When
the hearer is away from the speaker or the proposed place of action
is away from the speaker, then ‘e’
is added to the verb to form imperative
yasi bie
‘give water (remote)’
water give-imp.
api
de
‘eat rice (remote)’
rice eat-imp.
tae
drink beer (remote)’
beer drink-imp.
To
express politeness, the adverb - ice ‘little’ is used and
it appears before the verb.
ice dto
‘please eat’
little eat-imp.
ice me
please do’
little do-imp.
When
requests are made for things/for action and if the result
of it is directly concerning the speaker, then ‘pe’
is added to the verb to form imperatives. Here also, the
proximate, remote contrast is maintained. If it is proximate
to the speaker, then it is unmarked, because ‘pe’
does not give any signal regarding deixis.
bipe
‘give me (for me) (proximate)’
lukope
‘tell me (for me) (proximate)’
If
the hearer or place of action is away from the speaker and
the result of the action is concerning the speaker himself
it is expressed using the respective markers ‘yu’
(for remoteness) and ‘pe’ (for the benefactor
of the action).
biyupe
‘give me (for me) (remote)’
lukoyupe
‘tell me (for me) (remote)’
Prohibitive
: This is used to prohibit the hearer from an action,
he is to engage in. This is marked by adding ‘yo’
to the verb. No contrast on proximity Vs. remoteness is
maintained in prohibitives.
myo
‘don’t do’
luyo
‘don’t tell’
biyo
‘don’t give’
Interrogative
: The interrogative may be either a yes/no question
or wh-question .The yes/no questions are formed by adding
'ha' to the end of a sentence, which is a statement.
e’
is added to the verb to form imperative
ta
