SENĆOŦEN: A Grammar of the Saanich Language

42 The Actual Aspect

In English we indicate a continuing action by using a form of the word ‘be’ with a main verb ending in ‘‑ing.’ For example, ‘I am eating.’ As a verb form, it can be called ‘continuative’ (because the action is continuing). In SENĆOŦEN and some other Salishan languages this form can occur with nouns and adjectives as well as with verbs, so it is usually called the actual because it indicates that the situation is or was actually occurring.

The actual is very common in SENĆOŦEN and is marked in a number of different ways. It accounts for quite a bit of the variation you see in the form of roots. Though there are many ways of forming the actual, three methods are common and important to understand.

The first method of forming the actual is an infix (a glottal stop is inserted into the word), the second is reduplication (the first consonant of the root is copied), and the third is metathesis (a consonant and vowel switch places).

It is important to remember that there are a number of other ways of forming the actual. The three described here are simply the most common.

This is the first of four chapters (§42, §43, §44, §45) that discuss some ways that aspect is expressed in SENĆOŦEN. Aspect is the term for a grammatical pattern that expresses how an event is viewed with respect to time: continuing, completed, static, and so on.
 

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