Part
A: The Simple Sentence
2. The Transitive Sentence
In
English the sentence 'he is drinking the water' contains
an object; i.e.,'water' is the object of the action of
'drinking '. Some Denes¶øiné
verbs require an object and are called transitive
verbs.
| Deneyu neø¿üh
|
'He
is looking at the man' |
| tu hedq |
He is
drinking the water |
| tßi heøtsi |
'He is
making a canoe' |
When an object
occurs it is placed ahead of the verb. If both a subject
and an object occur, the subject comes first.
| deneyu tßi
neø¿ü |
'The man is looking at the canoe' |
| tßékwi tu hedq
|
'The woman
is drinking the water' |
Transitive
verb forms with subjects 'he, she, it', such as those
listed cannot be said without their objects; i. e. , nüø¿ü
hedq, heøtsi
are meaningless to Denes¶øiné
unless a noun object is present.
In English when we wish to substitute a pronoun object
'him, her, it' for the noun object, it is a matter of
substituting words.
He is drinking the water' becomes 'He is drinking it'.
'It' substitutes for
‘the water’.
In
Denes¶øiné, this is done by
substituting a prefix in the verb for the noun in the
sentence.
| Deneyu neø¿üh
|
'He
is looking at the man' |
| Yeneø¿üh
|
'He is
looking at him' |
or |
| tu hedq |
'He is
drinking the water' |
| yedq |
'He is
drinking it' |
or |
| deneyu tßi heøtsi |
'The man
is making a canoe' |
| deneyu yeøtsi |
'The man
is making it' |
For the student
learning to speak Denes¶øiné
the most practical form to memorize is the form containing
the direct object pronoun such as yeneø¿i
, yeríttvagh, yeøtsi , yedq. The
forms that cannot be said without a noun object can then
be obtained by dropping the pronoun ye.
Yeneø¿i becomes
neø¿i
yeríttvagh becomes
díttvagh
Note that in this last example / r / becomes / d /. There
are no words in Denes¶øiné
beginning with / r /.
In two syllable words such as yeøtsi
, yedq , when ye is dropped it is replaced by a
prefix he.
yedq becomes
hedq
yeøtsi becomes
heøtsi
There is a small class of words in Denes¶øiné
called verbal nouns. One of these,betßü
, acts as a transitive verb except that it never takes
a pronoun object prefix ye
| 1. bitßü |
'He has
it' |
| 2. øuwe betsü
|
'He has
a fish' |
It
is to be noted that there is no way of distinguishing
2 and 3 except by the context. The verbs with objects
that we have studied so far have all had objects in 3rd
person singular, ye, 'him, her, it'; i.e. ,
| hayoneøten
|
'He
is teaching him' |
| yeríttvagh |
'He hears
him' |
| yeneø¿ü
|
'He is
looking at him' |
Objects
may also occur in 1st person singular by replacing, ye
with se 'me'.
| hasoneøten |
'He is teaching me' |
| seríttvagh |
'He hears
me' |
Objects
may also occur in 2nd person singular by replacing ye
with ne 'you'.
| Hanoneøten |
'He is teaching you' |
| neríttvagh |
'He hears
you' |
Objects
may occur in lst or 2nd person plural by replacing ye
with nuhe 'us/you'.
| hanuhoneøten
|
‘He
is teaching you' |
| hanohoneøten |
'He is
teaching us' |
| neríttvagh |
'He hears
you' |
| noheríttvagh |
‘He
hears us |
| neneø¿ü |
'He is
looking at you' |
| noheneø¿ü
|
‘He
is looking at us’ |
The
two meanings of nuhe 'us' and 'you' can only be determined
by context. Objects may occur in the indefinite third
person. This is formed by replacing ye with e- 'something'.
| eríttvagh
|
'He
hears something' |
| ettvél |
'He is
chopping something' |
Objects
may occur in the reflexive, indicating the action is done
to oneself. This is formed by replacing ye with ede 'self'.
| Yeneø¿ü
|
'He
is looking at it' |
| Yeneø¿ü
|
'He is
looking at himself' |
or |
| yu¿eth |
'He is
kicking it' |
| Eduþeth |
'He is
kicking himself' |
Special
Note about Stems and Classifiers
The last syllable
of a Denes¶øiné
verb is called the stem. This contains the main meaning
of the verb. Next to it there frequently appears a classifier,
1, 1, or d. All Denes¶øiné
verbs divide into four categories, depending on whether
there is a classifier 1, 1, d or no classifier at all.
| nádher |
‘He
is staying' |
No
classifier, stem dher |
| yeøtßü |
'He is
making it' |
ø
classifier, stem tsiI |
| delgai |
'It is
white' |
1 classifier,
stem gar |
| nánadher |
'He is
staying again' |
d classifier,
stem dher |
Classifier
d is frequently fused to the stem so as to make it difficult
to see it. The "effect" of the classifier d
in changing the first consonant of the stem and effecting
grammatical changes, is more easily seen than the classifier
itself. This is why the classifier d is sometimes called
"d effect''.
In the illustrations
edenel¿ü and
eduþeth, when ede is
added to a verb having classifier ø,
ø becomes 1. When ede is added to a verb
having no classifier, classifier d is added. In the above
illustration the stem ¿eth
becomes þeth.
Other rises of the classifier will be explained as they
occur.
