Causative constructions in the language of nias

Abstract

This is a brief analysis of causative constructions in Nias, an Austronesian language spoken by around 813,155 people on the island of Nias of the west coast of Sumatera in Indonesia. It specifically deals with the strategies employed in constructing causatives in the verb-initial language. Data were obtained from Nias-speaking informants living in Laowöwaga, one of the villages in the district of East Lahewa in the reference of North Nias. The results of the analysis show that causatives in the language of Nias are constructed through morpholexical operation involving affixes and words/pre-categrorials. More specifically, some causatives are formed by attaching prefix {fe-} or its allomorph {f-} to an intransitive verb. Some are formed by morpholexical operation involving suffix {-ö} and an adjective or suffix {-gö} and a pre-categorial. Both morpholexical operations involving prefix and those involving suffix and the base introduce direct causers. Some causatives are formed by attaching confix {fa-...-ö} to a transitive verb as the base. This morpholexical operation changes the argument function introduced from direct causer to indirect causer.