250 WILLIAM H. JACOBSEN, JR.
(21:1)
sleep-MOM-CAus-FiN-coME IMPV-2SG/1SG first
"come and put me to sleep first".
Apparent examples of three verbs combined in this manner tend to leave
the middle one reduced to a bare nucleus:
(15:5)
not-iNTER-2pL really die-MOM-CAus-want to
"do you not really want to kill me?".
Sometimes the verbs so combined are close to synonymous, when the
first is embodied in a suffix, as pointed out by Sapir (1924:91, η. 70):
(29:3)
so that-3 consume-FUT INT eat
"so that he might have something to eat".
It will be realized that it might be difficult to discriminate some
instances of this pattern from those of clausal cosubordination. I take the
following example to be an instance of the latter:
(27:6)
do in turn-MOM-FiN-3 spear-MOM-FiN-3 Skate-son
"Skate took his turn; he speared".
If construed as a nuclear cosubordination it would be comparable to the
example from 27:11 above, and would mean "Slate took his turn at spear
ing". Sapir (1924:82) observes that the second (absolutive) verb in this con
struction (called by him a complementary infinitive) cannot take the ending
-ok. This ending, which I label Finite (following the remark by Sapir that it
"implies that the verb form is finite"), seems to mark its predicate as head
ing a separate clause and thereby to serve a useful delimitative function.
This would partly explain the popularity of this otherwise rather meaning
less element (glossed "now, then, at the given time" by Sapir & Swadesh
1939:241).16
When the subject is other than third person, it is in general easier to
make this distinction, as the subjective pronominal prefix will not be
repeated in nuclear (or core) cosubordination. This is seen in the examples
from 21:1 and 17:5 above. Others are the following, also from direct
quotes: