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except those marked as unacceptable.
In analyzing the data, the technique used is basically
descriptive. In explaining certain phenomena, some
generative terminologies are used, but by no means is this
grammar based on generative theory. The terms are used
because they seem familiar to many readers. My goal is to
describe Acehnese sentences using my linguistics knowledge,
my native speaker's intuition about the language, and my
previous experiences doing research on Acehnese, the Gayo
and the Alas languages.
The descriptions given in this grammar are not entirely
syntactic. Many phenomena in Acehnese cannot be explained by
syntax alone. Subject omission is one of the examples that
cannot always be explained by syntax. Subject omission in
complex sentences, such as in coordination, relative
clauses, and sentences involving the so-called Equi, are in
the domain of syntax, but subject omission in conversations
and stories is not. Subject (also object) omission here is
contextually governed. Here, the subject must be used when
it is first introduced into the conversation or story, and
it must be omitted later, unless another participant
interrupts its continuity, or for some other reasons. These
are described in the relevant chapters.
There are other phenomena that are syntactically
inexplicable: for example, some types of enclitic omissions
and the necessity of enclitics, proclitic omission, the
necessity and the omission of head NP's in relative clauses,