15.3. Focus in questions and answers to ‘What?’
Models
| 1) | STÁṈ SEN OCE? | ‘What am I?’ |
| 2) | ESE OĆE STÁṈ? | ‘What am I?’ |
| 3) | STÁṈ SW̱ OĆE? | ‘What are you?’ |
| 4) | NEȻE OĆE STÁṈ? | ‘What are you?’ |
| 5) | STÁṈ SW̱ OĆE HÁLE? | ‘What are you folks?’ |
| 6) | NEȻI¸LEYE¸ OĆE STÁṈ? | ‘What are you folks?’ |
| 7) | STÁṈ ȽTE OCE? | ‘What are we?’ |
| 8) | ȽNIṈEȽ OĆE STÁṈ? | ‘What are we?’ |
| 9) | STÁṈ OĆE? | ‘What is/are he/she/it/they?’ |
| 10) | NIȽ OĆE STÁṈ? | ‘What is he/she/it?’ |
| 11) | NENI¸ȽEYE¸ OĆE STÁṈ? | ‘What are they?’ |
| 12) | STÁṈ OĆE TI¸Á? | ‘What is this?’ |
| 13) | STÁṈ OĆE TŦÁ¸E? | ‘What is that?’ |
‣ 1 Note that, just as with ‘Who?’ questions, there are two ways to ask some ‘What?’ questions. In general, the pattern for ‘What?’ questions is the same as that for ‘Who?’ questions.
‣ 2 Again, just as with ‘Who?’ questions, note that the members of each pair of questions in the models differ only in the focus. Putting the word first in the sentence makes it focused.
‣ 3 Answers to STÁṈ questions normally use the appropriate focus pronoun. Study the following sets of questions and answers:
| Q: | ESE OĆE STÁṈ. | ‘What am I?’ | |
| A: | NEȻE SWIU¸ES. | ‘You are a boy.’ | |
| Q: | NEȻE OĆE STÁṈ. | ‘What are you?’ | |
| A: | ESE SWIU¸ES. | ‘I am a boy.’ | |
| Q: | NEȻI¸LEYE¸ OĆE STÁṈ. | ‘What are you folks?’ | |
| A: | ȽNIṈEȽ EN¸ SĆÁLE¸ĆE¸. | ‘We are your friends.’ | |
| Q: | NIȽ OĆE STÁṈ. | ‘What is he/she/it?’ | |
| A: | NIȽ NE SḴÁXE¸. | ‘He/she/it is my dog.’ | |
| Q: | STÁṈ LE¸ OĆE Ȼ SHILEṈS. | ‘What fell?’ | |
| A: | NIȽ NE TÁLE ȻSE HILEṈ. | ‘It was my money that fell.’ |
‣ 5 The last two models (12 and 13) are the most useful of all of these. Two very common and useful words are introduced here: TI¸Á ‘this’ and TŦÁ¸E ‘that’. TI¸Á is used to refer to something nearby that both the speaker and listener can see. TŦÁ¸E is used to refer to something not very close to both the speaker and listener. There are similar words used to refer to something a little farther away, something very far away, and something the speaker and listener cannot see. These are covered in §57.
 | STÁṈ OĆE TI¸Á? | ‘What is this?’ |
 | NIȽ ȻE¸ NE SĆESE¸Ḱ. | ‘It’s my hat.’ |
| SĆESE¸Ḱ! ŚX̱EN¸ÁṈ KE ¸E ȻSE SNEW̱EȽ! | ‘Hat! It’s like a canoe!’ |
| STÁṈ OĆE TŦÁ¸E? | ‘What is that?’ |
| NIȽ ȻE¸ NE SNEW̱EȽ. | ‘It’s my canoe.’ |
| X̱ENEȻÁN¸ SEN TÁ Ȼ EN¸ SĆESE¸Ḱ! | ‘I thought it was your hat!’ |
| 15.3A. Answer each of the following in SENĆOŦEN. 1. STÁṈ OĆE Ȼ EN¸ S¸IȽEN? 2. STÁṈ OĆE TI¸Á? 3. STÁṈ SE¸ ȻSE YÁ¸? 4. STÁṈ LE¸ OĆE Ȼ W̱ITEṈ? 5. STÁṈ LE¸ OĆE TŦÁ¸E? | 15.3B. Translate and answer each of the following in SENĆOŦEN. 1. What ran? 2. What was that? 3. What will go? 4. What is this? 5. What dove? |
| 15.3C. Make answers for the STÁṈ sentences you made up for 15.1C. | |