Imperatives and Procedurals

(Positive) Imperatives

Imperatives for singular listeners are formed with a suffix -i and (if the focus of the command is plural) a plural marker -o':

V stem + -i (+ -o')

e.g. inoox-i genoox "stand up!" (079).

The plural imperative appears to surface with a suffix -yo', e.g. jaw-yo'! "cook (pl)!" (103). I analyze this here as a combination of the imperative morpheme -i and the plural marker -yo' seen elsewhere on verbs.

Moods formed on the "Procedural" base

Procedural mood

A mood that I dub the "procedural" is used when observing action and/or describing it to a listener, frequently with the sense of instructing the listener. The closest English equivalents are:

• Giving directions (i.e. "First, (you) go down Telegraph, then (you) make a right...")
• Narrating a third party's actions or describing them as a model for the listener's behavior (i.e. "First, she goes down telegraph, and then she makes a right...(as you will)")
• "Imperatives" in instructions on packaged goods (i.e. "Lather, rinse, repeat")

All of these are also common uses of this mood in Sereer according to our consultant.

The procedural is formed with unique subject marking. Note that inflection is reduced, such that there is no overt tense marking, and the "default vowel" -a does not appear.

Procedural mood subject inflection

Gloss	Sereer	Gloss	Sereer
1SG	m(in)=	1PL	i=[mut]
2SG	o=	2PL	nu=[mut]
3SG	te=	3PL	de=[mut]

Note that the 1SG form is especially complicated in its realization, having at least three variants: the fullest segmentally (also the rarest in our data) is min=; the most common variant is in=; and another fairly common variant is m=. Some exceptional phonological behavior is seen in these variants: the variants ending in n display a complete lack of nasal assimilation to the final consonant, counter to observed tendencies elsewhere in the language. This is likely due to the fact that if assimilation occurred, it being immediately before the stem-initial consonant, the impression would be of a plural stem: in other words, in=gar [ingar] '1SG come.PROC' is pronounced distinctly from i=ngar [iŋgar] '1PL come.PROC'. Additionally, the proclitic m= is realized as a very unusual syllabic bilabial nasal [m̩], i.e. m gar [m̩gar] '1SG come.PROC'.

Hortative "mood"

The "hortative mood" is a semantically appropriate term---this sort of utterance is an exhortation to a group that includes the speaker to do a particular action---but constructionally, the hortative can in fact be expressed by the procedural base with no other particles. Use of a particle that could be described as hortative, aca, is typical when the procedural is used as a hortative, but use of aca is not obligatory for an utterance to be conveyed in the hortative mood. So, the "hortative mood", which may not be a mood independent of the procedural, is formed as follows:

(aca +) procedural base

The hortative construction has only been attested thus far with 1PL subject agreement: (aca) i ndet! 'let's go!' (103). However, use of aca is ubiquitous in non-declarative sentences of all types, as indicated below:

Prohibitive mood

The prohibitive mood is used here in its usual sense, that of a negative command, or a command not to do a particular action. The prohibitive is attested with first-person plural and second-person singular and plural marking. Sentences in the prohibitive mood are formed as follows:

ba(r) + procedural base

Bar can also be contracted to ba followed by the bare verb stem on occasion, without the subject marking described above but retaining inflectional consonant mutation. A full range of basic hortatives is presented below (all data 103):

bar o ret! or ba ret! 'don't go (sg)'

bar nu ndet! or ba ndet! 'don't go (pl)'

bar i ndet! or ba ndet! 'let's not go'

Inflectional Paradigms

Inflectional endings for 2S and 2P performing actions on various objects, e.g. jaw-anam 'cook for me (sg)!'. These and other inflectional endings have yet to be completely investigated for the imperative, the prohibitive, or the hortatives.

For a fuller list of attested inflectional combinations, see ...