Chapter 2 

THE SYSTEM

    In presenting Basic English as a universal auxiliary language, there are two distinct needs to be met, that of the foreign learner and that of the translator able to make full use of the material at this disposal. A man of letters might correctly ascribe an excruciating noise in the street to gear-changing operations, without being able to distinguish the gearbox from the cylinder if confronted by those objects.  On the one occasion his use of the words would commend itself even to the experts; on the other he would be dismissed as totally ignorant of their meaning. Similarly, it is possible for a foreigner to know a language satisfactorily in the sense that he can read it and understand it a written by a native, and yet e quite incapable of writing it or speaking it himself; and this fact -- that a vocabulary may be 'known' in the sense that it can be interpreted, though not 'know' in the sense that it can be used -- has an important bearing on the teaching of Basic English.

    Speakers and writers familiar with Standard English can be allowed more freedom in their use of the Basic word than those who employ them only in accordance with the rulings laid down for their convenience. These avoid the minor irregularities and idioms of Standard English, which are, however, readily intelligible to the reader or listener, and would be a much trouble to exclude when learnt as to learn when not already known.

    A brief set of instructions has therefore been compiled for the English translator; while the foreigner is provided with (a) a condensed summary of the system, allowing of a 80% accuracy in its operations, and (b) a more detailed summary, listing all the important exceptions and intricacies.

    The question of intelligibility is one which has generally been neglected by an undue insistence on correctness. An idiom, to those who do not use it, may be no more unintelligible than any other dialectal variant; and a little practice with the examples in the ABC will take the learner a very long way.

I.     For English Translators

• Use all Nouns, Adjectives, and Particles as in Standard English, avoiding obscure idioms, far-fetched metaphors, and intricate word order. Nouns must not, of course, be used as verbs.
• The usual variants from the sixteen Operators (Verb-forms) and the seven Pronouns in the vocabulary are available; also Plurals, Comparatives, Adjectives used as Nouns, Adverbs (in -ly) formed from Adjectives, and the prefix un-.
• Noun forms can generate four derivatives: two nouns (-er and -ing suffixes) and two adjectives (-ing and -ed suffixes), where these are in use in Standard English.
• Proper names, Mathematical and Metric systems, and International terms (q.v.) may be incorporated at discretion.
  
  Note:   An idiomatic use of the vocabulary with less attention to detail than uniformity would demand may (though less frequently than the majority of existing dialects) necessitate occasional reference to a Standard Dictionary on the part of those whose knowledge is confirmed to Basic. Where a word has two or more widely different senses in Standard English, the Basic use is given in the The Basic Words -- in which all necessary and legitimate extensions and idioms have been fully covered. Some acquaintance with The ABC of Basic English is also desirable, if The Basic Dictionary (for translators) is to be used effectively.

II.   For Learners

1. THE NOUN is the name of an object of discourse, real or fictitious.
Rule for Plurals.   Plurals are formed by the addition of 's.' 1.
Exceptions:
(a) Formation:
    Feet, teeth; men, women; knives, leaves, selves.
(b) Spelling:

• Nouns ending in 'y' proceeded by a consonant spell the plural with 'ies' instead of 'ys'.
• Nouns ending in 's', 'x', 'sh', 'ch', or 'o', spell the plural with 'es', instead of 's' alone.

 

Rule for Compounds.   Compounds may be formed by combing together two nouns or a noun and a directive, etc., in conformity with simple Standard English; 2. e.g., birthday, copyright, milkman, newspaper, outhouse, overland, raincoat, sundown.

Rule for Derivatives.   300 of the nouns (see List, p. 48) form the following derivatives;
Noun with -er suffix = Thing or person performing operations.
Noun with -ing suffix = The operation itself.
Adjectives with -ing suffix = Sense of present participle.
Adjectives with -ed suffix = Sense of past participle.

1. Scissors and trousers have a plural from only; sheep is invariable; news has a plural form but is used in the singular.
2. Among these compound forms are a few which are essential tot the vocabulary, but not self-evident in their formation : away, become, cupboard, income, inside, to-day, upright, without. They are omitted from the word-list because they are phonetic compounds, and are historically derived from their component parts.

2. The ADJECTIVE (QUALIFIER) is a word which expands the description given by a noun.

Rule for Comparatives. Comparatives and Superlative are formed by putting more and most respectively in front of the adjectives. 1
Exceptions:      good, better, best,
                      bad, worse, worst
Certain adjectives are prevented by definition from forming the comparative and superlative:
            first, second, last, past, present, future, right, left, male, female, cut, same, etc.
Rule for Adverbs. Adverbs of Manner may be formed by the addition of -ly to the adjectives.
Exceptions: (a) Adjectives ending in -ing (boiling, hanging, living, waiting).
(b) Good (which has well ), cut, like, awake, same, short, shut, small, tall (which require none).
(c) Female and ill (for reasons of euphony).
Adverbs of Time and Place are not so formed; and those of Direction have the same form as the adjective
            (high, low, left, right, straight, parallel).
Possibly, probably, certainly, are formed by analogy with manner.
Spelling exceptions:   Adjective ending in y change the y into i : in ble drop the e (also simply, truly); in tic or tric, add ally.
Collective nouns may be formed from adjectives when used with the.

1. The learner must be prepared to find that the comparative and superlative of certain adjectives are more generally formed by the addition of the suffixes -er and -est respectively.


FORMS OF 'OPERATORS'

* The form with he, she, it is made by the addition of 's'. Go and do take es.
** Have becomes has.

3.   THE OPERATORS  are the names of the fundamental operations.

Auxiliaries: An auxiliary is used in combination with an operator, to indicate the circumstances of the operation. There is only one pure auxiliary (will), the others having operational ones as well.
Conjugation:
I.   Auxiliaries

II.   Operators.   The unconjugated form is always the same as the first person singular, with the exception of be, and is used for the Imperative.
Formation of tenses, etc.

Other tenses may be formed by a logical combination of elements.
1.   When an operator is used as a subject or object, either the infinitive or the participle is employed.
e.g., To do this is right
      Being is greater than doing.
The infinitive may be also be used indicate purpose.
e.g., I came to see you.
2.  Another method of forming the Future is by combining the Present of be with the present participle of go and an infinitive.
Possibility is indicated by may with unconjugated form, e.g., I may do it.
Necessity is indicated by have with infinitive, e.g., I have to do it.
Passive is formed by conjugating be with past participle, e.g., It is done.
Impersonal. Sentences often take an impersonal form with it as subject, e.g.,
    makes me sad to see you crying.

4 .     THE PREPOSITION (DIRECTIVE) is a word which indicates the direction of an operation, or the position of thing.
By metaphor and analogy the prepositions may be used to indicate relations other than those of direction and position.
Infinitive: To is used as the sign of the infinitive (see operator).
Adverbial form: When the object towards which a preposition is pointing is omitted, the preposition becomes adverbial.

5 .     THE ADVERB (MODIFIER) is a word which expands the description given by an operator, an adjective, another adverb, or a whole sentence.

Adverb of statement:
has a special use as the introductory word in the idiomatic form of statement in which the subject of the operator be is inverted in its order.e.g., There is a hole here instead of A hole is here.
Comparative forms:   far, farther, farthest; little, less, least; much, more, most; near, nearer, nearest; well, better, best; in, inner; out, outer.

6 .     THE PRONOUN is a substitute word for a noun. It may also be used in various conjunctive and interrogative connections (see pages 40 and 42.).
FORMS of PRONOUNS

M = Male. F = Female. N = No sex.

One, though part of the number system (p.170), has a use as a 'pronoun'.
For this is my (book) and so on, we may say this is mine (yours, ours, theirs, his, hers).

7 .     THE CONJUNCTION is a word which links words, phrases, or sentences.

Prepositions which combine a prepositional with a conjunctive use are : after, before, till.
Pronouns which combine a pronominal with a conjunctive use are : that, who (which, what).
Adverbs which combine an adverbial with a conjunctive use are : how, when, where, why.

8 .    COMPARISON.

When unequals are compared, the comparative of the adjective is followed by than.
e.g.   The sun is more bright than the moon.
The moon is less bright than the sun.
When equal things are compared, the adjective is preceded and followed by as.
e.g.   A women is as old as she seems.

9 .     WORD-ORDER.

Model Sentences:

(1)   I will give simple rules to the boy slowly.
(2)   The camera man who made an attempt to take a moving picture of the society women, before they got their hats off, did not get off the ship till he was questioned by the police.
A sentence is any arrangement of words intended as a formal unit of communication.

Clauses:   There may be subject-operator object groups dependent on the main sentence either adjectivally or adverbially.
These clauses may come in the middle or at the end of a sentence.   For purposes of word order, a clause is the equivalent of a sentence.

Nouns and Pronouns may precede or follow an operator and follow a preposition. A dependent sentence may come between the noun and its operator.

Adjectives:   One or more adjectives may precede any noun. They follow the noun, however, when it is the object of an operator which requires an adjective to complete it.   e.g., get table ready,   keep door shut,   make hole wide. With be, the adjective may come immediately after the operator.
When more than one adjective is used, a and the take first place.

Operators, with or without auxiliaries, follow the noun which performs the operation (subject) and precede a preposition or the noun on which the operation is performed (object).

Tenses are build up on the following model:

Prepositions follow the operator and may precede nouns placed after the operator.
Adverbs are normally placed at the end of the sentence.

Adverbs expressing degree (almost, any, little, much, no, only, quite, so, very) must be placed immediately before the word or phrase they qualify.
Prepositional adverbs (i.e. adverbs of place which are completed by a preposition) come immediately before the preposition by which they are accompanied. e.g. The ship is far from land.   Humor is out of place in a book on language.

Conjunctive adverbs begin fresh sentences (See clauses).
The adverb of negation is placed between the auxiliary and the operator Do is introduced as an auxiliary and used with the unconjugated operator instead of the Simple Present and Simple Past. Ever has the same position as the negative. It follows the negative when used with it.

Conjunctions may be used as links anywhere between similar parts of speech, sentences, and dependent sentences.
Questions.   Interrogation is generally indicated by an inversion of the order of auxiliary and subject. e.g., Is this soft? For the Simple Present and Simple Past, the auxiliary do is introduced as in the case of the negative.
Who (which, what ) and words which introduce clauses may also introduce questions, e.g., What is this, and how did it get here?

10.     INTERNATIONAL TERMS, MEASUREMENT, ETC.
Words which are internationally understood are available for use. For the 100 international words so far recognized by Basic, see age 71, where 12 names of sciences and 12 'international names' (i.e., words used in titles, etc.) are also accepted. If such words have local variations, the English form should be employed. The International vocabulary covers measurement terms, including numerals, and the currency systems of the various countries of the world. Knowledge is assumed of the English form of the calendar.