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| == ..... Note ..... ==
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| Stuff discarded before 28th Mar 2013 is in chapter XX
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| Stuff discarded after 28th Mar 2013 is in this chapter.
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| == ..... Question==
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| '''béu''' has a "toolbox" that allows us to ask questions. The tools in that tool box are '''ʔái''', '''bái''', '''kái''', '''dái''', '''mái''', '''nái''' and '''cái''' ... the seven words used for asking questions.
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| === ..... The '''ʔainandaua''' or the Question Words ===
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| The table below shows some of the '''béu''' '''ʔainandaua'''
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| {| border=1
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| |align=center| what, who
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| |align=center| '''ʔái'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| where
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| |align=center| '''bái'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| when
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| |align=center| '''kái'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| how
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| |align=center| '''dái'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| how much
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| |align=center| '''mái'''
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| |}
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| "what/who" asks the interlocutor to give an argument for the clause given.
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| "where" asks the interlocutor to give a place for the clause given.
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| "when" asks the interlocutor to give a time for the clause given.
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| "how" asks the interlocutor to give an adverb for the clause given.
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| '''mái''' is slightly different ...
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| if placed in front of a noun, it asks the interlocutor to give a number if the noun is countable, if not countable it is asking for an amount.
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| if placed in front of an adjective, it asks the interlocutor to give the degree/level of the adjective (an amount ?? should we use the same grades for nouns and adjectives ??).
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| ----------------
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| These words have to be fronted (as in English). That is they must come sentence initial.
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| '''ʔái''' takes '''pilana''', just as a normal noun does. Here are some examples ...
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| Statement ... '''báus glaye kyori alha''' = the man gave flowers to the woman
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| Question 1) '''ʔáis glaye kyori alha''' = who gave flowers to the woman
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| Question 2) '''ʔaiye báus kyori alhai''' = to whom did the man gave flowers
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| Question 3) '''ʔái báus glaye kyori''' = what did the man give to the woman
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| Notice that in 1, '''ʔáis''' is interpreted as "who" because it is overwhelmingly the case that a person would be giving flowers to somebody.
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| Similarly for 2, and in 3, '''ʔái''' is interpreted as "what" because it is overwhelmingly the case that a person would be giving an nonhuman object to somebody else.
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| By the way "why" is translated as '''ʔaiji''' "for what".
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| ------------
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| In English it is not wrong to say "what man gave the woman flowers" rather than "which man gave the woman flowers".
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| In '''béu''' "what" can never be conjoined with a noun as is possible in English.
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| In English it is not TOTALLY wrong to say "which gave the woman flowers" rather than "which man gave the woman flowers".
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| In '''béu''' "which" must always be conjoined with a suitable noun or pronoun.
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| The word for "which" is '''nái''' and it always comes after the noun that it is conjoined with. No fronting is required for '''nái'''.
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| For example ....
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| Question 4) '''báus nái glaye kyori alha'''= which man gave flowers to the woman
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| Question 5) '''báus yè glà nái kyori alha'''= to which woman did the man gave flowers
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| Question 6) '''báus glaye kyori alha nái'''= which flowers did the man give to the woman
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| Notice that in 5, '''nái''' and the word that it is conjoined with, can not be seperated by the '''pilana''' '''ye'''.
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| "which one" would be translated as '''ʃì nái''' if we are referring to a non-A argument and non-human.
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| "which ones" would be translated as '''nò ʃì nái''' if we are referring to a non-A argument and non-human.
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| "which one" would be translated as '''ò nái''' if we are referring to a non-A argument but human.
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| "which ones" would be translated as '''ù nái''' if we are referring to a non-A argument but human.
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| Of course to refer to an A argument, we simple add -'''s''' to the pronoun.
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| === ..... How to ask a yes/no question ===
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| To turn a normal statement into a polar question (i.e. a question that requires a YES/NO answer), we stick the particle '''ʔái''' on the end of the sentence.
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| '''ʔái''' is neutral as to the response you are expecting. If you are expecting a positive reply, you would use the particle '''ʔaiwa''' instead.
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| To answer a positive question, YES or NO ( '''ʔaiwa àu aiya''' ) is sufficient.
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| To answer a negative question positively, YES ( '''ʔaiwa''' ) is enough.
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| To answer a negative question negatively, you must give an entire clause.
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| For example ;-
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| Statement 1) '''glà (rà) hauʔe''' = The woman is beautiful.
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| Question 1) '''glà hauʔe ʔái''' = Is the woman beautiful ? .......... If she is beautiful, answer '''ʔaiwa''', if she isn't answer '''aiya'''.
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| Statement 2) '''glà (ká) hauʔe''' = The woman isn't beautiful.
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| Question 2) '''glà ká hauʔe ʔái''' = Isn't the woman beautiful ? ........ If she isn't beautiful, answer '''ʔaiwa''', if she is answer '''ò rà hauʔe'''. (notice that the copula must be used in this case)
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| ( in a later section we will see that it is not always necessary to use '''ʔái'''. When you have a clause with a modal, you simply change the word order to ask a polar question. ) ???
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| Also it is possible to focus on a particular element when asking a YES/NO question in '''béu'''. This is done by putting the particle '''cái''' after the element that you want to focus on. For example ...
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| Statement 1) '''báus glaye timpi alhai''' = the man gave flowers to the woman
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| Straight question 2) '''báus glaye timpi alha ʔái''' = did the man gave flowers to the woman ?
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| Focused question 3) '''báus glaye cái timpi alha''' = Is it the woman that the man gave flowers to ?
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| -------------
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| Actually there is a way to focused elements in a statement which mirrors the way to focus elements in a question. We use either '''cía''' or '''cìa''' for this.
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| Focused statement 4) '''báus glaye cía timpi alhai''' = It is the woman to whom the man gave the flowers.
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| The particle has a high tone if following a neutral tone word or a low tone word. If it focuses a high tone word it has a low tone i.e. '''cìa'''.
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| === ..... The other '''ʔainandaua''' ===
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| As well as the five question words given above, '''béu''' also has a question verb ('''ʔail'''-) meaning "to do what". For example ...
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| '''ʔailiri''' = "what will you do"
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| '''ʔailora jonos jene''' = "what is John doing to Jane"
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| It doesn't have to be fronted but it usually is.
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| === ..... The relativizers ===
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| The table below shows the '''béu''' relativizers.
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| {| border=1
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| |align=center| that, who, which
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| |align=center| '''ʔài'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| where
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| |align=center| '''bài'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| when
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| |align=center| '''kài'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| as, in the manner that
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| |align=center| '''dài'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| as
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| |align=center| '''mài'''
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| |}
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| "that,who,which" gives the interlocutor the argument which is not stated in the clause following "that,who,which".
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| "where" gives the interlocutor the place which is not stated in the clause following "where".
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| "when" gives the interlocutor the time which is not stated in the clause following "when".
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| "how" gives the interlocutor the manner which is not stated in the clause following "how".
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| '''mài''' is slightly different ...
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| if placed after a noun, it gives the interlocutor the amount or number for that noun by means of the NP following '''mài'''.
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| '''twor ble? pàn mài (twor) gìn''' = I have as much money as you.
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| if placed after an adjective, it gives the interlocutor to the degree/level of that adjective by means of the NP following '''mài'''.
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| '''wáu òn (rà) nela mài wáu pàn''' = His eyes are as blue as my eyes.
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| I THINK THAT THIS IS OK. IS IT ??
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| One way in which the first three ('''ʔài''', '''bài''' and '''kài''') can be analysed, is to say that they are nominalizers, they turn a clause into a noun. Then you could say that a relative clause is simply a nominal that stands in apposition to the noun which it qualifies.
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| Now all these words found in the question toolbox are very common. Because of this, they have a shorthand way of being written. These are given below ...
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| [[Image:TW_167.png]]
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| [[Image:TW_168.png]]
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| == ..... Pronouns ==
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| In this section we discuss pronouns and also introduce the S, A and O arguments.
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| '''béu''' is what is called an ergative language. About a quarter of the world languages are ergative or partly ergative. So let us explain what ergative means. Well in English we have 2 forms of the first person singular pronoun ... namely "I" and "me". Also we have 2 forms of the third person singular male pronoun ... namely "he" and "him". These two forms help determine who does what to whom. For example "I hit him" and "He hit me" have obviously different meanings (in English there is a fixed word order, which also helps. In '''béu''' the word order is free).
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| '''timpa''' = to hit ... '''timpa''' is a verb that takes two nouns (LINGUISTIC JARGON ... a transitive verb).
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| '''pás ò timpari''' = I hit him
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| '''pà ós timpori''' = He hit me ... OK in this case the protagonist marking in the verb also helps to make things disambiguous. But this will not always help, for example when both protagonists are third person and of the same number.
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| So far so good. And we see that English and '''béu''' behave in the same way so far. But what happens when we take a verb that takes only one noun (LINGUISTIC JARGON ... a transitive verb). For example '''doika''' = "to walk". In English we have "he walked". However in '''béu''' we don't have '''*ós doikori''' but '''ò doikori''' (equivalent to saying "*him walked" in English). So this in a nutshell is what an ergative language is.
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| It is the convention to call the doer in a intransitive clause the S argument. For example '''ò<sub>S</sub> fomporta''' = She has tripped
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| It is the convention to call the "doer" in a transitive clause the A argument and the "done to" the O argument For example '''ós<sub>A</sub> timpori jene<sub>O</sub>''' = He hit Jane
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| The S was historically from the word "Subject" and the O historically from the word "Object", but it is best just to forget about that. In fact when I use the word "subject" I am talking about either the S argument or the A argument.
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| If you like you can say ;-
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| In English "him" is the "done to"(O argument) : "he" is the "doer"(S argument) and the "doer to"(A argument).
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| In '''béu''' '''ò''' is the "done to"(O argument) and the "doer"(S argument) : '''ós''' is the "doer to"(A argument).
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| Below the form of the '''béu''' pronouns is the given for when the pronoun is the A argument.
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| {| border=1
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| |align=center| I
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| |align=center| '''pás'''
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| |align=center| we (includes "you")
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| |align=center| '''yúas'''
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| |-
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| |align=center|
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| |align=center|
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| |align=center| we (doesn't include "you")
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| |align=center| '''wías'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| you
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| |align=center| '''gís'''
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| |align=center| you (plural)
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| |align=center| '''jés'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| he, she
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| |align=center| '''ós'''
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| |align=center| they
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| |align=center| '''ús'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| it
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| |align=center| '''ʃís'''
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| |align=center| they
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| |align=center| '''ʃís'''
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| |}
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| [[Image:TW_68.png]]
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| However these pronouns are never written out as above. There is a recognized "shorthand" method of writing them. This is shown below.
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| [[Image:TW_161.png]]
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| This method is based on the fact that all the pronouns have a different vowel sound (the ones that refer to humans anyway). A look at a béu vowel chart might let you work out what is happening here.
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| [[Image:TW_146.png]],
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| In fact these pronouns are usually dropped when possible, so it might be better to translate the above as "I myself", "you yourself" etc. etc.
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| Below the form of the '''béu''' pronouns is the given for when the pronoun is the S or O argument. When they are used as S arguments it might be better to translate these pronouns as "I myself", "you yourself" etc. etc.
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| {| border=1
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| |align=center| me
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| |align=center| '''pà'''
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| |align=center| us
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| |align=center| '''yùa'''
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| |-
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| |align=center|
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| |align=center|
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| |align=center| us
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| |align=center| '''wìa'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| you
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| |align=center| '''gì'''
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| |align=center| you (plural)
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| |align=center| '''jè'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| him, her
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| |align=center| '''ò'''
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| |align=center| them
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| |align=center| '''ù'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| it
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| |align=center| '''ʃì'''
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| |align=center| them
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| |align=center| '''ʃì'''
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| |}
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| The above table is for S and O arguments, it fact we have another pronoun but this one only occurs as an O argument. When a action is performed by somebody on themselves we use '''tí''' to represent the O argument.
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| Just as in English, we do not say "*I hit me", but "I hit myself" ... in '''béu''' we do not say '''*pás pà timpari''', but '''pás tí timpari'''.
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| [[Image:TW_162.png]]
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| The table above shows the shorthand form for these non-ergative pronouns.
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| '''tí''' does not have to immediately<sup>*</sup> follow the ergative pronoun but it usually does. There is a recognised way to write the ergative pronoun plus the reflexive particle (i.e. we have one symbol to represent two words). These are shown below.
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| [[Image:TW_163.png]]
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| LINGUISTIC JARGON ... "myself" is what is called a "reflexive pronoun". In English there are many reflexive pronouns (i.e. "myself", "yourself", "herself", etc. etc.) : in '''béu''' only one.
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| Pronouns can just be set down beside each other if they both make up the same argument in a clause. Unlike normal nouns which must have '''é''' ( "and" ) between them and any other component.
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| <sup>*</sup>It is a rule that '''tí''' must follow the A argument.
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| The possessive form of these pronouns
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| {| border=1
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| |align=center| my
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| |align=center| '''pàn'''
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| |align=center| our
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| |align=center| '''yùan'''
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| |-
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| |align=center|
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| |align=center|
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| |align=center| our
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| |align=center| '''wìan'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| your
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| |align=center| '''gìn'''
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| |align=center| your (plural)
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| |align=center| '''jèn'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| his, her
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| |align=center| '''òn'''
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| |align=center| their
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| |align=center| '''ùn'''
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| |-
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| |align=center| its
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| |align=center| '''ʃìn'''
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| |align=center| their
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| |align=center| '''ʃìn'''
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| |}
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| And we also have '''tín''' which is used if the possessor is the same as the subject of the clause.
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| ==Index==
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| {{Béu Index}}
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