Hortative clauses 165
(90) Ce' penter-ra ana'-eng ba'eng!
very smart-DEF child-DEF you
‘How smart your child is!’
In this exclamatory structure, the intensive construction is in clause-initial posi-
tion and the nominal of which the state is predicated follows. In (88) ce' raddin-
na ‘very beautiful’ precedes its subject Ita, and the same pattern occurs in (89)
and (90). Any of the exclamatory interjections may precede the intensive, as in
(91), where wa' occurs in clause-initial position.
(91) Wa', ce' bajjir-ra Bambang!
oh very lucky-DEF Bambang
‘Oh, how lucky Bambang is!’
6. Hortative clauses
Two words of exhortation are used in hortative clauses: mara and ayu' (some-
times pronounced ayo), which can roughly be translated as ‘let’s’ or ‘come on’.
In the case of an exhortation in which the speaker wishes to engage the listen-
er(s) in a joint activity, typically mara or ayu' occurs clause initially, there is no
overt subject and the verb and its complements follow, as in (92) and (93).
(92) Mara/Ayu' maca buku!
HORT AV.read book
‘(Come on,) Let’s read a book!’
(93) Mara/Ayu' nempak bal!
HORT AV.kick ball
‘(Come on,) Let’s kick a ball!’
The verbs in (92) and (93), maca ‘read’ and nempak ‘kick’ occur in the actor
voice, as in regular transitive active clauses. Importantly, here the objects buku
and bal, respectively, are interpreted as indefinite. For some speakers, this inde-
finite interpretation is obligatory. If the object of the verb is definite, then the
verb must occur in the root form, with no voice morphology, as in (94) and
(95).
(94) Mara baca buku reya!
HORT read book this
‘Let’s read this book!’