Derived prepositions 235
2. Derived prepositions
A number of elements used prepositionally are derived forms of other lexical
items. In some instances, although historically they are derived forms, they have
become indivisible lexical items which have taken on special meanings. Most of
the derivations include overt morphology, but in some cases only the root form
of the verb or noun is used.
2.1. kaangguy ‘for’
Kaangguy is the resultive/abilitive form of angguy ‘use’, signaled by the ka-
prefix. The sentences in (56) and (57) illustrate its use.
(56) Atin melle-yagi manes-an kaangguy na'-kana'.
Atin AV.buy-AGI sweet-NOM for RED-child
‘Atin bought candy for the children.’
(57) Kana' rowa moger kaju kaangguy tang rama.
guy that AV.chop wood for my father
‘That guy chopped wood for my father.’
The roots of this use of kaangguy are easily traced to the resultive/abilitive con-
struction, an example of which is given in (58). (This structure is discussed in
more detail in Chapter 9 section 6.1.)
(58) Buku reya ka-baca (bi') Intan.
book this KA-read by Intan
‘This book can be read by Intan.’
The sentence in (58) asserts that the agent, here Intan, is capable of performing
the action denoted by the predicate, here baca ‘read’, and this is predicated of
the subject, here buku ‘book’. It might be conjectured that kaju kaangguy tang
rama ‘wood for my father’ is a resultive/abilitive construction meaning some-
thing like ‘the wood can be/is to be used by my father’. There is little indication
that this is the correct synchronic analysis, however. First, the object of the pre-
position kaangguy need not be the person or persons who will use the object; so
it is possible to interpret (57) as ‘That guy chopped wood instead of my father
(doing it)’. Thus, there is no sense of agentivity. Second, kaju kaangguy tang
rama is not a constituent. Adverbs modifying the predicate can intervene be-
tween kaju and the PP, which would not be possible if it were a constituent.