45.2. Beneficiary objects and -sit
In ‘I counted the money for you,’ the subject, ‘I,’ is the agent, the one doing the action. The patient is ‘the money,’ the one undergoing the action. The third participant, ‘you,’ is the one benefiting from the action. We call this participant role the beneficiary.
I counted the money for you.
agent patient beneficiary
In English the beneficiary role is usually marked as the object of the preposition ‘for.’
Like the recipient in Klallam, and unlike English, the beneficiary is never marked as the object of the preposition. In Klallam, the beneficiary is marked as the object of the verb. In this section you will learn the details of how this role is expressed in Klallam.
Beneficiary object pronouns -sít verbs
| Singular | Plural | |||
| 1 | ‑c/-cəŋ | ‘me’ | -úŋɬ | ‘us’ |
| 2 | ‑c/-cəŋ | ‘you’ | ‑c/-cəŋ hay | ‘you folks’ |
| 3 | Ø | ‘him, her, it’ | Ø | ‘them’ |
| k̓ʷssíc cxʷ ʔaʔ cə tálə. | ‘You count the money for me.’ |
| k̓ʷssíc cxʷ hay ʔaʔ cə tálə. | ‘You folks count the money for me.’ |
| k̓ʷssitúŋɬ cxʷ ʔaʔ cə tálə. | ‘You count the money for us.’ |
| k̓ʷssitúŋɬ cxʷ hay ʔaʔ cə tálə. | ‘You folks count the money for us.’ |
| k̓ʷssícəŋ cn ʔaʔ cə tálə. | ‘I count the money for you.’ |
| k̓ʷssíc st ʔaʔ cə tálə. | ‘We count the money for you.’ |
| k̓ʷssíc cn hay ʔaʔ cə tálə. | ‘I count the money for you folks.’ |
| k̓ʷssíc st hay ʔaʔ cə tálə. | ‘We count the money for you folks .’ |
| k̓ʷssít cn ʔaʔ cə tálə. | ‘I count the money for him/her/them.’ |
| k̓ʷssít st ʔaʔ cə tálə. | ‘We count the money for him/her/them.’ |
| k̓ʷssít cxʷ ʔaʔ cə tálə. | ‘You count the money for him/her/them .’ |
| k̓ʷssít cxʷ hay ʔaʔ cə tálə. | ‘You folks count the money for him/her/them.’ |
| k̓ʷssíts ʔaʔ cə tálə. | ‘He/she/they count/counts the money for him/her/them.’ |
► 1 Compare this table and set of models with the models shown in §7.1 and §45.1. Notice that the subjects are the same and the objects are almost the same. Where are the object suffixes different?
► 2 The object suffixes differ only for ‘me’ and ‘you.’ With the ‑t transitive verbs, ‘me’ and ‘you’ are both ‑c. With the beneficiary verbs with ‑sít, ‘me’ and ‘you’ are either ‑c or ‑cəŋ.
► 3 Most of the elders think that either ‑c or ‑cəŋ is okay for ‘me’ or ‘you’ with ‑sít verbs. So you could use k̓ʷssíc or k̓ʷssícəŋ for ‘count it for me.’ The ‑cəŋ form is felt to be a little more polite.
► 4 The root of the verb in the models is k̓ʷs. It appears in k̓ʷsə́t ‘count it’ and k̓ʷsə́ŋ ‘count’ (this is the middle form; see §44). (By the way, k̓ʷsə́t also means ‘preach at, lecture to.’)
► 5 Adding ‑sít to the root creates a transitive verb with a beneficiary object.
► 6 In sentences with both a beneficiary and a patient, the patient is always the object of the preposition ʔaʔ.
► 7 This layout of the first model, ‘You count the money for me,’ shows the roles:
k̓ʷs‑sí‑cəŋ cxʷ ʔaʔ cə tálə.
root‑sít‑beneficiary agent patient
count‑for‑me you the money
► 8 Note that just as with the ‑t suffix, the t of the ‑sít suffix drops before the c of the object suffix.
► 9 In English, the patient (‘the money’ in these sentences) follows the verb, and the beneficiary follows the preposition ‘for.’
► 10 In Klallam, the beneficiary is the object of the verb and never the object of the preposition.
► 11 Here are some other verbs and their ‑sít forms:
ʔəx̣téʔt ‘fix it’ ʔəx̣taʔsít ‘fix for someone’
čáʔčt ‘making it’ čaʔčsít ‘making for someone’
kʷčáŋət ‘holler at’ kʷčaŋəsít ‘holler at for someone’
k̓ʷə́nət ‘look at it’ k̓ʷənsít ‘look at for someone’
tákʷs ‘buy it’ takʷsít ‘buy for someone’
xʷúyəm ‘sell’ xʷəyəmsít ‘sell for someone’
x̣iʔə́yu ‘write’ x̣əyəsít ‘write for or to someone’
yáʔt ‘prepare it’ yaʔsít ‘prepare for someone’
qəm̓át ‘request it’ qəm̓sít ‘request of someone’
ʔúx̣ʷtxʷ ‘take it there’ ʔux̣ʷtxʷsít ‘take there for someone’
► 12 The last two of these need some comment and explanation. Let’s first look at qəm̓át. This could also be translated ‘ask for it’ or ‘beg for it.’ The object of the ‑sít form is not exactly a ‘beneficiary,’ but it is the person receiving the request. So the term ‘beneficiary’ is not entirely accurate. But since there is no better term, and since it works almost all of the time, we’ll stick with it. Just be on the lookout for ‑sít verbs where the object is not exactly a beneficiary.
► 13 Now let’s look at the last verb listed above, ʔux̣ʷtxʷsít. This is based on the root ʔúx̣ʷ ‘go there.’ The form ʔúx̣ʷtxʷ is the causative (see §40.2) meaning ‘cause to go there’ or simply ‘take it there.’ The ‑sít is added after the ‑txʷ suffix.
► 14 Note that the object of the ‑sít verb is always a person or something with human qualities.
► 15 New vocabulary: ƛ̓ə́qšən ‘shoes’; sxʷʔáʔmət ‘bed’
 | čaʔčsít u caʔ cxʷ ʔaʔ či snə́xʷɬ. | ‘Will you make him a canoe?’ |
 | takʷsíc u cxʷ ʔaʔ či qəmtə́n. | ‘Did you buy me an adze?’ |
| ʔáa. | ‘Yes.’ |
| čaʔčsít caʔn ʔaʔ či ʔə́y̓ snə́xʷɬ. | ‘I’ll make him a good canoe.’ |