Minangkabau -i: A locative, transitivizing, iterative, adversative suffix
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3765/plsa.v2i0.4098Keywords:
Minangkabau, Indonesian, Malay, Austronesian, morphology, applicative, valency, locative, adversativeAbstract
Minangkabau, a Malayo-Polynesian (Austronesian) language of Sumatra, displays a small but complicated system of verbal morphology resembling those of its near, better-described relatives Indonesian and Malay. In these languages, the verbal morphemes are multifunctional, and fully characterizing their meanings and uses has proven challenging. We present our findings on -i, which previous literature frequently characterizes as a type of applicative. We identify four distinct productive functions of -i, not all applicative: adding a locative object, transitivizing non-verbal roots, adding iterative/intensive aspects, and imputing adversative readings. Adversative -i has not previously been identified in the literature, and is unattested in Indonesian.
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Published by the LSA with permission of the author(s) under a CC BY 4.0 license.