Imperatives and Procedurals

(Positive) Imperatives

Imperatives for singular listeners are formed with a suffix -i and (if the focus of the command is plural) a plural marker -o':

V stem + -i (+ -o')

e.g. inoox-i genoox "stand up!" (079).

The plural imperative appears to surface with a suffix -yo', e.g. jaw-yo'! "cook (pl)!" (103). I analyze this here as a combination of the imperative morpheme -i and the plural marker -yo' seen elsewhere on verbs.

Moods formed on the "Procedural" base

Procedural mood

A mood that I dub the "procedural" is used when observing action and/or describing it to a listener, frequently with the sense of instructing the listener. The closest English equivalents are:

• Giving directions (i.e. "First, (you) go down Telegraph, then (you) make a right...")
• Narrating a third party's actions or describing them as a model for the listener's behavior (i.e. "First, she goes down telegraph, and then she makes a right...(as you will)")
• "Imperatives" in instructions on packaged goods (i.e. "Lather, rinse, repeat")

All of these are also common uses of this mood in Sereer according to our consultant.

The procedural is formed with unique subject marking. Note that inflection is reduced, such that there is no overt tense marking, and the "default vowel" -a does not appear.

Procedural mood subject inflection

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
1SG	m(in)=	1PL	i=[mut]
2SG	o=	2PL	nu=[mut]
3SG	te=	3PL	de=[mut]

Note that the 1SG form is especially complicated in its realization, having at least three variants: the fullest segmentally (also the rarest in our data) is min=; the most common variant is in=; and another fairly common variant is m=. Some exceptional phonological behavior is seen in these variants: the variants ending in n display a complete lack of nasal assimilation to the final consonant, counter to observed tendencies elsewhere in the language. This is likely due to the fact that if assimilation occurred, it being immediately before the stem-initial consonant, the impression would be of a plural stem: in other words, in=gar [ingar] '1SG come.PROC' is pronounced distinctly from i=ngar [iŋgar] '1PL come.PROC'. Additionally, the proclitic m= is realized as a very unusual syllabic bilabial nasal [m̩], i.e. m gar [m̩gar] '1SG come.PROC'.

Prohibitive mood

A negative imperative (prohibitive?) is formed as follows:

bar + procedural base

e.g. bar o ret! "don't go (sg)!", bar nu ndet! "don't go (pl)!" (103). This can be contracted to ba + V stem on occasion, e.g. ba ret! "don't go (sg)!", ba ndet! "don't go (pl)!" (103). bar can perhaps be analyzed as a free prohibitive morpheme; it is not clear if it can be used on its own as an utterance as can hortative aca (see below).

Hortative mood

Hortatives, at least for 1PL subjects, are expressed by way of the following:

(aca) + procedural base

e.g. (aca) i ndet! "let's go!" (103). aca could perhaps be analyzed as a free-standing hortative particle, but it can also be used on its own as an utterance meaning roughly "let's!", or with the imperative or prohibitive moods to add urgency to the request.

Inflectional Paradigms

Inflectional endings for 2S and 2P performing actions on various objects, e.g. jaw-anam 'cook for me (sg)!'. These and other inflectional endings have yet to be completely investigated for the imperative, the prohibitive, or the hortatives.

For a fuller list of attested inflectional combinations, see ...