Verbal clauses 159
Other verbs in this class include: abber ‘fly’, bala ‘say’, jalan ‘walk’, kejung
‘sing’, lonca' ‘jump’ maen ‘play’, rangka' ‘creep’, tanya ‘ask’, and tangdang
‘dance’. These verbs can be classified as unergative, which cross-linguistically
is consistent with intransitive predicates under the control of their sole argu-
ment. The unaccusative/unergative classification is explored in more detail in
Chapter 9 section 1.1.3.
In the neutral word order for intransitive clauses, the subject precedes the
verb, as in the previous examples. However, the verb often precedes the subject
for discourse-related reasons, as in the sentences in (57-60), which are taken
from texts.^2
(57) Ampon duka se a-nyama Ki Pratanu.
already angry REL AV-name Ki Pratanu
‘Ki Pratanu was angry.’
(58) Lebat potpot Tandha Serrat, e baba-na gunong nojju dha'
pass walk Tandha Serrat at under-DEF mountain AV.point to
Klampes.
Klampes
‘Tandha Serrat went right around the mountain toward Klampes.’
(59) Mon la dhateng oreng Resbaja...
if already come people Arosbaya
‘If the people from Arosbaya came,...’
(60) Tape maske bu' emban otaba bu' mongmong, lo' kobater rato.
but though mother nanny or mother nursemaid not worry king
‘But because of the servants, the king was not worried.’
In (57), the adjectival predicate duka ‘angry’ precedes its subject se anyama Ki
Pratanu ‘the one named Ki Pratanu’. In (58), the verb lebat ‘pass’ precedes its
subject Tandha Serrat. The dynamic intransitive verb dhateng ‘come’ precedes
its subject oreng Resbaja ‘Arobaya people’ in (59). And in (60), in the main
clause lo' kobater rato ‘the king was not worried’, the verb kobater ‘worried’
precedes rato ‘king’, the subject.
4.2 Semantically-transitive statives
There is a class of verbs which are semantically transitive but syntactically in-
(^2) Moehnilabib et al. (1979) describe the process of subject-predicate inversion with
intransitive verbs and PP predicates.