8.2. The preposition ¸E in other intransitive sentences
Models
| 1) | W̱ITEṈ ¸E TŦE ḰO¸. | ‘He/she jumped into the water.’ |
| 2) | JISEṈ ¸E TŦE TEṈEW̱. | ‘It grew on the land.’ |
| 3) | ȽÁU¸ ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸. | ‘He/she ran away from the dog.’ |
| 4) | ṮLÁ¸EṈ SEN ¸E ȻSE NE SĆÁ¸ĆE¸. | ‘I looked for my friend.’ |
| 5) | OOȽ SEN ¸E TŦE SNEW̱EȽ. | ‘I boarded the canoe.’ |
| 6) | ĆIḴ LE¸ ¸E ȻSE ĆELAḴEȽ. | ‘It snowed yesterday.’ |
‣ 1 First we point out some new vocabulary here. The stressed vowel in each of the words is in red in this list to help you remember the correct pronunciation:
TEṈEW̱ ‘land, earth’
ṮLÁ¸EṈ ‘seek, look for’
OOȽ ‘go aboard’
ĆIḴ ‘snow (coming down);’
ĆELAḴEȽ ‘yesterday;’
SḴELÁLṈEW̱ ‘tree.’
‣ 2 These models show that the SENĆOŦEN preposition may also translate as other prepositions in English. In the models, the preposition is in boldface and the prepositional phrase in each is shaded.
‣ 3 The first four models (1, 2, 3, and 4) show the SENĆOŦEN preposition translated as ‘into,’ ‘on,’ from,’ and ‘for.’ We have already seen it translated as ‘by’ in §8.1. There are many other ways that ¸E can be translated into English.
‣ 4 The last two models (5 and 6) show that sometimes the ¸E has no English translation at all.
‣ 5 The last model shows the use of ¸E in time expressions. These are covered in detail in §23.
‣ 6 Notice that there is one noun phrase in each of the models, and, in each, that noun phrase is the object of the preposition—not the subject of the sentence.
‣ 7 If we were to add a direct noun phrase to any of the first three models, that noun phrase would have to be interpreted as the subject:
W̱ITEṈ TŦE SḴAXE¸ ¸E TŦE ḰO¸. ‘The dog jumped into the water.’
JISEṈ ¸E TŦE TEṈEW̱ TŦE SḴELÁLṈEW̱. ‘The tree grew on the land.’
ȽÁU¸ TŦE SWIU¸LES ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸. ‘The boy ran away from the dog.’
Notice that the subject noun phrase can come before or after the prepositional phrase.
‣ 8 You cannot add a direct noun phrase to the last three models. Why?
‣ 9 You cannot add a direct noun phrase to ṮLÁ¸EṈ SEN ¸E ȻSE NE SĆÁ¸ĆE¸ or to OOȽ SEN ¸E TŦE SNEW̱EȽ because those two sentences already have subjects. The subject in each of these is SEN ‘I.’ Adding a direct noun phrase to either of these would violate the Intransitive Rule (§8.1).
‣ 10 You cannot add a direct noun phrase or any other kind of subject to ĆIḴ LE¸ ¸E ȻSE ĆELAḴEȽ. This has to do with the meaning of the verb.
8.2A. Explain why you cannot add a direct noun phrase or any other kind of subject to model 6, ĆIḴ LE¸ ¸E ȻSE ĆELAḴEȽ.
8.2B. Which of these sentences is ungrammatical? If it is ungrammatical, explain why it is. If it is grammatical, translate the sentence.
1. W̱ITEṈ ¸E TŦE ḰO¸ TŦE SḴAXE¸.
2. W̱ITEṈ TŦE SḴAXE¸ TŦE ḰO¸.
3. W̱ITEṈ TŦE ḰO¸ ¸E TŦE SḴAXE¸.
4. W̱ITEṈ SEN TŦE ḰO¸.
5. W̱ITEṈ SEN ¸E TŦE ḰO¸.
6. W̱ITEṈ SEN TŦE SḴAXE¸ ¸E TŦE ḰO¸.
7. W̱ITEṈ SEN TŦE SḴAXE¸.
8. W̱ITEṈ TŦE SḴAXE¸.
9. W̱ITEṈ ¸E TŦE ḰO¸ SEN.
10. TŦE SḴAXE¸ W̱ITEṈ ¸E TŦE ḰO¸.