Between perfect and perfective. The meaning and function of Ambonese Malay su and suda

Abstract

Tjia nate forms in many or most Malay dialects, including the national language of Indonesia, Bahasa Indonesia, and of Malaysia, Bahasa Melayu, so that we expect similar meanings and functions, though probably different feature clusters, to occur in these related dialects. Because studies on Indonesian sudah are illuminating for the way in which these Ambonese Malay items function, we will in places refer to these analyses, even though Ambonese Malay su and suda are the focus of our attention. [...]it can be internal negatioh NO LONGER seng ... lai internal negation STILL masi o xs 10 60 Six 0) o Xi ra Six ai a. Between Perfect and Perfective 291 imagined as corresponding to the outcome of a neighbouring element having negation in its scope (internal negation): NOT YET is logically equivalent to STILL NOT (whereas STILL is logically equivalent to NOT YET NOT).5 Sentences with su, bal'ong, masi, or seng ... lai not only concern situations that imply opposites from a polarity perspective, but also imply that the 'opposite situations' are sequentially related. The use of English present tense in the novel/documentary context in example (12) also has a particular modal effect, for it emphasizes the 'here Between Perfect and Perfective 293 and now', that part of reality that we know from direct experience. [...]it enhances the involvement of the reader/listener with what is currently being communicated: he or she is led into, or made part of, the scne (compare with the distant narrative form 'The sun rose [...] In the factuality reading, the speaker presents the prospective change of weather as a definite, given fact. Because of the speaker-oriented character of SM in sentences (17b)-(18b), this factuality feature is explainable as an epistemic modal value pertaining to the realis-irrealis scale.