Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/154

142 6.Lastly, I have not infrequently met with discrepancies as between texts and manuals, and in such cases it was always the text that was in the right. The Makassar grammar says that the auxiliary word of form la is " generally " employed in order to indicate future time. So I said to myself: If that is the case, I shall meet with the particle indicating the future particularly frequently in the two prophecies contained in the romance Jayalangkara, for there the predicates refer to future events. But in the first prophecy, among a dozen predicates, the sign of the future only figures three times, and in the second one not at all. And the same proportion is exhibited, apart from the prophecies,, by the whole text of the romance. So the grammar ought to have formulated the rule thus: " Makassar possesses the capacity of expressing the future; but usually, when future time is intended, it simply uses the general form of the verb, which does not imply any time in particular."

7.The present monograph treats of the IN verb. It is based upon a detailed analysis of IN texts. I do not say that I owe nothing at all to grammars, but I do say that for me the analysis of texts has everywhere been the primary factor, and has formed the groundwork of my edifice. And in all cases, where I have consulted a grammar, I have verified its assertions by the help of texts. All the illustrations occurring in this monograph have been collected by myself out of the texts mentioned in § 11 (or the other texts referred to in § 14) ; should any of the illustrations also figure in some manual, it would be a coincidence that has escaped my notice.

8.A monograph should have something of an artistic form. Now there is no art in raking things together into a heap. Art involves selection and limitation, lucidity of structure, and intelligible exposition. Particularly selection and limitation; I shall therefore by no means submit to the reader every one of the observations I have made, but only such as appear to me to be especially characteristic and interesting. By " characteristic " I mean in relation to the IN .structure, and when I say " interesting ". I have in mind.