Difference between revisions of "Extraction or Focus"

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See also the page on [[Questions#WH Questions|Questions]].
 
See also the page on [[Questions#WH Questions|Questions]].
   
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'''More coming [[User:Faytak|Faytak]] 00:29, 15 December 2012 (UTC)'''
{| class="wikitable" cellpadding="1"
 
| align="left" | '''a buga [o gar]. '''
 
|-
 
{| cellpadding="1"
 
| align="left" | a= || align="left" | bug || align="left" | -a || align="left" | o= || align="left" | gar
 
|-
 
| align="left" | 3SG || align="left" | want || align="left" | NPT || align="left" | 2SG || align="left" | come
 
|}
 
|-
 
| align="left" | He wants you to come. (151)
 
|-
 
|}
 
 
{| class="wikitable" cellpadding="1"
 
| align="left" | '''[o gar] a bugu.'''
 
|-
 
{| cellpadding="1"
 
| align="left" | o= || align="left" | gar || align="left" | a= || align="left" | bug || align="left" | -u
 
|-
 
| align="left" | 2SG || align="left" | come|| align="left" | 3SG || align="left" | want || align="left" | EXTR.ARG
 
|}
 
|-
 
| align="left" | He wants you to come. (151)
 
|-
 
|}
 
   
 
[[Reduplication]] of predicates cannot occur when wh-extraction of the subject is marked: '''qaarit ke a laaɓiira (laaɓiir)''' 'the friends are generous' but '''qaarit qum laaɓiiru (*laaɓiir)?''', 'which friends are generous?' (115)
 
[[Reduplication]] of predicates cannot occur when wh-extraction of the subject is marked: '''qaarit ke a laaɓiira (laaɓiir)''' 'the friends are generous' but '''qaarit qum laaɓiiru (*laaɓiir)?''', 'which friends are generous?' (115)

Revision as of 17:29, 14 December 2012

Sereer frequently extracts or fronts nominal arguments and marks the verb of the affected clause with a suffix -u. This page is dedicated to describing the syntactic patterns and permissible structures that of a constituent that signals focus on the fronted constituent. Examples are below, and will be elaborated upon eventually. Note that a suffix -u co-occurs with this fronting in nearly all cases; this could be analyzed as an extraction marker. (Exponence of non-past tense in the second example is not clear.)

U-Extraction in Wh-questions

See also the page on Questions.

More coming Faytak 00:29, 15 December 2012 (UTC)

Reduplication of predicates cannot occur when wh-extraction of the subject is marked: qaarit ke a laaɓiira (laaɓiir) 'the friends are generous' but qaarit qum laaɓiiru (*laaɓiir)?, 'which friends are generous?' (115)

U-Focus

Extraction and fronting of an argument with verbal -u marking can also be used to signal focus on the fronted argument.

More to come shortlyFaytak 00:29, 15 December 2012 (UTC)

kaa

The "preverb" kaa may mark verbal focus on the verb immediately following. More research is needed on this point.