Phi practice Coordination in Phi

Reading 5 of 9

Part 4

Adding alongside: we

The three conjunctions join elements inside one expression. we makes a different kind of addition: it reaches back to something already established and places the new constituent alongside it. English usually hears it as also or too.

melu shua. we thiku miona shua.

friend come. ALSO small person come.

(A friend comes. A small person comes too.)

lo lopia mua thepalu wile. we lohau wile.

PL child LOC garden play. ALSO dog play.

(The children play in the garden. The dog plays too.)

The first sentence establishes the coming, the playing; we opens the second and adds a newcomer to it. Nothing is joined into a pair. The relation runs backward, to what the conversation already holds.

01Position is the meaning

we stands at the outer edge of exactly the constituent it adds, and the choice of edge is the claim. Before the subject, the participant is the news: we lohau wile., the dog added to the players. Before the verb, the action is what is added:

ne sulae shua. ne siora we shua.

NAME sulae come. NAME siora ALSO come.

(sulae comes. siora comes too.)

Here the second sentence adds siora's coming alongside sulae's, the shared action the point of the telling. One small word, two possible perches, and the listener hears from its position what has been placed beside what.

02we and nela

The two words answer different questions. nela stands between grammatical equals present in the same expression: shiro nela peloru, trees and flowers, both named now. we marks the new against the understood: the flowers were mentioned; now the trees arrive too. English "X and Y" usually calls for nela; "Y too" calls for we; and translating by relation rather than by word keeps each in its home.

Practiceadd alongside

  1. The children play in the garden. The dog plays too.
  2. A friend comes. A small person comes too.
  3. Say "trees and flowers" and then say why we stays out of it.

Answers: 1 lo lopia mua thepalu wile. we lohau wile. 2 melu shua. we thiku miona shua. 3 shiro nela peloru; both stand in the same phrase as named equals, so the joiner is nela, and we would need an earlier sentence to reach back to. The particle adds to what is held; the conjunction joins what is here.