264 Chapter 9 VPs and verbal marking
(50) Nyo'on-a a-tolong ka sengko'.
AV.request-IRR AV-help to me
‘Please, help me.’
(51) Bu' mongmong, engko' menta'-a tolong dha' kake.
mother nurse I AV.request-IRR help to you
‘Nurse, I ask you to please help me.’
3. Aspectual -an, -e, reduplication
Two types of aspect can be indicated by affixation or reduplication: iterative
and imperfective.
There are a number of ways of indicating that an action or a state is ite-
rated, that it occurs multiple times. The durative -e indicates an event that oc-
curs multiples times in a single bounded time frame. This is illustrated in (52b)
and (53b).
(52) a. Ali ban Hasan mokol maleng.
Ali and Hasan AV.hit thief
‘Ali and Hasan hit the thief.’
b. Ali ban Hasan mokol-e maleng.
Ali and Hasan AV.hit-DUR thief
‘Ali and Hasan repeatedly hit the thief.’
(53) a. Ebu' nobi' Marlena.
mother AV.pinch Marlena
‘Mother pinched Marlena.’
b. Ebu' nobi'-i Marlena.
mother AV.pinch-DUR Marlena
‘Mother kept pinching Marlena.’ (trying to make her behave)
There is no overt indication in these examples that the hitting in (52b) and the
pinching in (53b) are confined to a specific bounded time, but this is implicit in
the interpretation. If a specific time frame is provided, the understanding is that
at the end of that time frame the fairly continuous activity ceased. So, in (54),
Rudi pursues the activity of cutting down trees for a full 2 hours.