The preposition ne Local prepositions

6 THE PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE 139 13 te mata-gholeo in the east loc eye-sun 14 te Ambo in Ambon 15 te Kandari in Kendari c. It is used for places that are located in the front of an object, or in an important position: 16 te wise in front loc front 17 te fotu atto the head loc head 18 te fointo atto the door loc door 19 te Wolio to Buton loc Buton

6.1.3. The preposition ne

Ne has many functions: a. It is the usual preposition before referential demonstratives 5.5.5 and the question word hamai where, which 8.6.2: 20 a. ne ini here loc this b. ne watu there loc that c. ne hamai? where? loc where A common variant of ne ini here is na ini. b. It is the local preposition used before names and certain nouns modified by a referential demonstrative: 21 a. ae-late we Raha I live in Raha 1sR-live loc Raha b. ae-late ne Raha ini I live here in Raha 1sR-live loc Raha this c. It is used for animate recipients, source, path and also for agents in nominalized relative clauses marked by ka--ghoo see 9.1.3: 22 no-bisara-mo ne robhine-no he said to his wife 3sR-speak-PF loc wife-his 140 A GRAMMAR OF THE MUNA LANGUAGE 23 ne-fe-gholi kenta ne inodi she ordered me to buy fish 3sR-L.CAUS-buy fish loc I 24 da-t[um]ola ne Kakawasa we will call to the Almighty 1pI-call loc Almighty 25 ne-pakatu sura ne inodi 1. he sent a letter to me 3sR-send letter loc I 2. he sent a letter through me, by means of me path 26 a-fetingke-e ne Ali I heard it from Ali 1sR-hear-it loc Ali 27 sura ka-pakatu-ghoo-ku ne ina-ku letter NOM-send-IO-my loc mother-my the letter that was sent to me by my mother d. It is used for certain time specifications: 28 no-tanda ne wula-no Februari it began in February 3sR-begin loc month-POS February 29 no-lente ne taghu 1985 he was born in 1985 3sR-born loc year 1985 e. It is the usual preposition in combination with a number of verbs: 30 o-[m]esua ne sikola hae? what school will you enter? 2sI-enter loc school what 31 a-sawi ne adhara I went on horseback 1sR-go.by loc horse 32 no-tei ne ka-tomba-tomba she put it in a small basket 3sR-put loc DIM-RED-basket 33 no-punda ne suo he jumped into the bamboo trap 3sR-jump loc bamboo.trap 34 no-mai-ghoo ne patu it comes from bamboo 3sR-come-IO loc bamboo It is not clear what these verbs or clauses share semantically. Possibly the action as a whole is a specific action directed towards one object, which, although it is not marked as definite, is still taken to be specific by the hearer in the sense that only one referent is meant. If this is true, it can be linked with the specific usuage of ne illustrated under a - d. In spite of their different usages there is still a lot of variation possible with the local prepositions. In many cases the speaker seems to be free to choose, as illustrated by the following example: 35 no-rato wetene kampuuna she arrived at a crossroads 3sR-come loc crossroads 6 THE PREPOSITIONAL PHRASE 141 The difference between we and te in 35 can be said to correspond to a ref- erential difference, depending on the height of the crossroads in relation to the point of orientation. The choice between we and ne, however, depends on the speakers perspective of the givenness or specificness of the noun or noun phrase. In addition to these three local prepositions there is a dialectal form se, which takes a marginal position in standard Muna. In other Muna dialects it is frequently found. When it is used in standard Muna, it functions as a local preposition for places that are not far away from the point of orientation and that are on a level with that point. The most common occurrence is se Wolio toin Buton, but also se Pure toin Pure and se lambu-do into their house. This se is comparable both in form and usage to the dialectal demon- strative sotu 5.5.2.

6.2. Non-local prepositions