This paper attempts to clarify the stylistic variation of verbal
clauses in a text of Sejarah Melayu (Shellabear's edition).
Ten standard syntactic forms of verbal clause, limiting the
analysis to the propositional parts of verbal clauses, i.e., to case relations,
were established first: 1) A + M + O; 2a) A + M + O +
Prep G; 2b) A + M-kan + O + Prep G; 2c) A + M-i + G + O
or A + M-i + 0; 3a) O + D + A + Prep G; 3b) O + D-kan +
A + Prep G; 3c) G + D-i + A + O or O + D-i + A; 4a) A +
S + O + Prep G; 4b) A + S-kan + O + Prep G; and 4c) A +
S-i + G + O or A + S-i + G + O.
Then, explanation of the remaining syntactic forms of verbal
clause is attempted using two major stylistic operations, emphasis and
complementatioHn.e re, emphasism eans a leftward transfer of propositional
terms from their standard position in standard syntactic forms of proposition,
and complementatiomne ans a their rightward transfer. No generative
implication to the term stylistic operation is intended. Thus, for
instance, I explain the following verbal clause(5) as a stylistic variant
of the standard syntactic form(3c), realized through the stylistic operation
of emphasis, shown by the double arrow.
5) di atas pulau itu ditanami- nya pelbagai kayu-kayuan
on the island are planted by him various trees
5): di L + D-i + A + O ⇐ 3c): G + D-i + A + O
Another example, explained by complementation, shown by the
single arrow, is:
6) Patek itu lagi menyurat akan harta dan hamba sahaya
the vassal is registering goods and slaves
6): A + M + akan O ← 1): A + M + ⍜