Extraction or Focus

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>

Example (1) is an instance of subject focus. The verb takes the suffix -u and has no subject marking. Example (2) shows object marking, where the object Yande has been fronted and the -u again occurs. Finally, we see an object wh-question, and the suffix -u again surfaces. This page is dedicated to describing the syntactic patterns and permissible structures that involve this construction.

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.