BOAS] HANDBOOK OF INDIAN LANGUAGES SIUSLAWAN 541 



there exists a great number of nominalizing suffixes indicating nom- 

 inal ideas of an absolutive (nominative) form; so that the Siuslaw noun 

 may be said to show four possible cases, — the nominative or absolutive 

 case, the discriminative, the genitive or relative case, and the locative, 

 which has an extended meaning. In discussing these case-endings it 

 will be found preferable to begin with the locative case, because of 

 the important position it occupies in the language. 

 § 86. The Locative Case -a, -us 



These two suffixes indicated originally local ideas of rest, and, as 

 such, are best rendered by our local adverbs on, in, at, to, etc. It 

 would seem, however, that this primary function was extended so 

 that these suffixes may also mark the noun as the object of an action, 

 thereby exercising the function of an accusative case-ending. The 

 use of these suffixes for the purpose of expressing objects of action 

 and the adverbial idea of rest may be explained by the intimate psy- 

 chological connection that exists between these two apparently dis- 

 tinct concepts. The following example will serve to illustrate this 

 connection. The sentence I cut salmon may, and as a matter of fact 

 does, denote the idea I cut on the salmon. 



The correctness of this interpretation is furthermore brought out 

 by the fact that the verb, upon which these suffixes are dependent, 

 can under no circumstance appear in transitive form. Should, how- 

 ever, such a verb appear with a transitive suffix, the noun will then 

 occur in the absolutive form; and, since confusion might arise as to 

 the identity of the subject and object of the action, the subject of the 

 action is always discriminated (see §§ 21, 111). 



The importance of these two suffixes as formative elements may be 

 deduced from the fact that they enter into the formation of the forms 

 expressing our periphrastic conjugation to have, to be with (see 

 § 76) and that the adverbial suffixes (see §§ 90, 91, 93) can be added only 

 to nouns that occur with these locative endings. 



-a expresses, besides the nominal object of an action, also the local 

 idea of rest. There is a tendency to have the accent fall upon this suffix. 



It'l'a^ fish 56.1 ml'TcHuxts Iflaya' you two shall 



cut salmon 90.5 

 Llya'aP- fire 25.5 ha^'qmas Llya'wa near the fire 26.1 



tslaln pitch 26.6 yuwa'ya^xiXn ya°-'xa^ tsUlna' we 



two (will) get much pitch 

 9'4.17, 18 



§ 86 



