Béu : Chapter X

Word generation

In the word generating program ;-

17 % chance that a word will start with a vowel

83 % chance that it will start with a consonant.

10 % chance that the second consonant will be lʔ ... lh

50 % chance that the second consonant will be ʔ ... l

31 % chance that the second consonant will be nʔ ... nh

9 % chance that the second consonant will be sʔ ... sh

Complement clause ... relative clause

Originally I had the relativizer and the complementiser the same ... tà

MAYBE WE SHOULD CHANGE THE RELATIVE CLAUSE MARKER TO "SÀ". THIS IS BECAUSE DUE TO THE FREE WORD ORDER IN BEU, "THAT" OF A COMPLEMENT CLAUSE DOESN'T ALWAYS FOLLOW THE VERB AS IN ENGLISH, BUT CAN FOLLOW A NOUN ??

The topic marker "wa" and the discourse strategy of dropping the topic.

I THOUGHT THAT THIS WAS A PRETTY NEAT IDEA FOR A TIME. IT ALLOWS PRONOUN DROPPING BUT FOR THIS PRONOUN DROPPING, YOU MUST GET RID OF ALL AMBITRANSITIVE VERBS (SUCH AS "TURN TO". I DECIDED THAT I WANTED AMBITRANSITIVE VERBS, HENCE THIS WHOLE IDEA OF PRONOUN DROPPING USING "WA" WOULD NOT WORK.

English has what Dixon calls a S/A pivot construction. What that means is you can drop the A argument or the S argument if it is the same as the A argument or S argument in the previous clause. For example ;-

1) You can drop the A if it is the same as the S in the previous clause ... John saw Mary: John laughed => John saw Mary and laughed

2) You can drop the A if it is the same as the A in the previous clause ... John saw Mary : John hit Bill => John saw Mary and hit Bill

3) You can drop the S if it is the same as the S in the previous clause ... John entered : John sat down => John entered and sat down

4) You can drop the S if it is the same as the A in the previous clause ... John entered : John saw Mary => John entered and saw Mary

A small number of languages have a S/O pivot. That is you can drop the S argument or the O argument if it is the same as the S argument or O argument in the previous clause. (the Australian language Dyirbal is one example of this type of language).

Anyway, the above is just some side-information that I am giving you. béu has what I call a declared pivot construction. The "pivot" (or topic) in a discourse must be stated and from that point on all reference to that "pivot" is dropped, until a new "pivot" is declared.

You declare the topic by affixing wa to it when it is in S, A or O function. If it is in A function that the topic is declared then the s (ergative marker) is dropped. (However in the clause in which you declare a pivot can not have any dropped arguments ... if it is a transitive verb in the clause, and there in no argument with the ergative marker, then you can work out that it must be the argument marked by wa which is the A argument). From then on the topic is dropped until a new topic is declared. For example;-

1) giant.wa destroyed the castle on the hill

2) Then ø came down into the valley

3) There ø met a dwarf doing good works

4) The dwarf turned ø to stone

5) Dwarf.wa then climbed the mountain

6) ø gave succour to the people from the castle ...

It is the rule that the topic must be dropped. if the topic appears in a peripheral roll (pilana 1-> 14) then that pilana is attached to the verb.

For example ;-

1) Last night I saw Thomas

2) Thomas.wa (or o.wa) was very drunk

3) Mary had given.ye a bottle of Chevas Regal

How does this system mesh in with passives ? Particles that appear between clauses ? Particles that change the subject ?

You can see from 4) above, that this just doesn't work if you have labile verbs. In English "turned" is called a labile verb (ambitransitive is another name for this). That means it can be used in a transitive clause and in an intransitive clause. Foer example ;-

1) The dwarf turned the giant to stone ... transitive

2) The dwarf turned to stone ... intransitive

geu

gèu is an adjective if it comes immediately after the copula^* sàu. For example báu rì gèu => The/a man was green. (if you wanted to put a substantive after sàu, you would stick aja "one" in front of it).

gèu is also an adjective if it comes immediately after a noun i.e. báu gèu dí => This green man

In other positions gèu represents a substansive noun^**.

^*gèu is a qualitative noun if it comes immediately after the copula of existence gaza. For example ʔá pona => It is cold ... or ... ʔá pona paʔe => I am cold

^**Well actually in one other position géu represents a qualitative noun ... after the "copula of existence" (just to make things complicated) Now how can we tell if the unmodified gèu is representing an adjective or a substansive noun. Well we can tell by its position with respect to other elements in the clause.

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And above we see one more possibility. In the above two examples you can get to the "G" form from the "A" form by a regular process. With mapa/mapau this is not possible. So it appears that this word has two base forms ("A" and "G") and this word would have two entries in a dictionary.

To give and to receive ... kyé and bwò

kyé means to give and bwò means to receive or get.

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Normal usage

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1) jonos_A kyori jeneye toili_O = John gave a book to Jane "or" John gave Jane a book

Linguistic jargon ... In the Western linguistic tradition, Jane is called "the indirect object"(IO). Quite an unfortunate term I think as it is human 99% of the time, hence hardly what you would normally call an object.

2) jene_A bwori toili_O (jonovi) = Jane got a book (from John)

O.K. the above is the usage normal usage of kyé and bwò. They sort of describe the same action but from two different perspectives.

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Causative construction

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You can replace the cwidau with a gomua in 1) and you get a causative construction.

kyari jonoye dono = I made john walk

or you can alternatively use the form kyari jono dono (in which case jono dono is considered a gomuaza)

kyari jono^* timpa jene = I made John hit Jane ... (in which case jono dono jene is considered a gomuaza)

jonos kyori pà solbe moze = John made me drink the water

^*béu tries and drops all arguments that can be known without being specified. Now in the above example timpa is a transitive verb and usually has an A argument and an O argument. In the above example, if jene was dropped from the semo (but of course understood from context), then we could have a form kyari jonoye timpa

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Passive construction

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3) jonos_A timpori jene_O = John hit Jane

4) jene_S bwori timpa (jonovi) = Jane was hit ... jene_S bwori jono timpa

4) is the passive equivalent of 3) ... used when the A argument is unknown or unimportant.

You can replace the cwidau with a gomua in 2) and you get a passive construction.

jene bwori dono = Jane was made to walk  ?????

bwò a verb that is intransitive=>a passive causative ??

bwari dono = I was made to walk .... this is called a "causative construction" in linguistic jargon.

(pás) bwari solbe moze (jonovi) = I was made to drink the water (by John)

moze bwori solbe (jenevi) = The water was drunk (by Jane)

Called the passive construction in linguistic jargon ... It is used when the A argument is unknown or unimportant.

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flompe is an intransitive verb

kyé jene flompe = to make Jane trip

kyé jono kyé jene flompe = to make John to make Jane trip = to make John trip Jane

BIA ......... a copula to much

Ah well ... three copula's are just too many

bià means "to be at"

For example polo bori london = Paul was in London

polo borta london = Paul has been to London

auto bora lence = The car is in the street.

pele boru nambo = Paula will be at home

bià is the rarest of the copulas and has no irregular forms.

It is often supplanted by sàu ... but if this happens a locative particle must be suffixed to the noun (the noun after the copula). For example ;-

polo rì london.pi = Paul was in London

auto (rà) lence.la = The car was in the street (literally "on the street")

pele mò rù namboʔe = Paula will not be at home

béu shows the imperfective aspect by prefixing the verb with the particle bai (see the section on Serial Verb Construction, to find out the origin of this particle)

... -kun or kun or kunta

Affixed to gamba only.

I passed my exams by cheating

Positive and negative

Above we have used -ya to generate a negative meaning. This form is used in two other situations to give a negative meaning. In aiya meaning "no" and in kya meaning "don't". However there is also 2 situations where -ya or -ia have a positive meaning ... in fanfia (as oppopsed to fanfua) and in the verbal aspect -y

in kunjua (as opposed to kunja and in umutu as opposed to mutu. This is just the way things are.

Said by the philosopher Kantu Banpoʃi, necessary to balance out the ying and yang elements for every minute of the day. However there is another school of thought that says that that is a load of balls and that Kantu Banpoʃi had his head up his own arse.

... -dis or dis or dista

Affixed to gamba only.

I passed my exams without cheating Two consonants can appear together at the beginning and middle of a word. The various combinations that are allowed at these two positions are stated later (see juzmi). Only two consonants are allowed word finally. These are n and s.

The vowels ia and ua can only occur in the final syllable of a word. If a suffix is added, making either ia or ua occur in a non-word-final syllable, then they must change to ya and wa respectively. However these changes can occur only in certain circumstances, depending on the consonant to the left of the y or w (refer to the table in the juzmia @aba section to see what combinations are acceptable). If the change to ya or wa is not allowed, then they both change to a simple a.

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If the "modification" is something solid (something you can touch) then the form gwomo would be used. It is actually hard to draw the line between when gwoma should be used, and when gwomo should be used. But the linguistic usage falls just to the gwoma side of the line. Hence we talk about the béu verb having 9 gwoma instead of 9 gwomo.

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Word structure "nandau"

All nandau are what are called "content words"⁕ (LINGUISTIC JARGON). They are words like "house', or "run" or "beautiful" that have a definite meaning embedded in themselves.

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Each pyabu is defined by 3 juzmia.

juzmi can be translated as "gesture", "a definite movement given a meaning by socially agreed convention", it also is used for the three parts that define a pyabu.

The three parts are juzmi @aba (the first gesture), juzmi @iga (the second gesture) and juzmi @oda (the third gesture).

The rule for determining what is a nandau and what is not (and by definition "what is not" => yadau), is that there must be one, and ONLY one jwavo in the three gestures.

jwavo = "molecule made from more than one element" or "consonant cluster" or "diphthong"

⁕A small number of yadau are also "content words". Invariable they are very common words. For example dunu "brown" or hiaᴴ "red".

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⁕⁕⁕It is thought that when multiplication tables were invented, a name for each "entry" was sought. The adoption of pyabu came about thru analogy to a fishing net (multiplication tables are called "multiplication nets" by the way). The word later spread to 1D systems (i.e. items on a list) and to 3D systems (well the nandauli is one example)

⁕⁕⁕⁕By the way kyamo = "molecule made from only one element" or "geminate" or "long vowel" (where long vowels contrast with short vowels to produce minimal pairs)

.... the first element "juzmia @aba"

There are 37 juzmia @aba. Some of them are "kolta" (consonants in this case) and some of them are jwavo(meaning consonant clusters in this case). All the juzmia @aba are "complex sounds"(consonant or consonant clusters).

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.... the second element "juzmia @iga"

There are 9 juzmia @iga. Some of them are kolta (vowels in this case) and some of them are jwavo (diphthongs in this case). All juzmia @iga are "simple sounds"(vowels or diphthongs).

The juzmia @iga order is e, eu, u, au, a, ai, i, oi, o

.... the third element "juzmia @oda"

There are 58 juzmia @oda. Some of them are "single sounds" (consonants) and some of them are jwavo (consonant clusters in this case). All the juzmia @oda are "complex sounds"(consonant or consonant clusters).

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Most yadau are what are called "particles" in linguistics. These are the short words such as "the", "to", "because" that impart meaning to the nandaua around them, or specify the relation between two nandaua, or add a certain nuance/meaning to the whole utterance.

Examples of yadau are foi that is cliticized to the end of the first word of a sentence (thereby turning the sentence into a question). And mo which goes directly in front of a verb and negates the whole utterance. All the pronouns are also yadaua. All affixes⁕ also.

All words that are not a nandau are either yadau or yauyadau. yadau are mono-syllabic and possess either a high tone or a low tone. yauyadau are poly-syllabic and have neutral tone.

⁕In béu an affix is called a "part yadau" (as opposed to all the non-affixes which are called "whole yadau")

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The juzmia @oda order is l@, lm ... ln, lh, @, m ... n, h, n@, ny ... mw, nh, s@, zm ... zn, sh

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If you look in the nandauli⁕⁕ (dictionary) you will get a form such as hend-. This is what is also called a pyabu.

Actually the original meaning of pyabu⁕⁕⁕ was "knot". It's meaning then spread to "entry" (in a ledger for example) or "item" (in a list for example). Then it spread to such forms as hend-. If you add a tail to a pyabu you get a nandau. For example henda = "to wear" is a nandau, or hendo = "an item of clothing'" is also a nandau

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A list of the 12 colours

black	àu
white	ái
red	hìa
green	gèu
yellow	kiʔo
light blue	nela
dark blue	nelau
orange	suna
brown	dunu
pink	celai
purple	helau
grey	lozo

..... Three infixes for Verb => Verb

béu has a three process for generating new verbs from existing verbs. These three processes can be done to any verb.

.... -el-

If you split a verb and insert el between the final vowel (of the gamba) and the rest of the word, you give the added meaning of "to begin", "inception" or "to start off". For example ;-

sàu = to be

selau = to become

bìa = to be at

belia = to arrive at

doika = to walk

doikela = to start to walk

logo doikorwi = Roger used to walk ...

logo doikelorwi = Roger used to start walking ...

gazelari = I was born

à rì kiʔo = it was yellow ... remember that rì is an irregular form. The regular form would be *sori.

à lori kiʔo = it became yellow ... selau is irregular. If it were regular we would have the form *à selori ki@o

So there are thee irregular verbs in béu (well if you count selau as a different word from sau) ... sàu, bìa and selau.

.... -ow-

If you split a verb and insert ow between the final vowel of and the rest of the word, you get the meaning that you are making somebody else do the verb. For example ;-

ò timpiri = you hit him

(pás) gís ò timpowari = I made you hit him ???

A gamba form exists for this construction also. For example;-

doikowo = to make (somebody) walk

gasowa has the special meaning "to give birth" and doesn't mean "to create".

.... -ay-

If you split a verb and insert ay between the final vowel of and the rest of the word, you get the meaning that the verb is being attempted. For example ;-

selbaru à = I will drink it

selbayaru à = I will try and drink it

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By the way, in béu to get a progressive meaning we use a Serial Verb Construction (SVC) ... báu bài kludora = The man is writing ... báu = man, bìa = to stay

By the way, in béu to get a passive meaning we use a Serial Verb Construction (SVC) ... toili gài kludorta = The book has been written ... toili = book, gùa = to undergo .... (toili gài kludorta is this right ?)

Actually we can make a really biy SVC and have toili bài gài kludora = The book is being written.

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