40.2. Inanimate causative: -TW̱
Models
| 1) | OX̱TOṈES SW̱. | ‘You take me.’ |
| 2) | OX̱TOL¸W̱ SW̱. | ‘You take us.’ |
| 3) | OX̱TOṈE SEN. | ‘I take you.’ |
| 4) | OX̱TOṈE ȽTE. | ‘We take you.’ |
| 5) | OX̱TW̱ SEN. | ‘I take him/her/it/them.’ |
| 6) | OX̱TW̱ ȽTE. | ‘We take him/her/it/them.’ |
| 7) | OX̱TW̱ SW̱. | ‘You take him/her/it/them.’ |
| 8) | OX̱TES. | ‘He/she/it/they takes/take him/her/it/them.’ |
| 9) | OX̱TEṈ SEN. | ‘He/she/it/they takes/take me.’ |
| 10) | OX̱TEṈ SW̱. | ‘He/she/it/they takes/take you.’ |
| 11) | OX̱TEṈ ȽTE. | ‘He/she/it/they takes/take us.’ |
‣ 1 The root in these models is the very common word OX̱ ‘go to, go over to, go there.’ The English translations here only partly cover the meaning of each because OX̱ implies a destination. So perhaps a better translation of each would include something about that destination. Model 1 could be translated ‘You take me (over)’ or ‘You take me (there).’ This verb is also discussed in §9.1.
‣ 2 It is important to note here that ‘take’ in English has several meanings that are distinguished in SENĆOŦEN. The word OX̱TW̱ has only the ‘cause to go’ meaning of English ‘take.’ It cannot be used to translate English phrases such as ‘take a look,’ ‘take along’ or ‘take from.’ SENĆOŦEN has separate verbs for each of those. OX̱TW̱ refers only to carrying something from one place to another.
‣ 3 The pattern shown here is the same as that for the animate causative (§40.1). This set is abbreviated somewhat. The second person plural forms are left off, but they work the same as those in §40.1. Just add HÁLE at the end of any of these models with ‘you’ to make the ‘you’ reference plural.
‣ 4 Just as with the ‑ISTW̱ causative, the final W̱ drops when a suffix is added. This can be seen in models 1, 2, 3, 4, 8, 9, 10, and 11.
‣ 5 Models 9, 10 and 11 show that, just as with the ‑ISTW̱ causative, the passive is required when a third person (he/she/it/they) act on a first or second person (me or you) patient. Models 9, 10, and 11 can more accurately be translated ‘I was taken,’ ‘You were taken,’ and ‘We were taken.’ But L1 speakers almost always translate these passives as English active sentences.
‣ 6 As shown in §40.1, the object of the ‑ISTW̱ causative is animate or something that is perceived to act on its own. The difference between the ‑ISTW̱ and ‑TW̱ inanimate causatives is that with ‑ISTW̱, the object is doing something itself. With ‑TW̱, something is being done to the object.
‣ 7 In the models, ‘me,’ ‘you,’ and ‘us’ are, of course, humans and therefore animate. But in these sentences, they are being treated as inanimate things. The objects here are being considered as cargo being taken from one place to another, not as acting on their own.
‣ 8 One irregular verb with this inanimate causative is EN¸OW̱ ‘bring.’ This is EN¸Á ‘come.’ It is easy to see that ‘bring’ is ‘cause to come.’ It is not grammatical to put ‑TW̱ on EN¸Á to create *EN¸ÁTW̱. This irregularity has no good explanation, but EN¸OW̱ is a very common word used to mean ‘hand over’ or ‘bring out’ a story or idea as well as ‘bring it.’ There is one other, similar, irregular transitive verb in SENĆOŦEN: XEN¸OW̱ ‘say to,’ which is covered in §52.
‣ 9 The irregular form EN¸OW̱ ‘bring’ is also unusual in that it occurs only with a third person object. There is no way to use this verb to say ‘bring me/you/us.’
‣ 10 Some of the younger L1 speakers—early teachers of the language—in an attempt to make sense of this irregularity, perceived EN¸OW̱ ‘bring’ as being EN¸OX̱—a blend of EN¸Á and OX̱ ‘go to.’ How the meaning of ‘come’ and ‘go to’ would combine to make ‘bring’ is unclear. Recordings of the oldest speakers, Elsie Claxton, Philip Pelkey, and Chris Paul clearly have W̱ and not X̱ in the word.
‣ 11 It is good to mention a point of possible confusion here: there are several prefixes in SENĆOŦEN with TW̱‑ (§54, §56). These have very different meanings and functions and are entirely unrelated to the causative suffixes with ‑TW̱.
‣ 12 This form of the causative is introduced in §12.6, §14.2, §16.2¸ §25.2, §26.1, and §35.3. It would be good to go back to those sections to review how the causative worked there.
 | EN¸OW̱ E SW̱ TŦE EN¸ SÁ¸WEN. | ‘Did you bring your lunch?’ |
 | HÁ¸E. OOȽTW̱ SEN ¸E TŦE SNEW̱EȽ. | ‘Yes. I put it aboard the canoe.’ |
| OX̱TW̱ ¸E TŦE LETÁM. | ‘Take it to the table.’ |
| ÍY¸. QÁQI¸ SEN. | ‘Okay. I’m hungry.’ |
| 40.2A. Translate into English. 1. EN¸OW̱ TŦE S¸IȽEN. 2. OX̱TOṈE E SE¸ SW̱? 3. DEQTW̱ SEN TŦE S¸IȽEN. 4. OX̱TW̱ LE¸ SEN TŦE SMÍYEŦ LÁ¸E ¸E TŦE NE SNEW̱EȽ. | 40.2B. Translate into SENĆOŦEN. 1. Did he put you to sleep? 2. I took the dog to the beach. 3. I brought the food in my canoe. 4. Did you take it home? |