234 Chapter 8 Prepositions and PPs
1.6 akantha ‘like’
Akantha ‘like’ and its variants kantha, katha and kanthang, as well as kadi gen-
erally take an NP complement and form a phrase comparing the complement to
some dependent of the clause. This is illustrated in (51-54).
(51) Ajiya keng tandha' se e-dandan-e akantha pottre kraton.
this only dancer REL OV-dress up-E like princess palace
‘This was only a dancer dressed up like a princess.’
(52) Lamba' neng polo Poterran reya lo' ramme kantha sateya;
ago at island Poterran this not noisy like now
ce' seppe-na.
very quiet-DEF
‘Long ago, on the island of Puteran it was not crowded and noisy like it is
now. It was very very quiet.’
(53) Ba'eng banne tang ebu'. Tang ebu' raddin, lo' katha ba'eng.
you no my mother my mother pretty not like you
‘You are not my mother. My mother is pretty, not like you.’
The comparison may be relatively abstract, as in (54).
(54) Kantha se e-dungeng-agi engko' gella',...
like REL OV-story-AGI I before
‘Like I told you before,...’
Here, kantha takes as its complement the headless relative clause se edun-
gengngagi engko’ gella’ ‘that which I told before’, which sets up a comparison
between what will be said now with what was said at a previous time. It is also
possible for the complement to be a clause used as an NP, as in (55).
(55) Aba'na lo' andhi' pondu' akantha biyasana oreng muruk
he not have Islamic.school like usual person AV-advise
ng-ajih.
AV-ajih
‘He did not have an Islamic school like people teaching Islamic customs
usually do.’