Difference between revisions of "Extraction or Focus"
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| + | Sereer employs special morphology on the verb when a constituent has been fronted for focus or wh-marking. This morphology generally involves the vowel '''u''', and therefore is sometimes referred to as '''u'''-morphology here. Examples are below: |
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| + | <gl fontsize=11> |
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| + | Yande nafu Jegan |
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| + | \gll Yande naf-u Jegan |
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| + | Yande hit-foc Jegan |
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| + | \trans It's Yande who hit Jegan. (165) |
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| + | </gl> |
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| + | <gl fontsize=11> |
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| + | Yande anafu. |
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| + | \gll Yande a= naf-u |
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| + | Yande 3sg.sbj hit-foc |
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| + | \trans It's Yande he hit. (165) |
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| + | </gl> |
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| + | <gl fontsize=11> |
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| + | xar ajawu. |
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| + | \gll xar a= jaw-u |
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| + | what 3sg.sbj cook-foc |
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| + | \trans What did he cook?. |
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| + | </gl> |
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| + | |||
Sereer frequently extracts or fronts nominal arguments and marks the verb of the affected clause with a suffix '''-u'''. This page is dedicated to describing the syntactic patterns and permissible structures that of a constituent that signals focus on the fronted constituent. Examples are below, and will be elaborated upon eventually. Note that a suffix '''-u''' co-occurs with this fronting in nearly all cases; this could be analyzed as an extraction marker. (Exponence of non-past tense in the second example is not clear.) |
Sereer frequently extracts or fronts nominal arguments and marks the verb of the affected clause with a suffix '''-u'''. This page is dedicated to describing the syntactic patterns and permissible structures that of a constituent that signals focus on the fronted constituent. Examples are below, and will be elaborated upon eventually. Note that a suffix '''-u''' co-occurs with this fronting in nearly all cases; this could be analyzed as an extraction marker. (Exponence of non-past tense in the second example is not clear.) |
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Revision as of 00:28, 15 December 2012
Sereer employs special morphology on the verb when a constituent has been fronted for focus or wh-marking. This morphology generally involves the vowel u, and therefore is sometimes referred to as u-morphology here. Examples are below:
<gl fontsize=11>
Yande nafu Jegan
\gll Yande naf-u Jegan
Yande hit-foc Jegan
\trans It's Yande who hit Jegan. (165)
</gl>
<gl fontsize=11> Yande anafu. \gll Yande a= naf-u Yande 3sg.sbj hit-foc \trans It's Yande he hit. (165) </gl>
<gl fontsize=11> xar ajawu. \gll xar a= jaw-u what 3sg.sbj cook-foc \trans What did he cook?. </gl>
Sereer frequently extracts or fronts nominal arguments and marks the verb of the affected clause with a suffix -u. This page is dedicated to describing the syntactic patterns and permissible structures that of a constituent that signals focus on the fronted constituent. Examples are below, and will be elaborated upon eventually. Note that a suffix -u co-occurs with this fronting in nearly all cases; this could be analyzed as an extraction marker. (Exponence of non-past tense in the second example is not clear.)
U-Extraction in Wh-questions
See also the page on Questions.
More coming Faytak 00:29, 15 December 2012 (UTC)
Reduplication of predicates cannot occur when wh-extraction of the subject is marked: qaarit ke a laaɓiira (laaɓiir) 'the friends are generous' but qaarit qum laaɓiiru (*laaɓiir)?, 'which friends are generous?' (115)
U-Focus
Extraction and fronting of an argument with verbal -u marking can also be used to signal focus on the fronted argument.
| a buga [o gar]. |
| a= | bug | -a | o= | gar |
| 3SG | want | NPT | 2SG | come |
He wants you to come. (151)
| [o gar] a bugu. |
| o= | gar | a= | bug | -u |
| 2SG | come | 3SG | want | EXTR.ARG |
He wants you to come. (151)
More to come shortlyFaytak 00:29, 15 December 2012 (UTC)
kaa
The "preverb" kaa may mark verbal focus on the verb immediately following. More research is needed on this point.
