268 Chapter 9 VPs and verbal marking
- bisa ‘can’
The auxiliary bisa is an abilitive, indicating the capability of the subject to per-
form the action denoted by the verb, as in (70) and (71).
(70) Sa=diyah bisa maca buku rowa.
Sa'diyah can AV.read book that
‘Sa'diyah can read that book.’
(71) Mata-na Dewi Ratnadi bisa mella' pole, lo' buta pole.
eye-DEF Dewi Ratnadi can AV.open.eye again not blind again
‘And Dewi Ratnadi could open her eyes, and she was no longer blind.’
- gi' ‘still, yet’
Gi' ‘still, yet’ is an adverbial that indicates that some state of affairs is still ob-
tains or is in progress. Thus, it imperfective aspect, as when it modifies adjec-
tival predicates, as in (72).
(72) Mon gi' ngodha, barna-na biru.
if yet young color-DEF green
‘If it is still young, its color is green.’
With active verbs, gi' + verb has a progressive interpretation, as in (73) and
(74).
(73) Tang ana' gi' a-sapo kamar-ra.
my child yet AV-sweep room-DEF
‘My child is sweeping his room.’
(74) Ebu polana gi' a-bajang, ta' kengeng Ebu nyambit.
mother because yet AV-pray not allowed mother AV.answer
‘Because mother was saying her prayers, she could not answer.’
As illustrated in section 3, imperfectivity can be denoted by reduplication. Ad-
ditionally, use of the temporal noun sateya ‘now’ indicates that the state of af-
fairs is true at the time of speaking, and is thus interpreted as progressive with
active predicates, as in (75).
(75) Tang ana' a-sapo kamar-ra sateya.
my child AV-sweep room-DEF now
‘My child sweeps/is sweeping his room now.’