68 water heads and stuff with County money. Really, I got 3,000. So everything was all really damaged up.
People couldn’t do with labor, they had to get machinery. I was on Agriculture Board, so I got 3,000 for Agriculture Committee to go in and do it. Till then, well, everything holds pretty good.
5.8.4 Summary
Based on our corpus data, we can confirm the existence of the following NSM syntactic configurations: PEOPLE THINK X
PEOPLE KNOW X PEOPLE WANT X
PEOPLE SAY X PEOPLE DO X
The following combinations of primitives are missing from our corpus: PEOPLE FEEL X
5.9 SOMETHING 5.9.1 Primitive Syntax
SOMETHING may serve as a psychological complement to the mental predicates: THINK, WANT, KNOW, FEEL, SAY
It may serve as subject to HAPPEN and as a complement to DO.
5.9.2 HCE candidates
There seems to be three major allolexes for SOMETHING in HCE: ting, wat, and samting. A possible candidate for generic “things” is staff. Staff, however, involves some semantic complexity roughly
speaking: 101 staff
a. different kinds of things
b. I don’t say what kinds c. I say these things are like one thing
5.9.3 Examples of samting
5.9.3.1 WANT samting There are three canonical examples of samting occuring with WANT:
69 ER:788 Yeah, some, the old guys good, but the chief cowboy good. He good to me. Every time he
like something, he call on me. Because me, when I young time, I like this kind. You know I like every time go inside. I like steal somebody job just like.
GF:306 I don’t know. I want something better. With the high school education, I don’t know if I
can do paper work. So, might as well do all kinds of work. Try what you think is good, the way to make money, way to get ahead in life, that’s all.
SU:1533 That’s how we used to do, see? Because no money transaction. But chicken, yes. Chicken. How much one chicken cost? I don’t know how much, but egg–one dozen eggs, what? Maybe quarter or
less. We used to even raise rabbit. Yeah. The chicken that we used to raise for our food is that Rhode Island chicken, that red one–meat chicken. So, if the neighbor—you want to eat chicken, they say,
“Okay. Take ’em from us. You eat.” And when we want something, we get from them.
5.9.3.2 KNOW samthing There are three canonical examples of samting occuring with KNOW:
AK:630 They get lot of herbs, though. They got lot of plant, you know. But I don’t know if they got, because I never did try to whatever, get this thing to help any people that. Maybe I can, I know, but I
don’t want to just tell you and then that’s not correct. I got to be sure before I go tell. But for certain medicine, maybe I know something. There were lot of herbs, Hawaiians. Really plenty. Like cold cough,
alaala puloa they call ’em, is another good one. Uhaloa they call that, same thing. On Kawaihae Road, on the other side of the island, they have those plants. They call that alaala puloa or uhaloa, can be two
ways. See, you pull from the ground, and then you got to get the roots, you wash the roots; either you chew or you boil, same thing. Mountain apple bark, the same thing. The mountain apple bark good for
cold. The lehua tree bark and all those. Or the lehua buds, the young shoots. The wild guava, that good for medicine. You know that guava, the young shoots, that, you get sore stomach, or something, you
chew that.
AK:672 I know something else. I never did see, but they said they have that, those thing over
there. I think till today, though. But it’s good to have somebody who knows the place, eh, you go. But I never did go there.
JB:65 Oh yeah. Filipino. See, my father was a Spanish-Filipino. My mother was a Hawaiian. My mother has a royal blood. We had the alii blood, you ever heard of alii? But I don’t know how to explain
what is alii mean. Alii is some kind of legend that the Hawaiian people, I don’t know how to explain it, but I can try, though. Because my family, we are from the alii family. Alii means .... that’s why I wanted
my wife to come back. Because she knows the Hawaiian most. She doesn’t speak like me but at least she knows something. I have the alii blood, I have Hawaiian blood, I have Filipino blood, I have the Spanish
blood. Oh, my mother is not pure Chinese, only partly I think.
5.9.3.3 SAY samting There is a single canonical example of samting occuring with SAY:
FD:289 Yeah. That’s the one on the patch’s bank now. He was the first to go in. But I told him, “I seen that already, but I didn’t want to tell your uncle. I told him when the leaves is yellow, is showing
that some kind of disease is attacking the taro.” But he doesn’t believe. He just go pull the grass, and then just no think nothing. I say, “Well, I have to pray harder.” For put something in his head to think,
“Oh, I think my wife is telling me something different so I better try.” He doesn’t want anybody to tell him what to do.
5.9.3.4 DO samting There are numerous canonical examples of samting occuring with DO:
70 AK:622 No. Only I know those years when I was living down there, and no such thing as that. Was
just what I say, the Filipinos, they were good. You know, most time, Filipinos, they try to do something, but no. Even if they drunk, they always really good. We all share together. We never did hear anybody
stealing. BB:031 Something like that. Too long ’a’s why they bin cut.... You know the first [name deleted]?
They call ’im the [name deleted]. He did something wrong in Japan, so they wen put ’im in a boat and the kin’ American ship wen get ’im and they brought ’im over here. They changed the name to [name
deleted]. ’At’s what I heard. GF:311 Mock Chew’s boys, they got married. So they moved out. One of them married Honolulu
girl so he got to live in Honolulu. And the old man, he wanted his daughter anyhow. That’s his favorite girl, eh, that Matilda. So that’s how. I stayed back. I was in Kohala. came over several times to come and
get me, come back help them work. So, came back, came to Kohala. And I asked the plantation to relieve me, you know, from the plantation. I want to do something else, working something else. The manager
don’t want to relieve me. Then, when I was working in the mill, I didn’t know anything about sugar cane or anything.
KL:125 Bot he–he said so. Wat’s ’is name? Kailoa. Kailoa was... doing someting. He–da kine. MK:1134 How about any other times you folks get together and do something?
MM:377 Well, I feel sorry if the sugar close up. But if the president do something, if they keep up the same way, what, eighteen cents a pound. If eighteen cents a pound, they can barely make ’em. Some
plantations, they make a profit. But if they go down to twelve, the one they talking about, twelve, they no can broke even even. Any business, if you no can broke even, you no can run the business. So, I hope
Spark and Dan, and Akaka can do something. Now, even Waialua going close down. O‘ahu going get plenty unemployment, no?
MT:1183 Even the University. They know about it. We had Al Martinez, Jeri Ooka over here. Oh, you name it, up here. They know the problem. But they ain’t doing nothing. That’s what I mean, that’s
why I told Jeri Ooka on Wednesday, “You guys have to do something,” I said. He tell, “Well, you know, this is something new,” he said. I tell, “Not new, for five years.” See, at that time, we had the
Association.
SU:1541 Yeah. Because he get experience in cooking, everything. Him and another Teruya is the
co-owners of this Hibiscus Cafe on Bethel Street. He tell me, “You folks, instead of loafing, you better do something.” So he just help me out and do everything for me, see. I was young boy that time.
TA:42 Yeah, that’s what I was telling you. Because he took a stand for the farmers instead of for the poi shop. That’s how the poi shop got angry with him. Especially the Honolulu Poi get angry with
him. And then Honolulu Poi, they done something that he couldn’t take it. I think I better not put that in the tapes. You see, bumbai, those Honolulu Poi or some other of those poi shops in Honolulu might go
over there and read that and say, “Oh, what the heck this guy saying?”
TA:50 I tell him just work. And then I do something else. So I don’t know how many hours he
work. The faster he finish, the faster he get the money. WK:706 My mother is there, they always come, they pray for her, and they help whatever they can.
But beside that, you got to paddle your own. That’s only the people that going to recognize your problem. You the only think about your problem when you get that hard time. The church people know.
They always see that. Say I’m a member of the church and you getting your hardship, no. So, they would realize that you need help. Then they do something to try to solve your problem, whatever you have.
They come ask you what kind, what you need. Beside that, I don’t know.
5.9.3.5 samting HAPPENED There is handful of canonical examples of samting occuring with HAPPEN:
AK:671 For blessing. Like, Hawaiians today, I don’t see they do that. Hawaiians, if you have little
bit trouble, something is in your home here, or something happened. They come back, you get a glass
71 of water. They put little Hawaiian salt. They say word of prayer. Then you sprinkle in the house, every
room. Then the rest, you throw on the top the house. That clears out all the devils, or something like that. Hawaiians used to do that. And then, whatever funeral you go, then when you come back, they do
that to you too. Take away all the bad. Cleaned away all the stuff. Majority of old Hawaiians do that. But today, they don’t do that.
ER:873 Yeah. After that something happen, I don’t know. TA:39 Yeah, he became an agent. Until he got old and John Loo taking over his place now. That’s
from Honolulu Poi. Well, that’s something happened that, well, I think I better not talk about that. Maybe if you don’t put ’em in the tape I talk to you, but.... it’s something, it really happened that my
father get away. And then, even Kalihi, now Kawashima taking care that. My father was getting old already.
5.9.4 Examples of ting
