48.6. ÁL¸ṈEN ‘want to do,’ STEN¸OM¸ET ‘pretend to do’
Models
| 1) | YÁ¸ ÁL¸ṈEN SEN. | ‘I want to go.’ |
| 2) | YÁ¸ ÁL¸ṈEN E SW̱? | ‘Do you want to go?’ |
| 3) | ȽEMEW̱ ÁL¸ṈEN | ‘It’s threatening to rain.’ |
| 4) | QENNEW̱ ÁL¸ṈEN SEN. | ‘I want to see it.’ |
| 5) | QENNEṈ ÁL¸ṈEN SEN. | ‘They want to see me.’ |
| 6) | QENNOṈE HÁL¸ṈEN SEN. | ‘I want to see you.’ |
| 7) | ₭EĆÁL¸ṈEN. | ‘He/she is very sick and dying.’ |
| 8) | TSOS STENOM¸ET. | ‘He/she feels sorry for him/herself.’ |
| 9) | ₭Í TENOM¸ET LE¸ SEN. | ‘I pretended to be dead.’ |
| 10) | MÁ¸ȻEȽ STEN¸OM¸ET. | ‘He/she is pretending to be hurt.’ |
| 11) | I¸ȽEN¸ STEN¸OM¸ET SEN. | ‘I am pretending to be eating.’ |
| 12) | QENNEW̱ STEN¸OM¸ET SEN. | ‘I am pretending to see him/her/it.’ |
| 13) | EWE Ȼ NE SQENNEW̱ STEN¸OM¸ET. | ‘I am ignoring him/her/it.’ / |
| ‘I am pretending I don’t see him/her/it.’ |
‣ 1 There are two unusual particles illustrated here: ÁL¸ṈEN (models 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) and STEN¸OM¸ET (models 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12). These two particles are unlike anything else in the grammar of SENĆOŦEN. Although they are unusual, they is known and used by all generations of L1 speakers, and their meanings are clear. ÁL¸ṈEN means ‘want to do’ or ‘be about to do’ something, and STEN¸OM¸ET means ‘pretend to do.’
‣ 2 What makes these particles unusual is that each is something like a suffix, something like a particle, and something like an independent word. Particles do not usually take stress. However, these two particles do take stress as many suffixes do, but neither usually takes stress away from the word it follows. When a suffix takes stress, the stem vowel drops or is reduced to E (see points 7 and 8 under Notes on Pronunciation). But ÁL¸ṈEN takes stress on its first vowel, and STEN¸OM¸ET takes stress on the second vowel without causing the stem vowel (the vowel of the word it follows) to reduce or delete. Other than ÁL¸ṈEN and STEN¸OM¸ET, only independent words or suffixes have stress, and only independent words do not take stress from the word they follow.
‣ 3 ÁL¸ṈEN and STEN¸OM¸ET are like a independent words in that it they are stressed on their own without taking stress from the stem. But unlike any independent word, they cannot stand alone. Each must follow a verb. In that way, they are like a particles.
‣ 4 Everything else similar to this in SENĆOŦEN grammar can be classified as word, particle, or suffix, but ÁL¸ṈEN and STEN¸OM¸ET have features of all three and cannot consistently be classified as any one of these. Despite the difficulty of classification, ÁL¸ṈEN and STEN¸OM¸ET are easy to use, say, and understand. At this point we will just consider them odd speech act modifiers that takes stress. Note that they come before all of the other speech act particles.
‣ 5 If ÁL¸ṈEN is a suffix, then it is the only suffix that follows the passive (§33) and object (§32) suffixes. The models 5 and 6 show it following the passive and the ‘you’ object suffixes. It would also be the only suffix to follow the transitive suffix other than the passive and object suffixes. In model 4, ÁL¸ṈEN follows the transitive ‑NEW̱. In these last three models, it looks just like one of the speech act particles.
‣ 6 Model 6 shows another feature that ÁL¸ṈEN shares only with suffixes. An H is inserted when the word it follows ends in a vowel. This behavior is just like the lexical suffixes (see §37.2 point 5).
‣ 7 There is one word where ÁL¸ṈEN is clearly a suffix: ₭EĆÁL¸ṈEN /q̕ʷəčél̕ŋən/ ‘to be very sick and dying.’ This word has the root ₭Í /q̕ʷáy/ ‘to die.’ Here the ÁL¸ṈEN /‑él̕ŋən/ suffix does take stress away from the root and it triggers the change of /y/ to /č/, as described in point 12 of Notes on Pronunciation.
‣ 8 Another peculiarity of ÁL¸ṈEN is that it cannot follow EWE or an auxiliary. It might seem reasonable to say *EWE ÁL¸ṈEN SEN meaning ‘I don’t want.’ But to say this you must use EWE S NE SṮI¸.
‣ 9 The idea of ‘I want to go’ can also be expressed as NE SṮI¸ Ȼ NE SYÁ¸. There is an important difference in use between this sentence and model 1. SṮI¸ is a ‘possessed verb,’ which is discussed in the next chapter, §49.
‣ 10 ÁL¸ṈEN and STEN¸OM¸ET are not identical in their grammatical behavior. Although ÁL¸ṈEN can follow the passive and object suffixes, as noted in point 5, STEN¸OM¸ET cannot. So substituting STEN¸OM¸ET for ÁL¸ṈEN in model 5 gives us the ungrammatical *QENNOṈE STEN¸OM¸ET SEN. Nevertheless, model 12 shows that it can occur after a transitive verb.
‣ 11 Model 9 shows that the S of STEN¸OM¸ET can be missing. It is not clear whether or not this has any meaning or grammatical significance. Note that model 9 has the same root as model 7. With STEN¸OM¸ET in model 9, however, unlike model 7, the stem keeps its stress.
‣ 12 Model 13 shows the most unexpected pattern in the grammar of STEN¸OM¸ET. This model is based on EWE Ȼ NE SQENNEW̱ ‘I never see him/her/it.’ See §23.4 on this common construction that is used to express the idea of ‘never.’ In model 13, which is the usual way of expressing the idea of ignoring someone, the STEN¸OM¸ET comes at the end and modifies the whole sentence.
 | DOQ ÁL¸ṈEN E SW̱? | ‘Do you want to go home?’ |
 | HÁ¸E. SEWÁ¸ ÁL¸ṈEN | ‘Yes. I want to go along.’ |
| NIȽ ĆE EN¸ SU¸ ITET STEN¸OM¸ET. | ‘Then pretend to be asleep.’ |
| 48.6A. Translate into English. 1. YÁ¸ ÁL¸ṈEN E SW̱ HÁLE ṮE METULIYE? 2. ȻENET ÁL¸ṈEN LE¸ ȽTE OL¸ TŦE SNEW̱EȽ. 3. YÁ¸ STEN¸OM¸ET LE¸ SEN ȻE¸. 4. IȽEN ÁL¸ṈEN JE ȻEĆÁ ŦE KÁ¸ṈI¸. | 48.6B. Translate into SENĆOŦEN 1. The cat wants to run. 2. Do you all want to go? 3. We want to sleep. 4. We pretended to sleep. |