Table Of ContentFunctional Change
Discourse Perspectives on Grammar
2
Editors
Paul Hopper
Sandra Thompson
Mouton de Gruyter · Berlin · New York
Functional Change
The Case of Malay Constituent Order
by
Susanna Cumming
Mouton de Gruyter · Berlin • New York 1991
Mouton de Gruyter (formerly Mouton, The Hague)
is a Division of Walter de Gruyter & Co., Berlin.
© Printed on acid-free paper which falls within the guidelines of the
ANSI to ensure permanence and durability.
Library of Congress Cat aloging-in-Publication Data
Cumming, Susanna, 1959 —
Functional change : the case of Malay constituent order /
by Susanna Cumming.
p. cm. — (Discourse perspectives on grammar; 2)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-89925-524-8 (cloth : acid-free paper)
1. Malay language —Syntax. 2. Malay language —Gram-
mar, Generative. 3. Malay language —History. 4. Malayan
languages —History. I Title. II. Series.
PL5115.C85 1991
499'.285 —dc20 91-11134
CIP
Die Deutsche Bibliothek — Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cumming, Susanna:
Functional change : the case of Malay constituent order /
Susanna Cumming. — Berlin ; New York : Mouton de Gruyter,
1991
(Discourse perspectives on grammar ; 2)
ISBN 3-11-011855-6
NE: Η ST; GT
© Copyright 1991 by Walter de Gruyter & Co., D-1000 Berlin 30
All rights reserved, including those of translation into foreign languages. No part of this
book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any information storage and retrieval
system, without permission in writing from the publisher.
Typesetting: Asian Research Service, Hong Kong. — Printing: Gerike GmbH, Berlin. —
Binding: Lüderitz & Bauer, Berlin. — Printed in Germany.
Table of contents
1. Introduction 1
1.1. Introduction 1
1.1.1. Constituent order change 2
1.1.2. The discourse function of constituent-order alternation 5
1.1.2.1. Function and genre 7
1.1.3. Summary 8
1.2. Malay, Malaysian, and Indonesian 8
1.2.1. "Old Malay" and the Malay homeland 10
1.2.2. Classical Malay 11
1.2.3. The nationalization of Malay 13
1.2.3.1. Indonesian 13
1.2.3.2. Malaysian 16
1.2.4. Summary 18
1.3. Methodology 18
2. Grammatical preliminaries 21
2.1. Introduction 21
2.2. The noun phrase 21
2.2.1. Pronouns 25
2.3. The prepositional phrase 28
2.4. The trigger system 29
2.4.1. Semantic and syntactic roles 30
2.4.2. Transitivity 31
2.4.3. Definition of "trigger" 31
2.5. Transitive clauses 34
2.5.1. Agent trigger clauses 36
2.5.2. Patient trigger clauses 37
2.5.2.1. No agent 37
2.5.2.2. Proclitic agent 37
2.5.2.3. Enclitic agent 39
2.5.2.4. Bare noun phrase agent 40
2.5.2.5. Oleh agent 40
2.5.2.6. Status of di- 42
2.5.2.7. Akan in Classical Malay 42
2.6. Intransitive clauses 45
2.6.1. Noun phrase predicates 45
VI
2.6.2. Prepositional phrase predicates 46
2.6.3. Unprefixed verbs 46
2.6.4. Ber- verbs 47
2.6.5. Ter- verbs 48
2.6.6. The role of the trigger 49
2.7. Some special clause types 51
2.7.1. Questions 51
2.7.2. Imperatives 53
2.7.3. Exclamatories 54
2.7.4. Possessor dislocation 55
2.8. Clause combining 57
2.8.1. Relative clauses 58
2.8.2. Clausal arguments 61
2.8.2.1. Direct quotation 66
2.8.3. Serial verbs 68
2.8.3.1. Modals 69
2.8.3.2. Restrictions on the role of the shared argument 72
2.8.3.3. One event 75
2.8.3.4. Separate events 78
2.8.3.5. Possessor serialization 80
2.9. Summary 82
3. Classical Malay 84
3.1. Introduction 84
3.1.1. Data 85
3.1.1.1. The Hikayat Indraputra 87
3.1.1.2. The Sejarah Melayu 88
3.2. The discourse particles pun and lah 90
3.2.1. Pun, preverbal position, and identifiability 93
3.2.2. Pun and discontinuity 98
3.3. Constituent order in pun-less clauses 107
3.3.1. Individuation 108
3.3.2. Semantic role 110
3.3.2.1. Descriptive predicates and possessed trigger 113
3.3.3. Participant introduction 115
3.3.4. Eventiveness 123
3.3.4.1. Intransitives: the suffix lah 123
3.3.4.2. Transitive clauses: trigger choice 128
3.4. The interaction of factors and inter-text differences 133
3.4.1. Pun and trigger choice 134
3.4.2. Constituent order and trigger choice 141
VII
3.4.3. Constituent order and lah 143
3.4.4. Non-trigger arguments 144
3.4.5. Summary of differences between hikayat 146
3.4.6. Summary of interactions: competition and convergence 147
3.4.6.1. Competition and discourse salience 149
3.5. Basic order 151
3.6. Conclusions 154
4. Modern Indonesian 155
4.1. Introduction 155
4.1.1. Data 156
4.2. The loss of pun 159
4.3. The transitive clause 161
4.3.1. Grammatical developments 162
4.3.1.1. The loss of akan 163
4.3.1.2. One-argument patient-trigger clauses 164
4.3.1.3. The clitic-agent restriction 167
4.3.2. Eventiveness and patient-trigger syntax 170
4.3.2.1. Stylistic considerations 172
4.3.2.2. Information status of the patient 175
4.3.3. Summary: trigger choice and constituent order 178
4.4. Intransitive clauses 179
4.4.1. Constituent order and eventiveness 180
4.4.2. Presentativeness 183
4.4.2.1. Place presentatives 184
4.4.2.2. Movement presentatives 186
4.4.2.3. Verbs of perception 187
4.4.2.4. Persistence and participant introduction 190
4.4.2.5. Participant introduction: summary 193
4.4.3. Exclamatories and possessed trigger 194
4.5. Differences between authors 196
4.6. Basic order 198
4.7. Conclusions 199
5. Conclusions 202
5.1. Introduction 202
5.2. Other varieties 202
5.2.1. Classical Malay 203
5.2.2. Modern Indonesian 203
5.2.3. A transitional peninsular Malay text 204
5.2.4. A modern oral Sumatran Malay text 205
VIII
5.2.5. An oral Javanese Indonesian text 206
5.2.6. Conclusions 206
5.3. The path of change 208
5.3.1. The earlier state 208
5.3.2. Narrowing of pun 209
5.3.2.1. Consequences for the PT clause 210
5.3.2.2. Consequences for the ST clause 210
5.3.3. Loss of semantic role marking 211
5.3.4. External triggers 212
5.3.5. The outcome 212
5.4. The role of contact 213
5.4.1. Malay in Java 213
5.4.2. Modern Literary Indonesian 215
5.5. Conclusions 215
Appendix 218
Notes 220
References 231
Index 244
Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1. Introduction
This work explores a particular instance of syntactic change which has oc-
curred in Malay. Put in the usual terms of constituent order typology,1
Malay can be argued to have undergone a shift from "basic" verb-initial
or VSO order (in "Classical Malay", represented in texts of the 17th
century) to "basic" verb-medial or SVO order (in the modern standard
languages known as Indonesian and Malaysian). A closer examination
shows that Malay had both orders available at both stages; therefore what
actually occurred was a change in the frequency of the two orders. This
change in frequency, in turn, results from a change in the function of the
contrast between the two orders. This functional change conditioned and
was conditioned by a number of other changes which took place con-
currently, so that functions previously marked by the VS/SV alternation
came to be marked by other means, while the VS/SV alternation took on
new functions. This view of constituent order change reflects the view
that a change in which order is "basic" is simply a side effect of changes
in the discourse functions of variant orders.
I will propose a general principle which can be seen as underlying
several aspects of the form/function redistribution which accompanied the
Malay constituent order shift:
A. A mapping between a discourse function and a morpho-syntactic
form is salient to the degree that clauses which have that function
are associated with that form, and vice versa.
B. A change which leads to a reduction of the salience of a mapping
may lead to the loss of that mapping.
C. In this event, either the function will cease to be marked, or it will
come to be marked by some other morpho-syntactic form.
This principle stems from a very old idea in the theory of language
change: that changes in one part of the system can lead to erosion of the
2 Chapter 1
form-function correspondence in another part of the system, which in turn
can lead to "reanalysis" or "restructuring" of the whole system.2 This
idea in turn has its basis in the principle that languages tend to preserve
"one form/one meaning" iconicity. Researchers in phonological and
morphological change have long been aware of the importance of this
principle; studies in syntactic change have lagged behind in this respect,
probably because ways of expressing the "meaning" of syntactic alterna-
tions (which I take to correspond to the function of the alternations in
discourse — i.e. the use speakers make of the alternations) have only
recently begun to be formulated with the requisite degree of precision.
The data I have investigated for this study come principally from the
literary varieties of two periods: the Classical Malay hikayat (a literary
form which emerged in the 17th century) and the contemporary Standard
Indonesian novel. "Indonesian" is the name for the variety of Malay
which was adopted as the standard national language by the Indonesian
government when independence was declared in 1945; its status is thus
parallel to that of the variety I will call "Malaysian", the standard national
language of Malaysia. I will use the term "Malay" as a neutral term,
embracing both new and old, standard and non-standard varieties of the
language. The relationships among these varieties will be discussed more
fully in Section 1.2 of this chapter.
1.1.1. Constituent order change
As a description of an instance of syntactic change, this study is intended
as a contribution to the typology of syntactic change, that is, to the enter-
prise which has as its goal the enumeration and classification of possible
paths of syntactic change, as set forth by Greenberg (1968:155):
Just as historically unrelated synchronic phenomena can become the
subject of generalizing attempts, so too can historically independent
instances of process — that is, typologically similar changes.
As such, it also represents a contribution to the study of linguistic
universals: an understanding of possible linguistic changes is essential to
our understanding of what constitutes a possible language, since a possible
language must have changed via a possible path from another possible
language. This view is expressed by Greenberg (1966:10) as follows:
