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for mood). If, however, a particular language has a set of one or more grammatical device for `marking’ sentences according to the speaker’s commitments with respect to the factual status of what he is saying (his emphatic certainity, his uncertainity or doubt etc.), it is customary to refer to the unmarked sentence also (by courtesy, as it were) as being in a certain mood and the traditional term for this unmarked mood is indicative or declarative”1.
Like most of the other known languages, a few modals for expressing the speaker’s commitments with reference to the factual status of what he is saying (for instance, his emphatic certainity his uncertainity, his command etc.) are available in Sema also. The modals available in Sema are indicative, polite and simple imperative, potential, probability1 probability2 and conditional. A paradigm of the verb wú `go’ showing the forms of the different modals are given below :
wú anì ` is going (indicative : Unmarked)’
wúlò `go (simple imp.)’
wúle `please go (polite imperative)’
wú kepu sia `has/have to go (obligatory)’
wúlunanì `can go (potential)’
wúluwi `may go (doubtful) - probability1’
wúluwi Kenì might go (probability2)’
cala nono ii aye niye únanì `if you come, I will go (conditional)’
From the examples given above, the markers for different modals can be abstracted. These are stated below :
Indicative (Unmarked)
simple imperative
polite imperative le
obligatory kepu sia
potential lu nanì
probability1 luwi
probability2 luwi kenì
conditional cala . . . . aye

1. John Lyons : Introduction to theoritical linguistics, 1974 : 307.
A brief discussion of the use of each of the modals follows.
Indicative Modal
It expresses simple statement of facts without conveying about the attitude of the speaker to wards what he is saying. The modl is unmarked. It is available with different tenses and aspects, as in :
pi
`say/speak’
pinì
`is saying’
wúanì `is going’
wúwà `went’ etc.
Imperative modal
The Sema language makes use of two types of imperatives viz., simple and polite imperatives. The simple imperative is a command or instruction issued directly to the addressee and the polite imperative, though a request to an addressee, is also expected to be carried out by the addressee in the same way a simple command is issued. The examples of the two are given below :
Simple imperative modal
It expresses a command or injunction. It is formed by the simple imperative marker lò suffixed directly to the verb root., as in :
wúlò `go (imp)’
cúlò `eat (imp)’
alacelò `walk (imp)’
zúlò `sleep (imp)’
Polite imperative modal
It is also formed by suffixing directly the polite imperative marker le to the verb root, as in :
wúle
`please go’
cúle `please eat’
alacele `please walk’
zle `please sleep’ etc.
Obligatory modal
The obligatory modal, like the imperative is a clear instruction to a person to perform the action indicated by the verb. There are, however, four major differences in the use of these modals. These are: The imperative is available only in the II person whereas the obligatory is available in all the three persons including the

 

 

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