Derivational Verbal Morphology

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Overview

Sereer seems to have at least some verbal derivational morphology. So far, we've seen:

Takes verb, makes verb:

  • -ir, a reciprocal suffix
  • -in, a causative suffix (e.g. gɛf "to break, explode (intr.)" --> gɛfin "break it"). Allomorphs -an or -n occur when co-occurring with person marking, and sometimes when another suffix precedes (e.g. xum 'to tie', xum-ir 'to tie RECP', xum-r-an 'to tie to each other' (061)
  • -it, a reversive suffix
  • -an, an applicative. Licenses an additional argument, a beneficiary
  • -it, an instrumental applicative. Licenses an additional argument, an instrument.
  • -ik, which indicates directed motion in doing a verb X ("to go do X")
  • -oox, which seems to be stativizing or anti-causative. Its derived forms are somewhat less semantically consistent than the others.
  • -and, a causative/transitivizing suffix
  • -loox/-noox, a suffix of possibly causative meaning that has mutiple allomorphs (or is actually more than one suffix)
  • -noor, a causative suffix (possibly more than one suffix fused together?)

Takes verb, makes adjective:

  • -u , a suffix that takes a verb and turns it into an adjective (e.g. saɗik "to be strong, tough" -> saɗku "strong, tough"; may "to be many" -> mayu "many")
  • -na, seemingly equivalent with -u but agreeing with presence of an "article" on a noun

Takes verb, makes noun:

  • -ir, a suffix that makes instrument-type nouns from verb stems (e.g. βɛʄ "to swim" --> bɛʄir "thing used to swim")
  • RED-, prefixing partial reduplication: makes a noun from a verb "X" meaning "one who (habitually) X"

Valence-Changing Extensions

Causative

There are at least three causative extensions, -in/-n, -noor, and -and. These extensions increase the valence of a verb, adding a causative object, which is caused to perform the action of the verb by the subject of the causative verb.

-noor

-Noor seems to be most productive, and can be affixed to most (if not all?) verbs.

Unextended verb:

Miñaan a-fal-a naak le
‘M. kicks the cow’


Causative verb:

Miñaan a-fal-noor-a (a)Yande naak le
‘M. makes Y. kick the cow’

The causative object (when not pronominalized) always appears directly after the verb.

Miñaan a-fal-noor-a naak le (a)Yande
‘M. makes the cow kick Y.’
‘*M. makes Y. kick the cow’

-in/-n

The extension -in/-n appears as of now to function in the same way, but its distribution seems to be lexically conditioned.

(example here)

Note that the causative extension -in/-n is phonologically identical to the 3rd sg. incorporated pronoun -in/-n. This fact gives rise to ambiguous interpretations of some verbs.

geen-aa-n-um
‘I stop him’
OR
‘I cause him to stand up’

-and

The extension -and can be applied to some (or all?) verbs roots that are basically (that is, in their unextended form) stative.

Unextended verb:

xuƥ-aa-m
‘I am wet’


Causative verb:

a-teƥ a-xuƥ-and-axam
‘The rain wets me / causes me to be wet’


Stative

The stative extension -oox decreases the valence of a transitive verb. The state of the single remaining argument (the subject) is described by the verb. This single argument is not treated semantically as a patient, as there is no implication of agentivity.

Unextended verb: subject = 'I', object = 'window'

weg-aa-m o-falanter o-le
'I close the window'


Stative verb: subject = 'window'

o-falanter o-le a-weg-oox-a
'The window is closed'


The extension -oox can also be used with intransitive verbs... (to be filled in later)

Benefactive Applicative

The benefactive applicative extension -an increases the valence of the verb, adding an object which functions semantically as the beneficiary.

Unextended verb:

Jegan a-fal-a naak le
‘Jegan kicks the cow’


Benefactive verb:

Jegan a-fal-an-a naak le a-doktoor fe
OR
Jegan a-fal-an-a a-doktoor fe naak le
‘Jegan kicks the cow for the doctor’

Instrumental Applicative

The instrumental applicative extension -it/-t increases the valence of the verb, adding an object that functions semantically as the instrument.

Unextended verb:

waq-aa-m a-semb a-le
‘I dig the hole’


Instrumental verb:

waq-t-aa-m a-semb a-le a-pel a-le
OR
waq-t-aa-m a-pel a-le a-semb a-le
‘I dig the hole with the shovel’

Reciprocal

-ir/-r

Passive

The passive marker -e' eliminates the object of a transitive verb, with the subject being acted on by the verb. Unlike with the stative extension, there is an implication of agentivity, though we have not yet seen if it is possible to express the agent in a passive clause. This suffix appears to not truly be an extension, as it is takes the place of person-marking morphology, rather than simply being affixed to the verb root (further investigation needed).

naf-e'
'You are hit'

naf-'-e'
'You were hit'

Other Extensions

Iterative

The suffix -eeg indicates repeated action. Unlike with other extensions, a root+eeg cannot stand alone as a "bare" or infinitive form. It can occur in the progressive, past, and present/default tense (and likely other tenses as well), and thus seems to be a derivational morpheme, rather than a tense marker of some sort.

Without -eeg:

fool-aa-m
'I jump'


With -eeg:

fool-eeg-aa-m
'I jump over and over'

mehe fool-eeg-a
'I'm jumping over and over'

fool-eeg-'-aa-m
'I jumped over and over / I was jumping'

Itive

The itive extension -ik/-k indicates motion towards something.

Unextended verb:

mexe weg-a o-falanter o-le
‘I’m closing the window’


Itive verb:

mexe weg-k-a o-falanter o-le
‘I’m going (motion) to close the window’

Simulfactive

The extension -andoor indicates that the action of a verb is done all at once.

Unextended verb:

a-weg-a xa-palanter a-xe
‘He closes the windows’


Simulfactive verb:

a-weg-andoor-a xa-palanter a-xe
‘He closes the windows all at once’

Reversive

The reversive extension -it/-t indicates that the action of the verb is undone.

Unextended verb:

mexe liw-a
‘I’m tangling’


Reversive verb:

mexe liw-t-a
‘I’m untangling’

This extension is unpredictably fossilized in certain verbs, e.g. wet- ‘open’ vs. weg- ‘close.’

Co-occurrence of Extensions

Homophonous extensions can occur adjacently to one another with very little restriction, other than general phonotactics. In the example below, affix order is actually unclear, as the reversive and instrumental applicative could be in the order listed or reversed.

a uuptita apel ale.
a uup -t -it -a a- pel ale
3SG bury REV? INST.APP? 3SG NC shovel DET.NC

S/he unburies with a shovel. (092)

Valence-changing suffixes (like -noor below) seem to occur closer to the verb stem than others (like -k below), which appear to occur inside of inflectional morphology without exception.

wegaanum.
weg -aan -um
close 3SG.OBJ 1SG

I close it. (091)

wegnoorkaanum.
weg -noor -k -aan -um
close CAUS ITV 3SG.OBJ 1SG

I make him go to jail. (lit. make him go to close up) (091)

Verb pairs demonstrating V to V derivation

Suffix involved Unsuffixed Gloss Suffixed Gloss Session notes
-oox jik to buy jikoox to sell JM_046
-loox ɗeet to see ɗeetloox to notice JM_048
-oox doxoñ to spit doxoñoox to spit repeatedly JM_048
-oox teer to land a boat, arrive teerooχ to await a guest JM_048
-ir xas to scold, berate xasir to argue MF_029
-in waʄ to boil (intr.) waʄin to boil (trans.) MF_045
-in mud to sink mudin to make sink, to throw/put into water MF_047
-oox mud to sink mudoox to swim down on purpose MF_047 translation imprecise, seeking clarification
-oox xooʄ to dip, dunk xooʄoox to dip, dunk into MF_047 translation imprecise; seeking clarification
-oox saang to roll (trans.) saangoox to roll (intr.) ED-058
-ir maaf to fell, knock down maafir to wrestle NB-057
-noor weg to close wegnoor to make s.o. close s.t. MF_091 may be analyzable as weg-in-(C)oor
-ik weg to close wegik to go close MF_091
-it uup to bury uupit to dig up (un-bury) JM_092
-it liw to tangle (trans) liwit to untangle (trans) MF_047
-it waq to dig waqit to dig with JM_092 e.g. a shovel
-an fal to kick falan to kick for JM_092 e.g. for someone else