Béu : Chapter 4

..... Punctuation and page layout

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The letters in a word are always contiguous, that is there is always a line running right through the word. Writing is firstly from top to bottom and secondly from left to right.

Between words there is a small break in the line. See the figure below ...

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When you have items listed, béu is exactly the same as English : there is a pause between every item. A pause is represented by a gap in the writing system. See the figure below ...

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By the way, the last two items on the list don't have a pause but are separated by wí "and".

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It is also a requirement of béu grammar that any NP's that are adjacent to each other, have a pause between them. Hence ...

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The gaps in the writing system reflect exactly where pauses occur. So in a passage, where it would be appropriate for a speaker to take a breath, you will find a corresponding "gap".

Single gaps are very common. Occasionally you can have "double gaps" and even "treble gaps". These rare creatures represent "pregnant pauses" which are sometimes used for comic effect.

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There is also a punctuation mark called the "sunmark". This is basically a full-stop.

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In a normal narrative, everything is written in "textblocks". See figure below ...

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Textblocks fit in between "rails" about 4 inches apart. The width of a block should be between 60% and 90% ^* of the block height. Of course it is best to start a new block when the scene of the narrative changes or there is some discontinuity of the action, but this is not always possible.

There is no way to split a word between two lines (as we can do in the West by using two hyphens). If a line (or should I say column) ends in a "sunmark", the next column will begin with a sunmark.

The first text block starts at the top left (as you would expect). The second textblock starts below where the first text block stops. In fact the vertical space between the stop and the start of the two textblocks is equal to the horizontal "interblockspace" (see the figure above).

When you come to the end of the page (you will have some sort of margin of course and not go all the way to the edge), you simply continue the block on the LHS of the next rail (or page).

There are two sizes for books. For all hardback books the size is about 8 inches by about 11 inches. For all paperback books the size is about 5 inches by about 8 inches. They are stored as shown in the figure below.

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Unlike books produced in the West, these books are held with the spine horizontal when being read. The hardback page has two "rails" per page (i.e. three dark lines).

On the paperback book, the title is written on the spine and on the front of the book. On the hardback book the title is written on the front, also there is a flap that slides into the spine. However when the book is stored on a shelf, it is pulled out and hangs down. Hence the hardback books can be easily located, even when they are in the bookshelf.

In every textblock, one word is highlighted. It is usually a noun and the more iconic the better (for example Elephant or Mouse are highly iconic). This word is highlighted in a red colour. Sometimes an active verb is highlighted. These are highlighted in a green colour. Sometimes an adjective is highlighted ... orange colour. Sometimes an infinitive is highlighted ... pink colour

A book will be divided into chapters. A chapter will have a number and usually a title as well. Either at the end of the book or just after the chapter, there will be a page, in which all the highlighted words for a chapter are listed in order. Instead of referencing things by page number, things are reference by chapter and textblock (indictated by the highlighted word(s) ).

Any particular word in a book can be reference by 5 parameters ...

1) "title of book"

2) "title of chapter" (or "number of chapter")

3) the textblocks position (i.e. textblock number 5) plus the highlighted word(s)

4) the number of the sunmark (the number zero is used if the word being referenced is before the first sunmark

5) the number of the word

Also when direct dialogue is quoted ... the words of the first protagonist is highlighted in yellow ... those of the second in blue ??

^* Occasionally very narrow blocks can not be avoided. And of course in mathematical/scientific tracts the tracts are all over the place ... interspersed with diagrams and what have you.

..... When a noun qualifies another one

A) When the relationship between the nouns is one of ownership (usually a thing owned by a person), the thing comes first and it is followed by the person, with the person taking the pilana of location.

B) When the relationship between the nouns is "part to the whole", with the noun denoting the whole taking the pilana of location.

C) When the relationship between the nouns is a kinship relationship the attribute noun takes the pilana of location.

D) When the relationship between the nouns is of an attribute ( see page 265 ) the attribute noun takes the pilana of location.

F) When the relationship between the nouns is association, the attribute noun takes the pilana of location.

E) "above the house" = atas nambo ... for the same reason, people get their knickers in a twist about this one. However these "locative words" are a bit different as they are hardly ever used alone (maybe in the past they were, that is if béu had a past). If they are uttered without in isolation these days the invariably have ka suffixed.

M) "cup of water" = cup moze ... people get their knickers in a twist about this one. "cup" must be the head, but surely water is more important. That is, semantically "water" is the "head" but syntactically "cup" is the head. Well in the béu linguistic tradition we get around this by ???

Z) There is one more case to talk about. If something is made out something, then we use the preposition mò meaning "out of". For example ....

a cup of gold ???

Think about other situations in which we can use this partative case (look at Finnish).

..... How to bring a word into focus

Actually there is a way to focused elements in a statement which mirrors the way to focus elements in a question. We use cà for this.

Statement 1) báus glaye timpi alhai = the man gave flowers to the woman

Focused statement 2) báus glaye cà timpi alhai = It is the woman to whom the man gave the flowers.

Any argument or in fact the verb itself can be focused in this way.

..... How to ask a polar question

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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 (i.e. a question that requires a YES/NO answer), we stick the particle ʔái on the end of the sentence.

ʔái is neutral as to the response you are expecting.

To answer a positive question, YES or NO ( ʔaiwa àu aiya ) is sufficient.

To answer a negative question positively, YES ( ʔaiwa ) is enough.

To answer a negative question negatively, you must give an entire clause.

For example ;-

Question 1) glà (rà) haube ʔái = Is the woman beautiful ? .......... If she is beautiful, answer ʔaiwa, if she isn't answer aiya.

Question 2) glà ká haube ʔái = Isn't the woman beautiful ? ........ If she isn't beautiful, answer ʔaiwa, if she is answer ò rà hauʔe. (notice that the copula must be used in this case)

The above method questions the entire clause. However if you want to question one element in a clause, then you front that element and have ʔái immediately after.

Statement 1) báus glaye kyori alhai = the man gave flowers to the woman

Straight question 2) báus glaye kyori alha ʔái = did the man gave flowers to the woman ?

Focused question 3) glaye ʔái báus kyori alha = Is it the woman that the man gave flowers to ?

Focused question 4) báus ʔái glaye kyori alha = Is it the man that gave flowers to the woman ?

Focused question 5) alha ʔái báus glaye kyori = Is it flowers that the man gave to the woman ?

Focused question 6) kyori ʔái báus glaye alha = the man GAVE flowers to the woman ? (a possible situation ... the speaker has previously thought the woman had stolen the flowers)

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..... How to ask a content question

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English is quite typical of languages in general and has 7 content question words ... "which", "what", "who", "where", "when", "how" and "why".

A corresponding set of béu question words are given below.

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what	nén nós
who	mín mís món
when	kói	occasion, time	kòi	the time that	koi.a
where	déu	place	dèu	the place that	deu.a
"what kind of"	kái	sort, type	kài	the type that, "as"	kai.a
"how much" or "how many"	láu	amount	làu	the amount that	lau.a
which	nái
how	fáu
why	nenji

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In English as in about 1/3 of the languages of the world it is necessary to front the content question word.

In béu these words are usually also fronted. They must come before the verb anyway. If they come after the verb, they mean "somebody/something", "somewhere" etc. etc.

The pilana are added to the content question words as they would be to a normal noun phrase.

Here are some examples of content questions ...

Statement 1) báus glaye kyori alha = the man gave flowers to the woman

Question 2) mines glaye kyori alha = who gave flowers to the woman

Question 3) báus minye kyori alha = to whom did the man gave flowers

Question 4) báus glaye fái kyori = what did the man give to the woman

lí = amount

nò = number

5) báus ye fái gla ? kyori alha = to which woman did the man give the flowers

6) báus kyori ye á gla alha = the man gave flowers to some woman

7) báus kyori ye gla alha = the man gave flowers to a woman

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..... How A O and S arguments are identified

In this section we discuss pronouns and also introduce the S, A and O arguments.

béu is what is called an ergative language. About a quarter of the world languages are ergative or partly ergative. So let us explain what ergative means. Well in English we have 2 forms of the first person singular pronoun ... namely "I" and "me". Also we have 2 forms of the third person singular male pronoun ... namely "he" and "him". These two forms help determine who does what to whom. For example "I hit him" and "He hit me" have obviously different meanings.

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In English there is a fixed word order, which also helps to tell who did what to who when the participants are given as nouns instead of pronouns. In béu the order of the verb and the participants are not fixed as in English.

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glàs baú timpori = The woman hit the man

glà baús timpori = The man hit the woman

It can be seen that "s" is added to the "doer" of the action.

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However consider the clause below ...

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glà doikor = The woman walks

It can be seen that the "doer" does not have an attached "s" in this case.

The reason is that "to walk" is an intransitive verb while "to hit" is a transitive verb

It is the convention to call the doer in a intransitive clause the S argument.

It is the convention to call the "doer" in a transitive clause the A argument and the "done to" the O argument.

A language that has the S and O arguments marked in the same way is called an ergative language

If you like you can say ;-

In English "him" is the "done to"(O argument) : "he" is the "doer"(S argument) and the "doer to"(A argument).

In béu ò is the "done to"(O argument) and the "doer"(S argument) : ós is the "doer to"(A argument).

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..... Transitivity and the useful word "á"

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In béu a verb is either transitive or intransitive. There is no "ambitransitive verbs as in English.^*

For example ... in English, you can say ... "I will drink water" or simply "I will drink"

The second option is not allowed in béu ... as "drink" is a transitive verb, you must say "I will drink something" = solbaru á

Well actually you can, the á can be dropped ... just as easily as the pás is dropped. The point is that the listener "knows" that there are always 2 arguments. The same can not be said in English when you here "he drinks" ... it could mean that the subject habitually drinks alcohol, in which case we have only one S argument.

For another example ... in English, you can say ... "the woman closed the door" or simple "the door closed".

The second option is not allowed in béu ... as "close" is a transitive verb, you must say "something closed the door" = pintu nagori ás

(Actually there is another option for expressing the above ... you can change any transitive verb to an intransitive verb ... pintu nagwori = "the door was closed"

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If an argument is definite in béu it is usually comes before the verb, and if indefinite it usually comes after the verb.

Now the word é is by definition indefinite. It actually means "somebody" OR "something". What happens if this word is put before the verb.

Well something quite interesting happens ... é changes into a question word meaning "who" or "what"

For example ... és pintu nagori = Who/what closed the door

For another example ... "what will I drink" = é solbaru

And yet another one ... "who drank the water" = és moze solbori

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^*Actually you can tell the transitivity of a verb (for a word of more than one syllable) by looking at its last consonant. If the last consonant is j b g d c s k or t then it is transitive. If it is ʔ m y l p w n or h it is intransitive.

There is about 300 words that have an intransitive form as well as a transitive form, only differing in their final consonant. The relationship between these final consonants is shown below. x means "any vowel".

transitive	intransitive
-jx	-lx
-bx	-ʔx
-gx	-mx
-dx	-yx
-cx	-wx
-sx	-nx
-kx	-hx
-tx	-lx

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NB ... y and w are usually not allowed to be the second element in a word ... but in these special words, they are.

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..... Correlatives

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ibu	anybody, any one	ivanyo	anything
ebu	somebody, some one	evanyo	something
ebua	some people	evanyoi	somethings
ubu	everybody (collective)	uvanyo	everything (collective)
yubu	everybody (individual)	yuvanyo	everything (collective)
kyabu	nobody, no one	kyavanyo	nothing
....	....	....	....
iku	anytime	idu	anywhere
eku	once	edu	somewhere
ekua	some times	edua	some places
uku	always	udu	everywhere (collective)
yuku	everytime	yudu	everywhere (collective)
kyaku	never	kyadu	nowhere
....	....	....	....

(SideNote) ...

-bu does not occur as an independent word but does occur as a suffix ... beubu = a person who follows the precepts of béu

fanyo is an independent word, meaning "object", "physical thing"

-ku is not an independent word or a suffix. However kyù is a word meaning "occasion", "time".

-du is not an independent word. However dwì is a word meaning "place".

(SideNote) ...

kyú = when

dwí = where

kyùa = the time that, when

dwìa = the place that, where

kyugan = time

dwigan = space

..... More about the pilana

-pi or pì

meu (rà) "basket"pi

While the original meaning was about space, this pilana is very often found referring to time.

I read the book hourpi => I read the book in an hour

I gets dark pi ten minutes => It get dark in ten minutes

She qualified as a doctor pi five years

One can get from Glasgow to London daypi

I'm coming to Sweden pi next month

meu (rà) topla basketn = The cat is on top of the house

meu (rà) interior basketn = the cat is in the basket

-la or lá

mat (rà) floorla => the mat is on the floor ... notice "the mat"

twor mat floorla => there is a mat on the floor ... notice "a mat". Also the verb two is usually sentence initial, at least when introducing something new.

meu (rà) topla nambon => The cat is on top of the house

Notice that "topla nambon" is allowed, I should mention this somewhere.

twor ble pàn = I have (some) money

ble twor pàn = I have the money

tworka ble pàn = I don't have any money .... Note that it is also possible to say twor yà ble pàn, but the first method is definitely preferred.

ble tworka pàn = I don't have the money

bird (rà) top nambon = The bird is above the house

Notice that in the above example "top" is considered a specifier ... "top nambo" forms a tight compound.

The eight specifiers of location are above, below, right, left, this side (with respect to the speaker, of course), the far side

yè and fí are not used for locations. Instead the transitive verbs "arrive" and "leave" are used in a SVC.

Also the words "come" and "go" covered by "arrive" and "leave".

When not talking about location, yè and fí are used.

For example ...

She gave food to the beggar = ...... beggarye

The beggar got food from the woman = ...... wamanfi

Verbs such as hear and tell use these pilana also.

Also such sentences as ...

I was made to sing by the guard = I receive sing guardfi

He made the prisoner sing = He give sing prisonerye

Also such sentences as ...

He went from being very rich, to very poor, within six months

use yè and fí

-ye or yè

kyiwa toili oye = give the book to her

This is the pilana used for marking the receiver of a gift, or the receiver of some knowledge.

However the basic usage of the word is directional.

*namboye = "to the house"

wazboye nambon = "as far as the house" ... (literally "to the distance of the house")

"limit"ye nambon = "up to the house" ... this usage is not for approaching humans however ... for that you must use "face".i.e. "face"ye báun = right up to the man

pyè = to go

yèu = to arrive ... yài a SVC meaning "to start" ... fái a SVC meaning "to stop" ???

data = to come

-fi or fí

nambofi = "from the house"

fí "direction" nà nambo = "away from the house" i.e.you don't know if this is his origin but he is coming from the direction that the house is in.

fí "limit/border" nà nambo = all the way from the house

fí "top" nà nambo = from the top of the house ... and so on for "bottom", "front", etc. etc.

he changed frog.fi ye prince handsome = he changed from a frog to a handsome prince

fía = to leave, to depart ... fái a SVC meaning "to finish" .... then bai cound mean continue and -ana would be the present tense ???

-lya or alya

Sometimes called the "Allative case". Can be said to translate to English as "onto".

The x means that the previous vowel is repeated.

xxx yyy zzz = put the cushions on the sofa

-lfe or alfe

The ablative

-s or sá

that Stefen turned up drunk at the interview sank his chance of getting that job

sá tá ........

-ce or cé

The instrumental is used for nouns that represent the instrument ("with"), the means ("by") or the agent ("by").

John writes with a pen

banu = to learn

banuge = by learning

book was written page = The book was written by me

andage = manually

I work as a translator ??? ... I work sàu translator ??

gé ta ...

-ho or hò

The commitive

"in the company of", often used with the personal pronouns ;-

with me	paho	with us	yuaho
		with us	wiaho
with you	giho	with you (plural)	jeho
with him, with her	oho	with them	uho
with it	ʃiho	with them	ʃiho

tùa = to use, to wear ... tàu a SVC meaning ??

-ji or jí

The benefactive. Sometimes used with gomia

banu = to learn, banuji = in order to learn

-wo or wó

Not used for the locative sense of about, it has the sense "with respect to" more. Used for example when have the word halfa = to laugh.

1) pà halfari = I laught

2) pà halfari jonowo = I laught at John

Is 2) a transitive verb ? Semantically transitive maybe ... but (in English and in béu), John is introduced by a preposition ... so I guess 2) is not transitive ???

2) pà halfari jonoye = I taunted John

Used for marking the "theme" as in such sentences as the one below.

gala caturi jonowo => The women were talking about John

jonowo ... = as for John ....

-n or nà

The locative or the possessive. Basically if the noun is human, it is the possessive : if the noun is non-human, it is locative.

nambo jonon (rà) hauʔe = John's house is beautiful

jono (rà) nambon = John is at home