Subject, definiteness and specificity 177
(152) a. Anom-ma Satimma e-tangkep bi' polisi.
uncle-DEF Satimma OV-catch by police
‘Satimma’s uncle was caught by the police.’
b. Satimma,anom-ma e-tangkep bi' polisi.
Satimma uncle-DEF OV-catch by police
‘Satimma, her uncle got caught by the police.’
10. Subjects, definiteness and specificity
There is an important restriction on the subject of a clause, which has thus far
gone unremarked upon, but it is illustrated in all of the clauses in this chapter,
except perhaps existentials. Subjects of a Madurese clause must have a specific
referent. This is a restriction common to Indonesian-types languages, including
Indonesian (Soemarmo 1970, Sneddon 1996, and many before and since) and
Javanese (Soemarmo 1970), as well as other western Austronesian languages
such as Tagalog (Schachter 1976 and Kroeger 1993) and Malagasy (Keenan
1976). Thus, in careful speech, (146a) is well-formed, while (146b) is not.
(153) a. Baji'-na nanges.
baby-DEF cry
‘The baby cries.’
b. *Baji' nanges.
(A baby cries.)
This requirement in various languages has spawned a vigorous debate regarding
whether the notion ‘subject’ or the notion ‘topic’ is most appropriate for these
languages. Topic is sometimes suggested because the specificity requirement is
akin to a definiteness requirement, which is characteristic of topics. As this is-
sue is not of particular importance in the context of this work, it will be left
aside and the term ‘subject’ will be used.
At any rate, all subjects of clauses must be specified in some fashion.
There are a number of ways to accomplish this.
- Proper nouns can be assumed to refer to a specific or quantified entity or
entities, and thus can serve as subjects of clauses.
(154) Pa' Hasan bakal a-dungeng-a.
Mr Hasan will AV-story-IRR
‘Pak Hasan will tell a story.’