47.1. Head subject of relative clause
Models
| 1) | U¸ XĆIT SW̱ ȻSE SW͸ḴE¸ TÁĆEL. | ‘You know the man that arrived.’ |
| 2) | U¸ XĆIT SW̱ ȻSE SW͸ḴE¸ QENNOṈES. | ‘You know the man that saw me.’ |
| 3) | U¸ XĆIT SW̱ ȻSE SW͸ḴE¸ QENNOṈE. | ‘You know the man that saw you.’ |
| 4) | U¸ XĆIT SW̱ ȻSE SW͸ḴE¸ QENNOLW̱. | ‘You know the man that saw us.’ |
| 5) | U¸ XĆIT SW̱ ȻSE SW͸ḴE¸ QENNEW̱. | ‘You know the man that saw him.’ |
| 6) | U¸ XĆIT SW̱ ȻSE SW͸ḴE¸ QENNEW̱ TŦE SḴAXE¸. | ‘You know the man that saw the dog.’ |
‣ 1 In these models, the head has light shading and the relative clause has darker shading in both the SENĆOŦEN and the English. In each of these models, the head is the subject of the relative clause.
‣ 2 In the first model, the relative is intransitive TÁĆEL ‘arrive.’ The two sentences that are combined are U¸ XĆIT SW̱ ‘You saw him’ and TÁĆEL ȻSE SW͸ḴE¸ ‘The man arrived.’ ȻSE SW͸ḴE¸ is the head and the subject of TÁĆEL.
‣ 3 In SENĆOŦEN, just as in English, the head comes before the relative clause.
‣ 4 In SENĆOŦEN, unlike English, there is no relative pronoun like ‘that’ or ‘who’ or ‘which.’ The verb of the relative clause usually immediately follows the head noun, but it is possible to add an article before the relative clause. So model 1 could also be U¸ XĆIT SW̱ ȻSE SW͸ḴE¸ ȻSE TÁĆEL without changing the meaning.
‣ 5 In models 2, 3, 4, and 5 the relative clause is transitive. Each of these has an object suffix base on the ‑NEW̱ ‘noncontrol transitive’ suffix. Review §32.2 on the noncontrol objects. The pattern for the transitive verbs in these models is the same as it is for the intransitive in model 1. The verb of the relative clause immediately follows the head noun.
‣ 6 The first word, U¸ XĆIT, in each of the models is the main verb of the sentence, and its subject is SW̱. In each of these models this main verb is transitive. The object of the main verb is the noun phrase following the subject: the head noun and its following relative clause. So, for example, the object of U¸ XĆIT in the first sentence is ȻSE SW͸ḴE¸ TÁĆEL.
‣ 7 Review point 11 of §46 on Ȼ clauses. There it is noted that a Ȼ clause can occur only as subject of an intransitive verb, object of a transitive verb, or object of the preposition. The same is true for relative clauses: a relative clause cannot occur in the subject of a transitive sentence.
‣ 8 In English, it is common to have a relative clause in the subject of a transitive main verb. For example, ‘The man that arrived saw me.’ The main verb of this English sentence is ‘saw,’ and its subject is ‘the man that arrived.’ The only way to express an idea like this in SENĆOŦEN is to use a passive:
QENNEṈ SEN ¸E ȻSE SW͸ḴE¸ TÁĆEL. ‘I was seen by the man that arrived.’ / ‘The man that arrived saw me.’
In this sentence, the subject is SEN ‘I’ and the noun phrase with the relative clause, ȻSE SW͸ḴE¸ TÁĆEL, is the object of the preposition.
 | XĆIT E SW̱ ȻSE KÁ¸ṈI¸ ȻENEȾ. | ‘Do you know the girl that took it?’ |
 | HÁ¸E. | ‘Yes.’ |
| NIȽ E ŦE KÁ¸ṈI¸ MEQEṈ? | ‘Is she the girl that found it.’ |
| EWENE NE SXĆIT. | ‘I don’t know.’ |
| 47.1A. Translate into English. 1. XĆIT SEN ŦE KÁ¸ṈI¸ QENNAṈE. 2. QENNEṈ SEN ¸E ŦE KÁ¸ṈI¸ QENNAṈE. 3. XĆIT SW̱ ŦE KÁ¸ṈI¸ QENNAṈE. 4. QENNES ȻŦE KÁ¸ṈI¸ TÁĆEL. | 47.1B. Translate into SENĆOŦEN 1. Do you know the girl that arrived? 2. The girl that arrived saw you. 3. The girl that saw you arrived. 4. I saw the girl that arrived. |
47.1C. Make three new sentences with relative clauses. One with the relative clause in the intransitive subject, one with it in the object of the main verb, and one in the object of the preposition. | |