104 Chapter 4 Morphology
forms that can denote either a kind of abilitive or realized state (usually either,
depending on the context), the realized state often having an inchoative mean-
ing. In this use it takes the object/theme of the stem as its primary argument.
(21) baca ‘read’ kabaca ‘can be read/has been read’
potos ‘decide’ kapotos ‘can be decided/has been decided’
petek ‘hold/pick’ kapetek ‘can be held/has been held’
Affixed to noun stems, ka- derives instrumental/potential type verbs.
(23) sabbu' ‘belt’ kasabbu' ‘get used as a belt/can be used as a belt’
tongket ‘cane’ katongket ‘get used as a cane/can be used as a cane’
kocca ‘hat’ kakocca ‘get used as a hat/can be used as a hat’
Affixed to adjectival roots, ka- derives resultant states.
(24) potek ‘restless’ kapotek ‘become restless’
peggel ‘angry’ kapeggel ‘become angry’
baji' ‘disgusted’ kabaji' ‘become disgusted’
These forms occasionally co-occur with the a- prefix and indicate that the sub-
ject nearly has the property denoted by the adjective.
(25) koneng ‘yellow’ akakoneng ‘to be yellowish’
pote ‘white’ akapote ‘to be whitish’
See Chapter 9 section.6.1 for further discussion and exemplification.
1.1.6 Adversative ka-...-an, /ka...an/
The circumfix ka-...-an applied to some verbs derives a verb which adversely
affects an experiencer, which is the subject.
(26) semprot ‘spray’ kasemprodan ‘get sprayed with’
gaggar ‘fall’ kagaggaran ‘suffer having something get fallen on’
robbu ‘collapse’ karobbuwan ‘suffer having something collapse’
maso' ‘enter’ kamaso'an ‘have something get entered’
Adversatives are discussed in more detail in Chapter 9 section 6.3.