Extraction or Focus

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.

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.