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 ... It is the basic form of the verb. Not considered or a noun or a verb (however the verbs built up from it by adding suffixes ARE considered full verbs.

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

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6) maŋgas = Not considered or a noun or a verb (although more of a noun than a maŋga). Derived from a maŋga by suffixing -s. The maŋgas means one instance of the activity denoted by the maŋga. For example ...

twás = "a\the meeting"

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7) saidaus = a noun derived from an adjective. A saidaus is derived from a saidau just by suffixing an -s. 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 ... in a dictionary say. However they are important in the grammar of béu, particularly the maŋgas.

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..... Saidaus

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saidaus => noun OR noun phrase derived from a adjective.

saidaus baga => noun

saidaus kaza => noun phrase

saidaus kaza can have 8 possible elements.

These elements are exactly the same* as the ones detailed in the seŋko section below, except the third element is saidaus baga instead of seŋko baga.

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

pobomaus = the one on top of the mountain

yós jene = the one belonging to Jane

* Actually there is one small difference. sowe can be an adjective to a saidaus but not to a seŋko. sowe is an adjective intensifier ( i.e. "very). So ...

gèu = green, gèus = a/the green one, gèus sowe = a/the very green one,

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..... Maŋgas

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Note .... In English there are various means to derive a pure noun from a verb. For example ... "discover" + "y" => discovery ... "destroy" + "?tion" => destruction ... "run" + ∅ => a/the run

In béu there are no method for constructing pure nouns from verbs. However the maŋgas is close enough to a pure noun for MOST intents and purposes. Also it is 100% productive ... that is EVERY verb in béu has a maŋgas.

English is very untidy when it comes to verbal nouns. Consider ...

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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maŋgas => verbal noun OR verbal noun phrase

maŋgas baga => verbal noun

maŋgas kaza =>verbal noun phrase

The order for building up maŋgas kaza is ...

1) ... a numerative

2) ... the maŋgas (mandatory)

3) ... a determiner (dí dè lò or nái) ... but actually these are quite uncommon elements in maŋgas kaza.

4) ... the A argument (if it exists) marked for the ergative.

5) ... the S or O argument next in its unmarked form (of course if you have an S arguments ... there was no A argument in step 2)

6) ... other clausal elements (for example time, adverb*, instrument, reason, purpose ) can be added now.

[ actually an emphatic particle can be put at the front of all this lot and a relative clause put at the end ... but these usages are so uncommon, that I decided not to list them ]

*If an adverb ending in -we finds itself up against the maŋgas, the -we affix will be dropped.

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One pilana can be appended to maŋgas, and that is -pi.

The usuage is actually exactly the same as the English ... "while verbing"

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..... Maŋga

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This corresponds to what is called "infinitive" or "masDar" in other languages.

But in certain circumstances maŋga can be thought of as a noun. (Actually maŋgas has a better claim to nounhood ... after all it is discrete).

For instance they can be the S O or A argument in a clause. I guess that is their biggest claim to nounhood.

Another place they appear is as complements* of active verbs (live verbs). Two examples of this usage are given below ...

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

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

** Namely ... feŋgi seŋko olus saidau maŋga maŋgas and saidaus

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maŋga => infinitive OR infinitive phrase

maŋga baga => infinitive

maŋga kaza => infinitive phrase

The order for building up maŋgas kaza is ...

1) ... the maŋga always comes first

2) ... the A* argument (if it exists) will immediately follow marked for the ergative.

3) ... the S* or O* argument next in its unmarked form (of course if you have an S arguments ... there was no A argument in step 2)

4) ... other clausal elements (for example dative object, time, adverb**, instrument, reason, purpose) can be added now.

*When talking about these arguments we are thinking as if the maŋga has been brought to life. And we have a verb in its r-form, n-form, i-form or u-form. Then the A O and S arguments would live up to their name. However the A O and S arguments we are talking about here are merely elements in a noun phrase (or infinitive phrase if you will), as opposed to arguments in a clause.

**If an adverb ending in -we finds itself up against the maŋga, the -we affix will be dropped.

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Two pilana can be appended to maŋga ... these are -tu and -la

The -tu usuage is actually exactly the same as the English ... "by verbing"

The -la usuage produced an adjecting 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 = bàu doikora ... exactly the same.

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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

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..... Olus

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The olus kaza has the same stucture as seŋko kaza (see the next section) except for the second element

The second element is replaced with three elements ... call them elements (9), (10) and (11)

(9) is a numerative, (10) is called "holder" and (11) is the particle yó

we have come across yó before. it indicates possession, in this case no actual possession but a sort of "extention" of possession. For example ...

iva hoŋko yó ʔazwo pona = two cups of hot milk

where element (9) is iva "two", element (10) is hoŋko "cup" and element (11) is yó

Note ... just as yó is often dropped from seŋko kaza, (11) is often dropped if olus kaza is short. For example ...

iva hoŋko ʔazwo = two cups of milk

Nouns denoting quality are olus through derived originally from saidau. For example ...

nelaumi = blueness (from nelau "dark blue") and geumai = greenness (from gèu "green")

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..... Seŋko

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seŋko => noun OR noun phrase

seŋko baga => noun

seŋko kaza => noun phrase

seŋko can have upto 8 elements.

Below is shown the order in which they must occur.

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

... The head

3) ... the head \ seŋko baga

... The adjective

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

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

... The locative

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 a locative pilana ... also the pilana meaning "from" ... so in total "noun" + pi la mau goi ce dua bene komo ?e fi

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 ?

... The genitive

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 ?

... The determiner

7) ... the determiner

There are two 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.

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

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

Note ... dían => here, dèn => there ... not *dà dí and *dà dè

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 => ndi and nò nende => nde .... these are syllabic nasals ... the only occurance of this sound in béu

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.

... The numerative

2) ... the numerative

Any number can go in here ... also jù "no" and nò "plurality particle".

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 ?

... The relative clause

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 doikore = the girl that has walked

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

glá nàis bàu timpore = 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 bundore nambo = the woman for whom the man has built a house

All the pilana can be appended to the relativizer to specify what roll the noun would have in the relative clause if it was a simple clause.

... The emphatic particle

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 nendi	"this one !"	só nende	"that one !"
só ndi	"these ones!"	só nde	"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 also an ajective intensifier sowe, which is no doubt related to the above.

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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-e
align=center|woman	hit-3SG-IND-PRF

==> The man hit the woman

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

==> The woman 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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..... Word order

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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 ...

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

glá bàus timpore => 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. ]

But even though béu doesn't use word order to show who is the doer and what is the "done to", it does use word order for another purpose. Namely to show if an argument is definite* or not. For example ...

bàu doikor = The man walks

doikor bàu = A man walks

So we see ... an argument coming before the verb is definite and one coming after the verb is indefinite.

In English only 2 orders are found. Namely ... SV and AVO ... (V = verb). However in béu you have what is called "free word order". This means that you can come across the following eight orders ... SV, VS, AVO, AOV, VAO, OVA, OAV and VOA.

But actually in a piece of discourse, it is most likely that the S or A argument are old information and probably the topic (the thing that you have been going on about for some time). In béu an established topic is usually dropped and so the eight sentence orders shown above collapse to 3. Namely ... V(s)** , O V(a) and V(a) O

* And when I say definite, I mean that the person being spoken to can identify X as one particular X instead of some X or any X ... if X was a person, then the person being spoken to could put a face to X.

** V(s) represents a verb marked for the person/number of the S argument and V(a) represents a verb marked for the person/number of the A argument.

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... The Case system

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We have just mentioned the ergative form. In total there are 17 cases of course (if you were to include the unmarked case as well you have 18 different forms). They are called the pilana.

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

The word pilana is built up from ;-

pila (v) = to place, to position

pilana (a, n) = positioning, the positioner

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The pilana are either realized as affixes or as prepositions.

Whether the pilana 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.

.. As parts of speech

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pilana 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".

pilana 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.

pilana 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 has 10 question words ...

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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"
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. That is these words have no other function apart from asking questions.

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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.

English is among the 1/3 of world languages which fronts a question word. béu fronts 4 of its 10 question words ... nén mín sái 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"

* 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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Polar Questions

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A polar question is a question that can be answered with "yes" or "no".

To turn a normal statement into a polar question the particle ʔai? is stuck on at the very end.

It has its own symbol (and I transcribe it as ʔai?) because it possesses its own tone contour.

I have mentioned this particle in chapter 1 (if you look back you can see its exact tone contour). Here is its symbol again ...

And here is an example of it in action ...

... jono jaŋkori ʔai? = Did John run ?

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ʔai? is neutral as to the response expected ... well at least in positive questions.

To answer a positive question you answer ʔaiwa "yes" or aiya "no" (of course if "yes" or "no" are not adequate, you can digress ... the same as any language).

Here is an example of a positive question ...

glá r hauʔe ʔai? = Is the woman beautiful ?

If she is beautiful you answer ʔaiwa, if not you answer aiya^*.

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To answer a negative question it is not so simple. ʔaiwa and aiya are deemed insufficient to answer a negative question on their own. For example ...

glá bù r hauʔe ʔai? = Is the woman not beautiful ?

If she is not beautiful, you should answer bù hauʔe^**, if she is you can answer either hù hauʔe or glá r hauʔe

I guess a negative question expects a negative answer, so a positive answer must be quite accoustically prominent (that is a short answer ("yes" or "no") is not enough)

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We have mentioned só already ... in the above section about Seŋko. This is the focus particle. It has a number of uses. When you want to emphasis one word in a clause, you would stick hù in front of it^***.

Another use for só is when hailing somebody .... só jono = Hey Johnny

You can also stick it in front of someone's name when you are talking to them. However it is not a "vocative case" exactly. Well for one thing it is never mandatory. When used the speaker is gently chiding the listener : he is saying, something like ... the view you have is unique/unreasonable or the act you have done is unique/unreasonable. When I say unique I mean "only the listener" hold these views : the listener's views/actions are a bit strange.

When stuck in front of a non-multi-syllable verb you get an imperative. For example ... só nyáu = Go home

só can also be used to highlight one element is a statement or polar question. For example ...

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

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

Unfocused question ... bàus glán nori alha ʔai? = Did the man give flowers to the woman ?

Focused statement ... bàus só glán nori alha ʔai? = It is to the woman that the man gave flowers ?

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Any argument can be focused in this way.

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^*These words have a unique tone contour as well ... at least when spoken in isolation. I suppose I should have given these two words a symbol each ... if I wanted to be consistent.

^**Mmm ... maybe you could answer ʔaiwa here ... but a bit unusual ... not entirely felicitous.

^***In English, when you want to emphasis a word, you make it more accoustically prominent : you don't rush over it but give it a very careful articulation. This is iconic and I guess all languages do the same. It is a pity that .....there is no easy way to represent this in the English orthography apart from increasing the font size or adding exclamation marks.

^****English uses a process called "left dislocation" to give emphasis to an element in a clause.

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... Generic Phrases

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nèn = thing
mìns = person

nài = "relativizer"

làu	as	:	amount	làus
kài	like	:	kind, sort, type	kàin
dà	where	:	place	dàn
kyù	when	:	occasion, time	kyùs
sài	because	:	reason	sàin
gò	in order to	:	goal, aim, intention	gòs

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The above table is very interesting. The first column has generic nouns. You can see the relationship to the question words* in the previous section. Now these words in the first column are both lexical words and function words (i.e. particles). The second column gives their lexical word equivalent in English and the third column gives their functional word equivalent in English.

Now you might think ... wouldn't this cause some confusion ? I think not ( I guess I will see when I start to do translations :-) )

For one thing, the generic nouns have such a wide meaning that they are not used that much. For example, if you tell somebody "this is a thing" you are not actually giving them a lot of information, are you ?

For another thing, when these words are used lexically, often they have some qualification that blocks their functional interpretation. For example gò (yó) pà = "my intention", kài dè = "that kind", etc. etc.

When they are used as functional words, they introduce a Generic Phrases (GP from now on) [my terminology] and the GP has the continous intonation pattern typical of a phrase.

Below are examples of these GP's.

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jene r wò hái làu jono = Jane is as tall as John .............................................. adjective

jene r kài jono wò hái = Jane is as tall as John .............................................. adjective

pà utwa dà yildos twairi = meet me where we met in the morning ................ adverb

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

toili òn nari sài ò klár = I gave her the book because I like her ...................... reason clause (past)

pà dîan tare gò náu toili gìn = I come here to give you a book ...................... reason clause (future)

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*In the previous section I only mentioned 10 question words. Actually there is one more but it is rarely used ... gó. Let me 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".

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More about relative clauses ( considered a type of GP in the béu linguistic tradition ....

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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 ... nài. For example ...

glà nài bàus timpori_sòr hauʔe = The woman that the man hit, is beautiful.

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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_sòr 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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Now nài usually follows a noun. A relative clause can any noun ... or almost any noun. There are 2 nouns that can not take a relative clause. They are ... nèn and mìn.

*nèn nài => ʃì nài

*mìn nài => ò nài ... or nù nài

In English we have what is called a headless relative clause. béu does not have this. The nearest béu has to a headless relative clause would be ʃì nài ....

For example "what you see is what you get" would be rendered ʃì nài bwír sòr ʃì nài mìr

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kyù nài and dà nài introduced full relative clauses. These relative clauses are quite rare though. Much more common is ...

However kyù and dà by themselves can intoduced deranked clauses.

These deranked clauses have the same form as GO CC. Except that kyù or dà take the place of gò

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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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??? what about relativizing kài and làu ... làu bòi kài jono wò solbe => "as good as John as to drinking"

??? what about non-restrictive relative clauses.

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I shot waulo è waulo yana fyakasori pà pulison = the man whose dog I shot reported me to the police.

I shot waulo è yana fyakasori pà polison = the man whose dog I shot reported me to the police.

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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