204 Chapter 7 Nominals and noun phrases
(100) Na'-kana' bine’ ka-lema rowa maca buku.
RED-child female KA-five that AV.read book
‘Five of those girls read the book.’
In both (99) and (100), the implication is that there are more students or girls in
the sets under consideration than the number for whom the state of affairs is
predicated. But in each case the set is delimited by a demonstrative, jiya ‘this’
or rowa ‘that’. The set may also be delimited by a possessor (101).
(101) a. Ka-tello', mored-da Pa' Hadi ta' lulus tes.
KA-three student-DEF Mr Hadi not pass test
‘Three of Pak Hadi’s students did not pass the test.’
b. Mored-da Pa' Hadi se ka-tello' ta' lulus tes.
student-DEF Mr Hadi REL KA-three not pass test
‘Three of Pak Hadi’s students did not pass the test.’
In (101a), the possessor Pa' Hadi limits the set of students being considered. In
(101b), the numeral occurs as a predicate in the relative clause se katello'.
Partitives may be indicated prepositionally as well.
(102) Tello dhari mored-da Pa' Hadi ta' lulus tes.
three from student-DEF Mr Hadi not pass test
‘Three of Pak Hadi’s students did not pass the test.’
(103) Dhuwa dhari/antara-na na'-kana' entar-a dha' upcara.
two from/between-DEF RED-child go-IRR to ceremony
‘Two of the children will go to the ceremony.’
Speakers use the preposition dhari ‘from’ or the prepositional antarana ‘be-
tween’ in the complement of the number.
Finally, the number may be modified by a degree adverb such as coma
‘only’ (104) or para' ‘only’ (105). In each case the degree modifier is placed
immediately before the number.
(104) Coma dhuwa na'-kana' entar dha' sakola'-an.
only two RED-child go to school-NOM
‘Only two children went to school.’
(105) Para’ pa-petto' mored-da Pa' Hadi bakal lulus tes.
only RED-seven student-DEF Mr Hadi will pass test
‘Only seven of Pak Hadi’s students will pass the test.’