290 Chapter 10 Modifications to argument structure
communication–verbs such as bala ‘say’, acareta ‘tell’, adungeng ‘tell a story’,
koto' ‘whisper’, janji ‘promise’, baca ‘read (to)’, and others. Like the ditransi-
tive verbs of transmittal, these verbs are essentially three-place predicates with
an agent/actor, recipient (of the communication), and a subject-matter argument
which is overtly or covertly realized. This is illustrated first with careta ‘tell’,
which has the following paradigm:
(31) Ita a-careta ka Ina bab Marlena.
Ita AV-story to Ina about Marlena
‘Ita told Ina about Marlena.’
(32) Ita a-careta-e Ina bab Marlena.
Ita AV-story-LOC Ina about Marlena
‘Ita told Ina about Marlena.’
(33) Ina e-careta-e Ita bab Marlena.
Ina OV-story-LOC Ita about Marlena
‘Ina was told by Ita about Marlena.’
In (31), both the goal Ina and the subject matter Marlena occur as prepositional
objects. However, when the goal is a core argument, the verb is suffixed with
- e: in (32) it is the object and in (33) the subject. When careta takes the -e suf-
fix, the subject matter cannot be a core argument; hence, (34), in which it is
subject, is ungrammatical.
(34) *Marlena e-careta-e Ita (ka) Ina.
Marlena OV-story-LOC Ita to Ina
(Ita told Ina about Marlena.)
In order for the subject matter argument to be a core argument, the suffix -agi
must be used, as in (35) and (36), in which it occurs as object and subject, re-
spectively. (This suffix is treated in detail in section 10.2.)
(35) Ita a-careta'-agi Marlena ka Ina.
Ita AV-story-AGI Marlena to Ina
‘Ita talked about Marlena to Ina.’
(36) Marlena e-careta'-agi Ita ka Ina.
Marlena OV-story-AGI Ita to Ina
‘Ita talked about Marlena to Ina.’
The root bala ‘say’ shows the same paradigm as careta. The difference
here is that the subject matter is clausal rather than nominal.