Phi pamphlets — Part 9: One sentence, grown with context

A garden gives the particle system somewhere ordinary to work. The scene is small: someone asks about water that was meant for the garden. Several answers are grammatical, but they answer different questions and reveal different amounts of information.

01The question

wa thia wei thepalu phialu to loa.

Q 2SG DAT garden water PST give.

(Did you give water to the garden?)

wa frames a yes/no question. to places the giving in the past.

The polite form is equally exact about its limited addition:

pi wa thia wei thepalu phialu to loa.

POL Q 2SG DAT garden water PST give.

(Did you give water to the garden?)

pi marks a polite stance and nothing larger.

02An active answer

mia wei thepalu phialu to ma loa.

1SG DAT garden water PST NEG give.

(I did not give water to the garden.)

This answer names the actor because the question asked about that person's action. ma negates the giving, while the rest of the clause stays in place.

03A passive answer

phialu to se ma loa.

water PST PASS NEG give.

(The water was not given.)

This sentence is also grammatical. It presents the water as subject without naming a giver. That may be appropriate when the giver cannot be identified or when the present topic is the water itself. As a reply to "Did you give it?", however, it supplies less of the information requested. The difference comes from context, not from a rule that makes passive voice evasive.

An observer who infers the same result can say:

phialu to se ke ma loa.

water PST PASS INFER NEG give.

(I infer that the water was not given.)

Now the source is part of the message. The sentence still does not identify an actor.

04A future pattern

mia wei thepalu phialu so ro loa.

1SG DAT garden water FUT HAB give.

(I will give water to the garden regularly.)

so ro presents a recurring pattern in the future. A promise or a schedule would need its own context; the grammar reports the pattern.

The same content can enter a condition and a wish:

lu mia wei thepalu phialu ro loa. thepalu thuroa.

COND 1SG DAT garden water HAB give. garden grow.

(If I give water to the garden regularly, the garden flourishes.)

su thepalu thuroa.

OPT garden grow.

(May the garden flourish.)

The condition precedes its consequence. The wish frames its own clause. Neither sentence borrows moral force from the particles around it.

Practicechange one choice at a time

Make the opening question polite.
Answer as the person who knows they did not give the water.
Answer as an observer who infers only that the water was not given.
Give a sentence that presents your future giving of water as a recurring pattern.

Answers: 1 pi wa thia wei thepalu phialu to loa. 2 mia wei thepalu phialu to ma loa. 3 phialu to se ke ma loa. 4 mia wei thepalu phialu so ro loa. Compare the actor, source, and temporal view in each line. That comparison is the useful work of the scene.