Derivational Verbal Morphology

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Overview

There are several sub-categories of derivational affixes in Sereer:

Takes verb, makes verb ("extensions"):

  • -noor: causative. Adds an causative object. (lay "talk" --> laynoor "make someone talk")
  • -(i)n: causative. Adds a causative object (mud "sink (intr.)" --> mudin "submerge")
  • -and: causative. Affixed only to intransitive verbs (weer "be dry" --> weerand "make dry")
  • -oox: stative/reflexive. Valence decreasing; eliminates the direct object (bog "wash something" --> bogoox "be washed / wash oneself")
  • -an: benefactive applicative. Licenses an additional argument, a beneficiary (ʄeew "draw water" --> ʄeewan "draw water for someone")
  • -(i)t: instrumental applicative. Licenses an additional argument, an instrument (waq "dig" --> waqit "dig with something")
  • -(i)t: locative applicative. Licenses an additional argument, a location (ñaam "eat" --> ñaamit "eat somewhere")
  • -(i)r: reciprocal (xum "tie" --> xumir "tie each other")
  • -(i)k: ablative. Indicates directed motion away from the starting point ("to go do X") (naf "hit" --> nafik "go hit")
  • -iid: allative. Indicates motion towards ("to come to X") (ɗaan "sleep" --> ɗaaniid "come to sleep")
  • -andoor: simulfactive. Indicates that the action is done all at once (weg "close" --> wegandoor "close all at once")
  • -(i)t: reversive ('up "bury" --> 'upit "unbury")
  • -aƭ: indicates that an action is done carefully or slowly (moof "sit" --> moofaƭ "sit carefully/slowly")
  • -aƭar: indicates that an action is done poorly or not at all (ʄuf "run" ʄufaƭar "not run / run poorly")
  • -at: indicates that an action is performed repeatedly, or not any more. Used only for unrealized actions.
  • -loox/-noox: unclear/inconsistent meaning. Unproductive.

Takes verb, makes adjective:

  • -u , a suffix that takes a verb and turns it into an adjective (e.g. saɗik "to be strong, tough" -> saɗku "strong, tough"; may "to be many" -> mayu "many")

Takes verb, makes noun:

  • -ir, a suffix that makes instrument-type nouns from verb stems (e.g. βɛʄ "to swim" --> bɛʄir "thing used to swim")
  • RED-, prefixing partial reduplication: makes a noun from a verb "X" meaning "one who (habitually) X"
  • NC- + mutation(s), forms a deverbal noun.

Valence-Changing Extensions

Causative

There are at least three causative extensions, -in/-n, -noor, and -and. These extensions increase the valence of a verb, adding a causative object, which is caused to perform the action of the verb by the subject of the causative verb.

-noor

-Noor seems to be most productive, and can be affixed to most (if not all?) verbs.

Unextended verb:

Miñaan a-fal-a naak le
‘M. kicks the cow’

Causative verb:

Miñaan a-fal-noor-a (a)Yande naak le
‘M. makes Y. kick the cow’

The causative object (when not pronominalized) always appears directly after the verb.

Miñaan a-fal-noor-a naak le (a)Yande
‘M. makes the cow kick Y.’
‘*M. makes Y. kick the cow’

-in/-n

The extension -in/-n functions in the same way, but its distribution is lexically conditioned.

Unextended verb:

pis ne a ʄuf-a
'the horse runs'

Causative verb:

ʄuf-n-aa-m pis ne
'I make the horse run'

-and

The extension -and can be applied to some (or all?) verbs roots that are basically (that is, in their unextended form) stative.

Unextended verb:

xuƥ-aa-m
‘I am wet’

Causative verb:

a-teƥ a xuƥ-and-ax-a-m
‘The rain wets me / causes me to be wet’

Stative

The stative extension -oox decreases the valence of a transitive verb. The state of the single remaining argument (the subject) is described by the verb. This single argument is not treated semantically as a patient, as there is no implication of agentivity.

Unextended verb: subject = 'I', object = 'window'

weg-aa-m o-falanter o-le
'I close the window'

Stative verb: subject = 'window'

o-falanter o-le a-weg-oox-a
'The window is closed'

The extension -oox can also be used with intransitive verbs... (to be filled in later)

Benefactive Applicative

The benefactive applicative extension -an increases the valence of the verb, adding an object which functions semantically as the beneficiary.

Unextended verb:

Jegan a-fal-a naak le
‘Jegan kicks the cow’

Benefactive verb:

Jegan a-fal-an-a naak le a-doktoor fe
OR
Jegan a-fal-an-a a-doktoor fe naak le
‘Jegan kicks the cow for the doctor’

Instrumental Applicative

The instrumental applicative extension -it/-t increases the valence of the verb, adding an object that functions semantically as the instrument. Without the instrumental applicative, instruments are obligatorily marked with fo 'with'; this can be omitted if the instrumental applicative is affixed to the verb, but is sometimes still used in conjunction with the applicative.

Unextended verb:

waq-aa-m a-semb a-le (f-a-pel al-e)
‘I dig the hole’ (with a shovel)

Instrumental verb:

waq-t-aa-m a-semb a-le (f-)a-pel a-le
OR
waq-t-aa-m (f-)a-pel a-le a-semb a-le
‘I dig the hole with the shovel’

Locative

The locative extension -it/-t licenses a location argument. This location is expressed as a PP headed by the locative no rather than as an object of the verb; thus, perhaps, this extension is not truly valence-changing.

Unextended verb:

ñaam-aa-m
'I eat'

Locative verb:

n-o-restoran fe ñaam-t-aa-m
'I eat in/at the restaurant'

Reciprocal

-ir/-r

Passive

The passive marker -e' eliminates the object of a transitive verb, with the subject being acted on by the verb. Unlike with the stative extension, there is an implication of agentivity, though we have not yet seen if it is possible to express the agent in a passive clause. This suffix appears to not truly be an extension, as it is takes the place of person-marking morphology, rather than simply being affixed to the verb root (further investigation needed).

naf-e'
'You are hit'
naf-'-e'
'You were hit'

Other Extensions

Ablative

The ablative extension -ik/-k indicates motion away from the speaker.

Unextended verb:

mexe weg-aa ofalanter ole
‘I’m closing the window’

Itive verb:

mexe weg-k-aa ofalanter ole
‘I’m going (motion) to close the window’

It can also express future actions.

This appears to be the only extension that can consistently occur in multiple positions, and can even appear multiple times in a single verb, with no apparent change in meaning. All three of these sentences have the same meaning, and are equally natural:

fool-noor-k-aa-n-um
'I make him go and jump'
OR
'I go make him jump'
fool-ik-noor-aa-n-um
fool-ik-noor-k-aa-n-um

Simulfactive

The extension -andoor indicates that the action of a verb is done all at once.

Unextended verb:

a-weg-a xa-palanter a-xe
‘He closes the windows’

Simulfactive verb:

a-weg-andoor-a xa-palanter a-xe
‘He closes the windows all at once’

Reversive

The reversive extension -it/-t indicates that the action of the verb is undone.

Unextended verb:

mexe liw-a
‘I’m tangling’

Reversive verb:

mexe liw-t-a
‘I’m untangling’

This extension is unpredictably fossilized in certain verbs, e.g. wet- ‘open’ vs. weg- ‘close.’

Co-occurrence of Extensions

Homophonous extensions can occur adjacently to one another with very little restriction, other than general phonotactics. In the example below, affix order is actually unclear, as the reversive and instrumental applicative could be in the order listed or reversed.

a uuptita apel ale.
a uup -t -it -a a- pel ale
3SG bury REV? INST.APP? 3SG NC shovel DET.NC

S/he unburies with a shovel. (092)

Valence-changing suffixes (like -noor below) seem to occur closer to the verb stem than others (like -k below), which appear to occur inside of inflectional morphology without exception.

wegaanum.
weg -aan -um
close 3SG.OBJ 1SG

I close it. (091)

wegnoorkaanum.
weg -noor -k -aan -um
close CAUS ITV 3SG.OBJ 1SG

I make him go to jail. (lit. make him go to close up) (091)

Multiple marking

Stuff on multiple -ik, -it here: -oox as the approximate site within the verbal morphology complex for the copy to go
Crucially, these both license extra (typically postverbal) arguments. It is probable that these could be thought of as "resumptive" in a sense - they occur again in closer proximity to the licensed argument.

Verb pairs demonstrating V to V derivation

Suffix involved Unsuffixed Gloss Suffixed Gloss Session notes
-oox jik to buy jikoox to sell JM_046
-loox ɗeet to see ɗeetloox to notice JM_048
-oox doxoñ to spit doxoñoox to spit repeatedly JM_048
-oox teer to land a boat, arrive teerooχ to await a guest JM_048
-ir xas to scold, berate xasir to argue MF_029
-in waʄ to boil (intr.) waʄin to boil (trans.) MF_045
-in mud to sink mudin to make sink, to throw/put into water MF_047
-oox mud to sink mudoox to swim down on purpose MF_047 translation imprecise, seeking clarification
-oox xooʄ to dip, dunk xooʄoox to dip, dunk into MF_047 translation imprecise; seeking clarification
-oox saang to roll (trans.) saangoox to roll (intr.) ED-058
-ir maaf to fell, knock down maafir to wrestle NB-057
-noor weg to close wegnoor to make s.o. close s.t. MF_091 may be analyzable as weg-in-(C)oor
-ik weg to close wegik to go close MF_091
-it uup to bury uupit to dig up (un-bury) JM_092
-it liw to tangle (trans) liwit to untangle (trans) MF_047
-it waq to dig waqit to dig with JM_092 e.g. a shovel
-an fal to kick falan to kick for JM_092 e.g. for someone else