This section will examine the constructions in Skerre with special pragmatic sense, including those that convey a particular information structure, imperatives, and questions. This page is structured as follows:
This section covers two types of constructions where NPs are found to the left of the verbal complex — Focusing and Left-dislocation.
Focusing sentences function to contrast a constituent whose content in some way differs from expected information. The rough English equivalents are it was X that did Y or X did Y (X being the focused NP and Y some action). The focusing constructions differ in their syntax, though not in function, depending on the grammatical relation of the argument, so I will be discussing each class in turn.
When core arguments are focused, sentences have the following form:
| Focused NP | the focusing particle an | Rest of sentence |
In this construction the focused NP does not and cannot have any syntactic marker preceding it.
Here are some examples:
CONTEXT: I just found out who gave the kill to Karak. It wasn't Riyosir, but...
Tsotar an eyasin a rahano ya Karak. (name) FOC PFV-give-TR ABS kill DAT (name) It was Tsotar who gave the kill to Karak. CONTEXT: I wasn't sure what Tsotar gave to Karak, but today I learned...
Rahano an eyasin ya Karak tsa Tsotar. kill FOC PFV-give-TR DAT (name) ERG (name) It was the kill that Tsotar gave to Karak.
Only subject/ergatives and absolutives/objects (whether the basis is ergative or accusative is not clear) can appear in this kind of focusing construction. As the example below shows, the independent pronouns must appear if a pronominal is focused:
Ten an eyasin a rahano ya Karak. 3SG FOC PFV-give-TR ABS kill DAT (name) He was the one who gave the kill to Karak.
With oblique arguments, the structure is different: there is no an. Instead, sentences with a focused oblique have the structure as follows:
| Focused Oblique (with syntactic marker) | Rest of sentence |
Thus, the focused oblique is quite simply at the front of the sentence. The following are examples:
CONTEXT: Tsotar came back from a journey and brought many presents. To Riyosir he gave a pen, to Swakar a map, and ...
Ya Karak eyasin a towik tsa Tsotar. DAT (name) PFV-give-TR ABS book ERG (name) It was to Karak that Tsotar gave the book. CONTEXT: Normally Tsotar is slow getting to market, but today...
So sitorni ewor a Tsotar ya toora. INS speed PFV-go ABS (name) DAT market It was with speed that Tsotar went to the market.
As the above examples show, the obliques in this construction are blind to whether they are arguments or adjuncts of the verb.
Superficially, left-dislocation looks very similar to focusing, having a preverbal NP, but, in fact, there are several differences. First, there is no special word that announces this construction. The closest thing is an intonation reset between the left-dislocated word and the rest of the sentence. Second, all arguments appear with their syntactic markers.
There is also a difference in the function of left-dislocation. While, as mentioned above, focusing has a constrastive focus function, left-dislation has a constrastive topicalization function: it signals a change in topic within a discourse. A very rough English approximation might be: As for X, Z did Y, though translations of this construction vary and they sometimes can't adequately be succinctly expressed in English.
Finally, the left-dislocation construction has one more property that differentiates it from focusing: when core arguments are left-dislocated, they are "resumed" by a pronoun in the clause (a clitic or affix), though since the 3SG suffix is null, there are only occasionally two co-referential pronouns in a single left-dislocation sentence. Such resumption is also found with obliques once in a while.
Some examples:
CONTEXT: [Discussion of Karak's doings]. Then,...
A hen, ewor-ha ya toora. ABS 1SG PFV-go=1SG.NOM DAT market As for me, I went to the market. CONTEXT: Discussion of various events at gathering. Then,...
Ya tari tar, eyasin a tsowos ya Karak tsa Tsotar. DAT time that PFV-give-TR ABS spear DAT (name) ERG (name) At that time, Tsotar gave the spear to Karak.
Imperative constructions are those that express commands. In Skerre, there are two kinds of imperative constructions: standard imperatives and polite imperatives.
Standard imperatives are marked by two qualities: the base form of the verb is used (except for the motion verb, quos, which has its own imperative form) and the subject markers are obligatorily absent. Some examples:
Quot sati! come:IMP here Come here!
Yasin ya hen a tsowos! give:IMP-TR DAT 1SG ABS spear Give me the spear!
Socially, this construction isn't rude, unless it is used in a situation where a polite imperative should be used. However, its use does imply that reasonably immediate action should be taken.
Polite imperatives differ morphosyntactically in two ways from the standard imperative. First, the verb must be in the irrealis form. Second, the subject markers are obligatory. Some examples:
Kitsaa-ra ya hen. IRR-come=2PL.NOM DAT 1SG Would that you (pl.) would come to me.
Kiyasin-na ya hen a tinitor. IRR-give-TR=2SG.NOM DAT 1SG ABSPL-animal May you give me animals (for hunting).
Socially, this form is principally used for commands that are, to the speaker's view, are much more contingent in whether they will be realized, including almost any long-term command. These imperatives are also used in social situations where a milder command is culturally warranted, such as requests and commands of a religious nature.
A final note on imperatives: they have their own negative particle, as discussed among the verbal satellites.
Polar questions are questions that have an expected answer of either yes or no. As discussed in the section on verbal satellites, in Skerre, such questions have the question particle, wa, in the second position of the sentence, as in the following:
Eyasin-wa a rahano ya Karak tsa Tsotar? PFV-give-TR=Q ABS kill DAT (name) ERG (name) Did Tsotar give the kill to Karak?
The probable answer to a wa-question would either be rii, yes or kor, no.
Another type of question is the tag question, where the speaker presupposes a yes answer to the question. Such a question is arranged (both in English and in Skerre) with the sentence as a statement followed by a tag that makes it a question. In Skerre the tag is ee kor, or no. Here's an example:
Eyasin a rahano ya Karak tsa Tsotar, ee kor? PFV-give-TR ABS kill DAT (name) ERG (name) or no Tsotar gave the kill to Karak, didn't he?
The final type of question is the content question, where the speaker is trying to get an particular piece of information about the sentence. The following are question words and phrases in Skerre:
| Skerre Interrogative | English Translation |
| sin | who, which (animate thing) |
| ser | what, which (inanimate thing) |
| ya wisa ser | where |
| ya tari ser | when |
| kot | how |
| ya queyon ser | why |
| soran ser i | how much (of), how many (of) |
| sawetos | how many times |
Content questions have the same syntax as focusing noted above. Thus, all content question words/phrases are sentence-initial. Core arguments appear with focusing particle an, and others do not. The following are some examples of questions:
Sin an eyasin a rahano ya Karak? who FOC PFV-give-TR ABS kill DAT (name) Who gave the kill to Karak?
Ser an eyasin ya Karak tsa Tsotar? what FOC PFV-give-TR DAT (name) ERG (name) What did Tsotar give to Karak?
Ya queyon ser eyasin a tsowos ya Karak tsa Tsotar? DAT reason which PFV-give-TR ABS spear DAT (name) ERG (name) |---------- Why ----------| Why did Tsotar give the spear to Karak? (lit. For what reason did Tsotar give the spear to Karak?)
Kot-na ewor ya toora? how=2SG.NOM PFV-go DAT market How do you go to market?
As the last example shows, in content questions where a core argument is not questioned, the subject markers appear after the question word. This is discussion further in the verbal satellites section.