Constiuent questions 449
(40) Sapa se e-temmo bi' Ita neng pasar?
who REL OV-meet by Ita at market
‘Who did Ita meet at the market?’
(41) Ana'-eng sapa se e-kekke' burus-sa Hadi?
child-DEF who REL OV-bite dog-DEF Hadi
‘Whose child did Hadi’s dog bite?’
(42) Sapa se ana'-eng e-kekke' burus-sa Hadi?
who REL child-DEF OV-bite dog-DEF Hadi
‘Whose child did Hadi’s dog bite?’
(more literally ‘Who is the one whose child was bitten by Hadi’s dog?’)
4.3 Fronted questions
Some interrogative phrases are either obligatorily or optionally placed in sen-
tence- or clause-initial position. These include adverbial and prepositional inter-
rogatives and a special structure with barampa ‘how many/much’.
4.3.1 Adverbial questions
Adverbial interrogatives such as bila ‘when’, arapa ‘why’, and dha'ram-
ma/baramma ‘how’ are regularly fronted in a clause, as in (43a-c).
(43) a. Arapa Ita me' mole?
why Ita EMPH go.home
‘Why did Ita go home?’
b. Bila ana'-na Lukman entar ka Sorbaja?
when child-DEF Lukman go to Surabaya
‘When did Lukman’s child go to Surabaya?’
c. Dha'ramma Ali ma-teppa' komputer?
how Ali AV.CS-right computer
‘How did Ali fix the computer?’
However, it is possible for them to occur in clause-final position (where the
corresponding non-interrogative adverbial can also naturally occur). This order
is perfectly natural, but frequently there is a slight pause before the interroga-
tive, which is pronounced with a characteristic rising-falling interrogative into-
nation. The questions corresponding to (43a-c) are given in (44a-c), respective-
ly.