| and 
        the subgrouping of the verbs are attempted on the basis of these features. 
        A discussion of these follows : | 
   
    | 3.3.1. 
      Morphological construction | 
   
    | The tense, 
      aspect and the modal markers occurring with a verb has fixed order which 
      can be seen from the illustrative examples given below : | 
               
| 
                      | 
					 
                            |  | cú |  | `eat/ate’ |   
                            |  | cúlò |  | `eat 
                              (imp)’ |   
                            |  | cúkelò |  | `do 
                              not eat (imp)’ |   
                            |  | cúpe |  | `cause 
                              to eat’ |   
                            |  | cúpekewilò |  | `do 
                              not cause to eat’ |   
                            |  | cúwà |  | `ate’ |   
                            |  | cúnanì |  | `will 
                              eat’ |   
                            |  | cúanì |  | `is 
                              eating’ |   
                            |  | cúcenì |  | `eats 
                              (habitual)’ |   
                            |  | cúluwe |  | `could 
                              eat’ |   
                            |  | cúmowe |  | `did not eat’ |   
                            |  | cúamo |  | `is/was 
                              not eating’ |   
                            |  | cúcemo |  | `does 
                              not eat (habitual)’ |   
                            |  | cúmla/culumla |  | `cannot 
                              eat’ |   
                            |  | cúmlawe |  | `could 
                              not eat’ etc. |  |  | 
   
    | From the illustrative 
      examples given above, it can be seen that a verb root may have either a 
      modal marker or an aspectual marker and not both. The tense marker can occur 
      either immediately after the root or after the modal/aspectual marker. And 
      whenever the tense marker occurs, it functions as the closure. As far as 
      the occurrence of the negatives are concerned, a two-way structure is noticed. 
      i.e., in the case of all modals except the imperative, the negative follows 
      the modal marker, if any. In the case of the imperative, the modal marker 
      follows the negative. The morphological construction of a verb in Sema can 
      therefore be presented schematically as under : | 
   
| 
                      | 
                           
                            | VR± | C± | { 
                              aspect } | ± 
                              Neg1 | ±T |   
                            |  |  | {modals1 
                              } |  |  |   
                            | VR± | C 
                              ± | Neg2 
                              + M2 |  |  |  |  | 
   
    | The scheme 
      presented above can be described as under : | 
               
| 
                      | 
						 
                            | VR | —> |  | verb 
                              root |   
                            | C | —> |  | causative |   
                            | Modals1 | —> |  | indicative, 
                              permissive and potential |   
                            | Modal2 | —> |  | imperative |   
                            | Aspect | —> |  | progressive 
                              and habitual |   
                            | Neg1 | —> |  | all 
                              negatives except the imperative negative |   
                            | Neg2 | —> |  | imperative negative —> lò |   
                            | T | —> |  | tense 
                              —> past and future tenses. |  |  | 
   
    | The 
        scheme presented above has two restrictions in that neither the causative 
        nor the modal1 nor an aspectual marker can be a form-closing suffix. If 
        any one of them occurs in a verbal construction, the occurrence of either 
        the negative1 or tense is a must. Similarly a negative particle without 
        any other suffixes cannot occur with a verb root. On the basis of the 
        scheme presented above, the morphological construction of a verb in Sema 
        could have the following possibilities. | 
               
| 
                      | 
 
                            |  | verb 
                              root alone |  | cú 
                              `eat’ |   
                            |  | VR 
                              + M2 |  | `cúlò `eat’ (imp)’ |   
                            |  | VR 
                              + Neg2 + M2 |  | `cúkewilò `do not eat (imp)’ |   
                            |  | VR 
                              + Causative + M2 |  | `cúpelò 
                              `cause to eat (imp)’ |   
                            |  | VR 
                              + Causative + Neg2 + M2 |  | `cúpekewilò 
                              `do not cause to eat’ (imp)’ |   
                            |  | VR 
                              + tense |  | `cúwe 
                              `ate’ |   
                            |  | VR 
                              + Neg1 + tense |  | `cúmoe 
                              `did not eat’ |   
                            |  | VR 
                              + Causative + tense |  | `cúpewe 
                              `caused to eat’ |   
                            |  | VR 
                              + Asp + tense |  | `cúay 
                              `was eating’ |   
                            |  | VR 
                              + Asp + Neg1 |  | `cúamo 
                              `is not eating’ |   
                            |  | VR 
                              + Causative + asp + tense |  | `cúpeay 
                              `was causing to eat’ |   
                            |  | VR 
                              + Causative + Asp + Neg1 |  | `cúpeamo 
                              `is not causing to eat’ |   
                            |  | VR 
                              + Asp + Neg1 + tenseVR + Causative + 
                              Asp + |  | `cúamoe 
                              `was not eating’ |   
                            |  | Neg1 
                              + tense |  | `cúpeamoe 
                              `was not causing to eat’ |   
                            |  | VR 
                              + Modal1 + Neg1 |  | `cúlumla 
                              `cannot eat’ |   
                            |  | VR 
                              + Modal1 + tense |  | `cúlunanì 
                              `can eat’ |   
                            |  | VR 
                              + modal1 + Neg1 + tense |  | `cúlumlae 
                              `could not eat’s |   
                            |  | VR 
                              + Causative + Modal1 + Neg1
 |  | `cúpelumla 
                              `cannot cause . . to eat’ |  |  |