49 Possessed Verbs
Now would be a good time to review §5 on possessive pronouns and §32 on object pronouns.
Models
| 1) | NE SṮI¸ SW̱. | ‘I like you.’ |
| 2) | EN¸ SṮI¸ E SEN? | ‘Do you like me?’ |
| 3) | SṮI¸ȽTE. | ‘He/she/they like us.’ |
| 4) | SṮI¸S | ‘He/she/it/they likes/like him/her/it/them.’ |
| 5) | NE SṮI¸ TŦE S¸IȽEN. | ‘I like the food.’ |
‣ 1 If you have been working through this grammar from the beginning, the main verb in these models should be familiar to you. The main verb, SṮI¸, has appeared in a number of previous ḰEL¸NEȻEL dialogues. It was covered somewhat in §31. This verb can be translated ‘like,’ as in the models here or ‘want’ as in §31. It can also be translated ‘love’ or ‘need.’
‣ 2 Notice that the subject of the SENĆOŦEN sentence in each of these models, with the dark highlight, corresponds to the object in the English translation. And the English subject appears in SENĆOŦEN as the possessive. For example, the English ‘I’ subject in model 1 corresponds in SENĆOŦEN to NE ‘my.’ The verb SṮI¸ is one of a small class of intransitive verbs that have two participants, and a possessive pronoun corresponds to the subject in the English translation while the SENĆOŦEN subject pronoun corresponds to the English translation object. We call these ‘possessed verbs.’
‣ 3 These possessed verbs have the same grammar as possessed nouns. Compare these two sentences:
NE SṮI¸ SW̱. ‘I like you.’ NE MÁN SW̱. ‘You are my father.’
These two sentences are not as strange as they may seem. The word SṮI¸ is usually translated as ‘like,’ ‘want,’ or ‘need.’ Another way to think about the meaning of this is to think of it as a noun meaning something like ‘what is liked,’ ‘the wanted,’ or ‘that which is needed.’ Then you can think of the literal translation of model 1 roughly this way: ‘You are my “what is liked.”’ Now you can see that the pattern is really the same as in sentences like ‘You are my father.’
‣ 4 English uses a transitive construction for sentences like those in the models. That is, English uses the same basic subject‑verb‑object pattern in ‘I like you’ as it does in ‘I help you’ or ‘I hit you.’ If SENĆOŦEN were like English, we would expect ‘I like you’ in SENĆOŦEN to be something like *ṮI¸ES SEN (with ‑ES ‘you’ object and SEN ‘I’ subject), but this is ungrammatical in SENĆOŦEN.
‣ 5 Unlike English, SENĆOŦEN treats ‘like’ verbs differently verbs like ‘help’ and ‘hit’ verbs. SENĆOŦEN is not unique in this respect; other languages treat ‘like’ and ‘help’ differently as verbs. There is a fundamental difference between sentences like ‘I like you’ versus ‘I help you’ or ‘I hit you.’ With ‘help’ and ‘hit’ something is actually happening to or for the object. When I hit you, you know it. But ‘like’ is different. When I say ‘I like you,’ I’m not talking about something that happens to you; I’m talking about my own feelings. So it makes sense for a language to use possessives when talking about one’s own feelings or personal mental states.
‣ 6 Here is a list of other SENĆOŦEN possessed verbs that, like SṮI¸ ‘like,’ refer to personal mental states:
SJOSEṈ ‘dislike, feel disgust for’
SJIN¸U¸ ‘annoy’
SLOL ‘intend’
SȾIW̱EṈ ‘pity’
SHÁ¸EQ ‘remember’
SMEL¸EḴ ‘forget about’
‣ 7 Most of these can occur only as possessed verbs when there are two participants. The last two, however, can occur without the S- prefix as transitive verbs:
NE SHÁ¸EQ TŦE NE SĆÁ¸ĆE¸. ‘I remember my friend.’
HÁ¸EQT SEN TŦE NE SĆÁ¸ĆE¸. ‘I remember my friend.’
NE SMEL¸EḴ TŦE NE SĆÁ¸ĆE¸. ‘I forgot about my friend.’
MEL¸EḴT SEN TŦE NE SĆÁ¸ĆE¸. ‘I forgot about my friend.’
Study these two pairs of sentences. The first one of each of the pairs has the possessed verb. That sentence is intransitive, and TŦE NE SĆÁ¸ĆE¸ is the subject. The second of each of these pairs of sentences is transitive and TŦE NE SĆÁ¸ĆE¸ is the direct object. As the English translation shows, there is apparently no difference in meaning between these two constructions.
‣ 8 The verbs listed in point 7 are the only verbs recorded that work as possessed verbs. Not all verbs referring to personal mental states are possessed verbs. For example, XĆET ‘figure, think,’ KÁL¸ ‘believe,’ TÁṈ¸ES ‘crave,’ and ŚITEṈ ‘covet, desire’ do not regularly use the possessive pronouns.
‣ 9 A few verbs that do not refer to personal mental states are possessed verbs. These other verbs all have implied objects. For example, the verb ḴEĆE¸ is usually translated as ‘catch.’ But it has implied in its meaning specifically ‘catch fish, or other game animals.’ It is rare to use these with both subject and object, but if the need arises, you must use it as a possessed verb as in:
NE SḴEĆE¸ SW̱. ‘I caught you.’
You would actually use this only if you were talking to a game animal, which rarely happens except in a traditional tale where for example a bear is talking to a salmon. You could literally translate this as ‘You are my catch.’
‣ 10 Actually, any verb can be possessed in a Ȼ clause (§46). The possessed verbs discussed in this chapter are verbs that are normally possessed in main clauses as well as subordinate clauses. There are other situations in which any verb can be possessed. These other situations are covered in §51. To attach the possessive prefixes and suffixes to any verb root, you must have the S‑ noun-forming prefix on the verb.
‣ 11 Possessed verbs can never be used as imperatives, and some combinations of subject and possessive pronouns are unacceptable with possessed nouns or possessed verbs. Here is a list of the combinations. The ones with * are not grammatical. The alternative uses a focus pronoun (§15.2) and is given next to it in parentheses.
NE SṮI¸ SW̱. ‘I like you.’
NE SĆÁ¸ĆE¸ SW̱. ‘You are my friend.’
SṮI¸S SW̱. ‘He/she likes you.’
SĆÁ¸ĆE¸S SW̱. ‘You are his/her friend.’
*EN¸ SṮI¸ SEN. (ESE EN¸ SṮI¸. ‘You like me.’)
*EN¸ SĆÁ¸ĆE¸ SEN. (ESE EN¸ SĆÁ¸ĆE¸. ‘I am your friend.’)
*EN¸ SṮI¸ ȽTE. (ȽNIṈEȽ EN¸ SṮI¸. ‘You like us.’)
*EN¸ SĆÁ¸ĆE¸ ȽTE. (ȽNIṈEȽ EN¸ SĆÁ¸ĆE¸. ‘We are your friend.’)
*SṮI¸ȽTE SW̱. (NEȻE SṮI¸ȽTE. ‘We like you.’)
*SĆÁ¸ĆE¸ȽTE SW̱. (NEȻE SĆÁ¸ĆE¸ȽTE. ‘You are our friend.’)
 | EN¸ SṮI¸ E Ȼ EN¸ S¸IȽEN ¸E ȻS ÁSW̱? | ‘Do you want to eat some seal?’ |
 | EWE. NE SJOSEṈ ȻS ÁSW̱. | ‘No. I hate seal.’ |
| NE SṮI¸ Ȼ NE S¸IȽEN ȻS ÁSW̱ I¸ U¸ EWENE. | ‘I want to eat seal, but there is none.’ |
| NE SȾIW̱EṈ SW̱. | ‘I pity you.’ |
| 49A. Translate into English. 1. NE SṮI¸ ȻS TÁLE. 2. EN¸ SJOSEṈ E TŦE NE SḴAXE¸? 3. NE SȾIW̱EṈ TŦE EN¸ SḴAXE¸. 4. NE SHÁ¸EQ SW̱. | 49B. Translate into SENĆOŦEN 1. I remember your mother. 2. I forgot his name. 3. I caught two salmon. 4. Do you need us? |