12.4. ‘Not yet’
Models
| 1) | YÁ¸. | ‘It/he/she goes.’ |
| 2) | W̱U¸Á S YÁ¸. | ‘It/he/she does not yet go.’ |
| 3) | ȻENETES. | ‘It/he/she takes it.’ |
| 4) | W̱U¸Á S ȻENETES. | ‘It/he/she does not yet take it.’ |
‣ 1 Compare this pattern with the pattern for EWE in §12.1. The pattern is almost the same. An obvious difference is that instead of the word EWE ‘not,’ we have the word W̱U¸Á ‘not yet.’ Try to see the other obvious difference.
‣ 2 The other major difference between the grammar of W̱U¸Á and EWE is that W̱U¸Á is followed only by a verb. It is not grammatical to say something like *W̱U¸Á S SNEW̱EȽ to mean ‘It’s not yet a canoe’ or *W̱U¸Á S ÍY¸ to mean ‘It’s not yet good.’ To express these ideas in SENĆOŦEN you have to convert the noun or adjective into a verb with a prefix like TW̱E- ‘become’ (see §54). Therefore, W̱U¸Á S TW̱E SNEW̱EȽ does mean ‘It’s not yet become a canoe’ and W̱U¸Á S TW̱E ÍY¸ means ‘It’s not yet become good.’
‣ 3 Notice that just as with EWE the negative S comes between the W̱U¸Á and the negated word.
‣ 4 Just as with EWE, when the negated word 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, W̱U¸Á S YÁ¸ can mean ‘he/she/it did not yet go’ or it can mean ‘don’t go yet.’
‣ 5 The negative S is sometimes pronounced SE.
‣ 6 There is another way of expressing the idea of ‘not yet.’ This other method uses the word SQȺ ‘can’t’ in a construction with a special ‘yet’ prefix ȾÁW¸. This pattern is described in §14.1.
 | YÁ¸ E SW̱ DOQ? | ‘Are you going home?’ |
 | W̱U¸Á SEN S YÁ¸. | ‘I’m not going yet.’ |
| ÍY¸. IȽEN E SE¸ SW̱? | ‘Okay. Are you going to eat?’ |
| W̱U¸Á SEN S IȽEN. | ‘I didn’t eat yet.’ |
12.4A. Which of these sentences is ungrammatical? If it is ungrammatical, explain why it is. If it is grammatical, translate the sentence. If you see a word you do not know, look it up in the SENĆOŦEN dictionary.
1. W̱U¸Á S NEḴEṈ.
2. W̱U¸Á SEN S IȽEN.
3. W̱U¸Á S ȽÁU¸.
4. W̱U¸Á S JISEṈ.
5. W̱U¸Á S QENETES.
6. W̱U¸Á S TÁLE.
7. W̱U¸Á S YÁ¸ SEN.
8. W̱U¸Á SEN S X̱EṈ.
9. W̱U¸Á ¸Á SW̱ S IȽEN?
10. W̱U¸Á S SḴAXE¸.