23.4. Never, Ever, Once in a While, and Anymore
Models
| 1) | EWE SEN S YÁ¸. | ‘I didn’t go.’ |
| 2) | EWE Ȼ NE SYÁ¸. | ‘I never go.’ |
| 3) | EWE Ȼ EN¸ SYÁ¸. | ‘You never go.’ |
| 4) | EWE Ȼ SYÁ¸ȽTE. | ‘We never go.’ |
| 5) | EWE Ȼ SYÁ¸S. | ‘He/she/they never go.’ |
| 6) | EWÁ¸ E Ȼ EN¸ SYÁ¸. | ‘Did you ever go?’ |
| 7) | TWI¸EWE Ȼ NE SYÁ¸. | ‘I never go anymore.’ |
| 8) | EWE S ̱XENIṈ I¸ YÁ¸ SEN. | ‘I never ever go.’ |
| 9) | NEȾAW̱ I¸ YÁ¸ SEN. | ‘I go once in a while.’ |
| 10) | YÁ¸ SEN ¸E TŦE NEȾÁW̱ . | ‘I went one time.’ |
‣ 1 If model 1 does not look familiar, review §12.2 and §12.3 now. This is the basic negative construction. The sentence begins with EWE ‘not,’ which is followed by the subject. The negated event—the event that you are saying did not happen—follows with the negative S in front of it.
‣ 2 In point 4 of §12.2, you read ‘There are some cases in which EWE and the negative S do not go together.’ Models 2, 3, 4, and 5 here are those cases that were referred to. Notice that the sentence in each of those four models begins with EWE, but has no negative S.
‣ 3 In each of the models 2 through 6 the event being negated appears in a Ȼ clause (discussed previously in §12.6 §14.1, §14.3, §15.1, §15.3, §20.1, §21.1, and §23.3). The Ȼ clause begins with the little signaling word Ȼ and has a subject marked by a possessive pronoun. This construction—EWE followed by a Ȼ clause—almost always translates as ‘never.’
‣ 4 Model 5 is the same as model 3, but it is a yes/no question (§3.2). Remember that the second E of EWE becomes Á when the yes/no question marker E follows. This model could also be translated ‘Did you never go?’ This is the usual way of expressing ‘ever’ in a yes/no question.
‣ 5 Model 7 is the same as model 2 except for the added prefixes TW̱E- ‘become’ (§54) and I¸- ‘in process’ (§56.1). The E of TW̱E- drops before the vowel (see point 8 of Notes on Pronunciation). This combination of prefix combined with the ‘never’ construction adds the idea of ‘never anymore.’
‣ 6 Model 8 is a completely different construction from the first five models. This one is used for expressing the idea of an emphatic ‘never’—‘never ever’ or ‘absolutely never.’ Perhaps the best translation for model 6 is the most literal: ‘There’s no way I go.’
‣ 7 The key word in model 8 is X̱ENIṈ ‘way, manner.’ This word occurs in the first half of a compound sentence conjoined with I¸: EWE S X̱ENIṈ ‘There’s no way.’ The second half is YÁ¸ SEN ‘I go.’ This word X̱ENIṈ is useful in a number of other constructions (§28.1, §38).
‣ 8 Model 9 shows the construction used to express the idea ‘once in a while,’ ‘sometimes,’ or ‘occasionally.’ This is another conjoined adverbial construction, first seen in §21.3. The word modifying the event occurs as the first of a pair of conjoined sentences. This pattern is covered in more detail in §29.
‣ 9 NEȾÁW̱ gives the meaning ‘once in a while’ when used in the conjoined adverbial construction, but when it is used in other contexts it means ‘once’ or ‘one time’ (see §22 on numbers). This ‘once/one time’ interpretation is shown in model 10, where NEȾÁW̱ occurs in an adverbial prepositional phrase.
 | DILEM SW̱. | ‘Sing.’ |
 | EWE Ȼ NE SDILEM. | ‘I never sing.’ |
| NEȾÁW̱ I¸ DILEM SEN. | ‘I sing once in a while.’ |
| ÍY¸. DILEM ĆE! | ‘Good. Sing!’ |
| 23.4A. Translate each into English. 1. EWE SEN S ŚTEṈ. 2. EWE Ȼ NE SŚTEṈ ¸E TŦE SUȽ. 3. EWE E SW̱ Ȼ EN¸ SŚTEṈ? 4. NEȾÁW̱ I¸ YÁ¸ ŦE NE TÁN. | 23.4B. Translate each into SENĆOŦEN. 1. They never sleep. 2. Did you never see it? 3. We never saw the dog. 4. I swim once in a while. |