The verb činiti se “seem” can also be used in subjectless sentences. The person to whom something seems a certain way is expressed in the dative. But one should avoid literal English translations of the form it seems to me ... . This is because although the grammar of the subject-less sentence suggests the more impersonal usage of an English sentence beginning with it, these BCS sentences actually convey a much greater real-world involvement of the human being in question in the particular state or situation. Thus, BCS sentences beginning with čini mi se... are more correctly rendered in English by I think ... . Similar generalizations usually apply in the case of other subjectless sentences where humans are referred to in the dative case.
činiti se Čìni mi se da je sad sve u redu. I think everything’s O.K. now.
Čìni mu se da ništa nè zna. He thinks he doesn’t know anything.
– Čìni mi se da nešto čujem. “I think I hear something.”
– I meni se tàko čìni. “I think so too.”
74 Se -verbs, continued
A number of verbs and verbal expressions include se as a component part. One type is ex-emplified by verbs in group 1 below: these are verbs that do not exist at all without se. Another is exemplified by group 2 below: these are verbs that do exist in one meaning without se, but in a completely different meaning with se. It is often the case that these types of se-verbs are used only in subjectless sentences. As the meanings of these verbs are quite clear from the definitions, specific examples of usage are not given.
For most verbal pairs, however, one can perceive a basic meaning that joins the two verbs (the one with se and the one without it), and can make basic generalizations about the way in which se will affect the meaning. It is frequently the case that addition of se can make an active verb passive or a transitive verb intransitive (review [38]). This affects a great many verbs; only two examples are listed in group 3, but examples of usage are given for each. But it is the group 4 verbs that are especially interesting here. Each of the two pairs listed in group 4 below shares a basic meaning, and in each case one could say that the addition of se makes a transitive verb in-transitive or an active verb passive. At the same time, each individual verb has enough of a self-contained meaning to stand separately. Dictionaries vacillate about the status of such se-verbs:
some list them separately and some under the “main” verb. The notation “passive?” next to the examples below exemplifies this vacillation. For more on se-verbs, see [82, 87, 98].
with se without se
Group 1 dešàvati se happen ––
svìđati se be pleasing to ––
sàstojati se [iz] be composed [of] ––
bòjati se be afraid of ––
Group 2 čini se it seems činiti make
radi se [o] it’s a matter [of] ràditi do, work snalàziti se manage, find one’s way snalàziti befall Group 3 slušati se be taken [of a class] slušati take [a class]
jesti se be eaten jesti eat
Group 4 nàlaziti se be located nàlaziti find
zvati se [giving one’s name] zvati call
Group 3
active Сваки сту̀дент слуша чѐтири Every student takes four classes.
прѐдмета.
passive Прѐдмети се слушају чѐтири You take classes for four years.
године. [ = Classes are taken for four years.]
active Морам да једем месо редовно. I have to eat meat regularly.
passive О̀на каже да се месо мора She says one must eat meat.
јести. [ = She says that meat must be eaten.]
А ја кажем да се месо нѐ мора But I say one need not eat meat.
јести. [ = But I say that meat need not be eaten.]
Group 4
active Мајка сваки дан зове сина. Mother calls [her] son every day.
passive ? О̀на се зове Берѝслава. Her name is Berislava.
[ that is: “She is called Berislava.”]
active Сваки пут га тешко на̀лазимо. We always have a hard time finding it.
passive ? Где се то на̀лази? Where is it?
[that is: “Where can it be found?”]
S,B moram da jedem / C,B moram jesti; S,B redovno / C redovito; C,B da se meso mora jesti / S,B da meso mora da se jede; E gde / J gdje
75 Nouns with plural form but singular meaning: vrata and kola
A few nouns which refer to singular objects occur only with plural form. Because the nouns in question end in -a, the natural tendency is to think of them as feminine singular. But they are
NEUTER PLURAL! Thus, the nominative, accusative, and genitive forms all end in -a. Adjectives and verbs agreeing with these nouns must also be in the appropriate plural forms. Students must take special care to remember that for these nouns the plural form has singular meaning.
The most important of these nouns is vrata “door”. The noun kola “car” also falls into this class. Although most Croats now use the singular noun auto in the latter meaning, the word kola is still fairly frequently encountered in Bosnian and Serbian. But as the noun vrata is the only way to express the very common concept door, care must be taken to remember its correct forms.
The case forms of these two nouns are given below, together with adjectives to emphasize the fact that the endings on these nouns are plural. Long-form adjectives are given in all cases (in-cluding nominative), since they are the ones most frequently used with these nouns. For the DLIpl. endings, see [86], and for the usage of the instrumental case illustrated below, see [81a].
Nom-Acc velika vràta nova kola
Gen velikih vràta novih kola
Dat-Loc-Instr velikim vràtima novim kolima
big door new car
Examples of usage: vrata “door”
Nom. Ne mògu ùći. Vràta su zàtvorena. I can’t get in. The door is shut.
Acc. Ko može otvòriti òva vràta? Who can open this door?
Gen. Òna je tamo, pored cr̀venih vràta. She’s over there, by the red door.
Loc. Neko je na vràtima. Someone’s at the door.
Examples of usage: kola “car”
Nom. – Mòja su kola zelèna. A tvòja? “My car is green. What [color] is yours?”
Acc. – Ìmam nova kola. Crvèna su. “I have a new car. It’s red.
Gen. Tamo su, ispred tvòjih kola. It’s over there, in front of your car.”
Instr. Òbično tamo idemo kolima. We usually go there by car.
C,B ne mogu ući / S,B ne mogu da uđem; S,B ko / C tko; C,B može otvoriti / S,B može da otvori; S,B neko / C netko
76 Word order: object pronouns and the XYZ model
The model summarizing the placement of clitics within slot Y of the XYZ model was pre-sented in [64], and is repeated here:
X Y-1 Y-2 Y-3 Y-4 Y-5 Y-6 Z
li be (aux) dat acc-gen se je
Dative clitics (review [66e]) must go in sub-slot Y-3. They occur in a number of different types of sentences. Sentences (1-6) below illustrate the required word order for sentences contain-ing two clitic object pronouns (one direct and one indirect): slots Y-3 and Y-4 must be filled. Each of these sentences happens to concern the giving of a single object to a person, and specifies fur-ther that the noun referring to the object is of masculine gender and the recipient is a male. But this is just for illustration. The point is that any time two objects occur in a sentence, whatever the person, number or gender, they must occur in this order.
Sentences (7-12) illustrate the required word order for sentences with a se-verb which re-quires a dative object (such as sviđati se; review [73d]). Because sub-slot Y-5 is devoted to se
sub-slot Y-3. These sentences can also be phrased with a full form dative object (as in example 8), in which case only sub-slot Y-5 is filled. Sentences (13-19) illustrate the required word order for sentences concerning states which affect human beings (review [73g]. All such sentences are sub-jectless, requiring the 3sg. form of biti. This means that sub-slot Y-6 is always filled with the 3sg.
clitic je, whether the sentence is in the present tense (as in examples 13-15) or in the past tense (as in examples 16-19). If the person affected is expressed by a short form clitic, it must come in sub-slot Y-3. The word order of other types of sentences in the past tense is discussed in [111].
All the above sentences can also be expressed as questions, which means that the question parti-cle li comes into play; it is always in sub-slot Y-1 (see examples 3-4, 9-10, and 19).
In order to keep the focus on the facts of clitic ordering, each of the example sentences has been kept very short. But no matter the length of the sentence, the same rules apply. The first element of the sentence or clause fills slot X, the clitics all come in slot Y, each in its appropriate position in relation to the other clitics, and any remaining portion of the sentence or clause comes in slot Z. Internalizing this structure is a very important step towards attaining fluency in BCS.
X Y Z
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 Dajem mu ga. I’m giving it to him.
2 Ja mu ga dajem. [same]
3 Da li mu ga daješ? Are you giving it to him?
4 Daješ li mu ga? [same]
5 Ja mu ga nè dajem. I’m not giving it to him.
6 Nè dajem mu ga. [same]
7 Nè sviđa mi se. I don’t like [her].
8 Meni se nè sviđa. [same]
9 Òna mi se nè sviđa. I don’t like her.
10 Da li ti se sviđa? Do you like [her]?
11 Sviđa li ti se [òna]? [same]
12 Òna mi se sviđa. I like her.
13 Žao mi je. I’m sorry.
14 Meni je žao. [same]
15 Da li ti je hlàdno? Are you cold?
16 Žao mi je bìlo. I was sorry.
17 Meni je bìlo žao [same]
18 Bìlo mi je žao. [same]
19 Da li ti je bilo hlàdno? Were you cold?
CHAPTER 7
77 Present tense, continued
Although most verbs of the e-conjugation have infinitives ending in -ati or -iti, there are some whose infinitives end in -eti. Most of these have ekavian and ijekavian forms of the infini-tive (and sometimes of the present tense as well).