432 Chapter 13 Anaphora
(71) Engko' olle nemmo ___ neng alas.
I get AV.find at forest
‘I found it in the forest.’
(72) Tape reng Balanda ya lo' bisa ma-kala ___ keya.
but person Dutch yes not can AV.CS-defeated too
‘But the Dutch could not defeat him either.’
In (69), the null subject, translated as ‘he’, refers to the actor of the previous
sentence (Ke Juru Kettheng), who is hunting for the prince after conquering
West Madura. The null subject in (70) refers to the protagonist of the story,
established as topic in the previous sentence. In (71) and (72), the object of a
transitive verb is null in both instances, again the null element having been es-
tablished as a topic in the preceding discourse. In (71), the null object of nemmo
‘find’ is a baby that the subject (engko' ‘I’) has just brought home and in (72)
the null object of makala ‘defeat’ is a particularly powerful warrior king. Thus,
with sufficient context, both subjects and objects can be null pronouns.
In appropriate contexts, both arguments of a transitive verb can be null. In
such instances, the clause often occurs in the object voice.
(73) Dhapa' ka tengnga alas e-saba' neng baba-na
arrive to center forest OV-put at under-DEF
ka'-bungka'an raja, se naong, e-dina'-agi ___.
RED-tree big REL shade OV-left-AGI
‘They arrived in the forest and put him under a big shade tree and left
him.’
(74) Gaggar pas e-poka , e-lobang-en gallu pas
fall then OV-split OV-hole-LOC before then
e-enom ___ aeng-nga.
OV-drink water-DEF
‘When it fell down, she then peeled and holed it before she drank the
water.’
In (73), the null subject of dhapa' ‘arrive’ of the first clause refers to the maid-
servants of a princess who have been charged with taking the princess’s new-
born child into the forest to abandon it (the infant found by the subject of sen-
tence (71)). In the following two clauses, the maidservants are the agent of the
object voice verbs esaba' ‘put’ and edina'agi ‘leave’; the null subjects of these
verbs refer to the infant. In (74), the null subject of gaggar ‘fall’ is a coconut,
which is also the null subject of the two subsequent clauses, and the agent of
epoka ‘split’, elobangan ‘put a hole in’, and e'enom ‘drink’ is the subject of the
previous sentence.