Béu : Chapter 2 : The Noun

..... The 7 types of word

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All words belong to one of the following 7 categories ...

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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.

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

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2) seŋko = object

An example is bàu ... "a man"

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3) olus = material, stuff

An example is moze ... "water"

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4) saidau = adjective

An example is nelau ... "dark blue"

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5) maŋga = verb

An example is twá ... "to meet" (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 ...

twás ... "a\the meeting" : nò twás ... "a\the meetings"

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7) saidaus = a noun derived from an adjective. The saidaus means one object possessing the property denoted by the saidau.

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

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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.

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..... Seŋko

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seŋko is a noun or a noun phrase

It can have up to 8 elements.

Below is shown these elements and the order in which they occur.

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Elements 1, 2, and 7 have restricted membership, if fact element 1 has only one possibility, the word só. 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.

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... The head

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3) ... the head

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... The adjective

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4) ... the adjective

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

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

bàu gèu kái = what kind of green man ? ... noun phrase question

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

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

há bàu hói glà timpori = The second man hit the woman

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

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

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

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

waulo	àu	jutu	léu
dog	black	big	third

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

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... The locative

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

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

The locative is a type of adjective.

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

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 ...

to say "the little green man on top of the big mountain" => bàu gèu tiji máu pobo jutu

The above is called an ENP (extended noun phrase) ... it comprises bàu gèu tiji (NP 1) + máu + pobo jutu (NP 2)

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

bàu gèu dá = where is the green man ?

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... The genitive

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

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

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

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

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... The determiner

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7) ... the determiner

There are five determiners ... dí (this) and dè (that). For example ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Note ... dían = "here" or "to here", dèn = "there" or "to there" ... (not *dà dí and *dà dè)

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

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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. Also if ló or nái are present dí and dè can not be included but dían "here" and dèn "there" can occur in the "locative" slot.

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... The numerative

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2) ... the numerative

These are ...

nò "plural" ... jù "no" ... ʔà "one" ... hói "two" ... léu "three" ... iyo "few" ... ega "four" oda "five" ..... hài "many" .... tautaita "172710 and ú "all"

Only one word is allowed in the numerative slot*.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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... The relative clause

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8) ... the relative clause

Relative clauses "RC" work pretty much the same as English relative clauses. The relativizer is nài (that, who). Here are some examples ...

yiŋkai nài doikoryə = the girl that has walked

bàu nài glás timporyə = the man whom the woman has hit

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

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.

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... The emphatic particle

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1) ... the emphatic particle is só.

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

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

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

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

só dí	"this one !"	só dè	"that one !"
só nò dí	"these ones!"	só nò dè	"those ones !"

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

só jene = Hey, Jane

só gì = Hey, you

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

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..... Olus

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

A NP with olus as head is similar to a NP with seŋko as head, except the numerative is banned. It can be replaced with "measure phrase" if the quantity of the substance is defined.

hói hoŋko = two cups ... is a typical "measure phrase"

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

hói hoŋko ?azwo pona = "two cups of warm milk"

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Also are uncountables such as "cabbages" malfufa or "children" toti. These have a sort of "collective" meaning. With a change of the final vowel these words become countable. The uncoutable noun vowel can bee e u a i or o but the countable vowel is always -ai

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malfufa	cabbages	malfufai	a cabbage
toti	children	totai	a child
wazbu	distance	wazbai	3,680 m (the unit of distance ... the béu km or mile)

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So there a bunch of concepts that have a dual identity ... sometimes appearing in their olus form, and sometimes appearing in their seŋko form.

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

sadu "elephant" ... kaizadu "the elephants" or "elephants".

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..... Saidaus

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saidaus is a noun or noun phrase derived from a adjective.

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You can see that the elements that surround the head are the exact same elements that surround seŋko head.

There is one tiny difference though. The word sowe "very" which usually modifies adjectives can if fact become an adjective itself and modify a saidaus. For example ...

gèu = green, gèu sowe = very green => gèus = a/the green one, gèus sowe = a/the very green one ... whereas sowe never modifies seŋko.

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Actually saidaus can be derived from "locatives" and "genitives" as well. For example ...

pobomaus = the one on top of the mountain

yós jene = the one belonging to Jane

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By the way ... determiners and relative clauses can also stand by themselves, but they are unmodified when they do so.

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..... Maŋga

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

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

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

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

or ... adding more elements ...

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

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

or ... adding even more elements ...

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

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

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

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

The seŋko phrase is slightly modified in that the numerative slot and the genitive slot must be empty.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

bàu doikala = a/the walking man

bàu r doikala = a/the man is walking

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

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..... Maŋgas

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

béu is a lot more orderly.

maŋgas are similar to maŋga but defining a specific instance of the action rather than the action in general. Derived from maŋga by appending -s. If the maŋga is not vowel final, -os is appended.

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

dàin = "to kill" or "killing" => dainos = "the killing", "the assassination"

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

hói solbes moze sacowe hí jono = "those two times that John drank the water quickly"

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

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pilamo can be appended just as to a normal NP but some are not appropriate. For example none of the pilamo of location are appropriate. há is put in front to show ergativity (when maŋgas acts as an A argument)

One pilamo that is often found with maŋgas is -pi. For example ...

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jono lailore doikaspi = "John sang while walking earlier today"

jono lailore pí doikas tunheun = "John sang while walking to the civic centre earlier today"

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

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solbe moze hí fanfa = a horse drinking water

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

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

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

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

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

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Above are examples with intransitive and transitive maŋga respectively.

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

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

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1) ... blèu = to hold ..... laila = to sing, singing ..... jenes blor laila bòi = Jane can sing well.

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

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Note to self : Dixon makes a big deal over the below .... think about it again.

1) The killing of the president was an atrocious crime.

2) Killing the president was an atrocious crime.

You can see that one form "killing" is used in 2 different constructions. By the way ... "killing" in (1) is considered more noun-like.

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..... Saidau

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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 ...

bàu gèu = a/the green man

bàu r gèu = a/the man is green

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

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

Foe example gèu sowe

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

Note ... (original) objects can take these participles as well. For example ... lazde jwola kata "grass being cut" ... jwola kata is classed as an adjective phrase saidau kaza as well.

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Note .... bàu katala lazde = bàu nài katara lazde .................. however the first ... bàu katala lazde is nearly always preferred.

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

In both cases the briefer version is chosen.

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

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..... Feŋgi

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==> The man has hit the woman

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

==> The woman has hit the man

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Below are the pronouns in the ergative form.

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

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jè and jés are the second person plural forms.

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

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

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

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..... The 7 types versus basic types

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

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

Now the adjectives are an interesting case. Take for example nelau "dark blue". This would be translated into English as "dark blue" or "dark blueness" which is a noun. Now in most languages you can identify a part of speech by the environments in which it occurs. For example, in English, the word that follows "the" must either be an adjective or a noun. In béu there is only one way to tell if a non-derived word is saidau as opposed to seŋko or olus ... the word sowe "very" can only follow saidau.

The above is interesting ... but not a big deal. saidau embraces concepts that are commonly expressed by adjectives in other languages (well there are some languages that have a very restricted set of adjectives ... but a typical language has a fairly comprehensive invertory of words under the adjective category). béu treats adjectives in a similar way to Thai ... no difference in form between "blue" and "blueness"**.

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

*We are ignoring grammatical words (often called particles) in this discussion. Actually everyone of them is like its own category ... well when to come to giving rules for usage.

**Well this is not totally true. Just as in Thai you can say "khwaam rew" for speed (literally "quality fast") you can say "quality??" saco for speed in béu. But "quality??" is often dropped. It depends on the situation.

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... The Pilamo

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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.

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

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The word pilamo is built up from ;-

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

pilamo ( n) = the positioner

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

nambodua = beyond the house

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 }

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[ 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 ...

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.. As parts of speech

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pilamoi of location phrases (i.e. nouns with 1 -> 8 or 15) can be considered adjectives 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^*. 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".

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

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

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

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

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... Questions

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English is quite typical of languages in general and has 8 content question words ... "which", "what", "who", "whose", "where", "when", "how" and "why".

[ Note ... there was also a "whom" until quite recently ]

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)

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

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"

4) In the compound "whoever" which is an indefinite pronoun.

Only in the first example is "who" asking a question.

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béu is quite rich when it comes to question words. It has ten ...

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nén nós	what
mín mís	who
láu	"how much/many"	....... appears to the left of a noun or adjective
kái	"what kind of"	....... appears to the right of a noun
dá	where
kyú	when
sái	why
nái	which	....... appears to the right of a noun
ʔai?	"solicits a yes/no response"	... always utterance final
ʔala	which of two	... between the two sentence elements ... one must be chosen

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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. [ ??? ]

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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".

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"

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nós and mís are the ergative equivalents to nén and mín (the unmarked words). The dative forms are í nén and í mín.

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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.

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.

[ 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 ]

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 ...

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

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

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 ?

Question 4 ... í glá nái bàus nori alha = the man gave the flowers to which woman ?

Question 5 ... á bàu nái glán nori alha = which man gave the woman flowers ?

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

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

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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.

"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.

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... Question words => Particles

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The norm is for a language to have 7 = > 10 question words. Questions are usually short and simple. For example ... "where is he ?"

Now where in the above question has the meanings ...

a) A place

b) The speaker doesn’t know which place

c) This is a question … answer me !

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

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.

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 ]

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.

In the previous section we listed 10 question words. Of these 10, I have given 6 an equivalent indefinite word.

láu	"how much/many"	làu	as, so
kái	"what kind of"	kài	like, as
dá	where	dà	where
kyú	when	kyù	when
sái	why	sài	because of
nái	which	nài	"relativizer"

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... nài

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In English, one of the functions of "who" is as a relativizer ... a particle that introduced a relative clause. For example ....

"The man who ate the chicken got sick"

Also in English, one of the functions of "that" is as a relativizer. For example ....

"The chicken that was eaten must have been off"

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In béu there is only one relativizer, which is nài.

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

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

la ... the chair naila you are sitting was built by my grandfather.

... mau / goi / ce / dua / bene / komo ...

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

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.

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.

fi ... the town naifi she has come is the biggest south of the mountain.

?e ... nambo naiʔe she lives is the biggest in town = the house in which she lives is the biggest in town

-lya ... the boat nailya she has just entered is unsound

-lfe ... the lilly pad nailfe the frog jumped was the biggest in the pond.

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The relativizer nài always follows a noun or a pronoun. The third person pronouns plus relativizer are shown below ...

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 ...

ʃì nài bw-r r ʃì nài m-r = "what you see is what you get"

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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

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).

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*làus nài => làu

*kàin nài => kài

*dàs nài => dà

*kyùs nài => kyù

*sàin nài => sài

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There are two adjectives associated with these question word / indefinite pairs. laubo meaning "enough" and kaibo meaning "suitable".

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... sài

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sài = because of

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"

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... kyù

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kyù = when

toili gìn naru kyù twairu = I will give you the book when we meet ............................ kyù twairu can be considered an adverb of time

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... dà

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dà = where

pà twahu dà yildos twaire = meet me where we met in the morning ............................... dà yildos twaire can be considered an adverb of place.

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... kài

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

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1) [ John smokes kài a chimney ]

2) [ She will use deceit as before ]

3a) gì r gombuʒi kài jono = you are argumentative like John

3b) gì r làu gombuʒi jonowo = "you are as argumentative as John"

4) [ The kidnappers released him as agreed ]

5) tomo r kài jono = Thomas is like John

6) tomos kludor kài jonos = Thomas writes like John ............................................................. all the above can be considered adverbs of manner.

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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.

Usually for particles that can either be followed by a NP or a clause, I add gò 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.

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).

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Note ... kài can not be followed by an adjective.

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... làu

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làu means "to such an extent or degree" and is used in front of adjectives. The below are all single clauses.

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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"

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

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There are three main usages for this particle. The three examples above demonstrate these three usages. ..

To say something like "john is as good at writing as jane" you have to use ʔà (or ʔàbis) ... see the next section.

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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.

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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 ...

"For everyone the most important things around them are other people. And the most important "attribute" of a person is "how" they behave."

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.

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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.

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"

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... The same or not the same

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ʔài = "same"

bù ʔài = "different"

Note ... for "the other", NP before the verb : for "another", NP after the verb)

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"

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"

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 ...

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

[Note jutuwo is derived from jutumiwo but the mi "ness" is invariably dropped.

ʔàibis = similar

ʔài dù = exactly the same

ʔaimai = similarity

lomai = difference

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 ? ]

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

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... Good, Better, Best

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làu is part of a larger paradigm ... the comparative paradigm ... demonstrating with the help of bòi ("good") ...

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>>>	boimo	best
>	boige	better
=	làu bòi	as good
<	boizo	less good
<<<	boizmo	least good

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The top and the bottom items are the superlative degree and so have no "standard of comparison".

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 ...

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" ]

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)

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boimos = the best : bàu boimo = the best man

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

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[ you are argumentative like John but you are even worse ] ... explain this more

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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