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MASYARAKAT LINGUISTIK INDONESIA
Didirikan pada tahun 1975, Masyarakat Linguistik Indonesia (MLI)
merupakan organisasi profesi yang bertujuan untuk
mengembangkan studi ilmiah mengenai bahasa.
PENGURUS MASYARAKAT LINGUISTIK INDONESIA
Ketua
Wakil Ketua
Sekretaris
Bendahara
:
:
:
:
Faizah Sari, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya
Rindu Parulian Simanjuntak, SIL Internasional
Siti Wachidah, Universitas Negeri Jakarta
Katharina Endriati Sukamto, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya
DEWAN EDITOR
Utama
: Bambang Kaswanti Purwo, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya
Pendamping : Faizah Sari, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya
Anggota
: Bernd Nothofer, Universitas Frankfurt, Jerman; Ellen Rafferty,
University of Wisconsin, Amerika Serikat; Bernard Comrie, Max Planck Institute; Tim
McKinnon, Jakarta Field Station MPI; A. Chaedar Alwasilah, Universitas Pendidikan
Indonesia; E. Aminudin Aziz, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia; Siti Wachidah,
Universitas Negeri Jakarta; Katharina Endriati Sukamto, Universitas Katolik Indonesia
Atma Jaya; D. Edi Subroto, Universitas Sebelas Maret; I Wayan Arka, Universitas
Udayana; A. Effendi Kadarisman, Universitas Negeri Malang; Bahren Umar Siregar,
Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya; Hasan Basri, Universitas Tadulako; Yassir
Nasanius, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya; Dwi Noverini Djenar, Sydney
University, Australia; Mahyuni, Universitas Mataram; Patrisius Djiwandono,
Universitas Ma Chung; Regina Yanti, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya.
JURNAL LINGUISTIK INDONESIA
Linguistik Indonesia diterbitkan pertama kali pada tahun 1982 dan sejak tahun 2000
diterbitkan tiap bulan Februari dan Agustus. Linguistik Indonesia telah terakreditasi
berdasarkan SK Dirjen Dikti No. 64a/DIKTI/Kep/2010, 1 November 2010. Jurnal
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umumnya melalui Cabang MLI di pelbagai Perguruan Tinggi, tetapi dapat juga secara
perseorangan atau institusional. Iuran per tahun adalah Rp 125.000 (anggota dalam
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Redaksi dengan mengikuti format Pedoman Penulisan Naskah di bagian belakang
sampul jurnal.
ALAMAT
Masyarakat Linguistik Indonesia
Pusat Kajian Bahasa dan Budaya
Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya
JI. Jenderal Sudirman 51, Jakarta 12930, Indonesia
e-mail: [email protected], Ph/Fax: +62 (0)21 571 9560
Daftar Isi
Mapping Out Mentalism in Present-Day Linguistics
and Other Related Disciplines
A. Effendi Kadarisman ..................................................................
1
Nominal Clause Constructions in Biak
Suriel Mofu ................................................................................... 25
Pola Unsur Suprasegmental Nada Bahasa Tionghoa Orang Surabaya
Ong Mia Farao Karsono .............................................................. 47
The Co-Occurrence of the Clitic -Nya and Demonstrative Itu
in Spoken Indonesian Discourse
Katharina Endriati Sukamto .......................................................... 69
Non-Topological Relations in Rongga, Balinese, Indonesian:
Some Evidence from Linguistic and Non-Linguistic Tasks
I Nyoman Aryawibawa ................................................................. 85
Resensi:
Craig Hancock
Meaning Centered Grammar
Diresensi oleh Daniel Ginting ................................................................. 101
Jelajah Linguistik:
Kata atau Sintaksis Terlebih Dahulu:
Kasus “Jabberwocky” dan Bahasa Alay
Yassir Nasanius ...................................................................................... 103
Bincang antara Kita dari Dunia Maya:
“Diperingan”: Bagaimana Memaknainya? ................................... 105
Linguistik Indonesia, Februari 2012, 1-23
Copyright©2012, Masyarakat Linguistik Indonesia, ISSN: 0215-4846
Tahun ke-30, No. 1
MAPPING OUT MENTALISM IN PRESENT-DAY LINGUISTICS
AND OTHER RELATED DISCIPLINES
A. Effendi Kadarisman*
Universitas Negeri Malang
[email protected]
Abstract
Mentalism in linguistics is the belief that verbal behavior is best explained by referring to
the workings of the human mind, and best captured by the term “competence”. First
proposed by Chomsky (1965), the term “competence” has obtained much wider use in
generative grammar, in context-bound linguistics, and in other related disciplines (i.e.,
Second Language Acquisition, Translation, and Poetics) – obviously showing the
magnificent influence of mentalism. This is not because “competence” is a magic word,
but because it is part of what Culler (1975) calls “a methodological statement of
exemplary clarity”, set out to meet the external condition of explanatory adequacy.
Key words: mentalism, competence, generative grammar, context-bound linguistics,
explanatory adequacy.
Mentalisme dalam linguistik adalah paham bahwa tindak kebahasaan kita seyogyanya
dijelaskan dengan merujuk pada tata-kerja alam-pikiran kita, dan dibuhul-simpulkan
dengan kata kunci “kompetensi”. Istilah “kompetensi”, yang semula dikemukakan oleh
Chomsky (1965), telah digunakan secara luas dalam linguistik generatif, dalam studi
bahasa terikat-konteks, dan dalam sejumlah cabang ilmu lainnya (yaitu, Pemerolehan
Bahasa Kedua, Penerjemahan, dan Puitika); semuanya menunjukkan dengan jelas adanya
pengaruh mentalisme yang meluas. Ini bukan karena “kompetensi” adalah sebuah kata
bertuah, melainkan karena ia merupakan bagian dari “pola-ungkap metodologis yang jelas
dan layak-tiru” (Culler 1975), yang dirancang untuk memenuhi tuntutan eksternal berupa
ketuntasan penjelasan.
Kata kunci: mentalisme, kompetensi, linguistik generatif, studi bahasa terikat-konteks,
ketuntasan penjelasan.
INTRODUCTION
MENTALISM IN GENERATIVE GRAMMAR
The use of the term “mentalism” in this paper brings along some disadvantage and needs
clarification. When we look it up in Google, most entries describe “mentalism” as mind reading
and magic trick, and so do dictionaries. In Webster (1989:742) “mentalist” means mind reader,
while in Longman (1978:679) “mental hospital” means a hospital where people whose minds
are ill are treated and looked after. However, in a dictionary of philosophy (Mautner 1996:64,
348) “mentalism” is used in contrast with “behaviorism”; the former suggests that the causal
explanation of human behavior is expressed with reference to the mind, whereas the latter
suggests that the empirically observed behavior itself, consisting of stimuli and reactions, serves
as the basis for causal explanation. It is in this sense that I use the term “mentalism” and,
accordingly, refer to Chomsky as a “mentalist”. The justification is given by Smith (1999:143),
who states that “Chomsky is a mentalist in the sense that he is attempting to understand the
workings of the human mind within the framework of the natural sciences”. More operationally,
Hanks (1996:71) observes, “Linguistics would be fundamentally mentalist. Its object would be
A. Effendi Kadarisman
the deep mental reality that underlies verbal performance” (emphasis in both quotations added).
Thus keeping aside the meaning “mind reading” and referring specifically to “explaining
linguistic behavior in terms of the workings of the human mind”, the term “mentalism” is
picked out and used as a key-concept throughout this paper.
How does mentalism shape up generative linguistics? In Aspects of the Theory of
Syntax, Chomsky (1965:4) states that “linguistic theory is mentalistic, since it is concerned with
discovering a mental reality underlying actual behavior” (emphasis added). This mental reality
is termed “competence” (the speaker-hearer’s knowledge of his language), which is
fundamentally different from performance (the actual use of language in concrete situations).
It is this linguistic competence or mental grammar in the mind of the speaker that allows the
“creative aspect of language use”—not in a poetic or literary sense but in an everyday manner
(p. 6). In our everyday experience, every time we speak or write, we “create” utterances or
sentences; and every time we listen or read, we “creatively make sense” of what we perceive.
Structurally, this creative act of language use is referred to as “making infinite use of finite
means” (p. 8). The “finite means” refers to the limited or definite number of words and
grammatical rules in a language, and the “infinite use” refers to (the possibility of) producing
unlimited numbers of sentences in language use (Lyons 1978:43). While in Aspects (1965) the
creative use of language is noted only in passing, in the subsequent book, Cartesian Linguistics
(1966), the first chapter is devoted to “Creative Aspect of Language Use”, arguing that
linguistic creativity is the hallmark of human existence. Referring to Cartesian philosophy,
Chomsky states that “the essential difference between man and animal is exhibited most clearly
by human language, in particular, by man’s ability to form new statements which express new
thoughts and which are appropriate to new situations” (p. 3). In this respect, man is a rational
being, for he is free from the domination of instinct.
In linguistic analysis, the logical consequence of the “competence vs. performance”
dichotomy is the necessity of positing “deep structure vs. surface structure”. Whereas in
explaining the nature of linguistic creativity Chomsky refers to Cartesian philosophy, in arguing
for the necessity of positing “deep structure vs. surface structure”, as noted in Language and
Mind (1972), he refers to Port-Royal Grammar, part of the 17th century rationalist philosophy in
France which concerned logical explanation of human language. The well-known example
cited from this school is the sentence Invisible God created the visible world. Lying under this
“surface structure” are three propositions serving as “deep structures”:
(a) God is invisible,
(b) God created the world, and
(c) The world is visible (pp. 16-17).
From these examples, the necessity of positing “deep structure” should be obvious, without
which explanation of “meaning” would remain obscure. The absence of “deep structure” in
Bloomfieldian linguistics, Chomsky argues, is the very reason why this school failed to meet the
condition of adequacy in linguistic description. In this context it is important to note that
Chomsky’s most significant contribution to linguistics, according to Lyon (1978), is his
formalization of syntactic theory. “Chomsky may be right or wrong about the speciesspecificity of language, but one thing is clear: What his theory of generative grammar seeks to
formalize – rule-governed, structure-dependent creativity whose complexity is defined by the
power of the grammar – is certainly an essential part of language” (p. 143).
This is a very brief summary of mentalism in generative grammar, best captured by the
postulate “language is a direct mirror of the mind.” During the mid 20th century, a period in the
history of linguistics celebrated as the “Chomskyan revolution”, mentalism gained prominence
in less than a decade and compellingly swept aside empiricism in the Bloomfieldian school,
making obsolete the well-known postulate “language is a set of habits”. Now, five decades after
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Linguistik Indonesia, Tahun ke-30, No. 1, Februari 2012
the “revolution”, what does the portrait of mentalism look like? In response to this question,
this paper, having outlined the emergence and early success of mentalism, looks critically at
how mentalism spreads inside and outside generative grammar as well as in other disciplines
related to linguistics.
THE SPREAD OF MENTALISM THROUGH WIDER USE OF THE KEY-CONCEPT
“COMPETENCE”
During the last five decades of linguistic development, the key-concept “competence” which
holds mentalism in linguistics, as revealed through the present library research, has been used
more and more widely in three different domains:
(a) in generative linguistics itself,
(b) in context-bound linguistics, and
(c) outside linguistics proper.
Below is a brief account of the spread of the key-term “competence” in present-day linguistics
and other related fields.
The Expanded Use of “Competence” in the Sub-fields of Generative Linguistics
With reference to (first) language acquisition, “linguistic competence” or “mental grammar” is
considered to be the mature form of the language acquisition device (LAD) or the eventual
manifestation of principles and parameters in Universal Grammar (UG). Either the LAD
hypothesis or UG theory has been proposed to solve the “logical problem of language
acquisition”. That is, considering the highly complex nature of language, it would be impossible
for humans to master language in the first few years in their life if they were not equipped,
biologically and psychologically, with a mental device specifically designed for language
acquisition. This mental device is believed to be the LAD or UG. The former is the mental
device seen as a “black-box”, and the latter is the mental device specified as consisting of innate
principles and parameters. Thus the LAD hypothesis or UG theory is meant to be the logical
explanation of how human language is possible (Kadarisman 2007).
As for the organization of grammar, Chomsky (1965:15-18) proposes three inter-related
components: syntactic, phonological, and semantic components. The syntactic component,
which provides description of sentence generation, begins with the base rules producing deep
structure, followed by transformation rules producing surface structure. The phonological
component determines the phonetic form of a sentence at the surface structure; and the semantic
component determines the meaning or semantic interpretation of a sentence, by referring mostly
to the deep structure but occasionally also to the surface structure. Note that “morphology” is
set aside in this theoretical framework, probably due to the fact that “generation” in generative
grammar operates most obviously in syntax and then in phonology, but less obviously in
morphology.1
In Aspects (1965) and also in Sound Pattern of English (1968),2 considered respectively
the “holy bible” of generative syntax and generative phonology, Chomsky uses only the general
term “linguistic competence” to refer to mental grammar. However, scholars in the generative
school further specify that each component of grammar may stand as a modifier for
“competence”, and hence phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic
competence (O’Grady et al. 2005:5-6). Our phonetic competence enables us to recognize
dialectal variation and also foreign accent. A four-year-old niece of mine in Malang asked her
mom, “Ma, itu orang mana?” (Mom, where is she from?), when her mother was having a
conversation with a woman from Padang. The small girl seemed to be curious upon recognizing
her Padangese accent in speaking Indonesian. The first time I met Professor James Collins in
Hawaii, he said to me, “I know right away that you are from Java, because of your [b, d, g] in
3
speech.” Obviously, my Javanese [b, d, g] are very “heavy”, known phonetically as breathy
voiced. On another occasion, an American friend asked me, “Pak Effendi, when you speak
English, can you hear your own accent?” Definitely my English sounds “foreign” to him; and
my reply was “When I speak English, that’s the best English I can produce with my mouth.”
Shortly, dialectal variation implies producing phonetic features different from those in the local
dialect; and foreign accent means the failure to produce the gross phonetic features as produced
by native speakers.
Other sub-types of competence enable speakers of any language, among other things, to
distinguish between well-formed and ill-formed linguistic units. Our phonological competence
tells us that the acronym menkeu sounds strange, but mendagri sounds good. The former, but
not the latter, violates the phonotactic rule of Indonesian: there is no diphthong [«u] in the
language. In English, brick is a real word; blick is a nonsense word but sounds good; and bnick
is a nonsense word and sounds strange. This is because blick is an example of accidental gap;
but bnick is an example of systematic gap.3
Our morphological competence tells us that mengepalai and menangani are wellformed, but *mematai and *memuluti are ill-formed. We know that pembeli means orang yang
membeli, penggali means orang yang menggali, but pendapat does not mean *orang yang
mendapat. Referring to tools, from pahat we can say memahatkan; but from palu we cannot say
*memalukan. This allows the humor: Setiap kali memutuskan perkara, hakim itu selalu
memalukan. In English, we know there is semantic contrast in the pairs agree >< disagree,
believe >< disbelieve, and like >< dislike, but not in appoint >< disappoint. The last pair
allows the humor: An office seeker is one who is either appointed or disappointed.
Moving ahead, our syntactic competence enables us not only to distinguish between
well-formed and ill-formed syntactic constructions, but also to recognize syntactic ambiguity.
We know that the Indonesian sentence Anak itu menangis can have the inverted form Menangis
anak itu – with the stress on the fronted VP predicate menangis. But we also know that the
English sentence The child cried cannot be inverted into *Cried the child – even if the fronted
predicate is given primary stress. In colloquial Indonesian, Saya kemarin sibuk is considered
well-formed; but in colloquial English, *I yesterday was busy or *I was yesterday busy is
considered ill-formed. In sum, our syntactic competence tells us that word order in Indonesian
is more flexible than word order in English.
As for syntactic ambiguity, examples are put in numbers. The NP predicate anak
pedagang yang sombong in Indonesian sentence (1) has two possible interpretations:
(a) [[anak pedagang] [yang sombong]], where yang sombong is a modifier for anak
pedagang; or
(b) [[anak] [pedagang yang sombong]], where yang sombong is a modifier for
pedagang.
1.
[[Dia] [anak pedagang yang sombong]]
Likewise, the subject complement NP a dirty street fighter in English sentence (2) has four
possible interpretations. Label bracketed as [a [[dirty] [street fighter]]], the NP means
(a) a street fighter who is physically dirty, or
(b) a street fighter who fights in a dirty manner. But label bracketed as [a [[dirty
street] [fighter]]], the NP means
(c) a fighter in or from a dirty street, or
(d) one who tries to fight or clean up dirty streets.
The last interpretation may remind us of the NP a fire fighter, which means “one who fights
against a blazing fire”.
4
2.
[[Joe] [is [a dirty street fighter]]]
Sometimes, syntactic ambiguity is made possible by placing different pauses or junctures, as can
be seen in two possible interpretations of the newspaper headline in (3).
3.
PRESIDEN SOROTI KORUPSI
Naturally, we know that this headline means ‘presiden menyoroti korupsi’, as analyzed in the
label brackets [[PRESIDEN] [SOROTI KORUPSI]]. But the humorist Ucup Kelik twists the
sentence into [[PRESIDEN SOROTI] [KORUPSI]], and hence asking the question, “Presiden
Soroti itu dari negara mana ya, kok korupsi?” Consider another example in English.
4.
“Dear Sir,” a man wrote to the editor of a country paper. “Can you tell me how
long cows should be milked?”
His answer came back in the next mail. “Just the same as short cows, of course.”
The normal interpretation is derived from [ … [how long] [cows should be milked]]; but the
humor is derived from [… [how [long cows] should be milked]]. I would refer to examples (3)
and (4) as “pause-dependent syntactic ambiguity” and to examples (1) and (2) as “pauseindependent syntactic ambiguity”.
Additional notes are necessary here. As can be seen from examples under
morphological and syntactic competence, our ability to perceive – and also create – verbal
humor partly depends on our ability to recognize linguistic ambiguity. In fact, many verbal
humors are made possible by twisting ambiguity at any linguistic level.
Pushing further, linguists in the Chomskyan tradition also shed light on the so-called
“garden-path” sentences (see Pinker 1994:212-13), as in examples (4).
5.
a. Fat men eat accumulates.
b. The man who hunts ducks out ever week.
In a glance, these two sentences sound ungrammatical. But through careful reading, they turn
out to be grammatical, as label bracketed in (5).
6.
a. [ Fat [men eat] accumulates ]
b. [The man [who hunts] ducks out every week ]
From the label bracketing, we learn that sentence (4.a) means “Fat that men consume
accumulates (in their bodies)”, and sentence (4.b) means “The man who goes hunting turns out
(from the jungles) every week.” They are called “garden path” sentences because, when we read
them and figure out their syntactic structures, we mentally get stuck again and again at the end
of a “path” in the “linguistic garden” – but eventually find a way out by taking a different turn.
In the area of meaning, our semantic competence tells us the meanings of words and
sentences. Just as syntax allows structural ambiguity, semantics also allows lexical ambiguity.
Again, humor can take capital from semantic ambiguity.
7.
“Wilton Lackaye, the famous actor, will now give us his address,” said the host.
Mr. Lackeye stood up briefly. “Toastmaster and gentlemen, my address is Lambs
Club, New York. Thank you.”
It is clear that the word “address” in example (6) was intended to mean “speech” by the host, but
twisted into “the place where he lives” by the actor – the humor playing with lexical ambiguity.
At the sentential level, the well-known example is one given by Chomsky.
8.
Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.
5
This sentence was first introduced in Syntactic Structures (1957:15) to argue that, in the
extreme, syntax can exist without semantics. In terms of its internal structure, sentence (8) is
the same as (9) – taken from Aspects (1965:149).
9.
Revolutionary new ideas appear infrequently.
Reading both sentences above, our syntactic-and-semantic competence tells us that, while
sentence (9) is syntactically and semantically well-formed, sentence (8) is only syntactically
well-formed but semantically ill-formed, for four reasons. Ideas are abstract; they cannot be
green – this is the first nonsense. If something is green, it cannot be colorless – this is the
second nonsense. Ideas are inanimate; they cannot sleep – this is the third nonsense. One who
sleeps cannot get furious or angry – this is the fourth or last nonsense. Briefly, our semantic
competence tells us that sentence (8) is a total nonsense; but our syntactic competence tells us
that it reads well in English.4
If sentence (8) is read backward, as in (10), which is also taken from Syntactic
Structures (1957:15), then the sentence is both semantically and syntactically ill-formed.
10.
Furiously sleep ideas green colorless.
A sentence is expressed through the formula S à NP VP; and this formula succeeds to operate
in (8) but it fails in (10). Briefly, examples (8), (9), and (10) tell us that generative grammar,
since its early period, has made the best use of intuitive grammaticality judgment as if it were to
push our linguistic competence to the limits.
To recapitulate, as the key-term “linguistic competence” is expanded and sub-divided
into phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic competence, these five subtypes of competence have proven useful for describing and explaining common as well as
uncommon linguistic phenomena at all linguistic levels. Indeed, generative grammar is very
powerful in providing description and explanation for any kind of language data. Puzzling
problems in phonology and syntax in the Bloomfieldian school have all been well and neatly
solved by generative scholars (see Chapters 1 and 2 of Linguistic Theory in America, by
Newmeyer 1986).
“Competence” Transported to the Study of Language in Context
As the name indicates, generative grammar limits itself to “grammar” or “linguistic rules” in
context-free linguistics. When “meaning” – a long neglected area in the American structuralism
(see Bloomfield 1933:140) – was brought back to linguistics by Chomsky (1957:92-105;
1965:148-59), much hope was there beginning to soar up in the discipline. But for a long time
“meaning” has remained peripheral; it never moves to the center. Moreover, all discussion of
theories, principles, and parameters is devoted to explaining how producing and interpreting
syntactically well-formed utterances is possible. In other words, the center of linguistic theory
in generative grammar is syntactic theory. In fact, mentalism in generative grammar has lately
become more and more abstract, moving farther away from actual language use. This can be
seen from the introduction of the new term “I-language”, used in contrast with “E-language”
(see Chomsky 1986: 22-24). I-language or “internal language” seems to be another name of
“linguistic competence”, but with further specifications: “I” in “I-language” means “internal,
intensional, and individual”. The major concern of generative grammar is I-language, not Elanguage or “external language”. Just as “performance” is seen as an appendix to “competence”
in Aspects (1965), “E-language” is also seen as an appendix to “I-Language” in Knowledge of
Language (1986). In short, language is an individual mental fact; there is nothing social in the
generative theory of human language.
There is nothing social in the theory of human language? This critical question was
first raised by the American anthropologist and linguist Dell Hymes (1972). Chomsky’s notion
6
of “competence”, according to Hymes, is problematic for at least three important reasons. First,
the postulate that competence is a perfect linguistic knowledge of an ideal speaker-hearer in a
homogeneous speech community stands against the social fact: sociolinguists (e.g., Albert 1964,
Cazden 1966, Ferguson 1966, and Labov 1966 – cited in Hymes 1972) often find differential
competence or “competence of different degrees” across speakers in heterogeneous speech
communities in many parts of the world. Secondly, linguistic competence in the Chomskyan
sense is equal and thus limited to grammatical competence, whereas in actual language use
grammatical competence is only one aspect determining success in verbal communication.
Third and finally, the separation of “competence” from “performance” implies isolating
linguistic knowledge from language use in its context, hence omitting almost everything of
sociocultural significance contained in actual performance (p. 280).
Having pointed out the inadequacy of “linguistic competence” in Generative grammar,
Hymes proposes the now well-known term “communicative competence”. Within this term,
linguistic judgments are of two kinds: of grammaticality, with respect to competence, and of
acceptability, with respect to performance. He further argues that an adequate theory of
language is to be integrated with theory of communication and culture (p. 281). In effect it is
obvious that, much like linguistic competence being the backbone of generative grammar,
communicative competence is meant to be the backbone of sociolinguistics. In his book
Foundations in Sociolinguistics, Hymes (1974:195-7) states that the term “sociolinguistics” may
be interpreted in three different ways. First, the social as well as the linguistic suggests the
application of linguistic principles or methods for social purposes, such as the use of
Bloomfield’s work for teaching reading. This now belongs to Applied Linguistics. Second,
socially realistic linguistics means extending formal linguistic rules so as to account, for
example, for dialectal variation, as can be seen in the works of Labov. Third, socially
constituted linguistics means that “social function gives form to the ways in which linguistic
features are encountered in actual life”. Accordingly, for Hymes, sociolinguistics “is concerned
with social as well as referential meaning, and with language as part of communicative conduct
and social action” (pp. 196-7). One best example for the third definition, I venture to point out,
is how “politeness” in interpersonal communication is incorporated into “speech levels” in
multi-level languages such as Balinese, Javanese, Madurese, and Sundanese.
The point here is not to compare Chomsky’s theory with Hymes’s and evaluate which
one is better, but rather to describe and explain how mentalism creeps out from context-free
linguistics and gives shape to context-bound linguistics. Evidently not much has changed in
sociolinguistics with the introduction of the term “communicative competence”. However, this
term makes us aware that verbal communication is made possible owing to the communicative
competence existing in the mind of each member of a speech community. Therefore, each of
them is capable of producing utterances which are grammatically correct (often in the sense of
‘semantically comprehensible’), pragmatically as well as sociolinguistically appropriate, and
culturally acceptable. Briefly, individualistic mentalism in generative grammar has moved out
to produce collectivistic mentalism in sociolinguistics.
As noted by Lavandera (1988), Chomsky is indirectly held responsible for the
proliferation of sociolinguistics and ethnolinguistics at the end of the 1960s and for the
propagation of pragmatics and discourse analysis in the mid 1970s. This is because scholars in
context-bound linguistics were unhappy with individualistic mentalism in generative grammar,
where linguistic theory is predominantly syntactic theory. Interestingly, while “linguistics” as a
whole, in the structural but not functional sense, obtains the term “linguistic competence” (see
O’Grady et al. 2005:5) and “communication” obtains the term “communicative competence”
(Hymes 1972, 1974), the four sub-fields of Linguistics noted earlier do not obtain the terms
“sociolinguistic, ethnolinguistic, pragmatic, and discourse competence” respectively (see, e.g.,
Hudson 1980 and Mesthrie et al. 2000 for sociolinguistics; Becker 1995 and Gumperzs &
7
Levinson 1996 for ethnolinguistics; Levinson 1983 and Grundy 2000 for pragmatics; and
Brown & Yule 1983 and Thornbury 2005 for discourse analysis).
However, for the sake of clarity, I will be using each of the phrasal terms above together
with illustrative examples in Indonesian. Now let’s start with examples showing how our
sociolinguistic competence operates on given data.
11.
a. Bapak dimohon menemani Pak Dirjen bersantap malam.
b. *Kamu aku mohon menemani anakku bersantap malam.
Upon reading both examples in (11), our sociolinguistic competence tells us right away that,
while both utterances are syntactically and semantically well-formed, only utterance (11.a) is
sociolinguistically appropriate; it observes the “rules of co-occurrence” (Evin-Trip 1972:23339). The [+deference] forms Bapak, dimohon, Pak Dirjen, and bersantap are used consistently
throughout the utterance. Note also that the word Bapak, meaning ‘father’ literally but referring
to ‘you’ socio-pragmatically, is an Indonesian-specific 2nd pronoun substitute suggesting
“politeness” or [+deference]. In contrast, in (11.b) the [-deference] forms kamu, aku, and
anakkku are juxtaposed with [+deference] forms mohon and bersantap along the syntagmatic
plane, making the utterance sociolinguistically deviant and thus unacceptable.
Next, our ethnolinguistic competence in Indonesian should have no problem
recognizing language-specific expressions in (12).
12.
a. Ah, Kakak ini, kura-kura dalam perahu …
b. *Ah, Kakak ini, penyu dalam perahu …
Owing to our ethnolinguistic or sociocultural competence, we know right away that the
sampiran (lead) in (12.a) is right since it uses the fixed expression available, leading to the
deleted but well-known isi (content): pura-pura tidak tahu. On the other hand, (12.b) can no
longer stand as a sampiran since the word kura-kura (turtle) is replaced by its synonym penyu
(porpoise), destroying the inner rhyme of the pantun – pura-pura: kura-kura. Moreover, we
also know that the sampiran, being culture- and hence language-specific, is untranslatable: *the
turtle on the boat in English would convey nothing. If the whole pantun is to be translated into
English, then only the isi (content) is translatable: pura-pura tidak tahu ‘you just pretend that
you don’t know’.
The dialogue in (13), typically portraying the bad habit of making noise among some
Indonesian students along the corridor outside the classroom, should be a good test for our
pragmatic competence. Imagine a lecturer saying something to a group of noisy students,
followed by a reply given by one of them:
13.
Dosen
: Maaf, Dik, saya sedang mengajar.
Mahasiswa : *Tidak perlu minta maaf, Pak, silakan terus mengajar.
On the “surface” both utterances in the dialogue seem to be semantically related; but in the
“deep” they are not, hence making it pragmatically incoherent. Whenever I give this
hypothetical example to the class, my students burst into laughter, indicating that they recognize
the incoherent “text” right away and find it “foolish”. The student in the anecdote fails to catch
the “implicature” in the first utterance. If the “gaps” were made explicit, by referring to the
Gricean maxim of relevance the utterance “Sorry, Dik, I’m teaching” would explicitly and thus
literally mean the following: “The noise you’re making right outside my classroom is
disturbing. So, sorry, Dik, please be quiet because I’m teaching.”
In implicature, what is said is not what is meant – implying that human language can be
contextually symbolic. And yet, through inference from a given interpersonal context, the
hearer usually has no problem understanding what the speaker means. In syntax, there is
syntactic ambiguity; and in pragmatics, there is also pragmatic ambiguity or, more accurately,
8
pragmatic indeterminacy. Syntactic ambiguity, as resolved by means of different tree structures
or label brackets, usually has two, three, or at most four possible interpretations (see, e.g.,
example (2) above); but pragmatic indeterminacy has many more possible interpretations, as
determined by a much bigger number of possible interpersonal contexts.
The earlier mention of “incoherence” pertaining to dialogue (13) suggests an important
feature in discourse analysis, which primarily concerns “coherence” and “cohesion” of a text or
discourse. Moreover, in a discourse textual and contextual meanings go together, as illustrated
by the occasionally seen public notice in (14).
14.
Dilarang kencing di sini kecuali anjing!
As a text, example (14) is complete in itself. Referring to Thornbury (2005:19), this public
notice meets 6 out of the 7 “distinctive characteristics” of a text: it is
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
textually self-contained or sufficient,
syntactically well-formed,
fully coherent and thus easy to understand,
clear in its communicative purpose (i.e., forbidding anyone not to urinate in that
designated place),
(e) recognizable as a text type (i.e., a public notice), and
(f) appropriate in its context of use (i.e., located in the appropriate place).
Logically, a shorter text Dilarang kencing di sini (No urinating here/Urinating here is
forbidden [by law]) should be adequate. However, the addition kecuali anjing (except for dogs)
does not make the text redundant, but sarcastic. In effect, the notice has a stronger force of
forbidding, since anyone (capable of reading the text) would make himself a dog, and hence
morally degraded, if ever he ignored the notice and did urinating. Undoubtedly, any normal
adult Indonesian has discourse competence which allows him to recognize the public notice in
(14) not only as a coherent but also a sarcastic text.
In sum, the key-concept “linguistic competence” in generative grammar has been
picked up by Hymes (1972) and modified into “communicative competence”, comprising four
sub-types of competence: sociolinguistic, ethnolinguistic or sociocultural, pragmatic, and
discourse competence. The illustrative examples above lead us to conclude that native speakers
(of any language) are psycholinguistically well equipped with communicative competence,
allowing them to get engaged naturally in verbal communication and, simultaneously, to
distinguish between socially well-formed and socially ill-formed utterances. From outlining
mentalism in context-bound linguistics, let’s move ahead to seeing how mentalism leaps out
from linguistics proper and shapes other related disciplines.
The Increasingly Wider Use of “Competence” outside Linguistics Proper
Outside linguistics, the key-term “competence” has obtained popularity in at least three different
fields of specialization:
(a) Second Language Acquisition,
(b) Translation, and
(c) Poetics.
Brief accounts of how mentalism gives shape to each of these three disciplines are presented in
order.
The Massive Use of “Competence” in Second Language Acquisition (SLA)
To obtain a full understanding of SLA as a relatively new discipline, it would be helpful to start
with making explicit the meaning of “acquisition” in the sense of Krashen (1982). The
reference to Krashen here is primarily motivated by his obvious mentalistic approach in
9
explaining L2 acquisition. In his well-known Monitor Theory, “acquisition” occurs if, during
meaningful verbal interaction, the LAD (language acquisition device, a term borrowed from
Chomsky 1965) processes comprehensible input not blocked or hindered by the psychological
filter in the mind. That is, L2 acquisition occurs in a psychologically conducive atmosphere.
Successful acquisition produces acquired competence in the second language; it is much like
the exposure of LAD to primary language data that eventually produces “mental grammar” or
“linguistic competence” in L1. Notice the similarity between L1 acquisition and L2 acquisition
here: the mental grammar in L1 and the acquired competence in L2 grow out naturally from the
LAD being exposed to linguistic input. In other words, the key-term “acquisition”, whether in
L1 or L2, implies strong mentalism or the inner workings of the mind.
However, the eventual results of L1 and L2 acquisition are strikingly different from each
other. According to Saville-Troike (2006:17), the former eventually yields native competence
whereas the latter finally produces multilingual competence. In L1 acquisition, “innate capacity”
or the LAD grows into “child grammar”; next it obtains “maturation” through input and reciprocal
interaction; and finally it becomes “native competence”. On the other hand, in L2 acquisition, the
“innate capacity” of the LAD is debatable. Obviously, at the initial state, “L1 knowledge, world
knowledge, and interaction skills” are already there in the mind and then they grow together into
“learner language”, inevitably experiencing “transfer” while processing the input. Unlike L1
acquisition, L2 acquisition is considerably influenced by at least four factors: the learner’s
linguistic aptitude and personal motivation, the quality of formal instruction, and feedback from
the teacher and/or peers – before it eventually yields “multilingual competence” at the final stage.
In sum, L2 competence is qualitatively different from L1 competence.
Referring to L1 as the starting point and L2 as the end point, Selinker (1972 [1974])
proposes the term “interlanguage”. As the name indicates, it suggests the “learner language” in
the process of becoming, moving – at it were – from L1 as a point of departure toward L2 as a
point of destination. In this respect, systematic “errors” occurring in the interlanguage at one
point of time along its course of development may be seen as reflection of the current state of
interlanguage competence (Corder 1967 [1974]). Viewed from the point of final destination,
“interlanguage competence” is another name of “L2 competence in the making” or “imperfect
L2 competence”.
What we have discussed so far concerning L2 “acquisition” boils down to the following
points. In a narrow sense, SLA, which literally means acquiring any language after one has
acquired L1, refers to a mental process where the language faculty in the mind grows along its
course of development so as to eventually become L2 competence. Thus the business of SLA
is to occupy itself with what is going on in the learner’s mind while s/he is acquiring an L2.
However, in a broader sense, SLA is concerned with the what, how, and why of L2 acquisition
(Saville-Troike 2006:2):
(a) What exactly does the L2 learner come to know?
(b) How does the learner acquire this knowledge?
(c) Why are some learners more successful than others?
Answers to these questions are far beyond the scope of this paper. Briefly, referring to SavilleTroike (2006:174-8) again,
(a) the answer to what is L2 linguistic knowledge;
(b) the answer to how is a psychological, or more specifically, a psycholinguistic
process;
(c) the answer to why is the difference pertaining to
(i)
the learner’s personal traits,
(ii) L1 and L2 relationship, and
(iii) social context.
10
Notice that most aspects contained in the three answers (i.e., L2 linguistic knowledge, the
psycholinguistic process, and the learner’s personal traits) suggest strong influence from
mentalism in linguistics.
Interestingly, as it comes down to “L2 linguistic knowledge”, Saville-Troike (2006:175)
states that it is equal to communicative competence – Hymes’s term showing up prominently on
the scene here. The relevant question is: what does “L2 communicative competence” consist of?
The answer provided by Savignon (1997) in her book Communicative Competence:
Theory and Classroom Practice, in my opinion, sounds comprehensive enough. Referring to
Canale and Swain (1980), Savignon outlines their theoretical framework applied to the bilingual
program of teaching French as a second language in the province of Ontario, Canada. In their
framework, “communicative competence” is broken down into
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
grammatical competence,
sociolinguistic competence,
discourse competence, and
strategic competence.
The following is a brief description of each sub-type of competence together with illustrative
examples, mostly errors made by EFL learners in Indonesian context.
Table 1. Errors across Different Linguistic Categories
No.
1
2
3
4
Linguistic Categories
lexical error
morphological error
syntactic error
phonological error
Example
After that we back to our home
… because went to mountain is my first experience
In second day I go to the beach
Tony lost his bag – pronounced [bEk] instead of [bæg]
First, grammatical competence is defined by Savignon as “mastery of the linguistic
code, the ability to recognize the lexical, morphological, syntactic, and phonological features of
a language and to manipulate these features to form words and sentences. … A person
demonstrates grammatical competence by using a rule, not by stating a rule” (p. 41). The
complexity of an L2 grammar shows up prominently when we learn an L2 and when we closely
observe errors occurring in L2. To illustrate, presented in Table 1 are examples of four
grammatical errors in English made respectively by four different Indonesian high school
students in writing and speaking.
The errors in Table 1 tell us that the learners are still struggling with the mastery of
basic linguistic forms. First, with respect to the lexical error, the wrong choice of back in *we
back to our home instead of using the correct form we went home reveals that the learner is still
confused between the use of the adverbial particle back and the verb go – jokingly referred to as
“pocket dictionary” error. Moreover, we also see an instance of “translationese” in *back to our
home, echoing the Indonesian equivalent pulang ke rumah. Secondly, as for the morphological
error, the wrong use of the past tense went in place of the gerund going seems to reveal a
developmental error: the activity occurs in the past, and hence the use of past tense. The learner
is unaware yet of the rule: when an activity occurs without a subject, the verb takes a gerundial
form: V-ing. However, the use of went instead of simply go tells us that the learner has made
some progress in acquiring English morphology, but still inadequate for the current purpose of
writing.
Thirdly, the first syntactic error (i.e., In second day instead of On the second day) is
probably due to the difference between L1 and L2 with respect to “preposition” systems. This is
part of the well-known Contrastive Analysis (CA) hypothesis: features which are different in L1
and L2 will probably be difficult to learn (Lado 1964:11-22). English has specific prepositions:
11
at 9 a.m., on Monday, on August 3, in November, in 2009, etc. But in Indonesian, all of these
prepositions have only one equivalent: pada. In this respect, Indonesian learners have to deal
with the “problem of lexical divergence”. That is, one word in Indonesian has three specific
equivalents in English. Furthermore, colloquial Indonesian allows saying either pada hari kedua
or di hari kedua, showing flexibility of Indonesian syntax. Thus the wrong phrase in second day
(instead of the correct form on the second day) reveals two things. First, the wrong use of in is
probably due to the problem of lexical divergence and “syntactic rigidity” in English; and
secondly, the absence of the, known as error of omission, is probably due to the transfer of “zero
form” from L1 to L2.
Similarly, the second syntactic error (I go to the beach instead of I went to the beach)
is probably due CA hypothesis too: features which are there in L2 but not there in L1 will also
be difficult to learn. Any sentence in English contains a finite verb; and every finite verb
contains a particular tense. The revised form On the second day I went to the beach tells us the
following: the specific time adverb on the second day requires that the verb must be in past
tense, went. Here we see the interaction between syntax and morphology, known as morphosyntactic phenomenon. The occurrence of a temporal adverb on the syntactic plane determines
the morphological form of the verb. Psycholinguistically, the learner must be aware of this
morpho-syntactic phenomenon.
Fourth and finally, the phonemic errors in [bEk] in place of [bæg] are instances of
“transfer errors”, that is, carrying over features of L1 into L2. Again, they are predictable
through CA hypothesis. More specifically, the English vowel [æ] is not only absent in
Indonesian but it is also a “marked” vowel in English. That is, because of its difficult
articulation, English children acquire [æ] very late in the course of their phonological
development (Kent 1992). Naturally, this vowel is also difficult to pronounce for Indonesian
EFL learners. As for replacing the word-final [g] in [bæg] with [k] in [bEk] is known as “final
devoicing”, i.e., voiced stops [b, d, g] occurring word-finally (as in lab, bag, and lag) become
voiceless stops [p, t, k]. This is a universal tendency in phonology, making English (which
keeps [b, d, b] voiced word-finally) an exception. Thus the difficulty in producing the wordfinal [g] in bag is also natural part of the learner’s English phonological acquisition.
This rather elaborate explanation of the nature of lexical, morphological, syntactic, and
phonological errors listed in Table 1 is intended to show that the seemingly simple L2 errors are
in fact very complex psycho-physiologically. It should be obvious too that the given explanation
is both structural and mentalistic, the latter highlighting psycholinguistic problems going on in
the L2 learners’ minds. In other words, mentalism is useful in accounting for the nature of errors
pertaining to L2 “grammatical competence”. In fact, as partly mentioned earlier, errors in Error
Analysis can be regarded as reflection of the current state of the learner’s interlanguage
competence (Corder 1967 [1974]).
The second component of L2 communicative competence is sociolinguistic
competence. Unlike grammatical competence which concerns correct linguistic forms,
sociolinguistic competence concerns appropriate linguistic behavior, and hence appropriate
utterances in verbal communication. In sociolinguistics, the phatic function of language, for
example, is meant to keep interpersonal relationship, where producing an utterance is meant to
convey the implicit message “I care about you”. When we Indonesians say Dari mana, Pak? or
Mau ke mana, Mbak?, we do not really want to know where you were from or where you are
going. This is simply our sociolinguistic way of conveying the message “I know you, I am
aware of your presence, and I care about you”. However, this social message or phatic function
is expressed differently in English, informally through Hi! or What’s up? or How’re you doing?
and formally through Hello, how are you? or Good morning, nice seeing again.
Thus, sociolinguistically, the phatic function may take up different forms across
languages. The problem arises when the linguistic form is translated from L1 to L2. Indonesian
12
EFL learners may say, “Where are you going?” to an English speaker with the intention of “I
care about you”, obtaining not a friendly response but a facial expression of annoyance. In
English, the question sounds intrusive (i.e., where I am going is none of your business) and has
no phatic function. Similarly, when an English speaker learning Indonesian says, “Halo, apa
kabar?” every time s/he meets an Indonesian acquaintance, it also results in confusion. While
this question has some phatic function, it also has a value of its own: I want to know how you
have been getting along since we haven’t met for long. Briefly, the seemingly trivial everyday
utterances in any language have their own sociolinguistic values. L2 learners need to be aware
of these values so as to avoid doing “negative sociolinguistic transfer” which may cause
annoyance or confusion in L2 verbal communication.
The third component is discourse competence. Since in the area of Discourse analysis
language is realized in everyday communication as “text” (Thornbury 2005:6), discourse
competence in L2 means the ability to recognize and understand texts in given contexts, and
also to produce appropriate texts as required by contexts. Note that the term “text” here refers to
any piece of spoken or written language that is complete in itself, such as a very brief or lengthy
dialogue, a formal or informal talk, a public notice, a letter, a manual, a joke, a poem, etc. Much
like the phatic function of language in sociolinguistics, texts are often language-specific as seen
from the perspective of discourse analysis.
For the sake of brevity, the discussion of language-specific texts is confined to public
notices in English and Indonesian. The public notice HELP YOURSELF in English has no
literal translation in Indonesian; the closest equivalent is probably “Silakan Ambil”. As I recall
from my everyday experience in Hawaii, this notice is usually placed next to food, usually left
over, in a dormitory kitchen, or next to given-away old books in a library. Another Englishspecific public notice is SLIPPERY WHEN WET, which means ‘Be careful; the newly rubbed
floor is a bit wet and may be slippery’. This notice has something to do with the legal system in
English-speaking countries. If there were no such notice and someone slipped and had a broken
bone, s/he had the right to sue the owner of the building. Additionally, besides NO SMOKING,
there is the notice usually placed inside an elevator with stronger forbidding force: SMOKING
IS FORBIDDEN BY LAW. This clearly tells us that a smoker in an elevator runs the risk of
meeting serious legal consequences.
Similarly, there are also Indonesian-specific public notices. For example, the notice
typically Indonesian—socially motivated by Indonesian-specific university context. Similarly,
the notice DILARANG PARKIR DI DEPAN PINTU shows up only in Indonesia. This reveals to
us that people’s parking behavior in public places is often reckless and inconsiderate. Likewise,
the Indonesian-specific notice DILARANG BERJUALAN DI SINI showing up along a sidewalk
tells us that the government tries to do two things: forbidding “small vendors” not to take away
the civil rights of passers-by, and cleaning up the city from “dirty scenes”. The reader may also
recall example (13): DILARANG KENCING DI SINI—with or without KECUALI ANJING,
which further portrays ugly public behavior which still prevails in Indonesian society.
As related to Second Language Acquisition, in dealing with L2 “texts” the learners
should be aware of the underlying sociocultural differences. Even when the same message is
intended, Indonesian and English often have different ways of putting it in a public notice.
Whenever I ask my students, how would you translate into English HATI-HATI. JALAN
DIPERBAIKI? Most of them will answer, BE CAREFUL. THE ROAD IS BEING REPAIRED.
Of course the translation is grammatically correct and readily comprehensible. But that is not
the way they put it in English; instead the notice in English reads CAUTION! ROAD
CONSTRUCTION AHEAD. Comparing between the Indonesian and English versions, we find
out that by using “nominal constructions” the English version sounds “more public” than the
Indonesian version, which uses “adjectival and verbal constructions”. But that is how each
language specifically conveys the same message. Next, when I ask my students, what about
13
DILARANG MENGELUARKAN ANGGOTA BADAN? They would simply get puzzled, and
could never imagine the English equivalent: KEEP HEAD AND ARMS IN. Notice that the
Indonesian version sounds more general, whereas the English version sounds more specific—
“head” and “arms” are specific parts of the body. Briefly, even in dealing with “small texts”
such as public notices, L2 learners should be well equipped with good discourse competence.
The fourth and last component of L2 communicative competence is strategic
competence, i.e., the ability to use various strategies used to compensate for imperfect
knowledge of rules in L2 (Savignon 1997:45). These strategies include, among other things,
repetition, taking a given option, and use of gestures. The following three anecdotes may serve
as illustrative examples. A group of Indonesian teachers visiting American high schools in Ohio
with limited knowledge of English were standing in line in a fast-food restaurant. To avoid
difficulty in verbal communication, the leader, who speaks English well, told them to order the
same package of food. Thus after the leader placed an order and took the package away, the next
person stepped ahead and simply said, “The same”. All the other persons standing behind did
the same thing. The following day, one of these people went back to the same restaurant. When
asked what he wanted to order, he replied, “The same.” Of course, this “strategy” did not work
as it did on the previous day.
Another anecdote is told of an Indonesian student who barely speaks English, returning
from a visit to his brother who works in Hong Kong and taking a flight by himself back to
Indonesia. When it was time for dinner, he, being a moslem, said to the flight attendant, “No
pig, no pig.” As he recalls, “pig” means ‘babi’. The flight attendant, who did not understand
him, said, “No pork?” He replied, “No, no pig, no pig.” “Okay, no pork? Fish?” “Yes, yes,
fish.” He knows that “fish” means ‘ikan’ and it is halal food.
The last is an anecdote of an Indonesian lecturer from Malang taking an English
intensive course in Bandung seven years ago, which set up the rule that “everyone joining the
course must speak English; those who speak Indonesian are to be fined and have to pay a certain
amount of money”. One day, when he could not attend the class because his wife gave a birth
back home in Malang, he said to the instructor, “I’m sorry I cannot … attend the class because
my wife is …”—being unable to continue expressing himself in English, he took the last resort
by giving hand gestures showing pregnancy, giving a birth, and holding a baby with both
hands—saying “Eeeek” [«:::/] with every gesture. He managed to convey the message and
saved himself from being fined.
To summarize, each sub-type of L2 communicative competence (i.e., grammatical,
sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic competence as outlined in the Savignon model (1997))
is itself a complex sub-system of mental ability. Thus learning an L2 is psycholinguistically an
up-hill task of trying to acquire at the same time all sub-types of communicative competence so
as to be able to carry on social affairs using L2 correctly and appropriately. It should be noted
in passing, however, that other scholars in SLA have also proposed different models of
“communicative competence” (see, for example, Archibald 2005, Bachman 1990, and CelceMurcia et al. 1995). They include other sub-types of competence, such as sociocultural
competence, actional competence, organizational competence, and pragmatic competence. In
fact, as further noted by Magnan (2008), there are also multi-competence, intercultural
competence, and metaphorical competence. To me, these scholarly attempts to provide more
and more sub-types of competence under “L2 communicative competence” indicate that, upon
closer examination, the success in doing verbal communication in L2 depends upon a huge
number of sub-systems of mental ability that, ideally, should operate rightfully and
simultaneously in the mind of the L2 learner.
14
The Limited Use of “Competence” in the Field of Translation
While SLA scholars, as made clear from the previous discussion, seem to be preoccupied with
charting out “L2 communicative competence” and hence producing various models comprising
many sub-types of competence, experts in Translation are concerned very little with “translation
competence”. In well-known references in the field of Translation (see, e.g., Catford 1969,
Larson 1984, Newmark 1988, and Nida & Taber 1982), there is no chapter or specific section
devoted to discussing translation competence. Before proceeding further, let me distinguish
between “Translation” and “translation”; the former is an academic field whereas the latter is a
profession, i.e., “line of work, vocation, occupation, job, or career” (Microsoft Thesaurus 2007).
In this respect, translation is more interested in making the job of translating successful by
explicating the “how to” rather than looking into the underlying ability or competence. More
clearly, “what is going on in the mind of the translator” is a matter of little significance.
Note, however, that the “how to” is never simple. In the field of Translation, also
known presently as “Translation Studies” (see, e.g., Munday 2001 and Riccardi 2002), scholars
in the field – following the progress in linguistics, cultural studies, and computer technology,
particularly the so-called machine translation – have come up with sophisticated theories which
may best guide the practice of translation. Notice the use of key-terms “theory” and “practice”
here. The sophistication of theories may include not only different approaches, methods, or
specific techniques (including linguistic and cultural adjustments) of doing translation, but may
even go further so as to include “philosophical theories of translation” (Munday 2001:162-70).
However, no matter how sophisticated the theory is, the primary goal is always to make it serve
as a guide to doing effective and good translation. Thus, the “how to” is not to be seen simply
as “technicality” in the profession but as an “attempt to bridge the gap” between the theory and
practice in translation.
Interestingly, or strangely, there has been an attempt lately to outline the nature of
translation competence. European scholars who call themselves PACTE GROUP (2005) have
proposed a model of translation competence. This model consists of one center (strategic subcompetence) surrounded by and connected to four other components (i.e., bilingual subcompetence, extralinguistic sub-competence, instrumental sub-competence, and knowledgeabout-translation sub-competence).
The model operates as follows. The bilingual sub-competence enables the translator to
understand the source language (SL) text and reproduce it in the target language (TL). The
extralinguistic sub-competence enables the translator to understand the nature of the subject
matter making up the text. The instrumental sub-competence enables the translator to proceed
doing translation in the right way. The knowledge-about-translation sub-competence enables the
translator to choose the appropriate approach, method, and/or technique of doing the translation.
Notice, however, that these four sub-competences operate simultaneously and get focused on
strategic sub-competence, which enables the translator to make the best possible decision while
carrying out the task of translating. The fact that the “strategic sub-competence” stands at the
“center of translation competence” tells us that eventually it is the “how to” that is the most
prominent factor in translation.
Just as L2 language performance occasionally shows problem in using language forms
or functions, hence revealing the imperfect IL competence, the translated texts in TL may also
contain message distortion, indicating inadequacy in translation competence – as shown in the
examples below. 5
14.
JAUHI NARKOBA!
HIDE DRUG!
Example (14) is a public notice on a billboard put up beside a main road in one kabupaten in
West Java. Imagine a drug dealer passing along the road! He would be very grateful to the
15
local government, hiding his drugs accordingly. In this context, the Indonesian version JAUHI
NARKOBA! or alternatively TOLAK NARKOBA! is in fact a better version than the widely
spread version: BILANG TIDAK PADA NARKOBA! This is definitely the literal translation
of the original slogan in English: SAY NO TO DRUG! Thus, to help correct (14), the English
original should be put back under JAUHI NARKOBA!
Some schools want to make English a language for daily communication among
students, and therefore enthusiastically put up signs in Indonesian with English translations.
15.
AKU MALU DATANG TERLAMBAT
I am ashamed come is overdue
16.
TIADA HARI TANPA BELAJAR
No learning no day
In (15), we see not only grammatical errors in the English translation but also a cultural problem
here. In English-speaking countries no school puts up this kind of educational slogan. Even if
correcting grammatical errors would produce “I will be ashamed if I come late”, this
grammatically correct slogan sounds culturally negative in English. “I am proud to be on time”
is a better alternative I can think of. As for (16), the wrong English version can simply be
corrected and changed into “No day without learning”. Unlike that in (15), this English version
sounds culturally neutral.
Errors in translation are not Indonesian-specific; they are universal phenomena. Larson
(1984:5-6) noted a brochure used to advertize tourism in Belem, Brazil that says, “We glad to you
an unforgettable trip by fantastic Marajo Island.” The intended message is “We offer you an
unforgettable trip to fantastic Marajo Island.” As cited by Mansoor & Sundah (2009:197), there is
a similar notice in a hotel elevator in Paris: PLEASE LEAVE YOUR VALUES AT THE FRONT
DESK. Hotel customers would smile at this notice, knowing that “values” are wrongly used for
“valuables”. Likewise, this notice, THE FLATTENING OF UNDERWEAR WITH PLEASURE
IS THE JOB OF THE CHAMBERMAID, is found in a hotel in Yugoslavia. A better version
could be PRESSING UNDERWEAR IS PART OF OUR SERVICE. Briefly, while there is no
translation data available, a tentative conclusion may be drawn: the errors in the translation are
probably due to transfer, i.e., carrying over the lexical choice and/or syntactic structures in the SL
text into the TL text, which – in the last three examples – happens to be English.
The translation problems presented in this section reveal
(a) lack of linguistic competence in reproducing in the TL the closest natural
equivalent of the SL text, and also
(b) lack of cultural awareness related to the TL.
The fact that only the PACTE GROUP is concerned with “translation competence” and hence
provides a “model of translation competence” is attributable to the nature of translation itself; it
is more of a profession than a theoretical field. As a result, the procedural “how to” is more
important than the underlying competence for translation.
The Helpful Use of “Competence” in Poetics
Linguistics uses the term “poetics” in two different ways. In a narrow sense, it means the
application of linguistic methods in the study of poetry (Crystal 1991:267). In a broader sense,
primarily in the sense of Jakobson (1960), poetics refers to one linguistic function. Language
functions poetically when its form is foregrounded or made prominent for aesthetic purposes, as
best shown in poetry. In this respect, I would propose that the term “poetic competence” may
be used to refer to either
16
(a) the “general ability” of language users to recognize a particular text as being
poetical or literary or
(b) the “specific ability” of a limited number of language users to produce poetic or
literary texts.
Thus in a receptive or appreciative sense, “poetic competence” applies more widely (to a speech
community) than it does in a productive or creative sense. In this context, “poetic
performance” is closer to the “specific ability” and hence refers to the oral display of verbal
artistry by poetically-gifted individuals before an audience (Bauman 1986:3), as can be seen in
poetry reading, poetry singing, or verbal art performance in general.
Referring to the sub-heading of this section, by “The Helpful Use of ‘Competence’ in
Poetics” (emphasis added) I mean that “poetic/literary competence” is a helpful term,
especially in referring to the general ability of language users to distinguish between literary and
non-literary texts. To illustrate, consider the following examples.
17.
UNDANGAN (1)
kembali, kembalilah padaKu domba yang sesat
kembalilah padaKu wajah yang kelam dan duka
datanglah padaKu tangis yang sedu dan tersendat
‘kan Kuseka deritamu dengan mahakasih yang baka
18.
UNDANGAN (2)
Kepada Yth.
Bapak/Ibu Dosen Jurusan Sastra Inggris
Fakultas Sastra
Universitas Negeri Malang
Mengharap dengan hormat kehadiran Bapak/Ibu pada rapat Jurusan …
Using “texts” in (17) and (18), I have done the same experiment repeatedly with many different
classes of students: reading both texts in a poetic manner. Usually the students listen attentively
to the poetic reading of text 1, but they burst into laughter on text 2. What does this tell us?
Their (receptive) “poetic competence” tells them that only “poetic texts” deserve poetic reading,
but non-poetic or everyday texts do not. In other words, intuitively they recognize right away
the difference between poetic and non-poetic texts.
Pushing further, let’s go back to example (8), re-presented here as example (19).6
19.
As noted earlier, this sentence is syntactically well-formed but semantically ill-formed; it is
nonsense linguistically. However, this linguistic nonsense seemed to have been of special
interest to the American poet John Hollander (born in 1924), and gave him inspiration to write
the poem in (20), followed by my translation in (21) – to help clarify the meaning.
20.
COILED ALIZARINE
for Noam Chomsky
Curiously deep, the slumber of crimson thought
While breathless, in stodgy viridian,
21.
LENGKUR ALIZARIN
buat Noam Chomsky
Terlelap aneh, dengkur pikiran ungu
Tiada bernapas, dalam kilauan memberat,
Gagasan hijau tanpa-warna tertidur dengan murka
17
In On Noam Chomsky: Critical Essays, edited by Harman (1982), Hollander’s poem – the only
poem included in the book – is given prominence as a “lead article”. This means that the poem
is admitted as a literary work by the editor and all the contributors (linguists and philosophers)
to this book.
The relevant question is: What does this signify? When “linguistic nonsense” is placed
in an appropriate context (i.e., Hollander’s poem [minus Chomsky’s sentence]) in the area of
poetics, it becomes “meaningful” poetically. In other words, linguistics lies in the domain of
“sense”, but poetics lies in the domain of “sense & nonsense”. Referring to Culler (1975:114;
1981: x), linguistic signs belong to the first-order semiotic system (i.e., they refer to ‘objects’ in
the real world) whereas poetic signs belong to the second-order semiotic system (i.e., they often
refer to ‘themselves’ and reveal their meanings only through specific interpretation). Thus
Hollander’s poem as a literary work is “meaningful” in its own way, even though linguistically,
or to be more specific semantically, it is a total nonsense.
As noted in footnote 5, the argument presented so far should lead to the following point:
since we, as native or near-native speakers, are able to recognize poetic and non-poetic texts and
also to distinguish between them right away, it is safe to conclude that our poetic competence is
probably part of our linguistic competence – not in a narrow Chomskyan sense but in a broad
linguistic sense.
Along this line of argument, it seems necessary to include the use of “poetics” in
literature. Referring specifically to Structuralist Poetics by Culler (1975), the term “poetics” is
proposed as one kind of literary theory, i.e., a theory of reading and interpreting literary works.
It should be noted immediately that poetics as a literary theory is far beyond the scope of this
paper. My concern here is chiefly motivated by Culler’s use of the term “literary competence”.
One chapter of the book, namely chapter 6, is given the title “Literary Competence” and argues
convincingly for the necessity of positing “poetic grammar” underlying the general theory of
reading and interpreting (and implicitly also writing or creating) literary texts (p. 128). While in
this book Culler points out both the strengths and weaknesses in Jakobson’s poetic theory
(chapter 3) and hence cannot accept ‘linguistic imperialism’ in literary domains, he admits that
he is considerably influenced by Chomsky. Generative grammar plays no role in the
development of structuralism in literature, but it offers “a methodological statement of
exemplary clarity” (p. 7). The major concern with “linguistic competence” in generative
grammar leads to making explicit the hidden rules of language in the mind of the speaker.
Analogically, the major concern with “literary competence” in structuralist poetics leads to
making explicit the hidden conventions underlying the theory of reading literary works (p. 122).
The chapter on “Literary Competence” seems to be of great significance in structuralist
poetics. For more than thirty years later, this chapter is reprinted in Structuralism: Critical
Concepts in Literary and Cultural Studies (pp. 25 –41), a book edited by Culler (2006). This
indicates that, after three decades have passed, Culler still believes that literary competence
remains a key-concept in literary studies that adequately accounts for several possible readings
and interpretations of a literary work – but all within the confines of the existing conventions.
Culler’s literary competence, in my opinion, is much like a combination between de Saussure’s
collectivistic langue and Chomsky’s individualistic competence. The former allows the theory
of reading to be a general poetic theory expectedly agreeable to students of literature; the latter
allows individual readers to personally interpret literary works according to the existing literary
conventions. Nevertheless, the key-term “competence” in “literary competence” shows that
mentalism, albeit collectivistic mentalism, gains greater influence.
To sum up, poetic competence, as part of general linguistic competence, allows
language users to distinguish between poetic and non-poetic texts, and also helps them to assign
poetic meaning even when a particular poem lies in the area of nonsense. In structuralist poetics,
18
literary competence has been proposed as collectivistic grammar for the theory of reading,
following methodological excellence in generative linguistics.
CONCLUSION: THE MAGNITUDE OF EXPLANATORY ADEQUACY
The key-concept “competence”, first used by Chomsky in 1965 to refer to the specific mental
faculty underlying verbal behavior, was then a sign of abrupt move in American linguistics from
behaviorism to mentalism. Since then mentalism has gained much wider influence. The
expanded use of “competence” in generative grammar reveals that at the phonetic level native
speakers are perceptive to dialectal variation and foreign accent, and at the phonological,
morphological, syntactic, and semantic levels they are perceptive to the presence or absence of
well-formedness and ambiguity in linguistic forms. As the key-concept was transported to the
study of language in context, the term “communicative competence” was first introduced by
Hymes in 1972 and has become popular ever since. Alhough the term “competence” is used
implicitly in pragmatics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and ethnolinguistics, it
nevertheless tells us that members of a speech community are in general concerned more with
appropriateness than grammaticality of the utterances used in actual verbal communication.
Outside linguistics proper, the massive use of the term “competence” in Second
Language Acquisition indicates that scholars in this field have been occupied with ever more
serious attempts and deeper investigation to find out what is there in the L2 learners’ minds
while acquiring a second language. On the other hand, in the field of Translation the limited use
of the term “competence” reveals that the experts are more interested in unraveling the “how to”
in the profession rather than looking into what is mentally going on in the mind of the translator.
Finally, our everyday experience with poetic texts subconsciously leads to the natural growth of
poetic competence in us, making us aware of the distinction between literary and non-literary
texts. Overall, this paper has pointed out that linguistics and other related disciplines have been
under the shadow of mentalism – with some critical notes.
The magnificent shadow of mentalism can be seen as direct or indirect influence of
Chomsky’s basic ideas in linguistics. In my long and hard efforts to read and understand
Chomsky, I have come to the conclusion that his macro-philosophical view of language is very
comprehensive and convincing; but his micro-linguistic theory, best known as UG (Universal
Grammar) Theory, is seriously beset by some flaws and weaknesses (Kadarisman 2004 and
2007). At the macro-theoretical level, as noted earlier, I agree with Culler (1975:7) who states
that Chomsky has come up with “a methodological statement of exemplary clarity”. His
insistence that a linguistic theory must meet the internal conditions of simplicity and elegance
and the external conditions of descriptive and explanatory adequacy has been supported by
strong, persuasive arguments; and, as admitted by his allies and opponents alike, this has
brought about considerable influence inside and outside linguistics. As noted by Smith (1999:2),
who sings heroic praises for him, “Apart from his major influence on linguistics, philosophy,
and psychology, Chomsky has had a minor but not insignificant effect on a range of disciplines
from anthropology to mathematics, from education to literary criticism”. Moreover, in less than
three decades after the publication of Aspects (1965), his biographer John Lyons (1978:1-2)
notes, “Right or wrong, Chomsky’s theory of grammar is undoubtedly the most dynamic and
influential, and no linguist who wishes to keep abreast of current developments in his subject
can afford to ignore Chomsky’s pronouncements”. Briefly, “His arguments may be accepted or
rejected; they cannot be ignored” (p. 7). Even Hymes (1972:273), who is severely critical of the
limitations of generative theory, has come to admit that, “No modern linguistic theory has
spoken more profoundly of either the internal structure or the intrinsic human significance”.
Most significantly, Chomsky’ work “has done more than simply produce a revolution in
linguistics,” observes Searle (1972 [1981]:31). “In the long run, his greatest contribution will be
19
that he has taken a major step toward restoring the traditional conception of the dignity and
uniqueness of man.”
Finally, mentalism must be placed in the right perspective. As I have proven in this
paper, mentalism or linguistic competence in a very broad sense is intrinsically there in the
minds of native speakers, making them (and us) survive linguistically as individual, social, and
even literary beings. The best thing we can learn from Chomsky is that, in every academic
endeavor, it is absolutely necessary to accomplish descriptive and explanatory adequacy – if we
want others to take our scholarly works seriously.
NOTE
1
To the best of my knowledge, the first book in generative morphology did not appear until 1976. It
was written by Mark Aronoff, following arguments in an important paper by Chomsky (1970),
“Remarks on English Nominalization”.
2
Sound Pattern in English, often abbreviated SPE, is the first book outlining phonological theory in
generative grammar, written by Chomsky and Halle (1968).
3
The term “accidental gap” means that the word is not there in the given language but observes its
phonotactics (i.e., rules for constructing syllables), whereas “systematic gap” means that the word is
not there in the language and violates its phonotactics (see O’Grady et al. 1989:56)
4
I have used example (8) in a previous paper (Kadarisman 2009), pointing out that this sentence is
syntactically well-formed but semantically ill-formed. Such is the analytic judgment in the linguistic
domain; but in the literary domain, as the sentence becomes part of modern poetry, it sounds
“poetically meaningful”. See also footnote 6 of this paper.
5
I am grateful to Yudi Setyaningsih, M.Pd. for providing me with photographs of public notices I use
as illustrative examples in (14), (15), and (16).
6
I have used examples (19), (20) and (21) in a previous paper (Kadarisman 2009) to show Chomsky’s
influence on the development of poetics. Now I repeat using these examples as evidence in support
of the argument that our “poetic competence” is in fact part of our general “linguistic competence”.
* I would like to thank Nurenzia Yannuar, M.A., a prospective linguist and a colleague at the English
Department, State University of Malang, for proofreading and suggesting corrections for the earlier
draft of this paper. Any shortcomings remaining, however, are my responsibility alone.
** I would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for very helpful comments on the earlier draft.
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23
Tahun ke-30, No. 1
NOMINAL CLAUSE CONSTRUCTIONS IN BIAK
Suriel Mofu*
Universitas Negeri Papua
[email protected]
Abstract
This paper presents two kinds of nominal clause constructions in Biak:
1. Constructions containing the copular verbs –iri and is(o)
2. Constructions containing the copular clitics such as –ri, -s-, as well as free
pronominal clitics.
It is argued that these two kinds of nominal clause constructions show different syntactic
behaviour. The first construction with copular verbs iri and is(o) follows nominal Biak
verbal inflections. The second construction with copular clitics involves a nominal stem
plus a copular clitic which is attached to a clause final determiner form. Data show that
one copular form of the third person predicate nominal clauses can have two different
meanings. By assuming that the copular form in question has two different constructions
(copular verb construction and copular clitic construction), we will correctly predict that
the nominal clause is ambiguous.
Key words: Austronesian language, Biak morphosyntax, nominal predicate constructions.
Makalah ini menyajikan dua tipe konstruksi nominal dalam bahasa Biak:
1. Verba kopula –iri dan is(o)
2. Klitika kopula (klitik–ri, -s-, dan klitika pronominal bebas).
Makalah ini berargumentasi bahwa kedua konstruksi nominal ini memiliki ciri sintaksis
yang berbeda. Konstruksi pertama mengikuti pola-pola infleksi normal verba bahasa Biak.
Konstruksi kedua terdiri atas kata dasar nominal yang disusul klitika kopula yang melekat
pada kata sandang tentu di akhir konstruksi. Data menunjukkan bahwa sebuah bentuk
konstruksi nominal yang sama dari pronomina persona ketiga dapat memiliki dua
pengertian yang berbeda. Dengan mempertimbangkan bahwa konstruksi nominal tersebut
memiliki dua tipe konstruksi yang berbeda (konstruksi verba kopula dan konstruksi klitika
kopula), kita secara tepat dapat memprediksikan bahwa konstruksi nominal tersebut
bermakna ganda.
Kata-kata kunci: Bahasa Austronesia, morfosintaksis bahasa Biak, konstruksi klausa
nominal
INTRODUCTION
The Biak language belongs to the West New Guinea subgroup of the Austronesian language
family and is spoken in Papua (Papua and West Papua provinces), Indonesia, in the northern
part of the Geelvink Bay. The two provinces were formerly known as Irian Jaya. Biak has
around 50,000 to 70,000 speakers, which makes it the language with the largest number of
speakers in Papua.
Silzer’s (1984) and Voorhove’s (1975) bibliographies list a number of previous studies
on the Biak language. The first studies began in the 1800s when a few scholars such as
Gabelenttz and A.B. Meyer produced a comparative study of Biak (Numfor dialect) in German.
J.L. Van Hasselt and F.J.F. Van Hasselt were also very productive during the period of 1868 to
1947. J.L. Van Hasselt (1876), for instance wrote a Biak – Dutch, and Dutch – Biak dictionary.
F.J.F. Van Hasselt (1908 – 1932) wrote a few new testaments in Biak and a Biak-Dutch
dictionary. Van Hasselt and Van Hasselt’s texts were based on Numfor dialect. Since 1975,
Soeparno, an Indonesian lexicographer, has continued work on the Biak language, producing a
bilingual Biak-Indonesian dictionary.
Suriel Mofu
The three most recent works on the Biak language are Steinhauer (2005), Van den
Heuvel (2006), and Mofu (2009). These works appear to be the most comprehensive and
detailed description of the Biak language.
Despite the high quality of previous descriptions of Biak, there remain a number of
phenomena that have not yet been discussed in any depth. The formal distinction between verbal
and nominal clauses in Biak, for instance, is not studied yet. Here I discuss two constructions in
particular: i) nominal clauses constructions; and ii) copular verb/copular clitic constructions.
Both of these constructions exhibit interesting phenomenon to be described here. The copular
verbs and the copular clitics in question are as follows:
1. Copular verbs –iri and is(o)which have inflections similar to normal Biak verbs.
2. Copular clitics –ri, -s- and free pronoun clitics.
Observe the following data:
1.
2.
binamber
suiri
bin – amber
sui-ri
woman – foreign
Det.3DU-be
‘The two are foreign women’
binamber
suiri
bin – amber
su –iri
woman – foreign
3DU -be
‘It’s the foreign woman and someone else’
The form binamber suiri above shows a copular clitic construction in (1) and a copular verb
construction in (2).
The paper argues that the two kinds of nominal predicate constructions exhibit different
syntactic behaviour. Specifically, it is argued that one copular form (a nominal clause which is
formed by third person determiners prefixed to copular clitic ri) can be syntactically ambiguous
(See examples (1) and (2)).
The spoken and written data treated in this paper were collected during 2004 – 2006 in
Saba village (East Biak), Orwer Village (East Biak), Biak Town, Samber (South Biak) and
Sopen (West Biak).
References were made to Steinhauer (1985 and 2005), Mofu (2009) and Van den
Heuvel (2006). Some of their data have been consulted to support this paper.
In order to the reader a clear understanding of copular verb constructions in the Biak
language and how they are different from constructions containing normal Biak verbs, the next
two sections will discuss verbal morphology and copular verb. Then, the following three
sections will discuss the syntactic differences between the two aforementioned nominal clauses.
VERBAL MORPHOLOGY OF BIAK
Inflectional affixes occur on verbal and prepositional predicates, demonstratives, directionals,
possessives, and nominal predicates. In the examples below, I provide data that show the
inflectional affixes on verbs, demonstratives, directionals, and possessives.
Verb:
3.
ifrar
fasau
i-frar
fasau
3SG-run quick
‘He ran quickly’
Demonstratives:
4.
snon
suiwa
suba
snon
su-iwa
su-ba
man
3DU-that
3DU-big
‘Those two men are very big’
kaku
kaku
very
26
Directionals:
5.
roma
siponne
sibiser
roma
si-pon-ne
si-biser
child
3PL.AN-front-this
3PL.AN-hungry
‘The children in front (of this house) are hungry’
Possessives:
6.
inai
byesui
inai
be-ysui
daughter POSS- -3SG- Det.DU
‘His two daughters’
Each of the verbal inflectional affixes will be discussed in order to give the reader a clearer
understanding of the distinction between the paradigm for normal Biak verbs versus the
paradigm for copular verbs.
Verbal and Prepositional Predicates
Steinhauer (1985:471 and 2005:798) groups verbal subject agreement prefixes (and infixes) into
three categories based on their phonological properties. These include syllabic (vocalic)
prefixes, non-syllabic (non-vocalic) prefixes, as well as a third category of ‘mixed’ prefixes.
Mofu (2009) adopts Steinhauer’s description, but suggests that affixes can be collapsed
into two main sets: consonantal affixes and vocalic affixes. The vocalic affix set contains only
prefixes, whereas the consonantal affix set shows 2 subsets: the first subset contains only
prefixes, which can be attached to verb roots/stems beginning with consonant-vowel (CV) and
to verb roots/stems beginning with consonant clusters (CC). The second subset has prefixes,
infixes, and a zero morphemes, which can only attach to the CV initial verb roots/stems.
In order to distinguish which CV initial verb roots/stems appears with which subset of
agreement affixes, the first consonantal pattern is referred to as the Consonantal Pattern Type 1
(CP Type 1) andthe second consonantal pattern as the Consonantal Pattern Type 2 (CP Type 2).
The distinction between these two types of the consonantal patterns will be explained later.
Table 1 lists subject agreement affixes for each of the inflectional patterns in the Biak language.
The list contains free pronouns and the two sets of patterns for the inflectional paradigm of
affixes in the Biak language.
Table 1. Subject Agreement Affixes
Pronouns
Free
1 sg
2sg
3sg
1du.incl
1du .excl
2du
3du
3pcl
1pl.incl
1pl.excl
2pl
3pl.an
3pl.inan
aya
au
i
ku
nu
mu
su
sko
ko
inko
mko
si
na
Agreement Affixes
CONSONANTAL PATTERN
VOCAL PATTERN
Type 1
Type 2
CV-initial stem CV-initial stem V-initial stem
CC-initial stem prefix and infix Prefix
prefix
yaywa-w- / Ø
wi-ydkukuynunuymumuysusuyskoskkok(i)nko(i)nkmkomksi-/ ssna- /nn-
27
Suriel Mofu
THE CONSONANTAL PATTERN
The Consonantal Pattern Type 1 (CP Type 1)
The form of the pronominal prefixes is very similar to that of free pronouns in the CP Type 1
set. Table 2 lists examples of CV initial roots/stems while table 3 lists CC initial verb
roots/stems.
Tabel 2. The Consonantal Pattern Type 1 (CV initial roots/stems)
Pronouns
1 sg
2sg
3sg
1du.incl
1du .excl
2du
3du
3pcl
1pl.incl
1pl.excl
2pl
3pl.an
3pl.inan
Prefix
yawaikunumususkoko(i)nkomkosina-
Roots
ba
‘big’
ya-ba
wa-ba
i-ba
ku-ba
nu-ba
mu-ba
su-ba
sko-ba
ko-ba
(i)nko-ba
mko-ba
si-ba
na-ba
fuken
‘ask’
ya-fuken
wa-fuken
i-fuken
ku-fuken
nu-fuken
mu-fuken
su-fuken
sko-fuken
ko-fuken
(i)nko-fuken
mko-fuken
si-fuken
na-fuken
kandor
‘surprise’
ya-kandor
wa-kandor
i-kandor
ku-kandor
nu-kandor
mu-kandor
su-kandor
sko-kandor
ko-kandor
(i)nko-kandor
mko-kandor
si-kandor
na-kandor
marisen
‘happy’
ya-marisen
wa-marisen
i-marisen
ku-marisen
nu-marisen
mu-marisen
su-marisen
sko-marisen
ko-marisen
(i)nko-marisen
mko-marisen
si-marisen
na-marisen
Tabel 3. The Consonantal Pattern Type 1 (CC initial roots/stems)
Pronouns
1 sg
2sg
3sg
1du.incl
1du .excl
2du
3du
3pcl
1pl.incl
1pl.excl
2pl
3pl.an
3pl.inan
Prefix
yawaikunumususkoko(i)nkomkosina-
Roots
fnak
‘play’
ya-fnak
wa- fnak
i- fnak
ku- fnak
nu- fnak
mu- fnak
su- fnak
sko- fnak
ko- fnak
(i)nko- fnak
mko- fnak
si- fnak
na-fnak
mbran
‘walk’
ya- mbran
wa- mbran
i- mbran
ku- mbran
nu- mbran
mu- mbran
su- mbran
sko- mbran
ko- mbran
(i)nko- mbran
mko- mbran
si- mbran
na-mbran
pdef
‘go straight’
ya-pdef
wa- pdef
i- pdef
ku- pdef
nu- pdef
mu- pdef
su- pdef
sko- pdef
ko- pdef
(i)nko- pdef
mko- pdef
si- pdef
na- pdef
swarepen
‘remember’
ya-swarepen
wa- swarepen
i-swarepen
ku-swarepen
nu-swarepen
mu-swarepen
su-swarepen
sko-swarepen
ko-swarepen
(i)nko-swarepen
mko-swarepen
si-swarepen
na-swarepen
The Consonantal Pattern Type 2 (CP Type 2)
The prefixes belonging to Consonantal Pattern Type 2 are similar to those belonging to
Consonantal Pattern Type 1. The difference is that, within the Type 2 paradigm, infixes mark
second person and third person singular. The second person and third person singular infixes
are –w- and –y-, respectively. The second person singular infix (-w-) and the third person
singular infix (–y-) appear with verb roots/stems beginning with a consonant-vowel (CV)
sequence, but not verb roots/stems beginning with consonant clusters (CC) (see table 1). These
infixes are inserted immediately after the first consonant of the root or stem.
28
It is important to note that the second person singular infix (-w-) occurs in verbs such as
barek ‘stay’, bay ‘dig’, bores ‘row’, farkor ‘teach’, fas ‘write’, mam ‘look’, mun ‘kill’. These
verbs that begin with bilabial consonants when inflected for the second person singular infix /w-/, will retain their pure root/stem forms. Mofu (2009:24) states that in this situation the second
person subject agreement infix (-w-) has been fused with the initial bilabial consonant of the
verbs to give a single, unsegmentable morph. Observe the following examples.
7.
8.
*bwores
fasau
be
pam
b-w-ores
fasau
be
pam
row- -2SGquick
to
fish net
‘You row quickly to that fish net’
bores
fasau
be
pam
bores- -w-1
fasau
be
pam
row- -2SGquickly to
fish net
‘You row quickly to that fish net’
iwa
iwa
that.SG
iwa(EB)
iwa
that.SG
Both the second person singular infix (-w-) and the third person singular infix (-y-)
apply to roots or stems beginning with / k, n, r, s, b (β,v), p, f, m/.
In order to give a complete picture of this paradigm, table 4 lists words belonging to the
Consonantal Type 2 class. The examples of the infixes are given in boldface (for a list of verbs
belonging to each affix class, see Mofu (2009)).
Table 4. The Consonantal Pattern Type 2 with Infix for the 2nd and 3rd Person Singular
(CV initial roots/stems).
Pronouns
1 sg
2SG
3SG
1du.incl
1du .excl
2du
3du
3pcl
1pl.incl
1pl.excl
2pl
3pl.an
3pl.inan
Prefix/
Infix /
Zero
Affix
ya-w- / Ø
-ykunumususkoko(i)nkomkosn-
Roots
kaber
‘return’
ro
‘be at’
ra
‘go’
mam
‘see’
baber
‘naked’
ya-kaber
k-w-aber
k-y-aber
ku-kaber
nu-kaber
mu-kaber
su-kaber
sko-kaber
ko-kaber
(i)nko-kaber
mko-kaber
s-kaber
n-kaber
ya-ro
r-w-o
r-y-o
ku-ro
nu-ro
mu-ro
su-ro
sko-ro
ko-ro
(i)nko-ro
mko-ro
s-ro
n-ro
ya-ra
r-w-a
r-y-a
ku-ra
nu-ra
mu-ra
su-ra
sko-ra
ko-ra
(i)nko-ra
mko-ra
s-ra
n-ra
ya-mam
mam
m-y-am
ku-mam
nu-mam
mu-mam
su-mam
sko-mam
ko-mam
(i)nko-mam
mko-mam
s-mam
n-mam
ya-baber
baber
b-y-aber
ku-baber
nu-baber
mu-baber
su-baber
sko-baber
ko-baber
(i)nko-baber
mko-baber
s-baber
n-baber
VOCAL PATTERN
The vocal pattern applies to roots or stems that begin with a vowel (V). Vowel deletion occurs
with most prefixes, with the exception of dual forms, with which u is retained and the glide [y]
is inserted at the juncture of the prefix and root/stem. In addition, the third person singular takes
prefix /d/ instead of /i/.
29
Suriel Mofu
Tabel 5. The Vocal Pattern
Pronouns
1 sg
2sg
3sg
1du.incl
1du .excl
2du
3du
3pcl
1pl.incl
1pl.excl
2pl
3pl.an
3pl.inan
Prefix Roots
an
‘eat’
yy-an
ww-an
dd-an
kuykuy-an
nuynuy-an
muy- muy-an
suysuy-an
sksk-an
kk-an
(i)nk- (i)nk-an
mkmk-an
ss-an
nn-an
enef
‘sleep’
y- enef
w- enef
d- enef
kuy- enef
nuy- enef
muy- enef
suy- enef
sk- enef
k- enef
(i)nk- enef
mk- enef
s- enef
n- enef
ores
‘stand’
y- ores
w- ores
d- ores
kuy- ores
nuy- ores
muy- ores
suy- ores
sk- ores
k- ores
(i)nk- ores
mk- ores
s- ores
n- ores
uf
‘hold’
y- uf
w- uf
d- uf
kuy- uf
nuy- uf
muy- uf
suy-uf
sk- uf
k- uf
(i)nk- uf
mk- uf
s- uf
n- uf
Variation
Having described the overall pattern of agreement marking, I would now like to mention some
variability in the inflection of verbal, adjectival and prepositional predicates.
The verb rires ‘to dry (something) under the sun’, for instance, exhibits variability in
the way it is marked for second person singular and the third person singular agreement. In
particular, this verb can follow either the CP Type 1 or CP Type 2 pattern, as shown in
examples in (9-12).
9.
10.
11.
12.
warirs
sansun
wa-rires
sansun
2SG-dry (under the sun)
clothes
‘You dried clothes (under the sun)’
rwirs
sansun
rires- -wsansun
dry (under the sun) -2SGclothes
‘You dried clothes (under the sun)’
irirs
sansun
i-rires
sansun
3SG-dry (under the sun)
clothes
‘He dried clothes (under the sun)’
ryirs
sansun
rires- -ysansun
dry (under the sun)- -3SGclothes
‘He dried clothes (under the sun)’
CP Type 1
CP Type 2
CP Type 1
CP Type 2
Some forms marked with the third person plural animate and inanimate also show
variability. The verb kaber ‘return’ may take either of the third person plural inanimate prefixes
na- or n-, as illustrated by the sentences na-kaber and n-kaber ‘they return’. Similarly, the verb
bar ‘carry something on one’s shoulder’ can appear with either of the third person plural
animate prefixes si- or s-, as illustrated by the sentences s-bar aina and si-bar aina ‘they carry
the wood’.
30
According to Steinhauer (1985:471), this variation is partly conditioned by the
phonological shape of the stem, but is partly unpredictable (especially for the second and third
person singular and the third person plural (animate and inanimate)).
It seems that the choice between prefixes for certain verbs is determined lexically (Van
den Heuvel 2006:158). Evidence for this claim comes from the obstervation that phonologically
identical roots, such as so ’throw’ and so ‘follow,’ take different CP type inflections. The root
so ‘follow’, follows CP type 1, whereas the root so ‘throw’ follows CP type 2. See table 6 for
similar examples:
Table 6. Minimal pairs
Pronouns
Agreement Affix
Prefix, Infix
2SG
wa-, -w3SG
i-, -y3PL AN
si-, s3PL INAN na-, n-
Roots
so‘follow’
wa-so
i-so
si-so
na-so
so‘throw’
s-w-o
s-y-o
s-so
n-so
DEMONSTRATIVES AND DIRECTIONALS
Demonstratives
Demonstratives are inflected with regard to number, gender and syntactic position.
Demonstratives also indicate whether the entity is being pointed out is already known to the
hearer. The semantic ‘multi-dimensionality’ of demonstratives was observed by Steinhauer in
his preliminary sketch of the language:
“The entity designated may be defined exclusively with regard to the position
of the speaker (in marked usage the interpretation “invisible to the hearer” may
be appropriate): “this”; this meaning is opposed to the pair “relatively close to
the speaker and hearer” vs “relatively remote”; this triple opposition is
semantically neutralized in forms that may be qualified as definite articles
(1985:475).
Steinhauer (2005:814) proposes that the formation of Biak demonstratives and directional
constructions involves a combination of the following formatives:
1. Third person personal pronouns (namely articles in their clause final shape 2), which
indicate the number, gender and definiteness of the entity whose location is to be
specified.
2. Those expressing position relative to the position of the speaker (S): ‘in front of the
speaker’ (-pon). ‘behind the speaker’ –pur); ‘above the speaker’ (i-yas), ‘below the
speaker’ (-bab), or relative to the position of the speaker and some area of orientation:
‘between the speaker and the sea’ (-ra); after –n-: -da) ‘between the speaker and the
inland’ (re-de), ‘outside the place where the speaker is’ (-ri/-di); Two other formatives
which should be included in this list: –rum ‘inside’(as in example 9 17) and bun ‘in the
middle of (the sea).’
3. Formatives expressing relative distance from the speaker: ‘here (PRX)’ (-ne), ‘there
(MED)’ (-i, clause medially –ya), and ‘yonder (DIST)’ (-wa). The distance necessary for
an entitity to be considered PRX etc. depends on its volume. At a distance of 5 meters, a
house would be considered PRX, whereas a scorpion would be considered DIST.
4. Formatives which indicate the direction in which an entity is moving with regard to the
position of interlocutors, with the possible meanings ‘towards the speaker (VEN)’ (ma), ‘away from the speaker/towards the hearer (AND)’ (-fa), and ‘not related to the
speech situation (GO)’ (-ra). (Steinhauer 2005:814-815).
31
Suriel Mofu
According to Stienhauer, the following combinations occur: (1) + (3), (1) + (2) + (3), (1) + (3) +
(4). Below, I provide examples illustrating each of these combinations.
(1) + (3);
13. ine
i-ne
3SG.Det-this
‘This’
14. iya
i-ya
3SG.Det-that
‘That’
15. iwa
i-wa
3SG.Det-that .over.there
‘That over there’
(1) + (2) + (3);
16. iponne
i-pon-ne
3SG.Det-front-this
‘The one (at the) front here’
17. irumwa
i-rum-wa
3SG.Det-inside-that .over.there
‘The one inside overthere’
(1) + (3) + (4);
18. iyama
i-ya-ma
3SG.Det-that-moving towards me
‘That moving towards me’
Steinhauer notes that the combination of (1) and (3) is obligatory. Building on this proposal,
Mofu (2009) suggests that additionally there are two other possible combinations of
demonstratives and directionals:
a) (1) + (3) + (4) + (2)
b) (1) + (2) + (3) + (4)
Examples:
(1) + (3) + (4) + (2)
19. iyamre
i-ya-m-re
3SG.Det-that-moving towards me-landward
‘That moving landwards (to where I am)’
(1) + (2) + (3) + (4)
20. iyaswara
i-yas-wa-ra
3SG.Det-above-that.over.there-moving to there
‘That over there above moving to there (remote)’
32
For the sake of simplicity, i-ne (3SG.DET-this), i-ya (3SG.DET-that), and i-wa
(3SG.DET-that.overthere) will be written as single words glossed as follows: ine (this.SG), iya
(that.SG) and iwa (that.over.there.SG). For first and second person singular and non-singular
forms, the glossing will indicate both number and person, e.g. sko-ine (3PCL-this), mu-ine
(2DU-this), s-ine (3PL.AN-this), etc.
The paradigm for basic and complex demonstratives in the Biak language is provided
below. In this table, a hyphen (-) indicates that a form is not possible.
Basic Demonstratives
Table 7. Basic Sets of Demonstratives
Number
Free
Pronouns
1 sg
2sg
3sg
1du.incl
1du excl
2du
3du
3pcl
1pl.incl
1pl.excl
2pl
3pl.an
3pl.inan
aya
au
i
ku
nu
mu
su
sko
ko
inko
mko
si
na
ine
‘this’
close to
speaker
ayaine
auine
ine
kuine
nuine
muine
suine
skoine
koine
inkoine
mkoine
sine
naine
iya
‘that’
relatively close to
hearer (and speaker)
auiya
iya
muiya
suiya
skoiya
mkoiya
siya
naiya
iwa
that
remote/far away from
speaker and hearer
auiwa
iwa
muiwa
suiwa
skoiwa
mkoiwa
siwa
naiwa
i
‘the’
neutral
i/ya
sui/suya
skoi/skoya
si/sya
na
According to Van den Heuvel (2006:333), the formatives –ya and -yi are used to refer
to entities considered close to speaker (and addressee) but not closer to speaker than to
addressee. The demonstrative ya ‘the’ is the sentence medial form. Its variant form i is
the sentence final form.
The demonstrative pronouns consist of a free pronoun cliticised with one of the basic
demonstrative elements as shown in table 6. The basic sets of demonstratives (ine ‘this close to
speaker’, iya ‘that relatively close to hearer and speaker’, iwa ‘that far away from speaker and
hearer’ and i ‘the (neutral)’ can be expressed with no affixation.
The inflection of the demonstratives ine ‘this’ (close to the speaker (and hearer)),
iya‘that (close to the hearer)’, and iwa ‘that’ (remoted from the speaker (and from the hearer)),
take prefixes which are similar to verbal inflections. Example:
21. snon
suiwa
sukaki
kaku
snon
su-iwa
su-kaki
kaku
man
3DU-that 3DU-high very
‘Those two men are very tall’
The combination of the second person singular (au-), second person dual (mu-), and
second person plural (mko-) with demonstrative iwa ‘that (remote/far away from speaker (and
hearer)) is attested in Biak. However, such forms can only be used in certain contexts: e.g. when
there are many people present at the time of speaking, and the speaker would like to get the
attention of the hearer(s) who is situated relatively far away from the speaker. For example:
22. auiwa
nido
waso
ke
barek? (pc)
au-iwa
nido
wa-so
ke
barek- -w2SG-that FOC
2SG-follow
or
stay - -2SG‘You over there, are you coming (with us) or staying (over there) ?’
33
Suriel Mofu
Complex Demonstratives
The basic demonstratives in table 7 can combine with positional, directional and motional
markers. The positional and directional markers are pon ‘front’, pur ‘back/behind’, bab
‘below’, yas ‘above’, re ‘landward’, ra ‘seaward’, bun ‘in the middle (of the sea)’, ri ‘outside’,
and rum ‘inside’. The motion markers are –ma/-m- ‘moving towards the speaker’, -fa/ -f‘moving away from the speaker/ towards the hearer’, –ra/-r- ‘moving (not related to the speech
situation)’. Ma, ra and fa are the phrase final forms. Formatives –m-, -r-, and –f- are the phrase
medial forms. Demonstratives, positional, motional and directional markers combine to form
complex demonstratives.
There is a distinction in the morpheme order of complex demonstratives that indicates
whether an entity is moving or is at rest. When an entity is at rest, the positional or directional
formatives are placed before the demonstrative marker, as in the following examples.
23.
roma
iponne
ibiser(EB)
roma
i-pon-ne
i-biser
child
3SG-front-this
3SG-hungry
‘The child in front (of this house) is hungry’
In (23), the positional marker (which indicates relative position with respect to the position of
the speaker) is pon ‘front’ and it appears to be infixed to the demonstrative word ine ( this.3SG).
When an entity is moving, the placement of motion markers (or combination of motion and
directional markers) will occur after the demonstrative:
24.
25.
iyama
iya-ma
3SG.that-moving towards me
‘That moving towards me’
iwamrum
iwa-m-rum
3SG.that.over there-moving towards me- inside
‘That over there moving towards me inside’
The placement of positional markers after the demonstrative is ill-formed as the following
examples illustrate:
26.
27.
*inepon
ine-pon
3SG.this-front
‘This in front’
*iwarum
iwa-rum
3SG.that-inside
‘This inside
These patterns show that Biak exhibits speaker-centered utterances. In complex
demonstrative constructions, an entity can move away from the speaker in any direction (close
or remote in distance) or from any direction towards the speaker. However, the movement of the
entity is not allowed from a remote area to the hearer.
The possible combinations of demonstratives and motional and directional markers are
shown in table 8 below:
34
Table 8. Possible Formation of Complex Demonstratives with Motional Markers
(the symbol ‘√’ indicates a combination is possible,
whereas a hyphen indicates that a combination is not possible).
There are four possible combinations of complex demonstratives:
Motional marker
ma ‘moving towards the speaker (and hearer)’
fa ‘moving away from the speaker towards the hearer or other target’
ra ‘moving away not towards the speaker or hearer’
Demonstratives +
Motional Marker
ine iya
iwa
√
√
√
√
√
√
√
1. Demonstrative + Positional/Directional Markers
Table 9 below shows the combination of demonstrative words and all positional/directional
markers. All forms in table 9 are used when the relevant entity is at rest.
Table 9. Basic Demonstratives (ine, iya, iwa) in Combination with Positional Markers
Positional/
Directional
pon
pur
bab
yas
re
ra
bun
ri
rum
Demonstrative + Directionals
ne
ya
wa
iponne iponya
iponwa
ipurne
ipurya
ipurwa
ibabne
ibabya
ibabwa
iyasne
iyasya
iyaswa
ireine
ireiya
ireiwa
iraine
iraiya
iraiwa
ibunne ibunya
ibunwa
irine
iriya
iriwa
irumne irumya irumwa
Meaning viewed from the perspective of Speaker
this / that / that.over.there in front
this / that / that.over.there at the back
this / that / that.over.there below
this / that / that.over.there above
this / that / that.over.there at the landside
this / that / that.over.there at the seaside
this / that / that.over.there in the middle of something
this / that / that.over.there outside
this / that / that.over.there inside of something
2. Demonstrative + Motional Markers
Tables 10, 11, and 12 show demonstratives combined with motion markers; –ma ‘moving
towards the speaker (and hearer)’, -fa ‘ moving away from the speaker (towards another target)’,
–ra ‘moving away from both the speaker and hearer’.
Table 10. Dem + Motion Marker –ma ‘Moving towards the Speaker (and Hearer)’
DEM
ine
iya
iwa
DEM + Motion marker -ma
ine-ma
iya-ma
iwa-ma
Meaning
this moving towards me
that moving towards me
that.over there moving towards me
Table 11. Dem + Motion Marker –fa ‘Moving Away from the Speaker towards the Hearer
or other Target.
DEM
ine
iya
iwa
Dem + Motion marker -fa
ine-fa
Iya-fa
*iwa-fa
Meaning
this moving away from me to you’
that moving away from me to you’
*that.over.there moving away from me to you’
Table 12. Dem + Motion Marker –ra ‘Moving Away from the Speaker or Hearer’
DEM
ine
Dem + Motion marker -ra
ine-ra
iya
iwa
*iya-ra
iwa-ra
Meaning
this moving away to over there (Somewhere far away or
remote from speaker’s view point)
that close to you moving away to over there
that over there moving to over there
35
Suriel Mofu
For a discussion of complex demonstratives which are judged ungrammatical, see the discussion
that follows table 16.
3. Demonstrative + Motional+ Positional/Directional Markers
The list of complex demonstratives in tables 10 to 12 can be expanded with the addition of
positional or directional markers (see table 9). These complex demonstratives indicate whether
an entity is moving towards or away from, as well as the direction of the entity.
28.
kawasa
siyamra
kawasa
si-ya-m-ra
people
3PL.AN - that - towards here - seaward
‘Those people coming here, seawards’
In (28) the motion marker –m- and directional marker –ra both occur after the demonstrative
word siya (3PL.AN-that).
Tables 13, 14, and 15 illustrate demonstratives in combination with motion markers
(which includes –m- ‘moving towards the speaker’, -f- ‘moving away from the speaker and
towards the hearer’, –r- ‘moving away (not related to the speech situation)’ and directional
markers (which includes -pon‘in front of S’, -pur‘behind S’, -yas ‘above’, -bab ‘below’, or
relative to the position of the speaker and some area of orientation: ‘-ra; after –n: -da ‘between
S and the sea’,-re/-de ‘between S and the inland’, -ri/-di ‘outside the place where S is located.
Table 13. Dem + Motion Marker –m- ‘Moving towards the Speaker (and Hearer)’ +
Position/Directional Marker
DEM
ine
iya
iwa
Dem + Motion marker –m- +
Directional marker –ra.
ine-m-ra
iya-m-ra
iwa-m-ra
Meaning
this moving seawards towards me
that moving seawards towards me
that over there moving seawards towards me
Table 14. Dem + Motion Marker –f- ‘Moving Away (towards other Target) from the
Speaker + Directionals
DEM
ine
iya
iwa
Dem + Motion marker –f+ Directional marker –pur.
ine-f-pur
iya-f-pur
*iwa-f-pur
Meaning
this moving in your direction backward
that moving in your direction backward
*that.over there moving in your direction backwards
Table 15. Dem + Motion Marker –r- ‘Moving Away not towards the Speaker or other
Target’
DEM
ine
iya
iwa
Dem + Motion marker –r+ Directional marker –pon.
ine-r-pon
*iya-r-pon
iwa-r-pon
Meaning
this moving to over there, frontwards
that moving to over there, frontwards
that over there moving to over there, frontwards
4. Demostrative + Positional/Directional marker and Motional markers.
Table 16 lists complex demonstratives combined with positional/directional markers and
motional markers.
36
Table 16. Demonstrative + Position Markers + Motion Adverbs –ra, -ma, -fa
DEM Dem + Motion marker –r- Meaning
+ Directional marker –pon.
iwa
i-pon-wa-ra
that over there frontward moving to over there
iya
i-yas-ya-fa
that above close to you moving in your direction
*i-yas-wa-fa
*that above over there moving in your direction
ine
i-rum-ne-ma
this inside moving towards me
All the basic and complex demonstratives can take the prefix an-(GIV), which indicates whether
an entity being pointed out is already known to the hearer. Examples:
29.
30.
anine
dobe
ibiser(EB)
an-ine
d-obe
i-biser
GIV- 3SG.this 3SG-say 3SG-hungry
‘This one here said (that) he is hungry’
ansipurne
sobe
sibiser(EB)
an-si-pur-ne
s-obe
si-biser
GIV- 3PL.AN-backwards-this
3SG-say
3SG-hungry
‘The ones here at the back said (that) they are hungry’
Table.17 Basic Demonstratives in Combination with Giveness3 Marker anNumber
3sg
3du
3pcl
3pl.an
3pl.inan
Free Pronouns
(Third person)
i
su
sko
si
na
ine ‘this’
close to speaker
anine
ansuine
anskoine
ansine
annaine
Meaning
this (SG)
these two of them
these three (or more) of them
these (PL.AN)
these (PL.INAN)
All the basic demonstratives and their complex variants can take the giveness marker. Example:
31. anirumya
dobe
ibiser(EB)
an-i-rum-ya
d-obe
i-biser
GIV- 3SG.that- -inward3SG-say
3SG-hungry
‘That one inside (the house) said (that) he is hungry’
The rules for formation of demonstratives and motional markers presented in table 8
predict the ungrammaticality of some unattested complex demonstratives such as iwafa
‘that.over.there (remote) moving to you’ (see table 11), iyara ‘that close to you moving away
to over there’ (see table 12), and iyaswafa ‘that above over there moving in your direction’ (see
table 16). First, the formative –ya ‘that’ cannot combine with motional marker –ra because the
formative –ya expresses relative distance between the speaker and the hearer, whereas the
formative –ra indicates movement of an entity which is remote and not related to the speaker
or the hearer. Secondly, the formative –wa expresses an entity which situated far away from
both the speaker and the hearer. Therefore, –wa cannot combine with formative –fa which
indicates movement of an entity away from the speaker/towards the hearer.
POSSESSIVE VERBS
Inflections on Alienable Possessive Pronouns
Possessive pronouns are inflected with regard to the person, number and gender properties of
the possessor. Moreover, possessive pronouns always “comprise a combination of an element
denoting the relations of possession with a demonstrative indicating the position of the entity
possessed” (Steinhauer, 1985:477). The entity possessed is marked by the the possessive
pronoun. Observe the following examples:
37
Suriel Mofu
32.
roma
byesui
(EB)
roma
be-ysui
son
POSS- -3SG- Det.DU
‘His two sons’
33. roma
byedi
(EB)
roma
be-y-di
son
POSS- -3SG- Det.SG
‘His son’
As illustrated in (32) and (33), the basic possessive pronoun has two parts. The first part is
the possessive verb root be, which receives inflection reflecting the number and person properties of
the possessor. The inflection of the possessive verb be follows the CP type 2 pattern, with the infix (y-) for the third person singular. The second part is the determiner phrase, which marks the number
and gender (for plural only) of the possessed noun and which closes the possessive pronoun.
Surprisingly, b- is deleted in first person singular forms. There is no clear explanation for deletion,
and the form is judged to be ill-formed if b- is retained, as the following examples illustrate:
34. * roma
ayabedi
(EB)
roma
aya-be-di
son
1SG-POSS- Det.SG
‘My son’
35. roma
ayedi
(EB)
roma
ay-e-di
son
1SG-POSS- Det.SG
‘My son’
This phenomenon is superficially similar to a process of b- deletion which affects the
relativizing prefix be-, which can also be realized as e- However, unlike the examples above, in the
case of the relativizing prefix, b- and Ø are truly in free variation, as illustrated by the examples
below.
36. kawasa
befur
rumyansya
kawasa
be-fur
rum-ya-n-sya
people
REL-make
house-DET.SG-GIV-Det.PL.AN
‘The people who built the house’
37. kawasa
efur
rumyansya
kawasa
e-fur
rum-ya-n-sya
people
REL-make
house-DET.SG-GIV-Det.PL.AN
‘The people who built the house’
The basic possessive pronouns in the Biak language are provided in table 18.
Table 18. Basic Possessive Pronouns
POSSESSOR
1 sg
2sg
3sg
1du.incl
1du .excl
2du
3du
3pcl
1pl. incl
1pl. excl
2pl
3pl.an
3pl.inan
Possessor
agreement
ay-, y-ikunumususkokonkomkossn-
Possessor
root
POSSESSED NUMBER
SG DU
PCL PL.AN
PL.INAN
be
di
na
38
su-i
sko-i
si
All the forms in table 18 end with clause-final determiner –i, except for the third person plural
inanimate form. These forms can also appear with the clause medial determiner –ya.
In addition, the possessive pronouns can be combined with givenness marker an- in singular,
dual, paucal and plural forms. Table 19 shows singular, dual, paucal and plural possessive
pronouns combined with the marker of givenness marker an-.
Table 19. Possessive Pronouns Combined with Marker of Givenness an with Singular,
Dual, Paucal and Plural.
POSSESSOR
Poss. AGR
1 sg
2sg
3sg
1du.incl
1du .excl
2du
3du
3pcl
1pl. incl
1pl. excl
2pl
ay-, y-ikunumususkokonkomkossn-
3pl.an
3pl.inan
Poss. Root
Given.Mrkr
be
an
SG
i
POSSESSED NUMBER
DU PCL PL.AN PL. INAN
su-i
sko-i
si
na
Inflection on Inalienable Possessive Pronouns
Inalienable nouns are distinguished from alienable nouns by the presence of a special possessive
marker, which refers to the possessor. Observe examples (38) and (39). Examples:
38. snari
(el)
sna-ri
mother-POSS.3SG.Det.SG
‘His/her mother’
39. Yohanes
swari
(el)
Yohanes
swa-ri
John
wife-POSS.3SG.Det.SG
‘John’s wife’
One can test whether a noun is alienably or inalienably possessed by seeing whether the noun in
question can be inflected for the number and person of the possessor. If a noun’s can be
inflected to mark the number or person of the possessor and number and gender of the possessed
entity, it is an inalienably possessed noun. On the other hand, if inflection of this sort is not
possible, the noun is question is alienable. This diagnostic should, however, be qualified, since
not all nouns that are semantically inalienable behave in this fashion; thus, in Biak, inalienably
possessed nouns behave as a syntactic class which is not entirely isomorphic with the class of
entities which are inalienably possessed in semantic terms.
COPULAR VERBS
Overview of Two Recent Descriptions of the Biak Nominal Clauses
Steinhauer (2005) and Van den Heuvel (2006) have recently provided descriptions to account
for the properties of the Biak inflectional paradigm within nominal clauses.
Steinhauer provides a very brief description of the nominal clause constructions, stating
that:
39
Suriel Mofu
“Nominal clauses have a nominal predicate which is formed by a nominal stem
plus two clitics, the clause-final form of the article (with –ri-di for the singular,
however), plus a copula which is formally identical to the free pronoun forms
(with s preceding the 1s and 2s forms, and with –(i)ri for the third
person),(Steinhauer, 2005:804)”.
Table 20 shows Steinhauer’s (2005: 804) paradigm for ‘I am a teacher’ – ‘they are teachers’,
etc. Steinhauer adds the third person form for ‘it is a house’ in order to provide an example of
an inanimate noun.
Table 20. Inflection on Nominal Predicates (e.g. ‘be a Teacher’)
Person
1IN
1EX
2
3AN
3INAN
SG
DU
TR
PL
kuru-si-ku
kuru-si-ko
kuru-ri-saya kuru-si-nu
kuru-si-nko
kuru-ri-saw kuru-si-mu
kuru-si-mko
kuru-ri-ri
kuru-sui-ri- kuru-skoi-ri kuru-si-ri
rum di-ri
rum-sui-ri- rum-skoi-ri rum-na-iri
Steinhauer’s paradigm in table 20 is arranged in such a way that it shows differences in the
expression of number for third person and non-third person subjects. The two examples from
Steinhauer (2005: 804-5) below show how the forms in table 20 can be preceded by a noun
phrase.
40.
41.
bin
sui-wa
kuru
woman 3d.DEF-DIST
teacher
‘Those two women are teachers.’
mov
na-ya
rum
place
3p.INAN.DEF-MED house
‘Those spots are houses.’
sui
3d.DEF
Ri
3.COP
na
Iri
3d.INAN.DEF 3.COP
The glossing in examples (40) and (41) follows Steinhauer’s glossing conventions, which are
different from my own glossing in this paper.
According to Steinhauer, “the copula can also be used after independent personal
pronouns and after noun phrases, which are already definite, such as an inalienable noun or a
noun followed by a possessive pronoun, e.g. aya-iri ‘it’s me’, i-ri ‘it’s him/her’, mam-i-s-aw
‘you (SG) are my father’, rum b-e-di-ri ‘it is your house’(ibid, p.804)”.
In addition, Steinhauer mentions two more equative constructions. The first
construction involves juxtaposition4, and is less frequent and perhaps restricted to constructions
involving a name such as sno-ri Vien ‘her name is Vien’, aya Hein-i ‘I am Hein’. The second
construction involves the copula iso. Steinhauer argues that this kind of copula is used to
emphasize equation and is typical of cleft sentences, which are followed by a relative clause.
Example (42) is taken from Steinhauer (ibid. p. 805).
42. snon i-wa
i-so
ve-duf-i
man 3s.DEF-DIST COP-EMPH REF-ill-3s.DEF
‘That man over there is the one who is ill.’
Steinhauer’s description is correct yet incomplete.
Van den Heuvel (2006) presents a slightly different analysis of Biak nominal clauses. Van den
Heuvel argues that all nominal clauses containing is follow the pattern (NP) + pron +
predicative pronoun (is-i + pron). Within this pattern, an NP is followed by the pronoun i,
which in turn is followed by the predicator is-i.(Van den Heuvel, 2006:306). Some examples
40
based on Van den Heuvel’s analysis are shown in (43) to (46), (See also Van den Heuvel 2006:
299-322).
43. guru risaya
guru ri – i – is – aya
guru GEN.SG - 3SG – PRED-1SG
‘I am a teacher’
44. guru riri
guru ri – i – i – ri
guru GEN.SG - 3SG – PRED –ANAPH
‘He is a teacher’
45. guru sinu
guru si – i – nu
guru 3PL.AN - PRED -1DU.EX
‘We two (excl) are teachers’
46. guru suiri
guru su – i – ri
guru 3DU - PRED-ANAPH
‘The two of them are teachers’
According to Van den Heuvel, the form is and i are allomorphs (Van den Heuvel, 2006: 300 and
312). Thus, in (43) through (46) he glosses both is and i as PRED, with each example following
pattern: (NP) + pron + is – i + pron.
If we adopt the generalization that is and i are both predicate (e.g. ‘copular’ forms) , this
analysis is problematic when we consider sentences which are ambiguous. Example (46), for
instance can either mean ‘the two of them are teachers’ or ‘it’s the teacher (and someone else)’.
I argue that the i (PRED) in (44), (45), and (46) is not the copula i nor is it the morpheme is, but
rather it is part of a determiner which precedes the copular clitic form. The copular clitic forms
can be –ri, -s-, or the free pronoun clitics (nu, ku, mu, mko, etc). By assuming that –ri as a
copular clitic and iri as a copular verb, we correctly predict that sentence (46) will be
ambiguous. Although they do not specifically discuss the distinction between copular clitics and
copular verbs, both Steinhauer (2005) and Van den Heuvel (2006) provide data which is
sufficient to illustrate a contrast between the two types of nominal clause constructions that this
paper discusses.
My approach follows Steinhauer (2005). I support Steinhauer’s proposition that the
copula can be used after independent personal pronouns and after noun phrases, which are
already definite (See table 20 and examples 40 and 41). The difference between my work and
Steinhauer’s is in the division of copular clitics and free pronominal clitics. Steinhauer states
that a nominal predicate is formed by a nominal stem plus two clitics: (1) the clause final form
of the article (with –ri, -di for the singular) plus (2) a copula which is formally identical to a free
pronoun form (with s preceding first person and second person singular forms), and with –(i)ri
for the third person. Data I present in this paper, however, suggests that the s preceding first and
second person singular forms is the copular clitic –s-. The clitic –s- not only precedes the first
and the second person singular forms, but also it precedes demonstratives and directional verbs.
Thus, the first and the second person singular forms are not copulas as Steinhauer suggests.
Rather, I argue that free pronouns that function as a copula are in fact the same as the free
pronoun clitics which are suffixed to plural animate determiners.
Based on the arguments above, I propose two types of copular forms in the Biak
language:
41
Suriel Mofu
1. Copular verbs –iri and is(o) which are used after agreement forms which are
homophonous with the corresponding pronominal forms and;
2. Copular clitics ( nominal clauses that are formed by:
· Clitic –ri suffixed to the third person determiners, and;
· Clitic -s-, which is inserted between determiners and
free pronouns or
demonstratives and directional nouns);
· Free pronoun clitics (nominal clauses that are formed by free pronoun clitics
suffixed to the plural animate determiner si).
Copular Verbs
The copular verbs iri and iso behave like normal Biak verbs, though their agreement forms are
homophonous with corresponding pronominal forms.
The paradigms for the copular verbs iri and iso are presented in table 21 and 22 below.
Table 21. Copular Verb iri
Number
1 sg
2sg
3sg
1du.incl
1du .excl
2du
3du
3pcl
1pl.incl
1pl.excl
2pl
3pl.an
3pl.inan
Free Pronouns
aya
au
i
ku
nu
mu
su
sko
ko
inko
mko
si
na
“to be …..”
Free Pronouns + iri
aya-iri
au-irya
i-iri
ku-iri
nu-iri
mu-iri
su-iri
sko-iri
ko-iri
inko-iri
mko-iri
si-iri
nai-iri
Meaning
It is me
It is you
It is him
It is the two of us INCL
It is the two of us EXCL
It is the two of you
It is the two of them
It is the three of them
It is us INCL
It is us EXCL
It is you PL
It is them AN
It is them INAN
Table 22. Copular Verb iso “to be …..”
Number
1 sg
2sg
3sg
1du.incl
1du .excl
2du
3du
3pcl
1pl.incl
1pl.excl
2pl
3pl.an
3pl.inan
Free Pronouns
aya
au
i
ku
nu
mu
su
sko
ko
inko
mko
si
na
Free Pronouns + iso
aya-iso
au-iso
i-iso
ku-iso
nu-iso
mu-iso
sui-iso
sko-iso
ko-iso
inko-iso
mko-iso
si-iso
na-iso
Meaning
I am (the one who)
You are (the one who)
He/She is (the one who)
We (two) are (the ones who)
We (two) are (the ones who)
You (two) are (the ones who)
They (two) are (the ones who)
They (three) are (the ones who)
We are (the ones who)
We are (the ones who)
You are (the ones who)
They are (the ones who)
They are (the ones who)
Copular Clitic Paradigm
There are three copular clitics in the Biak language. The three copular clitics are –ri, -s-, and
free pronoun clitics (–ku, -nu, -mu, -su, -sko, -ko, -nko, -mko) each of which is described in
detail in nominal clause construction section. The paradigm of copular clitics is shown in table
21, where the paradigm is exemplified using the predicate ‘be a teacher.’
42
Table 23. Copular Clitics Paradigm.
Clitics
Number
–s-
1 sg
2sg
3sg
3du
3pcl
3pl.an
3pl.inan
1du.incl
1du .excl
1pl.incl
1pl.excl
2du
2pl
-ri
Free
pronouns
Free
Pronouns
aya
au
i
su
sko
si
na
ku
nu
ko
inko
mu
mko
Det +
COP.clitic
guru ri-s-aya
guru ri-s-au
guru ri-ri
guru sui-ri
guru skoi-ri
guru si-ri
rum nai-ri
guru si-ku
guru si-nu
guru si-ko
guru si-nko
guru si-mu
guru si-mko
Meaning
I am a teacher
You (SG) are a teacher
He is a teacher
The two of them are teachers
The three of them are teachers
They (PL.AN) are teachers
They (PL.INAN) are houses
The two of us (INCL) are teachers
The two of us (EXCL) are teachers
We (PL.INCL) are teachers
We (PL.EXCL) are teachers
You (DU) are teachers
You (PL) are teachers
Directional Verbs
Directional verbs are formed by inflecting the motion and positional verbs ra ‘go’ and ro ‘be at’.
The inflection of these verbs follows consonantal pattern type 2.
Steinhauer (2005) introduces two sets of directional verbs. The first set consists of
directional verbs formed using the verb roots ra and ro (mentioned above). The second set
consists of directional verbs formed using the root –is- ‘EXIST, be there (on one’s way
to/from….). In the later case, “the relative distance from the speaker has to be expressed,
resulting in the derived stems –is-ne ‘EXIST-PRX’, -is-ya ‘EXIST-MED’, and –is-wa ‘EXISTDIST” (Steinhauer, 2005:817).
In this paper I argue that the directional verb root –is-, which Steinhauer (2005)
discusses, is actually a copular verb is-, which is similar (in terms of it’s syntactic behavior) to
the copular verb is(o), but which can be distinguished from the copular clitic –s-.
I, therefore, suggest that there are two kinds of directional verbs formed by combining
copular forms with demonstratives and directionals: This first type is formed using the copular
verb is- along with demonstratives and directionals. Example (47) illustrates a directional verb
with the copular verb base is- and the demonstrative –ne which gives the derived stem –isne ‘be
here’.
Directional verb is-ne ‘be here’
47. isne
i-is-ne
3SG-be-this
‘He/she/it is here’
The second type involves a combination of the copular clitic –s- with demonstratives and
directionals. Example (48) illustrates a directional verb formed by combining the copular clitic –
s- with the determiner marker i- preceding it and the demonstrative ine following it, giving the
word isine ‘here is/are….,here (something) exists’
Directional verb isine ‘here is/are….’
48. isine
i-s-ine
DET.SG-be-this
‘Here is him/her/it’
43
Suriel Mofu
The directional verbs isne and isine can both be inflected for person, number and gender. They
can take all personal pronouns as subject agreement. Observe (49) and (50):
Copular verb is-ne ‘be here’
49. sko-is-ne
sko-is-ne
3PCL-be-this
‘They are here’
Copular verb isine ‘here is/are…..’
50. skoisine
skoi-s-ine
3PCL.DET-be-this
‘Here they are’
In (49) the directional verb is-ne exhibits the third person paucal subject agreement marker. In
(50) the copular clitic occurs between the determiner skoi (3PCL.DET) and the demonstrative
ine ‘this’. Directional verbs formed on the basis of the copular verb is-and the clitic–s- can also
combine with complex demonstratives, as the following examples illustrate:
51. inempur
i-ne-m-pur
Det.SG-this-towards me-back
‘The one (passing) here moving towards my back’
52. isinempur
i-s-i-ne-m-pur
Det.SG-be-Det.SG-this-towards me-back
‘The one (passing) here moving towards my back is him’
53. isnempur
i-is-ne-m-pur
3SG-be-this-towards me-back
‘He/She/It is moving towards my back’
Table 24 and 25 show the paradigms for directional verbs formed by combining the
demonstrative marker –ne ‘here’ with the copular verb is- (24) and copular clitic –s- (25).
Table 24. Directional Verb is-ne
Number
1 sg
2sg
3sg
1du.incl
1du excl
2du
3du
3pcl
1pl.incl
1pl.excl
2pl
3pl.an
3pl.inan
Basic
Demonstrative
ayaine
auine
ine
kuine
nuine
muine
suine
skoine
koine
inkoine
mkoine
sine
naine
Verb is- +
demonstrative
ayaisne
auisne
isne
kuisne
nuisne
muisne
suisne
skoisne
koisne
inkoisne
mkoisne
sisne
naisne
44
Meaning
I am here
you are here
he/she/it is here
the two of us (INCL) are here
the two of us (EXCL) are here
the two of you are here
the two of them are here
the three (or more) of them are here
we (PL.INCL) are here
we (PL.EXCL) are here
you (PL) are here
they (PL.AN) are here
they (PL.INAN) are here
Table 25. Directional Verb Clitic i–s-ine
Number
1 sg
2sg
3sg
1du.incl
1du excl
2du
3du
3pcl
1pl.incl
1pl.excl
2pl
3pl.an
3pl.inan
Basic
Demonstratives
ayaine
auine
ine
kuine
nuine
muine
suine
skoine
koine
inkoine
mkoine
sine
naine
Clitic +
Demonstratives
ayaisine
auisine
isine
cuisine
nuisine
muisine
suisine
skoisine
koisine
inkoisine
mkoisine
sisine
naisine
Meaning
Here is me
Here is you
Here is him/her/it
Here are the two of us (INCL)
Here are the two of us (EXCL)
Here are the two of you
Here are the two of them
Here the three (or more) of them
Here are we (PL.INCL)
Here are we (PL.EXCL)
Here are you (PL)
Here are they (PL.AN)
Here are they (PL.INAN)
The formal distinction between directional verbs formed with the copular verb is- and copular
clitic –s- will be discussed later.
NOTE
1
Infix –w- is not realised in (16), however, for glossing purposes, it is glossed here.
Steinhauer (2005) has introduced clause final definite marker i and clause medial definite marker ya.
3
Information is known to or recoverable by an addressee, etc.
4
A free pronoun is followed by a noun phrase or a noun phrase is followed by another noun phrase in
a sequence. For example: aya Heini (1SG Hein) ‘I am Hein’. Snori vien (Name.Det.SG. Vien) ‘Her
name is Vien’.
* I would like to thank Mary Dalrymple for her constructive criticism and suggestions for the
improvement of the paper. Thanks also to the participants of the Fourteenth Austronesian Formal
Linguistic Association (AFLA XIV) conference andThe UK Austronesian Research Group
(UKARG) ALL 4 (The Fourth Austronesian Languages and Linguistics Conference) for their input,
suggestions and recommendations.
** I would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for very helpful comments on the earlier draft.
2
REFERENCES
Adelaar, Alexander and Nikolaus P. Himmelmann (eds). 2005. The Austronesian Languages of
Asia and Madagascar. London: Routledge.
Hasselt, Johannes Lodewijk van. 1868. Allereerschte beginselen de Papoesch-Mefoorsche taal.
Utrecht: Kemink & Zoon.
Hasselt, Johannes Lodewijk van. 1876a. Hollandsch-Noefoorsch en Noefoorsch-Hollandsch
woordenboek. Utrecht: Kemink & Zoon.
Hasselt, Johannes Lodewijk van. 1893. Noefoorsch-Hollandsch woordenboek tweede verbeterde
en vermeerderde uitgaaf. Utrecht: Kemink & Zoon.
Hasselt, Frans Johannes Frederik van. 1932. Fafaja ro refo bekwar ia. Amsterdam: Nederlandsch
Bijbel-genootschap.
Hasselt, Johannes Lodewijk van. and F.J.F. van Hasselt. 1947. Noemfoorsch woordenboek.
Amsterdam: De Bussy.
45
Suriel Mofu
Mofu, Suriel. 2009. Biak Morphosyntax. D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford.
SIL International. 2004. Language Family Trees [Online: web]. Cited 2 Sept 2004. URL:
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_family.asp?subid=1523
Steinhauer, Hein. 1985. “Number in Biak. Counterevidence to Two Alleged Language
Universals.” Bijdragen Tot De Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde,141.4, 462-485.
Steinhauer, Hein. 2005. “Biak” In Adelaar, A. and N. P. Himmelmann (eds.), 793-823.
Suparno. 1975. Kamus Bahasa Biak – Indonesia: sebuah laporan hasil penelitian Leksikografi
Proyek Pengembangan Bahasa dan Sastra Indonesia dan Daerah. Jayapura: Fakultas
Keguruan, Universitas Cenderawasih.
Heuvel, Wilco van den. 2006. Biak, Description of an Austronesian Language of Papua. The
Netherlands: LOT Janskerkhof 13 3512 BL Utrecht.
46
Linguistik Indonesia, Februari 2012, 47- 67
Tahun ke-30, No. 1
POLA UNSUR SUPRASEGMENTAL NADA BAHASA TIONGHOA
ORANG SURABAYA
Ong Mia Farao Karsono*
Universitas Kristen Petra
[email protected]
Abstrak
Berdasarkan latar belakang bahwa unsur suprasegmental nada bahasa Tionghoa
bersifat distingtif, makalah ini bertujuan mengungkap pola unsur suprasegmental nada
bahasa Tionghoa orang Surabaya dalam kalimat berita, beserta penyebab terjadinya
pola seperti itu. Pergerakan pola dianalisis dengan program Praat. Digunakan payung
teori kompetensi komunikatif yang meliputi teori fonologi, sintaksis bahasa Tionghoa dan
pragmatik. Metode deskriptif dengan pendekatan kualitatif untuk menganalisis data.
Sumber penelitian dipilih 13 orang Surabaya dari golongan intelektual ekonomi
menengah. Hasil analisis menemukan bahwa tidak semua pola nada kata untuk semua
jenis nada (nada satu/dua/tiga/empat/ringan) berpola seperti yang dicantumkan dalam
pola teori, melainkan terjadi beberapa penyimpangan. Hal ini disebabkan pola teori
yang digunakan terdiri atas dua kata saja, sementara pola dalam makalah ini berupa
kalimat ujaran alamiah, juga karena lebih sulit merubah keadaan otot pita suara dari
kendur menjadi tegang. Sementara pola nada kalimat berita bahasa Tionghoa orang
Surabaya menunjukkan pola menurun, bila kalimat berita tersebut hanya memberi
informasi. Pola nada kalimat berita akan berpola naik bila pembicara tidak setuju
dengan informasi yang diperoleh. Terjadinya pola nada kalimat berita seperti itu
bergantung pada konteks percakapan, emosi pengujar, dan kosa kata yang digunakan.
Kata-kata kunci : Pola, nada, bahasa Tionghoa
Suprasegmental elements in the Chinese language have a distinctive behavior of tone,
spoken in declaratve sentences by the Chinese speaking citizens in Surabaya. A descriptive
method with a qualitative approach was used. Tone patterns were analyzed using a Praat
program. Communicative competence consists of fonology, sintax, and pragmatic theories
were refered to as a theoretical framework. The research subjects were 13 Surabaya
residents from an intelectual and midle class economy community. The analyses found out
that word tone patterns for word pairs, all tone types (first/second/third/fourth and light)
do not always follow the theoretical pattern. This is because theoretical tone pair patterns
were based on two individual words, while the pattern examined were uttered within
natural spoken sentences. It may also been caused by difficulty to strain a relaxed vocal
chord. Tone patterns fall if sentences are informative. Sentence tone patterns rise if the
speaker does not agree with the information received. Sentence tone patterns also depend
on the speech context, emotion of the speaker, and vocabulary used.
Key words: Tone, Pattern, Chinese language
PENDAHULUAN
Bahasa Tionghoa merupakan bahasa bernada. Unsur suprasegmental dalam bentuk nada bahasa
Tionghoa bersifat distingtif. Pola nada akan membedakan arti dalam bentuk kata maupun
kalimat. Seperti dikatakan oleh Zhao (1998:65) bahwa nada merupakan bagian tersulit bagi
siswa yang bahasa ibu mereka bukan merupakan bahasa bernada. Berbicara bahasa Tionghoa
tanpa memikirkan pola nada adalah mustahil. Bahasa Tionghoa selain unsur suprasegmental
berupa intonasi berpengaruh terhadap makna kalimat, fungsi nada juga berpengaruh terhadap
makna kalimat. Berkaitan dengan fungsi unsur suprasegmental berupa nada bahasa Tionghoa
terhadap makna kata, banyak kata yang ejaannya sama tetapi nadanya berbeda; bisa mengarah
Ong Mia Farao Karsono
pada arti kata yang berbeda. Sebagai contoh kata kàn
'melihat' dan kǎn
'membacok'
misalnya, kedua kata tersebut mempunyai ejaan yang sama yaitu kan, tetapi nadanya yang
berbeda. Kata pertama bernada empat dan kata kedua bernada tiga, akibatnya artinya berbeda
pula. Perbedaan makna kata ini bila digunakan dalam kalimat lebih terlihat sifat ambiguitasnya,
yang mengakibatkan kesalahpahaman yang berakibat fatal. Sebagai contoh, kalimat nǐ kàn tā
yang berarti 'kamu lihat dia', jika diujarkan menjadi nǐ kǎn tā
, ketika
diterjemahkan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia artinya akan berubah menjadi 'kamu bacok dia'.
Bahasa Tionghoa memiliki dua jenis nada. Pertama nada yang mempengaruhi kata dinamakan
shēngdiào
atau nada, dan kedua adalah nada yang berpengaruh terhadap makna kalimat
atau maksud pembicara dinamakan jǔdiào
atau intonasi (Xing dan Wang, 2009:
102,133).
Dari sifat-sifat nada bahasa Tionghoa yang mempengaruhi makna kata maupun kalimat,
mengakibatkan pola nada kata dan kalimat merupakan faktor penting untuk menentukan
ketepatan sebuah ujaran. Berhubung selama ini belum ada yang meneliti tentang pola nada kata
maupun kalimat dalam sebuah ujaran, makalah ini meneliti pola unsur suprasegmental nada
bahasa Tionghoa yang diujarkan orang Surabaya yang bahasa ibu mereka bukan bahasa
Tionghoa. Dipilih ujaran orang Indonesia yang berdomisili di Surabaya, karena dari ujaran
mereka mengandung logat Suroboyoan yang kental yang akan mempengaruhi pola nada dalam
ujarran mereka sehingga menghasilkan variasi pola pergerakan nada sebuah kata atau kalimat.
Payung teori yang digunakan adalah teori kemampuan komunikatif menurut O’Grady,
(2000:415). Teori ini tepat digunakan sebagai payung toeri karena terkandung teori kemampuan
fonologi yaitu ketepatan pola nada, dan teori pragmatik untuk mengutarakan maksud ujaran
sehingga percakapan berjalan lancar.
KOMPETENSI KOMUNIKATIF
Pada masa ini para ahli linguistik mempelajari sebuah bahasa dengan lebih menitik beratkan
pada sudut fungsi dan aspek sosial. Konsep komunikatif ini didukung oleh pakar linguistik dari
Inggris di antaranya Firth dan Halliday. Bahkan Halliday mengembangkan suatu teori fungsi
bahasa, yang menyebutkan ada tujuh fungsi bahasa (Halliday, 1976:11-7), dan dua pakar utama
teori komunikatif yaitu Celce Murcia atau Sandra Savignon. Dalam makalah ini hanya
digunakan teori tujuh fungsi bahasa dari Halliday. Kemampuan berkomunikasi terdiri atas
kemampuan manusia untuk mengorganisasi semua elemen bahasa yang dinamakan kemampuan
gramatika dan kemampuan tekstual. Selain itu masih dibutuhkan kemampuan mengetahui
maksud dari pembicara yang disebut kompetensi pragmatik. Kompetensi organisatoris itu terdiri
atas kompetensi gramatika yang meliputi kemampuan tentang teori fonologi, kosakata,
morfologi, sintaksis. Sementara itu kemampuan tekstual memerlukan aspek kohesi, koherensi,
dan organisasi retorika.
UNSUR SUPRASEGMENTAL NADA BAHASA TIONGHOA
Unsur suprasegmental dalam bahasa Tionghoa memiliki beberapa istilah yaitu chāoyīnduàan
yīnwèi
‘terlepas dari bagian fonem’, shàngjiā chéngsù
‘unsur
dasar tambahan’. Sebagai contoh nada dalam bahasa Tionghoa, suku kata yang terbentuk dari
fonem yang sama, oleh karena nadanya berbeda akan menyebabkan arti kata berbeda pula. Kata
ní bernada dua dengan huruf Tionghoa
akan memiliki arti ‘lumpur’, sementara kata nǐ
bernada tiga dengan huruf Tionghoa
akan memiliki arti ‘kamu’. Jadi nada termasuk
tatanan suku kata dalam ranah suprasegmental. Bila fonem rangkap yang kedua sukunya
bernada tiga diujarkan berurutan akan terjadi perubahan nada. Kata nǐnhǎo
misalnya,
kata yang di depan akan berubah menjadi bernada dua. Gejala demikian ini termasuk dalam ciriciri dari unsur suprasegmental (Wu, 2000:1). Nada dalam bahasa Tionghoa bersifat distingtif.
48
Kata ba [pa] misalnya, dapat memiliki berbagai arti yang berbeda berdasarkan nada yang
dimiliki. Kata
bā [pa] bernada satu dengan kode nada berupa garis mendatar di atas huruf
hidup memiliki arti ‘angka delapan’; kata
bá [pa] bernada dua dengan kode nada berupa
garis naik serong ke kanan memiliki arti ‘mencabut’; kata
bǎ [pa] bernada tiga dengan
kode nada berupa garis turun ke kanan diikuti dengan bentuk garis naik serong ke atas memiliki
arti ‘memegang’; kata
bà [pa] bernada empat dengan kode nada garis turun serong ke
kanan memiliki arti ‘berhenti’. Masih ada satu jenis nada yang disebut nada ringan, cara
pengujarannya tidak memiliki karakter khusus tetapi tergantung pada kata yang di depannya.
Cara menuliskan kode nadanya juga tidak spesifik, boleh tidak dicantumkan kode nadanya,
(Huang dan Liao, 2005:79).
sebagai contoh kata
Sifat pembeda arti dalam bahasa Tionghoa sebenarnya selain nada masih ditentukan
oleh bentuk huruf Tionghoanya. Dengan pengertian bahwa dari satu kata bā [pa] yang bernada
satu di atas, masih bisa memiliki berbagai arti yang berbeda berdasarkan bentuk huruf Tionghoa
berarti ‘delapan’; dengan bentuk
yang tampak. Contoh, kata bā [pa] dengan bentuk huruf
huruf
berarti ‘berpegang pada’; jika berbentuk
memiliki arti ‘mendambakan’; jika
berbentuk
memiliki arti ‘bekas luka’, jika berbentuk
memiliki arti ‘barang dari
anyaman bambu’. Agar dapat menggambarkan perubahan tinggi rendah nada dengan lebih
konkrit dan mudah dimengerti, bahasa Tionghoa pada umumnya menggunakan gambar ciptaan
dari ZhàoYuán Rèn. Berikut adalah gambar “Pencatatan Lima Derajat” ciptaan Zhào Yuán Rèn
(Huáng dan Liao, 2005:80).
Gambar 1. “Pencatatan Lima Derajat” Ciptaan Zhào Yuán Rèn
(Huáng dan Liao, 2005:80)
Nada ringan ini merupakan nada yang pendek ringan, juga memiliki perubahan bentuk
nada dari ke empat nada di atas. Jadi nada ringan memiliki ciri-ciri, yaitu akan berubah-ubah
tergantung pada pergerakan nada di depannya (Qian, 1995:41). Menurut (Xíng, 2003:64), nada
bahasa Tionghoa juga dapat berubah, dua kata bernada tiga jika disusun berurutan, akan terjadi
perubahan nada. Perubahan yang terjadi, biasanya nada kata yang terletak di belakang
mempengaruhi nada kata yang di depannya. Kata bahasa Tionghoa bernada tiga jika
digabungkan dengan kata yang bukan nada tiga, kata ini akan berubah dari kode 214 menjadi
211↘ (Xing, 2003:64). Bila terjadi dua kata bahasa Tionghoa bernada tiga digabung berurutan,
nada tiga yang di depan akan berubah menjadi nada dua (Xing, 2003:65). Jika terdapat tiga kata
bernada tiga secara berurutan, dua kata bernada tiga yang di depannya akan dibaca sebagai kata
bernada dua (Xing, 2003:65). Bila dua kata dengan berbagai jenis nada diujarkan menjadi satu,
akan dihasilkan 20 macam kombinasi nada.
Nada bahasa Tionghoa berhubungan dengan ketinggian nada atau kekerapan frekuensi
getar pita suara, sementara intensitas berhubungan dengan kekerasan suara atau besar
amplitudo. Dikatakan bila pita suara tegang akan menghasilkan nada tinggi, bila dalam suatu
waktu tertentu getaran pita suara kerap atau frekuensi tinggi juga menghasilkan nada yang
49
tinggi. Sebaliknya bila pita suara kendur menghasilkan nada rendah, getaran lambat atau
frekuensi rendah akan menghasilkan nada rendah (Luo, 2006:11; Xing, 2009:47,93; Zhou,
2003:58). Pergerakan nada setiap katanya akan dibatasi oleh nada kalimat. Nada kalimat akan
mengatur wilayah pergerakan setiap nada kata dalam sebuah kalimat, yang mengakibatkan
wilayah pergerakan nada setiap kata akan terjadi perluasan atau pengurangan (Guo, 1993:245;
Sun, 2006:70).
SINTAKSIS BAHASA TIONGHOA
Kalimat bahasa Tionghoa berdasarkan intonasi dapat dibedakan menjadi kalimat
berita/tanya/perintah/seru. Kalimat berita intonasinya tenang atau berpola menurun sedikit
(Xing, 2001:318; Ye, 1997:91; Fang, 2008:91). Kalimat berita ini merupakan kalimat yang
menceritakan peristiwa, mengungkapkan sesuatu, maupun mengomentari sesuatu. Biasanya
menginformasikan sesuatu yang baru bagi pendengar. Kalimat berita ini masih dapat dibedakan
beberapa macam, yang terpenting harus mengandung kata yang berfungsi untuk mengisahkan
sesuatu, yang melukiskan sesuatu, yang mendeskripsikan sesuatu, dan yang mengomentari
sesuatu (Liu dkk, 2001:25). Sementara mengenai pola nada kalimat belum ada teorinya
sehingga perlu diteliti.
KOMPETENSI PRAGMATIK
Menurut Wijana (1996:3) pragmatik merupakan ilmu yang meneliti makna yang
dikomunikasikan oleh pembicara atau penulis (speaker meaning) dan diterjemahkan oleh
pendengar atau pembaca. Makna yang dikaji oleh pragmatik adalah makna yang terikait dengan
konteks. Studi seperti ini perlu mengikut sertakan penafsiran yang pembicara maksudkan dalam
konteks tertentu, dan bagaimana konteks itu mempengaruhi pendengar maupun pembaca
terhadap apa yang dikatakan. Jadi perlu mempertimbangkan siapa lawan bicaranya, di mana,
kapan, dan dalam situasi apa. Dapat disimpulkan pragmatik adalah studi tentang makna konteks
(contextual meaning) (Yule, 1996:3). Dapat dikatakan pragmatik sebagai penelitian tentang
makna dari pembicara yang tidak tampak (intended meaning). Dapat disimpulkan pragmatik
adalah studi tentang bagaimana penyampaian maksud tersirat sang pembicara daripada maksud
kalimat yang diujarkan. (Yule, 1996:3).
Pragmatik mempelajari makna secara eksternal dalam pengertian mengungkap maksud
penutur (speaker meaning). Pusat kajian pragmatik adalah maksud pembicara yang secara
tersurat atau tersirat di balik tuturan yang dianalisis. Untuk memperjelas batasan ini dapat
melihat contoh berikut ini. “Wǒ gān jì qián gěi wǒ háizi. /
ˈSaya baru
saja mengirim uang kepada anak sayaˈ.” Kalimat ini secara formal tanpa mempertimbangkan
konteks situasi penutur merupakan deklaratif yang berfungsi menginformasikan sesuatu. Bila
tuturan digunakan dalam konteks tertentu bisa mengandung makna untuk menolak
meminjamkan uang. Jadi salah satu fungsi tuturan adalah melakukan sesuatu. Hal ini
dinamakan tindak ilokusi (The Act of Doing Something) (Wijana, 1996:18).
Menurut Leech (1993:19-22) terdapat beberapa aspek yang harus dipertimbangkan
dalam studi pragmatik. Aspek-aspek itu adalah:
1. penutur dan lawan tutur yang mencakup usia, latar belakang sosial ekonomi, jenis kelamin,
tingkat keakraban dan sebagainya;
2. konteks tuturan, dalam pragmatik merupakan semua latar belakang pengetahuan yang
dipahami bersama oleh penutur dalam lawan tutur;
3. tujuan tuturan, di sini merupakan bentuk-bentuk tuturan yang bermacam-macam yang dapat
digunakan untuk menyatakan maksud yang sama atau sebaliknya, berbagai macam maksud
dapat diutarakan dengan tuturan yang sama;
4. jenis tuturan dalam pragmatik adalah tindak lisan yang terjadi dalam situasi tertentu, yakni
tergantung pada siapa penutur dan lawan tuturnya, serta waktu dan tempat pengutaraannya.
50
METODE PENELITIAN
Menggunakan metode deskriptif dengan pendekatan kualitatif. Dasar pemikiran digunakannya
metode deskriptif dan cara pendekatan kualitatif karena penelitian kualitatif lebih dapat
memahami alur cerita secara kronologis dan membimbing peneliti untuk menemukan sesuatu
yang tidak terduga selama proses penelitian berlangsung. Keunggulan lain dari penelitian
kualitatif adalah kata-kata yang disusun dalam bentuk cerita akan dapat memberi kesan lebih
nyata, hidup, dan penuh makna (Miles & Huberman, 1992:1). Dipandang dari jangkauan waktu,
penelitian ini menggunakan jangkauan waktu yang bersifat sinkronis, yaitu merujuk pada
penelitian yang terbatas pada suatu waktu tertentu.
Cara memilih subjek penelitian dilaksanakan dengan observasi partisipasi, yaitu peneliti
mendatangi tempat-tempat kursus bahasa Tionghoa di Surabaya, atau universitas-universitas
jurusan bahasa Tionghoa di Surabaya untuk berkenalan dengan para guru, mahasiswa, dan
pegawai tempat tersebut. Selain itu juga mendengarkan siaran radio dalam bahasa Tionghoa.
Sumber penelitian berupa orang Surabaya yang tinggal di Surabaya yang memiliki ataupun
tidak memilik kartu tanda penduduk (KTP) Surabaya tetapi bekerja di Surabaya. Selain itu
sumber data juga dipilih yang memiliki kemampuan berbahasa Tionghoa hampir sama, yaitu
yang sudah lancar berkomunikasi dengan bahasa Tionghoa, setara dengan standar ujian HSK
(Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì/
) tingkat 6-8 (tingkat menengah tertinggi HSK
adalah tingkat 8). Jumlah subjek penelitian berjumlah 13 orang dengan 8 situasi percakapan
yang terdiri atas 29 kalimat. Dari 13 orang subjek penelitian hanya satu orang anak berusia 5
tahun yang belum memiliki sertifikat HSK, tetapi ia berkomunikasi dalam bahasa Tionghoa
dengan kedua orang tuanya. Dalam makalah ini sebagai contoh dipilih percakapan antara
seorang penyiar radio Strato Surabaya, penelpon siaran radio Strato Surabaya.
Kegiatan pengumpulan data dibagi dalam tiga tahapan, yaitu prosedur pengumpulan
data, transkrip data, dan pengkodean. Data mentah berupa rekaman audio yang dipadukan
dengan catatan lapangan ditranskripkan ke dalam lembar transkripsi data. Lembar ini berisi
salinan fonetik berupa ejaan pīnyīn dan tulisan huruf Tionghoa beserta nada yang diujarkan
subjek, yang selanjutnya tiap kalimat diolah kedalam gambar grafik Praat. Ejaan yang
digunakan bukan ejaan fonetis IPA tetapi ejaan pīnyīn. Seperti yang dikatakan oleh Miles &
Huberman (1992:87), agar data yang tersebar pada bermacam-macam ujaran itu dapat dianalisis,
cara yang biasa digunakan sebagai solusi ialah dengan memberi kode pada catatan-catatan
lapangan hasil observasi. Dalam lembar transkrip data tertulis nomor kode, subjek, serta jenis
kalimat. Berikut contoh transkrip data.
Gambar 2. Contoh Lembar Transkrip Data
51
Untuk menjelaskan perubahan nada digunakan angka-angka berdasarkan teori lima
derajat yang dikemukakan oleh Zhao (dalam Huang, 2005:80), yang rinciannya seperti dalam
paparan angka-angka berikut ini:
-
Angka 0 adalah angka menunjukkan ketinggian nada dari kata bernada ringan
Angka 1 adalah angka menunjukkan ketinggian nada rendah.
Angka 2 adalah angka menunjukkan ketinggian nada setengah rendah.
Angka 3 adalah angka menunjukkan ketinggian nada tengah.
Angka 4 adalah angka menunjukkan ketinggian nada setengah tinggi.
Angka 5 adalah angka menunjukkan ketinggian nada tinggi.
Angka 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, itu adalah angka yang digunakan untuk menunjukkan angka ketinggian nada
ditulis menurut tampilan grafik Praat yang tampak. Angka ini berdasarkan perbedaan ketinggian
yang terjadi sehingga bukan angka yang absolut melainkan relatif. Pergerakan nada dicatat
berdasarkan angka yang ditunjukkan pada ketinggian kata awal. Bila pergerakan awal dan akhir
ujaran sebuah nada kata berikutnya dalam sebuah kalimat menunjukkan ketinggian Hz yang
tidak persis sama pada angka (1, 2, 3, 4 ,5) sebelumnya, yaitu lebih tinggi lima poin maka
digunakan kode aksen diketik di sisi atas sebelah kanan seperti (1’). Bila pergerakan ketinggian
Hz lebih rendah lima poin dari yang ditunjukkan pada angka yang sama sebelumnya digunakan
kode berupa aksen diketik di sisi bawah sebelah kanan seperti (1,). Angka yang diketik di depan
menunjukkan angka menurut teori, angka yang diketik sesudah garis sama dengan merupakan
angka gerak menurut data. Misalnya (2) = (4’), (2) adalah ketinggian nada menurut kaidah teori
dan (4’) adalah ketinggian dari data yang diperoleh. Bila masih terjadi angka yang tidak persis
sama digunakan kode dobel aksen di atas atau di bawah seperti 4’’ atau 4. Angka pergerakan
nada dicatat tiga kali, yaitu awal ujaran, tengah ujaran dan akhir ujaran.
Analisis data diawali dengan memilah-milah rekaman suara dengan program Goldwave,
kemudian diolah dengan program Praat untuk menampilkan gambarnya. Untuk pengecekan
keabsahan data dilakukan triangulasi pola data dengan pola teori, yaitu pengecekan pola nada
gabungan dua kata yang muncul dari hasil analisis data melalui gambar Praat dengan pola
menurut gambar teori. Contoh teknik triangulasi teori seperti tampak dalam Tabel 1 berikut:
Tabel 1. Contoh Teknik Triangulasi Teori dan Data Gambar Praat Gabungan Dua Kata
dengan Berbagai Kombinasi Nada
POLA UNSUR SUPRASEGMENTAL NADA KALIMAT BERITA BAHASA TIONGHOA
ORANG SURABAYA
Untuk meneliti pola nada kalimat berita bahasa Tionghoa dalam ujaran Orang Surabaya,
digunakan 13 subjek penelitian dengan 8 konteks percakapan. Sementara makalah ini
mengambil contoh percakapan antara penyiar dan penelpon siaran radio Strato (S1.S2).
Merekam percakapan mereka, dibuatkan transkrip percakapan, kemudian hasil rekaman dipilah52
pilah dengan program Goldwave dan kalimat yang terpilih dimasukkan ke dalam program
Praat, dicatat angka-angka untuk melihat polanya. Berikut adalah kalimat berita yang diujarkan
oleh subjek penelitian dan grafik serta tampilan angka-angkanya.
1) Hěn gāoxìng jiēdào nín de diànhuà.
‘Sangat gembira menerima telpon anda.’ (S1/01/ KB)
Sesuai konteks percakapan, ditemukan kalimat berita S1/01/KB ini diujarkan oleh
seorang penyiar radio Strato yang sedang melayani pesanan lagu-lagu bahasa Tionghoa.
Berdasarkan catatan lapangan diketahui S1 ini berbicara dengan nada sopan karena sedang
melayanan penelponnya, dan diujarkan olah S1 sebagai kalimat pembuka untuk menyapa
pelanggannya. Untuk mendapatkan data Hz kalimat berita ini ditampilkan dengan program
Praat yang menunjukkan pola nada seperti Gambar berikut ini.
Gambar 3. Gambar Praat Pola Nada Suara S1/01/ KB
Pola nada kata bahasa Tionghoa bila digabung dengan kata di belakangnya akan
berubah kurvanya tidak persis sama dengan pola menurut teori. Berikut tabel analisis datanya.
Tabel 2. Nada Kata dalam Kalimat Berita S1/01/KB
53
Dari Tabel 2 dan Gambar Praat 3 dapat ditemukan bentuk pola nada kalimat berita ini
214
secara keseluruhan menurun, karena diawali dengan kata Hěn
bernada tiga dengan
51Í
ketinggian nada angka (2) berkisar 202,9 Hz. Setelah S1 mengujarkan kata terakhir huà
bernada empat diujarkan menurun hingga angka (1) berkisar di 146,5 Hz pada akhir ujaran.
35Ì
Dengan demikian kalimat berita ini berpola nada menurun. Bentuk pola nada kata nín
yang bernada dua menurut teori bergerak naik terus tetapi dalam kalimat berita ini berpola
menurun dari ketinggian nada 190,1 Hz ke 175,1 Hz. Menurut teori gerak pola nada tiga bila
terletak di tengah kalimat akan bergerak menurun, di sini pola nada kata bernada tiga memang
menurun drastis. Seperti terjadi pada kata hěn
bernada tiga. Kata bernada satu berpola tidak
datar seperti dalam teori. Dari gabungan dua kata yang diujarkan terbentuk kombinasi jenis nada
seperti dalam Tabel 3 berikut ini:
Tabel 3. Paparan Pola Nada Gabungan Dua Kata Menurut Teori dan Data
54
Tuturan S1 ini untuk fungsi kepribadian (Halliday, 1976:11-17) membuat pembicaranya
dapat menyampaikan perasaan, pola nada kalimat menurun. Kata kunci untuk mengisahkan
‘juga sangat
perasaan ditunjukkan dengan penggunaan kata sifat hěn gāoxìng
senang’. Pola nada kalimat menurun karena menurut konteks pragmatik (Yule, 1996:3; Wijana,
1996:3; Leech, 1993: 19-32) menunjukkan profesi S1 sebagai penyiar radio yang setiap harinya
menyapa orang sehingga tidak dibutuhkan nada kalimat yang meninggi.
2) Em..... Wǒ yě hěn gāoxìng tīngdào nǐ de shēngyīn.
Em......
‘Em ..... Saya juga sangat gembira mendengar suara anda.’ (S2/02/KB)
55
Sesuai konteks percakapan, kalimat berita S2/02/KB ini diujarkan oleh seorang penelpon radio
Strato yang sedang memesan lagu-lagu bahasa Tionghoa. Berdasarkan catatan lapangan
diketahui kalimat ini diujarkan oleh S2 ketika membalas sapaan dari penyiar Strato. Untuk
mendapatkan data Hz kalimat berita ini ditampilkan dengan program Praat yang menunjukkan
pola nada seperti Gambar 4 berikut ini:
Gambar 4. Gambar Praat Pola Nada Suara S2/02/KB
Diketahui pola nada kata bahasa Tionghoa bila digabung dengan kata di belakangnya
akan berubah kurvanya tidak persis sama dengan pola menurut teori. Berikut tabel analisis
datanya:
56
Dari Tabel 4 dan Gambar 4 ditemukan bentuk pola nada kalimat berita S2/02/KB ini secara
214√
keseluruhan menurun. Dalam kalimat berita ini diawali dengan kata wǒ
bernada tiga
55→
dengan ketinggian nada angka (3) di 225,1 Hz. Setelah S2 mengujarkan kata terakhir yīn
bernada satu ketinggian nada angka (5) di 175,7 Hz. Ketinggian angka (5) pada kata terakhir
yang seharusnya lebih tinggi daripada ketinggian angka (3) pada kata di awal kalimat, tetapi
214 √
justru lebih rendah, jadi berpola menurun. Gerak nada kata yě
oleh karena diikuti dengan
214 √
kata hěn
bernada tiga juga, menurut teori pola nada kata yě
akan berubah menjadi
35Ì, tetapi justru menunjukkan setelah naik kemudian turun. Jadi pola nada kata bernada tiga
tidak sesuai dengan pola teori. Dari gabungan kata yang diujarkan terbentuk kombinasi jenis
nada seperti dalam Tabel 5 berikut ini:
57
58
Tuturan S2 ini untuk fungsi kepribadian (Halliday, 1976:11-17) membuat pembicaranya
dapat menyampaikan perasaannya, pola nada kalimat menurun. Kata kunci untuk mengisahkan
perasaan ditunjukkan penggunaan kata sifat yě hěn gāoxìng
’juga sangat senang’.
Pola menurun karena menurut konteks pragmatik (Yule, 1996:3; Wijana, 1996:3; Leech, 1993:
19-32) S2 sebagai penelpon radio S2 membalas sapaan kalimat pembuka dari penyiar.
3) Xiě de shì búcuò.
‘Yang tertulis adalah tidak salah.’ (S1/05/KB)
Sesuai konteks percakapan kalimat S1/05/KB ini diujarkan oleh penyiar Strato ketika
menjawab pertanyaan dari penelponnya tentang teka-teki yang disiarkan minggu lalu.
Berdasarkan catatan lapangan diketahui S1 mengatakan bahwa jawaban teka teki penelpon
tersebut tidak benar. Untuk mendapatkan data Hz kalimat berita ini ditampilkan dengan program
Praat yang menunjukkan pola nada seperti Gambar 5 berikut ini:
Dapat diketahui pola nada kata bahasa Tionghoa bila digabung dengan kata di
belakangnya akan berubah kurvanya tidak persis sama dengan pola menurut teori. Berikut tabel
analisis data:
59
Dari Tabel 6 dan Gambar 5 ditemukan pola nada kalimat berita ini secara keseluruhan
214√
bergerak naik, karena diawali dengan kata xiě
bernada tiga, menunjukkan ketinggian
51↘
nada di angka (2) berkisar 191,9 Hz. Setelah S1 mengujarkan kata terakhir cuò
bernada
empat, ketinggian angka (1) pada akhir ujaran berkisar di 258,3 Hz. Hal ini berarti bahwa
ketinggian angka (1) yang seharusnya lebih rendah daripada ketinggian angka (2) pada ujaran
kata awal tetapi malah lebih tinggi. Jadi pola nada untuk kalimat ini berpola bergerak naik.
Dalam kalimat ini hanya terdapat satu kata bernada tiga. Tampaknya kata bernada tiga dalam
kalimat berita ini berpola sebagai nada tiga penuh dengan kode 214√, dengan pola menurun
dahulu kemudian naik lagi. Pola kata bernada empat berpola sesuai pola teori yaitu menurun
terus. Kata bernada dua bú
tidak berpola naik malah menurun. Dari gabungan kata yang
diujarkan terbentuk kombinasi jenis nada seperti dalam Tabel 7 berikut ini:
60
Tuturan S1 ini untuk fungsi keterwalian (Halliday, 1976:11-17), yaitu menjelaskan
bahwa jawaban dari S2 itu salah, pola nada kalimat meninggi. Kata kunci untuk mengisahkan
informasi sebuah fakta ditunjukkan penggunaan kata kerja shì
’adalah’ dan kata keterangan
búcuò
’tidak salah’. Hal ini disebabkan menurut konteks konteks pragmatik (Yule, 1996:3;
Wijana, 1996:3; Leech, 1993: 19-32) S1 ingin menegaskan bahwa jawaban dari penelpon
tersebut tidak benar, ada penyangkalan.
4) Rán hou dà jiā jiù shuō bú cuò búcuò.
‘Kemudian orang-orang mengatakan tidak salah, tidak salah.’ . (S2/06/KB)
Sesuai konteks percakapan, kalimat berita S2/06/KB ini diujarkan oleh penelpon radio
Strato Surabaya yang merasa jawaban teka-teki yang disiarkan minggu lalu adalah benar. Untuk
mendapatkan data Hz kalimat berita ini ditampilkan dengan program Praat yang menunjukkan
pola nada seperti Gambar 6 berikut ini:
belakangnya akan berubah kurvanya tidak persis sama dengan pola menurut teori. Berikut
analisis datanya:
61
Dari Tabel 8 dan Gambar Praat 7 ditemukan bentuk pola nada kalimat berita S2/06/KB
35↗
ini secara keseluruhan bergerak naik. Dalam kalimat berita ini diawali dengan kata Rán
bernada dua dengan ketinggian nada angka (3) berkisar 222,1 Hz. Setelah S2 mengujarkan kata
51↘
terakhir cuò
bernada empat, ketinggian angka (1) pada akhir ujaran berkisar 307,7 Hz.
Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa ketinggian angka (1) yang seharusnya lebih rendah daripada
ketinggian angka (3) pada ujaran kata awal justru lebih tinggi, jadi pola nada kalimat berpola
naik. Gerak pola nada dua, yang berjumlah tiga kata (Rán
dan dua kali kata bú ) ada yang
sesuai teori ada yang tidak. Untuk kata Rán
pola nadanya sudah sesuai pola teori bergerak
naik. Sementara untuk kata bú
yang depan juga bergerak naik, tetapi kata bú
yang
muncul belakangan berpola bergerak naik sedikit kemudian turun lagi. Untuk pola kata bernada
empat yang berjumlah lima kata, yang empat sudah sesuai teori bergerak turun, hanya satu kata
yang berpola setelah turun kemudian naik. Dari gabungan kata yang diujarkan
yaitu kata jiù
terbentuk kombinasi jenis nada seperti dalam Tabel 9 berikut ini:
62
63
Tuturan S2 ini untuk fungsi keterwalian (Halliday, 1976:11-17) yaitu menjelaskan
bahwa S2 merasa jawabannya benar. Kalimat tuturan S2 ketika berfungsi sebagai keterwalian
pola nada kalimat meninggi. Kata kunci untuk mengisahkan informasi sebuah fakta ditunjukkan
penggunaan kata kerja & kata keterangan jiù shuō búcuò búcuò
’berkata tidak
salah tidak salah’. Menurut konteks pragmatik (Yule, 1996:3; Wijana, 1996:3; Leech, 1993: 1932) menunjukkan bahwa S2 ingin menegaskan bahwa jawabannya itu juga benar, ada
penyangkalan (Yule, 1996:3)
5) Ooh, Dà
jiā
shuō
bù hǎo eeih.
Ooh,
eeih
‘Ooh, orang-orang mengatakan tidak baik, eeih.’ (S1/07/KB)
Sesuai konteks percakapan, kalimat berita S1/07/KB ini diujarkan oleh penyiar radio
Strato yang sedang berdiskusi dengan penelpon tentang jawaban teka-teki jawaban yang benar
itu bagaimana seharusnya. Untuk mendapatkan data Hz kalimat berita ini ditampilkan dengan
program Praat yang menunjukkan pola nada seperti Gambar 7 berikut ini:
belakangnya akan berubah kurvanya tidak persis sama dengan pola menurut teori. Berikut tabel
analisis datanya:
64
Dari Tabel 10 dan Gambar Praat 8 ditemukan bentuk pola nada kalimat berita ini, bila
kata seruan diperhitungkan bentuk pola nada dalam kalimat berita ini secara keseluruhan
menurun karena ketinggian nada dari kata seruan awal “Ooh” 193,5 Hz, sementara ketinggian
kata seruan terakhir “eeih” adalah 152,3 Hz. Bila kata seru tidak diperhitungkan kalimat ini
51↘
justru bergerak naik polanya, karena diawali dengan kata dà
bernada empat dengan
214 √
bernada tiga pada
ketinggian angka (5) di 294,1 Hz dan diakhiri dengan kata hǎo
ketinggian nada angka (4) di 309,2 Hz. Ketinggian angka (4) ini masih di atas ketinggian posisi
angka (5) nada kata awal yaitu di 294,1 Hz, sehingga memperlihatkan pola nada yang bergerak
214 √
naik. Dalam kalimat ini hanya ada satu kata bernada tiga yaitu kata hǎo
. Tampaknya
kata ini berpola sebagai nada tiga penuh yaitu berpola 214√ bukan berpola 211↘ karena terletak
di akhir kalimat. Ditemukan kata bernada satu yang seharusnya stabil pada ketinggian (5) tetapi
ada yang polanya bergerak naik dulu kemudian turun seperti pada kata jiā
. Sementara untuk
kata shuō
, kata ini bergerak turun dulu kemudian naik. Dari gabungan kata yang diujarkan
terbentuk kombinasi jenis nada seperti dalam Tabel 11 berikut ini:
65
Tuturan S1 (penyiar) ini untuk fungsi keterwalian (Halliday, 1976:11-17) yaitu
menjelaskan bahwa memang jawaban S2 salah. Kata kunci untuk mengisahkan informasi
sebuah fakta ditunjukkan penggunaan kata kerja & kata keterangan shuō bùhǎo eei
eeih ‘mengatakan tidak baik’. Menurut konteks percakapan pragmatik (Yule, 1996:3; Wijana,
1996:3; Leech, 1993: 19-32) pola nada kalimat meninggi karena S1 ingin menegaskan bahwa
jawaban dari penelponnya itu memang salah, ada unsur penyangkalan (analisis tanpa
memperhitungkan kata seru) (Yule, 1996:3).
SIMPULAN
Dari contoh ujaran yang telah diuraikan di atas terbukti bahwa ketika pembicara mengujarkan
kalimat berita yang hanya sekedar menyampaikan perasaan untuk menyapa seperti pada kalimat
S1/01/KB, S2/02/KB. Dengan pengertian bila kalimat berita berfungsi memberi informasi
perasaan akan berpola nada kalimat menurun. Sementara bila pembicara merasa informasi yang
ia terima tidak sesuai kemudian mengujarkan kalimat untuk menyangkalnya seperti terjadi pada
kalimat S1/05/KB, S2/06/KB, S1/07/KB, kalimat berita ini akan berpola nada kalimat yang
bergerak naik. Untuk pola nada kata dari lima jenis nada kata, sering terjadi penyimpangan pola.
Hal ini disebabkan pola teori yang digunakan terdiri atas dua kata saja, sementara pola dalam
makalah ini berupa kalimat ujaran alamiah. Selain itu oleh karena ketinggian nada tergantung
pada ketengangan pita suara (Luo, 2006:11; Xing, 2009:47,93; Zhou, 2003:58), dan dari hasil
wawancara dengan para subjek penelitian diketahui bahwa sulit merubah keadaan otot pita suara
yang kendur menjadi tegang. Kata bernada satu yang menurut teori berpola mendatar, tidak
pernah berpola datar, karena sulit mempertahankan otot pita suara dalam keadaan sama dalam
waktu tertentu. Kata bernada dua yang menurut teori berpola naik terus, sering terjadi pola yang
menurun terus, atau naik-turun, atau turun-naik, karena sulit merubah ketegangan otot pita suara
dari kendur menjadi tegang. Kata bernada tiga bila terletak di tengah kalimat menurut teori
berpola menurun sebagian besar sudah berpola demikian. Kata bernada empat menurut teori
berpola turun terus, sudah sesuai teori berpola demikian, karena mudah merubah keadaan otot
pita suara dari tegang menjadi kendur. Kata bernada ringan tidak memiliki pola teori, dalam
data ditemukan kadang menurun terus, kadang turun-naik, kadang naik-turun, kadang turunnaik.
CATATAN
*
Penulis berterima kasih kepada mitra bestari yang telah memberikan saran-saran untuk perbaikan
makalah.
66
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Linguistik Indonesia, Februari 2012, 69- 83
Tahun ke-30, No. 1
THE CO-OCCURRENCE OF THE CLITIC -NYA AND
DEMONSTRATIVE ITU IN SPOKEN INDONESIAN DISCOURSE
Katharina Endriati Sukamto*
[email protected]
Abstract
Spoken discourse normally involves the communicative interaction between a speaker
and his interlocutor. During the process of interaction, the speaker will always take
into account the cognitive status of the information conveyed in the mind of the
interlocutor. The interlocutor, on the other hand, will identify the conveyed information
based on referring expressions used by the speaker. This paper will focus on referring
expressions with the clitic –nya that is immediately followed by the demonstrative itu
‘that’ in spoken Indonesian discourse. The purpose is to find out the discourse functions
of –nya that co-occurs with itu. The finding is that when –nya and itu co-occur in a
single unified segment of speech, -nya always functions as an identifiability marker,
referring to a shared referent that has been previously mentioned. In this case the clitic
–nya may indicate possession or association with another referent. Itu, on the other
hand, does not always indicate identifiability. Itu is identifiable only when it functions
as a demonstrative pronoun that refers to a previously mentioned entity. If itu is not
identifiable, its occurrence is only as a tool to help the speaker delimit a unified
segment of information.
Key words: referring expression, referent, identifiable.
Wacana lisan selalu melibatkan interaksi komunikatif antara penutur dan pendengarnya.
Dalam proses komunikasi lisan tersebut, penutur akan memperhatikan status kognitif
sebuah informasi dalam benak pendengarnya. Sebaliknya, pendengar akan
mengidentifikasi informasi tersebut melalui bentuk-bentuk acuan yang digunakan oleh
penutur. Makalah ini akan membahas bentuk-bentuk acuan dengan klitik –nya yang
langsung diikuti oleh demonstrativa itu dalam wacana lisan Bahasa Indonesia, untuk
mengetahui fungsi kedua elemen tersebut. Yang ditemukan adalah bahwa apabila –nya
dan itu berdampingan dalam satu segmen tuturan, -nya selalu berfungsi sebagai
pemarkah pengenal, yang merujuk pada referen yang telah disebutkan sebelumnya.
Dalam hal ini klitik –nya menunjukkan milik atau asosiasi dengan referen yang lain. Itu
tidak selalu berfungsi sebagai pemarkah pengenal. Itu dapat terkenali apabila itu
berfungsi sebagai pronomina dan merujuk pada referen yang telah disebutkan
sebelumnya. Jika itu tak terkenali, kehadirannya hanya sebagai alat untuk membantu
penutur membatasi sebuah segmen informasi.
Kata kunci: bentuk acuan, referen, terkenali.
INTRODUCTION
The study of referential choice in natural discourse has been extensively discussed in the
literature (among others Givón 1983, Gundel et al. 1993, Chafe 1996, Ariel 1998, Kibrik 2011,
and numerous other works cited therein). These scholars have observed that in referring to
referents, a speaker will use different referring expressions that are based on the cognitive
statuses of the referents in the mind of the interlocutor. The interlocutor, on the other hand, can
normally identify the intended referents on the basis of the speaker’s referential choice in the
ongoing discourse. An example in English is the following:
1.
I bought a new scarf. It was on sale. [from Gundel et al. 1993]
Katharina Endriati Sukamto
The noun phrase (NP) a new scarf is used here to refer to a referent that is not yet active
in the mind of the interlocutor. In this case, the speaker uses the indefinite article a so that the
interlocutor can associate the form with the corresponding entity (scarf) that is new. In the
second sentence, the pronoun it is used because the referent has been previously mentioned and
therefore it is now in the interlocutor’s focus of attention. In other words, a new scarf belongs
to new information, and it is categorized as old information (Chafe 1994).
The information status of a referent can also be determined by a clitic that is dependent
on its adjacent words. Observe the following constructed example in Indonesian:
2.
Sule dan istrinya berbahagia dengan kelahiran
Sule and wife his happy
with
birth
Sule and his wife are happy with the birth of their child.
anak
child
mereka
they
The clitic –nya in istrinya ‘his wife’ is a bound morpheme in Indonesian. In example
(2), it follows the noun istri ‘wife’, and thus makes the referent istrinya ‘his wife’ identifiable
for the interlocutor. In this case, –nya has a possessive function and it refers to a person named
Sule that has been previously mentioned.
In spoken Indonesian, we often hear speakers who use the determiner itu ‘that’ after a
NP with –nya, as in the following constructed example:
3.
Sule dan istrinya itu
berbahagia dengan kelahiran
Sule and wife his that happy
with
birth
Sule and his wife are happy with the birth of their child.
anak
child
mereka
they
Itu in (3) modifies the NP istrinya ‘his wife’. Itu here functions as a determiner and
therefore it is not used to track a previously mentioned referent.1 In (4), however, itu functions
as a demonstrative pronoun and therefore it can stand on its own.
4.
Itu buku saya
that book I
That is my book.
We see here that the functions of –nya and itu are very much dependent upon referents,
clauses, propositions, or situational contexts in discourse. When they co-occur, the question that
may arise is: for what purpose do speakers use the two linguistic elements together? If the
referent istrinya in (3) is already in the interlocutor’s focus of attention, what is the discourse
function of itu then? This paper seeks to explore the discourse functions of the clitic –nya that
co-occurs with the demonstrative itu. A grammar sketch on the functions of each will be
illustrated before the discussion.
THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
This section presents some theories about speakers’ referential choice in spoken discourse. It
includes activation of ideas in the mind and identifiability of referents.
ACTIVATION OF IDEAS IN THE MIND
Spoken discourse always involves the communicative interaction between two parties: a speaker
and interlocutor(s). In the interactive speech, the speaker commonly transmit his thoughts,
beliefs, knowledge, feelings, experience, and other conceptual materials in such a way that his
interlocutor can understand what he is saying.
Oral communication is dynamic (Du Bois and Thompson 1991), and its dynamicity is
characterized by the fact that the speaker will activate one idea after another with “a sufficiently
identifying language” (Chafe 1994:97) during the ongoing discourse. This means that the
70
speaker will use different types of referring expressions depending on the contexts of speech
and also on what the interlocutor knows.
During the process of communication, the information conveyed by a speaker cannot be
expressed all at once in one utterance. As human beings we have biological constraints; we have
to breathe when we speak. Speech is thus naturally produced in segments – one is verbalized
after another, with pauses between the segments. The segments of speech, which are referred to
as intonation units (IU)2 in this paper, may contain referents that need to be activated or
reactivated from time to time so that our interlocutor can identify the intended referents.
Apart from the biological constraints, human beings also have cognitive constraints, and
so the way we activate pieces of information should be based on how active the information is
in the mind of our interlocutors. With regard to the cognitive state of a piece of information at
the time of utterance, Chafe (1994) distinguishes three different categories of information states
based on how “costly” the activation is. The first category is called given information, which
involves the least activation cost. An idea that that has been introduced is usually active in the
mind of the interlocutors, and therefore does not need too much activation. The second category
is accessible information, which has a higher activation cost than given information. An idea
that was once fully active in consciousness may become semi-active after a period of time, and
so it needs to be reactivated to be accessible information. The last category is new information,
which involves the highest activation cost. This idea may be inactive, in the sense that it may
have been previously introduced in discourse but has receded into the interlocutor’s long-term
memory or it may be totally new for the interlocutor. The degree of activation cost is typically
represented by the referring expression chosen by the speaker. The higher the activation cost is,
the heavier the form will be (Ariel 1990).
The following example (adapted from Chafe 1994:93-4) illustrates how ideas in the
speaker’s mind are activated:
5.
A: Have the animals,
ever attacked anyone in a car?
B: Well I
well I heard of an elephant,
that sat down on a VW one time.
There’s a gir
Did you ever hear that?
C: No.
B: Some elephants and these
they
there
these gals were in a Volkswagen,
and uh,
they uh kept honkin’ the horn,
hootin’ the hooter,
and uh,
and the.. elephant was in front of em,
so he just proceeded to sit down on the VW.
But they.. had .. managed to get out first.
In example (5), when B introduced the idea of the elephant for the first time, he used the
NP an elephant. When the same referent was reactivated, the referring expression the elephant
was used. The same thing can be said for the Volkswagen. When the idea was firstly mentioned,
it was expressed by the NP a Volkswagen. Later, when the speaker assumed that the referent
71
was already shared by the interlocutor, he expressed it by using the NP the VW. This example
demonstrates that different referring expressions may be used to refer to the same referent.
IDENTIFIABILITY OF REFERENTS
The concept of identifiability involves the speaker’s assumption on the cognitive status of a
referent in the mind of the interlocutor. It is associated with the speaker’s choice of a referring
expression and the assumption that his interlocutor can identify the referent of the chosen
expression. Chafe (1994:94) points out that there are three important components that can make
a referent identifiable. They are: (1) the referent is assumed to be shared by both the speaker and
interlocutor, (2) it is verbalized in a sufficiently identifying way, and (3) it is contextually
salient.
The identifiability of a referent may be accessed through a number of pathways. For
example, a referent may be identifiable through previous mention. Identifiability by previous
mention can be expressed by the use of personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, or a NP. In
example (5) above, the referents the elephant and the VW are shared by both the speaker and his
interlocutor because they have been previously mentioned. Both are verbalized in a sufficiently
identifying way, in the sense that the use of a NP (definite article + N) should be sufficient for
the interlocutor to identify the intended referents. Lastly, the two referents are contextually
salient as the interlocutor can focus on the ideas expressed as the elephant and the VW (Chafe
1994:94).
A referent may also be identifiable by association, meaning that there is an associative
relationship between a referring expression and an associator (Ewing 1999). Observe the
following example (from Kronfeld 1986):
6.
My sister has just got married. The lucky man met her only three weeks ago.
The referent the lucky man in example (6) is a first mention. However, it is identifiable
because the interlocutor can associate the referent with the associator, in this case my sister who
has just got married. We see here that a first-mention referent may be expressed with a NP that
contains a definite article.
Since identifiability is a property of referents in the consciousness of the interlocutors,
nominal expressions that do not have a referent are not relevant for this category and thus will
not be discussed in this paper.
THE DATA
This paper utilizes spoken Indonesian data to examine the discourse functions of the clitic –nya
that is immediately followed by the demonstrative itu ‘that’. The data was taken from five
question-answer sessions at a two-day linguistic conference held in Jakarta in 1996. The
duration of the recorded data is 150 minutes (each session lasts for 30 minutes). The speeches
used were questions raised by the conference participants and answers given by the plenary
speakers. The plenary speakers were Indonesian linguists from a number of universities in
Indonesia. The conference participants were Indonesian linguists, teachers, practitioners, and
students.
Although there are only 25 instances of the co-occurrence of –nya and itu in my data, I
found this phenomenon interesting to be explored.
The examples from the data demonstrated in this paper start with an abbreviation that
appears after the number [e.g. (1) SD)]. The abbreviation indicates the initials of the five
speakers, i.e., SD, WR, KA, MD, AH.
72
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The data was transcribed by using Du Bois et al.’s (1993) transcription convention. In this
transcription system, each single line of the transcript represents an intonation unit, which is
defined as “a stretch of speech uttered under a single coherent intonation contour” (Du Bois et
al. 1993:47).
After the transcription, the data were coded in Excel 1997 spreadsheet. For the purpose
of this paper, I only used noun phrases that contain the clitic –nya and the demonstrative itu.
AN OVERVIEW OF -NYA AND ITU
In order to have better comprehension on how the clitic –nya and the demonstrative itu are used
in spoken Indonesian, the following is a brief overview of the two linguistic items. The
examples provided here are from my database.
The Clitic –nya
The grammar books of Indonesian (among others Alwi et al 2003, Sneddon 1996) describe the use
of the suffix –nya for three different functions: (1) –nya indicating possession, (2) –nya indicating
pronominalization, and (3) –nya indicating nominalization (see also Dardjowidjojo 1983). The
first two mentioned have something to do with anaphora, as they co-refer to a previously
mentioned entity in the discourse. As for the third category, –nya may be suffixed to a verb or an
adjective to form a noun. Naturally spoken language, however, reveals that the variability of –nya
is wider than that described in the grammar books. As stated by Sneddon (2006:34), the functions
of spoken –nya in Indonesian are many and not all of them are entirely understood.3
For example, -nya found in my database shows that it follows a first-mention referent
whose identifiability should be associated with another referent, proposition, or situational
context. In a few cases, -nya denotes that the intended referent is only identifiable for the
speaker. It may also be suffixed to a pronoun, a demonstrative, or an adverb. I will add three
other categories in relation to the occurrence of the suffix –nya in my spoken data, and they are:
(4) –nya indicating association or inference, (5) –nya indicating the cognitive frame of the
speaker, and (6) miscellaneous –nya. As mentioned earlier, in Indonesian, the identifiability of a
referent by association may be expressed by a nominal expression that is suffixed by –nya.4
-nya Indicating Possession
The suffix –nya may be used to indicate possession, and formal as well as informal Indonesian
use this suffix to refer to a third person singular. In the following excerpt, the speaker is
explaining to the interlocutor that his granddaughter is now living with her parents. The suffixnya after orang tua ‘parents’ indicates a third person possessor, that is cucu saya ‘my
grandchild’ that occurs in the previous intonation unit.
7.
(SD)
tinggal
live
dengan
with
orang tuanya.
parents-NYA
‘My grandchild lives with her parents’’
Unlike Standard Indonesian that allows the use of possessive -nya only for a third
person possessor (singular and plural), spoken Indonesian uses this suffix to refer to a second
person possessor as well, as shown in the following:
8.
(WR)
Terima
accept
kasih
love
Pak
Mr.
Yus Badudu
Yus Badudu
atas
on
pertanyaannya.
question-NYA
‘Thank you, Mr. Badudu, for your question.’
73
The speaker of (8) is thanking Mr Yus Badudu, the person who asked the question. This
type of -nya occurs quite frequently in spoken Indonesian and it is commonly used as an indirect
strategy for politeness.
Another use of possessive -nya that is considered informal is the one occurring in topiccomment constructions, and -nya – which always occurs in the comment part – may refer back
to a first, second, or third person pronoun (singular or plural). The following example shows
that the suffix –nya refers back to a first person singular saya ‘I’:
9.
(KA)
Karena saya,
because I
hobinya
macam-macam.
hobby-NYA various
‘Because I have many kinds of hobby’
-nya Indicating Pronominalization
The suffix -nya is also used as a pronominal suffix on verbs, indicating a pronominal argument
in a clause. In the following example, the suffix -nya anaphorically refers to cucu bapak ‘your
grand-daughter’:
10.
(SD)
Apakah kalimat yang
dihasilkannya
QW
sentence which PASS-result-NYA
bertipe
subjek
predikat,
have type subject predicate
ataukah topik komen.
or
topic comment
itu,
ITU
‘Does the sentence produced by her have the constructions of subject-predicate or
topic-comment?’
-nya Indicating Nominalization
The suffix -nya is also used as a nominalizer, which may occur after a verb or adjective to form
nominalization. In the following example, -nya is affixed to an adjective:
11.
(WR)
Tapi
But
ya
yes
sulitnya
difficult-NYA
bukan main.
extraordinary
‘But it’s extremely difficult’ (lit. But the difficulty is extraordinary)
-nya Indicating Association or Inference
Another function of -nya which is not very much elaborated in formal grammar books is the one
indicating association or inference. Here -nya is not anaphoric, but the identifiability of the
entity is understood via inference or association with a referent that has been previously
mentioned. Thus, the speaker has a specific frame in his/her mind, and he/she will let the
interlocutor draw an association of what is meant by the linguistic entity affixed by -nya via a
previously mentioned referent. The following example will illustrate this:
74
12.
(MD)
Nggak tahu di IKIP atau di mana itu
ya,
Not
know in IKIP or
where
ITU yes
5
pabrik gurunya
tu
harus sadar betul .
factory teacher-NYA
TU must aware really
‘(I) don’t know whether at IKIP (Teachers’ College) or some other place, the
teachers’ factory has to be really aware ...’
Although pabrik guru in the above example is a first-mention referent, the suffix –nya makes it
identifiable by way of a shared referent, and that is the word IKIP ‘Teachers’ College.’
–nya Indicating the Cognitive Frame of the Speaker
Another interesting occurrence of –nya in my database is the one suffixed to a first-mentioned
referent, but there is no clue to associate it with another referent. In the following excerpt, the
speaker is giving an illustration of a detective story, but before she mentions that the illustrative
scene is going to be taken from a detective story, she informs the interlocutors that she has
forgotten the name of the writer. This particular example shows that when –nya is suffixed to a
first-mention referent, and when the referent cannot be associated with the previously mentioned
referent, then –nya does not code identifiability at all. This sometimes happens in speech, when
speakers picture their cognitive frame without considering the mental space of their
interlocutors. Observe the following:
13.
(AH)
Sayang
sekali saya lupa
penulisnya.
unfortunately very
I
forget writer-NYA
‘Unfortunately I forgot (the name) of the writer…’
For more information about this –nya suffix as a framing device, refer to Englebretson (2003:
72).
Miscellaneous –nya
The last –nya is categorized as miscellaneous –nya, as it may follow other parts of speech other
than a verb and an adjective. In the following example, -nya is suffixed to a modal auxiliary bisa
‘can.’ In this case, it is very likely that –nya refers to anaknya ‘his child’ which is mentioned in
the first IU:
14.
(SD)
Ternyata anaknya,
in fact
child-NYA
yang besar di Jakarta ini,
who big
in Jakarta this
tidak bisa,
not
can
berbicara bahasa
Jawa yang halus.
speak
language Java which polite
Jadi bisanya
hanya berbahasa
Indonesia.
so
can-NYA only
have language Indonesia
‘In fact, their children, who are brought up in Jakarta, cannot speak polite
Javanese. (They) can only speak Indonesian.’
75
There are a few other occurrences of -nya, as in sebaik-baiknya ‘as well as possible,’
tampaknya/kelihatannya ‘it seems,’ sebenarnya ‘actually,’ pokoknya ‘the main thing is,’ but for
the purpose of this paper, I will discard all of those. Englebretson (2000, 2003, 2006) refers to
these –nya occurrences as epistemic –nya.
The Demonstrative itu
The demonstrative itu in Indonesian has a multi-purpose function. The basic function of itu is as
a deictic marker (Kaswanti Purwo 1984); speakers use it to point to an object that is far from
their stand-point. Itu also functions to mark a noun phrase that is already active or semi-active in
the mind of the interlocutor. In each case mentioned, itu or NP + itu is said to be identifiable,
because the interlocutor can establish a link between itu / NP + itu and the concept it refers to.6
The following describes itu that functions a pronoun and a determiner.
Itu as a Pronoun
The pronoun itu can be used as either a deictic marker [see example (4)] or an anaphoric
expression. It often occurs immediately after a short pause, and refers back to a referent that
occurs in the previous intonation unit. Observe the following:
15.
(SD)
Misalnya
for example
kalau
itu
ITU if
l,
l
anak
child
kita hampir
we almost
bisa semua
can all
‘For example (the sound) l, almost all our children can (pronounce) it.’
In example (12), itu anaphorically refers to (the sound) l. This example shows that the
speaker is introducing a new file in the interlocutor’s mind, but before that the speaker “points”
to the referent (the sound) l that was previously mentioned. This grammatical construction is
similar to the syntactic pattern of demonstrative cleft in English (Calude 2005).
Itu may sometimes be used to refer back to a plural referent. In the following example,
itu refers to the referent (sounds) /q/ dan /ð/.
16.
(SD)
Demikian
so
juga
also
q dan ð,
q and ð
bahasa
Inggris,
language English
tidak pernah tertanam
itu
ITU not
ever
planted
sebagai bunyi kita.
as
sound we
pada otak
at
brain
kita,
we
‘Similarly with (the sounds) q and ð in English, they have never been established
in our minds as our sounds.’
Anaphoric itu does not have to occur at the initial position, but it can occur medially or
finally. In the following example, itu refers to the referent vernacular:
76
17. (AH)
Tapi yang namanya
vernacular
but
which name-NYA vernacular
udah
ada
pak.
itu
already exist ITU sir
tu,
TU
‘But the one called vernacular, it already exists, sir.’
Itu as a Determiner
The determiner itu does not provide a way for the interlocutor to track a referent. In my spoken
database, I found that non-tracking itu has two functions: (a) it marks a noun or NP and makes
the referent identifiable, and (b) it marks a unified piece of information in an intonation unit
before the forthcoming information is introduced. In the following example, itu modifies a
lexicalized NP and makes the referent identifiable:
18.
(KA)
Lalu dibuat
pertanyaan,
then PASS-make question
Siapa mencubit dokter itu?
who
pinch
doctor that
tidak ,
pertanyaan itu
question
ITU not
tidak gramatikal.
not
grammatical
‘Then a question is made: Who pinched the doctor? The question is not
grammatical.’
Interestingly, itu may occur after an indefinite pronoun or a personal pronoun, as shown
in the following examples:
19.
(WR)
Seseorang
someone
itu
ITU
selalu
always
akan
will
berusaha
make an effort
untuk
for
mencari
find
keseimbangan.
Balance
‘Someone will always make an effort to find balance’
20.
(SD)
ditakdirkan
Dia
itu
he/she ITU PASS-destine
bahasa
apa pun.
language any
untuk
for
bisa
can
menguasai ...
master
‘He is destined to be able to acquire any language’
21.
(WR)
Kita
we
itu
ITU
kok
PART
kurang
less
begitu
so
banyak
much
memuji
appreciate
‘We do not appreciate much’
It is very likely that itu in the three examples above has no other function than to modify
or to delimit a linguistic entity that takes a subject position. A similar case can be observed in
the following example:
77
22.
(SD)
Sehari-harinya
every day
kami memakai
we
use
di rumah itu,
in house ITU
tiga bahasa.
three language
‘At home, every day we speak three languages’
Itu may also occur after a headless relative clause, and this indicates that it modifies a
referent that has already been established in the interlocutor’s mind. In this particular example,
the tracked referent is ‘point of articulation’ which occurs three intonation units before the
headless relative clause with itu.
23.
(SD)
Tidak selalu,
not
always
bahwa yang di muka itu,
that
which in front ITU
dikuasai
terdahulu.
PASS-master first
‘It’s not always that the front point of articulation is acquired first’
DISCUSSION: THE INTERACTION OF –NYA AND ITU
In the previous section, we have observed how speakers of Indonesian use the suffix –nya and
the demonstrative itu to convey, track, or delimit a piece of information. In this section, we will
observe the co-occurrence of –nya and itu in a single intonation unit, and how each plays its role
in helping the interlocutors to identify a linguistic entity throughout the ongoing process of
discourse.
As we have discussed in the previous section, in almost every occurrence –nya helps the
interlocutor to identify the intended referent via shared information or inference. The
demonstrative itu, on the other hand, does not always function as a tracking marker. We will
now observe the co-occurrence of –nya and itu in a single intonation unit. Observe the
following:
24.
(SD)
Untuk membunyikan bunyi
for
pronounce
sound
itu,
ITU
voiced onset time-nya
itu
Voiced onset time-NYA ITU
b,
b
berbeda.
different
‘In order to pronounce the sound /b/, its voiced onset time is different’
The suffix –nya in the NP voiced onset time-nya is possessive, referring to the possessor
bunyi b. Itu that follows –nya just functions as a determiner, modifying the NP voiced onset
time-nya before the predicate berbeda ‘different.’ This means that without the occurrence of itu,
the referent is already identifiable for the interlocutor.
Another interesting feature of –nya and itu is their ability to occur repeatedly within a
single intonation unit. Observe the following:
78
25.
(SD)
Bahwa antara
a,
that
between a
dengan p,
with
p
itu,
ITU
letak,
position
Apa?
what
Cara pengucapannya
itu,
way
pronunciation-NYA ITU
yang paling berbeda.
which most
different
Dalam arti
a,
in
meaning a
ada
di
itu
posisinya
itu
ITU position-NYA ITU exist in
tengah
middle
lidahnya.
tongue-NYA
‘That between the (sound) a and the (sound) p, the position... what is it? The way
they are pronounced is very different. It the sense that the position of /a/ is in the
middle of the tongue.’
The suffix –nya in cara pengucapannya itu ‘the way they are pronounced’
anaphorically refers to the sounds /a/ and /p/ previously mentioned. The demonstrative itu,
which is a modifier, functions to delimit the NP cara pengucapannya before some other
information is introduced. The last intonation unit is interesting to be analyzed because of the
repetitive occurrence of itu. As shown in the previous examples, itu that occurs at the beginning
of an intonation unit is a pronoun referring to the previously mentioned entity. The first itu,
thus, is a pronoun that anaphorically refers to the sound /a/. The second itu in the IU, however,
is a determiner that modifies the NP posisinya ‘its position.’ Note that without itu after
posisinya, the referent is already identifiable. Therefore, itu does not have any other function
than to delimit a unified segment of information. The suffix –nya after posisinya is possessive,
with the phonemic sound /a/ as the possessor.
As previously mentioned, the suffix –nya may indicate identifiability by association.
The following excerpt illustrates that the referent suffixed by –nya is associated with a
previously mentioned referent.
26.
(MD)
Kalau
if
Eh ..
PART
di sana
there
saya berada di ,
I
exist
in
katakanlah di plane,
say
in plane
ada beberapa turis.
exist some
tourist
79
Dan,
and
Bangsa Indonesia penumpangnya
sangat
nation Indonesia passenger-NYA very
Saya lihat di sana,
I
see
there
Bahkan itu,
even
ITU
Apa namanya?
what name-NYA
sudah
membagikan
Stewardessnya
itu
stewardess-NYA ITU already distribute
banyak.
many
koran-koran.
newspapers
‘When I was in ... let’s say in a plane, there were a few tourists. I saw that among
the passengers there were lots of Indonesians. What’s the name? The stewardess
distributed newspapers.’
In example (26), stewardess is new information for the interlocutor, yet the suffix –nya
makes it identifiable, because it is a part of the referent plane, which has been previously
mentioned. Again, itu that follows –nya does not function as an identifiability marker; it rather
delimits a referent whose identifiability is associated with a previously mentioned referent.
In the following example, itu occurs twice. The first one occurs before the –nya
expression and the latter is after:
27.
(SD)
Jadi pengontrolan terhadap lidah,
so
control
towards tongue
bibir,
lip
vocal cords,
vocal cords
dan sebagainya,
and so on
dari otak
itu,
from brain ITU
barangkali ya,
maybe
yes
sama.
itu
dari sononya
itu
ITU from there-NYA ITU same
‘So maybe, control towards (one’s) tongue, lips, vocal cords and other speech
organs from the brain is inherently the same’
The first itu, which is a pronoun, co-refers to the proposition expressed in the first five
intonation units before itu. At the same time it functions as the topic of a topic-comment
construction. The suffix –nya which follows dari sono ‘from there’ (dari sono is actually a
Jakartan dialect; it colloquially means ‘the inherent features you have got since you were born’)
is possessive. The second itu is not pronoun and therefore does not mark identifiability as it
functions as a modifier of dari sononya. So, the utterance dari sononya itu is a unified
meaningful segment in the intonation unit, before the predicate sama ‘same’ is introduced.
80
Itu, however, is identifiable in example (28), because it does not function as marker but
as a demonstrative pronoun. In my data, there is only one occurrence for this.
28.
(SD)
Tapi
but
Ini
this
Dia
she
Dam.
dam
Dia
she
Dam,
dam
dan
and
waktu saya tanya,
when I
ask
apa
Cha?
what Cha?
keluarnya
apa tadi.
come out-NYA what previously
itu
keluarnya
ITU come out-NYA
bukan
not
otomatisnya
automatic-NYA
itu,
ITU
jam.
jam
‘But when I asked, “What’s this, Cha?” What did she say? Dam. She automatically
said that, dam and not jam.’
The utterance Dia itu keluarnya otomatisnya itu is a topic-comment construction, with
dia itu [lit. ‘that she’] as the topic. The suffix –nya that occurs after keluar and otomatis refers to
the topic dia and thus makes it identifiable. Itu that follows the word otomatisnya is both
anaphoric and cataphoric, referring to dam that is mentioned before and after itu is uttered.
Thus, in this particular example, itu is tracking and identifiable: it is a pronoun and it is
referential.
CONCLUSION
In this study, we have observed the discourse functions of the clitic –nya that co-occurs with itu
in a single intonation unit. Both elements function as effective devices for marking information
flow. The examples illustrated in this paper demonstrate that when –nya and itu co-occur in a
single unified segment in an intonation unit, -nya always functions as an identifiability marker,
which may indicate possession or association with another referent. Itu, on the other hand, does
not always indicate identifiability. It is identifiable when it functions as a pronoun and refers to
a previously mentioned entity. It is not identifiable when its function in discourse is as a
determiner. In this case, its occurrence only helps the speaker to delimit a unified segment of
information.
NOTE
1
2
3
The term ‘tracking’ is adopted from Du Bois and Thompson (1991) and also Himmelmann (1996).
The term ‘intonation units’ (abbreviated as IU) is adopted from Chafe (1994: 57). They are segments
of language that are grouped based on speech pauses. In this paper, an intonation unit is grouped in
one line.
In his Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian data, Sneddon (2006: 34-43) observes that the suffix –nya
could be placed in eight categories. They are: 1) –nya as a pronoun, 2) –nya as a ligature, 3) –nya as a
marker of definiteness and as an emphasize, 4) –nya emphasizing words other than nouns, 5) –nya in
81
4
5
6
*
topic-comment clauses, 6) –nya as a nominalizer, 7) frequent occurrence of –nya, and 8) –nya
serving two functions concurrently.
A more detailed discussion on identifiability pathways can be seen in Du Bois & Thompson (1991)
and Ewing (1995).
Tu is short for itu.
For more detailed description about the use of itu in spoken Indonesian, see Sukamto (2003).
I would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for very helpful comments on the earlier draft.
Gloss Line Abbreviation:
-NYA : suffix –nya
PART : discourse particle
PASS : passive
REFERENCES
Alwi, Hasan, H. Lapoliwa, and S. Dardjowidjojo. 2003. Tatabahasa Baku Bahasa Indonesia,
Edisi ketiga. Jakarta: Balai Pustaka.
Ariel, Mira. 1990. Accessing Noun Phrase Antecedents. London: Routledge.
Calude, Andreea S. 2005. Demonstrative Clefts in Spoken English. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis,
University of Auckland.
Chafe, Wallace L. 1994. Discourse, Consciousness, and Time. Chicago: The University of
Chicago Press.
Dardjowidjojo, Soenjono. 1983. “A Classifier, itu, -nya, or None of the above: The way the
Indonesian mind operates,” in S. Dardjowidjojo (ed.), Beberapa Aspek Linguistik
Indonesia, Jakarta: Penerbit Djambatan, pp. 195-245.
Du Bois, John W. and S.A. Thompson. 1991. “Dimensions of a Theory of Information Flow,”
MS.
Du Bois, John W., S. Scheutze-Coburn, S. Cumming, and D. Paolino. 1993. “Outline of
Discourse Transcription,” in Jane A. Edwards and Martin Lampert (eds.), Talking Data:
Transcription and Coding in Discourse Research, Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum
Associates, pp. 45-89.
Englebretson, Robert. 2000. Complementation in Colloquial Indonesian Conversation: A
Discourse-Functional Perspective. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, UCSB.
Englebretson, Robert. 2003. Searching for Structure: The problem of complementation in
colloquial Indonesian conversation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Englebretson, Robert. 2008. “From Subordinate Clause to Noun-phrase: Yang constructions in
Colloquial Indonesian,” in Ritva Laury (ed.), Crosslinguistic Studies of Clause
Combining: The multifunctionality of conjunctions. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp.
1-33.
Ewing. Michael C. 1995. “Two Pathways to Identifiability in Cirebon Javanese.” In BLS 21:
Special Session on Discourse in Southeast Asian Linguistics.
Ewing. Michael C.. 2005. “Colloquial Indonesian,” in Alexander Adelaar and Nikolaus P.
Himmelmann (eds.), The Austronesian Languages of Asia and Madagascar. New York:
Routledge, pp. 227-258.
82
Givón, Talmy. 1983. Topic Continuity in Discourse: A Quantitative Cross Language Study.
Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
Gundel, Jeanette K., Nancy Hedberg, and Ron Zacharski. 1993. “Cognitive Status and the Form
of Referring Expressions in Discourse.” In Language, Vol. 69 No. 2, pp. 274-307.
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. 1996. “Demonstratives in Narrative Discourse: A Taxonomy of
Universal Uses,” in Barbara Fox (ed.), Studies in Anaphora, Amsterdam: John
Benjamins, pp. 205-254.
Kaswanti Purwo, Bambang. 1984. Deiksis dalam Bahasa Indonesia. Jakarta: Balai Pustaka.
Kibrik, Andrej A. 2011. Reference in Discourse. London: Oxford University Press.
Kronfeld, Amichai. 1986. “Goals of Referring Acts.” http://acl.ldc.upenn.edu/T/T87/T871034.pdf. Accessed 20 January 2012.
Sneddon, James. N.1996. Indonesian Reference Grammar. Sydney: Allen & Unwin.
Sneddon, James. N. 2006. Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.
Sukamto, Katharina. E. 2003. The Demonstratives in Spoken Indonesian Academic Discourse.
Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation. The University of Melbourne.
83
Tahun ke-30, No. 1
NON-TOPOLOGICAL RELATIONS IN RONGGA, BALINESE,
INDONESIAN: SOME EVIDENCE FROM LINGUISTIC AND
NON-LINGUISTIC TASKS
I Nyoman Aryawibawa*
Universitas Udayana
[email protected]
Abstract
There has been long disagreement among scholars if relative frame of reference (FoR)
is universal or not (Herskovits, 1982; Levinson, 2003). The objectives of this study are
to test what FoR is dominantly used in Rongga, Balinese, and Indonesian, and to test
whether the use of FoR affects speakers’ cognitive functioning using linguistic and nonlinguistic tasks. The results indicate that the absolute FoR is prominently employed in
Rongga and Balinese, while the relative FoR is pervasively used in Indonesian. More
interestingly, the use of FoR influences subjects’ cognitive functioning. In short, the
current findings show that the relative FoR is not universal.
Key words: relative frame of reference, absolute frame of reference, intrinsic frame of
reference
Telah lama diperdebatkan oleh para peneliti frames of reference (FoR) apakah FoR
relatif sejatinya bersifat universal atau tidak (Herskovits, 1982; Levinson, 2003). Tujuan
utama penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui FoR apa yang digunakan secara dominan
dalam bahasa Rongga, Bali, dan Indonesia, dan untuk menguji apakah penggunaan FoR
tersebut mempengaruhi fungsi kognitif penutur bahasanya. Penelitian ini menggunakan
linguistic tasks dan non-linguistic tasks. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa FoR absolut
digunakan secara dominan dalam bahasa Rongga dan Bali, sedangkan bahasa Indonesia
menggunakan FoR relatif secara ekslusif. Hasil penelitian ini juga menunjukkan kalau
penggunaan FoR mempengaruhi fungsi kognitif penutur bahasa-bahasa tersebut. Jadi,
berdasarkan hasil temuan ini, klaim bahwa FoR relatif bersifat universal tidak terbukti.
Kata kunci: referensi relatif, referensi absolut, referensi intrinsik
INTRODUCTION
According to some scholars, e.g., Clark, 1993; Miller and Johnson-Laird, 1976; Jackendoff,
1983; Herskovits, 1982, a relative frame of reference, i.e., a frame of reference that requires
triangulation of viewpoint, located object, and reference object and employs coordinates based
on the speaker’s viewpoint to specify the relation between the located object and the reference
object (Levinson, 2003), is prevalent in all languages. In English, for example, as Herskovits
(1982: 217-220) points out, there are two possible axes to describe the relative frame of
reference, i.e., basic and mirror orders. The basic order is defined in a “coincidence situation”
when the speaker or observer and reference object coincide. Meanwhile, the mirror order is
defined in the “encounter situation” as Clark (1973 in Herskovits 1982: 219) puts it.
What are the characteristics of the most usual interaction between two people, John and
Mary? …the most important property is that they will be facing each other a short distance
apart. It is in this position that John and Mary are situated for the optimal perception of
messages – both verbal and nonverbal – from the other person…If John and Mary were side-byside, or back-to-back, these conditions would no longer be optimal.
To make it more concrete, the two axes are illustrated in the following figures:
I Nyoman Aryawibawa
Figure 1. Coincidence Situation
In describing the spatial relation between the cat and the tree in Figure 1, e.g., The cat is to the
right of the tree, there is a virtual point of observation coincident with the reference object the
tree, i.e., the observer’s front, back, left, and right are directly shifted to the tree. The basic order
of axes can be determined using clockwise rotation beginning from the front, i.e., front, right,
back, and left.
And the encounter situation can be illustrated as follows:
Figure 2. Encounter Situation
The cat is to the right of the tree is also true in the encounter situation. The use of to the right in
this situation combines the point of view of the reference object encountered with the observer’s
point of view by, following Levinson’s explanation (2003: 85), “’flipping over’ the egocentric
coordinates as if they were on a sheet of acetate, and mapping them on the tree. Thus, we have
the ‘front’ of the tree facing the speaker, with the ‘right’ of the tree to the observer’s right.”
According to Herskovits (1982), the spatial relation between the cat and the tree just
described, can also be specified in the canonical encounter situation, i.e., mirror order. In this
situation, the cat could be said to be to the left of the tree. Note that the front is still the space
between the tree and the observer. But, to the right orientation is now derived by using
clockwise rotation starting from the front as shown in Figure 3:
Figure 3. Canonical Encounter Situation
86
In addition to the relative frame of reference, English also uses the intrinsic frame of
reference, i.e., a frame of reference that involves inherent facets or sidedness of reference objects.
Given a spatial situation, e.g., A girl is standing in front of a chair, to describe the spatial relation
between the girl and the chair, English speakers say The girl is in front of the chair.
In fact, there are languages that do not use the relative frame of reference or even the
intrinsic frame of reference. Instead of using the relative or intrinsic frames of reference, the
languages employ an absolute frame of reference, i.e., “one refers to the fixed direction
provided by gravity (or the visual horizon under canonical orientation” (Levinson, 2003: 47).
For example, speakers of Guugu Yimithirr exclusively use north/south terms in their spatial
orientations as indicated by Levinson (2003).
The main objectives of this article are to investigate whether the relative frame of
reference is dominantly used in the spatial orientation of Rongga, Balinese, and Indonesian, and
to test whether the use of FoR affects the cognitive functioning or spatial reasoning, i.e., the use
of FoR in non-linguistic tasks, of their speakers using both linguistic and non-linguistic tasks.
To achieve the objectives, I designed stimuli consisting of several tasks, e.g., object rotation
tasks, asking direction techniques, and objects reordering. The tasks included verbal expressions
to probe spatial knowledge of speakers. I explain the tasks further in the methodology below.
WHY RONGGA, BALINESE, INDONESIAN?
This article specifically deals with frames of reference (FoR) in horizontal planes in Rongga (a
highly isolating language clustered in the eastern part of the Manggarai regency, between
Manggarai and Ngadha, Flores Island, Indonesia (Arka, 2004b)), Balinese, and Indonesian. Arka
(2004b) conducted a preliminary study on Rongga’s spatial systems. In the study, he discusses the
use of spatial terms mainly in connection to vertical planes, e.g., zheta “up and far away”, zhili
“down and distant”, etc. Please note that what it means by the vertical planes here is not in the
sense of Levinson (2003). Levinson (2003: 75-76) addresses the use of frames of reference in the
vertical planes. More concretely, when a fly is on top of a bottle, the use of the three frames of
reference coincides. Thus, to describe the location of the fly relative to the bottle, “the fly is in line
with the top of the bottle (intrinsic), it appears above the bottle in my visual field (relative), and it
is higher in the axis defined by gravity (absolute)” (Levinson, 2003: 75).
In contrast to Levinson’s explanation, the vertical planes in Rongga refers to the
verticality of topography of Tanarata. Tanarata, the place where Rongga is mainly spoken, is
surrounded by hills and some places located on the hills. This geographical fact makes Rongga
speakers use particular spatial terms to refer to places that are topographically higher or lower
than the place where the encounter takes place. In the following paragraphs I describe how such
topography, i.e., the vertical planes, is referred to by using particular spatial terms.
The specification of spatial relation of objects related to the vertical planes (especially in
the wide world orientation) uses zheta “up and far away”, i.e., following Arka’s [+distal]
[+elevated], zhele “up not far away”, i.e., [+elevated] [-distal], zhale “down under and not far”,
i.e., [+down under] [-distal], and zhili “down under and far away”, i.e., [+down under] [+distal].
The use of these spatial terms roots in the topography of Tanarata, which is located between hills.
In the examples to follow, zheta is applied to specify the location of places, e.g., Ngeko
and Leke that are considered “up there and far” from the speaker. In examples 1 and 2 the
speakers are in Kisol and Waelengga respectively, and the distance between the places of
speaking, i.e., Kisol, Waelengga, and the places that are referred to, i.e., Ngeko, Leke, is “up
and far” from the speakers. “Far” in this context is determined psychologically and on a metric
system, i.e., it is based on how many kilometers the places are from Kisol and Waelengga. Thus,
the two places, i.e., Ngeko and Leke, are psychologically conceived as “far.”
87
I Nyoman Aryawibawa
1. ema
ja’o wa’u pu’u zheta ata
mother I
come from up
people
“My mother came from Ngeko.” (Arka, 2003)
2. ma’e
not
ndi’i
live
zheta
up
Leke
Leke
bhoda
because
Ngeko
Ngeko
mai
come
ndi’i we
ndia
Sere
ramba
we’ene
kazhi
live
at
there Sere close
with
him
“…not to live in Leke, (because) if (I) live in Sere (here), (I’d be) close to him.”
(Arka, 2004b)
But, when the places referred to are psychologically conceived “up there and not far”
from the speakers, zhele is applied to specify their location as can be seen in the following
examples.
3. le
part
jam
o’clock
sembilan
nine
ke’e
may
zhenge
hear
dere
sing
mai
come
zhele mai
kala
up
come
forest
“At (about) 9 o’clock a song coming from the forest up there was heard.”
4. zheke hiwa
after year
wutu ja’o
resign I
pu’u
from
one
at
kepala
head
desa
village
pili
wali
ne
sizha ata
pu’u zhele
Komba….
elect again by
they
people from up
Komba….
“After years I resigned as the village head, I was elected again by the
community as the head of the village….” (The Autobiography of
Bapak Antonius Gelang in Arka, 2004b)
In example 4, when saying the sentence the speaker is in Waelengga and the referred
place, i.e., Komba, is psychologically considered “up and not far” from the speaker, i.e.,
compared to Ngeko, Ngeko is up and further than Komba from Waelengga. Figure 4 (modified
from Arka, 2004b) is to further illustrate the use of zheta and zhele based on the contexts just
explained. For more comprehensive discussion on the other spatial terms please refer to
Aryawibawa (2010).
Figure 4. The Use of the Prepositions Zhele and Zheta in Vertical Planes
Ruteng/Ngeko/Leke (zheta)
Komba (zhele)
(Speaker in Kisol or Waelangga)
In addition to the spatial terms used in the vertical plane, Arka also discusses Rongga
spatial terms in the horizontal plane. However, since his discussion of this issue is brief and
there are some points that need further clarification, Rongga’s frames of reference need further
investigation.
For Balinese, there is a systematic acquisition study on its frames of reference by
Wassmann and Dasen (1998). The experiments involved twenty-eight subjects (140 trials).
Eight children aged 7 to 9 (up to 2 years of schooling), eight children aged 11 to 15 (2 to 5 years
of schooling) and twelve adults between 20 and 60 years of age (up to 6 years of schooling),
88
with a virtually equal distribution between sexes. Moreover, a simplified version of the Animal
task, i.e., two figurines instead of three, 5- to 10-second delay, was administered to ten children
aged 4-5 years. Wassmann and Dasen (1998) conducted two experiments, i.e., Animal-in-a-Row
Task and Steve’s Mazes Task.
Wassmann and Dasen’s study shows that in the Animal task the subjects showed
systematic response of absolute frame of reference. In the second task, nevertheless, only one
quarter of the subjects provided the systematic response of absolute frame of reference, and
most of them mix absolute and relative. Another quarter produced systematic response of
relative frames of reference. For the first task, the results of the 4- to 5-year-old children can be
added. All the children used the absolute solution in the task. In short, despite the result of the
second task, Wassmann and Dasen findings show that the absolute system is dominantly used in
Balinese.
Regarding the relative solution used by most of the participants in the second task,
Wassmann and Dasen explain that it might be related to the nature of the first task which is
easier than the second task as, according to Wassmann and Dasen, expressed by the participant
explicitly: ‘There [on the first table] the animals are looking towards kaja; here [on the second
table] they are also looking kaja’ (Wassmann and Dasen, 1998: 704). In the second task, as
Wassmann and Dasen explained, “subjects who mainly provide absolute answers explain that
they have memorized an image of the path, and they sometimes describe its shape, ‘it’s like the
letter U’, ‘like a belly curved towards kauh’. Those who give relative answers talk about
following the path, for instance, from left to right” (Wassmann and Dasen, 1998: 704).
Unfortunately, Wassmann and Dasen did not mention about the language used by the subjects
using left or right, i.e., it is not clear whether they used Balinese left and right terms or
Indonesian left and right terms. I suspect, that the use of the relative solution by the participants
in the second task might be affected by the bilinguality of the participants. Specifically, their use
of right/left solution in the second task may be influenced by Indonesian, which relies upon the
right/left orientation. Since I, as a native speaker of Balinese, find their account (i.e., their
results that Balinese use relative system, though not dominantly) rather difficult to accept, I
think the Balinese frame of reference is still worth investigating.
While two scholars have discussed topological relations in Indonesian (Mintz, 1994;
Sneddon, 1996), to the best of my knowledge, there are no previous studies on Indonesian nontopological relations that are systematically investigated. Thus, by studying Indonesian FoR
systematically, I expect that the study provides FoR patterns among Rongga, Balinese, and
Indonesian that belong to the same language family, i.e., Austronesian, and contrast the patterns
to FoR of languages that do not belong to the same language family as the three languages. In
short, the study is expected to contribute to previous discussions on cross-linguistic spatial
domains.
FRAME OF REFERENCE IN RONGGA, BALINESE, AND INDONESIAN
In the next sections, I would like to investigate frames of reference used in horizontal planes in
Rongga, Balinese, and Indonesian. I will use 20 utterances in this paper as part of a larger study
I conducted in Aryawibawa (2010).
METHODOLOGY
Participants
Three Balinese monolinguals (20-35 years old), and three Indonesian monolinguals (20-30 years
old) were interviewed in Bali. The interview for four Rongga speakers was conducted only in
Tanarata. In my interview with Balinese consultants, I used Balinese since they did not speak
Indonesian fluently, with an additional purpose to minimize the interference of Indonesian on
the knowledge they provided. I used Indonesian with my Indonesian consultants for the same
89
I Nyoman Aryawibawa
reason. Indonesian, however, was used in my interview with my Rongga consultants because I
did not speak Rongga. To obtain true knowledge of the Rongga language and culture, I included
elder speakers (50-60 years old), who had intact linguistic and cultural knowledge of Rongga.
Young speakers (20-25 years old) of Rongga tended to switch to neighboring languages, or even
to Indonesian for prestige and economic reasons.
Procedures
The frames of reference data used in this study are those involving spatial nominals as in The
girl is north/south of the chair for the absolute frame of reference, and complex prepositions as
in The girl is in front/back of the chair for the intrinsic and The girl is to the left/right of the
tree for the relative frames of reference respectively.
I elicited linguistic data for frames of reference using the rotation of objects inspired by
one applied by Levinson (2003). Specifically, I used various objects, e.g., a bag, a TV, a chair,
a tree, a ball, a bottle, to create spatial relations that require a particular coordinate system to
describe such contexts. For example, a ball was put at a chair’s front. I then asked my language
consultants to describe the location of the ball in relation to the chair in each language. The
chair is then rotated 180o. I again asked them to specify the current spatial relation between the
two objects in each language.
Additionally, I used an “asking directions” technique. For example, I asked my
language consultants to tell me how to go to a particular place, e.g., a particular shop, someone’s
house, etc. In this procedure, I made sure that my language consultants are familiar with the
places, although I pretended that I did not know them. All the conversations were tape-recorded.
My language consultants were naïve about the hypothesis that I tested, i.e., what frames of
reference they predominantly used in such a task. In this fashion, I expected that I could get
their natural linguistics knowledge in using the dominant frames of reference in each language.
To elicit non-linguistic data, I used non-linguistic tasks that were similar to the ones
used by Levinson (2003). The tasks were simplified. It is simplified in the sense that I only used
three different objects to be ordered by the participants. In this task the subjects had to identify
the stimulus or the original order of the objects and reconstruct the previous order of the objects,
i.e., recall memory.
The procedure I employed was as follows. My language consultant and I sat at a same
table, i.e., the table was in the north/N-south/S axis. We were facing each other. I then arranged
three different featured objects, e.g., a toy truck, a toy house, and a ball, on the table based on
their intrinsic features, i.e., the truck is in front of the house, the ball is in front of the truck, as
illustrated below.
I told my language consultant to look at the position of the objects and remember it
well. After that, I took the three objects and switched seats with him. There is an interval of
three-quarters of a minute delay between the stimulus presentation and the rotation (following
Levinson). I had a conversation during the delay. The purpose of such an interval is to minimize
specific short-term memory effects that could trigger the participants to use relative orientation
since a visual image automatically encodes an egocentric viewpoint (Wassmann and Dasen,
1998: 702). But, a visual image is normally replaced by new visual information and has a
natural decay period of below 30 seconds (Baddeley, 1990: 31 in Wassmann and Dasen, 1998:
90
702). I then asked him to rearrange the same objects exactly in the way he saw them earlier. The
position of the arrangement is as follows.
In addition to the featured objects, un-featured objects were also used, e.g., a bunch of keys, an
eraser, and a book. The experimental procedure I did for the un-featured objects was the same
as that for the featured objects. The reason for using both featured and un-featured objects was
to see whether the features of the objects affected the ordering of the objects especially for
participants opting for the absolute solution. In this fashion, I expected that I could tap the
language consultants’ cognitive functioning, i.e., their recall memory. I had a list of participants’
names. When a participant opted for a relative solution, I marked him R, but if he opted for an
absolute solution I marked him A. The summary of original objects’ ordering and subjects’
reordering of the objects, i.e., both featured and un-featured objects, is presented in the figures
below. The number in brackets shows the number of subjects’ reordering of objects.
Figure 5.
Subjects’ Reordering of Featured Objects in R= Rongga, B= Balinese, I= Indonesian
No. Original featured objects’
ordering
1.
house’s front, truck’s front, a
ball
2.
ball
3.
ball
Subjects’ reordering of
featured objects
R: house’s front, truck’s front, a
ball (3)
B: house’s front, truck’s front, a
ball (3)
I: a ball, truck’s front, house’s
front (3)
Frames of
reference
Absolute system
Absoute system
Relative system
Figure 6.
Subjects’ Reordering of Un-featured Objects in R= Rongga, B= Balinese, I= Indonesian
No. Original un-featured objects’
ordering
1.
keys, rubber, book
2.
keys, rubber, book
3.
keys, rubber, book
Subjects’ reordering of unfeaturedobjects
R: keys, rubber, book (3)
B: keys, rubber, book (3)
I: book, rubber, keys (3)
Frames of
reference
Absolute system
Absoute system
Relative system
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The use of spatial terms, i.e., the cardinal points zhele “north”, mena “east”, lau “south”, zhale
“west/down”, in horizontal planes is dominant in Rongga. Zhele is associated with the location
of mountain, i.e., Mbengan, which is in the northern territory of Rongga. As mena “east” in
Rongga is associated with the direction where the sun rises, the other directions are determined
using clockwise rotation, i.e., zhele “north”, mena “east”, lau “south”, zhale “west”. In this
section, I used the object rotation technique to obtain knowledge of the frames of reference used
by Rongga speakers. The spatial situation to describe was a bottle to the right/north of a chair.
91
I Nyoman Aryawibawa
To specify the spatial relation between the bottle and the chair, the cardinal term zhele,
i.e. kasa zhele wena, is used as can be seen in example 5:
5. botol ndau kasa zhele wena
bottle that
beside north side
“The bottle is north of the chair.”
kursi
chair
kasa is used with zhele wena and the other cardinal terms. In the intrinsic terms, e.g., olo wena,
muzhi wena, however, kasa is not used. If now the bottle is moved to the south side of the chair,
the spatial situation is described in example 6.
6. botol ndau kasa lau
wena
bottle that
beside south side
“The bottle is south of the chair.”
kursi
chair
Further evidence that the absolute frame of reference is dominant in Rongga can also be
seen in the description of location of a man relative to a tree as illustrated in the Figure 7 below
(modified from Herskovits, 1982).
Figure 7. The Use of Cardinal Terms in Horizontal Planes
In this situation, the cardinal terms kasa zhele/mena/lau/zhale wena “north/east/south/west of”
are also applied as illustrated in example 7.
7. Sis kasa
zhele wena
Sis beside
north side
“Sis is north of the tree.”
kaju
tree
The dominant use of the cardinal terms can also be observed from the second linguistic
task I used, i.e., asking directions. The following are the responses I got from them (only the
relevant parts of the conversation between me and the participant are presented here).
8. Researcher:
Participant:
vende mbo ko
Pa Yanani?
where house the
Pa Yanani
“Where is Pak Yanani’s house.”
la’a
go
molo
to
mena teru
east
continue
molo
to
zheta
up
ndia ko
mbo Pa Yanani
there the
house Pak yanani
“Go to east and then go up. Pa Yanani’s house is there.”
92
The examples show that the cardinal terms are again used in describing the location of a place.
Recall now examples 5 and 6 above. If the bottle in the examples is put in front or back of the
chair, are the cardinal terms still used? To specify such spatial situations, the intrinsic frame of
reference is used as illustrated in examples 9 and 10:
9. peli
olo
wena kursi
bottle front side
chair
“The bottle is in front of the chair.”
10. peli
muzhi wena kursi
bottle back side
chair
“The bottle is at the back of the chair.”
Note that in these examples wena “side” is used. The use of wena may mark the intrinsic frame
of reference. As the examples show that Rongga, like English, uses complex prepositions olo
wena “front side” and muzhi wena “back side” to describe the location of the bottle relative to a
feature of the chair.
Determining the front and back sides of reference objects is based on the intrinsic
features of the reference objects. Accordingly, the front side of a chair, as generally conceived
across languages, is the side with its arms and with the surface on which we sit. On the other
hand, the back of the chair is the vertical surface against which we lay our back when sitting on
it. Thus, the determinative of the intrinsic features of objects in Rongga is function-based.
As in Rongga, the cardinal terms are also dominantly used in Balinese spatial
orientations. The examples I present here are based on the linguistic tasks, i.e., the rotation and
asking direction tasks, I did with my Balinese consultants. Thus, given a spatial situation
between the located object the bottle and the reference object the chair, i.e., the bottle is to the
right/north of the chair, my language consultants provided me with the following responses.
11. botol-e
daja-n
kursi-e
bottle-the north-lig chair-the
“The bottle is north of the chair.”
When I moved the bottle to the south side of the chair, i.e., the bottle is to the left of the chair,
the absolute frame of reference was again applied.
12. botol-e
delod
kursi-e
bottle-the south
chair-the
“The bottle is south of the chair.”
As in Rongga, the use of the cardinal term daja/kaja “north” is associated with the location of
hills or mountains in Bali, e.g., Mount Agung, Mount Batur, and the term delod/kelod “south” is
associated to a location of sea. However, the daja/kaja and delod/kelod directions in Balinese
are not fixed. If we look at the Balinese map in Figure 8 below, for Balinese people who live in
the southern part of the island daja/kaja (indicated by 1) is towards the mountains peppered in
the middle part of the island that splits the island into two (shown by the double lines in the
figure), while delod/kelod (indicated by 3) is towards the sea in the southern part of the island.
In this sense daja/kaja and delod/kelod are used in exactly the same as utara “north” and selatan
“south”, and north and south in Indonesian and English respectively. These bearings are fixed
when those people move outside their territory, or even outside Bali. But, for people who live in
the northern part of the island, daja/kaja is towards the south now because the location of the
mountain is in the south part of their territory.
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I Nyoman Aryawibawa
Figure 8.
The Orientation of kaja “North” and kelod “South” Relative to Mountains
(Arka, 2005b)
For more detailed discussion on Balinese absolute system, please refer to Wassmann
and Dasen (1998), Aryawibawa (2010). Recall that Wassmann and Dasen’s study (1998) shows
that the relative frame of reference can still be observed in Balinese, although not dominantly.
To further test their findings, I investigated the use of relative frame of reference in Balinese
using “asking direction” technique that I explained in the procedures above.
The results show that all responses given by my language consultants used the absolute
frame of reference, i.e., all of them use kaja, kelod, etc. in their directions, as shown in example
13 (I present the relevant parts of talks between me and the participant here):
13. Researcher:
Participant:
dije
umah ye-e
Yan?
where house him-the Yan
“Where is his house Yan?
uling
from
umah Mangaye
house mangaye
n-kelod-an
act.-south-loc.
nyen
tepuk umah Adik delod umah ye-e
later
see
house Adik south house his-the
“Go south from Mangaye’s house. You will see Adik’s house.
His house is south of Adik’s house.”
Why did Wassmann and Dasen find that the relative frame of reference is used in
Balinese in their second study? I do not have much to say here. Recall now the spatial situation
between the bottle and the chair in examples 11 and 12 above. When the bottle was placed in
front or in back of the chair, as in Rongga, the intrinsic frame of reference was employed in
Balinese as illustrated in examples 14-15. Determining the front or back part of reference
objects in Balinese, like Rongga, is function-based:
14. botol-e di
muka
kursi-e
bottle-the
at front
chair-the
“The bottle is in front of the chair.”
15. botol-e di
duri-n
kursi-e
bottle-the
at back-lig
chair-the
“The bottle is in the back of the chair.”
In short, based on the findings here, Balinese speakers use absolute and intrinsic frames
of reference. In other words, the non-dominant use of relative frame of reference in Balinese, as
pointed out by Wassmann and Dasen (1998), is not confirmed.
To reveal the frames of reference employed in Indonesian, I used the previous
techniques in Rongga and Balinese. Let me begin with the object rotation tasks. When I asked
94
my language consultants to describe the position of the bottle in relation to the chair, i.e., the
bottle was to the right/north of the chair, various responses were given by my language
consultants as shown in examples 16-17:
16. botol itu
di
sebelah
bottle that
at
side
“The bottle is to the right of the chair.”
kanan kursi
right chair
17. botol itu
di
sebelah kiri
bottle that
at
side
left
“The bottle is to the left of the chair.”
kursi
chair
Two of my language consultants provided me the spatial description of this situation like
example 16, i.e., they used di sebelah kanan “to the right”, while one of them gave description
like example 17, i.e., he used di sebelah kiri “to the left.” I further tested their knowledge by
providing another spatial situation. I put a book next to a TV, i.e., the book is to the right of the
TV from my position, and a bottle next to a gas stove, i.e., the bottle is to the right of the gas
stove from my position. Interesting responses were given by my language consultants. In the
former context, the same responses as examples 16-17 were given by the same language
consultants. More specifically, two of them said that the book is to the right of the TV, while
one said that the book is to the left of the TV. In the latter context, in contrast to the former
contexts, all my language consultants gave me the same responses as illustrated in example 18.
18. botol itu
di
sebelah kanan
bottle that
at
side
right
“The bottle is to the right of the gas stove.”
kompor
stove
gas
gas
I created another spatial context. This time, I replaced the chair in the previous situation
with a ball and the bottle remained in the same position. The three language consultants gave me
the following responses.
19. botol itu
di
sebelah kanan bola
bottle that
at
side
right ball
“The bottle is to the right of the ball.”
Moreover, the same response as example 19 was given by the three language consultants when I
was standing to the right of a tree as can be seen in example 20 below.
20. Arya berdiri di
sebelah kanan pohon
Arya stand at
side
right tree
“Arya is standing to the right of the tree.”
The two, who consistently used to the right in all the contexts, explained “from where I stand,
the bottle or the book is more to the right to the chair, the TV, the stove, the ball, or the tree.” A
different perspective, however, is given by the language consultant, who used to the left in the
first two contexts, but to the right in the last three contexts. When I asked why he used to the left
in the first two contexts, but to the right in the last three contexts, he said, “I look at the chair
and TV like humans. They have the right and left sides. When I was facing the objects, I
imagine I was facing humans. Therefore, I used to the left in the first two contexts because the
located objects are at the actual left side of the reference objects. In the last three contexts,
however, when I was facing the objects, i.e., the stove, the ball, and the tree, I was not facing
humans because they do not have the right and left sides. Consequently, I used my own right,
i.e., to the right.”
95
I Nyoman Aryawibawa
The insights of all the participants need to be stated here in order to be able to find out
the basic underlying principles motivating the use of relative systems in Indonesian. Please note
that within the system itself languages differ in applying the principles, e.g. a translation
principle (an observer’s left/right is directly translated to a reference object with the back of the
reference object is between the reference object and the observer) is used in Hausa, a reflection
principle (an observer’s left/right is directly mapped to a reference object with the front of the
reference object is between the reference object and the observer) is used in English, or a 180o
rotation principle (an observer’s left/right is 180o rotated towards a reference object with the
front of the reference object is between the reference object and the observer) is used in Na Tar,
one dialect of Tamil as pointed out in Levinson (2003). Thus, by accounting the participants’
insight, could we point out the principles of relative system in Indonesian. However, it cannot
be confirmed in this study since, just looking at the responses given by my Indonesian
consultants, the principles applied seems to be personal, i.e., it depends on how he/she looks at
the reference object, whether he/she looks at it as human or non-human. This finding needs
further investigation involving more adult subjects. Recall that only three adult subjects
participated in this study. A systematic acquisition study including younger subjects (5-11 years
old) is also imperative to further confirm the relative frame of reference principles in
Indonesian.
How about the results of the non-linguistic tasks? I discuss them in the following parts.
Figure 9. Subjects’ Reordering of Featured Objects in Rongga, Balinese, and Indonesian.
For the featured objects, as the results in Figure 9 show, all Rongga and Balinese subjects’
reordering of objects were based on the fixed bearings, i.e., absolute system, as illustrated
below:
96
In contrast to the reordering of the Rongga and Balinese subjects, all the Indonesian subjects
used the right/left orientation in solving the tasks as can be seen below. The reason is that the
right/left orientations are frequently used in daily spatial orientations as confirmed in the results
of linguistic tasks. In other words, the results here suggest that the use of spatial terms is not
only a matter of surface differences, but it also affects the cognitive functioning of speakers.
More interestingly, especially for Rongga and Balinese reordering of the objects, the
positions of the objects were exactly the same as the ordering I had provided initially which was
based on the objects’ intrinsic features. This indicates that such a reordering might be affected
by the presence of the features, not the fixed bearings, i.e., the absolute frame of reference, per
se. To verify this, I provided objects with no intrinsic features to all my language consultants
such as keys, a rubber, and books. The results can be seen in Figure 10:
97
I Nyoman Aryawibawa
Figure 10.
Subjects’ Reordering of Un-featured Objects in Rongga, Balinese, and Indonesian.
The results for the un-featured objects show that it seems that the features of objects do
not affect the reordering of objects. All my Rongga and Balinese subjects ordered the objects
using the absolute solution as illustrated below:
My Indonesian subjects, however, preferred to employ the relative frame of reference,
consistent with their reordering of objects with intrinsic features, as shown below.
98
What the evidence shows is that the favored frames of reference in the three languages
seem to root deeply at the cognitive faculty of speakers of the languages. To put it another way,
the distinct linguistic frames of reference used in the languages are not a matter of surface
differences. Rather, they could have cognitive effects on spatial reasoning as well. Thus, the
findings of these experiments lend further support to Levinson’ claim that language affects
spatial reasoning.
CONCLUSION
The use of frames of reference in the three languages is based upon different underlying
concepts. Indonesian employs the relative frame of reference dominantly, while Rongga and
Balinese use the absolute frame of reference. Quite interestingly, the distinct uses of frames of
reference in the three languages are not only a matter of using the systems in different ways, but
in fact affect the cognitive functioning, i.e., recall memory of the speakers in the three
languages. This conclusion can be drawn from the results of the non-linguistic tasks which
showed the dominant use of the absolute frames of reference in Rongga and Balinese and the
relative frame of reference in Indonesian in the linguistic tasks, i.e., the object rotation and
asking direction tasks, as well as in the non-linguistic tasks, i.e., the reordering objects.
Furthermore, what we can learn from the findings is that the claim that the relative
frame of reference is universal is not confirmed. Even though Indonesian relies upon the relative
frame of reference, such a system is not employed in Balinese and Rongga.
As this study is still preliminary, the principles used in determining Indonesian relative
frames of reference, i.e., if it is the 180o rotation, reflection, or translation principle, need further
investigation, including integrating ways to attest methodologies used in experimental research,
like one conducted by Wassmann and Dasen.
NOTE
*
I would like to thank an anonymous reviewer for very helpful comments on the earlier draft.
REFERENCES
Arka, I Wayan. 2004b. Spatial Expressions in Rongga. Paper presented at Departmental
Seminar, RSPAS, ANU, November 2004.
Arka, I Wayan. 2005b. Spatial Expressions in Balinese and Rongga. Paper read at Congress of
the Indonesian Linguistic Society at Padang, Indonesia, 18-21 July 2005.
Aryawibawa, I. Nyoman. 2010. Spatial Reference in Rongga, Balinese, and Indonesian.
Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis. Kansas University.
Clark, Eve. 1993. The lexicon in Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
99
I Nyoman Aryawibawa
Herskovits, Annette. 1982. Space and the Prepositions in English: Regularities and
Irregularities in a Complex Domain. Ann Arbor Michigan: University Microfilms
international.
Levinson, Stephen. 2003. Space in Language and Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press.
Mintz, Malcolm Warren. 1994. A Student’s Grammar of Malay & Indonesian. Bukit Merah
Central: EPB Publishers Pte Ltd.
Sneddon, James. 1996. Indonesian: A Comprehensive Grammar. London:
Routledge.
Wassmann, Jiirg. and Pierre Dasen. 1998. Balinese Spatial Orientation: Some empirical
Evidence of Moderate Linguistic Relativity. In Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
(inc. MAN) 4: 689-711.
100
Linguistik Indonesia, Februari 2012, 101 -102
Tahun ke-30, No. 1
Resensi Buku
Judul :
Penulis :
Penerbit :
Tebal :
Meaning Centered Grammar
Craig Hancock
Equinox. 2005
260 halaman
Daniel Ginting
Universitas Ma Chung
[email protected]
Buku Hancock (2005) yang bertajuk Meaning Centered Grammar ini merupakan buku praktis
yang memuat beberapa konsep teoritis mengenai tata bahasa Inggris. Sebagai buku yang praktis,
tulisan Hancock ini sama sekali tidak berbicara tentang perdebatan linguistik kecuali bermaksud
menggugah kesadaran pembaca untuk lebih menyelami fenomena tata bahasa khususnya bahasa
Inggris. Kepraktisannya ini dibuktikan melalui penyedian latihan-latihan pada bagian akhir di
setiap bab. Model struktur pohon (PS rules) digunakan oleh Hancock sebagai penjelas contoh
model kalimat. Paling tidak ada beberapa alasan mengapa pendekatan digunakan. Pertama,
dengan pendekatan ini Hancock seolah ingin membuktikan bahwa bahasa merupakan a ruled
governed behavior (Kadarisman, 2010). Kedua, model struktur pohon (PS rules) menjadi wadah
visualisasi konsep abstrak untuk mempermudah pembaca memahami bagaimana pola kerja
kompetensi bahasa berlangsung atau bagaimana derivasi kalimat pada struktur lahir (surface
structure) diturunkan dari struktur batin (deep structure) pada tataran sintaksis.
Tata bahasa (grammar) yang dimaksud oleh Craig Hancock tidak lain adalah
kompetensi bahasa yang inheren, alamiah dari penutur asli dan yang berperan sebagai sistem
pembuat makna (Hancock, 2005:6). Konsep Hancock tentang natural grammar ini seakan
paralel dengan konsep kompetensi bahasa dari Chomsky (1965). Dari sinilah istilah a meaningcentered grammar berasal. Peran tata bahasa alamiah (natural grammar) bagi Hancock
merupakan dalam benak penutur bahasa. Kompetensi tatabahasa alamiah ini membuat pengguna
bahasa mampu memahami, menjelaskan dan menggunakan properti linguistik menjadi pola-pola
kalimat yang baru sama sekali. Paling tidak ada tiga prinsip dasar dalam bahasa Inggris yang
terkait dengan kompetensi tata bahasa penutur yaitu bagimana kata-kata itu disusun (word
order), dibentuk (inflections) dan ditempatkan dalam posisi yang tepat dalam kalimat sesuai
dengan fungsinya (word functions) (Hancock, 2005:19).
Hancock berbicara tentang saluran-saluran untuk membangun makna (2005:55).
Pertama, selain struktur, bahasa digunakan manusia untuk menyampaikan sikap dan
pandangannya. Struktur bahasa terdiri atas pesan (message), interaksi (interaction) dan
representasi (representation). Kedua, makna konteks bahasa dapat ditelusuri dari fungsi-fungsi
subjek, yaitu, theme, grammatical subject dan actor. Tiga aspek fungsi subjek ini berada dalam
struktur klausa dan saling terkait dalam struktur pesan (theme), interaksi/pertukaran
(grammatical subject) dan representasi (actor).
Hancok (2005:75) memberikan deskripsi tentang frase verba (verb phrase). Frase verba
adalah elemen penting dalam klausa yang berperan memberikan fungsi predikasi pada subjek
frase kata benda (Noun Phrase Subject). Ada dua hal yang ditekankan oleh Hancock ketika
berbicara tentang frase kata kerja, yaitu, tense dan aspect. Tense dalam bahasa Inggris
mempunyai 7 bentuk (bentuk infinitive, bentuk kata kerja persona ketiga tunggal, kata kerja
bentuk lampau beraturan dan tak beraturan, bentuk present participle dan bentuk past
participle). Terkait dengan aspect, Hancock (2005:79) mengatakan bahwa kata kerja dalam
bahasa Inggris bisa memiliki satu atau dua aspek secara bersamaan (misalkan aspek progressif
dan aspek perfective).
Daniel Ginting
Menurut Hancock, karena klausa bawahan yang finit pada dasarnya adalah klausa, maka
struktur ini memiliki subjek dan predikat. Ada tiga kategori klausa seperti itu yaitu klausa
keterangan adverbial (adverbial), klausa isi (content clause kadang disebut noun clause) dan sub
klausa relatif (relative clause). Dikatakan finite oleh karena klausa ini memiliki frase kata kerja
yang dikombinasikan dengan kala dan modalitas (modality). Dikatakan bawahan karena klausa
ini tidak bisa berdiri sendiri tanpa kehadiran klausa induk.
Hancock mencoba mengetengahkan aplikasi dan analisis tata bahasa sebagai sumber
pembuat makna dalam sebuah teks dengan menampilkan beberapa teks dari berbagai genre.
Pengertian bahwa kalimat merupakan representasi pemikiran yang lengkap (complete thought)
adalah pengertian yang kurang tepat. merupakan pandangan yang keliru karena complete
thought bertendensi untuk mengisolisir satu kalimat dengan kalimat-kalimat lain dalam teks.
Sebaliknya, pemikiran yang lengkap untuk membentuk makna yang utuh dan lengkap
membutuhkan keterkaitan antara satu kalimat dan kalimat yang lain.
Ada beberapa catatan kritis yang tertinggal ketika membaca buku Hancock ini, Meaning
Centered Grammar ini. Pertama, tata bahasa yang dimaksud Hancock dalam bukunya ini adalah
kompetensi tata bahasa penutur asli khususnya bahasa Inggris. Bagi pembaca dengan latar
belakang penutur asli, buku ini sebenarnya berperan untuk menggugah kesadarannya (rasing
awareness) akan fenomena ruled-governed bahasa.
Kedua, bila buku ini dijadikan sebagai sumber acuan untuk keperluan analisis
tatabahasa pada bahasa lain tentu prinsip analisis bahasa Inggris yang terdapat pada buku ini
perlu diadakan proses penyesuaian (Kadarisman, 2009). Selain itu, bila buku ini digunakan
untuk keperluan mengajar di kelas, ada baiknya bila guru perlu menambah informasi latar
belakang konteks teks (isu-isu sosiolinguistik atau pragmatik) yang dijadikan model pengajaran
untuk membuat diskusi tentang tata bahasa menjadi lebih lengkap.
Sebagai penutup, buku dari Hancock ini memberikan pesan tentang peran tatabahasa
sangat krusial dalam membangun pesan bahasa yang bermakna. Dalam hal ini Halliday (1985)
mengatakan “meanings are realized through wordings; and without a theory of wordings – that
is, a grammar – there is no way of making explicit one’s interpretation of the meaning of a
text”. Bahasa adalah sistem pembuat makna. Makna-makna itu hanya akan menjadi mungkin
kalau kalimat-kalimat yang digunakan sesuai dengan kaidah-kaidah bahasa yang berlaku
(grammar).
DAFTAR PUSTAKA
Chomsky, Noam. 1965. Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. MIT Press.
Hancock, Craig. (2005). Meaning-Centered Grammar: An Introductory Text. London: Equinox
Pub.
Halliday, Michael.A.K. (1985). An Introduction to Functional Grammar. New York: Routledge,
Chapman and Hall, Inc.
Kadarisman, A. Effendi., (2009). Mengurai Bahasa Menyibak Budaya. Malang: Penerbit
Universitas Negeri Malang.
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Linguistik Indonesia, Februari 2012, 103 -104
Tahun ke-30, No. 1
JELAJAH LINGUISTIK
Rubrik ini membuka peluang untuk saling berbagi di antara kita tentang beberapa
kemungkinan topik ini:
a. pencanangan metode penelitian linguistik yang belum lazim digunakan
b. daur-ulang metodologi penelitian linguistik
c. persoalan data yang – meskipun barangkali belum ditemukan pemecahannya –
penelusurannya berpeluang membuka sesuatu yang baru yang belum pernah
menjadi perhatian peneliti terdahulu
d. penerapan teori linguistik tertentu untuk menjelaskan data bahasa seperti
bahasa Indonesia yang membuat peneliti mempersoalkan teori yang
bersangkutan
KATA ATAU SINTAKSIS TERLEBIH DAHULU:
KASUS JABBERWOCKY DAN BAHASA ALAY
Yassir Nasanius
[email protected]
Ada perbedaan yang besar antara Transformational Grammar (TG), yang dikembangkan
Chomsky dan pengikutnya pada tahun 1960-an dan 1970-an, dengan Government and Binding
(GB), yang diluncurkan pada tahun 1980-an, dan Minimalist Program (MP), yang
diperkenalkan pada mulai tahun 1990-an. TG menempatkan sintaksis sebagai “pintu masuk
utama” dalam menjelaskan proses pembentukan frasa dan kalimat. Di dalam model bahasa ini,
pembentukan frasa dan kalimat dimulai dengan pembentukan struktur sintaksis. Setelah itu,
struktur sintaksis diisi dengan kata-kata melalui Kaidah Penyisipan Kata (Lexical Insertion
Rule). Sementara itu, GB dan MP menempatkan leksikon sebagai “pintu masuk utama,” bukan
sintaksis. Di dalam kedua model bahasa ini, kata-kata diambil dari leksikon mental dan dibentuk
menjadi frasa dan kalimat melalui mekanisme Teori X-Bar pada GB dan serangkaian operasi
penggabungan (merger operation) pada MP (Chomsky, 1995; Radford, 1997, 2009). Untuk
memerikan dan menjelaskan pembentukan frasa dan kalimat dalam bahasa alami seperti bahasa
Indonesia dan bahasa Inggris, sulit bagi kita menentukan mana yang lebih baik: versi TG atau
versi GB dan MP. Akan tetapi, pembentukan frasa dan kalimat versi TG yang menempatkan
sintaksis sebagai “pintu masuk utama” tampaknya berkinerja lebih baik bila kita kaitkan dengan
kasus Jabberwocky dan bahasa Alay.
Jabberwocky adalah sebuah puisi yang diciptakan Lewis Carroll. Di dalam puisi ini
terdapat sejumlah kata-kata “baru” yang diciptakan Lewis Carroll. Perhatikan salah satu petikan
puisi tersebut di bawah ini.
Twas brilig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe
Petikan pusi Jabberwocky di atas boleh dikatakan tidak bermakna bagi penutur bahasa
Inggris karena penutur tidak mengerti makna kata-kata seperti brilig, slithy, toves, gyre, gimble,
mimsy, borogoves, mome, raths, dan outgrabe. Akan tetapi, struktur sintaksis petikan puisi
tersebut masih dapat dikenali dengan mudah oleh para penutur bahasa Inggris.
Gejala serupa Jabberwocky dapat ditemui dalam bahasa Alay, yaitu variasi bahasa
dalam bentuk tulis yang digunakan dalam komunikasi via SMS atau komunikasi internet melalui
Facebook atau Twitter. Bahasa Alay ini pertama-tama hanya digunakan oleh para remaja di
Diskusi Ilmiah
Indonesia, akan tetapi kemudian para pengguna SMS, Facebook, dan Twitter mengadopsi variasi
bahasa ini di dalam cara berkomunikasi mereka. Karakteristik yang menonjol dari Bahasa Alay
adalah cara penulisan kata-kata yang menggunakan kombinasi huruf besar dan kecil, singkatan,
tanda baca, angka, dan ikon seperti terlihat dalam contoh berikut.
qMo mANk cLiD wAd cYanK m qHo „„„„„„„„„
“Kamu memang sulit buat sayang sama aku (tertawa).”
Contoh bahasa Alay di atas tidak bermakna bagi penutur bahasa Indonesia yang tidak
memiliki qMo, mANk, cLiD, wAd, cYanK, m, dan qHo di dalam kosakata mental mereka. Akan
tetapi, struktur sintaksis contoh kalimat bahasa Alay tersebut masih dapat dikenali oleh para
penutur bahasa Indonesia.
TG tampaknya dapat dengan mudah menangani pembentukan frasa dan kalimat dalam
bahasa alami maupun kasus-kasus seperti Jabberwocky dan bahasa Alay. Seperti dijelaskan di
atas, di dalam model bahasa ini, sintaksis ditempatkan sebagai “pintu masuk utama.”
Pembentukan frasa dan kalimat dimulai dengan pembentukan struktur sintaksis. Setelah itu,
struktur sintaksis diisi dengan kata-kata melalui Kaidah Penyisipan Kata (Lexical Insertion
Rule). Untuk bahasa-bahasa alami seperti bahasa Indonesia dan bahasa Inggris, struktur
sintaksis yang telah terbentuk diisi dengan kata-kata yang diambil dari leksikon mental.
Sementara itu, untuk Jabberwocky dan bahasa Alay, struktur sintaksis yang telah terbentuk diisi
bukan dengan kata-kata yang diambil dari leksikon mental, tetapi dengan kata-kata baru yang
diciptakan seperti brilig, slithy, toves, gyre, gimble, mimsy, borogoves, mome, raths, outgrabe
dalam Jabberwocky dan qMo, mANk, cLiD, wAd, cYanK, m, qHo dalam bahasa Alay.
Sebaliknya, meskipun GB dan MP tidak mengalami masalah dalam menjelaskan
pembentukan frasa dan kalimat dalam bahasa alami seperti bahasa Indonesia dan bahasa Inggris,
keduanya sulit menjelaskan hal serupa dalam Jabberwocky dan bahasa Alay. Di dalam kedua
model bahasa ini, pembentukan frasa dan kalimat tidak dimulai dengan membangun struktur
sintaksis, melainkan dimulai dari leksikon. Kata-kata seperti brilig, slithy, toves, gyre, gimble,
mimsy, borogoves, mome, raths, outgrabe dalam Jabberwocky dan kata-kata seperti qMo,
mANk, cLiD, wAd, cYanK, m, qHo dalam bahasa Alay tidak ada dalam leksikon mental para
penutur sehingga menjadi pertanyaan besar bagaimana proses pembentukan frasa dan kalimat
dapat dimulai dari leksikon.
RUJUKAN
Chomsky, Noam. 1995. The Minimalist Program. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Fromkin, Victoria., R. Rodman, dan N. Hyams. 2003. An Introduction to Language (7th
Edition). Boston, Mass.: Thomson & Wadsworth.
Radford, Andrew. 1997. Syntax: A Minimalist Introduction. London: Cambridge University
Press.
Radford, Andrew. 2009. Analyzing English Sentences: A Minimalist Approach. London:
Cambridge University Press.
104
Tahun ke-30, No. 1
BINCANG ANTARA KITA DARI DUNIA MAYA
DIPERINGAN: BAGAIMANA MEMAKNAINYA?
From: [email protected] On Behalf Of mido_ardian
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2011 8:54 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [mlindo] Diperingan
Di Salah satu laman berita saya temukan bentuk "diperingan". Lengkapnya adalah "Hukuman
Irfan Bachdim Diperingan" yang saya kutip dari judul berita di laman tersebut. Apakah bentuk
diperingan ini berterima dalam bahasa Indonesia? Setahu saya, yang lazim digunakan adalah
"diringankan". Mohon penjelasan. Terima kasih.
Salam,
Ardian
From: [email protected] On Behalf Of Yassir Nasanius
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2011 7:46 PM
Subject: RE: [mlindo] Diperingan
Dua-duanya ada dalam lema KBI 2008 dan ada sedikit perbedaan makna.
meringankan v 1 menjadi ringan: bantuan
Anda benar-benar ~ pekerjaan saya;
2 menganggap ringan (mudah dsb):
kerjakanlah dulu jangan ~ begitu saja;
memperingan v membuat jadi lebih
ringan: adanya pegawai baru belum ~
tugas saya
Salam,
Yassir Nasanius
From: [email protected] On Behalf Of Bambang Kaswanti Purwo
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2011 7:54 PM
Subject: FW: [mlindo] Diperingan
diperingan ‘dibuat lebih ringan’; diperkecil ‘dibuat lebih kecil’
diringankan ‘dibuat ringan’; dikecilkan ‘dibuat kecil’
bk
Diskusi Ilmiah
From: [email protected] On Behalf Of [email protected]
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2011 10:11 AM
Subject: Re: [mlindo] Diperingan
Saya tidak mengetahui persis bagaimana kamus bahasa Indonesia disusun. Saya tidak apatis
dengan KBBI, hanya saja permasalahan-permasalahan seperti ini harusnya tidaklah cukup
bersandar pada keterangan dalam KBBI. Mind set kita harus diubah, yaitu bagaimana diskusi
kita di sini justru dapat memberi masukan untuk perbaikan KBBI. Mungkin saja menguatkan
apa yang sudah ada di KBBI, menambah atau bahkan mengganti.
Saya melihat bahwa baik 'diperingan' maupun 'diringankan' keduanya terdapat dalam
penggunaan bahasa Indonesia. Kedua dapat ditemukan dalam data penggunaan bahasa
Indonesia sebagai sebuah tuturan yang alami, wajar.
Namun, kita lihat apa yang dijelaskan dalam KKBI sebagaimana dikutip Pak Yassir kurang
membantu atau bahkan sedikit sekali membantu. Saya sependapat dengan keterangan Pak
Bambang. Penjelasan Pak Bambang mengindikasikan bahwa 'diperingan' memiliki nosi
perbandingan, sementara 'diringankan' tidak. Hanya saja penjelasan tersebut bersifat umum.
Oleh karena itu, kita memerlukan data konkretnya agar paradigma penggunaan keduanya
tampak jelas.
Saya belum mengetahui persis apakah nosi perbandingan pada `diperingan' berarti `keadaan
sudah ringan dibuat menjadi semakin ringan' atau `keadaan keberatan dibuat menjadi ringan'
atau yang lainnya.
Saya belum pernah meneliti permasalahan ini. Jadi, berikut ini bersifat eksploratif. Mungkin Pak
Bambang atau teman-teman lainnya memiliki arsip penelitian tentang hal ini dan dapat
memberikan tambahan yang lebih pasti lagi.
Saya akan mulai dengan membuat sebuah analogi dengan kata yang lain yang dapat digunakan
untuk melihat perbedaannya secara jelas. Kaidahnya sama, yaitu diper/memper+Adj dan
di/meN+Adj+kan. Kata tersebut adalah `dikeruhkan/menegeruhkan' dan
`diperkeruh/memperkeruh'
Dengan contoh data berikut, kita akan dapat melihat perbedaan keduanya.
(1) Dia memperkeruh suasana yang memang sudah keruh.
-> keruh menjadi semakin keruh
(2) ? Dia mengeruhkan suasana yang memang sudah keruh.
-> rasanya tidak enak, karena secara semantik makna kalimat tidak dibentuk oleh
'mengeruhkan'. Lain halnya jika (3)
(3) Dia mengeruhkan suasana yang selama ini sudah nyaman.
-> keadaan nyaman dibuat menjadi keruh. Begitu juga, ini tidak bisa dengan (4)
(4) Dia memperkeruh suasana yang selama ini sudah nyaman.
-> tidak terasa enak sebagaimana (2).
Perbedaan keduanya dapat dilihat dengan jelas karena kata `keruh' secara semantik dapat kita
beri unsur semantik (-) `minus'. `Memperkeruh' berarti menbuat keadaan (-) menjadi semakin (), sedangkan `megeruhkan' berarti membuat keadaan (+) `tidak keruh' menjadi (-) `keruh'.
Akan tetapi, penjelasan tersebut tidak dirasakan secara langsung pada kata-kata yang nosi (+)
atau (-)-nya bersifat subjektif, berbeda dari satu orang dengan orang lainnya. Kata-kata seperti
`ringan', `berat', `kecil', `lebar', dan lainnya termasuk di dalamnya.
106
(5) Komputer meringankan pekerjaannya.
Komputer memperingan pekerjaannya.
Kita merasakan sulit membedakan perbedaan keduanya. Untuk itu kita memerlukan teknik
analisis perluasan agar tampak perbedaannya seperti pada (6) dan (7).
(6) a. *Pekerjaannya sudah ringan dan komputer sekarang meringankannya.
-> tidak bisa dari keadaan ringan ke ringan
b. Pekerjaannya berat dan komputer sekarang meringankannya.
-> dari keadaan berat ke ringan.
(7) a. Pekerjaannya sudah ringan dan komputer sekarang memperingannya.
-> sudah ringan dibuat menjadi semakin ringan.
b. *Pekerjannya berat dan komputer sekarang memperingannya.
-> tidak enak bukan untuk berat dibuat menjadi semakin ringan.
Saya yakin masih banyak hal lain yang belum tersentuh, tetapi setidaknya yang sederhana ini
dapat menjadi pemicu eksplorasi-eksplorasi berikutnya.
Salam,
Joko Kusmanto
From: [email protected] On Behalf Of Bambang Kaswanti Purwo
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2011 11:01 AM
Hampir semua adjektiva di dalam bahasa Indonesia dapat dilekati dengan afiks kausatif <meN/-kan> atau di-/-kan>, tetapi lebih terbatas yang dapat dilekati dengan afiks kausatif (‘lebih’)
<memper-> atau <diper->. Mengapa? Hanya ADJ yang ada unsur “gradasi” (seperti <kecil>,
<ringan>) yang dapat dilekati kedua afiks itu. Yang tidak dapat “digradasikan”, seperti
<sembuh>, tidak dapat dikenai afiks kausatif (‘lebih’): <*mempersembuh>, <*dipersembuh>.
ADJ jenis ini agaknya sedikit mengandung “ciri verba” [saya belum memeriksa KBBI].
Bagaimana kategori <sembuh> menurut KBBI? Barusan saya cek di KBBI ed. ke-4 <sembuh>
tercatat bukan berkategori ADJ melainkan V. Kalau begitu, saya ganti contoh ADJ yang “tidak
bergradasi” di atas itu; <sembuh> saya ganti <marah>. Tidak ada <*mempermarah>; yang ada
<memarahkan> [tercatat di KBBI ed. ke-4].
bk
PS
Kalau dicermati, sebetulnya KBBI yang dikutip oleh Pak Yassir itu isinya sama dengan yang
saya coba tuliskan tentang <diperingan> dan <diringankan>. Pada kutipan KBBI itu juga
disebutkan ada tambahan makna ‘lebih’ pada afiks <memper->.
107
Diskusi Ilmiah
Sent: Thursday, November 10, 2011 12:34 PM
Apa yang disampaikan Pak Bambang menarik dan "memperdalam" diskusi masalah ini. Ada
beberapa hal yang perlu dikomentari.
"Gradasi" merupakan salah satu cara yang selama ini digunakan untuk menguji apakah sebuah
satuan lingual itu adjektiva atau lainnya di dalam bahasa Indonesia (dan juga bahasa-bahasa
lainnya). Hanya saja saya tidak tahu persis apakah gradasi merupakan ciri untuk setiap adjektiva
atau hanya untuk sebagian saja. Jika sebagian, lantas, ciri apa yang digunakan untuk menguji
sebagian yang lain sebagai adjektiva.
Perlu juga kita didefinisikan lebih baik lagi apa yang dimaksud dengan "gradasi". Istilah gradasi
pada hakikatnya mengindikasi adanya tingkatan, misalnya gradasi warna. Kita mengenal warna
dengan tingkat gradasi misalnya dari 0% sampai 100%. Ini adalah ukuran gradasi secara eksak.
Istilah gradasi dalam bahasa, kelihatannya, mengacu pada apa yang kita kenal dengan
"comparison degree" dan pada umumnya dikenal tiga tingkatan "normal", "lebih -", dan "paling
-".
Pertanyaannya adalah:
- Apakah sebuah satuan lingual disebut memiliki gradasi hanya bila memenuhi ketiganya saja?
Selanjutnya, berkaitan dengan kata "marah" yang dikatakan Pak Bambang sebagai adjektiva
"tidak bergradasi". Saya kira kita dapat mengatakan seperti pada (1).
(1) Dia pasti marah mengetahui adanya kekerasan di sekolahnya. Akan tetapi, dia akan lebih
marah lagi jika mengetahui ternyata pelakunya adalah anaknya sendiri.
Berdasarkan itu, saya kira tidaklah tepat apa yang disampaikan Pak Bambang bahwa kata
"marah" tidak bergradasi. Apakah konteks seperti itu tetap membuat kita dapat mengatakan
"mempermarah" seperti dalam (2)?
(2) ?Kenyataan yang ia ketahui mempermarah dirinya.
Jika (2) tidak berteriman, kita jelas memerlukan penjelasan lain; bukan penjelasan karena
kata marah tidak bergradasi.
Kata-kata yang memiliki permasalahan serupa adalah kata "senang" seperti pada (3).
(3) Dia senang jika berada di kelas ini, tetapi akan lebih senang jika berada di kelas itu, dan
paling senang jika bisa berada di keduanya.
Jelas kata "senang" adalah adjektiva bergradasi. Namun, apakah kita dapat mengatakan (4)?
(4) ?Berada di kelas itu mempersenang dirinya.
Jika posting sebelumnya dapat dibuat simpulan sementara:
1. "memper/diper-" memiliki nosi semantis "membuat lebih adj.A dari ajd. A"
2. "meN/di-/-kan" memiliki nosi semantis "membuat menjadi adj.A dari ajd.B".
simpulan tersebut tertolak dengan data "marah" sebagaimana disajikan Pak Bambang dan
kata "senang". Hanya saja, penjelasan sebagai ajd. Tak bergradasi tidak dapat diterima
sebagaimana penjelasan di atas. Kelihatannya, ada kemungkinan adj. yang berkaitan dengan
keadaan emosional/psikologis seseorang tidak dapat dilekati dengan "memper/diper".
Jika ini benar, kita selanjutnya bertanya "mengapa demikian"? Sejauh ini saya belum memiliki
penjelasan yang muncul di kepala.
Salam,
Joko Kusmanto
108
Menurut saya, yang dimaksud 'gradasi' oleh Pak Bambang bukan konsep 'comparison degree',
tetapi konsep 'gradable/ungradable adjectives'. Adjektiva seperti 'besar, kecil, ringan, berat,
cepat, lambat, dsb' adalah contoh 'gradable adjectives' dan adjektiva seperti 'tenang, senang,
sedih, dsb' adalah tipe 'ungradable adjectives'. Tipe 'gradable adjectives' umumnya bisa
dilekatkan dengan afiks meN-/di-kan atau memper-/diper(meringankan/diringankan/memperingan/diperingan). Sementara itu, tipe 'ungradable
adjectives' bisa dilekatkan dengan afiks meN-/di-kan (menenangkan/ditenangkan), tetapi tidak
bisa dilekatkan dengan afiks memper-/diper- (*mempertenang/*dipertenang) karena
adanya makna 'gradable' pada afiks 'per-'.
Semoga membantu.
Salam,
Yassir Nasanius
Tambahan dari Pak Yassir menunjukkan betapa masalah sesungguhnya tidak sesederhana
sebagaimana tampaknya dan semakin menambah pemahaman kita tentang permasalahan ini.
Akan tetapi, apa yang disampaikan Pak Yassir perlu mendapat perhatian mendalam.
Setahu saya, pembedaan adjektiva menjadi adjektiva 'gradable' dan adjektiva 'ungradable'
berkaitan dengan permasalahan skala gradasi, termasuk comparison degree, dan berkaitan
dengan pemarkah-pemarkah seperti agak, kurang, sangat, paling, dsb. Adjektiva ungradable
(tidak bergradasi) adalah jenis adjektiva lain. Tampaknya ada perbedaan yang perlu didalami
antara bahasa Indonesia dengan bahasa Inggris.
He is an Indonesian -> Dia orang Indonesia.
Indonesian (kebangsaan) adalah salah satu bentuk adjektiva tidak bergradasi. Kita tidak dapat
mengatakan
He is more (the most) Indonesian. (kecuali bermaksud metaforis)
Dalam bahasa Indonesia, adjektiva tersebut bentuknya sama dengan bentuk nomina-nya. Kata
Ìndonesia' dikatakan sebagai adjektiva dalam òrang Indonesia' karena fungsi sintaktisnya yang
menjadi modifier.
Political speech -> Pidato politis.
Kata political dan politis juga merupakan bentuk adjektiva tidak bergradasi. Kita jelas tidak
dapat menambahkan pemarkah-pemarkan gradasi/skala. Namun, tampaknya hal tersebut masih
memerlukan penelitian mendalam untuk bahasa Indonesia, karena kita bisa mengatakan:
Pidatonya agak politis.
*His speech is rather political.
Penjelasannya medis sekali.
*His explanation is very medical.
Apabila yang dimaksud dengan konsep "gradable/ungradable adjective" adalah seperti yang
disampaikan Pak Yassir, saya kira kita akan mendapatkan permasalahan serius.
109
Diskusi Ilmiah
Pertama, konsep tersebut tidak umum dipegang oleh para linguis yang membuat pembedaan
"gradable/ungradable adjective". Pada umumnya, pembedaan tersebut berkaitan dengan skala
gradasi yang secara semantis, disebutkan dalam (Pander Maat, Henk. 2006. Subjectification in
gradable adjectives. In Angeliki Athanasiadou, Costas Canakis & Bert Cornillie (eds.),
Subjectification: Various paths to subjectivity, 279−322. Berlin & New York: Mouton
de Gruyter.), ada 10 jenis gradasi.
Kedua, bagaimana kita dapat membelah begitu saja mana yang termasuk `gradable adjective'
dan mana yang termasuk ùngradable adjective', jika konsep pembedaan yang disampaikan Pak
Yassir tersebut memang ingin diterapkan.
Kata sedih, misalnya. Saya masih meragukan apakah kata tersebut tidak dapat dibuat menjadi
`mempersedih/dipersedih' seperti pada (1).
(1) Kehilangan saudara kandungnya mempersedih Fulan yang baru saja kehilangan orang
tuanya dalam tragedi tersebut.
Jadi, saya belum sependapat dengan konsep `gradable/ungradable adjectives' yang diajukan oleh
Pak Yassir. Konsep tersebut memerlukan pengkajian yang lebih mendalam lagi.
Sebenarnya, yang menarik adalah "mengapa ada adjektiva bergradasi yang dapat diberi imbuhan
`memper/diper-` (saya tidak menyebut imbuhan gradasi karena mengandung unsure lebih
supaya tidak membingungkan) dan ada yang tidak dapat dilekati". Ini yang menarik untuk
diperdalam lebih jauh lagi. Akan tetapi, saya kira permasalahannya adalah permasalahan
semantis.
Salam,
Joko Kusmanto
Terima kasih, Pak Joko, atas penjelasan yang sangat mencerahkan. Konsep 'gradable/ungradable
adjectives' saya sarikan dari buku Introducing English Grammar David J.Young. Berikut
petikannya:
Gradability
If something is ‘hot’, it may be ‘not very hot’ or ‘intensely hot’ or somewhere in between; there
is an open-ended, continuous scale of ‘hotness’. Adjectives that express this kind of meaning are
called gradable adjectives. Not all adjectives are gradable; or perhaps it would be more accurate
to say that adjectives are not always intended to be interpreted in a gradable sense. The ordinary
interpretation of the word tubular in the expression tubular bells, or of poetic in poetic licence is
not that it denotes a gradable quality, but that it denotes a type or category of bells or licence.
Dari konsep 'gradability' ini, saya menarik kesimpulan bahwa adjektiva yang masuk kelompok
ini dapat dilekatkan dengan afiks perkarena afiks ini mengandung makna 'gradability'.
Adjektiva yang tidak termasuk kelompok 'gradable' tidak dapat dilekatkan dengan afiks perkarena adanya makna 'gradability' dalam afiks tersebut. Mungkin saja kesimpulan ini ditarik
terlalu dini, sehingga perlu penelitian lebih lanjut.
Thanks again, Pak Joko, for your enlightening comments and feedback.
All the best,
Yassir
110
Pak Yassir, sebenarnya saya ini juga termasuk salah satu orang yang sedang bingung dalam
belantara ini dan belum tahu arah jalan keluarnya. Saya merasa diskusi kita semua tentang
masalah ini telah memberikan masukan yang berharga kepada saya. Tampaknya ini adalah
sebuah topik yang menarik dan patut untuk diteliti lebih lanjut dan lebih mendalam.
Saya melihat petikan yang Pak Yassir sajikan memiliki kemiripan dengan apa yang saya
maksudkan. Kelihatannya Young menempatkan adjektiva `tubular' dan `poetic' secara khusus
dalam kata `tubular bells' dan `poetic licence'. Dalam pengertian itu, tentu saja adjektiva tersebut
digunakan untuk mengacu pada jenis lonceng dan lisensi yang dimaksud. Hal tersebut
dikarenakan adjektiva dalam posisi modifier seperti itu, saya kira, bersifat definisional secara
semantis. Namun, kedua adjektiva tersebut secara umum dapat diperbandingkan seperti `least
tubular, more tubular, most tubular' dan `least poetic, more poetic, dan most poetic'. Saya kira
permasalahan tersebut muncul karena adanya campur baur dua tipe analisis yang berbeda, yaitu
analisis fungsi sintaktis dan analisis peran semantis.
Apa yang disebut dengan adjektiva ungradable pun ternyata juga dapat digradasi, meskipun
tidak dimaksudkan sebagai tuturan literal.
He is very Indonesian. -> Dia Indonesia sekali.
A is more Indonesian than B. -. A lebih Indonesia dari pada B.
Terima kasih juga untk Pak Yassir dan Pak Bambang atas umpan baliknya. Semuanya sangat
bermanfaat dan permasalahan ini menjadi PR yang penting untuk didalami.
Sampai ketemu dengan topik-topik lainnya.
Cheers,
Joko
111
FORMAT PENULISAN NASKAH
Naskah diketik dengan menggunakan MS Word dikirimkan ke Redaksi melalui e-mail
[email protected] atau dalam bentuk disket dan satu printout. Panjang naskah,
termasuk daftar pustaka, adalah minimal 15 halaman dan maksimal 30 halaman, dengan
spasi tunggal dan jenis huruf Times New Roman 11 point. Naskah disertai dengan
abstrak sekitar 150 kata dan kata kunci (key words) maksimal tiga kata. Abstrak dan
kata kunci ditulis dalam dua bahasa: bahasa Indonesia dan bahasa Inggris, diletakkan
setelah judul naskah dan afiliasi penulis.
Kutipan hendaknya dipadukan dalam kalimat penulis, kecuali bila panjangnya
lebih dari tiga baris. Dalam hal ini, kutipan diketik dengan spasi tunggal, menjorok ke
dalam (indented) sepuluh karakter, letak tengah (centered), dan tanpa tanda petik. Nama
penulis yang dirujuk hendaknya ditulis dengan urutan berikut: nama akhir penulis,
tahun penerbitan, dan nomor halaman (bila diperlukan); misalnya, (Radford 1997),
(Radford 1997:215). Catatan ditulis pada akhir naskah (endnote), tidak pada bagian
bawah halaman (footnote).
Setiap rujukan baik artikel maupun buku tanpa dipilah-pilah jenisnya, diurutkan
menurut abjad berdasarkan nama akhir, tanpa diberi nomor urut.
· Untuk buku: (1) nama akhir, (2) koma, (3) nama pertama, (4) titik, (5) tahun penerbitan, (6) titik, (7) judul buku cetak miring, (8) titik, (9) kota penerbitan, (10) titik
dua (colon), (11) nama penerbit, dan (12) titik, seperti pada contoh berikut:
Gass, Susan M. dan J. Schachter. 1990. Linguistic Perspectives on Second Language
Acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Thornbury, Scott. 2005. Beyond the Sentence: Introducing Discourse Analysis.
Oxford: Macmillan.
· Untuk artikel dalam jurnal: (1) nama akhir, (2) koma, (3) nama pertama, (4) titik, (5)
tahun penerbitan, (6) titik, (7) tanda petik buka, (8) judul artikel, (9) titik, (10) tanda
petik tutup, (11) nama jurnal cetak miring, (12) volume, (13) titik, (14) nomor (kalau
ada), (15) koma, (16) spasi, (17) halaman, (18) titik, seperti pada contoh berikut:
Chung, Sandra. 1976. “An Object-Creating Rule in Bahasa Indonesia.” Linguistic
Inquiry 7.1, 41-87.
Steinhauer, Hein. 1985.“Number in Biak. Counterevidence to Two Alleged
Language Universals.” Bijdragen Tot De Taal-, Land- En Volkenkunde 141.4,
462-485.
· Untuk artikel dalam buku: (1) nama akhir, (2) koma, (3) nama pertama, (4) titik, (5)
tahun penerbitan, (6) titik, (7) tanda petik buka, (8) judul artikel, (9) titik, (10) tanda
petik tutup, (11) berilah kata "Dalam", (12) titik dua, (13) nama editor disusul (ed.),
(14) koma, (15) halaman, (16) titik. Buku ini harus pula dirujuk secara lengkap dalam
lema tersendiri, seperti pada contoh berikut:
Dardjowidjojo, Soenjono. 2007. “Derajat Keuniversalan dalam Pemerolehan Bahasa.”
Dalam: Nasanius (ed.), 233-261.
Nasanius, Yassir. (ed.). 2007. PELBBA 18. Jakarta: Yayasan Obor Indonesia.
· Jika ada lebih dari satu artikel oleh pengarang yang sama, nama pengarangnya ditulis
ulang secara lengkap, dimulai dengan tahun terbitan yang lebih dulu, mengikuti
contoh ini:
Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1977. “Grammatical Relations and Surface Cases.” Language 53,
789- 809.
Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1985. “Passives and Related Constructions: A Prototype
Analysis.” Language 61, 821-848.

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