Positive

There is no dedicated positive construction in Sereer as there is in the English ‘as ~ as’ construction. Positivity is achieved with a verb pod ‘be equal to’, and sets up the comparators in a coordination. Alternatively, the verb denoting the attribute in terms of which the two participants are being compared is used, with regular verbal morphology.

<gl id="ex2" fontsize=12> \gll den ɗik a- mbaax -a pro.3pl two 3pl be-nice 3pl \trans Those two are nice. </gl>

<gl id="ex2" fontsize=12> \gll Oana fa Jegan a- mbaax -a Oana and Jegan 3pl be-nice 3pl \trans Oana is as nice as Jegan. </gl>

Interestingly, the consonant mutation pattern on the verb indicates that it is sensitive to the plural nature of the coordinated noun phrase before it.

When pod is used, the dimension of comparison is captured in the form of a deverbal noun following pod:

<gl id="ex2" fontsize=12> \gll den ɗik a- mbod -a mbaax pro.3pl two 3pl be-same 3pl nice \trans Those two are equally nice. </gl>

The latter two examples follow the same syntactic pattern as the reduplicative strategy for adjectives such as ayaxga yaxig 'is red'. However, in this case, the adjective is not a reduplication of the verb; rather the verb and the adjective are two completely different predicates. See Reduplication and Special Adjectives for more.

<gl id="ex2" fontsize=12> \gll Oana fa Jegan bod -u njool Oana and Jegan be-same Adj tall \trans Oana is as tall as Jegan / Oana and Jegan are the same height. </gl>

Go back to: Degrees of Comparison

Oana 00:31, 8 December 2012 (UTC)