The suffix -agi 313
(115) Jawab-an-na e-terrang-ngagi guru dha' red-mored.
answer-NOM-DEF OV-clear-AGI teacher to RED-student
‘The teacher explained the answer to the students.’
With a number of predicates, causatives can be formed either with the –
agi suffix or the causative prefix pa-. One such predicate is senneng ‘happy’.
(116) a. Ita nyenneng-ngagi Bambang.
Ita AV.happy-AGI Bambang
‘Ita pleases Bambang.’
b. Ita ma-senneng Bambang.
Ita AV.CS-happy Bambang
‘Ita pleases Bambang.’
There is no difference in the interpretation of these two clauses (although indi-
vidual speakers may have a preference for one or the other structure). It is also
possible to combine the two affixes as in (117), with (117a) or without (117b)
actor voice morphology on the verb root.
(117) a. Ita ma-nyenneng-ngagi Bambang.
Ita AV.CS-AV.happy-AGI Bambang
‘Ita makes Bambang happy.’
b. Ita ma-senneng-ngagi Bambang.
Ita AV.CS-happy-AGI Bambang
‘Ita makes Bambang happy.’
The sentences in (117) are considered more emphatic than the forms with a
single causitivizing morpheme. One further textual example is given in (118).
(118) Oreng gella' terro nolong-a Bu Randa ma-nyalamed-dagi Temon
person before want AV.help-IRR Mrs widow AV.CS-AV.safe-AGI Temon
Emmas dhari ma' butha se jahat jiya.
Emmas from father giant REL evil this
‘That person wanted to help the widow protect Temon Emmas from the
evil giant.’
2.6 Polite imperatives
Affixing -agi to an imperative form results in a softer or more polite request, as
in (119b) and (120b).