458 Chapter 14 Questions
rence of the suffixes in the long-distance questions is consistent with their oc-
currence in the prolepsis construction, providing evidence for the prolepsis
analysis of these questions.
Finally, it is not the case that long-distance questions are always possible.
In fact, they are only possible with verbs that occur in the prolepsis structure.
Control predicates of the type described in Chapter 11 section 4 do not allow
long-distance questions. The interrogative phrase must remain in the comple-
ment clause.^10
(78) a. Ali nyoba' ma-becce' sapedha motor-ra Ina are Rebbu.
Ali AV.try AV.CS-good motorcycle-DEF Ina day Wednesday
‘Ali tried to fix Ina’s motorcycle on Wednesday.’
b. Ali nyoba' mabecce' sapedha motorra sapa are Rebbu?
Ali AV.try AV.CS-fix motorcycle-DEF who day Wednesday
‘Whose motorcycle did Ali try to fix on Wednesday?’
c. E-coba' Ali ma-becce' sapedha motor-ra Ina are Rebbu.
OV-try Ali AV.CS-fix motorcycle-DEF Ina day Wednesday
‘Ali tried to fix Ina’s motorcycle on Wednesday.’
d. *Sapa se e-coba' Ali mabecce' sapedha motorra are Rebbu?
who REL OV-try Ali AV.CS-fix motorcycle-DEF day Wednesday
(Whose motorcycle did Ali try to fix?)
e. E-coba' Ali ma-becce' sapedha motor-ra sapa are Rebbu?
OV-try Ali AV.CS-fix motorcycle-DEF who day Wednesday
‘Whose motorcycle did Ali try to fix on Wednesday?’
(78b) is an in situ question based on the sentence in (78a); the interrogative
sapa occurs in the complement clause. (78c) indicates that coba' ‘try' can occur
in object voice. However, even when coba' is in object voice, a question with
the complement interrogative in sentence-initial position is impossible, as
shown by the ungrammatical sentence in (78d). There is no applicative suffix
that can occur with coba' and the prolepsis structure is unavailable. Even with
the main verb in object voice, the only possibility is to have the interrogative
phrase remain in the embedded clause, as in (78e).
Thus apparent ‘long-distance movement’ questions are possible only
where prolepsis is possible. This indicates that these structures are in fact pro-
(^10) Similar to Madurese, Sundanese 'long-distance movement' questions are not possible
with control structures, only raising or prolepsis structures (Davies and Kurniawan
2009).