Prepositions in other environments 245
noun is omissible if the location described is the one canonically associated with
the object. So, attas ‘top’ may be omitted with meja ‘table’ if the object de-
scribed is ‘on the table’ as the top is where one expects to find things with
tables. Any other location with respect to the table, such as ‘under’ obligatorily
requires the locative noun. Likewise, dhalem ‘inside’ is the typical location
associated with houses. (108) and (109) illustrate.
(108) Aba'na nyaba' paket e meja.
she AV.put package at table
‘She put the package on the table.’
(109) Ebu' badha neng roma.
mother exist at house
‘Mother is in the house.’
- Prepositions in other environments
As touched on in Chapter 6 section 4.2, there are certain verbs which require
that their objects occur in PPs and verbs that are optionally transitive. Addition-
ally, in nominalizations and under other specific conditions the direct object of a
clause occurs with the preposition dha' or ka ‘to’. These are considered in sec-
tions 4.1 and 4.2, respectively.
4.1. Verb preposition combinations
With the basic form of verbs of communication, the addressee is marked by the
preposition dha'/ka ‘to’ or sometimes bi'/so ‘with’. These verbs include:
(110) acareta ‘tell’ (the root for ‘story’ in the actor voice), bala ‘say’, bisi'
‘whisper’, caca ‘talk’, oca' ‘say’, penta ‘ask’, so'on ‘ask’, soro ‘order’,
tanya ‘ask’
Examples are in (111) and (112).
(111) Hadi a-careta ka Deni bab ebu'-na.
Hadi AV-story to Deni about mother-DEF
‘Hadi told Deni about his mother.’
(112) Bapa' a-caca bi' polisi.
father AV-talk with police
‘Father spoke with the police.’