Prepositions in other environments 247
There is a variety of other verbs which take prepositional rather than bare
objects, a few of which include: campor moso ‘mix with’, congngo dha' ‘visit’,
pabine'e moso ‘be married with’, tabang dha' ‘chase’ and others.
4.2 Prepositional marking of direct objects
Under certain conditions, direct objects, which usually occur as unmarked NPs,
occur in PPs headed by dha'/ka ‘to’. Although nominalizations with overt direct
objects are relatively rare, when they occur, the object takes the preposition.
(118) Pa-mokol-la Jatim ka kaju sala.
NOM-AV.hit-DEF Jatim to wood wrong
‘Jatim’s hitting the wood was poorly executed.’
(119) Pa-ngekke'-na burus ka Hosen kellet.
NOM-AV.bite-DEF dog to Hosen deep
‘The dog’s biting of Hosen was deep.’
(120) Kekke'-an-na burus ka Hosen sara.
bite-NOM-DEF dog to Hosen bad
‘The dog’s biting of Hosen was bad.’
In the process nominal in (118), pamokolla Jatim ka pettah ‘Jatim’s hitting the
bricks’, the object of pokol ‘hit’, pettah ‘brick’, which is normally a bare NP, is
the object of the preposition ka. Likewise, in the result nominal in (120),
keke'anna burus ka Hosen ‘the dog’s biting of Hosen’, the object Hosen occurs
as the object of ka.
Another environment in which a direct object can occur in a PP with
dha'/ka as the head is when the object is split from its verb by the adverbial keya
‘too’. This is illustrated in the pairs in (121) and (122).
(121) a. Rokip nenggu kanca-na keya.
Rokip AV.see friend-DEF too
‘Rokip visited her friends, too.’
b. Rokip nenggu keya dha' kanca-na.
Rokip AV.see too to friend-DEF
‘Rokip visited her friends, too.’
(122) a. Adi nambu' Ari bi' bato keya.
Adi AV.throw.at Ari with rock too
‘Adi hit Ari with a rock too.’