Types of adverbial expressions 391
(8) Reng tentara Mataram la adha' a-bali pole dha'
person troop Mataram already not.exist AV-return again to
kampong-nga.
village-DEF
‘The Mataram soldiers were gone, and they returned again to their
village.’
(9) Sateya sengko' a-dungeng-a bab badha-na gagaman-na oreng
now I AV-story-IRR about exist-DEF knife-DEF person
Madura, se a-nyama are' otaba are' Madura.
Madura REL AV-name are' or are' Madura
‘Now I am going to tell you about the weapon of the Madurese, which is
called are' or are' Madura.’
When used temporally, buru, gi', and la generally (though not obligatorily)
occur in the immediate preverbal slot, where they function like auxiliaries. (See
discussion in Chapter 9 section 4.)
There is considerable freedom in the position of temporal expressions in a
clause. For instance, in the clause in (10), for many speakers only the position
between the verb and NP object is considered completely unacceptable (10e),
although some speakers accept this as well.
(10) a. Marlena noles sorat ka Ita, ba'ari.
Marlena AV.write letter to Ita yesterday
‘Marlena wrote a letter to Ita yesterday.’
b. Ba'ari, Marlena noles sorat ka Ita.
c. Marlena ba'ari, noles sorat ka Ita.
d. Marlena noles sorat ba'ari, ka Ita.
e. *Marlena noles ba'ari, sorat ka Ita.
Though clause-final position (10a) is perhaps the most preferred, these temporal
expressions are frequently found in clause-initial position (10b) and immediate-
ly following the subject (10c). Many speakers consider (10d) to be acceptable
but not preferred with a slight pause following ba'ari, while others consider it
ungrammatical. Here ba'ari follows the direct object sorat ‘letter’ and precedes
the PP indirect object ka Ita ‘to Ita’. The same pattern of facts obtains with sa-
minggu tapongkor ‘last week’ in (11).
(11) a. Karim nyaba' motor e seddi'-na roma-na sa-minggu se tapongkor.
Karim AV.put car at side-DEF house-DEF one-week REL behind
‘Karim put the car beside the house a week ago.’