SENĆOŦEN: A Grammar of the Saanich Language

58.1. -NES ‘object of intent’

Models
1)EN¸ÁNESṈOṈES SW̱.‘You came for/at/to me.’
2)EN¸ÁNESṈOṈES SW̱ HÁLE.‘You folks came for/at/to me.’
3)EN¸ÁNESOL¸W̱ SW̱.‘You came for/at/to us.’
4)EN¸ÁNESOL¸W̱ SW̱ HÁLE.‘You folks came for/at/to us.’
5)EN¸ÁNESṈOṈE SEN.‘I came for/at/to you.’
6)EN¸ÁNESṈOṈE ȽTE.‘We came for/at/to you.’
7)EN¸ÁNESṈOṈE SEN HÁLE.‘I came for/at/to you folks.’
8)EN¸ÁNESṈOṈE ȽTE HÁLE.‘I came for/at/to you folks.
9)EN¸ÁNES SEN. ‘I came for/at/to him/her/it/them.’
10)EN¸ÁNES ȽTE. ‘We came for/at/to him/her/it/them.’
11)EN¸ÁNES SW̱. ‘You came for/at/to him/her/it/them.’
12)EN¸ÁNES SW̱ HÁLE. ‘You folks came for/at/to him/her/it/them.’
13)EN¸ÁNESES. ‘He/she/it came for/at/to him/her/it/them.’
14)EN¸ÁNESEṈ SW̱. ‘He/she/it came for/at/to you.’
15)EN¸ÁNESEṈ SEN. ‘He/she/it came for/at/to me.’

‣ 1 Each of the models here has the same verb root: EN¸Á ‘come.’ In each of the models, EN¸Á is followed by the suffix -NES.
‣ 2 In the English translation for each model, there are two possible interpretations—each has ‘came for/at/to.’ This indicates that the translation could be ‘came for,’  ‘came at,’ or ‘came to.’ The first model could be translated ‘You came for me,’ ‘You came at me,’ or ‘You came to me.’
‣ 3 The -NES suffix creates a transitive stem, allowing a first- or second-person direct object to be added. This suffix indicates that the direct object is approached by an agent with a particular intent. In English the sentence ‘He came at me’ would usually be understood as someone intending to do me harm. The sentence ‘He came for me’ could mean someone came intending to do me harm, or it could be someone came to help me or to give me a ride or with some other innocent intent. The SENĆOŦEN -NES suffix has both uses.
‣ 4 The key point about the meaning of the -NES suffix is the idea of ‘intent’ toward the direct object. Although usually it is interpreted as some bad intent, it is not necessarily so. For example, EN¸ÁNESEṈ SEN ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸ would usually be translated in isolation as ‘The dog came at me’ or even ‘The dog attacked me.’ But it could also be used in a situation where a friendly dog came to me to be pet or came for me to rescue me. In all cases, the dog is coming with some particular intent.
‣ 5 The -NES suffix occurs commonly on verbs of motion like EN¸Á ‘come,’ YÁ¸ ‘go,’ ŚTEṈ ‘walk,’ and so on. There is, in fact, only one recorded nonmotion verb that can have this suffix. That verb is ȽÁU¸ ‘heal, get well.’ When added to ȽÁU¸ we get ȽÁU¸NES ‘heal someone, make someone well.’
‣ 6 The -NES transitivizer has a special set of object suffixes that are very similar to the noncontrol object suffixes (§32.2):
     Singular      Plural
1‑ṈOṈES‘me’‑OL¸W̱‘us’
2‑ṈOṈE‘you’‑ṈOṈE HÁLE‘you folks’
3 Æ‘him, her, it’Æ‘them’
These object suffixes attach directly the -NES suffix without altering the stem.
‣ 7 Models 14 and 15 here show that—just as with the causatives (§40.1, §40.2)—the passive is required when a third-person (‘he/she/it/they’) acts on a first- or second- person (‘me’ or ‘you’). In the passive of this transitive, the -EṈ suffix is added directly after the -NES transitivizer.
 
X̱ENIṈ ȻEĆÁ EN¸ ŚW̱LEMÁ¸T‘Why did you kick
      TŦE NE SḴAXE¸?     my dog?
EN¸ÁNESEṈ SEN KE! ‘It came at me!’
ÁN¸ U¸ ÍY¸ TI¸Á NE SḴAXE¸.‘My dog is very nice.
      EWE Ȼ SȾEṈELE¸S.     It never bites.’
ÁN¸ U¸ XEȽ TŦE NE SḰÁLEȻEN ‘I am very sorry
      Ȼ NE SLEMÁ¸T.      that I kicked it.’

58.1A. Use the SENĆOŦEN dictionary to find four example sentences using the ‑NES ‘intent’ transitivizer. Explain each of the words in each sentence.

58.1B. Write four original sentences in SENĆOŦEN using the ‑NES ‘intent’ transitivizer.

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