  |align=center| we
   |align=center| '''kyu.in'''
   |align=center| '''yúas'''
   |align=center| any time
  |-
  |- 
   |align=center| you
   |align=center| '''da.en'''  
   |align=center| '''gís'''
   |align=center| somewhere
   |align=center| you
   |align=center| '''da.in'''
   |align=center| '''jés'''
   |align=center| anywhere
  |-
  |- 
   |align=center| he, she
   |align=center| '''fenen'''  
   |align=center| '''ós'''
   |align=center| something
   |align=center| they
   |align=center| '''fenin'''
   |align=center| '''nús'''
   |align=center| anything
  |-
|}
   |align=center| it
   |align=center| '''ʃís'''
   |align=center| they
  |align=center| '''ʃís'''
    |}


..
..


'''''' and '''jés''' are the second person plural forms.  
The above are obviously eroded forms of '''pú èn''', '''pú ín''' etc. etc. They are all two syllable words, and of course as two syllable words lack tone.


There is one other pronoun ... the reflexive pronoun ''''''. This is always an O argument. Notice that it is the only O argument with a high tone.
The words in the first column above can be made plural by adding '''yè'''  ... '''pu.in yè''' = some people, '''kyu.en yè''' = sometimes, etc. etc.
 
..


'''*''' 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).  
'''upu''' and '''ufen''' can be followed by '''uwe''' to show that the group is acting (or undergoing an action) collectively.  


'''**''' By the way, there are 17 marked forms in '''béu''' ... the ergative being just one of these 17.
'''a?awe''' can be added to show that the group is acting (or undergoing an action) individually.


..
..


== ..... The case system==
== ..... Olus==


..
..


In total there are 17 cases (if you were to include the unmarked case as well the total would be 18). They are called the '''pilamoi'''.
'''olus''' can mean "noun". It can also mean "noun phrase" (NP).


These are attached to a noun and show the relationship of that noun with respect to the rest of the sentence.
Whereas '''kenʒi''' refers to countable nouns, '''olus''' is the term used for uncountable nouns (also called mass nouns).
 
The expansion of '''olus''' by various modifiers is quite similar to '''kenʒi''' ...


..


The word '''pilamo''' is built up from ;-
[[Image:SW_091.png]]


'''pila''' (v) = to place, to position, to correctly align
Of course numbers, '''iyo''' and '''hài''' are not appropriate (quantity slot)


'''pilamo''' ( n) = the positioner
Also the items in the determiner slot are a bit "iffy". For example '''moze dí''' is perhaps '''kài moze dí''' with '''kài''' elided.


..
..


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.]
So ... an example of an  '''olus''' ...


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 ...
'''hoŋko ima wì ?azwo pona''' "two cups of warm milk"


..
..


'''glás bàu timporyə''' => The woman has hit the man ..... (with "the man" being the O argument)
A few hundred words have a dual existence ... in one guise '''olus''' in another guise  '''kenʒi'''.  With final vowel '''e u a o''' or '''i''' (the last one is especially common) they have a collective meaning. For example ...  


'''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.]
{|
! bodi ||align=center|  ng-o-r
|-
| birds || fly-{{small|3SG-IND}}
|} =>small birds fly ................. [notice the third person singular agreement on the verb]


..
..


[[Image:TW_745.png]]
However with a change of the final vowel to '''ai''' these concepts become countable.


..
..


The '''pilamoi''' are either realized as either affixes or as prepositions.
{|
! bodai ||align=center|  lail-o-r-a
|-
| a small bird || sing-{{small|3SG-IND-PRES}}
|} => a small bird is singing


Whether the '''pilamoi''' appears as an suffix or a preposition depends on '''seŋko''' '''*''' ... if '''seŋko baga''', then the affix is used ... if '''seŋko kaza''', then the preposition is used.  For example ...
..


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


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


'''*''' or in other words, if the NP is only one word one uses the suffix, and if the NP is more than one word one uses the preposition }
{|
!  bodai ||align=center| uya || lail-u-r-a
|-
|  small bird || three || sing-{{small|3PL-IND-PRES}}
|} => three small birds are singing


..
..


[[Image:TW_563.png]]
Here are some more of these concepts treated in this way ...


[[Image:TW_731.png]]
..


[[Image:TW_682.png]]
{| border=1
  |align=center| '''yinki'''
  |align=center| crumpet
  |align=center| '''yinkai'''
  |align=left| a young unmarried woman, an attractive girl, a virgin
  |-
  |align=center| '''toti'''
  |align=center| children
  |align=center| '''totai'''
  |align=left| a child
  |-
  |align=center| '''wazbo'''
  |align=center| distance
  |align=center| '''wazbai'''
  |align=left| 3,680 m  (the unit of distance ... the '''béu''' km or mile)
  |-
  |align=center| '''malkufa'''
  |align=center| cabbages
  |align=center| '''malkufai'''
  |align=left| a cabbage
  |-
  |align=center| '''alha'''
  |align=center| flowers
  |align=center| '''alhai'''
  |align=left| a flower
  |}


[[Image:TW_658.png]]  
.. [[Image:TW_793.png]]


[[Image:TW_568.png]]
..


Words derived using the suffixes '''mi'''/'''mai''' also pattern with these dual identity words. For example ... '''beumai''' = "somebody with knowledge of the '''béu''' language and/or culture" : '''beumi''' = "the entire body of people with knowledge of the '''béu''' language and/or culture"


..


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.
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'''-).


..
..


Earlier we have seen that when 2 nouns come together the second one qualifies the first.
There is a particle '''k+''', that when put in front of a '''saidau''' or a '''kenʒi''' gives an '''olus'''
 
You hear it a lot prefixed to animal names ... like when talking about characteristics which are common to an entire species. For example ...


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


'''jonos jenes solbur moze''' = "John and Jane drink water"
'''gèu''' "green" .......... '''k+ gèu''' "the green ones"


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 ...


'''jenes solbori moʒi lé ʔazwo''' = "Jane drank water and milk"
{|
|-
! k+ sadu || r || jodo || jini
|-
| elephant-kind || {{small|COP}} || animal || clever
|}


'''jonos jenes bwuri hói sadu lé léu ʔusʔa''' = John and Jane saw two elephants and three giraffes.
Note ... '''k+''' is in free variation with '''kài''' "sort/type/kind"


[ Compare the above two examples to '''á jono jene solbori moze''' = Jane's John drank water ... i.e. The John that is in a relationship with Jane, drank water ]


This word is that is never written out in full but has its own symbol. See below ...
'''**''' Birds smaller than pidgeons are '''bodai'''. Birds that are pidgeon size and above are '''jwado''' ... '''jwado''' is '''kenʒi'''.


..
..


.. As parts of speech
== ..... Saidau==


..
..


'''pilamoi''' of location phrases (i.e. nouns with 1 -> 8 or 15) can be considered adjectives if they come after a noun and adverbs if they come after a verb. They must come after a noun or a verb. Sometimes they come after the copula<sup>*</sup>. In this case they are adjectives. Now often the copula is dropped ... but if this dropping results in any ambiguity it can be readily "undropped".
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 ...


'''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.
'''bàu gèu''' = a/the green man


'''pilamo''' phrases defining sentence rolls (i.e. nouns with 9, 10, 11 or 12) can come anywhere. They are considered nouns.
'''bàu r gèu''' = a/the man is green


<sup>*</sup> [ Notice that in English, you can either say ... "a bird is in the tree" or "in the tree is a bird"
'''gèu''' above is a simple adjective. Adjective phrases exist as well.


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. ]
An important particle that increases the degree of an adjective is  '''sowe'''. For example ... '''gèu sowe''' "very green"


..
..


== ... Questions==
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 ]


..


English is quite typical of languages in general and has 8 content question words ... "which", "what", "who", "whose", "where", "when", "how" and "why".
'''+ gèu''' = a/the green one


[ Note ... there was also a "whom" until quite recently ]
'''k+ gèu''' = a/the green ones


These are the most profound words in the English language. (When I say "profound" I am talking about "time depth" ... these words are very very old)
'''kuwai gèu''' = greenness


However these question words have over the mellenia been sequestered to support other functions. For example "who" can  be used to ....


1) Solicit a response in the form of a persons identity
OK ... that's better.


2) As a relativizer particle ... for example ... "The man who kicked the dog"


3) As a complement clause particle ... for example ... "She asked who had kicked the dog"
'''+''' and '''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.


4) In the compound "whoever" which is an indefinite pronoun.
'''kuwai''' is a word meaning  property/characteristic.


Only in the first example is "who" asking a question.
Actually these 3 words are also productive with "locatives" and "genitives" as well. For example ...


..
'''+ pobomau''' = the one on top of the mountain


'''béu''' is quite rich when it comes to question words. It has ten  ...
'''+ yó jene''' = the one belonging to Jane


..
..


{| border=1
[[Image:TW_918.png]]
  |align=center| '''nén nós'''
  |align=center| what
  |-
  |align=center| '''mín mís'''
  |align=center| who
  |-
  |align=center|  '''láu'''
  |align=center| "how much/many"
  |align=center| ....... appears to the left of a noun or adjective
  |-
  |align=center| '''kái'''
  |align=center| "what kind of"
  |align=center| ....... appears to the right of a noun
  |-
  |align=center| '''dá'''
  |align=center| where
  |-
  |align=center| '''kyú'''
  |align=center| when
  |-
  |align=center| '''sái'''
  |align=center| why
  |-
  |align=center|  '''nái'''
  |align=center| which
  |align=center| ....... appears to the right of a noun
  |-
  |align=center|  '''ʔai?'''
  |align=center| "solicits a yes/no response"
  |align=center| ... always utterance final
  |-
  |align=center|  '''ʔala'''
  |align=center| which of two
  |align=center| ... between the two sentence elements ... one must be chosen
  |}


..
..


If you hear any of these words you know you are being solicited for some information. These words have no other function apart from asking questions. [ ??? ]
The above chart shows the main derivational pathways in '''béu'''. Only pathways 2, 3, 4 are relevent to this section.


..
..


Notice that there is no one word for "how" in the above table. This is expressed by the 2-word expression '''wé nái''' "which method".
Note ... '''+ gèu sowe''' = "a/the very green one" ...  '''sowe''' never modifies a  '''senko'''.


On the other hand, '''béu''' has single words where English requires the 2-word expression "how much" and the 3-word expression "what kind of"
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 ?)


..
..


'''nós''' and '''mís''' are the ergative equivalents to '''nén''' and '''mín''' (the unmarked words). The dative forms are '''í nén''' and '''í mín'''.
== ..... Pila?o==


..
..


English is among the 1/3 of world languages which fronts a question word. [ see http://wals.info/feature/93A#2/25.5/151.2 ] '''béu''' fronts 5 of its 10 question words ... '''nén mín sái dá''' and '''kyú'''.
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"


Now '''láu kái''' and '''nái''' are stuck within'''*''' their NP  (refer back to the diagram in the section titled '''seŋko''') and the elements in a NP are fixed. Well it is possible that '''láu''' could come sentence initial but not '''kái dá''' and '''nái''' as they are positioned to the right of the mandatory head.
These 17 cases are called '''pila?o'''.


[ Actually '''dá''' can appear inside a NP ... where it refers to the position of the noun OR it can be outside the NP ... in which case it refers to where the action takes place ]
These are attached to a noun and show the relationship of that noun with respect to the rest of the sentence.


As for the other 2 question words ... '''ʔai?''' always come sentence final ...  and '''ʔala''' comes between two elements of the same class (these elements subject to the usual ordering rules)
..


Here are some examples of these words in action ...
The word '''pila?o''' is built up from ;-
 
'''pila''' (v) = to place, to position, to correctly align
 
'''pila?o''' (n) = the positioner


..
..


Statement ... '''bàus glán nori alha''' = the man gave the woman flowers
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.]


Question 1 ... '''mís glán nori alha''' = who gave the woman flowers ?
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 ...


Question 2 ... '''í mín bàus nori alha''' = the man gave flowers to who ?
..


Question 3 ... '''nén bàus glán nori''' = what did the man give the woman ?
'''glás bàu timporI''' => The woman hit the man ............... (with "the man" being the O argument)


Question 4 ... '''í glá nái bàus nori alha''' = the man gave the flowers to which woman ?
'''glá bàus timporI''' => The man hit the woman ................. (with "the man" being the A argument)


Question 5 ... '''á bàu nái glán nori alha''' = which man gave the woman flowers ?
'''bàu tìah doikori''' => The man walked home ........................... (with "the man" being the S argument) ... [ '''béu''' is an ergative language and hence the O and S argument have the same form.]


Question 6 ... '''alha kái bàus glán nori''' = what type of flowers did the man give the woman ?
..


Question 7 ... '''láu alha bàus glán nori''' = how many flowers did the man give the woman
[[Image:SW_063.png]]


Question 8 ... '''bàus glán nori alha ʔala cokolate''' = Did the man gave the woman flowers or chocolate ?
..
 
Question 9 ... '''bàus glán nori alha ʔai?''' = Did the man gave the woman flowers ?


Question 10 . '''ʔír doika ʔala jaŋka''' = Do you want to walk or run
There is a regular relationship between preposition and affix, apart from (11) which is highly irregular, (16) which is irregular and (17) which is very slightly irregular. When suffixes they all are usually written using a single consonant. No confusion can arise as normally consonants are illicit word finally. However there is no abbreviated forms for (15) and (17). Of the 17 consonants, ? and n are not involved in these abbreviations.


..
..


Occasionally you hear '''nenji''' or '''minji''' as questions. These are just '''nén''' + '''jì''' and '''mín''' + '''jì''' => "for what" : "for who". The expected answer to both these questions is a NP.
The '''pila?o''' are either realized as either affixes or as prepositions.  
 
"how" is expressed as '''wé nái''' which means "which way" or "which manner"


'''*''' These 4 words often stand alone. But when they do, they are still considered within a NP ... only that the rest of the NP has been dropped.
Whether the '''pila?o''' 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.


..
'''tiadua''' = beyond the house


== ... Question words => Particles==
'''dùa tìa yó yinkai hauʔe''' = beyond the house of the pretty girl


..
..


The norm is for a language to have 7 = > 10 question words. Questions are usually short and simple. For example ... "<u>where</u> is he ?"
[[Image:TW_940.png]]


Now where in the above question has the meanings ...
[[Image:SW_092.png]]


a) A place
[[Image:SW_093.png]]


b) The speaker doesn’t know which place
[[Image:SW_094.png]]


c) This is a question … answer me !
[[Image:TW_568.png]]


Now it is not surprising that these simple questions get enbedded longer constructions. For example ... "she asked <u>where</u> is he"


Now in the above ... longer construction, (c) does not apply : it is not a sentence. However (a) and (b) still apply.


Now there is a tendency to add an element to disambiguate the question word from the indefinite. In English this has been done by adding -"ever".  
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.


Hence we get constructions like ... "you can go wherever you want"
..


Now the above construction is useful ... "wherever you want" is a place, but it is not specified as such ... a bit like a variable in mathematics.
Earlier we have seen that when 2 nouns come together the second one qualifies the first.


This derivation of a indefinite from a question word, while not universal, is very very common .... [ see http://wals.info/feature/46A#2/28.3/152.6 ]
However this is only true when the words have no '''pila?o''' affixed to them. If you have two contiguous nouns suffixed by the same '''pila?o''' then they are both considered to contribute equally to the sentence roll specified. For example ...


I wanted to reflect this feature in '''béu'''. However I did not want to add an element to the question word to derive the indefinite as the indefinite is as useful and as common as the question word. So I settled on having (some) indefinites the same as question words, differing only by tone.
'''jonos jenes solbur moze''' = "John and Jane drink water"


In the previous section we listed 10 question words. Of these 10, I have given 6 an equivalent indefinite word.
In the absence of an affixed '''pila?o''', 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"


{| border=1
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".
  |align=center|  '''láu'''
  |align=center| "how much/many"
  |align=center|  '''làu'''
  |align=center| as, so
  |-
  |align=center| '''kái'''
  |align=center| "what kind of"
  |align=center| '''kài'''
  |align=center| like, as
  |-
  |align=center| '''dá'''
  |align=center| where
  |align=center| '''dà'''
  |align=center| where
  |-
  |align=center| '''kyú'''
  |align=center| when
  |align=center| '''kyù'''
  |align=center| when
  |-
  |align=center| '''sái'''
  |align=center| why
  |align=center| '''sài'''
  |align=center| because of
  |-
  |align=center|  '''nái'''
  |align=center| which
  |align=center|  '''nài'''
  |align=center| "relativizer"
  |}


..
..


=== ... nài===
.. As parts of speech


..
..


In English, one of the functions of "who" is as a relativizer ... a particle that introduced a relative clause. For example ....
'''pila?o''' of location phrases (i.e. nouns with 1 -> 8 or 15) can be considered adjectives. They must come after a noun or a verb.


"The man who ate the chicken got sick"
'''pila?o''' 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.


Also in English, one of the functions of "that" is as a relativizer. For example ....
'''pila?o''' phrases defining sentence rolls (i.e. nouns with 9, 10, 11 or 12) can come anywhere. They are considered clause arguments.


"The chicken that was eaten must have been off"
----


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


In '''béu''' there is only one relativizer, which is '''nài'''.
<sup>*</sup> [ Notice that in English, you can either say ... "a bird is in the tree" or "in the tree is a bird"


'''nài''' takes case affixes the same way that a normal noun would. For example ...
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. ]


pi ... the basket '''naipi''' the cat shat was cleaned by John.
----


la ... the chair '''naila''' you are sitting was built by my grandfather.
'''jenes solbori moʒi lé ʔazwo''' = "Jane drank water and milk"


... mau / goi / ce / dua / bene / komo ...
'''jonos jenes hecuri sadu ima lé ʔusfa uya''' = John and Jane saw two elephants and three giraffes.


tu ... '''báu naitu ò''' is going to market is her husband = the man with which she is going to town is her husband ... '''kli.o naitu''' he severed the branch is rusty
This word is that is never written out in full but has its own symbol. See below ...


ji ... The old woman '''naiji''' I deliver the newspaper, has died.
..


-s ... '''báu nàis timpori glá_rò  ʔaiho''' = The man that hit the woman is ugly.
== ..... Maŋga==


wo ... The boy '''naiwo''' they are all talking, has gone to New Zealand.
..


-n ... the woman '''nàin''' I told the secret, took it to her grave.
These are verbs. In particular '''maŋga''' = "the infinitive form of the verb" or "verbal noun". They call it "maSdar" in Arabic.


fi ... the town '''naifi''' she has come is the biggest south of the mountain.
I shall call it "base verb".


?e ... '''nambo naiʔe''' she lives is the biggest in town = the house in which she lives is the biggest in town
In the BLT ('''béu''' linguistic tradition) the base verb is considered "dead" or "inactive". Only when a suitable "tail" is added does it become "alive" or "active".


-lya ... the boat '''nailya''' she has just entered is unsound
So "finite verb" is called '''maŋga ?algu'''. The infinitive form of the verb is simply  '''maŋga'''  


-lfe ... the lilly pad '''nailfe''' the frog jumped was the biggest in the pond.
(By the way ...  '''?algu''' = alive) ... the next Chapter is all about  '''maŋga ?algu'''.


..
..


The relativizer '''nài''' always follows a noun or a pronoun. The third person pronouns plus relativizer are shown below ...  
In '''béu''' the base verb is a noun. This is different to most languages in the world. In most languages, verbal nouns are derived from verbs. For example ... destroy => destruction : verb => noun whereas in '''béu'''. For example ... '''twá''' : "a/the meeting" => '''twarua''' : "I intend to meet".


'''ʃì nài'''  :  '''ʃís nài'''    :  '''ò nài'''    :    '''ós nài'''  :    '''nù nài'''  :  '''nús nài'''
..


In English we have what is called a headless relative clause. '''béu''' does not have this. An English headless relative clause would be translated using one of the six forms above.  For example ...
English is very chaotic as to the various means it derives nouns from verbs. For example ... "discover" + "y" => the discovery ... "destroy" + "tion" => the destruction ... "run" + '''∅''' => a/the run. Whereas '''béu''' is as orderly as it is possible to get.  


'''ʃì nài bw-r r ʃì nài m-r''' = "what you see is what you get"
OK ... lets get started ...


..
'''solbe''' = "to drink"


There are 5 nouns that are associated with 5 of these above question word / indefinite pairs. '''làus''' = amount, quantity : '''kàin''' = kind, sort, type : '''dàs''' = place : '''kyùs''' accasion, time : '''sàin''' = reason, cause, origin
Now the '''manga''' can amalgamate with other elements. For example ...


These 5 nouns are never followed by '''nài'''. The table below is interesting. It shows the logical equivalence of a hypothetical expession (on the LHS) and the logical equivalent actually used (on the RHS).
'''solbe saco''' = "to drink quickly" or "drinking quickly"


..
...and adding more elements ...


'''*làus nài''' => '''làu'''
'''solbe moze sacois*''' = "to drink the water quickly" or "drinking the water quickly"


'''*kàin nài''' => '''kài'''  
'''solbe moze sacois''' and  '''solbe saco''' are examples of '''maŋguma''' ('''maŋga''' plus the augmentive  -'''uma''')


'''*dàs nài''' =>  ''''''
Actually a  '''maŋguma''' can get as involved as a clause can. With arguments to the left of the head considered definite and arguments to the right, indefinite. But there is one difference. The ergative argument is marked by the particle '''hí''' rather than '''há''' or -'''ta''' or -'''s'''.


'''*kyùs  nài''' => '''kyù'''
so adding even more elements ...


'''*sàin nài''' => '''sài'''
'''hí jono solbe moze sacois hí jono''' = "John drinking the water quickly" or "for John to drink the water quickly".


..
This is as involved as I will go. But note that other clausal elements ( dative object, time, adverb, instrument, reason, purpose) can be added. As in normal clauses there is a tendancy to add them to the RHS.  


There are two adjectives associated with these question word / indefinite pairs.  '''laubo''' meaning "enough" and '''kaibo''' meaning "suitable".
Now the '''maŋguma''' is basically a noun ... as is '''kenʒi''' and '''olus'''. And as with '''kenʒi''' and '''olus''' more modifiers can be added.


..
..


=== ... sài ===
[[Image:SW_095.png]]I don't know the '''béu''' name for this. Actually I don't know the English name for this.
 
The items in the determiner slot are quite rare compared to  '''kenʒi''', but they are licit. There can be nothing in the quantity slot or the ownership slot.


..
The "number + '''wì'''" modifier is quite rare. It means "so many iterations of the action". For example ...


'''sài''' = because of
'''uya wì hí pà solbe moze''' = (the) three times I drank water


'''dari solbe sài ò''' = I started to drink because of her  ..................................................  '''sài ò'''  can be considered an adverb of reason.
..


Note ... '''sài''' means "because of" ... '''sài gò''' means "because"
Adjectives can be a bit confusing. For example '''saco''' "quick" would be used immediately after '''maŋga'''. But if not immediately after '''maŋga''' but within the '''maŋguma''', it should take the form '''sacois''' (-'''is''' being the adjective => adverb suffix). But is it is outwith the '''maŋguma''' in the quality slot it will be '''saco'''. Got it ?


..
..


=== ... kyù ===
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.


..
In a similar vain you have a choice as to where to put a locative. A locative can be placed in the locative slot or it can be placed in '''maŋguma'''. No change of form for the locative ...


'''kyù''' = when
'''solbe moze sacois tiapi hí jono''' = '''solbe moze sacois hí jono tiapi''' = "John drinking the water quickly in the house" = "for John to drink the water quickly in the house".


'''toili gìn naru kyù twairu''' = I will give you the book when we meet ............................  '''kyù twairu'''   can be considered an adverb of time
OK ... so much for '''maŋguma'''.


..
..


=== ... dà ===
Now we have already introduced the  '''pila?o'''. The '''pila?o''' are totally compatible with '''kenʒi'''. Nearly totally compatible with '''olus'''. However only two '''pila?o''' fit in with '''maŋga'''. These are '''pila?o''' 2 and 9 ... '''là''' and '''tú'''. When fitted to '''maŋga''' they produce an adjective and an adverb respectively.


..
..


'''''' = where
We'll talk about and adverbial construction first ...
 
'''tore doikatu''' = "he/she came on foot" or  "he/she came by walking"
 
'''tore tú doika saco''' = "he/she came by walking quickly"


'''pà twahu dà yildos twaire''' = meet me where we met in the morning ...............................  '''dà yildos twaire'''  can be considered an adverb of place.
Notice that the particle '''''' acts as it normally does and appends to the end of a single word, but stands alone to the left of a multi-word phrase.


..
..


=== ... kài ===
And the adjectival constuction ...


..
..


'''kài''' = like, as .... means "in the manner specified" and is used in front a clause.
..


..
{|
|-
! bàu || doika-la
|
| man || walk-{{small|1SG-IND-PRES}}
|}


1) [ John smokes '''kài''' a chimney ]
{|
|-
! bàu || r  ||doika-la
|
| man || {{small|COPULA} ||walk-{{small|P2}}
|}


2) [ She will use deceit as before ]
Also '''là''' appears often in conjunction with '''manga'''


3a) '''gì r gombuʒi kài jono''' = you are argumentative like John
The ''''''-constuction acts as an adjective. An adjective meaning "XXX-ing" at the (relevant ???) moment of speech". As with all adjectives it can either be part of a NP or it can be a copular complement. For example ...


3b) '''gì r làu gombuʒi jonowo''' = "you are as argumentative as John"
'''bàu doikala''' = a/the walking man


4) [ The kidnappers released him as agreed ]
'''bàu r doikala''' = a/the man is walking .... [Note ... '''bàu r doikala''' means exactly the same as '''bàu doikora''']


5) '''tomo r kài jono''' = Thomas is like John
'''''' differs from most other '''pila?o''' in that, with a '''manga''', it never stands alone. For example ...


6) '''tomos kludor kài jonos''' = Thomas writes like John ............................................................. all the above  can be considered adverbs of manner.
'''bàu doikala sacois''' = a/the quickly walking man .... [Note ... the affix -'''is''' is appended to '''saco''' to show it is connected to '''doika''' and not '''bàu'''] instead of '''*bàu là doika saco'''


..
In a '''là'''-constuction, everything has the same order as a MP ... the only difference is that -'''la''' is appended to the '''manga''' and '''hí''' XXX is dropped. Well  '''hí''' XXX represents the A argument and the A argument is the thing being described by the '''là'''-constuction, so no need to exist inside the construction.


Note ... all the above should be actually two clauses but because of truncation ... [ a chimney ] <= [ a chimney smokes ] ... [ before ] <= [ she used deceit before ] ...  [ John ] <= [ John is argumentative ] ...  [ agreed ] <= [ all parties agreed ] ... [ John ] <= [ John is ] ... these constructions often appear as if only a NP follows '''kài'''.
This '''là'''-constuction can be called the present participle. The present participle has the meaning "in the process of XXXing".For example ...  


Usually for particles that can either be followed by a NP or a clause, I add '''''' after the particle when a clause follows. This is to prevent errors in comprehention. For example '''jì''' means "for" and is followed by a NP (usually a person). I have '''jì gò''' meaning "in order that"  ...  '''jì gò''' being followed by a clause. In '''béu''' the first word of a clause is often a noun. If I had '''jì''' meaning "in order that" there might be misunderstanding (albeit temporary). English does this also in many constructions [ I should go into this more fully ??? ]. Of course I could have a totally different particle for "in order that" but I wanted to emphasis the semantic overlap between these to constructions.
'''doika''' "to walk" =>  '''doikala''' "in the process of walking"  


But there is no chance of misunderstanding when '''kài''' is heard ... it is always followed by a clause. Even in (5) what we have is a clause. The clause is '''jono r''' (with the '''r''' dropped). Actually '''kài''' means "in the manner or roll specified" ... the last bit added to include cases like (5).
'''kata''' "to cut" => '''katala''' "in the process of cutting".


..
When derived from a transitive verb the object can be included as well. For example '''katala lazde''' "in the process of cutting the grass".  


Note ... '''kài''' can not be followed by an adjective.
[ Note ... '''bàu katala lazde''' "the man cutting the grass" means the same as '''bàu nàis katora lazde''' "the man who is cutting the grass" ... however the first is nearly always preferred ... well it is shorter ]


..
[ Also note ... '''pà r katala lazde''' means the same as '''(pás) katara lazde''' ... however the second is nearly always preferred ... well it is shorter ]


=== ... làu ===
O arguments (in an equivalent active clause) can be modified by the '''là'''-construction as well. For example ... '''lazde jwola kata''' "grass being cut" ... '''jwola kata''' being classed as an adjective phrase ('''jwòi''' meaning "to undergo").


..
..


'''làu''' means "to such an extent or degree" and is used in front of adjectives. The below are all single clauses.
'''maŋga''' ... as well as appearing as arguments in a clause. That is S, A, O, CS and CO, also appear as complements to auxiliary verbs.


..
One such auxilliary is '''tuma''' meaning "to squeaze" or "to force". [ when it means "to squeaze" it is followed by a '''kenʒi''' and is acting as a normal verb, when it means "to force" it is followed by a '''manga''' and is acting as an auxiliaryl verb ]


7) '''jono r làu bòi jenewo''' = "john is as good as jane"


8) '''tomo r làu''' fat _ '''plùa bù blòr doika''' = "thomas is so fat that he can not walk"
In these constructions, there is a very strong tendency (almost a rule) that the '''maŋga''' is on RHS of  '''maŋguma'''. However if an ergative (A) argument is present, that element can instead be on RHS. Also a very strong tendency fot the O aurgment to directly follow the '''maŋga'''. There is a fairly strong tendency for the S argument to directly follow the '''maŋga'''.


9) '''ʔazwo pona làu hói hoŋko''' = two cups of hot milk 
So ...


..
Thomas forced John to hit Jane => '''tomos tumori timpa jene hí jono''' or '''tomos hí jono timpa jene'''


There are three main usages for this particle. The three examples above demonstrate these three usages.
Thomas forced Jane to walk => '''tomos tumori doika jene'''
..


To say something like "john is as good at writing as jane" you have to use '''ʔà''' (or '''ʔàbis''') ... see the next section.
[By the way ... as an example of '''tuma''' being a normal verb ... '''tomos jwuba komo jene tumori''' = Thomas squeazed Jane's left buttock ]


..
..


Note that 3) and 8) do not mean the same thing ... '''kài''' defines a multi-characteristic concept (thing or action) while '''làu''' specifies position'''*''' on a uni-characteristic scale. ['''*''' or "degree" or "amount"]. So '''làu''' introduces only a quantity and '''kài''' intruduces a quality or manner.
Two other examples of '''maŋga''' with auxilliary verbs (why not) ...


..
1) ... '''mbe''' = to hold ..... '''lelpa''' = to sing, singing ..... '''jenes mbor lelpa bòi''' = Jane can sing well. ['''lelpai''' = a song ?]


[[Image:TW_621.png]]
2) ... '''glù''' = to depart ... '''timpa''' = to hit, hitting ...  '''jonos glori timpa jene''' = John stopped hitting Jane


..
..


I find the above table interesting. It is skewed ... OK '''pí wé nài''' ("in the manner that") can be used but it hardly ever is. Usually '''kài''' = "in the manner that". Why is it skewed ? My answer is ...
One notable use of the '''maŋga''' is emphasis, where the '''manga''' is used right next to the same word in '''r'''-form. For example ...


"For everyone the most important things around them are other people. And the most important "attribute" of a person is "how" they behave."
{|
|-
! daw-o-r-u || dàu
|-
| die-{{small|3SG-IND-FUT}} || death
|} = He/she will die a death => He/she will die for sure


Hence '''kài''' has supplanted '''pí wé nài'''.
..


Also notice that any adjective outwith a NP has to be introduced by the copula, hence '''sàu kài''' instead of simply '''kài'''.
{|
|-
! lay-o-r-i || lái
|-
| live-{{small|3SG-IND-PAST}} || life
|} = He/she lived a life => He/she had a full life


..
..


Note ... '''nù r làu jutu saduwo''' and '''nù r jutu kài sadu''' do not mean the same thing ...  '''nù r làu jutu saduwo''' would be said when you have one specific '''sadu''' "elephant" in mind.
{|
|-
! maum-a-r-i || mauma
|-
| sleep-{{small|1SG-IND-PAST}} || sleep
|} = I slept a sleep => I had a deep and satisfying sleep


So  '''nù r làu jutu saduwo''' => "they're as big as the elephant" ... '''nù r jutu kài sadu''' would be said when you are talking about elephants in general. So => "they're as big as elephants"


..
Now '''maumori mauma''' and '''daw.oru dàu''' are strange. Normally both verbs are strictly intransitive. But here there are transitive. Seemingly sometimes '''béu''' allows
 
a) intransitive => transitive
b) A argument => absolutive form
c) O argument = '''maŋga'''


===  ... The same or not the same===
'''pà maumari mauma''' is the answer to '''mìn maumari mauma'''


..
..
..


'''ʔài''' = "same"
'''*''' Another way to say this is '''solbe saco moze**'''  


'''bù ʔài''' = "different"
'''**''' If '''saco''' doesn't immediately follows the  '''manga''', it must be explicitly tagged as an adverb by the -'''is''' suffix. The exact same rule as for (finite)clauses.


Note ... for "the other", NP before the verb : for "another", NP after the verb)
----
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 .... '''hecari bàu katala lazde''' is just analyzed as Verb '''hecari''' ... Object '''bàu''' and Adjective Phrase '''katala lazde'''


1a) ''' jono lé jene sùr ʔài bèn ''' = "John and Jane are the same"  ... logically the ''' bèn ''' is unnecessary, but it is often included ... euphony.
----


1b) '''jono r ʔài jenewo''' = "John is the same as Jane"
== ..... Feŋgi==


The above two examples are ambiguous as to whether John and Jane are the same w.r.t. one characteristic or the same w.r.t. all characteristic.
..


2a) '''jono lé jene r ʔài jutuwo''' = "John and Jane are the same size"
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.


2b) '''*jono r ʔài jenewo jutuwo''' = "John is the same as Jane, sizewise" = "John is the same size as Jane"
..


The above is not allowed ... there is a rule saying that you can't have two consecutive -'''wo''' endings. So 2b) has to be re-assembled as ...
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'''**'''.


'''jono r làu jutu jenewo''' .... see Ch2.11.1
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.  


[Note '''jutuwo''' is derived from '''jutumiwo''' but the '''mi''' "ness" is invariably dropped.
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. The ergative system ...


'''ʔàibis''' = similar
..


'''ʔài dù''' = exactly the same
{|
|-
! bàu || lé || glá || maum-u-r-i
|-
| man || and || woman||align=center| sleep-{{small|3PL-IND-PAST}}
|} ==> The man and the woman slept


'''ʔaimai''' = similarity


'''lomai''' = difference
{|
|-
! bàu-s ||align=center| glá || timp-o-r-i
|-
| man-{{small|ERG}} || align=centre|woman|| hit-{{small|3SG-IND-PAST}}
|} ==> The man hit the woman
 


To say something like "John is as good at writing as Jane" we can not say '''*jono r làu bòi jenewo kludauwo''' [ ??? ] [ two consecutive -'''wo''' no good ? ]
{|
|-
! bàu ||align=center| glá-s || timp-o-r-i
|-
| man ||align=centre| woman-{{small|ERG}}|| hit-{{small|3SG-IND-PAST}}
|} ==> The woman hit the man


You must use a sort of topic comment construction.
..


'''wo kludau bòi_jene r ʔài jonowo''' or '''wo kludau bòi_jene lé jono r ʔài '''
Below are the '''béu''' pronouns for the S and O arguments. This form can be considered the "unmarked form".


..
..


=== ... Good, Better, Best===
[[Image:SW_119.png]][[Image:SW_108.png]]


..
..


'''làu''' is part of a larger paradigm ... the comparative paradigm ... demonstrating with the help of '''bòi''' ("good")  ...
'''mpau''' includes the listener in the "we", '''pài''' excludes the listener from the "we" and '''''' indicates a plural "you".


..
The proper way to use '''?o''' is to use it for all non-humans. But in actually practice, some people might "elevate" the status of a family pet and call it '''òn''' or '''ʃì'''.


{| border=1
'''onde''' is used for "they" when they are all male, '''ʃide''' is used for "they" when they are all female, '''ʃinde''' is used for "they" when they are mixed, and '''?ode''' is used for "they"when they are all non-human.
  |align=center| >>>
  |align=left| '''boimo'''
  |align=left| best
  |-
  |align=center| >
  |align=left| '''boige'''
  |align=left| better
  |-
  |align=center| =
  |align=left| '''làu bòi'''
  |align=left| as good
  |-
  |align=center| <
  |align=left| '''boizo'''
  |align=left| less good
  |-
  |align=center| <<<
  |align=left| '''boizmo'''
  |align=left| least good
  |}


..
..


The top and the bottom items are the superlative degree and so have no "standard of comparison".
Below are the '''béu''' pronouns for the A argument  ... the "ergative form".
 


The fourth one down is used less frequently than the second one down. This is because its sentiment is sometimes expressed by negating the third one down. For example ...
[[Image:SW_120.png]]


'''gì bù r làu bòi pawo''' = "you're not as good as me" can be used instead of  '''gì r boizo pawo''' "you are less good than me"
..


[ actually '''gì r boizo pawo''' would be the normal way to express this sentiment. But '''gì bù r làu bòi pawo''' would be used, for example,  as a retort to "I'm as good as you" ]
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 ...


The superlative forms are found as nouns more often than as adjectives. That is '''boimo''' and '''boizmo''' are rarer than '''boimos''' and '''boizmos'''. (see table below)
From now on I will call the ergative form the '''s'''-form, and the unmaked form the base form.


..
..


'''boimos''' =  the best : '''bàu boimo''' = the best man
There is one other pronoun ... the reflexive pronoun ''''''. This is always an O argument. Notice that it is the only O argument with a high tone.


'''boizmos''' = the least good :  '''bàu boizmo''' = the least good man
..


..
'''*''' 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).  


[ you are argumentative like John but you are even worse ] ... explain this more
'''**''' By the way, there are 17 marked forms (cases) in '''béu''' ... the ergative being one of these.


..
..

Latest revision as of 21:00, 26 June 2020

TW 415.png

..... 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.

..

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 counted as a type of fengi.

An example is .. the preposition indicating the oblique case.

..

2) kenʒi = an object

An example is bàu ... "a man"

..

3) olus = material, stuff

An example is moze ... "water"

..

4) saidau = adjective

An example is nelau ... "dark blue"

..

5) manga = a verb in its base form (citation form). When used "actively" it will take its r-form, u-form or i-form.

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

..

SW 062.png

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..... Kenʒi

..

kenʒi can mean "noun". It can also mean "noun phrase" (NP).

.

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

The noun can take six types of modifiers. These six types must come in a certain order ...

..

SW 070.png

..

In the above diagram, an descending arrow followed by a bar indicates a closed set. A descending arrow by itself indicates an open set. Branching arrows indicate multiple possibilities.

The head of the NP can be referred to as kenʒita. Usually it is called this by lay people and by linguists when the concept is first brought up. However, thereafter it is usually referred to as húa meaning "head".

kenʒita is kenʒi plus the diminutive suffix. kenʒi can also take the augmentative suffix -uma. kenzuma "extended noun phrase" is a normal kenʒi, with either a relative clause (RC) appended to the right or a partitive appended to the left hand side

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. But even these elements can be dropped on occasion ... when they are understood from context or the preceding conversation. When we have one adjective, and the head is understood, ɘ can be substituted for the head, if the head is plural.

ɘ gèu = a/the green one : kɘ gèu = a/the green ones

These two particles can also be used with other noun modifiers, however not always mandators with non-adjective modifiers.

ɘ nái = which one : kɘ nái = which ones

kɘ dí = these ones : ɘ dè = this one

However nái, and can constitute NP's by themselves. A bit like English

Looking at the chart above might give you a false impression of béu noun phrases. The number of modifiers within a noun phrase is usually only one or two. When there is two, they must occur in a certain order, hence the necessity of the chart above. I don't think it would be easy to process a noun phrase with six modifiers, probably some of them would be shunted off into a RC with an initial copula. A noun phrase can take multiple RC's. They can stand beside each other in a sort of apposition.

I should make one further point here. The particles ú "all" and "no" can appear to the left of the head. They can also appear in the quantity slot.

..

... Quality

..

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

kái meaning "what type" can also 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)

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 the other way around.

béu has two adjectives that come in this slot that are worth mentioning. They might have claims to particle-hood, but I guess their appearance in this slot marks them as adjectives. No reason that they can't be both.

1) ... = "other"

The semantics of this word remind me of the semantics of tuge/jige. With the relative quantifiers the speech participants have agreed on the number/amount relevant to the situation. tuge/jige are used to change this value. Similarly is used in a situation where the speech participants have agreed on the population (of whatever noun category) under consideration but one of them wants to expand this population.

2) ... laubo = enough

..

... Quantity

..

This slot is very interesting ...

SW 071.png

The above chart is split into definite and vague sections. All the items under definite represent an integer (or "the empty set" or "the full set"). The items under vague represent an approximate number/amount. This section is further divided into discrete and non-discrete (i.e. countable.non-countable).

modifies both discrete and non-discrete. It means a moderate amount ... some value between zero and "all". It does NOT mean "indefinite" ... "some man" is bàu èn, not *bàu yè.

This word can be used to mark plurality (together with iyo and hài) for those nouns that can not be pluralized in themselves. For example ... húa, "head" : húa yè, "heads".

jí jí and jía are about equally common and mean the same thing. However jía tends to be used in more formal situations and jí jí in less formal.

..

láu (how many) can appear in this slot. In which case it turns the NP (and hence the clause containing the NP) into a question. For example ...

bàu jutu láu = "How many men are big ?" or "How many big men ?" ???????????

..

The chart above shows only the terms used for absolute quantity ????????????????? It does not cover, what I call relative quantity. Let me explain ...

Imagine the speaker and the hearer both have an idea of the number/amount relevant to a situation but one of them wants to change this number/amount. The amount he wants to change this agreed number/amount by, I call the relative quantity. It can be positive or negative. When positive we use the word tuge "more" ... when negative we use the word jige "less" *. For example ...

turi waudo tuge = more dogs came

t-u-r-i waudo tuge
come-3PL-IND-PST dog more

These to particles can be modified by some (most) of the terms given in the chart above. They can be modified by any of the terms hi-lighted in orange.

Sw 060.png

For example ... bía tuge ima = two more beers please"

Note : actually jía and tundu are not applicable to kenʒi. They are only applicable to olus

..

* These words might be derived somehow from jutu "big" and tiji "small" ... along with the comparative suffix -ge **.

The comparative suffix can be appended to any adjectives. For example ... jini "clever" => jinige "cleverer" : hau?e "beautiful" => hau?ege "more beautiful"

There is also a superlative suffix ... -mo. So jinimo "cleverest" amd hau?emo "most beautiful"

** There is an independant word which might be related to the comparative suffix. It is a particle that always comes in twos. For example ... gé tundu ... gé bói "the more the merrier".

Sometimes you coma across bù tuge "no more". This should be analysed as a contraction of bù ?ár tuge "I don't want more".

*** Perhaps wóin is related to the verb gwói "to pass by" plus the past participle -in.

..

... Ownership

..

Basically you can just stick a personal name, a pronoun or any NP in here and the head noun will be considered owned by the object inserted here.

Sometimes, the particle precedes the object inserted.

For example jwado gèu yó jene = Jane's big green bird

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

If mín (who) is stuck in this slot ... then we have a question. For example ...

jwado gèu yó mín = Whose big green bird ? = Whose's the big green bird ?

There can be ambiguity with some kenʒi possessing a genitive. For example ...

Does waudo bàu dí mean "the dog of this man" or "this dog of the man" ?

To get around this, we have a special rule ...

"If anything is in the ownership slot, and never appear in the determiner slot. Instead they appear as dían "here" and dene "there" in the locative slot"

Note ... sometimes ownership as such is not what is of interest, it is if a person has actual physical possession. In this case is not used. But the object takes pila?o 2.

jwado gèu là Long John Silver catora = The big green bird (on Long John's shoulder presumably) is chatting away.

Actually segments showing actually physical possession like the example above, go in the locative slot which we will cover next.

..

... Location

..

Ordinal numbers appear in this slot. The ordinal numbers are ...

SW 066.png

You will notice that there are two words for first ... da?a and dahua. They are both equally common, but da?a tends to occur in the presence of dima or duya while dahua tends to occur in the presence of dauci.

..

Proper locatives comprise a noun plus one of the 9 pila?oi .... pi la mau goi ce do bene komo ni. For example ...

duzu pobomau = The oryx on the mountain

Also pila?o 14 turns up in this slot. These items are strictly not giving information about "location" but rather "origin". They are classed as a locatives nevertheless. For example ...

bàu glazgofi = a/the man from Glasgow

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

duzu máu pobo jutu = The oryx on the big mountain

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

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

nài r máu pobo hau?e jutu is a relative clause. We will cover RC's in a bit.

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

polga?o nài r fiagan gwai = "the sailing boat which is among the islands" or simply "the sailing boat among the islands"

..

Also "where" can appear in this slot. In which case it turns the noun phrase into a question. For example ...

bàu gèu dá = where is the green man ?

..

Addendum ... To keep things simple I refrained from mentioning this before but time can also be expressed in this slot. For example "the turmoil 1300's". Actually location AND time can both be in this slot at the same time. For example "the anger Iceland 1950's ...".

..

* Probably derived from uci "tail".

..

... Determiner

..

There are five of these ... (this), (that), nái (which), èn (some) and ín (any) . For example ...

and are called demonstratives in the WLT. They will be covered in the section after next.

nái turns the whole noun phrase into a question. For example ...

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

And of course, if a NP represents a question, any clause containing this NP will also be a question. For example ...

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

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

There is one little rule to remember ...

"Only one item is allowed in this slot, so if you want an indefinite as well as a demonstrative, the demonstrative is shunted off to the locative slot and given the form dían or dene."

I guess this is logical in a way. and were originally associated with pointing. But when the object is indefinite, how can you point ? "here" or "there" is about as definite as you can get.

..

... Side-note re demonstratives

..

"this" and "that" are two words that orientate and focus the hearer's attention on an object (or location *) in the speech situation. These words are called demonstratives in the WLT.

According to Holger [ Diessel (1999:57) ] ...

i) A demonstrative can be construed as an argument in its own right. That is, it can constitute a NP without any additional elements.

ii) A demonstrative can co-occur with a noun in a NP. That is, it can be a noun modifier.

iii)* A demonstatives can function as a verb modifier. It specifies (the) location (where something happens **).

* Perhaps in a more earlier version of the WLT "location" and (iii) would not be included in the definition of determiner. English and béu conform to this earlier version of the WLT. However I think it is a good idea when considering all the world's languages, to use this wider definition of "demonstrative".

"**" Perhaps in a language where a copula is not routinely used "where something happens" would not necessarily be appropriate.

And here are examples of the above three functions (in English) ...

a) This is excellent.

b) That guy is an idiot.

c) Here we do things differently.

Diachronically, these three functions can run into each other. Function (a) and function (b) are particularly close. They have the exact same form in English, but no confusion can occur, because "this/that:b" can be deduced to be inside a NP by the rules of English grammar. Most languages in the world (70%) have identical forms for "this/that:a" and "this/that:b". Of the languages that do not have identical forms, the difference can be quite subtle. For example in Thai นี่ [ nii falling tone ] is "this:a" and นี้ [ nii high tone ] is "this:b". ........... [see WALS 42A]

Some languages lack (a). For example, in Korean, to express "this:a" you must say "ce il" meaning "this thing". So (b) used instead of (a)

Some languages lack (b). They would say something like "the guy here" instead of "this guy". So (c) instead of (b)

Some languages lack (c). They would say something like "this place we do things differently" instead of "here we do things differently". So (b) instead of (c.)

[ And while we are talking on this area, perhaps we should mention 3rd person pronouns (see WALS 43A). Some languages lack 3rd person pronouns. They cover this function by saying something like "this" or "that guy" ... A further point of interest (well, I find it interesting anyway) is that the English he and here are cognates. Going back to a P.I.E. form meaning (a) or (b). -r was a ProtoGermanic adverbial suffix. ]

béu patterns pretty much like English (and the pattern of English is not atypical of the world's languages) ...

= "this:a" : = "that:a"

= "this:b" : = "that:b"

dían = "this:c" (i.e. "here") : dene = "that.c" (i.e. "there")

I was originally thinking of just appending the béu adverbial suffix -is to produce (c). But rejected that idea in order to get more phonological contrast between ...

(A) "this:c" and "that.c", (B) "this/that:a/b" and "this/that:c"

With dían there is a hint that it might be derived from plus pila?o 15. And also with dene ... a hint that it might have the same origin. But who can tell. These things are lost in the mists of time.

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... Further uses of and

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If we first hear a plural noun articulated in a conversation, the most likely meaning we would assigned to it would be the universal set. For example moltai.a. There is a more explicit means to express the universal set. For example ... kài moltai = "doctor.kind" but this construction is seldom used.

An example of usage is ... moltai.a súr jini = "doctors are clever"

OK ... now lets zoom in a bit. To zoom in we need to take in or give out some narrative. So now we hear the following ....

Next week British junior doctors will withhold many services in protest against the long hour expected of them

OK ... after hearing that ... moltai.a dè would be taken to mean "British junior doctors"

OK ... lets hear a further bit of narrative ...

Much to the disgruntlement of the senior doctors who will have a hard week ahead of them making up for the short fall.

OK ... after hearing that ... moltai.a dè would be taken to mean "British senior doctors". So, what refers to doesn't persist long, Our perspective is continually changing.

[ I can't help thinking that the proximate/obviate system existing in Plains Cree would be very useful. You could keep track of two protagonists through a discourse without reverting to full NPs. But I guess there are cognative reasons why it is difficult to use. Well, if it was easy to use, it would be far more wide-spread. It must be very useful. ]

This is in normal discourse. However if some objects are physically pointed out * when first introduced (and presumably they stay in sight for the duration of the discourse) what and referred to would persist.

So we can see that points back in time. It brings to the top of consciousness, the last set of doctors talked about.

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In a narrative many objects are encountered. If a newly introduced object is marked by it means that the object is important to the narrative and you will shortly be getting more information about it. The process is not exactly the inverse of anaphora. But one is compatible with "information given in the past leading to easy identification of which object in particular we are talking about. The other is compatible with "in the near future I will give you information about this object and you will be able to identify which object in particular I am talking about as well as I can"

béu and English are exactly the same in this respect.

* Not necessarily by using a finger ... a gesture with the head ... or even the orientation of the eyes can suffice.

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..... Kenzuma

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béu also has what I call an extended noun phrase. An extended noun phrase is a normal NP with either a partitive appended to the LHS, or a RC appended to the RHS.

The example below shows an extended noun phrase kenzuma with both a partitive AND an RC ...

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SW 090.png


uya yiŋkai ofa nài tunheu-h doik-u-r-a
..... three of girl five REL townhall-DAT walk-3PL-IND-PRES

..... Three of the five girls that are walking to the townhall.

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... The relative clause

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The béu relative clause is pretty similar to the English relative clause. However not exactly so.

A relative clause is a clause that modifies a NP of course. I think the best way to explain how the béu RC works is to give three examples. Each example will demonstrate a subtype of RC. In each example I will reconstitute the plain clause (PC) underlying the RC by looking at the NP and the RC.

(1)

yiŋkai ofa nài doik-u-r-a
the girl five REL walk-3PL-IND-PRES

=> the five girls who are walking

NP = yiŋkai ofa : RC = nài doikura => PC = yiŋkai ofa doikura "five girls are walking" ....... notice that nài is binned.

In the above PC yiŋkai is absolutive.

(2)

bàu nài-h 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

NP = bàu : RC = nàih glás fyori yiŋkaiwo => PC = bàuh glás fyori yiŋkaiwo ............ notice that nài is again binned. Also -h has to find some other word to stick on to.

In the above PC bàu is dative.

(3)

gwai.a nài polg-ai-r-a fía ?ode
the islands REL sail-1PL.INC-IND-PRES between them

=> "the islands that we are sailing between"

NP = gwaia : RC = nài polgaira fía ?ode => PC = polgaira fía gwaia ...................... nài is again binned. Also ?ode is discarded. The NP must be positioned behind fía, the preposition that governs it.

In the above PC gwaia is not absolutive, also not adorned by a pila?o. Instead it exists in a prepositional phrase. For this reason, a pronoun ?ode is needed in the RC to represent the NP

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I believe that Arabic structures its RC in a similar way to the above.

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OK ... you should all be experts in RC's now. You just run backward the 3 NP + RC => PC processes.

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This is discussed in greater detail in CH5.

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... The partitive

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A few sections back I mentioned ... the béu equivalent to "other/others/the other/another/the others".

is used where the speech participants have agreed on the population (of whatever noun category) under consideration but one of them wants to expand this population.

This expansion is a bit like "a shot in the dark", the speech participant requesting additional items usually is in the dark as to that additional items are available. Because of this, there is only one word . I mean, if the speech participant requesting additional items had an idea about what additional items were available, he could add more detail along with his request. Perhaps we would have donu meaning "another with a bell", doni meaning "another with a whistle" ... well O.K. I am being a bit facetious ... but you understand what I am getting at.

Now is used to expand the population under consideration ... to increase the scope of the conversation ... to sort of "zoom out".

Now sometimes it is necessary to "zoom in". For instance suppose you heard "three of the doctors decided to stop off at the pub on the way home" within larger narrative. After this point, these three doctors could be referred to as they. The main-protagonists/subject/topic have been reduced from eight to three. Zooming in is not a shot in the dark. The population under consideration is a known concept. The usual method is to specify the "new scope" plus the "original scope" in some sort of construction. The languages of the world all have methods for zooming in ... usually some quite simple construction, often involving a particle which has evolved from "from"/"out of". is the particle used in béu. Some examples of its use ...

ú wì moltai = all of the doctors

yè wì moltai = some of the doctore = several of those doctors = a number of those doctors

jù wì moltai = none of the doctors

tontu wì moltai dí = the majority of these doctors

a?a lú tuge wì moltai dè more = one or more of those doctors

hài wì moltai dè = many of those doctors

ima ín wì moltai dè = any two of those doctors

moltai wì bawa dí = the doctors out of these men

[ Note ... ú wì moltai = "all of the doctors" is pretty similar to ú moltai and moltai ú ... similarly these expressions with . Nothing really to worry about. You have similar flexibility in many languages (including English). Perhaps ú wì moltai stresses that no "zooming" is happening. Perhaps ú moltai is used for generic statements such as ú moltai r jini "all doctors are clever". Perhaps moltai ú is used in non-generic statements such as moltai ú ture tìa pà "all the doctors came to my home this morning" ] ..

I suppose the nearest equivalent of is "of". However has not so many functions as "of". For "belonging to", is used. For "relating to"/"connected with". is used.

[Still thinking if should be involved with "a glass of milk"/"a heart of gold"]

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Pronouns are used in partitives in the same way as NP's.

a?a wì pài = "one of us"

ima wì onde = "two of them"

há ima wì onde glá timpura = "two of them are hitting the woman"

[ I guess English is a bit stange w.r.t. plural pronoun. I mean ... why not "*two of they are walking" {following the pattern "they are walking"} instead of "two of them are walking" ]


Two other numeratives that we haven't mentioned yet are tontu "the majority"/"most" and tonji "the minority".

ton = bit/part/section ... tontu <= ton jutu ... tonji <= ton tiji ... toŋko = to seperate ???

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... 16 useful little words

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jupu nobody upu everybody
juku never uku always
juda nowhere uda everywhere
jufen nothing ufen everything

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The above are obviously eroded forms of jú pú, ú pú, ... etc. etc.

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pu.en somebody pu.in anybody
kyu.en sometime kyu.in any time
da.en somewhere da.in anywhere
fenen something fenin anything

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The above are obviously eroded forms of pú èn, pú ín etc. etc. They are all two syllable words, and of course as two syllable words lack tone.

The words in the first column above can be made plural by adding ... pu.in yè = some people, kyu.en yè = sometimes, etc. etc.

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upu and ufen can be followed by uwe to show that the group is acting (or undergoing an action) collectively.

a?awe can be added to show that the group is acting (or undergoing an action) individually.

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..... Olus

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olus can mean "noun". It can also mean "noun phrase" (NP).

Whereas kenʒi refers to countable nouns, olus is the term used for uncountable nouns (also called mass nouns).

The expansion of olus by various modifiers is quite similar to kenʒi ...


SW 091.png

Of course numbers, iyo and hài are not appropriate (quantity slot)

Also the items in the determiner slot are a bit "iffy". For example moze dí is perhaps kài moze dí with kài elided.

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So ... an example of an olus ...

hoŋko ima wì ?azwo pona = "two cups of warm milk"

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

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

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

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

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

=> a small bird is singing

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

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

=> three small birds are singing

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Here are some more of these concepts treated in this way ...

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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
alha flowers alhai a flower

.. TW 793.png

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Words derived using the suffixes mi/mai also pattern with these dual identity words. For example ... beumai = "somebody with knowledge of the béu language and/or culture" : beumi = "the entire body of people with knowledge of the béu language and/or culture"

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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 particle k+, that when put in front of a saidau or a kenʒi gives an olus

You hear it a lot prefixed to animal names ... like when talking about characteristics which are common to an entire species. For example ...

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

gèu "green" .......... k+ gèu "the green ones"


k+ sadu r jodo jini
elephant-kind COP animal clever

Note ... k+ is in free variation with kài "sort/type/kind"


** Birds smaller than pidgeons are bodai. Birds that are pidgeon size and above are jwado ... jwado is kenʒi.

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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.

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, 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 ]


+ gèu = a/the green one

k+ gèu = a/the green ones

kuwai gèu = greenness


OK ... that's better.


+ and k+ are historically derived from "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.

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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TW 918.png

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The above chart shows the main derivational pathways in béu. Only pathways 2, 3, 4 are relevent to this section.

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

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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..... Pila?o

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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 pila?o.

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 pila?o is built up from ;-

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

pila?o (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 timporI => The woman hit the man ............... (with "the man" being the O argument)

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

bàu tìah doikori => The man walked home ........................... (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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SW 063.png

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There is a regular relationship between preposition and affix, apart from (11) which is highly irregular, (16) which is irregular and (17) which is very slightly irregular. When suffixes they all are usually written using a single consonant. No confusion can arise as normally consonants are illicit word finally. However there is no abbreviated forms for (15) and (17). Of the 17 consonants, ? and n are not involved in these abbreviations.

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The pila?o are either realized as either affixes or as prepositions.

Whether the pila?o 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.

tiadua = beyond the house

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

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TW 940.png

SW 092.png

SW 093.png

SW 094.png

TW 568.png


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 pila?o affixed to them. If you have two contiguous nouns suffixed by the same pila?o 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 pila?o, to show that two nouns contribute equally to a sentence (instead of the second one qualifying the first) the particle 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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pila?o of location phrases (i.e. nouns with 1 -> 8 or 15) can be considered adjectives. They must come after a noun or a verb.

pila?o 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.

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


(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. ]


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

jonos jenes hecuri sadu ima lé ʔusfa uya = 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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..... Maŋga

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These are verbs. In particular maŋga = "the infinitive form of the verb" or "verbal noun". They call it "maSdar" in Arabic.

I shall call it "base verb".

In the BLT (béu linguistic tradition) the base verb is considered "dead" or "inactive". Only when a suitable "tail" is added does it become "alive" or "active".

So "finite verb" is called maŋga ?algu. The infinitive form of the verb is simply maŋga

(By the way ... ?algu = alive) ... the next Chapter is all about maŋga ?algu.

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In béu the base verb is a noun. This is different to most languages in the world. In most languages, verbal nouns are derived from verbs. For example ... destroy => destruction : verb => noun whereas in béu. For example ... twá : "a/the meeting" => twarua : "I intend to meet".

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English is very chaotic as to the various means it derives nouns from verbs. For example ... "discover" + "y" => the discovery ... "destroy" + "tion" => the destruction ... "run" + => a/the run. Whereas béu is as orderly as it is possible to get.

OK ... lets get started ...

solbe = "to drink"

Now the manga can amalgamate with other elements. For example ...

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

...and adding more elements ...

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

solbe moze sacois and solbe saco are examples of maŋguma (maŋga plus the augmentive -uma)

Actually a maŋguma can get as involved as a clause can. With arguments to the left of the head considered definite and arguments to the right, indefinite. But there is one difference. The ergative argument is marked by the particle rather than or -ta or -s.

so adding even more elements ...

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

This is as involved as I will go. But note that other clausal elements ( dative object, time, adverb, instrument, reason, purpose) can be added. As in normal clauses there is a tendancy to add them to the RHS.

Now the maŋguma is basically a noun ... as is kenʒi and olus. And as with kenʒi and olus more modifiers can be added.

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SW 095.pngI don't know the béu name for this. Actually I don't know the English name for this.

The items in the determiner slot are quite rare compared to kenʒi, but they are licit. There can be nothing in the quantity slot or the ownership slot.

The "number + " modifier is quite rare. It means "so many iterations of the action". For example ...

uya wì hí pà solbe moze = (the) three times I drank water

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Adjectives can be a bit confusing. For example saco "quick" would be used immediately after maŋga. But if not immediately after maŋga but within the maŋguma, it should take the form sacois (-is being the adjective => adverb suffix). But is it is outwith the maŋguma in the quality slot it will be saco. Got it ?

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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.

In a similar vain you have a choice as to where to put a locative. A locative can be placed in the locative slot or it can be placed in maŋguma. No change of form for the locative ...

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

OK ... so much for maŋguma.

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Now we have already introduced the pila?o. The pila?o are totally compatible with kenʒi. Nearly totally compatible with olus. However only two pila?o fit in with maŋga. These are pila?o 2 and 9 ... and . When fitted to maŋga they produce an adjective and an adverb respectively.

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We'll talk about and adverbial construction first ...

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

tore tú doika saco = "he/she came by walking quickly"

Notice that the particle acts as it normally does and appends to the end of a single word, but stands alone to the left of a multi-word phrase.

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And the adjectival constuction ...

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bàu doika-la man walk-1SG-IND-PRES
bàu r doika-la man COPULA} walk-P2

Also appears often in conjunction with manga

The -constuction acts as an adjective. An adjective meaning "XXX-ing" at the (relevant ???) moment of speech". 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]

differs from most other pila?o in that, with a manga, it never stands alone. For example ...

bàu doikala sacois = a/the quickly walking man .... [Note ... the affix -is is appended to saco to show it is connected to doika and not bàu] instead of *bàu là doika saco

In a -constuction, everything has the same order as a MP ... the only difference is that -la is appended to the manga and XXX is dropped. Well XXX represents the A argument and the A argument is the thing being described by the -constuction, so no need to exist inside the construction.

This -constuction can be called the present participle. The present participle has the meaning "in the process of XXXing".For example ...

doika "to walk" => doikala "in the process of walking"

kata "to cut" => katala "in the process of cutting".

When derived from a transitive verb the object can be included as well. For example katala lazde "in the process of cutting the grass".

[ Note ... bàu katala lazde "the man cutting the grass" means the same as bàu nàis katora lazde "the man who is cutting the grass" ... however the first is nearly always preferred ... well it is shorter ]

[ Also note ... pà r katala lazde means the same as (pás) katara lazde ... however the second is nearly always preferred ... well it is shorter ]

O arguments (in an equivalent active clause) can be modified by the -construction as well. For example ... lazde jwola kata "grass being cut" ... jwola kata being classed as an adjective phrase (jwòi meaning "to undergo").

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maŋga ... as well as appearing as arguments in a clause. That is S, A, O, CS and CO, also appear as complements to auxiliary verbs.

One such auxilliary is tuma meaning "to squeaze" or "to force". [ when it means "to squeaze" it is followed by a kenʒi and is acting as a normal verb, when it means "to force" it is followed by a manga and is acting as an auxiliaryl verb ]


In these constructions, there is a very strong tendency (almost a rule) that the maŋga is on RHS of maŋguma. However if an ergative (A) argument is present, that element can instead be on RHS. Also a very strong tendency fot the O aurgment to directly follow the maŋga. There is a fairly strong tendency for the S argument to directly follow the maŋga.

So ...

Thomas forced John to hit Jane => tomos tumori timpa jene hí jono or tomos hí jono timpa jene

Thomas forced Jane to walk => tomos tumori doika jene

[By the way ... as an example of tuma being a normal verb ... tomos jwuba komo jene tumori = Thomas squeazed Jane's left buttock ]

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Two other examples of maŋga with auxilliary verbs (why not) ...

1) ... mbe = to hold ..... lelpa = to sing, singing ..... jenes mbor lelpa bòi = Jane can sing well. [lelpai = a song ?]

2) ... glù = to depart ... timpa = to hit, hitting ... jonos glori timpa jene = John stopped hitting Jane

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One notable use of the maŋga is emphasis, where the manga is used right next to the same word in r-form. For example ...

daw-o-r-u dàu
die-3SG-IND-FUT death

= He/she will die a death => He/she will die for sure

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lay-o-r-i lái
live-3SG-IND-PAST life

= He/she lived a life => He/she had a full life

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maum-a-r-i mauma
sleep-1SG-IND-PAST sleep

= I slept a sleep => I had a deep and satisfying sleep


Now maumori mauma and daw.oru dàu are strange. Normally both verbs are strictly intransitive. But here there are transitive. Seemingly sometimes béu allows

a) intransitive => transitive b) A argument => absolutive form c) O argument = maŋga

pà maumari mauma is the answer to mìn maumari mauma

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* Another way to say this is solbe saco moze**

** If saco doesn't immediately follows the manga, it must be explicitly tagged as an adverb by the -is suffix. The exact same rule as for (finite)clauses.


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 .... hecari bàu katala lazde is just analyzed as Verb hecari ... Object bàu and Adjective Phrase katala lazde


..... 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. The ergative system ...

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bàu glá maum-u-r-i
man and woman sleep-3PL-IND-PAST

==> The man and the woman slept


bàu-s glá timp-o-r-i
man-ERG woman hit-3SG-IND-PAST

==> The man hit the woman


bàu glá-s timp-o-r-i
man woman-ERG hit-3SG-IND-PAST

==> The woman hit the man

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

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SW 119.pngSW 108.png

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mpau includes the listener in the "we", pài excludes the listener from the "we" and indicates a plural "you".

The proper way to use ?o is to use it for all non-humans. But in actually practice, some people might "elevate" the status of a family pet and call it òn or ʃì.

onde is used for "they" when they are all male, ʃide is used for "they" when they are all female, ʃinde is used for "they" when they are mixed, and ?ode is used for "they"when they are all non-human.

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Below are the béu pronouns for the A argument ... the "ergative form".


SW 120.png

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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 ...

From now on I will call the ergative form the s-form, and the unmaked form the base form.

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

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* 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 (cases) in béu ... the ergative being one of these.

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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