"It Breaks!" vs. "It Breaks!": view article

In English, the phrase "He shoots the bow" could mean two VERY different things. The common interpretation is that "he" (the subject) is causing "the bow" to fire. However, another interpretation is if "he" has some other projectile launcher and is shooting at "the bow". This sentence is interpreted usually with our first example since people shoot with bows and not at them, so the sentence's meaning is understood by context.

In Arusian, the phrase, "He shoots the bow at the animal" is grammatically written to tell who is doing the shooting or being shot.

.feM rt lej r,aeuv us .
IPA: /su vue:jɜ ʒɛl tɜ mɛf/
Gloss: 3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee shooting-VBZVerbaliser
converts N, ADJ etc into verb bow
Translations: He/She shoots the bow at an animal.

See that [su] (he/she) is the subject, /vue:jɜ/ (shoot) is the verb, [ʒɛl] (bow) is the object, /tɜ/ (toward) is the indirect verb, and [mɛf] (animal) is the indirect object. Bow is the object, thus it is being used to shoot, and the animal being the indirect object is the patient of the object.

. rjik us .
IPA: /su kiʒɜ/
Gloss: 3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee break-VBZVerbaliser
converts N, ADJ etc into verb
Translations: He/She breaks. Or He/She is destructive.

The example above can translate to "shes breaks." This sentence does NOT mean "she is broken" but it means, "she is doing the breaking" or, "She is destructive" like shown above. Notice the word in Arusian, rjik (to break) is a verb. When a subject (in this case He/she) is followed by a verb, the subject is in the act of doing the verb to some other object. If rjik was an adjective so, sjik the subject would be in the state of being, but the subject would not be inflicting the adjective to other objects.

. sjik us .
IPA: /su kiʒus/
Gloss: 3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee break-ADJAdjectival
syntactic
Translations: It/He/She is broken.

So, as shown above, the word break is not in an adjective form and thus the subject "It" is in a state of brokenness. I will leave some more examples below.

. smek os rmek us .
IPA: /su kɛmɜ so kɛmus /
Gloss: 3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee kiss-VBZVerbaliser
converts N, ADJ etc into verb 3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee kiss-ADJAdjectival
syntactic
Translations: She kisses. He is kissed.
Interpretation: She is doing the kissing. He is in the state of being kissed.

. sme,al os rme,al us .
IPA: /su leimɜ so leims /
Gloss: 3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee love-VBZVerbaliser
converts N, ADJAdjectival
syntactic etc into verb 3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee.OBVObviative (person, proximity)
not near/visible/important love-ADJAdjectival
syntactic
Translations: She loves him. He is loved.
Interpretation: She is doing the loving to others. He is in the state of being loved by others.

. sGul os rGul us .
IPA: /su lugɜ so lugs /
Gloss: 3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee control-VBZVerbaliser
converts N, ADJAdjectival
syntactic etc into verb 3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee.OBVObviative (person, proximity)
not near/visible/important control-ADJAdjectival
syntactic
Translations: She controls him. He is being controlled.
Interpretation: She is doing the controlling. He is in the state of being controlled.

I must say that sometimes this pattern is broken for some words. For example:

. sled os rled us .
IPA: /su dɛlɜ so dɛlus /
Gloss: 3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee rule-VBZVerbaliser
converts N, ADJAdjectival
syntactic etc into verb 3SThird person singular (person)
neither speaker nor addressee.OBVObviative (person, proximity)
not near/visible/important strong-ADJAdjectival
syntactic
Translations: She rules him. He is strong.
Interpretation: She is doing the ruling to others. He is in the state of being strong.

The word led (power) is one exception to this pattern. However, led is commonly used, hence the word's irregularity.

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