Reduplication

Stative Verbs

One common reduplication pattern in Sereer (to be fitted in wherever the writer would like) is the reduplication of an inflected stative verb stripped of its affixal inflectional morphology (and often exhibiting different allomorphs of its derivational morphology due to the different segmental context). Semantic distinctions between this and the use of an unreduplicated stative verb are not clear.

nqoox ne a ɓalga ɓalig. 'The bull is black.' (Note: ɓal-g-a ɓal-ig, *ɓal-ig-a ɓal-ig) (115)

qaarit ke a laaɓiira laaɓiir. 'The friends are generous.' (115)

Note that although the reduplicated verb has no inflectional morphology in the form of suffixes, it still bears a plural consonant mutation if the first verb has one.

ambeel ale a xooɗa xooɗ. 'The lake is deep.' (115)

peel ke a nqooɗa nqooɗ. 'The lakes are deep.' (Note: *nqooɗa xooɗ) (115)

This reduplication pattern cannot occur when subject extraction is marked on the verb with the suffix -u: qaarit ke a laaɓiira (laaɓiir) 'the friends are generous' but qaarit qum laaɓiiru (*laaɓiir)?, 'which friends are generous?' (115)

Prepositions

Certain prepositions can be reduplicated to indicate increased intensity, similar to the use of "very" in English. Mono-syllabic prepositions are reduplicated in their entirety, with addition of an "e" between the two copies. Multi-syllabic prepositions are repeated in their entirety without any elements between the two copies, as shown below. Many prepositions cannot be reduplicated; it appears that those that are reduplicable are frozen forms, and that the process is not productive. Examples of the prepositions that can be reduplicated are given in <glr id="pam.redup"/>-<glr id="tok.redup"/>

<gl id="pam.redup" fontsize=12> pam e pam \gll pam e pam near RED near \trans really close. (143) </gl>

<gl id="kam.redup" fontsize=12> kam e kam \gll kam e kam inside RED inside \trans at the very inside. (143) </gl>

<gl id="tok.redup" fontsize=12> tok e tok \gll tok e tok on RED on \trans on the very top. (143) </gl>

Verbal prepositions can also be repulicated, most often when they are marked with the de-verbal adjectivizer -u, as shown in <glr id="near.redup"/> and <glr id="far.redup"/>. Not that the latter example is based on the verb goƭ 'be far away'.

<gl id="near.redup" fontsize=12> donen matu matu \gll don -en mat -u mat -u put -2sg be.close -DV.ADJ be.close -DV.ADJ \trans Put it right here. (143) </gl>

<gl id="far.redup" fontsize=12> koƭu koƭu \gll koƭ -u koƭ -u be.far -DV.ADJ be.far -DV.ADJ \trans Far far away. (143) </gl>