Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/181

 SECTION IV: THE THREE GENERA, THE PRINCIPAL CHARACTERISTIC OF THE INDONESIAN VERB.

43. The great majority of IN languages possess the capacity of forming he three genera of the verb: the active, the causative, and the passive. This phenomenon, therefore, is Common IN. It is the chief characteristic of the IN verb.

44. We have learnt that the languages of the East are very poor morphologically. So it is striking that even there we still find languages that possess the three genera, as, for example, Kamberese. Illustrations:

I. Active, formative ma-. From the Song at House-building: " Marapu, who created men " = na Marapu na mawulu tan.

II. Causative, formative pa-. From the Harvest Song: " Let this arrive at the top! "' = L. + a. this to top = patoama ña la pinu.

III. Passive, formative ka-. From the Song against the Son-in-law: " She runs around, as though maddened " = na laku biṅu katoaba.

45. We have seen above that there are WB's that can do duty in the sentence as active or passive verbs, without the help of any formative. But the usual rule is that the language requires formatives. I have never come across causatives without a formative.

46. The Active. The Common IN formatives for forming the active are: ma- ṅ-, or in place thereof maṅ- ᐸ ma + ṅ um-, or -um-. Rh