A Grammar of Madurese

(singke) #1

The role of -e and -agi 333


any other account. There are instances of the suffix that clearly do not conform
to such an analysis. As shown in section 2.1, -agi can occur when the benefi-
ciary is not linked to any core argument position but remains a prepositional
object, as in (83), repeated here.


(83) Sa'diyah melle-yagi permen kaangguy na'-kana'.
Sa'diyah AV.buy-AGI candy for RED-child
‘Sa'diyah bought candy for the children.’


Additionally, the data in section 2.3 illustrate a use of -agi in which it appears to
specify the endpoint (either beginning or end) of the path of the theme object, as
in (99b).


(99) a. Nembug bato-na.
AV-pile stone-DEF
‘They piled up the stones.’


b. Nembug-gagi bato-na neng Masjid Agung Bangkalan.
AV-pile-AGI stone-DEF at mosque Agung Bangkalan
‘They piled up the stones at the Agung Bangkalan Mosque.’


Thus, the same type of data that Son & Cole (2008) cite as undercutting their
proposal for a unified syntactic analysis of Indonesian -kan (Cole & Son 2004)
prove problematic for an argument-structure analysis (of either the type outlined
here or that of Cole & Son 2004) for Madurese -agi. Likewise, however, the
semantic analysis of Son & Cole (2008) in terms of -agi contributing an abstract
result meaning faces difficulties when applied to data such as (83), which yields
no semantic difference from the sentence without the suffix, (74a), and its use
with verbs of communication, where the distinction is one of emphasis but not
of any result semantics.


(74) a. Sa'diyah melle permen kaangguy na'-kana'.
Sa'diyah AV.buy candy for RED-child
‘Sa'diyah bought candy for the children.’


(90) a. Wati a-careta ka Marlena bab ebu'-na.
Wati AV-tell to Marlena about mother-DEF
‘Wati told Marlena about her mother.’


b. Wati a-careta'-agi ebu'-na ka Marlena.
Wati AV-tell-AGI mother-DEF to Marlena
‘Wati told Marlena about her mother.’

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