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. ...

Table coming. Faytak 01:56, 15 December 2012 (UTC)

Prohibitive mood

A negative imperative (prohibitive?) is formed as follows:

bar + o/nu + V stem

e.g. bar o ret! "don't go (sg)!", bar nu ndet! "don't go (pl)!" (103). This can be contracted to ba + V stem on occasion, e.g. ba ret! "don't go (sg)!", ba ndet! "don't go (pl)!" (103). bar can perhaps be analyzed as a free prohibitive morpheme; it is not clear if it can be used on its own as an utterance as can hortative aca (see below).

Hortative mood

Hortatives, at least for 1PL subjects, are expressed by way of the following:

(aca) + i + V stem + (zero ending)

e.g. (aca) i ndet! "let's go!" (103). aca could perhaps be analyzed as a free-standing hortative particle, but it can also be used on its own as an utterance meaning roughly "let's!", or with the imperative or prohibitive moods to add urgency to the request.

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 ...