Abstract
Makalero is a non-Austronesian/Papuan language spoken in East Timor. Its profile is largely isolating, the basic SOV word order being crucial in determining the grammatical relations of the uninflected word forms. Yet there is a small class of transitive verbs which acquire a prefix when the direct object is a third person. This allows a certain amount of flexibility in word order. A formally identical prefix also occurs with some other verb classes; its function is not yet well understood in those cases, although it seems to be connected to transitivity, possibly reflecting an old applicative. This article is based on work in progress and presents preliminary findings on what seems to be a transitivising strategy in Makalero.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 87-96 |
Journal | Linguistics in the Netherlands |
Volume | 25 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2008 |
Externally published | Yes |
Subject classification (UKÄ)
- Specific Languages
Free keywords
- Makalero
- Papuan
- Timor
- object-marking