36.2. Beneficiary objects
In ‘I watched the dog for you,’ the subject, ‘I,’ is the agent, the one doing the action. The patient is ‘the dog,’ the one undergoing the action. The third participant, ‘you,’ is the one benefiting from the action. We call this participant role the beneficiary.
I watched the dog for you.
agent patient beneficiary
In English the beneficiary role is usually marked as the object of the preposition ‘for.’
Like the recipient in SENĆOŦEN, and unlike English, the beneficiary is never marked as the object of the preposition. In SENĆOŦEN, the beneficiary is marked as the object of the verb. This section covers the details of how this role is expressed in SENĆOŦEN.
Beneficiary object pronouns -SIT verbs
| Singular | Plural | |||
| 1 | ‑S/-SEṈ | ‘me’ | -OL¸W̱ | ‘us’ |
| 2 | ‑SE | ‘you’ | ‑SE HÁLE | ‘you folks’ |
| 3 | Æ | ‘him, her, it’ | Æ | ‘them’ |
Models
| 1) | QENSIS SW̱ ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸. | ‘You, watched the dog for me.’ |
| 2) | QENSIS SW̱ HÁLE ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸. | ‘You folks watched the dog for me.’ |
| 3) | QENSITOL¸W̱ SW̱ ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸. | ‘You watched the dog for us.’ |
| 4) | QENSITOL¸W̱ SW̱ HÁLE ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸. | ‘You folks watched the dog for us.’ |
| 5) | QENSISE SEN ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸. | ‘I watched the dog for you.’ |
| 6) | QENSISE ȽTE ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸. | ‘We watched the dog for you.’ |
| 7) | QENSISE SEN HÁLE ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸. | ‘I watched the dog for you (pl.).’ |
| 8) | QENSISE ȽTE HÁLE ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸. | ‘We watched the dog for you (pl.).’ |
| 9) | QENSIT SEN ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸. | ‘I watched the dog for him/her/them.’ |
| 10) | QENSIT ȽTE ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸. | ‘We watched the dog for him/her/them.’ |
| 11) | QENSIT SW̱ ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸. | ‘You watched the dog for him/her/them .’ |
| 12) | QENSIT SW̱ HÁLE ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸. | ‘You folks watched the dog for him/her/them.’ |
| 13) | QENSITES ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸. | ‘He/she/they watched the dog for him/her/them.’ |
‣ 1 When you compare this table and set of models with the models shown in §32.1 and §36.1, you will notice that the subjects are the same and the objects are almost the same.
‣ 2 The root in the models here is QEN. It occurs in QENET ‘look at it,’ QENNEW̱ ‘see it,’ and in many other words.
‣ 3 In each of these models ‑SI is added after the root QEN and before the control transitive ‑T to create QENSIT, a transitive verb with a beneficiary object.
‣ 4 The I of this ‑SI suffix is always stressed unless it is followed by the ‘us’ suffix ‑OL¸W̱, which takes the stress. Notice that the I is stressed in all of these models except models 2, 3, and 4. In those models, the O is stressed.
‣ 5 Notice that just as for the objects in §32.1 the final ‑T drops when the ‑S ‘you’ or ‑SE ‘me’ suffix is added.
‣ 6 In the table above the models, you can see where this object set differs from the set shown in §32.1. Here there are two possible object suffixes for ‘me’: ‑S and ‑SEṈ. The models show only the ‑S form because it is the more commonly used form today.
‣ 7 The ‑SEṈ form of the ‘for me’ object was used regularly by the oldest L1 speakers of SENĆOŦEN, but they also used the ‑S form of the suffix. The ‑SEṈ form is a bit more formal and a bit more polite when suggesting that someone do something ‘for me.’
‣ 8 The problem with the ‑SEṈ form of the suffix for younger L1 speakers is that, out of context, it can be mistaken for something else. For example, ȻÍYEXSISEṈ can be interpreted as ‘move (something) for me’ or ‘move the hands.’ Here how those are analyzed:
ȻÍYEX-SIT-SEṈ ‘move (something) for me’
move-sit-me
ȻÍYEX-SIS-EṈ ‘move the hands’
move-hand-middle
Of course, the T in the first one here drops before the ‑SEṈ suffix and both words end up sounding the same: ȻÍYEXSISEṈ.
‣ 9 In SENĆOŦEN sentences with both a beneficiary and a patient, the patient is always the object of the preposition ¸E.
‣ 10 This layout of model 1, ‘You watched the dog for me,’ shows the roles:
QEN-SIT-S SW̱ ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸.
root-SIT-beneficiary agent patient
see-for‑me you the dog
‣ 11 In English, the patient (‘the dog’ in these models) follows the verb, and the beneficiary follows the preposition ‘for.’ This is an area where SENĆOŦEN is quite different from English. Here is what we will call the Beneficiary Object Rule:
In SENĆOŦEN, the beneficiary is the object of the verb and never the object of the preposition.
When a beneficiary is present, any patient must be the object of the preposition.
‣ 12 Notice that the Beneficiary Object Rule is very similar to the Recipient Object Rule given in §36.1.
‣ 13 The object of a ‑SIT verb is never an inanimate object, and it is usually a person.
 | ĆÁĆESISEṈ E SE¸ SW̱ ¸E ȻS SNEW̱EȽ? | ‘Will you make me a canoe?’ |
 | ELḴSIS E SW̱ ¸E ȻSE SĆEMEN? | ‘Will you buy me an adze?’ |
| HÁ¸E. | ‘Yes.’ |
36.2A. Translate each into English and identify the agents, patients, and beneficiaries in each of these sentences. |
| 1. ELḴSISEṈ E SW̱ ¸E TŦE Á¸LEṈ? 2. QENSITS LE¸ ȻSE MÁN ¸E TŦE SNEW̱EȽS. 3. ĆÁĆESISE LE¸ SEN ¸E ȻSE EN¸ S¸IȽEN 4. ȻÍYEXSISEṈ E SW̱ ¸E TŦE NE SNEW̱EȽ? |
36.2B. Use the SENĆOŦEN dictionary to find four other verbs with -SIT and make two sentences from each. |