Extraction or Focus

Sereer has grammaticalized focus marking. This page is dedicated to explaining these patterns.

Introduction

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.

U-Extraction in Wh-questions

See the page on Questions. When a licensed argument---either licensed by the verb itself or by an applicative suffix---is fronted to form a WH-question, the suffixal marker of extraction -u is added to the verb. This suffix is visible if the relevant clause's verb is not marked for ongoing action, in which case the -u suffix seems to be deleted by the -a 'PROG' suffix.

Reduplication of predicates cannot occur when question-related 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)

Syntax

Focus marking and wh-question formation both involve fronting of the constituent in focus or in question. Other arguments stay in the same position. These constructions should probably be analyzed as involving only a single clause. Evidence for this comes from resumption. When a pause is inserted between Yande and the verb in (2), the verb must take the object suffix -(i)n:

<gl fontsize=11> Yande, anafun. \gll Yande a= naf-u-n Yande, 3sg.sbj hit-foc \trans Yande, it's him who he hit. (165) </gl>

I (Nico) take this to indicate that Yande above is clause external and coreferenced with the pronominal suffix on the verb. This contrasts to example (2) in the introduction, where Yande seemingly occupies the same position but there is no resumption.

Verum focus with kaa=

The "particle" kaa may mark verum focus on the clause in which it appears. Verum focus is the focus of the positive truth value of a clause. In the examples below, (5) shows a non-verum-focused sentence, and (6) shows an identical sentence with verum focus.

<gl fontsize=11> injawa maalo. \gll in= jaw –a maalo 2PL= cook -PROX rice \trans ‘We cook rice.’ (217) </gl>

<gl fontsize=11> kaa injaw maalo. \gll kaa= in= jaw maalo VFM= 1PL= cook rice \trans ‘We (do) cook rice.’ (217) </gl>

kaa cannot co-occur with negation, as seen in (7). This is because it only focuses positive truth-value.

<gl fontsize=11>

• kaa te ʄufee

\gll kaa= te= ʄuf -ee VFM= 3SG= run -NEG \trans Intended: ‘He doesn’t run/ isn’t running.’ (258) </gl>

kaa can also be used in question formation, as in (8). Presumably, it questions formed with kaa presuppose a truth value for the sentence, but it is not clear at this time whether that truth value is affirmative or negative (compare to English isn't or doesn't in polar questions).

<gl fontsize=11> kaa gef’u aplat? \gll kaa= gef -' -u aplat VFM= break -PST -FV plate \trans ‘Did you break a plate?’ (282) </gl>