40.4. Put causative: -as
| yəx̣ʷəŋíŋəs cxʷ. | ‘You freed me.’ |
| yəx̣ʷəŋíŋəs cxʷ hay. | ‘You folks freed me.’ |
| yəx̣ʷəŋíŋɬ cxʷ. | ‘You freed us.’ |
| yəx̣ʷəŋíŋɬ cxʷ hay. | ‘You folks freed us.’ |
| yəx̣ʷəŋíŋə cn. | ‘I freed you.’ |
| yəx̣ʷəŋíŋə st. | ‘We freed you.' |
| yəx̣ʷəŋíŋə cn hay. | ‘I freed you folks.’ |
| yəx̣ʷəŋíŋə st hay. | ‘We freed you folks.’ |
| yəx̣ʷás cn. | ‘I freed him/her/it/them.’ |
| yəx̣ʷás st. | ‘We freed him/her/it/them.’ |
| yəx̣ʷás cxʷ. | ‘You freed him/her/it/them.’ |
| yəx̣ʷás cxʷ hay. | ‘You folks freed him/her/it/them.’ |
| yəx̣ʷáŋ. | ‘He/she/it/they freed him/her/it/them.’ |
► 1 The root in the models is yəx̣ʷ ‘free, undone, unbound, loose.’ For example, yə́x̣ʷ cn means ‘I’m free.’
► 2 Note that yəx̣ʷ is never used for the translation of English ‘free of charge, no cost.’
► 3 The set of object suffixes that are used with the ‑as causative is different from those you’ve seen previously, but they are similar to those that occur with the ‑nəxʷ noncontrol transitive and ‑txʷ causative.
| Singular | Plural | |||
| 1 | -ŋíŋəs | ‘me’ | -ŋíŋɬ | ‘us’ |
| 2 | -ŋíŋə | ‘you’ | -ŋíŋə hay | ‘you folks’ |
| 3 | Ø | ‘him, her, it’ | Ø | ‘them’ |
► 4 Note that, just as with the ‑txʷ and ‑nəxʷ suffixes, when both subject and object are third-person, the passive must be used.
► 5 This is called the ‘put causative’ because it usually can be translated with ‘put,’ which means ‘cause to be at a particular place.’ So, yəx̣ʷás more precisely means ‘freed there, at that particular place.’ It would be used to refer to freeing someone from being tied up or locked up. It would not be used to refer to freeing someone generally, say, as freeing a slave.
► 6 To refer to freeing someone or something generally, the basic ‑t transitive is used: yəx̣ʷə́t. Compare these two sentences that illustrate the difference between the ‑t and ‑as suffixes:
yəx̣ʷás cn cə x̣ʷéʔləm. ‘I untied the rope.’
yəx̣ʷə́t cn cə x̣ʷéʔləm. ‘I let the rope loose.’
The first sentence refers to freeing at a particular place—the knot in the rope. The second refers to freeing generally.
► 7 There are a number of other roots where the ‘put’ idea is more evident. Here is a list of new vocabulary items that use the ‑as causative. The word after each causative form shows the same root in a noncausative form. Note that these verbs all more or less refer to locations:
ʔəc̓ás ‘put it on’ (clothing) (ʔíc̓əŋ ‘get dressed’)
č̓ixʷás ‘put it inside’ (an area) (č̓ə́yəxʷ ‘enter’)
ɬəŋás ‘take off, remove’ (ɬə́ŋ ‘come off’)
nuʔás ‘put it in’ (a container) (nə́w̓ ‘be in’)
sqás ‘put it outside’ (sə́q ‘be outside’)
čánəs ‘put it in a different place’ (čáni ‘move’)
kʷánəs ‘throw it away’ (kʷán ‘be lost’)
kʷáyəs ‘hide it away’ (kʷáy ‘be hidden’)
ɬúyəs ‘leave it behind’ (ɬúy ‘be abandoned’)
ɬáyəs ‘remove it from heat’ (no related words)
xʷkʷás ‘lower it’ (xʷkʷíyəŋ ‘go down’)
► 8 Note that each of these verbs involves action happening at a particular place even if the English translation does not use ‘put.’
► 9 Note that the suffix is ‑ás with weak and zero roots. The suffix is ‑əs with strong roots such as the last four listed.
► 10 New vocabulary: pípə ‘letter, paper’; saplín ‘bread’; qʷɬáy̕ ‘log’
 | sqás caʔn cə píšpš. | ‘I’ll put the cat out.’ |
 | ʔəɬənístxʷ u cxʷ. | ‘Did you feed it?’ |
| nuʔás cn cə sʔíɬən ʔaʔ cə č̓áʔwiʔs, ʔiʔ ʔuʔáwə c ʔíɬən. | ‘I put food in the dish, but it didn’t eat.’ |
| čánəs cə č̓áʔwiʔ ʔiʔ ʔíɬən cə píšpš. | ‘Move the dish, and it will eat.’ |