364 Chapter 11 Complex sentences
(123) Itai e-ka-loppa-en sengko' ja' Adi a-kerem paket dha' aba'engi
Ita OV-KA-forget-LOC I COMP Adi AV-send package to her
dhari Kanada.
from Canada
‘I forgot about Ita that Adi sent a package to her from Canada.’
In the case of the direct object (122), the overt pronoun is preferred by most
speakers, and, in the case of the prepositional object (123), the pronoun must be
overt.
The last feature of note is the interpretation of idioms in the prolepsis
structure. A classic argument for raising has been the fact that chunks of idioms
can retain their idiomatic interpretation, even when raised (e.g., Postal 1974).
Thus, in (124), the cat can retain the idiomatic meaning of ‘secret’ that it has in
the construction the cat is out of the bag (124a), even when it is the matrix
clause subject (124b) or object (124c).
(124) a. It seems that the cat is out of the bag.
b. The cat seems to be out of the bag.
c. We expect the cat to be out of the bag well before the date of the party.
In the Madurese construction, idiomatic meaning is not available. First,
consider the sentence in (125), which has both an idiomatic and literal interpre-
tation.
(125) Nase' la daddi tajjin.
rice already become porridge
‘It is too late to do anything about it.’
lit. ‘The rice has become porridge.’
When wholly contained in a complement clause, this string can be interpreted
idiomatically.
(126) Siti ngera bari' ja' nase' la daddi tajjin.
Siti AV.think yesterday COMP rice already become porridge
‘Siti thought yesterday that it is too late to do anything about it.’
lit. ‘Siti thought yesterday that the rice had become porridge.’
However, when nase’ ‘rice’ appears in the matrix clause, only the literal inter-
pretation is possible.
(127) Siti ngera nase' bari' ja' la daddi tajjin.
Siti AV.think rice yesterday COMP already become porridge
‘Siti thought about the rice yesterday that it had become porridge.’