Affixation 103
1.1.4 Involitive ta-, /ta/
As described in Chapter 3, ta- is affixed to verb stems (again, root or derived)
generally to indicate that the action was not purposely undertaken by the agent.
When the stem is intransitive, the subject performs the action described. When
the stem is transitive, usually the theme or other nonagent is subject. Thus, this
is sometimes referred to as a passive (e.g. Stevens 1968, Moehlinabib et al.
1979) or an accidental passive. ta- usually supplants any actor or object voice
morphology (although Stevens 1968:133 cites some exceptions). As described
in Chapter 9 section 6.2, for some speakers ta- can sometimes occur with transi-
tive stems with an active interpretation.
(20) root involitive voice
pokol ‘hit’ tapokol ‘be hit accidentally’
tobi' ‘pinch’ tatobi' ‘be pinched accidentally’
mole ‘go home’ tamole ‘go home by mistake’
entar ‘go’ taentar ‘go someplace by mistake’
abas ‘see’ ta-ng-abas ‘accidentally see’ (from
Stevens 1968:133)
Some speakers, particularly in Western Madura, occasionally use ka- as the
involitive prefix, perhaps due to the influence of Javanese, which has the involi-
tive prefix ke-.
With adjectival predicates, ta- takes on the related (involitive) denotation
of an excessive amount of the property, often accompanied by the degree ad-
verbial gallu ‘too’.
(21) root derivative
manes ‘sweet’ tamanes (gallu) ‘too sweet’
raneng ‘loud’ taraneng (gallu) ‘too loud’
pae' ‘bitter’ tapae' (gallu) ‘too bitter’
As described in Chapter 3 section 2.1, the meaning of excess in the derived
forms can be expressed by means of the bare adjective alone with gallu, which
actually occurs more frequently in the Western dialect.
1.1.5 Verbal ka-, /ka/
The prefix ka- derives verbs with what has been described as a general passive-
like meaning (Stevens 1968, Moehnilabib et al 1979), which more specifically
describes a realized or potential state, often with a result or abilitive denotation
depending on the type of stem it occurs with. Affixed to verb stems, ka- derives