Adpositions

Adpositions indicate the semantic relationship between two nouns in a construction. Cross-linguistically, adpositions are primarily used to encode spatial relationships. In Sereer, most adpositions are used to inidicate spatial relationships, through there are also temporal adpositions, and adpositions that license additional arguments without spatial reference. In all cases, adpositions are preposed to the noun that they modify, and they are morphologically free particles.

Spatial Prepositions

Spatial prepositions are indicated by particles that appear preposed to the noun phrase. Because noun phrases are head initial, i.e all nominal modifiers (determiners, adjectives, numerals) appear following the noun, the preposition always appears directly adjacent to the noun, as shown in 1-3.

1)

fo	japil
with	knife

'with a knife' (026)

2)

na	pamb	ake
at	drums	DET

'at the drums' (086)

3)

ɗoxang	ndaxar	yaxgu	ne
under	tree	red	DET
'under the red tree' (110) There are two classes of prepositions: those that function verbally and therefore take verbal morphology, and those that cannot take verbal morphology. The non-verbal adpositions are indicated in Table 1, while those that have verbal characteristics are shown in Table 2. Non-verbal Prepositions %%%%| inside/in between/in the middle || andeer || || || JM_012, VW_040 || || || Gloss Adposition Source Notes, Example Sentences at/to no VW_054 eg. no oɓox ole [noɓox ole]"at the dog" with fo VW_054 fo japil "with the knife", fo oteo "with the woman" in/inside kam JM_021, VW_040 near/by/next to pam pam JM_021, VW_040 pam ndaxarne "by the tree" over/above/on/up tok JM_021, VW_040 used also as adv. "up" under ɗoxang ɗoxang, ɗoxaŋ JM_021 ɗoxang mbaj ne "under the blanket" amidst/between/surrounded by/inside ndeer VW_024 ndeer taxarke "amidst the trees" between, in the middle between (2 things) ndeender VW_024 ndeender taxarke "between the (two) trees" in front of mbaambir JM_021, VW_054 behind/after acinj JM_021, VW_040 acinj mbine "behind the house" behind kataa VW_040 outside tafil VW_040 also N "outside" Verbal Prepositions Gloss Adposition Verbal Root Meaning Source Notes, Example Sentences around widna, mbidna twist around wid VW_040 toward jofna go toward ɟof VW_024 near (to) matna be near mat VW_024 far from goƭna be far goƭ VW_024 from xatna come from xat VW_068 from inoorna come from inoor VW_068 in front of adox?? be first adox VW_038 (JH_039) derived from "leader" N above yooroox be above yooroox VW_097 facing faamir have only gotten once, from "face" toward jasnoor have only gotten once, with n- Temporal Prepositions Gloss Adposition Source Notes, Example Sentences before bala VW_054 during ananga VW_068 during yete VW_068 during/in na VW_068 same as n- above ? until bote VW_068 until bona VW_068 until booyaate VW_068