35.3. Middle with just one participant
Models
| 1) | ŚTEṈ SEN. | ‘I walk.’ |
| 2) | W̱ITEṈ SEN. | ‘I jump.’ |
| 3) | DEṈO¸EṈ SEN. | ‘I swim.’ |
| 4) | ŚELEṈ SEN. | ‘I climb up.’ |
| 5) | ŦIȽEṈ SEN. | ‘I stand up.’ |
‣ 1 The middle voice sentences in §35.1, models 4, 8, and 12 all imply two participants. The notion ‘hide,’ for example, necessarily implies that there are two things—one doing the hiding and the other getting hidden.
‣ 2 Each of the middle forms in the models here in §35.3 implies just one participant. The notion ‘walk,’ for example, is complete with just one person alone walking. Notice that unlike the middles in §35.1, none of these here can be translated naturally with ‘myself.’
‣ 3 There is a large number of verbs like this in SENĆOŦEN. What they have in common is that they involve a quality or an action of the whole, single participant.
‣ 4 A two‑participant root like ȻÁL ‘hide’ in §35.1 and §35.2 can usually stand alone as a verb. In contrast, the roots of these one‑participant middles can never stand alone as verbs.
‣ 5 These roots do occur in other words without the ‑EṈ middle suffix. For example, ŦI¸ŦEȽ ‘high’ is related to ŦIȽEṈ ‘stand up.’ But *ŦIȽ by itself is not a word at all.
‣ 6 There are some nouns that can be made into one‑participant middles. For example, the noun ḰO¸ ‘water’ becomes a one‑participant verb with the addition of the middle: ḰO¸EṈ ‘get water.’
‣ 7 It is possible to add another participant to these basically one participant verbs. To do this you must use a causative (see §40). For example, ŚTEṈ ‘walk’ gets another participant with ŚTEṈISTW̱ ‘cause to walk,’ as in ŚTEṈISTW̱ SEN TŦE SḴAXE¸ ‘I walked the dog.’
‣ 8 The grammar of these one-participant middles is not like the two-participant middles. For example, ŚTEṈ SEN ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸ can only mean ‘I walked to the dog.’ It cannot mean ‘I did some walking of the dog’ or ‘I walked the dog (as usual).’ Compare this with the two-participant middles in §35.2.
‣ 9 While most one‑participant middles refer to actions, there are many that refer to qualities, including most words referring to the sense of taste:
QÁĆEṈ ‘fishy tasting’‣ 2 Each of the middle forms in the models here in §35.3 implies just one participant. The notion ‘walk,’ for example, is complete with just one person alone walking. Notice that unlike the middles in §35.1, none of these here can be translated naturally with ‘myself.’
‣ 3 There is a large number of verbs like this in SENĆOŦEN. What they have in common is that they involve a quality or an action of the whole, single participant.
‣ 4 A two‑participant root like ȻÁL ‘hide’ in §35.1 and §35.2 can usually stand alone as a verb. In contrast, the roots of these one‑participant middles can never stand alone as verbs.
‣ 5 These roots do occur in other words without the ‑EṈ middle suffix. For example, ŦI¸ŦEȽ ‘high’ is related to ŦIȽEṈ ‘stand up.’ But *ŦIȽ by itself is not a word at all.
‣ 6 There are some nouns that can be made into one‑participant middles. For example, the noun ḰO¸ ‘water’ becomes a one‑participant verb with the addition of the middle: ḰO¸EṈ ‘get water.’
‣ 7 It is possible to add another participant to these basically one participant verbs. To do this you must use a causative (see §40). For example, ŚTEṈ ‘walk’ gets another participant with ŚTEṈISTW̱ ‘cause to walk,’ as in ŚTEṈISTW̱ SEN TŦE SḴAXE¸ ‘I walked the dog.’
‣ 8 The grammar of these one-participant middles is not like the two-participant middles. For example, ŚTEṈ SEN ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸ can only mean ‘I walked to the dog.’ It cannot mean ‘I did some walking of the dog’ or ‘I walked the dog (as usual).’ Compare this with the two-participant middles in §35.2.
‣ 9 While most one‑participant middles refer to actions, there are many that refer to qualities, including most words referring to the sense of taste:
ȽÁQEṈ ‘flat tasting’
ṮÁȽEṈ ‘salty’
ŦOḰEṈ ‘sweet’
ŦAXEṈ ‘bitter’
DÁȾEṈ ‘sour’
Here are a few other one-participant middles that refer to qualities:
ŦEPW̱EṈ ‘brittle’
ȾOȽEṈ ‘cold’
ȾO₭EṈ ‘rotten’
ȽIX̱EṈ ‘slippery’
JOSEṈ ‘unpleasant’
ȻESIḴEṈ ‘itchy’
 | EN¸ÁN¸ U¸ LIL¸ | ‘It’s really far.’ |
 | SQȺ Ȼ S¸EWE ȽTE S U¸ ŚTEṈ. | ‘We have to walk.’ |
| SQȺ Ȼ NE SŦIȽEṈ. | ‘I can’t stand up. |
| X̱EṈ E ȽTE I¸ DEṈO¸EṈ? | Can we swim?’ |
| ISTÁ ḴÁȻEṈ. | ‘Let’s rest.’ |
35.3A. Translate each into English. |
| 1. ŚTEṈ SEN LÁ¸E ¸E TŦE SAȽ. 2. EWE SEN S W̱ITEṈ. 3. DEṈO¸EṈ LE¸ ȻSE NE MÁN. 4. SEN OĆE ŦIȽEṈ ¸E SNEW̱EȽ? |
35.3B. Use the SENĆOŦEN dictionary to find four other one-participant middles and make two sentences from each. |