Chapter 8 Prepositions and prepositional phrases
Simply speaking, a Madurese prepositional phrase minimally consists of a pre-
position (or preposition-like expression) and its complement NP. Madurese
contains underived prepositions, preposition-like elements derived from verb
and noun roots, and complex locative expressions. Each is presented in turn in
sections 1-3. Verb-preposition combinations and prepositional marking of direct
objects are discussed in section 4.
1. Basic prepositions
Madurese has a relatively small number of basic prepositions. All prepositions
are transitive, so minimally a prepositional phrase must consist of a preposition
and its object complement.
1.1 e and neng ‘at’
The prepositions e and neng denote static position at a location, basically trans-
lated as ‘at’, and are largely interchangeable. The use of these prepositions to
denote physical locations is illustrated in (1-6). The PP appears in bold.
(1) Rina a-temmo Wati e pasar.
Rina AV-meet Wati at market
‘Rina met Wati at the market.’
(2) Ke Pegke badha e disa Lembung neng Lenteng, Sumennep.
Ke Pegke exist at town Lembung at Lenteng Sumenep
‘Ke Pegke was in the town of Lembung in Lenteng, Sumenep.’
(3) Ebu' e kantor pos.
mother at office post
‘Mother is at the post office.’
(4) Rina a-temmo kanca-na neng pasar.
Rina AV-meet friend-DEF at market
‘Rina met her friend at the market.’