SENĆOŦEN: A Grammar of the Saanich Language

3 Basic Speech Acts

We use language to make statements, as in all of the previous examples. But we also use language for other things. The various uses of language we call ‘speech acts’ or ‘speech situations.’ A number of different speech situations are indicated or modified in SENĆOŦEN by putting a little unstressed word, called a particle or enclitic, after the verb.

Two of the most common uses of any language are to tell someone what to do and to ask someone a question that can be answered with a ‘yes’ or a ‘no.’ Every language has special parts of its grammar for these uses. These speech situations are particularly easy in SENĆOŦEN. We will be seeing similar little words in other sections. They are all covered fully in §48.
 

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