Snat Sajem Tan/Word Order and the Perfective and Continuous Aspects

We are now at a stage whereat we can begin to form sentences. You have seen some sentences already in lesson 1. In order to form sentences, you need to know about Sajem Tan word order and how verbs work. In this lesson, you will learn more about both.

Word order
Sentences in Sajem Tan are typically OVS—in other words, object-verb-subject. Let's look at some examples.


 * Tan||kygykšo||dê.
 * honey||eating||I
 * colspan=3|"I am eating honey."
 * }
 * colspan=3|"I am eating honey."
 * }

As you learned in lesson 3, adverbs go right before the verb.
 * Vazöt||zanum||du.
 * cat||is||it
 * colspan=3|"It is a cat."
 * }
 * colspan=3|"It is a cat."
 * }

Some verbs are intransitive, meaning they have no object. In these cases, sentences are VS (verb-subject).
 * Našët||vyn||kexekêt||dê.
 * love||still||feel||I
 * colspan=4|"I'm still in love." (literally: "I still feel love.")
 * }
 * colspan=4|"I'm still in love." (literally: "I still feel love.")
 * }

In later lessons, you will learn about experiencer verbs and the passive voice and how they alter sentence structure, but this is not that lesson.
 * Vinfê||dê.
 * leave||I
 * "I am leaving."
 * }
 * "I am leaving."
 * }

Perfective aspect
In some languages you may have studied, verbs conjugate (that is, their forms change slightly) to indicate who is performing the action (known as person, such as first, second, or third person), when the action was or will be performed (known as tense, such as past or future), how the speaker feels about the action (known as mood, such as subjunctive or imperative), etc. In Sajem Tan, verbs are marked for aspect. Aspect refers to how an action extends over time. (This is different from tense, because tense expresses where in time an action occurred.)

In this lesson, you will learn about the perfective aspect, which, incidentally, has made a sneaky appearance in Lesson 1.

The suffix -fê is used in Sajem Tan to mark the perfective aspect. It is used to denote the action as a complete whole, an event rather than an ongoing process. The internal structure of the event, if it exists at all, is irrelevant to what is being said. This is one reason why it is preferred by many in the tribe for states of being, though this is an incorrect usage and the gnomic aspect should be preferred. However, don't fret about using perfective correctly: nobody in the tribe has any idea what it means anyway or whose decision it was to have it in the language in the first place.

Returning to the example sentences from Lesson 1 wherein you've seen the perfective aspect already, let's take a look at some of them:




 * Ţu||dûdenfê||du.
 * me-FLORAL||distract-PERF||it-NEUTRAL
 * colspan=3|"That distracts me."
 * }
 * colspan=3|"That distracts me."
 * }




 * Sê||gajinfê||vu.
 * me-FAUNAL||salute-PERF||you-LITHIC
 * colspan=3|"You salute me."
 * }
 * colspan=3|"You salute me."
 * }




 * Do||xanönfê||dê.
 * you-NEUTRAL||greet-PERF||I-NEUTRAL
 * colspan=3|"I greet you."
 * }
 * colspan=3|"I greet you."
 * }