intonation properties of a mono-verbal clause, which are indicated by an intonation break. This is also found in Sasak, as seen in the examples below:
69
a. Ie lalo midang.
3-S go N.date ‘He is dating.’
b. Ie lalo midang.
3-S go N.date
‘He goes, he is dating.’
70
a. Ariq nangis ngendeng aik susu.
brother N.cry ask water milk ‘Brother is crying because of thirsty.’
b. Ariq nangis ngendeng aik susu.
brother N.cry ask water milk ‘Brother cries, brother asked milk.’
Sasak serial verb constructions are said under one intonation contour, and normally there is no pause between the constituents. In clause 69-a, the serial verb
lalo ‘go’ and midang ‘dating’ happened in the same time as one single event, which is
marked by the use of one intonation unit, that is ‘
‘ intonation break. This is also found in clause 70-a, in which the serial verbs nangis and ngendeng show
a mono-clause with one single event. The use of intonation break between one verb and the other following verb as in clauses 69-b and 70-b shows that the serial verbs exist
in the clauses are in two separated events, semantically it must not related. Therefore, the clauses 69-b and 70-b are unacceptable in Sasak.
Clause 69 above is a dependent serial verb construction which only one of the verbs carries the inflection as in the second verb is nasal verb midang
‘date’, while the first verb is lalo
‘go’. Meanwhile, clause 70 above is an independent serial verb
construction which all the verbs also have the same inflectional morphology as nasal verbs in nangis
‘cry’ and ngendeng ‘ask’.
4.2.2. Sasak serial verb constructions form mono-clause as a single predicate
Verbs in serial verb constructions act together as single predicates in a clause, and often translatable into non-serializing language, as seen in the following example:
71
Amaq besoq pandiq montor=n.
father clean take.a.bath motorcycle=3S ‘Father is washing his motorcycle.’
72
Nie pelai lawoq baruq.
3-S run fall just.now ‘SHe was in a rush.’
In clause 71, the verb besoq ‘clean’ is usually use for things such as besoq
piring ‘cleaning dishes’, or for part of body such as besoq ima ‘washing hand’.
Meanwhile, the verb pandiq ‘take a bath’ is commonly use for person, i.e. Inaq pandiq
Ariq ‘Mother bathes brother’. However, the serial verbs besoq pandiq act together as a
single predicate, because they are followed by OBJ montorn ‘his motorcycle’. Because
of the OBJ montorn ‘his motorcycle’ is a vehicle, therefore, the serial verbs besoq
pandiq ‘washing’ must be followed by the vehicle object, such as montor ‘motorcycle’,
mobil ‘car’, sepedah ‘bicycle’, etc.
Semantically, the serial verb construction in clause 71 above is encoded as a single event represented as a single predicate. The actions of besoq
‘clean’ and pandiq ‘bath’ are inseparable. They form one event. Literally, they are translated as ‘clean
bath’ meaning ‘washing’. This serial verb construction is acceptable to the native speakers of Sasak of meno-mene dialect.
