51.1. A smoothly flowing story
Model
| 1) | ĆLÁ¸E ¸E TŦE BOḰEĆEN TŦE SW͸ḴE¸. |
| 2) | SṮI¸S Ȼ SNEU¸NOṈETS ¸E TŦE STḴȺE¸ÁU¸TW̱. |
| 3) | I¸ SQȺ Ȼ SNEU¸NOṈETS. |
| 4) | I¸ ȻȽ TES I¸ ȻȽ ELÁ¸NES TŦE STELḴȺE¸ ¸E Ȼ SṮEWEṈS. |
| 5) | SU¸ TW̱I¸₭ÍSTENOM¸ETS. |
| 6) | SU¸ TESS TŦE STḴȺE¸. |
| 7) | NIȽ SU¸ HEḰO¸TEṈS. |
| 8) | SU¸ XENEṈS TŦE STḴȺE¸,"¸OO, ȻȽ ₭O₭I¸. |
| 9) | EWENE SȽÁQEṈS." |
| 10) | SU¸ ŦEṈ¸ÁTEṈS ¸E TŦU¸NIȽ HÍ OL¸ ĆEḴ STḴȺE¸. |
‣ 1 Notice that the heading here is not ‘Models’ but ‘Model.’ This is not just a list of sentences or words, as previous models have been. This is a group of sentences that are connected to form a single unit—a single, smoothly flowing story.
‣ 2 These ten sentences are the beginning of one version of a story about a man named XITELEḴ, who went to live with wolves. This version was told by Elsie Claxton and recorded in 1981. This is a long story known to most of the SENĆOŦEN elders and recorded in several versions. Much could be said about the story and its importance to the W̱SÁNEĆ people, but here we just focus on the grammar. We will look closely at only the first five lines.
‣ 3 If you have mastered the preceding material in this book, you should be able (maybe with the help of the dictionary) to understand almost all of these sentences and explain the grammar they exhibit. Here we want to focus on the highlighted items. These are little parts that make this a smooth flowing story rather than just a list of sentences.
‣ 4 Here we look at the details of the first five lines of this piece of story sentence by sentence. The section where a particular grammatical element is discussed is given in parentheses:
Line 1: ĆLÁ¸E ¸E TŦE BOḰEĆEN TŦE SW͸ḴE¸. ‘The man was from Pauquachin.’
ĆLÁ¸E — an intransitive (§1.1) verb meaning ‘come from’ (§26.1)
¸E TŦE BOḰEĆEN — a prepositional phrase (§8)
TŦE BOḰEĆEN — a noun phrase (§4), object of the preposition ¸E (§8)
TŦE SW͸ḴE¸ — a noun phrase, the subject of the intransitive verb
Line 2: SṮI¸S Ȼ SNEU¸NOṈETS ¸E TŦE STḴȺE¸ÁU¸TW̱. ‘He wanted to enter the wolf den.’
SṮI¸S — This is the main verb of the sentence. It is a possessed verb (§49).
Ȼ SNEU¸NOṈETS ¸E TŦE STḴȺE¸ÁU¸TW̱ — The rest is a Ȼ clause (§46).
SNEU¸NOṈETS — The verb of the Ȼ clause with the S- noun-forming prefix and the ‑S third-person possessive suffix (§5.1). This has the root NEU¸ ‘inside’ and the noncontrol middle suffix ‑NOṈET (§45.2).
¸E TŦE STḴȺE¸ÁU¸TW̱ — a prepositional phrase (§8).
TŦE STḴȺE¸ÁU¸TW̱ — a noun phrase (§4), object of the preposition ¸E (§8).
STḴȺE¸ÁU¸TW̱ — a noun based on STḴȺE¸ ‘wolf’ with the ‑ÁU¸TW̱ ‘house’ lexical suffix (§37.2).
Line 3: I¸ SQȺ Ȼ SNEU¸NOṈETS. ‘But he could not get in.’
I¸ — The conjunction (§11), here translated as ‘but.’
SQȺ — This is the main verb of this sentence. This the ‘not able’ verb (§14.1).
Ȼ SNEU¸NOṈETS — The rest of the sentence is a Ȼ clause (§46).
SNEU¸NOṈETS — The verb of the Ȼ clause with the S- noun-forming prefix and the ‑S third-person possessive suffix (§5.1). This has the root NEU¸ ‘inside’ and the noncontrol middle suffix ‑NOṈET (§45.2).
Line 4: I¸ ȻȽ TES I¸ ȻȽ ELÁ¸NES TŦE STELḴȺE¸ Ȼ SṮEWEṈS. ‘He got there and heard the wolves as they were howling.’
I¸ — The conjunction (§11), here not directly translated, but is used to indicate then next step in a progressing story. This is one of the grammatical devices used in connecting sentences to make a smooth flowing story.
ȻȽ TES — This is the main verb of first independent clause of this compound sentence. TES means ‘arrive there.’ This has the ȻȽ ‘already’ prefix, which was mentioned in §23.3 and covered more in §56.
I¸ — The conjunction (§11), here translated ‘and’ to conjoin two independent clauses in this compound sentence.
ȻȽ ELÁ¸NES — This is the main verb of the second independent clause of this compound sentence. This also has the ȻȽ ‘already’ prefix (§56). This verb is based on ELÁ¸NEW̱ ‘hear it’ and has the ‑ES ‘third person subject’ (§1.2)
TŦE STELḴȺE¸ — This noun phrase is the direct object of the verb ȻȽ ELÁ¸NES. The noun STḴȺE¸ ‘wolf’ has the collective plural EL infix (§41.1)
¸E Ȼ SṮEWEṈS — The rest of the sentence is an adverbial prepositional phrase (§29.1) with Ȼ clause (§46).
SṮEWEṈS — The verb of the Ȼ clause ṮEWEṈ ‘howl’ with the S- noun-forming prefix and the ‑S third-person possessive suffix (§5.1).
Line 5: SU¸ TW̱I¸₭ÍSTENOM¸ETS. ‘So then he pretended to be dead.’
This sentence is just one word. It has four prefixes, a root, and two suffixes. Let’s break this down:
SU¸‑ is traditionally written as a separate word, but it is the noun-forming prefix S‑, which has been mentioned many times in this grammar, followed by the U¸ ‘contrast’ prefix (§56.1). This combination of prefixes occurs also in the coordinate conditional described in §30.2. This is sometimes translated as ‘so’ or ‘then,’ but most occurrences have no direct translation. This is another grammatical device used to connect sentences to make a smooth flowing story. This is covered in more detail in the next section (§51.2).
TW̱E‑ in this context means ‘become.’ This prefix has been briefly mentioned earlier (§12.4) and is discussed with other verbal prefixes in §54.
I¸‑ is a common prefix meaning ‘in the process of.’ It often accompanies verbs in the actual aspect. This adverbial prefix is discussed more in §56.
₭Í ‘die’ is the root. This can also be translated ‘be dead,’ depending on the situation being described.
‑STENOM¸ET ‘pretend to’ was covered in §48.6 where it was described as sometimes acting like a suffix and sometimes not. In this word it is a suffix.
‑S is the third person possessive suffix ‘his, her, its, their.’ Since this word has the S‑ prefix, this whole sentence can be treated grammatically as a noun. The S- prefix allows a word to take the possessive prefixes and suffixes.
‣ 5 Here is the translation of each of the rest of the sentences. Full analysis is left for an exercise:Line 6: So the wolves got there.
Line 7: They sniffed him.
Line 8: They said, “Oh, he’s already dead.
Line 9: He’s not breathing.”
Line 10: So the biggest of the wolves carried him.
51.1A. Do an analysis like those given in point 4 for the sentence in line 6 and one of the other lines 7 to 10. 51.1B. Write two more sentences that might be a continuation of the story after line 10. |