308 Chapter 10 Modifications to argument structure
In (101a), there is no specification as to where tanana otamana ‘the best soil’ is
being taken from. However, in (101b), the origin of the soil is specified as being
the area of Arosbaya. The endpoint of the path is inferred from the context of
the sentence.
2.4 -agi with instruments
In works on related languages (e.g. Sneddon (1996) on Indonesian), the analo-
gue of -agi is analyzed as having an instrumental function in some environ-
ments.^3 In Madurese, there are similar constructions with -agi as well. In one
structure, an instrument which is a prepositional object in the basic use of the
verb is a core argument when the verb takes the -agi suffix. This use is some-
what limited, depending primarily on whether or not the instrument is a central
notion to carrying out the action: verbs such as bungkos ‘wrap’, buntut ‘wrap’,
notobi ‘cover’, orap ‘spread’, semprot ‘spray’, tambu' ‘hit (by throwing)’, and
others occur in this construction. The basic and instrumental uses of these verbs
are first illustrated with bungkos ‘wrap’ in (102).
(102) a. Diyah mongkos sassa'-an kalaban koran.
Diyah AV.wrap wash-NOM with newspaper
‘Diyah wrapped the laundry in newspaper.’
(^3) Son & Cole (2008) contend that -kan does not have an instrumental function in these
types of structures but is simply a case of the structure in which -kan denotes an end-
point, the specific endpoint of the 'instrumental' argument. They cite sentences such as
(i) (from Sneddon 1996), which Arka (1992), Sneddon (1996), and Postman (2002)
take to be the case of an instrument.
(i) Dia mengikat(-kan) tali ke anjing. Indonesian
3 SG^ AV.tie-KAN rope to dog
‘He tied the rope to the dog.’
As Son & Cole (2008) observe, this is similar to the structure in which an endpoint is
specified: the instrumental object, here tali 'rope', can serve as the direct object of the
verb mengikat 'tie' without the -kan suffix and with no specification of what the rope is
tied to, as in (ii) (from Sneddon 1996).
(ii) Dia mengikat tali. Indonesian
3 SG AV.tie rope
‘He tied the rope.’
It is not clear that this analysis can extend to all apparent instrumental cases of -agi. For
example, mongkos 'wrap' cannot take the 'instrumental' NP as direct object without the
suffix. The verb tambu 'hit by throwing' is similarly resistant to this analysis as burus
'dog', as the goal of the throwing is the base direct object (103a). The object thrown or
'instrument', in (103b) bato 'stone', can only be a direct argument when the
- agi suffix is present.