Page:A Concise Grammar of the Malagasy Language.djvu/21



For the signs of causality and reciprocity look up and down the Table: for the simple forms, look across it.

Notice (1) that amp is the sign of causality, and if of reciprocity; and (2) that the causative-reciprocal sign ampif, and the reciprocal-causative sign ifamp, are only combinations of these two.

Tafa-, prefixed to a root, gives the idea of completeness, but differs slightly from our perfect tense, in that it may be used of something altogether past; in this respect it resembles rather the pluperfect of some languages. Père Webber says, (1) that tàfa gives the right answer to an intransitive imperative (as, Mìpetràka hianaò, sit down; tàfapètraka àho, I am seated); and (2) that while the prefix vòa implies the operation of an external agent, tàfa usually implies internal agency. Sometimes, however, these two prefixes seem interchangeable.