The organization of this grammar
Once you understand the alphabet, you are ready to advance to the grammatical patterns of SENĆOŦEN. Part 3 forms the main body of this grammar. The 152 sections in 64 chapters in Part 3 cover all the basic elements of SENĆOŦEN grammar.
The chapters of Part 3 are of more or less gradually increasing difficulty for the first twelve chapters or so. Chapters 1 through 8 are especially easy, but they cover some of the most important ideas in SENĆOŦEN grammar. It would be a good idea to feel comfortable with the material in those first few chapters before moving into the rest. The presentation of the material in later chapters assumes the mastery of the material in chapters 1 through 8.
All of the chapters of Part 3 were designed to be studied in order, but teachers and students should be able to hop around to any section that seems interesting. There are numerous cross-references to help a reader catch up or refresh their memory on more fundamental topics. Each of these cross-references is marked with the ‘section’ symbol §.
Most sections have five parts: Introduction, Models, Points, Dialogue, and Exercises. This grammar has been kept very lean—wordiness has been avoided, and there is no extra, unnecessary material. Each of these parts is important and crucial to learning the grammar of SENĆOŦEN.
The Introduction presents an overview of the grammatical ideas to be covered in the section. The introduction presents new terms and usually explains the grammatical ideas by starting with English, then comparing English to SENĆOŦEN. The introduction uses English to build the scaffold which supports the construction of your understanding of SENĆOŦEN grammar. It is an important part of the description and should be read carefully. Please do not skip the chapter and section introductions.
The Models section appears in a box after the introduction. The models are basic examples of the grammatical patterns being described in the section. The models should be studied carefully and memorized. Each model is numbered so that the teacher and students can refer to each easily in class.
The Points follow the models in each section. Each point is marked by this symbol ‣ and a number so that the teacher and students can refer to them. The points make use of the numbers in the models to give detailed explanations for each grammatical pattern. The points are the heart of each section and contain all of the grammatical description and explanation.
The Dialogue or ḰEL¸NEȻEL, comes after all the points. The dialogue is a short conversation between two people labeled with the icons SNEW̱EȽ ‘canoe’ and SKEM¸EL¸ ‘paddle,’ which symbolize progress. The dialogue is designed to put the material of the section to use in conversation. In the earlier chapters, especially, the dialogues may contain advanced material not yet covered. By the time you finish the book, you should understand all of the grammar in all of the dialogues. You should memorize these dialogues, modify them, and use them as much as possible.
The Exercises section comes after the dialogue. Just as physical exercise builds strength, the SENĆOŦEN exercises are designed to strengthen your understanding of the material presented in the models and points. Just as physical skill does, language skill requires work—exercise, practice, and repetition.
The exercises are usually problems in translation in two columns. The sentences in the left column are to be translated into English. The sentences in the right column are to be translated into SENĆOŦEN. The two sets of sentences do not correspond to each other. There are no matching or fill-in-the-blank exercises in this book.
As you work through the exercises in the early chapters, you will notice a lot of repetition. The exercises are based on a very limited set of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. This limited vocabulary allows you to focus on the grammatical patterns being studied without having the distraction of frequently going to the dictionary to look up a new word.
If you do need to look up a word used in a model, dialogue, or exercise, you can look at Appendix F, where all the vocabulary is listed with a very short definition. Of course, for a full definition, you have to see the dictionary entry for the word. The Vocabulary is one of six appendixes that follow Part 3. Appendix A provides a technical description of each of the SENĆOŦEN sounds with its International Phonetic Alphabet representation. Appendix B provides a summary list of the subject, object, and focus pronouns in SENĆOŦEN. Appendix C provides a list and breakdown of all the ways of saying ‘the,’ ‘this,’ and ‘that’ in the language. A list of terms for family members sorted by older, current, and younger generations is in Appendix D. An index to technical linguistic terms in Appendix E, that are not necessarily used in the text, but will be useful to a linguist interested in the features of SENĆOŦEN grammar.
The Bibliography at the end is in two sections. The first section is a list of works specifically on the grammar of Northern Straits dialects. The second section is a list of works on other nearby Salishan languages.