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تسجيل

Subject–verb agreement

المؤلف:  Mark Aronoff and Kirsten Fudeman

المصدر:  What is Morphology

الجزء والصفحة:  P186-C6

2026-04-17

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Subject–verb agreement

Verbs in Kujamaat Jóola are generally marked for subject agreement. When the subject is expressed by a noun or noun phrase (or when a non-human subject noun phrase is understood), the corresponding noun class marker appears. There is an exception: class markers consisting of a single vowel are optionally dropped in rapid speech when the subject directly precedes the verb. Markers of the form Ca prefix as Cu (cf. (11b–c) ):

A subject noun phrase does not have to be present in order for an agreement prefix to appear on the verb. Verbs may agree with implied subjects. In (12a), the verb jɔl ‘come’ agrees with the class 4 subject si-jamεn-as ‘the goats’, as shown by the si- prefix. The verb appears with this prefix even when the implied subject ‘goats’ is left unstated (12b–e).

Even this brief sketch of agreement in Kujamaat Jóola makes it clear that agreement is a pervasive part of its grammar. It is impossible to ignore. We close with the sentences in (13), which show how the repetition of agreement markers may give the impression of alliteration: