Some order in ordering; Notes on suruh-constructions in 17th-century Malay

Abstract

in general, and the form of the first verb and the semantic function of some of the constituents of the construction in particular. menyuruh Ali memanggil Hasan orders Ali to call Fatimah, is one example out of several of the possible types of suruh construction. The diversity of the morphological phenomena connected with the two verbs that form the nucleus of this construction and the mobility of the latter's constituents render these constructions rather complex. Furthermore, s?n//*-constructions seem to belong to those syntactical devices that have undergone change in the course of time. A detailed comparative description of these constructions may allow us to gain an important insight into the development of Malay syntax. As a first step, this case-study attempts to provide a basic description of swrw?-constructions from the 17th century. For the linguistic usage in the surviving manuscripts of that period represents the oldest stage of Malay that furnishes sufficient material to serve as a basis for linguistic research. From among the many traditional Malay texts we must be careful to select those that faithfully reflect 17th-century linguistic usage. This implies that we should use strictly only texts that have been handed down in 17th-century manuscripts. Consequently we have to leave out of consideration texts such as the Sejarah Melayuy which undoubtedly, on the basis of philological/historical evidence, originated in the 17th century or earlier but have been handed down to us only in relatively recent copies (mostly 19th-century). If we take into account the Malay tradition whereby the copyist was at the same time co-author,