12.2. ‘Not’ with ‘it/he/she’
Models
| 1) | YÁ¸. | ‘It/he/she went.’ |
| 2) | EWE S YÁ¸. | ‘It/he/she did not go.’ |
| 3) | ȻENETES. | ‘It/he/she took it.’ |
| 4) | EWE S ȻENETES. | ‘It/he/she did not take it.’ |
| 5) | SNEW̱EȽ. | ‘It’s a canoe.’ |
| 6) | EWE S SNEW̱EȽ. | ‘It’s not a canoe.’ |
| 7) | ÍY¸. | ‘He/she/it is good.’ |
| 8) | EWE S ÍY¸. | ‘He/she/it is not good.’ |
‣ 2 We say that this ‘not’ negates the statement or idea. For example, in ‘He is going’ and ‘He is not going,’ the ‘not’ negates the idea that he is going. In ‘It is a canoe’ and ‘It is not a canoe,’ the ‘not’ negates the idea that it is a canoe.
‣ 3 In ‘not’ phrases, SENĆOŦEN uses a combination of EWE at the beginning of the sentence and a special little word S that comes before the main verb of the negated statement. We will call this little word the negative S. Usually a sentence beginning with EWE will also have a negative S.
‣ 4 There are some cases in which EWE and the negative S do not go together. These are cases in which the meaning involves the time expression ‘never.’ That construction is covered in §23.4.
‣ 5 The pronouns ‘he,’ ‘she,’ and ‘it’ are known as third-person pronouns. In stories, the third-person pronouns and sentences with third-person subjects occur much more frequently than sentences with ‘I,’ ‘you,’ ‘we,’ or commands. So this section covers the third-person negative forms separately.
‣ 6 The models here illustrate a negated intransitive verb (YÁ¸), transitive verb (ȻENET), noun (SNEW̱EȽ) and adjective (ÍY¸). Notice that they all follow the same pattern.
‣ 7 You can see that the negative S comes between the EWE and the main verb or negated idea.
‣ 8 Note that ‑ES subject suffix (models 3 and 4) of the transitive word (ȻENET) stays with the word in the negative.
‣ 9 When the main negated verb is intransitive, the sentence actually has two meanings. Depending on how it is used, it can be a negative statement or a weak, negative command. So, for example, EWE S YÁ¸ can mean ‘he/she/it does not go’ or it can mean ‘don’t go.’
‣ 10 There are many S’s in SENĆOŦEN. The negative S is easily mistaken for one of the other meaningful S’s. It is sometimes confused with the S- prefix that makes a noun from a verb as in S¸IȽEN ‘food’ from IȽEN ‘eat’. It can also be confused with the ‑S possessive suffix as in TÁNS ‘his/her mother.’ The negative S has an entirely different meaning and function.
 | ȻENETES E TŦE SNEW̱EȽ? | ‘Did he take the canoe?’ |
 | EWE. ȻENETES TŦE TÁLE. | ‘No. He took the money.’ |
| ÍY¸. EWE S ÍY¸ TŦE SNEW̱EȽ. | ‘Good. The canoe is no good.’ |
| ṮÁ¸ SEN U¸ ȻENET TŦE TÁLE. | ‘I took the money, too.’ |
| 12.2A. Translate each of the following into English. 1. EWE S NEḴEṈ. 2. EWE S IȽEN. 3. EWE S ȽÁU¸. 4. EWE S JISEṈ. 5. EWE S ŚJETES. 6. EWE S TÁLE. 7. EWE S SOȽ. 8. EWE S SḰÁL. 9. EWE S ḰO¸. 10. EWE S SḴAXE¸. | 12.2B. Translate each of the following into SENĆOŦEN. 1. It’s not black. 2. It’s not new. 3. He isn’t strong. 4. It isn’t a deer. 5. It’s not a house. 6. It isn’t my money. 7. He didn’t lift it. 8. He didn’t get dressed. 9. It didn’t fly. 10. Don’t go. |
| 12.2C. Make up four more negative sentences using other SENĆOŦEN words. | |