72 ER:894 So if they use that kind water most for the housing, the cesspool water, maybe okay. But
they use all the good water, I don’t know. Over here, is the water system, how they take care the water. That’s what I think, but I don’t know.
OC:7 I told them they get eleven children and I like to help them out because I don’t have to pay them cash anyway so the bank can give them that money to help their children. So that way there I
thought what my father and mother say, “Always be honest with yourself.” 5.9.6 Summary
Based on the corpus evidence we can safely conclude the presence of the following NSM syntactic patterns in HCE:
X WANT SOMETHING X KNOW SOMETHING
X SAY SOMETHING X DO SOMETHING
X THINK SOMETHING
The following syntactic frame is missing from our corpus: X FEEL SOMETHING
5.10 THINK 5.10.1 Primitive Syntax
THINK may combine directly with a clause: THINK [clause]
THINK may also combine with one or more of the following complements: THINK
SOMETHING GOODBADTHISTHE SAME ABOUT MEYOUPEOPLED1 PERSON D1 THINGTHISTHE SAME
The first complement is the psychological complement and refers to a proposition. The second optional complement is the topical complement.
5.10.2 HCE candidates
There are three candidates for THINK in HCE: figa, tink, and tink so. Figa is the least plausible of the three. Although it is a good basilectal form, it is doubtful that figa is
semantically simple. In the following contexts, THINK is roughly interchangeable with figa:
BB:025 “Shee, why you never wait little bit longer.” I figured kin’ of good, so I wen buy ’em. I no
like mess my mother, like that, everytime move, move, move; eh. Pack up and go, eh. Tired so, I cannot.
73 ER:823 Yeah, by the horse. Sometime I take two horse. I lead one down, till reach, Maunalei.
Maunalei, the one I wen ride, I tie ’em. Then I used, the one I lead, I used ’em go Keomuku. Go Keomuku. Then I come back reach over here, I jump on top this horse, then I come home. Because before
for me young time, I scared, yeah. Coming dark, eh, gotta go hurry up. So the boss tell me, “You gotta take this mail, and you come back.” Ho, I no like only one horse, eh. I figure if one horse going go, tired.
So I ask him, “I can take two horses?” He tell, “Up to you.” So I take two horse.
GF:306 Well, if that is not your line, you don’t want to stay there. Just for fool around, to kill time. Those were Depression days. So many years, we had depression, hard time days. Looking around for job,
spending the time. You figure, “Well, I’m still young yet. Plenty time.” NC:168 I didn’t, I never did ask for price. I figure a sure market is better than you looking for
price. Of course, I could sell outside and make more money, but what is the sense? When you make the money now and next crop you lose it, it doesn’t make sense. I would rather have a steady market.
SU:1521 Then, hammer, we don’t know. So I just bought the hammer. I figure, well, light hammer
is better. No, light hammer is no good. Medium-size hammer is good. So every time when you near, you smash your finger, see. Then, same time, when you use the kanna, you don’t know how to use the kanna.
You know, Japan kanna. WK:715 No, no job, those days, Waipio. At plantation, they was paying worse; 75 cents a day,
plantation. So I decided to go Honolulu and my oldest brother call me, “You better come down.” So I went. They got a job for me. He used to work for Hawaiian Dredging. He used to be Dillingham
Corporation. We was superintendent over there, my brother, the oldest boy. Dillingham. I figure you guys must heard about Dillingham Corp, eh? Hawaiian Dredging. That’s how I went to Honolulu.
YA:1048 I don’t know. Because he figure I had the veteran’s privilege, I think, you know. While figa takes a clausal complement like THINK, this “thought” complement is a kind of
conclusion, the result of other thoughts, and never an isolated thought. Roughly, figa could be explicated in the following way:
102 I figa X
a. I thought about something
b. because I wanted to know something c. now I think this
Tink so is a much more probable candidate than figa. Consider the following examples: AK:640 Some. Some comes up to the school. I don’t think so they go, because they no care to go to
the church. Some, they go, once in a while, when we have something going on they come. They have Catholic church, but the building not so good. Then, they don’t want to hold any service down there too.
AK:643 No. I don’t think so everybody had newspaper. Nobody bring newspaper. Everybody had
the Hawaiian paper. But later, no more, eh? We never see. They don’t publish anymore, I think, over there.
AK:667 Uha o Hopoe. Uha means this part. Hopoe, that’s the name of the lady, Hopoe. I don’t
think so lot of people don’t see that, because it’s in the private property. But you could see if you going go get a permit from the shipmens. It’s the legend, it’s long legend, it’s the story. But really, I did see
that.
ER:900 Yeah. Hauola, I no think so get water. MT:1194 I think would affect everybody. Because the situation is, then they might go into their
own processing plant. Why they doing that with some of their ginger farm. They have their own processing plant in everything. Well, if they don’t go locally, it’s all right. If they go in the foreign
market, that’s good for us. But if they go locally, I think even for them it’s not profitable. I don’t think so it would be profitable. Because they have a labor cost which is on a union scale. Then it’s a different
situation. But it would affect us, I think it would.
74
SU:1561 I don’t think so they lose. Maybe few feet or something like that, I think. Behind part, eh?
The behind. Maybe few feet, I mean. Nice. The place down there now really worth money, you know, on the ma uka side. Ma uka side get the what? Get one restaurant down there, eh?
SU:1568 Let’s see, Angel Maehara quit. I think right now, used to be Columbia Inn, but Columbia
Inn I don’t think so they go that far, I think. Because my customers went to Columbia Inn, you know, most of them.
One problem with tink so is its mysterious distribution.
4
Another problem is that tink so does not readily participate in the common paradigms of tenseaspect marking:
103 a. ai gostei tink so 104 a. ai ??wen?neva tink so
105 a. ai tinkingtat so
It is therefore likely that tink so, when it occurs, is a restricted allolex of tink. There are, however two texts where tink and tink so occur in close proximity to one another:
ER:833 Oh, saimin, yeah saimin. Only over here get saimin, no more da kine restaurant already,
we gotta eat saimin. Yeah, I think so we wen go eat saimin. So the boys stay over there, I go treat them go eat saimin. We go eat saimin. All the basketball player. I think about eight guys had.
ER:901 No, no. I no think so he wen walk inside there. I think me and one Filipino boy. Because he like go hunting. I never go with cowboy inside there. I think one Filipino boy from Maui someplace. I
forget already. I know me and him going walk, was way inside there. In the above sentences, there is no obvious conditioning environment which could account for the
shift between tink and tink so. This is the only possible counter-evidence to the claim of allolexy that I am aware of.
Tink seems to be the best choice for THINK. It is well-attested throughout the continuum, at all levels, acrolectal, mesolectal, and basilectal. So far as I am aware, there is only a single non-primitive
sense associated with the HCE form:
AK:600 That time, I think to myself, “How come they do that? They have the bag, why don’t they
put in the bag?” But they said, “No, it’s ’lot of more waste more time.” To me, it’s just about the same but when we reach there, we got to broke the taro and put in the cooker.
ER:873 He going, I don’t know, certain place by the yard or someplace. So he tell me, “Gee, I like
help you, but I no can, I don’t know how.” Ah, I think to myself, more better I stay on top the boat. Maybe if I stay on the boat, that’s the only safe place for me. So I stay over there on the boat. I no go.
MM:330 So this boy wen slide. You know, slippery, see. The reservoir all mud, eh? Slippery. He wen slide inside there. And he go like this, like this, like this, yeah ? And then, I don’t know, I scared,
too, because I might slide in there, too. So I don’t know what to do. Ah, then, quick, I wen think to myself, “Ey, that ditchman must be home now.” Was around lunchtime, see. So I run to that house. And
good thing, he was home. And I told him, and we ran, come back.
MY:1480 I ask the owner, Mr. Lum, “Can I put some of my cracker?” He said, “No can. Because I
get Love’s Bakery and I get Diamond Bakery. And that’s too much.” I think to myself, “I get you. I sell my cracker.” So, I get lot of friends in Kapahulu, see. I go all to them “When you guys go to the store,
you tell the lady you like Home Run cracker.” This sense can probably be explicated along the following lines:
4
The data that I have is quite sketchy. I have personal friends from Kaimuki High School that attest to its vigorous usage and use it themselves. Forman p.c. reports its use in Moloka‘i. Roberts p.c. identifies it as a feature of
Chinese pidgin. In our corpus, we have found it present in the speech of people from Hawai‛i Waipi‘o, O‘ahu
Waikiki, and Lana‘i.
75
106 ai tink tu maiseof QUOTE
a. I thought something
b. I said QUOTE to myself
5.10.3 Examples of tink
