7.1. Transitive sentences with two noun phrases
Models
| 1) | ȻENÁṈETES TŦE KÁ¸ṈI¸ TŦE SWIU¸LES . | ‘The girl helped the boy.’ |
| 2) | ȻENÁṈETES TŦE SWIU¸LES TŦE KÁ¸ṈI¸ . | ‘The boy helped the girl .’ |
| 3) | ȻENÁṈETES TŦE SWIU¸LES TŦE TÁNS . | ‘The boy helped his mother .’ |
| 4) | ȻENÁṈETES TŦE TÁNS TŦE SWIU¸LES. | ‘The boy helped his mother .’ |
| 5) | ĆEĆÁTES TŦE NE MÁN TŦE SOȽ. | ‘My father built the road .’ |
| 6) | ĆEĆÁTES TŦE SOȽ TŦE NE MÁN. | ‘My father built the road .’ |
‣ 1 In §1, the ideas of transitive and intransitive were introduced. Notice that each of the model sentences here is transitive. The first word in models 1 through 4 is the verb ȻENÁṈET. Note that it has the ‑ET ending just before the ‑ES ‘he, she, it’ subject suffix in model 4.
‣ 2 Each of the model sentences here has two noun phrases. The subject suffix and subject noun phrase in each are marked with light shading and the direct object in each is marked with the dark shading.
‣ 3 Now notice that the first two models here (models 1 and 2) have exactly the same words in SENĆOŦEN and the same words in English, but the order of the words is different and the meanings are different. The order of the words makes a big difference in the meanings of the two sentences.
‣ 4 In English, the order is Subject-Verb-Object while in SENĆOŦEN, the order is Verb-Subject-Object. In SENĆOŦEN, the verb almost always comes first. We will see, in §10, that an auxiliary may come before a verb. But in transitive sentences like these, the subject never comes before the verb in SENĆOŦEN as it does in English.
‣ 5 Notice that, while the first pair of models (1 and 2) have different meanings, the second pair (models 3 and 4) have the same English translation. The second pair shows that the order of the subject and object in SENĆOŦEN can be reversed in some sentences with no change in meaning. Take a minute and see if you can find the difference between the first pair of models and the second pair.
‣ 6 In the second pair (3 and 4), the direct object is possessed by the subject—‘the boy’ TŦE SWIU¸LES is the subject and the object is ‘his mother’ TŦE TÁNS. So what is the rule here?
‣ 7 Here is the first rule—let’s call this the Possessed Object Rule:
If both participants are human and one possesses the other,
then you can put the subject and object noun phrases in either order.
In the sentence ‘The boy helped his mother,’ the boy possesses ‘his’ mother. The possessor must be the subject and the order in SENĆOŦEN does not matter. So then, ȻENÁṈETES TŦE SWIU¸LES TŦE TÁNS and ȻENÁṈETES TŦE TÁNS TŦE SWIU¸LES both mean ‘The boy helped his mother.’
‣ 8 The last pair of models (5 and 6) both mean ‘My father built the road.’ Again, the order of the noun phrases makes no difference. What is the rule here?
‣ 9 Here is the second rule—let’s call this the Obvious Subject Rule:
If it is obvious what noun phrase must be the subject,
then you can put the subject and object in either order.
The most common obvious situation is where one participant is human and the other is not. In such situations, the human is the subject, and the nonhuman is the object. In the last pair of examples, ‘The road built my father’ would make no sense, so the order does not matter. So then ĆEĆÁTES TŦE NE MÁN TŦE SOȽ and ĆEĆÁTES TŦE SOȽ TŦE NE MÁN must both mean ‘My father built the road.’
‣ 10 In general, when in doubt, you cannot go wrong if you put the subject noun phrase before the object noun phrase.
‣ 11 It is an important characteristic of SENĆOŦEN that sentences with two noun phrases like those in the last six model sentences are rare. Much more common is the passive construction. That will be introduced in §7.2, developed more in §8.1, and discussed in detail in §33.
‣ 12 New vocabulary (with the stressed vowel in red):
ĆÁĆET ‘build it’
ĆȺ ‘work’
SȽÁNI¸ ‘woman’
SW͸ḴE¸ ‘man’
ṈENE¸ ‘son’ or ‘daughter’
SOȽ ‘road’ or ‘door’
ȻENÁṈET ‘help someone’
| 7.1A. Translate each of the following into English. 1. ȻENETES TŦE TÁLE TŦE NE SĆÁ¸ĆE¸. 2. W̱EĆETES TŦE SȽÁNI¸ TŦE ṈENE¸S. 3. XĆITES TŦE KÁ¸ṈI¸ TŦE SWIU¸LES. 4. MESITEṈ ¸E TŦE SW͸ḴE¸ TŦE Á¸LEṈ. 5. SÁ¸ETES TŦE SWIU¸LES TŦE SNEW̱EȽS. | 7.1B. Translate each of the following into SENĆOŦEN. If possible, give two word orders. 1. The boy helped his mother. 2. The girl woke her mother. 3. The money was taken by the man. 4. My father chose the canoe. 5. Your friend lifted the deer. |