1.1. Intransitive subject pronouns
Here is the first of several grammar tables that will be found in this book. This table summarizes the pronoun forms for this chapter. Across the top, the column headers are ‘singular’ and ‘plural’. ‘Singular’ means referring to one participant. ‘Plural’ means referring to more than one. Down the left side, the rows are labeled 1, 2, and 3. These numbers refer to the grammatical person. The 1 row is the first person, referring to the speaker, ‘I’, ‘me’, ‘we’, and so on. The 2 row is the second person, referring to the person being spoken to, ‘you’. The 3 row is the third person, referring to anyone or anything other than first or second person, ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’, ‘they’, and so on. The underline, ____, in the table marks where the verb appears. So here, the SEN, ȽTE, etc. always follow the verb.
‣ 1 Note that in SENĆOŦEN the verb always comes first. In later sections, we will learn that there are some exceptions to this.
‣ 2 The subjects SEN, ȽTE, and SW̱ are not independent words. They must always come after the first verb (or auxiliary as discussed in §10) in the sentence. The only things that come between the first verb and the subject pronoun are speech act modifiers. These will be discussed more in the following chapters.
‣ 3 Note that when the verb is intransitive the subject translated as ‘he,’ ‘she,’ ‘it,’ or ‘they’ is simply understood. The symbol Ø in the table indicates that there is no special subject word for these pronouns.
‣ 4 The subjects are all grammatical particles and so are never stressed.
‣ 5 Usually the H of HÁLE is dropped after SW̱. The fourth model, for example, is usually pronounced YÁ¸ SW̱ ÁLE.
‣ 6 Here are some other intransitive verbs. In this list, the stressed vowel is boldface and red to help you remember how to pronounce it. Memorize these now for use in this and later sections:
| Singular | Plural | |||
| 1 | ____ SEN | ‘I’ | ____ ȽTE | ‘we’ |
| 2 | ____ SW̱ | ‘you’ | ____ SW̱ HÁLE | ‘you folks’ |
| 3 | Ø | ‘he, she, it’ | Ø | ‘they’ |
Models 1) YÁ¸ SEN. ‘I go.’ 2) YÁ¸ ȽTE. ‘We go.’ 3) YÁ¸ SW̱. ‘You go.’ 4) YÁ¸ SW̱ HÁLE. ‘You all go.’ 5) YÁ¸. ‘He/she/it/they go.’ |
‣ 1 Note that in SENĆOŦEN the verb always comes first. In later sections, we will learn that there are some exceptions to this.
‣ 2 The subjects SEN, ȽTE, and SW̱ are not independent words. They must always come after the first verb (or auxiliary as discussed in §10) in the sentence. The only things that come between the first verb and the subject pronoun are speech act modifiers. These will be discussed more in the following chapters.
‣ 3 Note that when the verb is intransitive the subject translated as ‘he,’ ‘she,’ ‘it,’ or ‘they’ is simply understood. The symbol Ø in the table indicates that there is no special subject word for these pronouns.
‣ 4 The subjects are all grammatical particles and so are never stressed.
‣ 5 Usually the H of HÁLE is dropped after SW̱. The fourth model, for example, is usually pronounced YÁ¸ SW̱ ÁLE.
‣ 6 Here are some other intransitive verbs. In this list, the stressed vowel is boldface and red to help you remember how to pronounce it. Memorize these now for use in this and later sections:
| ITET | ‘sleep’ |
| ȻONEṈET | ‘run’ |
| NEḴEṈ | ‘dive’ |
| ȻELEṈ | ‘fly’ |
| ȽÁU¸ | ‘run away’ |
| ŚTEṈ | ‘walk’ |
| W̱ITEṈ | ‘jump’ |
| JISEṈ | ‘grow’ |
| IȾEṈ | ‘get dressed’ |
| X̱OṈ | ‘cry’ |
 | ÁȽE E SW̱ U¸ ÍY¸ OL¸? | ‘How are you?’ |
 | U¸ ÍY¸ SEN. | ‘I’m fine.’ |
 | STOṈET SW̱ ȻEĆÁ? | ‘What are you doing?’ |
 | ȻONEṈET SEN. | ‘I’m running. (I run.)’ |
A note on the exercises: As noted in Part 1, the exercises below and in future sections are usually exercises in translation. The sentences in the left column are to be translated into English. The sentences in the right column are to be translated into SENĆOŦEN. The two sets of sentences do not correspond to each other. They are never matching exercises.
| 1.1A. Translate each of the following into English. 1. W̱ITEṈ SEN. 2. ȽÁU¸ ȽTE . 3. JISEṈ SW̱. 4. NEḴEṈ SW̱ HÁLE. 5. IȾEṈ SW̱ HÁLE . 6. X̱OṈ SEN. 7. ŚTEṈ SW̱. 8. ȻONEṈET ȽTE . 9. ITET . 10. NEḴEṈ. | 1.1B. Translate each of the following into SENĆOŦEN. 1 . She walks. 2. He runs away. 3. I grow. 4. You cry. 5. We run. 6. I sleep. 7. They jump. 8. You dive. 9. We get dressed. 10. You all fly. |
| 1.1C. Write three SENĆOŦEN sentences not shown in the models and exercises above using the intransitive verbs listed in point 6. 1.1D. Use the SENĆOŦEN Dictionary to find four more intransitive SENĆOŦEN verbs and make three sentences with each. | |