Klallam Grammar

13 Subordinate Subjects in Questions

Before you read further, study the following sentences from the preceding exercises. See if you can figure out what they all have in common (other than that they are questions).
          Who ran?                         What ran?
          Who will go?                    What will go?
          Who saw me?                   What saw me?
          Who dove?                       What dove?
          Who will run away?          What will run away?
          Who broke it?                   What broke it?
          Who will lift me?              What will lift me?

They have several things in common.

First, they each begin with a question word (obvious, right?).

Second, the question word in each is followed by a verb or verb phrase: ‘ran,’ ‘will go,’ ‘saw,’ ‘laughed,’ ‘dove,’ ‘broke,’ ‘will lift,’ ‘run away’ (pretty obvious, too).

Third, and most interesting (and not so obvious), is that the question word in each refers to the subject of the verb. Each question asks who or what did it, not who or what something was done to.

Compare these related questions and answers. The ‘what’ in this sentence refers to ‘it’ as the subject of ‘will lift’:

           ‘What will lift me?’                   ‘It will lift me.’

The ‘what’ in the following sentence refers to ‘it’ as the object of ‘will lift’:

          ‘What will I lift?’             ‘I will lift it.’

In other words,  we have looked at questions in Klallam like ‘what will lift me?’ but none like ‘what will I lift?’  In the sentence ‘what will lift me?’ the ‘what’ refers to the subject of ‘lift,’ the thing doing the lifting. In ‘what will I lift?’ the ‘what’ refers to the object of ‘lift,’ the thing being lifted.

When the question word refers to the object, Klallam uses a special set of subject pronouns. We call these the subordinate subject pronouns. Compare these with the main subject pronouns introduced in §1. The subordinate subject pronoun set is also used in situations that will be covered in later sections.

Subordinate subject pronouns
     Singular      Plural
1       ‑ən‘I’       ‑əɬ‘we’
2       ‑əxʷ‘you’       ‑əxʷ  hay‘you folks’
3        ‑əs‘he, she, it’       ‑əs ‘they’
cán ʔuč či sáʔətən.‘Who do I lift?’
stáŋ ʔuč či sáʔətən.‘What do I lift?’
cán ʔuč či sáʔətəɬ.‘Who do we lift?’
stáŋ ʔuč či sáʔətəɬ.‘What do we lift?’
cán ʔuč či sáʔətəxʷ.‘Who do you lift?’
stáŋ ʔuč či sáʔətəxʷ.‘What do you lift?’
cán ʔuč či sáʔətəxʷ hay.‘Who do you folks lift?’
stáŋ ʔuč či sáʔətəxʷ hay.‘What do you folks lift?’
cán ʔuč či sáʔətəs.‘Who does/do he/she/it/they lift?’
stáŋ ʔuč či sáʔətəs.‘What does/do he/she/it/they lift?’

► 1  All of the subordinate subject pronouns are suffixes on the verb.
► 2  In questions, these subordinate subject suffixes are used only on transitive verbs. Take a look again at the definition of ‘transitive verb’ at the beginning of §1. A transitive verb has two participants:  one doing the action, the other undergoing the action. When we ask ‘Who did you lift?’ the two participants are ‘you’ and the person being lifted. When there is only one participant in a question, as in ‘Who went?,’ we do not need the special subject suffix.
► 3  Notice that the subordinate subject suffixes are similar to the main subject pronouns:
                             main subject            subordinate subject suffix
        ‘I’                       cn                              -ən
        ‘you’                  cxʷ                             -əxʷ
        ‘he/she/it’          -s                              -əs
► 4  The subordinate subject suffix for ‘we’ (‑əɬ) is not like the main subject pronoun (st), but it is like the possessive suffix for ‘our’ (‑ɬ).
► 5  As usual, when addressing more than one person (plural ‘you’) hay is used.
► 6  The ‑əxʷ at the end of the noncontrol transitive is usually dropped when the subordinate subject suffix is added. Compare these:
          k̓ʷə́nnəxʷ cn.                      ‘I see him.’
          cán ʔuč či k̓ʷə́nnən.           ‘Who do I see?’
In a few recordings from different speakers, the əxʷ is not dropped before -ən. So cán ʔuč či k̓ʷə́nnəxʷən  ‘Who do I see?’ is also acceptable.
► 7  When the subordinate subject is ‑əxʷ  ‘you,’ the end of a noncontrol transitive verb like k̓ʷə́nnəxʷ drops off. But when you add the ‘you’ suffix, it ends up looking exactly the same. So some sentences can have two meanings:
                    k̓ʷə́nnəxʷ cxʷ.                      ‘You see him.’
                    cán ʔuč či k̓ʷə́nnəxʷ.            ‘Who do you see? or ‘Who sees him/her/it?’
Here cán ʔuč či k̓ʷə́nnəxʷ has two meanings because the ‑əxʷ at the end could be the end of the transitive verb or the ‘you’ suffix. The context of the conversation will usually make the intended meaning clear.
► 8  All of the subordinate subject suffixes are sometimes pronounced and spelled without the schwa (ə). So ‑n, ‑xʷ, ‑ɬ, and ‑s can be used and heard instead of ‑ən, ‑əxʷ, ‑əɬ, and ‑əs.
► 9  These subordinate subject markers have several uses. We will be seeing them again in several sections to come.
stáŋ ʔuč či ƛ̓kʷə́təxʷ hay.‘What did you folks take?’
níɬ kʷi ɬxʷíkʷs paʔpéʔšpš.‘It’s three kittens.’
cán caʔ ʔay̓ či ʔəɬənístxʷ.‘Who will feed them?’
ɬníŋɬ caʔ ʔiʔ tánɬ.‘We will, and our mother.’

 

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