106 Chapter 4 Morphology
toles ‘write’ nolesan ‘write often’
massa' ‘cook’ amassa'an ‘cook often’
The iterative suffix can carry the connotation that the subject engages in the
activity frequently due to enjoying it. So berka’an can be translated ‘like to run’
and amassa’an ‘like to cook’. They can also be translated simply to indicate
that the action occurred more than once, e.g. nolesan ‘write multiple times’
1.1.10 Durative -e, /ɛ/
Another suffix that denotes iterated activity is the durative -e, one of two verbal
suffixes -e. When the durative is suffixed to verb stems, the resulting verb de-
notes an iterated activity carried out for a continuous period of time.
(31) poger ‘chop’ mogerre ‘chop for a while’
toles ‘write’ nolese ‘write for a while’
pokol ‘hit’ mokole ‘hit repeatedly for a while’
massa' ‘cook’ amassa'e ‘cook for a while’
1.1.11 ‘Locative’ -e, /ɛ/
When affixed to verbs taking a goal argument, whether a physical goal as with
kerem ‘send’ or entar ‘go’ or the goal of emotion as with tresna ‘love’,
- e can derive a verb in which the goal argument is the direct or primary object,
that is, it indicates an endpoint. In other Western Austronesian languages, this is
often referred to as a locative affix. The derived verb is transitive, even when
the base verb is intransitive, as with entar ‘go’. (See Chapter 10 section 1 for a
detailed discussion.)
(32) kerem ‘send’ kereme ‘send to’
entar ‘go’ entare ‘go to’
busen ‘bored’ busenne ‘bored with’
parcaja ‘believe’ parcajai ‘believe in’
bala ‘say’ balai ‘say to’
The locative -e is involved in a highly specific morphophonemic rule.
When followed by the irrealis suffix -a, -an is substituted for -e.
(33) kereme ‘send to’ keremana ‘will send to’
balai ‘say to’ bala'ana ‘will say to’
busenne ‘bored with’ busennana ‘will be bored with’