48.4. I¸E ‘usual,’ ĆTE ‘probably,’ JEȽ ‘typically,’ ȻI¸E ‘unexpectedly,’ O ‘certain,’ EȽ ‘type’
Models
| 1) | LÁ¸E ĆTE TŦE SĆÁ¸ĆE¸ȽTE. | ‘Our friend is probably there.’ |
| 2) | LÁ¸E I¸E TŦE SĆÁ¸ĆE¸ȽTE. | ‘Our friend is there, as usual.’ |
| 3) | LÁ¸E ȻI¸E TŦE SĆÁ¸ĆE¸ȽTE. | ‘Unexpectedly, our friend is there.’ |
| 4) | HÍ U¸ EWENETW̱ JEȽ OL¸. | ‘Let it be the one typically without it.’ |
| 5) | LÁ¸E O TŦE SĆÁ¸ĆE¸ȽTE. | ‘Our friend is certainly there.’ |
| 6) | STÁṈ OĆE EȽ? | ‘What kind is it? |
‣ 1 Of this set of speech act modifiers, only ĆTE, the particle shown in model 1, is common. The translation ‘probably’ pretty well covers its meaning. The speaker is letting the listener know that the truth of the information is not certain, but probable.
‣ 2 With the I¸E particle shown in model 2, the speaker is letting the listener know the information in the statement is usual, happening again or happens regularly or happens all the time.
‣ 3 The ȻI¸E speech act modifier shown in model 3 is used by the speaker to let the listener know that the information was unexpected or accidental. It is often translated ‘oops’ as in, for example, DEX SEN ȻI¸E ‘Oops, I made a mistake.’
‣ 4 Model 4 is the only really good example of the JEȽ we have recorded. This sentence occurred in the context of the story about the origin of deer. Deer hopped away before the XÁ¸EL¸S could finish him, and so he left without his MESEN ‘gall bladder.’ Now it is typical of deer to lack a gall bladder.
‣ 5 The O speech act modifier is used when the speaker wants the listener to know that the information is certain. If used in a question, this particle indicates the speaker is asking the listener for certainty.
‣ 6 The final particle of this group is the most grammatically unusual one of all the speech act modifiers. In fact, it may not really belong in this category at all. This particle is related to an EȽ particle meaning ‘while’ or ‘whenever’ that occurs in all the neighboring languages. It is one of the unique characteristics of SENĆOŦEN that it does not use EȽ in that function. Wherever this particle occurs, the sentence makes reference to some ‘kind.’ The following two sentences which differ only in the presence or absence of EȽ show the contrast:
EWENE NE SXĆIT ȻE STÁṈES. ‘I don’t know what it is.’
EWENE NE SXĆIT ȻE STÁṈES EȽ. ‘I don’t know what kind it is.’
‣ 7 When the category to be specified as to kind is mentioned in sentences with EȽ, it takes the third-person subordinate subject suffix:
EWENE NE SXĆIT ȻE STÁṈES EȽ SĆÁÁNEW̱ES. ‘I don’t know what kind of fish it is.’
‣ 8 This EȽ is not common and it is unlike all of the other speech act modifiers in that it does not directly relate something extra that the speaker is trying to convey to the listener about the statement. This particle is included here because it fits in a position that the speech act modifiers occupy in a sentence, but it is probably a different type of thing altogether. To sum up: EWENE NE SXĆIT ȻE STÁṈES EȽ.
| 48.4A. Translate into English. 1. IȽEN ĆTE TŦE NE SḴAXE¸. 2. ṮIU¸ I¸E TŦE NE SḴAXE¸. 3. ṮIU¸ ȻI¸E TŦE NE SḴAXE¸. 4. LÁ¸E O TŦE NE SḴAXE¸. |
48.4B. Explain what the speech act modifier adds to the information in each of the sentences in 48.4A. |