Béu : Discarded Stuff

..... "Why" gets demoted

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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 has ten question words ...

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

..... Bicycles and Spiders

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wèu = vehicle, wagon

weuvia = a bicycle

weubia = a tricycle

Perhaps can be thought of derived from an expression something like "wagon two-wheels-having" or "wagon double-wheel-having" with a lot of erosion.

Notice that the "item" that is numbered (i.e. wheel) is completely dropped ... probably not something that would evolve naturally.

There are not many words in this category.

jodoʒia^* = spider

jodolia = insect

jodogia = quadraped

jodovia = biped

nodebia = a three-way intersection ... usually referring to road intersections.

nodegia = a four-way intersection

nodedia = a five-way intersection

nodelia = a six-way intersection ... and you can continue up of course.

^*jodo = animal ... from jode = to move

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..... Old idea for expressing OLUS quantity

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The below is an old idea ... best deleted to avoid confusion between ordinal and cardinal numbers. I guess hè should migrate to left of head as well.

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)

(9) is always làu a particle (10) is a "number" and (11) is the holder

ʔazwo pona làu hói hoŋko = two cups of hot milk

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..... Expurging nelaumi

..... Olus ....... Finally in this category are words such as nelaumi "blueness" and geumai = "greenness" which are derived from saidau (gèu "green" and nelau "dark blue").

nelaumi does not satisfy the criterion of "tangible" ... hence the affix is dropped.

Following this dè and dí can be nouns ...

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"

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

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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.

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..... The Old Want

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A V2 that can take a thing.kas dead.kas sa.kas or takas as the naked noun.

1) ʔár wèu => I want a car

2) ʔár jó nambon => I want to go home

3) ʔár gì jó nambon => I want you to go home

4) ʔár gò gís timpiru ò => I want you to hit her/him

2) Is a very common construction ... the same subject for "want" and the second verb. The second verb is dead.

3) Different subjects for the two verbs ... not so common ... second verb is half-dead.

4) As the complement to ʔár gets more complicated there is more a tendency to use the tà construction.

Note that in béu there is no verb equivalent to "wish". You would use the construction ...

tà jau.e timpis ò = "if only you would hit him" to express this sentiment.

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So in the above ... the construction as in 1) is used when the person doing the wanting, is also the subject (A or O) of the action required and the second action sort of "follows on" from the "wanting".

The construction as in 2) and 3) is used when the person doing the wanting is different from the subject (A or O) of the action required. The second action again sort of "following on" from the "wanting".

The construction as in 4) is used when the person doing the wanting is different from the subject (A or O) of the action required AND the second action DOES NOT "following on" from the "wanting".

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..... Verb Derivations

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ʔoime

= to be happy

ʔoimye

= to make happy

ʔoimyewa

= "to be made to be happy" or, more simply "to be made happy

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fàu

= to know

fa??

= to tell

fa ??

=

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timpa

= to hit

timpawa

= to be hit

timpawaya

= to cause to be hit

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..... The tale of Johnny

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Consider the situation ..... Young Johnny was at school and feeling a bit sick. So the teacher might say to him ...

gìn nár nyáu nambon jindi = You can go home now

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gì-n	n-á-r	nyáu	nambo-n	jindi
2SG-DAT	give-1SG-IND	return.INF	house-DAT	now

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When Johnny gets home he can say to his mother ...

mare nyáu nambon EARLY haundofi = "I got sent home early by the teacher"

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m-a-r-e	nyáu	nambo-n	"early"	haundo-fi
receive-1SG-IND-PST	return.INF	house-DAT	early	"teacher"-ABL

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..... The Japanese causative

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Kanako	ga	Ziroo	o	ik-ase-ta
Kanako	NOM	Ziro	ACC	go-CAUS-PAST

==> Kanako made Ziro go

You can see that the bit that makes this a causative "ase" has got lodged in the verb.

[ Note on terminology ... we will call Kanako the "causer" and we will call Ziro the "causee" ]

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..... 14 important verbs

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The above chart gives 14 important (and common) verbs. They can all take nouns as objects. However they can also take complement clauses (CC from now on) instead of objects. In béu there are four types of complement clause. Three of them are shown above.

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...... represents a tà CC. This is more or less equivalent to a CC in English introduced by "that". This béu CC is introduced by the particle tà, and the CC itself is identicle to a normal clause.

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...... represents a maŋga CC. There is no particle to introduce the clause and the verb ... as you would suspect, is in its maŋga form. The maŋga always starts a maŋga phrase (MP from now on). This is immediately followed by by the subject ... with -s appended if an A argument.

Note ... The structure of a maŋgas phrase (MsP from now on) is the same as a MP. However this is a 100% noun, and a MsP can wrap itself in all the things that a seŋko can.

Also Note ... Because the verb comes first in a MP and MsP ... the distinction between definite and indefinite can not be maintained.

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... represents a gò CC. English has no equivalent to this CC. The introductory particle is gò but this is often dropped. The verb form is the same as maŋga but with -n appended.

This CC requires a bit of an explanation. It always follows a verb* such as mài, yái, byó, gàu and penau. When the subject is the same as the main clause it is ... as you would expect, dropped. When a gò CC has no subject, it is permissible to drop gò. In fact is would be usual ... the only reason to retain it would be emphasis or euphony. When a subject is necessary in a gò CC, I use the symbol

As can be seen from the chart mài, yái and byó never take a subject-containing gò CC ... whereas gàu and penau always take a subject-containing gò CC.

gò jù = lest ???

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yái is a transitive verb and the O argument is usually filled by an object. For example ... toilia yár = I have the books

However the object slot can be filled with a in which case yái means "mild obligation".

For example ... yír (gò) jòn nambo = "You should go home"

byó is a transitive verb and the O argument is usually filled by an object. For example ... jenes byór wèu = Jane owns a car

However the object slot can be filled with a in which case yái means "strong obligation".

For example ... byír (gò) jòn nambo = "You must go home"

cùa is a transitive verb and the O argument is usually filled by a location. For example ... jonos cori london = John left London

However the object slot can be filled with a in which case cùa means "to stop". For example ... jonos cori solbe = John stopped drinking

día is a transitive verb and the O argument is usually filled by a location. For example ... jonos dori london = John arrived in London

However the object slot can be filled with a in which case día means "to start". For example ... jonos dori solbe = John started to drink

As another example ... ROTATE??no dori doika = The engine started ... here doika "to walk" is a sort of dummy verb meaning to operate/run. It is necessary since día is a transitive verb.

liga is a transitive verb and the O argument is usually filled by a location. For example ... jonos ligor london = John stays in London

However the object slot can be filled with a in which case liga means "to continue". For example ... jonos ligori solbe = John carried on drinking

There is no verb liganau.

dwài is a transitive verb and the O argument is usually filled by an animate object. For example ... waulois fanfa dwura = The wolves are chasing the horse

However the object slot can be filled with a in which case dwài means "try". For example ... jonos dwora nyáu nambo = John is trying to go home

holda is a transitive verb and the O argument is usually filled by an object. For example ... nùa holdarua = I intend to catch the mouse

However the object slot can be filled with a in which case holda means "manage". For example ... holdari holda nùa = I managed to catch a/the mouse

blèu is a transitive verb and the O argument is usually filled by an object. For example ... biabia blari = I held a butterfly

However the object slot can be filled with a in which case blèu means "to be able physically to do something". For example ... blàr doika nambo = I can manage to walk home

glù is a transitive verb and the O argument is sometimes filled by a subject. For example ... laigau glòr = He/she knows calculus

However the object slot can be filled with a in which case glù means "to know how to. For example ... glòr bunda nambo = He knows how to build a house

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The two words above and the one below, are equivalent to the English word "can" meaning "to have the ability to". When this ability is due to physical strength, blèu is used. When this ability is due to knowledge or skill, glù is used. When this ability is due to general factors external to the individual, mài is used.

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mài is a transitive verb and the O argument is usually filled by an object. For example ... toilia mare nufi = I have received the books from them

However the object slot can be filled with a in which case mài means "to be allowed to" or "circumstances are such that it is possible for me to"

For example ... màr (gò) doikan jə nambo = "I can walk home" ... maybe because my parents gave me permission, or maybe because the rain has abated.

It is nearly always . Only in the rare occasion when some person is directly responsible for another person (like a parent to a child) and they receive permission from a higher authority (like a school, or government wellfare agency), would you have .

náu is a ditransitive verb and the O argument is usually filled by an object. For example ... nari òn solbu = I gave him a drink

However the object slot can be filled with a in which case náu means "allow". For example ... nari òn jòn nambo = I let him go home

In usage it is about 50% and 50% . When the person receiving the permission is highly topical, the form is enough.

náu is one verb that doesn't have a passive form ... one would use mài instead. If you wanted to specify who was doing the allowing, you would use the 14th pilana ... not the particle hí (the particle that is used to specify the former subject in a passive construction).

In about nine out of ten cases ... for example ʔár jòn nambo = I want to go home.

In about one out of ten cases ... for example ʔár gò jonos jòn nambo = I want John to go home

penau

gàu is a transitive verb. For example ... mín gira = What are you doing ... [ usually pronounced míŋ gira ]

However the object slot can be filled with a in which case gàu gives us the causative constuction.

For example ... gare gò jonos jòn nambo = "I sent John home" or "I made John go home" or "I forced John to go home" .... [ jò can be intrantitive or transitive with a location as the O argument ]

Compare the above with ... nare jò jonos nambo = "I let John go home" .... [ Note ... this can also be expressed as nare jonon jò nambo]

And with ... penare gò jonos jòn nambo = "I got John to go home" = "I persuaded John to go home"

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... Negating a Complement Clause

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In English usage (in fact all the Germanic languages) ... the way to negate modal words is a confusing. Consider "She can not talk". Since the modal is negated by putting "not" after it and the main verb is negated by putting "not" in front of it, this could either mean ...

(a) She doesn't have the ability to talk "or" (b) She has the ability to not talk

Note ... Only when the meaning is (a) can the proposition be contracted to "she can't talk". In fact, when the meaning is (b), usually extra emphasis must be put on the "not". (a) is the usual interpretation of "She can not talk" and if you wanted to express (b) you would rephrase it to "She can keep silent". This rephrasing is quite often necessary in English when you have a modal and a negative main verb to express.

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In béu a negative on the active verb and a negative on the maŋga is perfectly possible. The maŋga negator is jù. This is shown below ...

jenes bù blòr flò cokolate => Jane can't eat chocolates (Jane lacks the ability to eat chocolates) ... for example she is a diabetic and can not eat anything sweet.

jenes blòr jù flò cokolate => Jane can not eat chocolates (Jane have the ability not to eat chocolates)... meaning she has the willpower to resist them.

jenes bù blòr jù flò cokolate => Jane can not not eat chocolates (Jane lacks the ability, not to eat chocolates) ... meaning she can't resist them.

[ Note ... the construction of MsP follows the construction of MP. So we have ... flòs cokolate = a/the eating of chocolate ... and also jù flòs cokolate = no eating of chocolate]

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Also a negative on the active verb and a negative on the gò CC is perfectly possible. The gò CCnegator is jù. This is shown below ...

màr (gò) jù jòn igleʒia = "I am allowed to not go to church"

bù màr (gò) jù jòn igleʒia = "I am not allowed to not go to church"

[The above example would, of course, normally be expressed as byár (go) jòn igleʒia ... but it is possible to imagine situations in which bù màr (gò) jù jòn igleʒia would be appropriate]

And another example ...

bù byér (gò) flayon jodoi = You lot don't have to feed the animals

byér (gò) jù flayon jodoi = You lot mustn't feed the animals ... (this is for a general/timeless situation ... kyà flayo jodoi would be used for a "here and now" situation)

bù byér gò jù flayon jodoi = You lot can feed the animals if you want

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For a tà CC the negator bù is used.

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... Other

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more on yái

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The verb yái means "to have on your person" (or perhaps "to have easy access to" if we are talking about a larger object). For example ...

jonos yór halma = John has an apple

It has a passive ...

jono yawor = John is present

halma yawor hí jono = The apple is on John's person

yái is also used to show location.

ʔupais yór bode = "there are small birds in the tree" ... [notice the ergative marking on ʔupai]

Which means the exact same thing as ... bode r ʔupaiʔe = "small birds are in the tree"

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more on byó

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The verb byó means "to possess legally" to "own"

And the passive form ...

wéu byowor hí jene = The car is owned by Jane

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more on gàu

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(nús) gùr jono gò flayon jodoi = They make John feed the animals

byÍr gò gàun nù gò jono gàun flayon jodoi = you must make them make John feed the animals ????????====???????

However when the subject of día and the maŋga subject are different then the verb gàu "to do" or "to make" must be used. For example ...

jonos gori jene solbe = John made Jane drink

jonos gori gò jene día solbe = John made/forced Jane to start to drink

[Note that is the above example, the maŋka word order is set. That is jene día solbe is in a fixed order]

[Actually jonos gori jene día solbe is also expressible as jonos dianori jenen solbe. So we have two new verbs ... dianau and cuanau. Notice that Jane is in the dative case so these two new verbs are (V2)]

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... possible ... possibly

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This one can be a bit confusing for English speakers. "possible" = "doable" : "to be doable" is an intransitive verb corresponding to the transitive verb "to be able to". However "possibly" is not to "possible" as "quickly" is to "quick". In fact "possibly" = "maybe" which means "middle likelihood". The mechanism for this is ... well there might not be any impediment to an action happening. But that action is only going to actually happen some of the times. You could say "middle likelihood" codes the likelihood of an action happening from around 5 % up to 95 % (the exact percentage varies depending on the exact situation). Above 95 % the indicative verb form is used by itself. Below 5 % the negated indicative verb form is used. It is not inevitable that "possibility" => "middle likelihood". In English, the word "perhaps" indicates "middle likelihood" yet has no history as a marker of "possibility".

* "might" signifies "middle-likelihood" (epistemically possible) for me. If I was asked "Are you going to town today ?" I might answer "I might". However for any longer reply I think I would use the sentence initial adverb "maybe" to signal middle-likelihood. If I think an event/state is 100 % likelihood (or as near as damn-it, remember that nothing in the future is 100 % certain) then I would say "I will" (in answer to the above question). If I think an event/state is 0 % likelihood (or as near as damn-it) I would add the negating particle "not" as in "I won't". By the way "maybe", "perhaps" and "possibly" all seem to do the same job, perhaps the ones with more accoustic prominence (i.e. the longer ones) are more emphatic.

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... kyù etc etc

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11) kyù = when

kyù twaru jene plùa òn fyaru = When I see Jane I will tell her.

The English conditional particle "if"* is also translated as kyù

kyù twaru jene plùa òn fyaru = If I see Jane I will tell her.

Actually we have a continuum here ... the likelihood of the first verb occuring can range from pretty definite (well as definite as a future event can be) to total zilch. The names "hypothetical" are given to the mid region of this continuum and "counterfactual" to the zilch end.

In English the conjuntion "when" is used on the left, but towards the middle "if" takes over and goes to the extreme right. Also the condition clause takes past perfect markings and "would" is used in the consequence clause.

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In béu kyù can be used across the entire continuum. However it can be replaced by jindu or festa gò or danu tài gò if thought appropriate. jindu means "as soon as", festa means "case, situation, scenario" and danu tài means "suppose, imagine, assume" (if you analyze danu tài it is the imperative form of "to place in front"). béu also uses the "past perfect" tense in counterfactual situations.

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*Other languages to conflate "when" and "if" is German (with "wenn") and Dutch (with "als"). It is possible to disambiguate in German, by using "sobald" or "falls" instead of "wenn".

* In English, there is another function for "if" ... it introduces a complement clause when the main clause verb is an "asking" verb. "whether" can also fulfill this function. The particle in béu that fulfills this function is wai.a. wai.a has only this function.

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Now let's give the example sentence a habitual meaning ... say Jane fervantly supports Manchester United and the speaker always hears the latest results before Jane. So we have ...

kyù twár jene ʃì òn fyar = When I see Jane I will tell her.

toili gìn naru kyù twairu = "I will give you the book when we meet"

jonos jenen toili nore kyù twure = "John gave Jane the book when they met"

Only in speculative circumstances can kyù be fronted ... then it means "if" .... usually the future tense in both clauses.

kyù twairu gò toili gìn naru = "If we meet I will give you the book" .... note gò separates the clauses.

kyù twairiyə gù toili gìn naru = "If we had met ????

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... The advisory

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Also called the S-form.

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There is a form similar to the R-form. However it only has two slots. The personal pronoun slot and A slot that has "s". Basically it is used for giving advice. The speaker is not upset if the hearer doesn't act (as he would be if it was a command) and he is not upset if he doesn't get feedback/advice/approval/disapproval (as he would be if it was a hortative). He is simply giving the listener some advice and the listener can chew it over at his leisure ... or he can completely disregard what is said ... up to him/her. The advice could be for the common good or the good of the listener (not realy for the good of the speaker ... unless the speaker and the listener identify together ... in which case we are talking about the common good). Maybe this form is equivalent to "should" in English.

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solbis moze = You should drink some water

solbas moze = I should drink some water

solbos moze = He should drink some water

For mono-syllables an be- is prefixed as well ...

jò = to go

bejis nambon = You should go home

bejas nambon = I should go home

bejos mambon = She should go home.

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I simply call this the S-form instead of making up a silly name.

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The R-form when used with náu "to give" results in two forms ... benis and benes that when followed by tà play an important role in the grammar of béu

benis means "you allow" or "let" [benes being the form used when talking to more than one person]

benis tà nambon jàr = Let me go home

benis tà nambon jùar = Let us go home (not including you)

benis tà nambon jòr = Let him go home

benis tà nambon jùr = Let them go home

It is usually only used with one of the 4 third parties listed above.

In linguistic jargon the benis tà form would be called the "cohortative". So we have ...

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..... Old 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 eleven ...

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nén nós	what
mín mís	who
láu	"how much/many"
kái	"what kind of"
dá	where
nái	which
kyú	when
sái	"why"*
gó	"why"*
ʔai?	"solicits a yes/no response"
ʔala	which of two

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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. béu fronts 5 of its 11 question words ... nén mín sái gó and kyú.

Now láu kái dá 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.

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 ?

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Occasionally you hear nenji instead of sái. This is just nén + the tenth pilana ... so it means "for what".

"how" is expressed as wé nái which means "which way" or "which manner"

* Let me explain why we have two "why"s. First I will digress a little. Nearly all the languages of the world have a question word directly equivalent to the English word "who". However languages having a plural of "who" are very very rare. The reason is not difficult to figure out. When you ask "who", you are asking about something that is unknown to you ... the plurality of that "something" is also unknown. (Not only would a singular-plural distinction for "who" be unnecessary ... it would be asocially awkward ... If in asking a question you picked the wrong plurality (i.e. "who".singular when the answer is plural or "who".plural when the answer is singular) the person answering would have to set you right ... would have to contradict you. OK ... in a similar way the word "why" could be split in two ... into "why".future and "why".past. "why".past would ask about a state or action that existed/happened previously and lead to a current state or action. "why".future would ask about a state or action desired in the future and the current state or action exists in order to bring about. Well the two "why"s are rare for exactly the same reason that the two "who"s are rare. But actually in some cases you DO know that it is a future state or action. sái is the normal word for "why", but in about 10 % of times you come across a gó "why".

** 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.

1)	làu	as, so	làus	amount
2)	kài	like, as	kàin	kind, sort, type
3)	dà	where	dàs	place
4)	kyù	when	kyùs	occasion, time
5)	sài gò	because	sàin	reason, cause, origin	sài	because of
6)	jì gò	in order to	jìan	goal, aim, intention	jì	for

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The RHS of the above table has six generic nouns. Not so much to say about them, but the related particles (shown on the LHS) are more interesting. The way these function is shown below ...

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nài by itself is used to qualify a situation rather than a noun.

For example "John hit a woman, which is bad" would be rendered jonos timpori glá_nài r kéu

Note that there is a pause between jene and nài. If there was not this gap, the sentence would mean "John hit the woman who is bad"

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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