60 THE CHIEF PARTS OF SPEECH (C) THE VERB § 33. Even the voice of the Malay verb, simple as well as derivative, has been a subject of controversy. The earlier grammarians, Werndly, Marsden, Crawfurd, held that the verb in simple radical form was active. Then de Hollander borrowed the subjective-passive' theory' as it is called, from the conclusions of Dutch scholars in Javanese grammar. The subjective passive was alleged to be formed by prefixing the unemphatic abbreviated forms of the personal. pronouns aku and ĕngkau to the simple verb: aku tutup I shut, engkau tutup you shut, but ku-tutup by me is shut; kau-tutup by you is shul. The subjective passive points out the subject as if its expression were accidental; it has a passive sense but is not a passive directly opposed to the active or subjective form as I was slain is opposed to I slay. It is only a passive form which expresses the accident as a deed or result of the subject but not necessarily as done to the object or undergone by the object.' Favre and Dutch scholars down to Gerth van Wijk carried this theory further still and saw the subjective passive in all contexts where the simple verb was found: Hassan tutup pintu by Hassan was shut the door, čugkau tutup pintu by you was shut the door. Derivatives in mě (§44) form the active; so the simple verb must be some sort of passive! Against this theory it may be urged that it is a needless torturing of grammar and logic, based on a misunderstanding of the peculiar functions of the mě derivative. Tendeloo returned to the older view that the simple root verb is active. Now on the whole, it is true to say that the simple verb does denote the active voice, but at bottom there are too many exceptions, too many cases where the verb simple and 1 At bottom the theory was an unskilful parody of the dictum laid down in § 8 and note, and overlooked the fact that the simple radical verb is often active.
