Imperative clauses 169
b. *E-bagi buku reya dha' Hasan!
OV-give book this to Hasan
(Give this book to Hasan!)
In this regard, Madurese differs from both Indonesian and Javanese, where a
passive imperative is acceptable.
When issuing an imperative in which the speaker commands the addres-
see to allow a third person to act, the verbs dina ‘leave’ and penneng ‘leave’ are
used.
(114) Dina, Ahmad me' maca buku-na!
leave Ahmad EMPH AV.read book-DEF
‘Let Ahmad read his book!’
lit. ‘Leave Ahmad to read his book!’
(115) Penneng, Tina a-dungeng!
leave Tina AV-story
‘Let Tina tell her story!’
lit. ‘Leave Tina to tell her story.’
A special negative form ja', and its variant nja', is used for prohibitive
imperatives. This is illustrated in (116) and (117).
(116) Ja' pokol Salim!
don’t hit Salim
‘Don’t hit Salim!’
(117) Ja' baca tang sorat!
don’t read my letter
‘Don’t read my letter!’
As described in Chapter 5 section 3.1.3, frequently with negative imperatives
the verb is reduplicated.
(118) Ja' ter-kobater!
don’t RED-worry
‘Don’t worry!’
(119) Ja' ka'-bukka'!
don’t RED-open
‘Don’t open it!’