Klallam Grammar Main Menu Klallam Grammar Alphabet and Sounds Basics Grammar Introduction: How to Use This Grammar 1 Transitive and Intransitive Verbs 2 Past and Future Tense 3 Basic Speech Acts 4 Nouns and Articles 5 Possessive Pronouns 6 Adjectives 8 The Preposition and Word Order 9 Negative Words 10 More Negative Words 11 Self and Each Other 12 Questions: ‘Who?’ and ‘What?’ 13 Subordinate Subjects in Questions 14 Questions: ‘Whose?’ 15 Focus Pronouns and Answering Questions 16 Comparison 17 Conjunction: ‘And/with,’ ‘but/without,’ and ‘or’ 18 Questions: ‘When?’ 19 Time Expressions 20 More Time Expressions 21 Time Prefixes 22 Questions: ‘Where?’ 23 Some Place Expressions 24 Source, Way, and Destination 25 Serial Verbs 26 Questions: ‘How?’ and ‘How much?’ 27 While Clauses 28 Adverbial Expressions 29 Intensifier Auxiliaries 30 Conditional Clauses 31 Passive Sentences and Shifting Vowels 32 Lexical Suffixes 33 Collective Plural 34 Possessed Verbs 35 So Then ... 36 Reporting Verbs and Direct Quotes 37 Indirect Quotes 38 Questions: ‘Why?’ 39 Because 40 Cause 41 Speech Act Particles 42 The Actual: To Be Continuing 43 State, Result, and Duration 44 Participant Roles and Middle Voice 45 Recipient, Beneficiary, and Source Objects 46 Reflexive, Noncontrol Middle, and Contingent 47 Activity Suffixes 48 Relative Clauses 49 Verbal Prefixes 50 Movement and Development Suffixes 51 Nominalizing Prefixes 52 Adverbial Prefixes 53 More Demonstrative Articles 54 Objects of Intent, Emotion, Direction, and Success 55 More Reduplication Patterns 56 Interjections 57 Rare Suffixes 58 A Fully Annotated Text 59 Texts to Annotate 60 Conclusion Appendices Klallam Dictionary Klallam-English and English-Klallam sections only

7 Object Pronouns

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The direct object always occurs with a transitive verb. It is typically the person or thing undergoing the action. For example, in English ‘you hit me,’ the word ‘me’ is the direct object.

In Klallam the direct object is indicated as an ending (suffix) on the verb.

There are several forms of these object verb endings. Which form is used depends on several factors.

The most important factor in Klallam is whether the person doing the action (which we will call the actor) is in control of the action or not. For example, in English ‘I look at it,’ the actor, ‘I,’ is in control of the action. When you ‘look at’ something, you do it on purpose. On the other hand, in English ‘I see it,’ the actor, ‘I,’ is not necessarily in control. When you ‘see’ something you may not be doing it on purpose–it may be accidental.

Where English uses two separate verbs to show this ‘on purpose’ versus ‘accidental’ idea, Klallam uses different verb endings and different object pronouns.

The ending ‑t on a verb indicates that the actor is in control. The ending ‑nəxʷ  on a verb indicates that the actor is not in control. So, for example, k̓ʷə́nt means ‘look at it,’ while k̓ʷə́nnəxʷ  means ‘see it.’

The words k̓ʷə́nt and k̓ʷə́nnəxʷ have the same root (k̓ʷən‑) but different suffixes (‑t and ‑nəxʷ). In some Klallam words the root may stand alone, but the root in these two words, k̓ʷən‑, may not. The root of a word is what is left when all suffixes and prefixes are removed.

Careful attention to the exercises will make this distinction clear for you.
 

This page has paths:

  1. Grammar Montler, et al.

Contents of this path:

  1. 7.1. Object pronouns (subject in control): -t verbs
  2. 7.2. Object pronouns (subject not in control): -nəxʷ verbs