Béu : Chapter 6
..... How words change class
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... Adjectives => Nouns
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gèu = green : geumai = greenness
naike = sharp : naikemi = sharpness
Note ... the affix changes depending on whether the word is a monosyllable or a non-monosyllable.
Note ... gèu can also mean "the green one". You can tell from context whether it is an adjective or a noun. All adjectives behave likewise.
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... Adjectives (and nouns) => Verbs
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gèu = green : geudo = to greenify, to turn green, to become green.
naike = sharp : naikedo = to sharpen, to become sharp
keŋkia = salty : keŋkido = to salt, to add salt
Note ... when the adjective ends is a diphthong (and is non-monosylabic) the last vowel is dropped.
??? = bicycle : ???do = to bicycle
For example ...
(pà) geudari = I have turned green
(pás) geudari ʃì = I have turned it green
ós geudori ʃì = She turned it green
Note ... in the above example the A argument can't be omitted. If it was the meaning would be "it turned green".
Note ... dó by itself is a verb meaning "to do". All other monosyllabic verbs beginning with a single consonant have diphthongs for their infinitive form.
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... Verbs => Adjectives
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.. The passive participle
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The passive participle is formed by affixing -wai to the infinitive. For example ...
kludau = to write : kludwai = written
solbe = to drink : solbwai = drunk (not in the sense of intoxicated)
and because of the strong tendency of adjectives to also serve as nouns ...
kludwai = the one that is written => a note
solbwai = "that which has been drunk"
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.. The active participle
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Sometimes also called the habitual participle.
The active participle is formed by affixing -ana to the infinitive. For example ...
kludau = to write : kludana = "writing" or "fond of writing"
solbe = to drink : solbana = drinking
and because of the strong tendency of adjectives to also serve as nouns ...
kludana = the one who is always writing => writer/author
solbana = "he who drinks" or "a drinker"
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.. The present participle
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The present participle is formed by affixing -la to the infinitive. HOWEVER in this case the final vowel of the infinitive is not deleted. Rather it is kept but if it is a diphthong it drops its second half. For example ...
kludau = to write : kludala = "writing just now"
solbe = to drink : solbela = "drinking at this moment"
and because of the strong tendency of adjectives to also serve as nouns ...
kludala = "the one writing just now" or just "the writer"
solbela = "the one now drinking" or just "the drinker"
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.. The participle of obligation
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Actually the form solbe by itself can be a participle when it qualifies a noun. For example ...
moʒi solbe = the water that must be drunk
toili kludau = the book that must be written
and because of the strong tendency of adjectives to also serve as nouns ...
kludau = that which must be written => an (school) assignment
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... Verbs => Nouns
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Actually verbs in their infinitive form can be considered nouns also. For example ...
dó = to do, to make ... but it can also be translated as "deed" or "action".
If an action can result in (or be strongly connected to) some physical object. In that case the name of the physical object is derived from the verb by deleting the final vowel of the infinitive and adding "u". For example ...
dó = to make, to produce : dú = a product, an artifact
nàu = to give : nù = a gift
solbe = to drink : solbu = a drink
The -u ending always gives a countable noun ... also tangible, sort of.
To produce uncountable nouns the suffix -van is often used. For example ...
nauvan = tribute, tax
dovan = products
solbevan = drinks
yái = to have : yaivan = possessions, property
glà = to store : glavan = reserves
Note ... yú is not a noun, but a particle that indicates possession, occurs after the "possessed" and before the "possessor.
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... Nouns => Adjectives
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keŋko = salt : keŋkia = salty, having salt : keŋkua = not salty, lacking salt
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..... kolape
This is a complement clause construction. In English there are 7 types of complement clauses, in béu there are only 3.
A complement clause is call a kolape in béu. The three types are briefly summarised below and then each of the types is discussed in more detail.
1) I remembered writing the book ... this conveys that the whole process of locking the door is going thru the speakers mind ... ???ari pá kludau toili
The béu form above looks similar to the English "I remembered to write the book". However this is NOT the meaning.
To say "I remembered to write the book" in béu you would say ???ari tá toili (rà) kludu ... see the section about participles.
2) I thought that I wrote the book ... takes the same form in béu ... olgari tá kludari toili
3) He asked me whether I had written the book ??? ... askori (pavi) tavoi kludari toili
kolape jù
In béu the word order is usually free. This is not true in a kalope jù
jonoS rì kéu = John was bad
(pà solbe moze pona sacowe)S rì kéu = my drinking the cold water quickly was bad
Notice that pà solbe moze pona sacowe behaves as one element. It has the same function as "John" in the previous example.
The word order inside kolape jù is fixed. It must be S V or A V O for a transitive clause (any other peripheral arguments are stuck on at the end).
Also notice that the ergative marker -s which is usually attached to the A argument is dropped. Actually for pronouns it is not just the dropping of the -s, but a change of tone also, so this form is identical to the O form of the pronoun.
The kolape above, if expressed as a main clause would be.
(pás) solbari saco* moze pona = I drank the cold water quickly
Other examples ;-
wàr solbe (I want to drink) is another example. (wò = to want)
klori jono timpa jene (he saw John hitting Jane) ... (klói = to see)
kolape jù? can be considered as a noun phrase and the fixed ordering of elements can be seen as a reflextion of the strict order of elements in a normal noun phrase
Subject1 Head2 Object3(Peripheral arguments4 x n)
1) The "A" argument or the "S" argument.
2) The verb.
3) The "O" argument, which would of course be non-existent in an intransitive clause.
4) Adverbs and everything else.
A gomia such as solbe can be regarded as a proper noun** and can be the head of a cwidauza (see a previous section)
or it can be the head of a kalope jù. But these two constructions are always distinct. For example you couldn't append a determiner to a kalope jù ... (or could you ??)
* in a main clause the adverb can appear anywhere if suffixed with -we. But in kalope jù the adverb must come after the Subject, Verb and Object.
** A gomia never forms a plural or takes personal infixes in the way a normal noun does. Also it only takes a very reduced subset of pilana, so a gomia can be regarded as an entity half way between nounhood and verb hood. For that reason I consider gomia as a part of speech, standing alongside "noun" and "verb".
kolape tá
In this form the full verb* is used, not the gomia. Also we have a special complementiser particle tá which comes at the head of the complement clause.
wàr tá jonos timporu jene = I want John to hit Jane
klori tá jonos timpori jene (he saw that John hit Jane) ... (klói = to see)
*Well not quite the full form. Evidentials are never expressed.
kolape tói
This is equivalent to English word "whether".
sa RAF kalme Luftwaffe kyori Hitler olga tena => The RAF's destruction of the Luftwaffe, made Hitler think again. ... here a gomiaza acts as the A-argument.
*in the combinations where sacowe immediately followed solbe it is merely saco
Things to think about
what is a gomiaza
Can this be used for a causative construction ??
..... Some linguistic terms in béu
By the way, while we are at it (defining linguistic terms)
nandau = word
semo = a clause ... from the verb "to say" sema
semoza = a sentence
jaudauza = a verb phrase or verb complex (commonly called a "predicate" by linguists). This is the verb together with the five modals.
feŋgi = a particle ... given above
plofa = a participle (P) ... there are 3 participles in béu
ʔasemo = a relative clause
kalope = a complement clause. There are three types of these ... kalope jù, kalope tà and kalope tavoi
A kalope jù is a gomiaza if it is more than one word long, if only one word long it is simply a gomia
A gomiaza can comprise of subject ... gomia ... object ... adverb ... other peripheral terms
The term gomuaza is not used. You would use the word semo meaning clause.
taifi (that which is to be tied ??? check participles) = copular subject
taifo = copular complement
taifau = to tie
taifana = a copula
..... The parts of speech of béu
"Parts of speech" is linguistic jargon, which is referring to the different "classes" of words a language might have. For example "nouns", "verbs", etc. etc.
In fact nouns (N), verbs (V) and adjectives (A) are the big three, and after some debate over the last 30 years, it has been agreed that every language has these three word classes.
In béu a noun is called cwidau (cwì meaning a physical object), a verb is called jaudau (jàu meaning "to move"), and an adjective is called saidau (sái meaning "a colour").
There are other classes of words in béu as there are in other languages. béu has adverbs (wedau) but these don't really come into their own, being more a form an adjective takes in certain situations. Also a lot of words that are called adverbs in English are called particles (feŋgia) (F) in béu. Particles are a type of hold-all category for a word that doesn't fit into any of the other classes. Under the term "particle" many subclasses can be defined, and in fact some subclasses have a class membership of one. If you come across a word that can not easily be equated with any of the major word classes ... well then you probably have a feŋgi.
It is necessary to talk about another part of speech which i will refer to by the béu term gomia* (G). It is a form of the verb which is called the "infinitive" in the Western linguistic tradition.
* goma means "tail" and gomia means "tail-less". The reason for this is that a verb in a sentence functioning as verbs commonly do, has person, number, tense, aspect and evidentiality expressed on the verb as series of suffixes, hence the "tail". These items are not expressed on the gomia.
In contradistinction to gomia we have gomua (jaudau gomua to give the concept its full title) which is a verb in a sentence functioning as verbs typically do.
For example solbarin (I drank, so they say) is a gomua.
solbarin is built up from the gomia "solbe" ... first you delete the final vowel => then you add "a" meaning first person singular subject => then you add "r" meaning that the mood is indicative (as opposed to imperative or subjunctive) => then you add "i" meaning simple past tense => and finally you add "n" which is an evidential, meaning that the utterance is based on what other people have said.
solbarin is gomua pomo or "a full tail verb".
The three evidential markers are all optional, so they can quite easily be dropped. solbari (I drank) is what is called gomua yàu or "a long tail verb".
solbis (you lot drink) and solbon (let him drink) are gomua wái or "a short tail verbs" ... the first is an example of the imperative and the second is an example of the subjunctive (more linguistic jargon ... sorry).
solbai is called an part verb ???
== ..... Another relativizer
There is another relativized in béu that refers back to a whole proposition. In English "which" is sometimes given this function. For example ...
1) ... John had completely forgotten his wedding anniversary which really annoyed his wife.
béu uses nài in a similar way to how which is used in the above example. Also the same shorthand form is used for nài and nái. However no misunderstanding is possible since nài always has a pause before it (how do I do a comma ?) and nái always is immediately after a noun.
To give and to receive
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náu = "to give" or "to allow" or "to let".
mài = "to receive" or "to get" or "to undergo"
1) jonos nori toili jeneye = John has given a book to Jane
2) jonos nori jene toilitu = John gave Jane a book
Note ... toili takes the instrumental case ... HIGHLIGHT in light green, similar to ... adverbs + "to come and go"
3) jenes mori toili (jonovi) = Jane has received a book (from John) ... "receive" in the perfect aspect equates to "have" or "got"
The above 3 examples describe the same action but from two different perspectives.
Note ... in each of these 3 examples, all 3 arguments are marked differently
Note ... in 2) jene takes the ergative, although the action initiated by her would be minimal (if anything at all).
The words kyò "show" and fyá "tell" follow the same pattern as 1) and 2) ... at least when the object is a noun and not a complement clause.
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The second passive construction
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We have already seen that every transitive verb can be made into an intransitive by infixing w in the verb.
However they is a second method of generating passives.
jene mori timpa (hí jono) = jane has been hit (by john) ... where mori is the word mài "to receive"
Notice that when the subject receives a noun, then it will take the ergative case. However when the subject receives an infinitive verb, then no ergative case is affixed.
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The reciprocal construction
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The reciprocal particle can be said to historically come from both náu and mài.
jonos jenes timpura namai = "John and Jane are hitting each other" = "John and Jane hit one and other"
namai the reciprocal particle (usually comes immediately after the verb) is obviously derived from the phrase náu mài
Note ... lè "and" is not used when two nouns in the ergative case occur adjacent to each other.
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To allow or let
náu is used to express "to allow" or "to let".
John has let Jane go => jonos nori jene jòi ... ?? or should it be jìa ... if jòi was considered a pure noun it would be *joitu
Note that this construction mirrors the construction in 1) above, with an infinitive substituted for indirect object (i.e. bé "to go" for toili "book").
The causative construction
du = "to do" or "to make"
The causative construction
(pás) dari jono dono = I made john walk
(pás) dari jono timpa jene = I made John hit Jane ... in this sort of construction, jono, timpa and jene must be contiguous and jono should be to the left of jene.
(pás) dari oye timpa glá = I made him/her hit the woman
(pás) dari oye dono = I made him/her walk
Alternatively we can use the tá particle and drop the -ye
(pás) dari tá (ò) donor = I made him/her walk
Is the below OK ?
mari náu jòi = I received permission to go = I received to give to go.
dari jene dono = I made Jane walk
jene dowori dono = Jane has been made to walk
nari jene dono = I allowed Jane to walk
jene nawori dono = Jane has been allowed to walk
jene nawori dono = "Jane has been made to walk" ??? OR "Jane has been allowed to walk"
jene mori dono = "Jane has been made to walk" OR "Jane has been allowed to walk"
(pà) mori solbe moze (hí jono) = I was made to drink the water (by John)
moze mori solbe (hí jene) = The water has been drunk (by Jane)
Who/what is responsible
1) pintu lí mapa = the door became closed ... this uses the adjective form of mapa and the "copula of becoming" láu.
Agent => Anything ... It could be that the agent was the wind ... or even some evil spirits ... use your imagination.
2) pintu bwori mapau = the door was closed ... this is the standard passive form. (By the way ... I don't mean pintu rì mapa when I say "the door was closed")
Agent => Human and the action deliberate ... It strongly implies that the agent was human but is either unknown or unimportant.
Now lets consider gèudu = "to turn green" ... ambitransitive, S and A ... as in English.
1) báu lí gèu = The man became green ... this uses the adjective form of gèu and the "copula of becoming" láu. This form has no implication as to the humanness of the agent.
Agent => Anything and the action could be accidental.
2) báu bwori geudu = The man was made green ... this is the standard passive form. It strongly implies a human agent but the agent is either unknown or unimportant.
Agent => Human and the action deliberate
3) báus tí geudori = The man made himself green ... this form implies that there was some effort involved and definitely a deliberate action.
Agent => The man and the action deliberate
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..... The sides of an object
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sky nambon = above the house
awe (rá) nà sky nambon = the bird is above the house .... sometimes nà can be left out as well ... awe sky nambon = the bird is above the house (a phrase) the NP (the bird above the house) ....
earth nambon = under the house
face nambon = front of the house
arse nambon = behind the house
kà = side
aibaka = a triangle
ugaka = a square
idaka = a pentagon
elaka = a hexagon
ò atas nambo = he/she is above the house ... however if "house" is understood, and mention of it is dropped, we must add ka to atas ... for example ...
ò ataska = he/she is above
daunika = underneath
liʒika = on the left hand side
luguka = on the right hand side
noldo, suldo, westa, istu niaka, muaka faceside backside etc. etc.
..... The verb complex or verb phrase
Also often called the predicate. Called the jaudauza in béu
The predicate is made up of ...
1) one of two particles that show likelihood which are optional.
In the béu linguistic tradition they are called mazebai. The mazebai are a subgroup of feŋgi (the particles)
2) one of five particles that show modality. These are also optional.
In the béu linguistic tradition they are called seŋgebai. The seŋgebai are a subgroup of feŋgi (the particles)
3) a gomua (a full verb)
... mazebai
These appear first in the predicate.
These particles show the probability of the verb occurring.
1) màs solbori = maybe he drank
2) lói solbori = probably he drank
You could say that the first one indicates about 50% certainty while the second indicates around 90 % certainty
... seŋgebai
These appear next in the predicate.
These particles correspond to what is called the "modal" words in English. The five seŋgeba are ...
1) sú which codes for strong obligation or duty. It is equivalent to "should" in English. In English certain instances of the word "must" also carries this meaning.
2) seŋga which codes for weak obligation. It is equivalent to "ought to" in English. (Note ... in certain dialects of English "ought to" is dying out, and "should" is coding weak obligation also)
3) alfa which codes for ability. It is equivalent to "can" in English. As in English it means that subject has the strength or the skill to perform the action. Also as in English it codes for possibilities/situations which are not dependent on the subject. For example ... udua alfa solbur => "the camels can drink" in the context of "the caravan finally reached Farafra Oasis"
4) hempi which codes for permission. It is equivalent to "may" or "to be allowed to" in English. (Note ... in certain dialects of English "may" is dying out, and "can" is coding for permission also)
5) hentai means knowledge. It is equivalent to "know how to" in English. (Note ... in English certain instances of the word "can" also carries this meaning)
The form that these seŋgeba and the main verb take appears strange. Where as, logically, you would expect the suffixes for person, number, tense, aspect and evidential to be attached to the seŋgeba and the main verb maybe in its infinitive form, the seŋgeba do not change their form and the suffixes appear on the main verb as normal. This is one oddity that marks the seŋgeba off as a separate word class.*
Some examples ...
1)
a) sú -er => you should visit your brother
b) sú -eri => you should have visited your brother
c) sú hamperka animals => you should not feed the animals
d) sú hamperki animals => you shouldn't have fed the animals
Note these are the tenses allowed in a jaudauza súa
2)
a) seŋga humper little => you ought to eat a little
b) seŋga humperi little => you ought to have eaten a little
c) seŋga solberka brandy => you ought to not drink brandy
d) seŋga solberki brandy => you ought to have not drunk that brandy
Note these are the tenses allowed in a jaudauza seŋgua
3)
a) fuà -or => he can swim across the river
b) fuà-ori => he could swim across the river
c) fuà solborka => he can stop drinking
d) fuà solborki => he could stop drinking
Note these are the tenses allowed in a jaudauza fùa
4)
a) hempi bor festa => "she may go to the party" or "she can go to the party" or "she is allowed to go to the party"
b) hempi bori festa => she was allowed to go to the party
c) hempi borka school => he is allowed to stop attending school
d) hempi bori school => he was allowed to stop attending school
Note these are the tenses allowed in a jaudauza hempua
5)
a) hentai bamor car => "she can drive a car" or "she knows how to drive a car"
b) hentai bamori car => she knew how to drive a car
c) hentai boikorka car => He has the ability not to crash the car
d) hentai boikorki car => He had the ability not to crash the car
Note these are the tenses allowed in a jaudauza hentua
*Two other oddities also marks off the seŋgeba as a separate word class. These are ...
1) When you want to question a jaudauza containing a seŋgeba you change the position of the main verb and the seŋgeba. For example ...
bor hempi festa => "may she go to the party" ... shades of English here.
2) All 5 seŋgeba can be negativized by deleting the final vowel and adding aiya. For example ...
faiya -or ??? => he can't swim across the river
Note ... sometimes the negative marker on the seŋgeba can occur along with the normal negative marker on the main verb to give an emphatic positive. Sometimes it produces a quirky effect. For example ...
jenes faiya humpor 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 fa humporka cokolate => Jane can not eat chocolates (Jane have the ability not to eat chocolates)... meaning she has the willpower to resist them.
jenes faiya humporka cokolate => Jane can not not eat chocolates (Jane lacks the ability, not to eat chocolates) ... meaning she can't resist them.
There are 5 nouns that correspond to the 5 seŋgeba
anzu = duty
seŋgo = obligation
alfa = ability
hempo = permission or leave
hento = knowledge
Note on English usuage (in fact all the Germanic languages) ... the way English handles negating 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 would 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.
... wepua
We have already mentioned the two mazeba at the beginning of this section.
Actually there is another particle that occurs in the same slot as the mazeba and it also codes for likelihood. This is wepua and it constitutes a subgroup of feŋgi (the particles) all by itself.
1) más solbori = maybe he drank
2) lói solbori = probably he drank
3) wepua solbori = he must have drank
You could say that while the first one indicates about 50% certainty while the second indicates around 90 % certainty, the third shows 100% certainty.
3) Indicates that some "evidence" or "background information" exists to allow the speaker to assert what he is saying. It also carries the meaning "there is no other conclusion given the evidence".This obviously has some functional similarities to the -s evidential. However the -s evidential carries less than 100 % certainty ...
solboris = I guess/suppose he drunk
wepua never appears in front of the first two seŋgebai. This is the difference between wepua and the mazebai.
The word wepua is derived from pè meaning "to need". pòi means necessities.wepua can be thought of as meaning something like "being necessary" or "of necessity".
.... -fa, and -inda
These all form adjectives. The first might have some connection with a seŋgeba.
i.e. solbe = to drink
moze = water
moze solbefa = drinkable water
Maybe related to fua "can".
moze solbinda = water worth drinking
There is also another suffix, but this one can be said to be unrelated to "like" kinda
Maybe related to kinda "to like".
..
..... Index
- Introduction to Béu
- Béu : Chapter 1 : The Sounds
- Béu : Chapter 2 : The Noun
- Béu : Chapter 3 : The Verb
- Béu : Chapter 4 : Adjective
- Béu : Chapter 5 : Questions
- Béu : Chapter 6 : Derivations
- Béu : Chapter 7 : Way of Life 1
- Béu : Chapter 8 : Way of life 2
- Béu : Chapter 9 : Word Building
- Béu : Chapter 10 : Gerund Phrase
- Béu : Discarded Stuff
- A statistical explanation for the counter-factual/past-tense conflation in conditional sentences
