352 Chapter 11 Complex sentences
(75) %Magi permen-na dha' embug-ga se e-jajal Ina ban Siti.
AV.give candy-DEF to eld.sister-DEF REL OV-try Ina and Siti
‘Ina and Siti tried to give their candy to their older sister.’
In (75), the agent/actor Ina ban Siti corefers with the embedded actor. With
respect to object control, all speakers allow the matrix predicate of an object
control predicate to occur in the object voice, (76).
(76) Wati e-paksa Eppa' melle maen-an kaangguy Ale'.
Wati OV-force father AV.buy play-NOM for yngr.sibling
‘Father forced Wati to buy a toy for Little Brother.’
In (76) the matrix non-actor subject Wati corefers with the embedded actor. In
none of these instances are grammatical functions relevant to the coreference
requirement. Again, the coreference requirement matches that reported by
Schachter (1976) for Tagalog. While all the structures illustrated thus far are
possible, the preferred structure in neutral contexts is that in which the actor is
subject in the embedded clause. The other structures emerge with the appropri-
ate discourse context.
The actor requirement is not absolute however. It is possible to coerce
coreference between the matrix argument and a non-actor subject of a comple-
ment clause. However, such sentences require sufficient context and in some
instances speakers reject the sentences as unacceptable.
(77) Maleng gila rowa nyoba' e-tangkep bi' polisi.
thief crazy that AV.try OV-catch by police
‘That crazy thief tried to get caught by the police.’
(78) Ebu' a-lantor na’-kana’ e-pareksa dhokter.
mother AV-allow RED-child OV-examine doctor
‘Mother allowed the children to be examined by the doctor.’
In (77), maleng gila rowa ‘that crazy thief’ corefers with the complement theme
subject, not the actor. This obtains here in spite of the fact that previous exam-
ples ((36a), (66)) have demonstrated that coba' ‘try’ adheres to the complement
actor control requirement. However, the semantics of the embedded clause and
the pragmatics of the typical behavior of police and thieves (with respect to who
catches whom) conspire to coerce the meaning in (77). Similar circumstances
coerce coreference between the matrix them subject and embedded subject in
(78). It is noteworthy that some degree of volitionality is imputed to the embed-
ded subjects in (77) and (78), which is similar to the volitionality of the actors
in the typical examples. When the embedded clause is in the actor voice, this