Page:An introduction to Indonesian linguistics, being four essays.djvu/226

 then were + taken p. his, then went into forest deep = asa maṅan ma si Saṅmaima, asa diboan ma bohal na, asa laho ma tu tombak loṅo-loṅo.

144. Sentences that have a predicate but no subject.

I. The indefinite pronouns “it” or “one”, used as subjects, are not as a rule represented at all in IN. — Illustrations. Mentaway, from the Contest between Sun and Moon: “I am well, it is raining” = aku maäru, urat. Bareqe, from the Song to the Moon: “It gets dark, before one wends one's way homewards” = Gets dark, before go + home = maweṅi (mo) nepa jela. It is true that the subject is sometimes indicated in cases of that kind. In the Bont. Story of the Stars the expression “it is growing dark” (i.e., night is coming on) is sometimes rendered by malafi and at other times by malafi nan talon, “the daytime is becoming night”.

II. When the verb is in the imperative the pronominal subject may be added or omitted. Languages that possess short forms of pronouns are fond of adding the subject in such cases. Thus in the Bug. Paupau Rikadong the king says to his servants: “Go, then !” = Go then you = lao sa o. In Mak., in the expressions “don't” = teya ko and “don't let us” = teya kiq, by means of which the prohibitive is formed, the pronoun always appears; an analysis of the whole of the extensive work Jayalangkara has hardly revealed a single exception to this rule.

145. Having in the preceding paragraph dealt with sentences that have no subject, we have now to speak of sentences that have no verbal predicate.

I. It has already been mentioned that IN possesses no verb corresponding to the Indo-European copula.

II. When in an IN sentence there is an adverb or a preposition indicating a direction in space, the verb of going, coming, or remaining, which would be the predicate, is often omitted. — Illustrations. Old Malagasy, from the Sermon Tonih Zaṅahary; “Where art thou, Moses ?” = Where thou,