Constiuent questions 451
4.3.3. barampa ‘howmany/how much’
As shown in section 4.1, like other quantifiers barampa normally immediately
precedes the noun it quantifies, as in (50) and (51).
(50) Bu Rokip noles barampa sorat?
Mrs Rokip AV.write how.many letter
‘How many letters did Bu Rokip write?’
(51) Kaka' ngakan barampa geddhang?
eld.brother AV.eat how.many banana
‘How many bananas did Big Brother eat?’
Additionally, it is possible to insert bannya'na ‘amount’ (a nominalization of
bannya' ‘many’) or biggi' (or meggi'), which literally means ‘seed’ but can be
viewed as a classifier (as in cognate Indonesian biji ‘classifier for a small round
object’).
(52) Bu Rokip noles barampa bannya'-na sorat?
Mrs Rokip AV.write how.many many-DEF letter
‘How many letters did Bu Rokip write?’
(53) Kaka' ngakan barampa biggi' geddhang?
eld.brother AV.eat how.many seed banana
‘How many bananas did Big Brother eat?’
Bannya'na and biggi' act as a type of counter here, and either can be used in
either phrase, that is barampa biggi' sorat ‘how many letters’ and barampa
bannya'na geddhang ‘how many bananas’ could be used in (51) and (52) with
no change in meaning. In fact, though, these counters are generally not used
when the quantifier immediately precedes the noun it quantifies.
However, barampa can optionally occur in clause-initial position with the
quantified noun remaining in its base position. When barampa is fronted, it is
obligatorily accompanied by biggi' or bannya'.
(54) Barampa bannya'-na Bu Rokip noles sorat?
how.many many-DEF Mrs Rokip AV.write letter
‘How many letters did Bu Rokip write?’
(55) Barampa biggi' Kaka' ngakan geddhang?
how.many seed eld.brother AV.eat banana
‘How many bananas did Big Brother eat?’