172 Chapter 6 Clause types
is preferred.
(129) a. Hanina padha penter-ra bi' Sinap.
Hanina same smart-DEF with Sinap
‘Hanina is as smart as Sinap.’
b. Penter-ra Hanina padha bi' Sinap.
smart-DEF Hanina same with Sinap
‘Hanina is as smart as Sinap.’
(130) a. Bengko reya padha raja-na bi' bengko rowa.
house this same big-DEF with house that
‘This house is as big as that house.’
b. Raja-na bengko reya padha bi' bengko rowa.
big-DEF house this same with house that
‘This house is as big as that house.’
Equality can also be expressed by means of a third construction, as in (131) and
(132).
(131) Hanina ban Sinap padha penter-ra.
Hanina and Sinap same smart-DEF
‘Hanina and Sinap are equally smart.’
(132) Bengko reya ban bengko rowa padha raja-na.
house this and house that same big-DEF
‘This house and that house are the same size.’
Here the property being compared is the verb (penter and raja) modified by
padha, and the objects being compared are coordinated as subjects. Again, some
speakers accept the version without the definite suffix on the property of com-
parison, but the variant with it is preferred.
There are two constructions that are used when comparing amounts of
items possessed by two or more entities, and both are similar to structures used
to compare properties. In the first, lebbi ‘more’ modifies the appropriate quan-
tifier which acts as the predicate for the clause. When the subject possesses a
larger quantity than the compared, bannya' ‘many’ is used, (133) and (134), and
when the quantity is less, sakone' or dhiddhi' ‘few’ is the predicate (135) and
(136).