278 Chapter 9 Verb phrases and verbal marking
volition. The incompatibility of volitional adverbs with the structure unders-
cored the involitive nature of the action described.
(121) a. Juko' juwa ta-massa' Marhamah.
fish that IN-cook Marhamah
‘Marhamah cooked the wrong fish.’
b. *Juko’ juwa ta-massa’ Marhamah te-ngate.
fish that IN-cook Marhamah carefully
(Marhamah carefully cooked the wrong fish.)
(122) a. Buku-na Hadi ta-buwang Ebu'.
book-DEF Hadi IN-discard mother
‘Mother accidentally threw away Hadi’s book.’
b. *Buku-na Hadi sengaja ta-buwang Ebu'.
book-DEF Hadi purposely IN-discard mother
(Mother accidentally threw away Hadi’s book on purpose.)
With intransitive predicates, the actor of the verb stem is the subject of
the clause and again performs the action nonvolitionally.
(123) Sengko' ta-tedhung.
I IN-sleep
‘I accidentally fell asleep.’
(124) Siti ta-entar dha' roma-na Ita.
Siti IN-go to house-DEF Ita
‘Siti accidentally went to Ita’s house.’
The context for a clause such as (124) might be that Siti and Ita although good
friends were having a bitter argument and neither wanted to see the other. The
intransitive verbs that can take the involitive prefix are largely the nonvolition-
al/nonagentive dynamic intransitive verbs. While some speakers accept the
structure with a broader range of verb stems, many speakers do not. Therefore,
sentences such as (125) received mixed acceptability judgments.
(125) %Na-kana' ta-berka' dha' toko.
RED-child IN-run to store
‘The children ran to the store by mistake.’ (they were supposed
to go to the post office)