246 Chapter 8 Prepositions and PPs
A number of verbs denoting cognitive states in their base form take an
object in a PP headed by dha' or ka.
(113) enga' ‘remember’, kennal ‘know’, loppa ‘forget’, ngarte ‘understand’,
percaja ‘believe’, tao ‘know’, yaken ‘sure’
As documented in Chapter 6 section 4.2, these verb-PP combinations are
marked by the fact that the preposition is optional for many speakers (114b).
(114) a. Wati enga' dha' jawab-ba guru.
Wati remember to answer-DEF teacher
‘Wati remembered the teacher’s answer.’
b. %Wati enga' jawab-ba guru.
Wati remember answer-DEF teacher
‘Wati remembered the teacher’s answer.’
Most verbs denoting emotional states can take a PP object, generally
headed by dha'/ka, but some take bi'. A partial list includes:
(115) baji' ‘hate’, bellis ‘hate’, busen (bi') ‘bored’, esto ‘love’, kasta ‘regret’,
lebur ‘happy with/about’, ledur ‘happy with/about’ (Bangkalan),
neser ‘pity’, peggel ‘angry’, senneng ‘happy’, sessel ‘regret’,
tresna ‘love’, tako' ‘afraid’
Of these, some are more clearly transitive than others, and as with the cognitive
verbs, the object may occur without a preposition. Thus, within this set of verbs,
baji' ‘hate’, bellis ‘hate’, esto ‘love’, kasta ‘regret’, neser ‘pity’, sessel ‘regret’,
and tresna ‘love’ pattern more closely with the cognitive verbs, which can be
attributed to being obligatory transitive. The possibility of preposition omission
is illustrated in (116) and (117).
(116) a. Ika tako' ka lar-olar.
Ika afraid to RED-snake
‘Ika is afraid of snakes.’
b. *Ika tako' lar-olar.
(117) a. Lukfi baji' ka taretan-na.
Lukfi hate to brother-DEF^
‘Lukfi hates his brother.’
b. % Lukfi baji' taretan-na.