442 Chapter 14 Questions
d. Bambang / biyasana apa ngenom kopi mon laggu?
‘Does Bambang usually drink coffee in the morning?’
e. Bisa Marlena maca buku juwa?
‘Can Marlena read that book?’
f. Apa bisa Marlena maca buku juwa?
‘Can Marlena read that book?’
2. Alternative questions
There are two strategies for forming questions which provide two or more poss-
ible (and usually contrasting) alternatives for the addressee to choose from. The
first makes use of the question particle in combination with the disjunctive con-
junction otaba ‘or’.
(13) Apa ba'eng ngatela' Sinap otaba Fatima?
Q you AV.see Sinap or Fatima
‘Did you see Sinap or Fatima?’
(14) Apa Alwi senneng (ka) kopi otaba teh?^2
Q Alwi happy to coffee or tea
‘Does Alwi like coffee or tea?’
(15) Apa Ale' a-lako otaba tedhung?
Q yngr.sibling AV-work or sleep
‘Is Little Brother working or sleeping?’
In each of the questions in (13-15) the question particle is in sentence-initial
position and the choice of nouns (13-14) or verbs (15) is conjoined with otaba
‘or’. As with yes/no questions, the question particle may follow the subject, as
in (16-17) or, with appropriate intonation, it may be omitted altogether.
(16) Alwi / apa senneng ka kopi otaba teh?
Alwi Q happy to coffee or tea
‘Does Alwi like coffee or tea?’
(^2) Some speakers prefer to omit the preposition ka in this structure.