MASYARAKAT LINGUISTIK INDONESIA No. 01 Feb 2012.compressed.pdf · Linguistik Indonesia diterbitkan pertama kali pada tahun 1982 dan sejak tahun 2000 ... umumnya melalui Cabang MLI

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 : Faizah Sari, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma JayaWakil Ketua : Rindu Parulian Simanjuntak, SIL InternasionalSekretaris : Siti Wachidah, Universitas Negeri JakartaBendahara : Katharina Endriati Sukamto, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya

DEWAN EDITOR

Utama : Bambang Kaswanti Purwo, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma JayaPendamping : Faizah Sari, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma JayaAnggota : Bernd Nothofer, Universitas Frankfurt, Jerman; Ellen Rafferty,University of Wisconsin, Amerika Serikat; Bernard Comrie, Max Planck Institute; TimMcKinnon, Jakarta Field Station MPI; A. Chaedar Alwasilah, Universitas PendidikanIndonesia; E. Aminudin Aziz, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia; Siti Wachidah,Universitas Negeri Jakarta; Katharina Endriati Sukamto, Universitas Katolik IndonesiaAtma Jaya; D. Edi Subroto, Universitas Sebelas Maret; I Wayan Arka, UniversitasUdayana; A. Effendi Kadarisman, Universitas Negeri Malang; Bahren Umar Siregar,Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya; Hasan Basri, Universitas Tadulako; YassirNasanius, Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya; Dwi Noverini Djenar, SydneyUniversity, 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 2000diterbitkan tiap bulan Februari dan Agustus. Linguistik Indonesia telah terakreditasiberdasarkan SK Dirjen Dikti No. 64a/DIKTI/Kep/2010, 1 November 2010. Jurnalilmiah ini dibagikan secara cuma-cuma kepada para anggota MLI yang keanggotaannyaumumnya melalui Cabang MLI di pelbagai Perguruan Tinggi, tetapi dapat juga secaraperseorangan atau institusional. Iuran per tahun adalah Rp 125.000 (anggota dalamnegeri) dan US$30 (anggota luar negeri). Keanggotaan institusional dalam negeriadalah Rp 150.000 dan luar negeri US$50 per tahun.

Naskah dan resensi yang panduannya dapat dilihat di www.e-li.org dikirim keRedaksi dengan mengikuti format Pedoman Penulisan Naskah di bagian belakangsampul jurnal.

ALAMAT

Masyarakat Linguistik IndonesiaPusat Kajian Bahasa dan BudayaUniversitas Katolik Indonesia Atma JayaJI. Jenderal Sudirman 51, Jakarta 12930, Indonesiae-mail: [email protected], Ph/Fax: +62 (0)21 571 9560

Daftar Isi

Mapping Out Mentalism in Present-Day Linguisticsand Other Related DisciplinesA. Effendi Kadarisman .................................................................. 1

Nominal Clause Constructions in BiakSuriel Mofu ................................................................................... 25

Pola Unsur Suprasegmental Nada Bahasa Tionghoa Orang SurabayaOng Mia Farao Karsono .............................................................. 47

The Co-Occurrence of the Clitic -Nya and Demonstrative Ituin Spoken Indonesian DiscourseKatharina Endriati Sukamto .......................................................... 69

Non-Topological Relations in Rongga, Balinese, Indonesian:Some Evidence from Linguistic and Non-Linguistic TasksI Nyoman Aryawibawa ................................................................. 85

Resensi:Craig Hancock

Meaning Centered GrammarDiresensi 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 Tahun ke-30, No. 1Copyright©2012, Masyarakat Linguistik Indonesia, ISSN: 0215-4846

MAPPING OUT MENTALISM IN PRESENT-DAY LINGUISTICSAND 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 tothe workings of the human mind, and best captured by the term “competence”. Firstproposed by Chomsky (1965), the term “competence” has obtained much wider use ingenerative grammar, in context-bound linguistics, and in other related disciplines (i.e.,Second Language Acquisition, Translation, and Poetics) – obviously showing themagnificent 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 ofexemplary 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 seyogyanyadijelaskan dengan merujuk pada tata-kerja alam-pikiran kita, dan dibuhul-simpulkandengan kata kunci “kompetensi”. Istilah “kompetensi”, yang semula dikemukakan olehChomsky (1965), telah digunakan secara luas dalam linguistik generatif, dalam studibahasa terikat-konteks, dan dalam sejumlah cabang ilmu lainnya (yaitu, PemerolehanBahasa Kedua, Penerjemahan, dan Puitika); semuanya menunjukkan dengan jelas adanyapengaruh mentalisme yang meluas. Ini bukan karena “kompetensi” adalah sebuah katabertuah, melainkan karena ia merupakan bagian dari “pola-ungkap metodologis yang jelasdan layak-tiru” (Culler 1975), yang dirancang untuk memenuhi tuntutan eksternal berupaketuntasan 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 needsclarification. When we look it up in Google, most entries describe “mentalism” as mind readingand 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 mindsare 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 causalexplanation of human behavior is expressed with reference to the mind, whereas the lattersuggests that the empirically observed behavior itself, consisting of stimuli and reactions, servesas 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 theworkings 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

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the deep mental reality that underlies verbal performance” (emphasis in both quotations added).Thus keeping aside the meaning “mind reading” and referring specifically to “explaininglinguistic behavior in terms of the workings of the human mind”, the term “mentalism” ispicked out and used as a key-concept throughout this paper.

How does mentalism shape up generative linguistics? In Aspects of the Theory ofSyntax, Chomsky (1965:4) states that “linguistic theory is mentalistic, since it is concerned withdiscovering a mental reality underlying actual behavior” (emphasis added). This mental realityis termed “competence” (the speaker-hearer’s knowledge of his language), which isfundamentally 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 orsentences; 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 finitemeans” (p. 8). The “finite means” refers to the limited or definite number of words andgrammatical rules in a language, and the “infinite use” refers to (the possibility of) producingunlimited numbers of sentences in language use (Lyons 1978:43). While in Aspects (1965) thecreative 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 thatlinguistic creativity is the hallmark of human existence. Referring to Cartesian philosophy,Chomsky states that “the essential difference between man and animal is exhibited most clearlyby human language, in particular, by man’s ability to form new statements which express newthoughts and which are appropriate to new situations” (p. 3). In this respect, man is a rationalbeing, 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 inexplaining the nature of linguistic creativity Chomsky refers to Cartesian philosophy, in arguingfor the necessity of positing “deep structure vs. surface structure”, as noted in Language andMind (1972), he refers to Port-Royal Grammar, part of the 17th century rationalist philosophy inFrance which concerned logical explanation of human language. The well-known examplecited 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, withoutwhich explanation of “meaning” would remain obscure. The absence of “deep structure” inBloomfieldian linguistics, Chomsky argues, is the very reason why this school failed to meet thecondition of adequacy in linguistic description. In this context it is important to note thatChomsky’s most significant contribution to linguistics, according to Lyon (1978), is hisformalization of syntactic theory. “Chomsky may be right or wrong about the species-specificity of language, but one thing is clear: What his theory of generative grammar seeks toformalize – rule-governed, structure-dependent creativity whose complexity is defined by thepower 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 thepostulate “language is a direct mirror of the mind.” During the mid 20th century, a period in thehistory of linguistics celebrated as the “Chomskyan revolution”, mentalism gained prominencein 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

Linguistik Indonesia, Tahun ke-30, No. 1, Februari 2012

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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 athow mentalism spreads inside and outside generative grammar as well as in other disciplinesrelated 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” whichholds mentalism in linguistics, as revealed through the present library research, has been usedmore 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 linguisticsand 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” isconsidered to be the mature form of the language acquisition device (LAD) or the eventualmanifestation of principles and parameters in Universal Grammar (UG). Either the LADhypothesis or UG theory has been proposed to solve the “logical problem of languageacquisition”. That is, considering the highly complex nature of language, it would be impossiblefor 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 languageacquisition. This mental device is believed to be the LAD or UG. The former is the mentaldevice seen as a “black-box”, and the latter is the mental device specified as consisting of innateprinciples and parameters. Thus the LAD hypothesis or UG theory is meant to be the logicalexplanation of how human language is possible (Kadarisman 2007).

As for the organization of grammar, Chomsky (1965:15-18) proposes three inter-relatedcomponents: syntactic, phonological, and semantic components. The syntactic component,which provides description of sentence generation, begins with the base rules producing deepstructure, followed by transformation rules producing surface structure. The phonologicalcomponent determines the phonetic form of a sentence at the surface structure; and the semanticcomponent determines the meaning or semantic interpretation of a sentence, by referring mostlyto the deep structure but occasionally also to the surface structure. Note that “morphology” isset aside in this theoretical framework, probably due to the fact that “generation” in generativegrammar operates most obviously in syntax and then in phonology, but less obviously inmorphology.1

In Aspects (1965) and also in Sound Pattern of English (1968),2 considered respectivelythe “holy bible” of generative syntax and generative phonology, Chomsky uses only the generalterm “linguistic competence” to refer to mental grammar. However, scholars in the generativeschool further specify that each component of grammar may stand as a modifier for“competence”, and hence phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semanticcompetence (O’Grady et al. 2005:5-6). Our phonetic competence enables us to recognizedialectal variation and also foreign accent. A four-year-old niece of mine in Malang asked hermom, “Ma, itu orang mana?” (Mom, where is she from?), when her mother was having aconversation with a woman from Padang. The small girl seemed to be curious upon recognizingher Padangese accent in speaking Indonesian. The first time I met Professor James Collins inHawaii, he said to me, “I know right away that you are from Java, because of your [b, d, g] in


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speech.” Obviously, my Javanese [b, d, g] are very “heavy”, known phonetically as breathyvoiced. On another occasion, an American friend asked me, “Pak Effendi, when you speakEnglish, can you hear your own accent?” Definitely my English sounds “foreign” to him; andmy 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 localdialect; and foreign accent means the failure to produce the gross phonetic features as producedby native speakers.

Other sub-types of competence enable speakers of any language, among other things, todistinguish between well-formed and ill-formed linguistic units. Our phonological competencetells us that the acronym menkeu sounds strange, but mendagri sounds good. The former, butnot the latter, violates the phonotactic rule of Indonesian: there is no diphthong [«u] in thelanguage. In English, brick is a real word; blick is a nonsense word but sounds good; and bnickis 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 well-formed, but *mematai and *memuluti are ill-formed. We know that pembeli means orang yangmembeli, penggali means orang yang menggali, but pendapat does not mean *orang yangmendapat. 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 selalumemalukan. 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 pairallows the humor: An office seeker is one who is either appointed or disappointed.

Moving ahead, our syntactic competence enables us not only to distinguish betweenwell-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 Menangisanak itu – with the stress on the fronted VP predicate menangis. But we also know that theEnglish sentence The child cried cannot be inverted into *Cried the child – even if the frontedpredicate is given primary stress. In colloquial Indonesian, Saya kemarin sibuk is consideredwell-formed; but in colloquial English, *I yesterday was busy or *I was yesterday busy isconsidered ill-formed. In sum, our syntactic competence tells us that word order in Indonesianis more flexible than word order in English.

As for syntactic ambiguity, examples are put in numbers. The NP predicate anakpedagang yang sombong in Indonesian sentence (1) has two possible interpretations:

(a) [[anak pedagang] [yang sombong]], where yang sombong is a modifier for anakpedagang; or

(b) [[anak] [pedagang yang sombong]], where yang sombong is a modifier forpedagang.

1. [[Dia] [anak pedagang yang sombong]]

Likewise, the subject complement NP a dirty street fighter in English sentence (2) has fourpossible 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 fightsagainst a blazing fire”.


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2. [[Joe] [is [a dirty street fighter]]]

Sometimes, syntactic ambiguity is made possible by placing different pauses or junctures, as canbe 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 thelabel brackets [[PRESIDEN] [SOROTI KORUPSI]]. But the humorist Ucup Kelik twists thesentence into [[PRESIDEN SOROTI] [KORUPSI]], and hence asking the question, “PresidenSoroti 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 howlong 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 thehumor 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 “pause-independent syntactic ambiguity”.

Additional notes are necessary here. As can be seen from examples undermorphological and syntactic competence, our ability to perceive – and also create – verbalhumor partly depends on our ability to recognize linguistic ambiguity. In fact, many verbalhumors 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 turnout 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 consumeaccumulates (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 readthem and figure out their syntactic structures, we mentally get stuck again and again at the endof 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 andsentences. 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 LambsClub, New York. Thank you.”

It is clear that the word “address” in example (6) was intended to mean “speech” by the host, buttwisted 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.


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This sentence was first introduced in Syntactic Structures (1957:15) to argue that, in theextreme, syntax can exist without semantics. In terms of its internal structure, sentence (8) isthe 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, whilesentence (9) is syntactically and semantically well-formed, sentence (8) is only syntacticallywell-formed but semantically ill-formed, for four reasons. Ideas are abstract; they cannot begreen – this is the first nonsense. If something is green, it cannot be colorless – this is thesecond nonsense. Ideas are inanimate; they cannot sleep – this is the third nonsense. One whosleeps cannot get furious or angry – this is the fourth or last nonsense. Briefly, our semanticcompetence tells us that sentence (8) is a total nonsense; but our syntactic competence tells usthat it reads well in English.4

If sentence (8) is read backward, as in (10), which is also taken from SyntacticStructures (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 operatein (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 topush our linguistic competence to the limits.

To recapitulate, as the key-term “linguistic competence” is expanded and sub-dividedinto phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, and semantic competence, these five sub-types of competence have proven useful for describing and explaining common as well asuncommon linguistic phenomena at all linguistic levels. Indeed, generative grammar is verypowerful in providing description and explanation for any kind of language data. Puzzlingproblems in phonology and syntax in the Bloomfieldian school have all been well and neatlysolved by generative scholars (see Chapters 1 and 2 of Linguistic Theory in America, byNewmeyer 1986).

“Competence” Transported to the Study of Language in Context

As the name indicates, generative grammar limits itself to “grammar” or “linguistic rules” incontext-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 oftheories, principles, and parameters is devoted to explaining how producing and interpretingsyntactically well-formed utterances is possible. In other words, the center of linguistic theoryin generative grammar is syntactic theory. In fact, mentalism in generative grammar has latelybecome more and more abstract, moving farther away from actual language use. This can beseen 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 E-language 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 ofLanguage (1986). In short, language is an individual mental fact; there is nothing social in thegenerative theory of human language.

There is nothing social in the theory of human language? This critical question wasfirst raised by the American anthropologist and linguist Dell Hymes (1972). Chomsky’s notion


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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 ahomogeneous 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 differentialcompetence or “competence of different degrees” across speakers in heterogeneous speechcommunities in many parts of the world. Secondly, linguistic competence in the Chomskyansense is equal and thus limited to grammatical competence, whereas in actual language usegrammatical competence is only one aspect determining success in verbal communication.Third and finally, the separation of “competence” from “performance” implies isolatinglinguistic knowledge from language use in its context, hence omitting almost everything ofsociocultural 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 ofacceptability, with respect to performance. He further argues that an adequate theory oflanguage is to be integrated with theory of communication and culture (p. 281). In effect it isobvious that, much like linguistic competence being the backbone of generative grammar,communicative competence is meant to be the backbone of sociolinguistics. In his bookFoundations in Sociolinguistics, Hymes (1974:195-7) states that the term “sociolinguistics” maybe interpreted in three different ways. First, the social as well as the linguistic suggests theapplication of linguistic principles or methods for social purposes, such as the use ofBloomfield’s work for teaching reading. This now belongs to Applied Linguistics. Second,socially realistic linguistics means extending formal linguistic rules so as to account, forexample, for dialectal variation, as can be seen in the works of Labov. Third, sociallyconstituted linguistics means that “social function gives form to the ways in which linguisticfeatures are encountered in actual life”. Accordingly, for Hymes, sociolinguistics “is concernedwith social as well as referential meaning, and with language as part of communicative conductand 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” inmulti-level languages such as Balinese, Javanese, Madurese, and Sundanese.

The point here is not to compare Chomsky’s theory with Hymes’s and evaluate whichone is better, but rather to describe and explain how mentalism creeps out from context-freelinguistics and gives shape to context-bound linguistics. Evidently not much has changed insociolinguistics with the introduction of the term “communicative competence”. However, thisterm makes us aware that verbal communication is made possible owing to the communicativecompetence existing in the mind of each member of a speech community. Therefore, each ofthem is capable of producing utterances which are grammatically correct (often in the sense of‘semantically comprehensible’), pragmatically as well as sociolinguistically appropriate, andculturally acceptable. Briefly, individualistic mentalism in generative grammar has moved outto produce collectivistic mentalism in sociolinguistics.

As noted by Lavandera (1988), Chomsky is indirectly held responsible for theproliferation of sociolinguistics and ethnolinguistics at the end of the 1960s and for thepropagation of pragmatics and discourse analysis in the mid 1970s. This is because scholars incontext-bound linguistics were unhappy with individualistic mentalism in generative grammar,where linguistic theory is predominantly syntactic theory. Interestingly, while “linguistics” as awhole, in the structural but not functional sense, obtains the term “linguistic competence” (seeO’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 &


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Levinson 1996 for ethnolinguistics; Levinson 1983 and Grundy 2000 for pragmatics; andBrown & Yule 1983 and Thornbury 2005 for discourse analysis).

However, for the sake of clarity, I will be using each of the phrasal terms above togetherwith illustrative examples in Indonesian. Now let’s start with examples showing how oursociolinguistic 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) issociolinguistically appropriate; it observes the “rules of co-occurrence” (Evin-Trip 1972:233-39). The [+deference] forms Bapak, dimohon, Pak Dirjen, and bersantap are used consistentlythroughout the utterance. Note also that the word Bapak, meaning ‘father’ literally but referringto ‘you’ socio-pragmatically, is an Indonesian-specific 2nd pronoun substitute suggesting“politeness” or [+deference]. In contrast, in (11.b) the [-deference] forms kamu, aku, andanakkku are juxtaposed with [+deference] forms mohon and bersantap along the syntagmaticplane, making the utterance sociolinguistically deviant and thus unacceptable.

Next, our ethnolinguistic competence in Indonesian should have no problemrecognizing 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 thesampiran (lead) in (12.a) is right since it uses the fixed expression available, leading to thedeleted but well-known isi (content): pura-pura tidak tahu. On the other hand, (12.b) can nolonger 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, wealso know that the sampiran, being culture- and hence language-specific, is untranslatable: *theturtle on the boat in English would convey nothing. If the whole pantun is to be translated intoEnglish, then only the isi (content) is translatable: pura-pura tidak tahu ‘you just pretend thatyou don’t know’.

The dialogue in (13), typically portraying the bad habit of making noise among someIndonesian students along the corridor outside the classroom, should be a good test for ourpragmatic 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 thishypothetical example to the class, my students burst into laughter, indicating that they recognizethe incoherent “text” right away and find it “foolish”. The student in the anecdote fails to catchthe “implicature” in the first utterance. If the “gaps” were made explicit, by referring to theGricean maxim of relevance the utterance “Sorry, Dik, I’m teaching” would explicitly and thusliterally mean the following: “The noise you’re making right outside my classroom isdisturbing. 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 becontextually symbolic. And yet, through inference from a given interpersonal context, thehearer usually has no problem understanding what the speaker means. In syntax, there issyntactic ambiguity; and in pragmatics, there is also pragmatic ambiguity or, more accurately,


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pragmatic indeterminacy. Syntactic ambiguity, as resolved by means of different tree structuresor 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, asdetermined by a much bigger number of possible interpersonal contexts.

The earlier mention of “incoherence” pertaining to dialogue (13) suggests an importantfeature in discourse analysis, which primarily concerns “coherence” and “cohesion” of a text ordiscourse. Moreover, in a discourse textual and contextual meanings go together, as illustratedby 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 publicnotice meets 6 out of the 7 “distinctive characteristics” of a text: it is

(a) textually self-contained or sufficient,(b) syntactically well-formed,(c) fully coherent and thus easy to understand,(d) 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 isforbidden [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 offorbidding, since anyone (capable of reading the text) would make himself a dog, and hencemorally degraded, if ever he ignored the notice and did urinating. Undoubtedly, any normaladult 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 beenpicked up by Hymes (1972) and modified into “communicative competence”, comprising foursub-types of competence: sociolinguistic, ethnolinguistic or sociocultural, pragmatic, anddiscourse 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, todistinguish between socially well-formed and socially ill-formed utterances. From outliningmentalism in context-bound linguistics, let’s move ahead to seeing how mentalism leaps outfrom 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 differentfields 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 inorder.

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 startwith making explicit the meaning of “acquisition” in the sense of Krashen (1982). Thereference to Krashen here is primarily motivated by his obvious mentalistic approach in


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explaining L2 acquisition. In his well-known Monitor Theory, “acquisition” occurs if, duringmeaningful verbal interaction, the LAD (language acquisition device, a term borrowed fromChomsky 1965) processes comprehensible input not blocked or hindered by the psychologicalfilter 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 likethe 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 acquisitionhere: the mental grammar in L1 and the acquired competence in L2 grow out naturally from theLAD being exposed to linguistic input. In other words, the key-term “acquisition”, whether inL1 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 eachother. According to Saville-Troike (2006:17), the former eventually yields native competencewhereas 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 reciprocalinteraction; 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, worldknowledge, 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 L1acquisition, L2 acquisition is considerably influenced by at least four factors: the learner’slinguistic aptitude and personal motivation, the quality of formal instruction, and feedback fromthe 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” inthe process of becoming, moving – at it were – from L1 as a point of departure toward L2 as apoint of destination. In this respect, systematic “errors” occurring in the interlanguage at onepoint of time along its course of development may be seen as reflection of the current state ofinterlanguage competence (Corder 1967 [1974]). Viewed from the point of final destination,“interlanguage competence” is another name of “L2 competence in the making” or “imperfectL2 competence”.

What we have discussed so far concerning L2 “acquisition” boils down to the followingpoints. In a narrow sense, SLA, which literally means acquiring any language after one hasacquired L1, refers to a mental process where the language faculty in the mind grows along itscourse of development so as to eventually become L2 competence. Thus the business of SLAis 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 Saville-Troike (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.


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Notice that most aspects contained in the three answers (i.e., L2 linguistic knowledge, thepsycholinguistic process, and the learner’s personal traits) suggest strong influence frommentalism 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 onthe 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 toCanale and Swain (1980), Savignon outlines their theoretical framework applied to the bilingualprogram of teaching French as a second language in the province of Ontario, Canada. In theirframework, “communicative competence” is broken down into

(a) grammatical competence,(b) sociolinguistic competence,(c) discourse competence, and(d) strategic competence.

The following is a brief description of each sub-type of competence together with illustrativeexamples, mostly errors made by EFL learners in Indonesian context.

Table 1. Errors across Different Linguistic Categories

No. Linguistic Categories Example1 lexical error After that we back to our home2 morphological error … because went to mountain is my first experience3 syntactic error In second day I go to the beach4 phonological error Tony lost his bag – pronounced [bEk] instead of [bæg]

First, grammatical competence is defined by Savignon as “mastery of the linguisticcode, the ability to recognize the lexical, morphological, syntactic, and phonological features ofa language and to manipulate these features to form words and sentences. … A persondemonstrates grammatical competence by using a rule, not by stating a rule” (p. 41). Thecomplexity of an L2 grammar shows up prominently when we learn an L2 and when we closelyobserve errors occurring in L2. To illustrate, presented in Table 1 are examples of fourgrammatical errors in English made respectively by four different Indonesian high schoolstudents in writing and speaking.

The errors in Table 1 tell us that the learners are still struggling with the mastery ofbasic linguistic forms. First, with respect to the lexical error, the wrong choice of back in *weback to our home instead of using the correct form we went home reveals that the learner is stillconfused 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 ourhome, echoing the Indonesian equivalent pulang ke rumah. Secondly, as for the morphologicalerror, the wrong use of the past tense went in place of the gerund going seems to reveal adevelopmental error: the activity occurs in the past, and hence the use of past tense. The learneris unaware yet of the rule: when an activity occurs without a subject, the verb takes a gerundialform: V-ing. However, the use of went instead of simply go tells us that the learner has madesome progress in acquiring English morphology, but still inadequate for the current purpose ofwriting.

Thirdly, the first syntactic error (i.e., In second day instead of On the second day) isprobably due to the difference between L1 and L2 with respect to “preposition” systems. This ispart of the well-known Contrastive Analysis (CA) hypothesis: features which are different in L1and L2 will probably be difficult to learn (Lado 1964:11-22). English has specific prepositions:


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at 9 a.m., on Monday, on August 3, in November, in 2009, etc. But in Indonesian, all of theseprepositions have only one equivalent: pada. In this respect, Indonesian learners have to dealwith the “problem of lexical divergence”. That is, one word in Indonesian has three specificequivalents in English. Furthermore, colloquial Indonesian allows saying either pada hari keduaor 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 isprobably due to the problem of lexical divergence and “syntactic rigidity” in English; andsecondly, the absence of the, known as error of omission, is probably due to the transfer of “zeroform” 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 alsobe difficult to learn. Any sentence in English contains a finite verb; and every finite verbcontains a particular tense. The revised form On the second day I went to the beach tells us thefollowing: the specific time adverb on the second day requires that the verb must be in pasttense, went. Here we see the interaction between syntax and morphology, known as morpho-syntactic phenomenon. The occurrence of a temporal adverb on the syntactic plane determinesthe morphological form of the verb. Psycholinguistically, the learner must be aware of thismorpho-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 predictablethrough CA hypothesis. More specifically, the English vowel [æ] is not only absent inIndonesian but it is also a “marked” vowel in English. That is, because of its difficultarticulation, English children acquire [æ] very late in the course of their phonologicaldevelopment (Kent 1992). Naturally, this vowel is also difficult to pronounce for IndonesianEFL learners. As for replacing the word-final [g] in [bæg] with [k] in [bEk] is known as “finaldevoicing”, i.e., voiced stops [b, d, g] occurring word-finally (as in lab, bag, and lag) becomevoiceless stops [p, t, k]. This is a universal tendency in phonology, making English (whichkeeps [b, d, b] voiced word-finally) an exception. Thus the difficulty in producing the word-final [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, andphonological errors listed in Table 1 is intended to show that the seemingly simple L2 errors arein fact very complex psycho-physiologically. It should be obvious too that the given explanationis both structural and mentalistic, the latter highlighting psycholinguistic problems going on inthe L2 learners’ minds. In other words, mentalism is useful in accounting for the nature of errorspertaining to L2 “grammatical competence”. In fact, as partly mentioned earlier, errors in ErrorAnalysis can be regarded as reflection of the current state of the learner’s interlanguagecompetence (Corder 1967 [1974]).

The second component of L2 communicative competence is sociolinguisticcompetence. Unlike grammatical competence which concerns correct linguistic forms,sociolinguistic competence concerns appropriate linguistic behavior, and hence appropriateutterances in verbal communication. In sociolinguistics, the phatic function of language, forexample, is meant to keep interpersonal relationship, where producing an utterance is meant toconvey the implicit message “I care about you”. When we Indonesians say Dari mana, Pak? orMau ke mana, Mbak?, we do not really want to know where you were from or where you aregoing. This is simply our sociolinguistic way of conveying the message “I know you, I amaware of your presence, and I care about you”. However, this social message or phatic functionis 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 acrosslanguages. The problem arises when the linguistic form is translated from L1 to L2. Indonesian


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EFL learners may say, “Where are you going?” to an English speaker with the intention of “Icare about you”, obtaining not a friendly response but a facial expression of annoyance. InEnglish, the question sounds intrusive (i.e., where I am going is none of your business) and hasno phatic function. Similarly, when an English speaker learning Indonesian says, “Halo, apakabar?” every time s/he meets an Indonesian acquaintance, it also results in confusion. Whilethis question has some phatic function, it also has a value of its own: I want to know how youhave been getting along since we haven’t met for long. Briefly, the seemingly trivial everydayutterances in any language have their own sociolinguistic values. L2 learners need to be awareof these values so as to avoid doing “negative sociolinguistic transfer” which may causeannoyance or confusion in L2 verbal communication.

The third component is discourse competence. Since in the area of Discourse analysislanguage is realized in everyday communication as “text” (Thornbury 2005:6), discoursecompetence in L2 means the ability to recognize and understand texts in given contexts, andalso to produce appropriate texts as required by contexts. Note that the term “text” here refers toany piece of spoken or written language that is complete in itself, such as a very brief or lengthydialogue, a formal or informal talk, a public notice, a letter, a manual, a joke, a poem, etc. Muchlike the phatic function of language in sociolinguistics, texts are often language-specific as seenfrom the perspective of discourse analysis.

For the sake of brevity, the discussion of language-specific texts is confined to publicnotices in English and Indonesian. The public notice HELP YOURSELF in English has noliteral translation in Indonesian; the closest equivalent is probably “Silakan Ambil”. As I recallfrom my everyday experience in Hawaii, this notice is usually placed next to food, usually leftover, in a dormitory kitchen, or next to given-away old books in a library. Another English-specific public notice is SLIPPERY WHEN WET, which means ‘Be careful; the newly rubbedfloor is a bit wet and may be slippery’. This notice has something to do with the legal system inEnglish-speaking countries. If there were no such notice and someone slipped and had a brokenbone, 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: SMOKINGIS FORBIDDEN BY LAW. This clearly tells us that a smoker in an elevator runs the risk ofmeeting serious legal consequences.

Similarly, there are also Indonesian-specific public notices. For example, the noticetypically Indonesian—socially motivated by Indonesian-specific university context. Similarly,the notice DILARANG PARKIR DI DEPAN PINTU shows up only in Indonesia. This reveals tous 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 sidewalktells us that the government tries to do two things: forbidding “small vendors” not to take awaythe civil rights of passers-by, and cleaning up the city from “dirty scenes”. The reader may alsorecall 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 learnersshould be aware of the underlying sociocultural differences. Even when the same message isintended, 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. JALANDIPERBAIKI? 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 notthe way they put it in English; instead the notice in English reads CAUTION! ROADCONSTRUCTION AHEAD. Comparing between the Indonesian and English versions, we findout that by using “nominal constructions” the English version sounds “more public” than theIndonesian version, which uses “adjectival and verbal constructions”. But that is how eachlanguage specifically conveys the same message. Next, when I ask my students, what about


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DILARANG MENGELUARKAN ANGGOTA BADAN? They would simply get puzzled, andcould never imagine the English equivalent: KEEP HEAD AND ARMS IN. Notice that theIndonesian 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 strategiccompetence, i.e., the ability to use various strategies used to compensate for imperfectknowledge 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 serveas illustrative examples. A group of Indonesian teachers visiting American high schools in Ohiowith limited knowledge of English were standing in line in a fast-food restaurant. To avoiddifficulty in verbal communication, the leader, who speaks English well, told them to order thesame package of food. Thus after the leader placed an order and took the package away, the nextperson stepped ahead and simply said, “The same”. All the other persons standing behind didthe same thing. The following day, one of these people went back to the same restaurant. Whenasked what he wanted to order, he replied, “The same.” Of course, this “strategy” did not workas it did on the previous day.

Another anecdote is told of an Indonesian student who barely speaks English, returningfrom a visit to his brother who works in Hong Kong and taking a flight by himself back toIndonesia. When it was time for dinner, he, being a moslem, said to the flight attendant, “Nopig, no pig.” As he recalls, “pig” means ‘babi’. The flight attendant, who did not understandhim, 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 Englishintensive course in Bandung seven years ago, which set up the rule that “everyone joining thecourse must speak English; those who speak Indonesian are to be fined and have to pay a certainamount of money”. One day, when he could not attend the class because his wife gave a birthback home in Malang, he said to the instructor, “I’m sorry I cannot … attend the class becausemy wife is …”—being unable to continue expressing himself in English, he took the last resortby giving hand gestures showing pregnancy, giving a birth, and holding a baby with bothhands—saying “Eeeek” [«:::/] with every gesture. He managed to convey the message andsaved 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 anup-hill task of trying to acquire at the same time all sub-types of communicative competence soas to be able to carry on social affairs using L2 correctly and appropriately. It should be notedin passing, however, that other scholars in SLA have also proposed different models of“communicative competence” (see, for example, Archibald 2005, Bachman 1990, and Celce-Murcia et al. 1995). They include other sub-types of competence, such as socioculturalcompetence, actional competence, organizational competence, and pragmatic competence. Infact, as further noted by Magnan (2008), there are also multi-competence, interculturalcompetence, and metaphorical competence. To me, these scholarly attempts to provide moreand more sub-types of competence under “L2 communicative competence” indicate that, uponcloser examination, the success in doing verbal communication in L2 depends upon a hugenumber of sub-systems of mental ability that, ideally, should operate rightfully andsimultaneously in the mind of the L2 learner.


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The Limited Use of “Competence” in the Field of Translation

While SLA scholars, as made clear from the previous discussion, seem to be preoccupied withcharting out “L2 communicative competence” and hence producing various models comprisingmany sub-types of competence, experts in Translation are concerned very little with “translationcompetence”. 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 sectiondevoted to discussing translation competence. Before proceeding further, let me distinguishbetween “Translation” and “translation”; the former is an academic field whereas the latter is aprofession, 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 byexplicating the “how to” rather than looking into the underlying ability or competence. Moreclearly, “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, alsoknown presently as “Translation Studies” (see, e.g., Munday 2001 and Riccardi 2002), scholarsin the field – following the progress in linguistics, cultural studies, and computer technology,particularly the so-called machine translation – have come up with sophisticated theories whichmay 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, orspecific techniques (including linguistic and cultural adjustments) of doing translation, but mayeven 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 serveas a guide to doing effective and good translation. Thus, the “how to” is not to be seen simplyas “technicality” in the profession but as an “attempt to bridge the gap” between the theory andpractice in translation.

Interestingly, or strangely, there has been an attempt lately to outline the nature oftranslation competence. European scholars who call themselves PACTE GROUP (2005) haveproposed a model of translation competence. This model consists of one center (strategic sub-competence) surrounded by and connected to four other components (i.e., bilingual sub-competence, extralinguistic sub-competence, instrumental sub-competence, and knowledge-about-translation sub-competence).

The model operates as follows. The bilingual sub-competence enables the translator tounderstand the source language (SL) text and reproduce it in the target language (TL). Theextralinguistic sub-competence enables the translator to understand the nature of the subjectmatter making up the text. The instrumental sub-competence enables the translator to proceeddoing translation in the right way. The knowledge-about-translation sub-competence enables thetranslator 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 onstrategic sub-competence, which enables the translator to make the best possible decision whilecarrying 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 mostprominent factor in translation.

Just as L2 language performance occasionally shows problem in using language formsor functions, hence revealing the imperfect IL competence, the translated texts in TL may alsocontain message distortion, indicating inadequacy in translation competence – as shown in theexamples 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 inWest Java. Imagine a drug dealer passing along the road! He would be very grateful to the


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local government, hiding his drugs accordingly. In this context, the Indonesian version JAUHINARKOBA! or alternatively TOLAK NARKOBA! is in fact a better version than the widelyspread version: BILANG TIDAK PADA NARKOBA! This is definitely the literal translationof the original slogan in English: SAY NO TO DRUG! Thus, to help correct (14), the Englishoriginal should be put back under JAUHI NARKOBA!

Some schools want to make English a language for daily communication amongstudents, and therefore enthusiastically put up signs in Indonesian with English translations.

15. AKU MALU DATANG TERLAMBATI am ashamed come is overdue

16. TIADA HARI TANPA BELAJARNo learning no day

In (15), we see not only grammatical errors in the English translation but also a cultural problemhere. In English-speaking countries no school puts up this kind of educational slogan. Even ifcorrecting grammatical errors would produce “I will be ashamed if I come late”, thisgrammatically 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 becorrected and changed into “No day without learning”. Unlike that in (15), this English versionsounds 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 youan unforgettable trip by fantastic Marajo Island.” The intended message is “We offer you anunforgettable trip to fantastic Marajo Island.” As cited by Mansoor & Sundah (2009:197), there isa similar notice in a hotel elevator in Paris: PLEASE LEAVE YOUR VALUES AT THE FRONTDESK. Hotel customers would smile at this notice, knowing that “values” are wrongly used for“valuables”. Likewise, this notice, THE FLATTENING OF UNDERWEAR WITH PLEASUREIS THE JOB OF THE CHAMBERMAID, is found in a hotel in Yugoslavia. A better versioncould be PRESSING UNDERWEAR IS PART OF OUR SERVICE. Briefly, while there is notranslation data available, a tentative conclusion may be drawn: the errors in the translation areprobably due to transfer, i.e., carrying over the lexical choice and/or syntactic structures in the SLtext 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 naturalequivalent 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 henceprovides a “model of translation competence” is attributable to the nature of translation itself; itis more of a profession than a theoretical field. As a result, the procedural “how to” is moreimportant 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 theapplication 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. Languagefunctions poetically when its form is foregrounded or made prominent for aesthetic purposes, asbest shown in poetry. In this respect, I would propose that the term “poetic competence” maybe used to refer to either


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(a) the “general ability” of language users to recognize a particular text as beingpoetical or literary or

(b) the “specific ability” of a limited number of language users to produce poetic orliterary texts.

Thus in a receptive or appreciative sense, “poetic competence” applies more widely (to a speechcommunity) than it does in a productive or creative sense. In this context, “poeticperformance” is closer to the “specific ability” and hence refers to the oral display of verbalartistry by poetically-gifted individuals before an audience (Bauman 1986:3), as can be seen inpoetry reading, poetry singing, or verbal art performance in general.

Referring to the sub-heading of this section, by “The Helpful Use of ‘Competence’ inPoetics” (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 andnon-literary texts. To illustrate, consider the following examples.

17. UNDANGAN (1)kembali, kembalilah padaKu domba yang sesatkembalilah padaKu wajah yang kelam dan dukadatanglah padaKu tangis yang sedu dan tersendat‘kan Kuseka deritamu dengan mahakasih yang baka

18. UNDANGAN (2)Kepada Yth.Bapak/Ibu Dosen Jurusan Sastra InggrisFakultas SastraUniversitas Negeri MalangMengharap dengan hormat kehadiran Bapak/Ibu pada rapat Jurusan …

Using “texts” in (17) and (18), I have done the same experiment repeatedly with many differentclasses of students: reading both texts in a poetic manner. Usually the students listen attentivelyto 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 awaythe difference between poetic and non-poetic texts.

Pushing further, let’s go back to example (8), re-presented here as example (19).6

19. Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

As noted earlier, this sentence is syntactically well-formed but semantically ill-formed; it isnonsense linguistically. However, this linguistic nonsense seemed to have been of specialinterest to the American poet John Hollander (born in 1924), and gave him inspiration to writethe poem in (20), followed by my translation in (21) – to help clarify the meaning.

20. COILED ALIZARINEfor Noam Chomsky

Curiously deep, the slumber of crimson thoughtWhile breathless, in stodgy viridian,Colorless green ideas sleep furiously.

21. LENGKUR ALIZARINbuat Noam Chomsky

Terlelap aneh, dengkur pikiran unguTiada bernapas, dalam kilauan memberat,Gagasan hijau tanpa-warna tertidur dengan murka


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In On Noam Chomsky: Critical Essays, edited by Harman (1982), Hollander’s poem – the onlypoem included in the book – is given prominence as a “lead article”. This means that the poemis 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 placedin an appropriate context (i.e., Hollander’s poem [minus Chomsky’s sentence]) in the area ofpoetics, 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’ inthe real world) whereas poetic signs belong to the second-order semiotic system (i.e., they oftenrefer to ‘themselves’ and reveal their meanings only through specific interpretation). ThusHollander’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 andalso to distinguish between them right away, it is safe to conclude that our poetic competence isprobably part of our linguistic competence – not in a narrow Chomskyan sense but in a broadlinguistic sense.

Along this line of argument, it seems necessary to include the use of “poetics” inliterature. Referring specifically to Structuralist Poetics by Culler (1975), the term “poetics” isproposed 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 thispaper. 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 arguesconvincingly for the necessity of positing “poetic grammar” underlying the general theory ofreading and interpreting (and implicitly also writing or creating) literary texts (p. 128). While inthis 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 thathe is considerably influenced by Chomsky. Generative grammar plays no role in thedevelopment of structuralism in literature, but it offers “a methodological statement ofexemplary clarity” (p. 7). The major concern with “linguistic competence” in generativegrammar 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 tomaking 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 structuralistpoetics. For more than thirty years later, this chapter is reprinted in Structuralism: CriticalConcepts in Literary and Cultural Studies (pp. 25 –41), a book edited by Culler (2006). Thisindicates that, after three decades have passed, Culler still believes that literary competenceremains a key-concept in literary studies that adequately accounts for several possible readingsand 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’scollectivistic langue and Chomsky’s individualistic competence. The former allows the theoryof reading to be a general poetic theory expectedly agreeable to students of literature; the latterallows individual readers to personally interpret literary works according to the existing literaryconventions. Nevertheless, the key-term “competence” in “literary competence” shows thatmentalism, albeit collectivistic mentalism, gains greater influence.

To sum up, poetic competence, as part of general linguistic competence, allowslanguage users to distinguish between poetic and non-poetic texts, and also helps them to assignpoetic meaning even when a particular poem lies in the area of nonsense. In structuralist poetics,


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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 mentalfaculty underlying verbal behavior, was then a sign of abrupt move in American linguistics frombehaviorism to mentalism. Since then mentalism has gained much wider influence. Theexpanded use of “competence” in generative grammar reveals that at the phonetic level nativespeakers 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 ofwell-formedness and ambiguity in linguistic forms. As the key-concept was transported to thestudy of language in context, the term “communicative competence” was first introduced byHymes in 1972 and has become popular ever since. Alhough the term “competence” is usedimplicitly in pragmatics, discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and ethnolinguistics, itnevertheless tells us that members of a speech community are in general concerned more withappropriateness than grammaticality of the utterances used in actual verbal communication.

Outside linguistics proper, the massive use of the term “competence” in SecondLanguage Acquisition indicates that scholars in this field have been occupied with ever moreserious attempts and deeper investigation to find out what is there in the L2 learners’ mindswhile acquiring a second language. On the other hand, in the field of Translation the limited useof 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 ofpoetic competence in us, making us aware of the distinction between literary and non-literarytexts. Overall, this paper has pointed out that linguistics and other related disciplines have beenunder the shadow of mentalism – with some critical notes.

The magnificent shadow of mentalism can be seen as direct or indirect influence ofChomsky’s basic ideas in linguistics. In my long and hard efforts to read and understandChomsky, I have come to the conclusion that his macro-philosophical view of language is verycomprehensive and convincing; but his micro-linguistic theory, best known as UG (UniversalGrammar) Theory, is seriously beset by some flaws and weaknesses (Kadarisman 2004 and2007). At the macro-theoretical level, as noted earlier, I agree with Culler (1975:7) who statesthat Chomsky has come up with “a methodological statement of exemplary clarity”. Hisinsistence that a linguistic theory must meet the internal conditions of simplicity and eleganceand the external conditions of descriptive and explanatory adequacy has been supported bystrong, persuasive arguments; and, as admitted by his allies and opponents alike, this hasbrought 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 disciplinesfrom anthropology to mathematics, from education to literary criticism”. Moreover, in less thanthree 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 andinfluential, and no linguist who wishes to keep abreast of current developments in his subjectcan afford to ignore Chomsky’s pronouncements”. Briefly, “His arguments may be accepted orrejected; they cannot be ignored” (p. 7). Even Hymes (1972:273), who is severely critical of thelimitations of generative theory, has come to admit that, “No modern linguistic theory hasspoken more profoundly of either the internal structure or the intrinsic human significance”.Most significantly, Chomsky’ work “has done more than simply produce a revolution inlinguistics,” observes Searle (1972 [1981]:31). “In the long run, his greatest contribution will be


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that he has taken a major step toward restoring the traditional conception of the dignity anduniqueness of man.”

Finally, mentalism must be placed in the right perspective. As I have proven in thispaper, mentalism or linguistic competence in a very broad sense is intrinsically there in theminds of native speakers, making them (and us) survive linguistically as individual, social, andeven literary beings. The best thing we can learn from Chomsky is that, in every academicendeavor, it is absolutely necessary to accomplish descriptive and explanatory adequacy – if wewant 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. Itwas 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 ingenerative 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 itsphonotactics (i.e., rules for constructing syllables), whereas “systematic gap” means that the word isnot 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 issyntactically well-formed but semantically ill-formed. Such is the analytic judgment in the linguisticdomain; 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 useas 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’sinfluence on the development of poetics. Now I repeat using these examples as evidence in supportof 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 EnglishDepartment, State University of Malang, for proofreading and suggesting corrections for the earlierdraft 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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NOMINAL CLAUSE CONSTRUCTIONS IN BIAK

Suriel Mofu*Universitas Negeri [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 syntacticbehaviour. The first construction with copular verbs iri and is(o) follows nominal Biakverbal inflections. The second construction with copular clitics involves a nominal stemplus a copular clitic which is attached to a clause final determiner form. Data show thatone copular form of the third person predicate nominal clauses can have two differentmeanings. By assuming that the copular form in question has two different constructions(copular verb construction and copular clitic construction), we will correctly predict thatthe 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 sintaksisyang berbeda. Konstruksi pertama mengikuti pola-pola infleksi normal verba bahasa Biak.Konstruksi kedua terdiri atas kata dasar nominal yang disusul klitika kopula yang melekatpada kata sandang tentu di akhir konstruksi. Data menunjukkan bahwa sebuah bentukkonstruksi nominal yang sama dari pronomina persona ketiga dapat memiliki duapengertian yang berbeda. Dengan mempertimbangkan bahwa konstruksi nominal tersebutmemiliki dua tipe konstruksi yang berbeda (konstruksi verba kopula dan konstruksi klitikakopula), kita secara tepat dapat memprediksikan bahwa konstruksi nominal tersebutbermakna ganda.

Kata-kata kunci: Bahasa Austronesia, morfosintaksis bahasa Biak, konstruksi klausanominal

INTRODUCTION

The Biak language belongs to the West New Guinea subgroup of the Austronesian languagefamily and is spoken in Papua (Papua and West Papua provinces), Indonesia, in the northernpart of the Geelvink Bay. The two provinces were formerly known as Irian Jaya. Biak hasaround 50,000 to 70,000 speakers, which makes it the language with the largest number ofspeakers in Papua.

Silzer’s (1984) and Voorhove’s (1975) bibliographies list a number of previous studieson the Biak language. The first studies began in the 1800s when a few scholars such asGabelenttz 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 to1947. 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-Dutchdictionary. 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 abilingual Biak-Indonesian dictionary.

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The three most recent works on the Biak language are Steinhauer (2005), Van denHeuvel (2006), and Mofu (2009). These works appear to be the most comprehensive anddetailed description of the Biak language.

Despite the high quality of previous descriptions of Biak, there remain a number ofphenomena that have not yet been discussed in any depth. The formal distinction between verbaland nominal clauses in Biak, for instance, is not studied yet. Here I discuss two constructions inparticular: i) nominal clauses constructions; and ii) copular verb/copular clitic constructions.Both of these constructions exhibit interesting phenomenon to be described here. The copularverbs 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. binamber suiribin – amber sui-riwoman – foreign Det.3DU-be‘The two are foreign women’

2. binamber suiribin – amber su –iriwoman – 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 verbconstruction in (2).

The paper argues that the two kinds of nominal predicate constructions exhibit differentsyntactic behaviour. Specifically, it is argued that one copular form (a nominal clause which isformed 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 inSaba village (East Biak), Orwer Village (East Biak), Biak Town, Samber (South Biak) andSopen (West Biak).

References were made to Steinhauer (1985 and 2005), Mofu (2009) and Van denHeuvel (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 Biaklanguage and how they are different from constructions containing normal Biak verbs, the nexttwo sections will discuss verbal morphology and copular verb. Then, the following threesections 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 theinflectional affixes on verbs, demonstratives, directionals, and possessives.

Verb:3. ifrar fasau

i-frar fasau3SG-run quick‘He ran quickly’

Demonstratives:

4. snon suiwa suba kakusnon su-iwa su-ba kakuman 3DU-that 3DU-big very‘Those two men are very big’


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Directionals:5. roma siponne sibiser

roma si-pon-ne si-biserchild 3PL.AN-front-this 3PL.AN-hungry‘The children in front (of this house) are hungry’

Possessives:

6. inai byesuiinai be- -y- suidaughter POSS- -3SG- Det.DU

‘His two daughters’

Each of the verbal inflectional affixes will be discussed in order to give the reader a clearerunderstanding of the distinction between the paradigm for normal Biak verbs versus theparadigm for copular verbs.

Verbal and Prepositional Predicates

Steinhauer (1985:471 and 2005:798) groups verbal subject agreement prefixes (and infixes) intothree 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 collapsedinto two main sets: consonantal affixes and vocalic affixes. The vocalic affix set contains onlyprefixes, whereas the consonantal affix set shows 2 subsets: the first subset contains onlyprefixes, which can be attached to verb roots/stems beginning with consonant-vowel (CV) andto 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 ofagreement 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 ofaffixes in the Biak language.

Table 1. Subject Agreement Affixes

Pronouns Free Agreement AffixesCONSONANTAL PATTERN VOCAL PATTERN Type 1CV-initial stemCC-initial stemprefix

Type 2CV-initial stemprefix and infix

V-initial stemPrefix

1 sg aya ya- y-2sg au wa- -w- / Ø w-3sg i i- -y- d-1du.incl ku ku- kuy-1du .excl nu nu- nuy-2du mu mu- muy-3du su su- suy-3pcl sko sko- sk-1pl.incl ko ko- k-1pl.excl inko (i)nko- (i)nk-2pl mko mko- mk-3pl.an si si-/ s- s-3pl.inan na na- /n- n-

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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 1set. Table 2 lists examples of CV initial roots/stems while table 3 lists CC initial verbroots/stems.

Tabel 2. The Consonantal Pattern Type 1 (CV initial roots/stems)

Pronouns Prefix Rootsba fuken kandor marisen‘big’ ‘ask’ ‘surprise’ ‘happy’

1 sg ya- ya-ba ya-fuken ya-kandor ya-marisen2sg wa- wa-ba wa-fuken wa-kandor wa-marisen3sg i- i-ba i-fuken i-kandor i-marisen1du.incl ku- ku-ba ku-fuken ku-kandor ku-marisen1du .excl nu- nu-ba nu-fuken nu-kandor nu-marisen2du mu- mu-ba mu-fuken mu-kandor mu-marisen3du su- su-ba su-fuken su-kandor su-marisen3pcl sko- sko-ba sko-fuken sko-kandor sko-marisen1pl.incl ko- ko-ba ko-fuken ko-kandor ko-marisen1pl.excl (i)nko- (i)nko-ba (i)nko-fuken (i)nko-kandor (i)nko-marisen2pl mko- mko-ba mko-fuken mko-kandor mko-marisen3pl.an sisi-ba si-fuken si-kandor si-marisen3pl.inan na- na-ba na-fuken na-kandor na-marisen

Tabel 3. The Consonantal Pattern Type 1 (CC initial roots/stems)

Pronouns Prefix Rootsfnak mbran pdef swarepen‘play’ ‘walk’ ‘go straight’ ‘remember’

1 sg ya- ya-fnak ya- mbran ya-pdef ya-swarepen2sg wa- wa- fnak wa- mbran wa- pdef wa- swarepen3sg i- i- fnak i- mbran i- pdef i-swarepen1du.incl ku- ku- fnak ku- mbran ku- pdef ku-swarepen1du .excl nu- nu- fnak nu- mbran nu- pdef nu-swarepen2du mu- mu- fnak mu- mbran mu- pdef mu-swarepen3du su- su- fnak su- mbran su- pdef su-swarepen3pcl sko- sko- fnak sko- mbran sko- pdef sko-swarepen1pl.incl ko- ko- fnak ko- mbran ko- pdef ko-swarepen1pl.excl (i)nko- (i)nko- fnak (i)nko- mbran (i)nko- pdef (i)nko-swarepen2pl mko- mko- fnak mko- mbran mko- pdef mko-swarepen3pl.an sisi- fnak si- mbran si- pdef si-swarepen3pl.inan na- na-fnak na-mbran na- pdef na-swarepen

The Consonantal Pattern Type 2 (CP Type 2)The prefixes belonging to Consonantal Pattern Type 2 are similar to those belonging toConsonantal Pattern Type 1. The difference is that, within the Type 2 paradigm, infixes marksecond person and third person singular. The second person and third person singular infixesare –w- and –y-, respectively. The second person singular infix (-w-) and the third personsingular 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). Theseinfixes are inserted immediately after the first consonant of the root or stem.


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It is important to note that the second person singular infix (-w-) occurs in verbs such asbarek ‘stay’, bay ‘dig’, bores ‘row’, farkor ‘teach’, fas ‘write’, mam ‘look’, mun ‘kill’. Theseverbs 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 secondperson subject agreement infix (-w-) has been fused with the initial bilabial consonant of theverbs to give a single, unsegmentable morph. Observe the following examples.

7. *bwores fasau be pam iwa b-w-ores fasau be pam iwarow- -2SG- quick to fish net that.SG‘You row quickly to that fish net’

8. bores fasau be pam iwa(EB)bores- -w-1 fasau be pam iwarow- -2SG- quickly to fish net that.SG‘You row quickly to that fish net’

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 theConsonantal Type 2 class. The examples of the infixes are given in boldface (for a list of verbsbelonging 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 Prefix/Infix /ZeroAffix

Rootskaber ro ra mam baber‘return’ ‘be at’ ‘go’ ‘see’ ‘naked’

1 sg ya- ya-kaber ya-ro ya-ra ya-mam ya-baber2SG -w- / Ø k-w-aber r-w-o r-w-a mam baber3SG -y- k-y-aber r-y-o r-y-a m-y-am b-y-aber1du.incl ku- ku-kaber ku-ro ku-ra ku-mam ku-baber1du .excl nu- nu-kaber nu-ro nu-ra nu-mam nu-baber2du mu- mu-kaber mu-ro mu-ra mu-mam mu-baber3du su- su-kaber su-ro su-ra su-mam su-baber3pcl sko- sko-kaber sko-ro sko-ra sko-mam sko-baber

1pl.incl ko- ko-kaber ko-ro ko-ra ko-mam ko-baber1pl.excl (i)nko- (i)nko-kaber (i)nko-ro (i)nko-ra (i)nko-mam (i)nko-baber2pl mko- mko-kaber mko-ro mko-ra mko-mam mko-baber3pl.an s- s-kaber s-ro s-ra s-mam s-baber3pl.inan n- n-kaber n-ro n-ra n-mam n-baber

VOCAL PATTERN

The vocal pattern applies to roots or stems that begin with a vowel (V). Vowel deletion occurswith 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 takesprefix /d/ instead of /i/.

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Tabel 5. The Vocal Pattern

Pronouns Prefix Rootsan enef ores uf‘eat’ ‘sleep’ ‘stand’ ‘hold’

1 sg y- y-an y- enef y- ores y- uf2sg w- w-an w- enef w- ores w- uf3sg d- d-an d- enef d- ores d- uf1du.incl kuy- kuy-an kuy- enef kuy- ores kuy- uf1du .excl nuy- nuy-an nuy- enef nuy- ores nuy- uf2du muy- muy-an muy- enef muy- ores muy- uf3du suy- suy-an suy- enef suy- ores suy-uf3pcl sk- sk-an sk- enef sk- ores sk- uf

1pl.incl k- k-an k- enef k- ores k- uf1pl.excl (i)nk- (i)nk-an (i)nk- enef (i)nk- ores (i)nk- uf2pl mk- mk-an mk- enef mk- ores mk- uf3pl.an s- s-an s- enef s- ores s- uf3pl.inan n- n-an n- enef n- ores n- uf

Variation

Having described the overall pattern of agreement marking, I would now like to mention somevariability in the inflection of verbal, adjectival and prepositional predicates.

The verb rires ‘to dry (something) under the sun’, for instance, exhibits variability inthe way it is marked for second person singular and the third person singular agreement. Inparticular, this verb can follow either the CP Type 1 or CP Type 2 pattern, as shown inexamples in (9-12).

9. warirs sansun CP Type 1wa-rires sansun2SG-dry (under the sun) clothes‘You dried clothes (under the sun)’

10. rwirs sansun CP Type 2rires- -w- sansun dry (under the sun) -2SG- clothes‘You dried clothes (under the sun)’

11. irirs sansun CP Type 1i-rires sansun3SG-dry (under the sun) clothes‘He dried clothes (under the sun)’

12. ryirs sansun CP Type 2rires- -y- sansundry (under the sun)- -3SG- clothes‘He dried clothes (under the sun)’

Some forms marked with the third person plural animate and inanimate also showvariability. The verb kaber ‘return’ may take either of the third person plural inanimate prefixesna- or n-, as illustrated by the sentences na-kaber and n-kaber ‘they return’. Similarly, the verbbar ‘carry something on one’s shoulder’ can appear with either of the third person pluralanimate prefixes si- or s-, as illustrated by the sentences s-bar aina and si-bar aina ‘they carrythe wood’.


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According to Steinhauer (1985:471), this variation is partly conditioned by thephonological shape of the stem, but is partly unpredictable (especially for the second and thirdperson singular and the third person plural (animate and inanimate)).

It seems that the choice between prefixes for certain verbs is determined lexically (Vanden Heuvel 2006:158). Evidence for this claim comes from the obstervation that phonologicallyidentical roots, such as so ’throw’ and so ‘follow,’ take different CP type inflections. The rootso ‘follow’, follows CP type 1, whereas the root so ‘throw’ follows CP type 2. See table 6 forsimilar examples:

Table 6. Minimal pairs

Pronouns Agreement Affix RootsPrefix, Infix so‘follow’ so‘throw’

2SG wa-, -w- wa-so s-w-o3SG i-, -y- i-so s-y-o3PL AN si-, s- si-so s-so3PL INAN na-, n- na-so n-so

DEMONSTRATIVES AND DIRECTIONALS

DemonstrativesDemonstratives are inflected with regard to number, gender and syntactic position.Demonstratives also indicate whether the entity is being pointed out is already known to thehearer. The semantic ‘multi-dimensionality’ of demonstratives was observed by Steinhauer inhis preliminary sketch of the language:

“The entity designated may be defined exclusively with regard to the positionof the speaker (in marked usage the interpretation “invisible to the hearer” maybe appropriate): “this”; this meaning is opposed to the pair “relatively close tothe speaker and hearer” vs “relatively remote”; this triple opposition issemantically neutralized in forms that may be qualified as definite articles(1985:475).

Steinhauer (2005:814) proposes that the formation of Biak demonstratives and directionalconstructions involves a combination of the following formatives:

1. Third person personal pronouns (namely articles in their clause final shape2), whichindicate the number, gender and definiteness of the entity whose location is to bespecified.

2. Those expressing position relative to the position of the speaker (S): ‘in front of thespeaker’ (-pon). ‘behind the speaker’ –pur); ‘above the speaker’ (i-yas), ‘below thespeaker’ (-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 theinland’ (re-de), ‘outside the place where the speaker is’ (-ri/-di); Two other formativeswhich should be included in this list: –rum ‘inside’(as in example 9 17) and bun ‘in themiddle 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 foran entitity to be considered PRX etc. depends on its volume. At a distance of 5 meters, ahouse 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 theposition of interlocutors, with the possible meanings ‘towards the speaker (VEN)’ (-ma), ‘away from the speaker/towards the hearer (AND)’ (-fa), and ‘not related to thespeech situation (GO)’ (-ra). (Steinhauer 2005:814-815).

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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. inei-ne3SG.Det-this‘This’

14. iyai-ya3SG.Det-that‘That’

15. iwai-wa3SG.Det-that .over.there‘That over there’

(1) + (2) + (3);

16. iponnei-pon-ne3SG.Det-front-this‘The one (at the) front here’

17. irumwai-rum-wa3SG.Det-inside-that .over.there‘The one inside overthere’

(1) + (3) + (4);

18. iyamai-ya-ma3SG.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 ofdemonstratives and directionals:

a) (1) + (3) + (4) + (2)b) (1) + (2) + (3) + (4)

Examples:

(1) + (3) + (4) + (2)

19. iyamrei-ya-m-re3SG.Det-that-moving towards me-landward ‘That moving landwards (to where I am)’

(1) + (2) + (3) + (4)

20. iyaswarai-yas-wa-ra3SG.Det-above-that.over.there-moving to there‘That over there above moving to there (remote)’


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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-singularforms, 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 providedbelow. In this table, a hyphen (-) indicates that a form is not possible.

Basic DemonstrativesTable 7. Basic Sets of Demonstratives

According to Van den Heuvel (2006:333), the formatives –ya and -yi are used to referto entities considered close to speaker (and addressee) but not closer to speaker than toaddressee. The demonstrative ya ‘the’ is the sentence medial form. Its variant form i isthe sentence final form.

The demonstrative pronouns consist of a free pronoun cliticised with one of the basicdemonstrative elements as shown in table 6. The basic sets of demonstratives (ine ‘this close tospeaker’, iya ‘that relatively close to hearer and speaker’, iwa ‘that far away from speaker andhearer’ 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 kakuman 3DU-that 3DU-high very‘Those two men are very tall’

The combination of the second person singular (au-), second person dual (mu-), andsecond person plural (mko-) with demonstrative iwa ‘that (remote/far away from speaker (andhearer)) is attested in Biak. However, such forms can only be used in certain contexts: e.g. whenthere are many people present at the time of speaking, and the speaker would like to get theattention 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- -w-2SG-that FOC 2SG-follow or stay - -2SG-‘You over there, are you coming (with us) or staying (over there) ?’

Number FreePronouns

ine‘this’close tospeaker

iya‘that’relatively close tohearer (and speaker)

iwathatremote/far away fromspeaker and hearer

i‘the’neutral

1 sg aya ayaine - - -2sg au auine auiya auiwa -3sg i ine iya iwa i/ya1du.incl ku kuine - - -1du excl nu nuine - - -2du mu muine muiya muiwa -3du su suine suiya suiwa sui/suya3pcl sko skoine skoiya skoiwa skoi/skoya

1pl.incl ko koine - - -1pl.excl inko inkoine - - -2pl mko mkoine mkoiya mkoiwa -3pl.an si sine siya siwa si/sya3pl.inan na naine naiya naiwa na

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Complex DemonstrativesThe basic demonstratives in table 7 can combine with positional, directional and motionalmarkers. 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 speechsituation)’. Ma, ra and fa are the phrase final forms. Formatives –m-, -r-, and –f- are the phrasemedial forms. Demonstratives, positional, motional and directional markers combine to formcomplex demonstratives.

There is a distinction in the morpheme order of complex demonstratives that indicateswhether an entity is moving or is at rest. When an entity is at rest, the positional or directionalformatives are placed before the demonstrative marker, as in the following examples.

23. roma iponne ibiser(EB)roma i-pon-ne i-biserchild 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 ofthe 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 anddirectional markers) will occur after the demonstrative:

24. iyamaiya-ma3SG.that-moving towards me‘That moving towards me’

25. iwamrumiwa-m-rum3SG.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 followingexamples illustrate:

26. *ineponine-pon3SG.this-front‘This in front’

27. *iwarumiwa-rum3SG.that-inside‘This inside

These patterns show that Biak exhibits speaker-centered utterances. In complexdemonstrative constructions, an entity can move away from the speaker in any direction (closeor remote in distance) or from any direction towards the speaker. However, the movement of theentity is not allowed from a remote area to the hearer.

The possible combinations of demonstratives and motional and directional markers areshown in table 8 below:


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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 markerDemonstratives +Motional Markerine iya iwa

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’ √ - √

1. Demonstrative + Positional/Directional Markers

Table 9 below shows the combination of demonstrative words and all positional/directionalmarkers. 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

Demonstrative + Directionals Meaning viewed from the perspective of Speakerne ya wa

pon iponne iponya iponwa this / that / that.over.there in frontpur ipurne ipurya ipurwa this / that / that.over.there at the backbab ibabne ibabya ibabwa this / that / that.over.there belowyas iyasne iyasya iyaswa this / that / that.over.there abovere ireine ireiya ireiwa this / that / that.over.there at the landsidera iraine iraiya iraiwa this / that / that.over.there at the seasidebun ibunne ibunya ibunwa this / that / that.over.there in the middle of somethingri irine iriya iriwa this / that / that.over.there outsiderum irumne irumya irumwa this / that / that.over.there inside of something

2. Demonstrative + Motional Markers

Tables 10, 11, and 12 show demonstratives combined with motion markers; –ma ‘movingtowards 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 DEM + Motion marker -ma Meaningine ine-ma this moving towards meiya iya-ma that moving towards meiwa iwa-ma that.over there moving towards me

Table 11. Dem + Motion Marker –fa ‘Moving Away from the Speaker towards the Heareror other Target.

DEM Dem + Motion marker -fa Meaningine ine-fa this moving away from me to you’iya Iya-fa that moving away from me to you’iwa *iwa-fa *that.over.there moving away from me to you’

Table 12. Dem + Motion Marker –ra ‘Moving Away from the Speaker or Hearer’

DEM Dem + Motion marker -ra Meaningine ine-ra this moving away to over there (Somewhere far away or

remote from speaker’s view point)iya *iya-ra that close to you moving away to over thereiwa iwa-ra that over there moving to over there

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For a discussion of complex demonstratives which are judged ungrammatical, see the discussionthat 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 ofpositional or directional markers (see table 9). These complex demonstratives indicate whetheran entity is moving towards or away from, as well as the direction of the entity.

28. kawasa siyamrakawasa si-ya-m-rapeople 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 demonstrativeword 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 andtowards the hearer’, –r- ‘moving away (not related to the speech situation)’ and directionalmarkers (which includes -pon‘in front of S’, -pur‘behind S’, -yas ‘above’, -bab ‘below’, orrelative to the position of the speaker and some area of orientation: ‘-ra; after –n: -da ‘betweenS 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 Dem + Motion marker –m- + MeaningDirectional marker –ra.

ine ine-m-ra this moving seawards towards meiya iya-m-ra that moving seawards towards meiwa iwa-m-ra that over there moving seawards towards me

Table 14. Dem + Motion Marker –f- ‘Moving Away (towards other Target) from theSpeaker + Directionals

DEM Dem + Motion marker –f- Meaning+ Directional marker –pur.

ine ine-f-pur this moving in your direction backwardiya iya-f-pur that moving in your direction backwardiwa *iwa-f-pur *that.over there moving in your direction backwards

Table 15. Dem + Motion Marker –r- ‘Moving Away not towards the Speaker or otherTarget’

DEM Dem + Motion marker –r- Meaning+ Directional marker –pon.

ine ine-r-pon this moving to over there, frontwardsiya *iya-r-pon that moving to over there, frontwardsiwa iwa-r-pon 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 andmotional markers.


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Table 16. Demonstrative + Position Markers + Motion Adverbs –ra, -ma, -faDEM Dem + Motion marker –r- Meaning

+ Directional marker –pon.iwa i-pon-wa-ra that over there frontward moving to over thereiya i-yas-ya-fa that above close to you moving in your direction

*i-yas-wa-fa *that above over there moving in your directionine i-rum-ne-ma this inside moving towards me

All the basic and complex demonstratives can take the prefix an-(GIV), which indicates whetheran entity being pointed out is already known to the hearer. Examples:

29. anine dobe ibiser(EB)an-ine d-obe i-biserGIV- 3SG.this 3SG-say 3SG-hungry‘This one here said (that) he is hungry’

30. ansipurne sobe sibiser(EB)an-si-pur-ne s-obe si-biserGIV- 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 an-

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-biserGIV- 3SG.that- -inward- 3SG-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 8predict 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 awayto over there’ (see table 12), and iyaswafa ‘that above over there moving in your direction’ (seetable 16). First, the formative –ya ‘that’ cannot combine with motional marker –ra because theformative –ya expresses relative distance between the speaker and the hearer, whereas theformative –ra indicates movement of an entity which is remote and not related to the speakeror the hearer. Secondly, the formative –wa expresses an entity which situated far away fromboth the speaker and the hearer. Therefore, –wa cannot combine with formative –fa whichindicates 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 ofthe possessor. Moreover, possessive pronouns always “comprise a combination of an elementdenoting the relations of possession with a demonstrative indicating the position of the entitypossessed” (Steinhauer, 1985:477). The entity possessed is marked by the the possessivepronoun. Observe the following examples:

Number Free Pronouns(Third person)

ine ‘this’close to speaker

Meaning

3sg i anine this (SG)3du su ansuine these two of them3pcl sko anskoine these three (or more) of them3pl.an si ansine these (PL.AN)3pl.inan na annaine these (PL.INAN)

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32. roma byesui (EB)roma be- -y- suison POSS- -3SG- Det.DU‘His two sons’

33. roma byedi (EB)roma be- -y- -dison POSS- -3SG- Det.SG‘His son’

As illustrated in (32) and (33), the basic possessive pronoun has two parts. The first part isthe possessive verb root be, which receives inflection reflecting the number and person properties ofthe 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 numberand 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-dison 1SG-POSS- Det.SG‘My son’

This phenomenon is superficially similar to a process of b- deletion which affects therelativizing prefix be-, which can also be realized as e- However, unlike the examples above, in thecase of the relativizing prefix, b- and Ø are truly in free variation, as illustrated by the examplesbelow.36. kawasa befur rumyansya

kawasa be-fur rum-ya-n-syapeople REL-make house-DET.SG-GIV-Det.PL.AN‘The people who built the house’

37. kawasa efur rumyansyakawasa e-fur rum-ya-n-syapeople 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 Possessoragreement

Possessorroot

POSSESSED NUMBERSG DU PCL PL.AN PL.INAN

1 sg ay-, y-

be di su-i sko-i si na

2sg -3sg -i-1du.incl ku-1du .excl nu-2du mu-3du su-3pcl sko-1pl. incl ko-1pl. excl nko-2pl mko-

3pl.an s-s-

3pl.inan n-


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All the forms in table 18 end with clause-final determiner –i, except for the third person pluralinanimate 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 possessivepronouns combined with the marker of givenness marker an-.

Table 19. Possessive Pronouns Combined with Marker of Givenness an with Singular,Dual, Paucal and Plural.

Inflection on Inalienable Possessive Pronouns

Inalienable nouns are distinguished from alienable nouns by the presence of a special possessivemarker, which refers to the possessor. Observe examples (38) and (39). Examples:

38. snari (el)sna-rimother-POSS.3SG.Det.SG‘His/her mother’

39. Yohanes swari (el)Yohanes swa-riJohn wife-POSS.3SG.Det.SG‘John’s wife’

One can test whether a noun is alienably or inalienably possessed by seeing whether the noun inquestion can be inflected for the number and person of the possessor. If a noun’s can beinflected to mark the number or person of the possessor and number and gender of the possessedentity, it is an inalienably possessed noun. On the other hand, if inflection of this sort is notpossible, the noun is question is alienable. This diagnostic should, however, be qualified, sincenot all nouns that are semantically inalienable behave in this fashion; thus, in Biak, inalienablypossessed nouns behave as a syntactic class which is not entirely isomorphic with the class ofentities which are inalienably possessed in semantic terms.

COPULAR VERBS

Overview of Two Recent Descriptions of the Biak Nominal ClausesSteinhauer (2005) and Van den Heuvel (2006) have recently provided descriptions to accountfor the properties of the Biak inflectional paradigm within nominal clauses.

Steinhauer provides a very brief description of the nominal clause constructions, statingthat:

POSSESSOR Poss. AGR Poss. Root Given.MrkrPOSSESSED NUMBER

SG DU PCL PL.AN PL. INAN1 sg ay-, y-

be an i su-i sko-i si na

2sg -3sg -i-1du.incl ku-1du .excl nu-2du mu-3du su-3pcl sko-1pl. incl ko-1pl. excl nko-2pl mko-

3pl.ans-s-

3pl.inan n-

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“Nominal clauses have a nominal predicate which is formed by a nominal stemplus 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 thirdperson),(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 ofan inanimate noun.

Table 20. Inflection on Nominal Predicates (e.g. ‘be a Teacher’)

Person SG DU TR PL1IN kuru-si-ku kuru-si-ko1EX kuru-ri-saya kuru-si-nu kuru-si-nko2 kuru-ri-saw kuru-si-mu kuru-si-mko3AN kuru-ri-ri kuru-sui-ri- kuru-skoi-ri kuru-si-ri3INAN 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 theexpression of number for third person and non-third person subjects. The two examples fromSteinhauer (2005: 804-5) below show how the forms in table 20 can be preceded by a nounphrase.

40. bin sui-wa kuru sui Riwoman 3d.DEF-DIST teacher 3d.DEF 3.COP‘Those two women are teachers.’

41. mov na-ya rum na Iriplace 3p.INAN.DEF-MED house 3d.INAN.DEF 3.COP‘Those spots are houses.’

The glossing in examples (40) and (41) follows Steinhauer’s glossing conventions, which aredifferent from my own glossing in this paper.

According to Steinhauer, “the copula can also be used after independent personalpronouns and after noun phrases, which are already definite, such as an inalienable noun or anoun 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 firstconstruction involves juxtaposition4, and is less frequent and perhaps restricted to constructionsinvolving a name such as sno-ri Vien ‘her name is Vien’, aya Hein-i ‘I am Hein’. The secondconstruction involves the copula iso. Steinhauer argues that this kind of copula is used toemphasize 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-iman 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 denHeuvel 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


41

based on Van den Heuvel’s analysis are shown in (43) to (46), (See also Van den Heuvel 2006:299-322).

43. guru risayaguru ri – i – is – ayaguru GEN.SG - 3SG – PRED-1SG‘I am a teacher’

44. guru ririguru ri – i – i – riguru GEN.SG - 3SG – PRED –ANAPH‘He is a teacher’

45. guru sinuguru si – i – nuguru 3PL.AN - PRED -1DU.EX‘We two (excl) are teachers’

46. guru suiriguru su – i – riguru 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 and312). Thus, in (43) through (46) he glosses both is and i as PRED, with each example followingpattern: (NP) + pron + is – i + pron.

If we adopt the generalization that is and i are both predicate (e.g. ‘copular’ forms) , thisanalysis is problematic when we consider sentences which are ambiguous. Example (46), forinstance 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, butrather it is part of a determiner which precedes the copular clitic form. The copular clitic formscan be –ri, -s-, or the free pronoun clitics (nu, ku, mu, mko, etc). By assuming that –ri as acopular clitic and iri as a copular verb, we correctly predict that sentence (46) will beambiguous. Although they do not specifically discuss the distinction between copular clitics andcopular verbs, both Steinhauer (2005) and Van den Heuvel (2006) provide data which issufficient to illustrate a contrast between the two types of nominal clause constructions that thispaper discusses.

My approach follows Steinhauer (2005). I support Steinhauer’s proposition that thecopula can be used after independent personal pronouns and after noun phrases, which arealready definite (See table 20 and examples 40 and 41). The difference between my work andSteinhauer’s is in the division of copular clitics and free pronominal clitics. Steinhauer statesthat a nominal predicate is formed by a nominal stem plus two clitics: (1) the clause final formof the article (with –ri, -di for the singular) plus (2) a copula which is formally identical to a freepronoun form (with s preceding first person and second person singular forms), and with –(i)rifor the third person. Data I present in this paper, however, suggests that the s preceding first andsecond person singular forms is the copular clitic –s-. The clitic –s- not only precedes the firstand 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 freepronoun clitics which are suffixed to plural animate determiners.

Based on the arguments above, I propose two types of copular forms in the Biaklanguage:

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1. Copular verbs –iri and is(o) which are used after agreement forms which arehomophonous 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 arehomophonous 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 “to be …..”

Table 22. Copular Verb iso “to be …..”

Copular Clitic Paradigm

There are three copular clitics in the Biak language. The three copular clitics are –ri, -s-, andfree pronoun clitics (–ku, -nu, -mu, -su, -sko, -ko, -nko, -mko) each of which is described indetail in nominal clause construction section. The paradigm of copular clitics is shown in table21, where the paradigm is exemplified using the predicate ‘be a teacher.’

Number Free Pronouns Free Pronouns + iri Meaning1 sg aya aya-iri It is me2sg au au-irya It is you3sg i i-iri It is him1du.incl ku ku-iri It is the two of us INCL1du .excl nu nu-iri It is the two of us EXCL2du mu mu-iri It is the two of you3du su su-iri It is the two of them3pcl sko sko-iri It is the three of them1pl.incl ko ko-iri It is us INCL1pl.excl inko inko-iri It is us EXCL2pl mko mko-iri It is you PL3pl.an si si-iri It is them AN3pl.inan na nai-iri It is them INAN

Number Free Pronouns Free Pronouns + iso Meaning1 sg aya aya-iso I am (the one who)2sg au au-iso You are (the one who)3sg i i-iso He/She is (the one who)1du.incl ku ku-iso We (two) are (the ones who)1du .excl nu nu-iso We (two) are (the ones who)2du mu mu-iso You (two) are (the ones who)3du su sui-iso They (two) are (the ones who)3pcl sko sko-iso They (three) are (the ones who)1pl.incl ko ko-iso We are (the ones who)1pl.excl inko inko-iso We are (the ones who)2pl mko mko-iso You are (the ones who)3pl.an si si-iso They are (the ones who)3pl.inan na na-iso They are (the ones who)


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Table 23. Copular Clitics Paradigm.

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 ofdirectional verbs formed using the verb roots ra and ro (mentioned above). The second setconsists of directional verbs formed using the root –is- ‘EXIST, be there (on one’s wayto/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 ‘EXIST-DIST” (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) tothe 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 combiningcopular forms with demonstratives and directionals: This first type is formed using the copularverb is- along with demonstratives and directionals. Example (47) illustrates a directional verbwith the copular verb base is- and the demonstrative –ne which gives the derived stem –isne ‘behere’.

Directional verb is-ne ‘be here’

47. isnei-is-ne3SG-be-this‘He/she/it is here’

The second type involves a combination of the copular clitic –s- with demonstratives anddirectionals. 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 theword isine ‘here is/are….,here (something) exists’

Directional verb isine ‘here is/are….’

48. isinei-s-ineDET.SG-be-this‘Here is him/her/it’

Clitics Number FreePronouns

Det +COP.clitic

Meaning

–s- 1 sg aya guru ri-s-aya I am a teacher2sg au guru ri-s-au You (SG) are a teacher

-ri3sg i guru ri-ri He is a teacher3du su guru sui-ri The two of them are teachers3pcl sko guru skoi-ri The three of them are teachers

3pl.an si guru si-ri They (PL.AN) are teachers3pl.inan na rum nai-ri They (PL.INAN) are houses

Freepronouns

1du.incl ku guru si-ku The two of us (INCL) are teachers1du .excl nu guru si-nu The two of us (EXCL) are teachers1pl.incl ko guru si-ko We (PL.INCL) are teachers1pl.excl inko guru si-nko We (PL.EXCL) are teachers2du mu guru si-mu You (DU) are teachers2pl mko guru si-mko You (PL) are teachers

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The directional verbs isne and isine can both be inflected for person, number and gender. Theycan take all personal pronouns as subject agreement. Observe (49) and (50):

Copular verb is-ne ‘be here’

49. sko-is-nesko-is-ne3PCL-be-this

‘They are here’

Copular verb isine ‘here is/are…..’

50. skoisineskoi-s-ine3PCL.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 demonstrativeine ‘this’. Directional verbs formed on the basis of the copular verb is-and the clitic–s- can alsocombine with complex demonstratives, as the following examples illustrate:51. inempur

i-ne-m-purDet.SG-this-towards me-back‘The one (passing) here moving towards my back’

52. isinempuri-s-i-ne-m-purDet.SG-be-Det.SG-this-towards me-back‘The one (passing) here moving towards my back is him’

53. isnempuri-is-ne-m-pur3SG-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 thedemonstrative marker –ne ‘here’ with the copular verb is- (24) and copular clitic –s- (25).

Table 24. Directional Verb is-ne

Number BasicDemonstrative

Verb is- + demonstrative

Meaning

1 sg ayaine ayaisne I am here2sg auine auisne you are here3sg ine isne he/she/it is here1du.incl kuine kuisne the two of us (INCL) are here1du excl nuine nuisne the two of us (EXCL) are here2du muine muisne the two of you are here3du suine suisne the two of them are here3pcl skoine skoisne the three (or more) of them are here

1pl.incl koine koisne we (PL.INCL) are here1pl.excl inkoine inkoisne we (PL.EXCL) are here2pl mkoine mkoisne you (PL) are here3pl.an sine sisne they (PL.AN) are here3pl.inan naine naisne they (PL.INAN) are here


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Table 25. Directional Verb Clitic i–s-ine

The formal distinction between directional verbs formed with the copular verb is- and copularclitic –s- will be discussed later.

NOTE

1 Infix –w- is not realised in (16), however, for glossing purposes, it is glossed here.2 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) ‘Hername is Vien’.

* I would like to thank Mary Dalrymple for her constructive criticism and suggestions for theimprovement of the paper. Thanks also to the participants of the Fourteenth Austronesian FormalLinguistic 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.

REFERENCES

Adelaar, Alexander and Nikolaus P. Himmelmann (eds). 2005. The Austronesian Languages ofAsia 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-Hollandschwoordenboek. Utrecht: Kemink & Zoon.

Hasselt, Johannes Lodewijk van. 1893. Noefoorsch-Hollandsch woordenboek tweede verbeterdeen vermeerderde uitgaaf. Utrecht: Kemink & Zoon.

Hasselt, Frans Johannes Frederik van. 1932. Fafaja ro refo bekwar ia. Amsterdam: NederlandschBijbel-genootschap.

Hasselt, Johannes Lodewijk van. and F.J.F. van Hasselt. 1947. Noemfoorsch woordenboek.Amsterdam: De Bussy.

Number BasicDemonstratives

Clitic +Demonstratives

Meaning

1 sg ayaine ayaisine Here is me2sg auine auisine Here is you3sg ine isine Here is him/her/it1du.incl kuine cuisine Here are the two of us (INCL)1du excl nuine nuisine Here are the two of us (EXCL)2du muine muisine Here are the two of you3du suine suisine Here are the two of them3pcl skoine skoisine Here the three (or more) of them

1pl.incl koine koisine Here are we (PL.INCL)1pl.excl inkoine inkoisine Here are we (PL.EXCL)2pl mkoine mkoisine Here are you (PL)3pl.an sine sisine Here are they (PL.AN)3pl.inan naine naisine Here are they (PL.INAN)

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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 LanguageUniversals.” 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 LeksikografiProyek Pengembangan Bahasa dan Sastra Indonesia dan Daerah. Jayapura: FakultasKeguruan, Universitas Cenderawasih.

Heuvel, Wilco van den. 2006. Biak, Description of an Austronesian Language of Papua. TheNetherlands: LOT Janskerkhof 13 3512 BL Utrecht.

Linguistik Indonesia, Februari 2012, 47- 67 Tahun ke-30, No. 1Copyright©2012, Masyarakat Linguistik Indonesia, ISSN: 0215-4846

POLA UNSUR SUPRASEGMENTAL NADA BAHASA TIONGHOAORANG SURABAYA

Ong Mia Farao Karsono*Universitas Kristen [email protected]

Abstrak

Berdasarkan latar belakang bahwa unsur suprasegmental nada bahasa Tionghoabersifat distingtif, makalah ini bertujuan mengungkap pola unsur suprasegmental nadabahasa Tionghoa orang Surabaya dalam kalimat berita, beserta penyebab terjadinyapola seperti itu. Pergerakan pola dianalisis dengan program Praat. Digunakan payungteori kompetensi komunikatif yang meliputi teori fonologi, sintaksis bahasa Tionghoa danpragmatik. Metode deskriptif dengan pendekatan kualitatif untuk menganalisis data.Sumber penelitian dipilih 13 orang Surabaya dari golongan intelektual ekonomimenengah. Hasil analisis menemukan bahwa tidak semua pola nada kata untuk semuajenis nada (nada satu/dua/tiga/empat/ringan) berpola seperti yang dicantumkan dalampola teori, melainkan terjadi beberapa penyimpangan. Hal ini disebabkan pola teoriyang digunakan terdiri atas dua kata saja, sementara pola dalam makalah ini berupakalimat ujaran alamiah, juga karena lebih sulit merubah keadaan otot pita suara darikendur menjadi tegang. Sementara pola nada kalimat berita bahasa Tionghoa orangSurabaya menunjukkan pola menurun, bila kalimat berita tersebut hanya memberiinformasi. Pola nada kalimat berita akan berpola naik bila pembicara tidak setujudengan informasi yang diperoleh. Terjadinya pola nada kalimat berita seperti itubergantung 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 descriptivemethod with a qualitative approach was used. Tone patterns were analyzed using a Praatprogram. Communicative competence consists of fonology, sintax, and pragmatic theorieswere refered to as a theoretical framework. The research subjects were 13 Surabayaresidents from an intelectual and midle class economy community. The analyses found outthat 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 patternswere based on two individual words, while the pattern examined were uttered withinnatural spoken sentences. It may also been caused by difficulty to strain a relaxed vocalchord. Tone patterns fall if sentences are informative. Sentence tone patterns rise if thespeaker does not agree with the information received. Sentence tone patterns also dependon 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 bahasaTionghoa bersifat distingtif. Pola nada akan membedakan arti dalam bentuk kata maupunkalimat. Seperti dikatakan oleh Zhao (1998:65) bahwa nada merupakan bagian tersulit bagisiswa yang bahasa ibu mereka bukan merupakan bahasa bernada. Berbicara bahasa Tionghoatanpa memikirkan pola nada adalah mustahil. Bahasa Tionghoa selain unsur suprasegmentalberupa intonasi berpengaruh terhadap makna kalimat, fungsi nada juga berpengaruh terhadapmakna kalimat. Berkaitan dengan fungsi unsur suprasegmental berupa nada bahasa Tionghoaterhadap makna kata, banyak kata yang ejaannya sama tetapi nadanya berbeda; bisa mengarah

mailto:[email protected]

Ong Mia Farao Karsono

48

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 yangberbeda. Kata pertama bernada empat dan kata kedua bernada tiga, akibatnya artinya berbedapula. 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 dinamakanshēngdiào atau nada, dan kedua adalah nada yang berpengaruh terhadap makna kalimatatau 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 menentukanketepatan sebuah ujaran. Berhubung selama ini belum ada yang meneliti tentang pola nada katamaupun kalimat dalam sebuah ujaran, makalah ini meneliti pola unsur suprasegmental nadabahasa Tionghoa yang diujarkan orang Surabaya yang bahasa ibu mereka bukan bahasaTionghoa. Dipilih ujaran orang Indonesia yang berdomisili di Surabaya, karena dari ujaranmereka mengandung logat Suroboyoan yang kental yang akan mempengaruhi pola nada dalamujarran 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 kemampuanfonologi yaitu ketepatan pola nada, dan teori pragmatik untuk mengutarakan maksud ujaransehingga percakapan berjalan lancar.

KOMPETENSI KOMUNIKATIF

Pada masa ini para ahli linguistik mempelajari sebuah bahasa dengan lebih menitik beratkanpada sudut fungsi dan aspek sosial. Konsep komunikatif ini didukung oleh pakar linguistik dariInggris di antaranya Firth dan Halliday. Bahkan Halliday mengembangkan suatu teori fungsibahasa, yang menyebutkan ada tujuh fungsi bahasa (Halliday, 1976:11-7), dan dua pakar utamateori komunikatif yaitu Celce Murcia atau Sandra Savignon. Dalam makalah ini hanyadigunakan teori tujuh fungsi bahasa dari Halliday. Kemampuan berkomunikasi terdiri ataskemampuan manusia untuk mengorganisasi semua elemen bahasa yang dinamakan kemampuangramatika dan kemampuan tekstual. Selain itu masih dibutuhkan kemampuan mengetahuimaksud dari pembicara yang disebut kompetensi pragmatik. Kompetensi organisatoris itu terdiriatas 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 chāoyīnduàanyīnwèi ‘terlepas dari bagian fonem’, shàngjiā chéngsù ‘unsurdasar tambahan’. Sebagai contoh nada dalam bahasa Tionghoa, suku kata yang terbentuk darifonem yang sama, oleh karena nadanya berbeda akan menyebabkan arti kata berbeda pula. Kataní bernada dua dengan huruf Tionghoa akan memiliki arti ‘lumpur’, sementara kata nǐbernada tiga dengan huruf Tionghoa akan memiliki arti ‘kamu’. Jadi nada termasuktatanan suku kata dalam ranah suprasegmental. Bila fonem rangkap yang kedua sukunyabernada tiga diujarkan berurutan akan terjadi perubahan nada. Kata nǐnhǎo misalnya,kata yang di depan akan berubah menjadi bernada dua. Gejala demikian ini termasuk dalam ciri-ciri dari unsur suprasegmental (Wu, 2000:1). Nada dalam bahasa Tionghoa bersifat distingtif.


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Kata ba [pa] misalnya, dapat memiliki berbagai arti yang berbeda berdasarkan nada yangdimiliki. Kata bā [pa] bernada satu dengan kode nada berupa garis mendatar di atas hurufhidup memiliki arti ‘angka delapan’; kata bá [pa] bernada dua dengan kode nada berupagaris naik serong ke kanan memiliki arti ‘mencabut’; kata bǎ [pa] bernada tiga dengankode nada berupa garis turun ke kanan diikuti dengan bentuk garis naik serong ke atas memilikiarti ‘memegang’; kata bà [pa] bernada empat dengan kode nada garis turun serong kekanan memiliki arti ‘berhenti’. Masih ada satu jenis nada yang disebut nada ringan, carapengujarannya tidak memiliki karakter khusus tetapi tergantung pada kata yang di depannya.Cara menuliskan kode nadanya juga tidak spesifik, boleh tidak dicantumkan kode nadanya,sebagai contoh kata (Huang dan Liao, 2005:79).

Sifat pembeda arti dalam bahasa Tionghoa sebenarnya selain nada masih ditentukanoleh bentuk huruf Tionghoanya. Dengan pengertian bahwa dari satu kata bā [pa] yang bernadasatu di atas, masih bisa memiliki berbagai arti yang berbeda berdasarkan bentuk huruf Tionghoayang tampak. Contoh, kata bā [pa] dengan bentuk huruf berarti ‘delapan’; dengan bentukhuruf berarti ‘berpegang pada’; jika berbentuk memiliki arti ‘mendambakan’; jikaberbentuk memiliki arti ‘bekas luka’, jika berbentuk memiliki arti ‘barang darianyaman bambu’. Agar dapat menggambarkan perubahan tinggi rendah nada dengan lebihkonkrit dan mudah dimengerti, bahasa Tionghoa pada umumnya menggunakan gambar ciptaandari 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 bentuknada dari ke empat nada di atas. Jadi nada ringan memiliki ciri-ciri, yaitu akan berubah-ubahtergantung pada pergerakan nada di depannya (Qian, 1995:41). Menurut (Xíng, 2003:64), nadabahasa Tionghoa juga dapat berubah, dua kata bernada tiga jika disusun berurutan, akan terjadiperubahan nada. Perubahan yang terjadi, biasanya nada kata yang terletak di belakangmempengaruhi nada kata yang di depannya. Kata bahasa Tionghoa bernada tiga jikadigabungkan 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 katabernada tiga secara berurutan, dua kata bernada tiga yang di depannya akan dibaca sebagai katabernada 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 frekuensigetar pita suara, sementara intensitas berhubungan dengan kekerasan suara atau besaramplitudo. Dikatakan bila pita suara tegang akan menghasilkan nada tinggi, bila dalam suatuwaktu tertentu getaran pita suara kerap atau frekuensi tinggi juga menghasilkan nada yang


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tinggi. Sebaliknya bila pita suara kendur menghasilkan nada rendah, getaran lambat ataufrekuensi 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 akanmengatur wilayah pergerakan setiap nada kata dalam sebuah kalimat, yang mengakibatkanwilayah 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 kalimatberita/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 yangmenceritakan peristiwa, mengungkapkan sesuatu, maupun mengomentari sesuatu. Biasanyamenginformasikan sesuatu yang baru bagi pendengar. Kalimat berita ini masih dapat dibedakanbeberapa macam, yang terpenting harus mengandung kata yang berfungsi untuk mengisahkansesuatu, yang melukiskan sesuatu, yang mendeskripsikan sesuatu, dan yang mengomentarisesuatu (Liu dkk, 2001:25). Sementara mengenai pola nada kalimat belum ada teorinyasehingga perlu diteliti.

KOMPETENSI PRAGMATIK

Menurut Wijana (1996:3) pragmatik merupakan ilmu yang meneliti makna yangdikomunikasikan oleh pembicara atau penulis (speaker meaning) dan diterjemahkan olehpendengar atau pembaca. Makna yang dikaji oleh pragmatik adalah makna yang terikait dengankonteks. Studi seperti ini perlu mengikut sertakan penafsiran yang pembicara maksudkan dalamkonteks tertentu, dan bagaimana konteks itu mempengaruhi pendengar maupun pembacaterhadap 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 tentangmakna dari pembicara yang tidak tampak (intended meaning). Dapat disimpulkan pragmatikadalah studi tentang bagaimana penyampaian maksud tersirat sang pembicara daripada maksudkalimat yang diujarkan. (Yule, 1996:3).

Pragmatik mempelajari makna secara eksternal dalam pengertian mengungkap maksudpenutur (speaker meaning). Pusat kajian pragmatik adalah maksud pembicara yang secaratersurat atau tersirat di balik tuturan yang dianalisis. Untuk memperjelas batasan ini dapatmelihat contoh berikut ini. “Wǒ gān jì qián gěi wǒ háizi. / ˈSaya baru

saja mengirim uang kepada anak sayaˈ.” Kalimat ini secara formal tanpa mempertimbangkankonteks situasi penutur merupakan deklaratif yang berfungsi menginformasikan sesuatu. Bilatuturan digunakan dalam konteks tertentu bisa mengandung makna untuk menolakmeminjamkan uang. Jadi salah satu fungsi tuturan adalah melakukan sesuatu. Hal inidinamakan tindak ilokusi (The Act of Doing Something) (Wijana, 1996:18).

Menurut Leech (1993:19-22) terdapat beberapa aspek yang harus dipertimbangkandalam 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 maksuddapat diutarakan dengan tuturan yang sama;

4. jenis tuturan dalam pragmatik adalah tindak lisan yang terjadi dalam situasi tertentu, yaknitergantung pada siapa penutur dan lawan tuturnya, serta waktu dan tempat pengutaraannya.


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METODE PENELITIAN

Menggunakan metode deskriptif dengan pendekatan kualitatif. Dasar pemikiran digunakannyametode deskriptif dan cara pendekatan kualitatif karena penelitian kualitatif lebih dapatmemahami alur cerita secara kronologis dan membimbing peneliti untuk menemukan sesuatuyang tidak terduga selama proses penelitian berlangsung. Keunggulan lain dari penelitiankualitatif adalah kata-kata yang disusun dalam bentuk cerita akan dapat memberi kesan lebihnyata, hidup, dan penuh makna (Miles & Huberman, 1992:1). Dipandang dari jangkauan waktu,penelitian ini menggunakan jangkauan waktu yang bersifat sinkronis, yaitu merujuk padapenelitian yang terbatas pada suatu waktu tertentu.

Cara memilih subjek penelitian dilaksanakan dengan observasi partisipasi, yaitu penelitimendatangi tempat-tempat kursus bahasa Tionghoa di Surabaya, atau universitas-universitasjurusan bahasa Tionghoa di Surabaya untuk berkenalan dengan para guru, mahasiswa, danpegawai tempat tersebut. Selain itu juga mendengarkan siaran radio dalam bahasa Tionghoa.Sumber penelitian berupa orang Surabaya yang tinggal di Surabaya yang memiliki ataupuntidak memilik kartu tanda penduduk (KTP) Surabaya tetapi bekerja di Surabaya. Selain itusumber data juga dipilih yang memiliki kemampuan berbahasa Tionghoa hampir sama, yaituyang sudah lancar berkomunikasi dengan bahasa Tionghoa, setara dengan standar ujian HSK(Hànyǔ Shuǐpíng Kǎoshì/ ) tingkat 6-8 (tingkat menengah tertinggi HSKadalah tingkat 8). Jumlah subjek penelitian berjumlah 13 orang dengan 8 situasi percakapanyang terdiri atas 29 kalimat. Dari 13 orang subjek penelitian hanya satu orang anak berusia 5tahun yang belum memiliki sertifikat HSK, tetapi ia berkomunikasi dalam bahasa Tionghoadengan kedua orang tuanya. Dalam makalah ini sebagai contoh dipilih percakapan antaraseorang penyiar radio Strato Surabaya, penelpon siaran radio Strato Surabaya.

Kegiatan pengumpulan data dibagi dalam tiga tahapan, yaitu prosedur pengumpulandata, transkrip data, dan pengkodean. Data mentah berupa rekaman audio yang dipadukandengan catatan lapangan ditranskripkan ke dalam lembar transkripsi data. Lembar ini berisisalinan fonetik berupa ejaan pīnyīn dan tulisan huruf Tionghoa beserta nada yang diujarkansubjek, yang selanjutnya tiap kalimat diolah kedalam gambar grafik Praat. Ejaan yangdigunakan 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-catatanlapangan hasil observasi. Dalam lembar transkrip data tertulis nomor kode, subjek, serta jeniskalimat. Berikut contoh transkrip data.

Gambar 2. Contoh Lembar Transkrip Data


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Untuk menjelaskan perubahan nada digunakan angka-angka berdasarkan teori limaderajat yang dikemukakan oleh Zhao (dalam Huang, 2005:80), yang rinciannya seperti dalampaparan 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 nadaditulis menurut tampilan grafik Praat yang tampak. Angka ini berdasarkan perbedaan ketinggianyang terjadi sehingga bukan angka yang absolut melainkan relatif. Pergerakan nada dicatatberdasarkan angka yang ditunjukkan pada ketinggian kata awal. Bila pergerakan awal dan akhirujaran sebuah nada kata berikutnya dalam sebuah kalimat menunjukkan ketinggian Hz yangtidak persis sama pada angka (1, 2, 3, 4 ,5) sebelumnya, yaitu lebih tinggi lima poin makadigunakan kode aksen diketik di sisi atas sebelah kanan seperti (1’). Bila pergerakan ketinggianHz lebih rendah lima poin dari yang ditunjukkan pada angka yang sama sebelumnya digunakankode berupa aksen diketik di sisi bawah sebelah kanan seperti (1,). Angka yang diketik di depanmenunjukkan angka menurut teori, angka yang diketik sesudah garis sama dengan merupakanangka gerak menurut data. Misalnya (2) = (4’), (2) adalah ketinggian nada menurut kaidah teoridan (4’) adalah ketinggian dari data yang diperoleh. Bila masih terjadi angka yang tidak persissama digunakan kode dobel aksen di atas atau di bawah seperti 4’’ atau 4. Angka pergerakannada 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 pengecekankeabsahan data dilakukan triangulasi pola data dengan pola teori, yaitu pengecekan pola nadagabungan dua kata yang muncul dari hasil analisis data melalui gambar Praat dengan polamenurut gambar teori. Contoh teknik triangulasi teori seperti tampak dalam Tabel 1 berikut:

Tabel 1. Contoh Teknik Triangulasi Teori dan Data Gambar Praat Gabungan Dua Katadengan Berbagai Kombinasi Nada

POLA UNSUR SUPRASEGMENTAL NADA KALIMAT BERITA BAHASA TIONGHOAORANG SURABAYA

Untuk meneliti pola nada kalimat berita bahasa Tionghoa dalam ujaran Orang Surabaya,digunakan 13 subjek penelitian dengan 8 konteks percakapan. Sementara makalah inimengambil contoh percakapan antara penyiar dan penelpon siaran radio Strato (S1.S2).Merekam percakapan mereka, dibuatkan transkrip percakapan, kemudian hasil rekaman dipilah-


53

pilah dengan program Goldwave dan kalimat yang terpilih dimasukkan ke dalam programPraat, dicatat angka-angka untuk melihat polanya. Berikut adalah kalimat berita yang diujarkanoleh 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 olehseorang penyiar radio Strato yang sedang melayani pesanan lagu-lagu bahasa Tionghoa.Berdasarkan catatan lapangan diketahui S1 ini berbicara dengan nada sopan karena sedangmelayanan penelponnya, dan diujarkan olah S1 sebagai kalimat pembuka untuk menyapapelanggannya. Untuk mendapatkan data Hz kalimat berita ini ditampilkan dengan programPraat 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 akanberubah kurvanya tidak persis sama dengan pola menurut teori. Berikut tabel analisis datanya.

Tabel 2. Nada Kata dalam Kalimat Berita S1/01/KB


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Dari Tabel 2 dan Gambar Praat 3 dapat ditemukan bentuk pola nada kalimat berita ini

secara keseluruhan menurun, karena diawali dengan kata Hěn 214 bernada tiga denganketinggian nada angka (2) berkisar 202,9 Hz. Setelah S1 mengujarkan kata terakhir huà 51Í

bernada empat diujarkan menurun hingga angka (1) berkisar di 146,5 Hz pada akhir ujaran.

Dengan demikian kalimat berita ini berpola nada menurun. Bentuk pola nada kata nín 35Ì

yang bernada dua menurut teori bergerak naik terus tetapi dalam kalimat berita ini berpolamenurun dari ketinggian nada 190,1 Hz ke 175,1 Hz. Menurut teori gerak pola nada tiga bilaterletak di tengah kalimat akan bergerak menurun, di sini pola nada kata bernada tiga memangmenurun drastis. Seperti terjadi pada kata hěn bernada tiga. Kata bernada satu berpola tidakdatar seperti dalam teori. Dari gabungan dua kata yang diujarkan terbentuk kombinasi jenis nadaseperti dalam Tabel 3 berikut ini:

Tabel 3. Paparan Pola Nada Gabungan Dua Kata Menurut Teori dan Data


55

Tuturan S1 ini untuk fungsi kepribadian (Halliday, 1976:11-17) membuat pembicaranyadapat menyampaikan perasaan, pola nada kalimat menurun. Kata kunci untuk mengisahkanperasaan ditunjukkan dengan penggunaan kata sifat hěn gāoxìng ‘juga sangatsenang’. 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 harinyamenyapa 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)


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Sesuai konteks percakapan, kalimat berita S2/02/KB ini diujarkan oleh seorang penelpon radioStrato yang sedang memesan lagu-lagu bahasa Tionghoa. Berdasarkan catatan lapangandiketahui kalimat ini diujarkan oleh S2 ketika membalas sapaan dari penyiar Strato. Untukmendapatkan data Hz kalimat berita ini ditampilkan dengan program Praat yang menunjukkanpola 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 belakangnyaakan berubah kurvanya tidak persis sama dengan pola menurut teori. Berikut tabel analisisdatanya:



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Dari Tabel 4 dan Gambar 4 ditemukan bentuk pola nada kalimat berita S2/02/KB ini secarakeseluruhan menurun. Dalam kalimat berita ini diawali dengan kata wǒ 214√ bernada tigadengan ketinggian nada angka (3) di 225,1 Hz. Setelah S2 mengujarkan kata terakhir yīn 55→

bernada satu ketinggian nada angka (5) di 175,7 Hz. Ketinggian angka (5) pada kata terakhiryang seharusnya lebih tinggi daripada ketinggian angka (3) pada kata di awal kalimat, tetapijustru lebih rendah, jadi berpola menurun. Gerak nada kata yě 214 √ oleh karena diikuti dengankata hěn 214 √ bernada tiga juga, menurut teori pola nada kata yě akan berubah menjadi35Ì, tetapi justru menunjukkan setelah naik kemudian turun. Jadi pola nada kata bernada tigatidak sesuai dengan pola teori. Dari gabungan kata yang diujarkan terbentuk kombinasi jenisnada seperti dalam Tabel 5 berikut ini:


58



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Tuturan S2 ini untuk fungsi kepribadian (Halliday, 1976:11-17) membuat pembicaranyadapat menyampaikan perasaannya, pola nada kalimat menurun. Kata kunci untuk mengisahkanperasaan 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 ketikamenjawab pertanyaan dari penelponnya tentang teka-teki yang disiarkan minggu lalu.Berdasarkan catatan lapangan diketahui S1 mengatakan bahwa jawaban teka teki penelpontersebut tidak benar. Untuk mendapatkan data Hz kalimat berita ini ditampilkan dengan programPraat yang menunjukkan pola nada seperti Gambar 5 berikut ini:


Dapat diketahui pola nada kata bahasa Tionghoa bila digabung dengan kata dibelakangnya akan berubah kurvanya tidak persis sama dengan pola menurut teori. Berikut tabelanalisis data:



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Dari Tabel 6 dan Gambar 5 ditemukan pola nada kalimat berita ini secara keseluruhanbergerak naik, karena diawali dengan kata xiě 214√ bernada tiga, menunjukkan ketinggian

nada di angka (2) berkisar 191,9 Hz. Setelah S1 mengujarkan kata terakhir cuò 51↘ bernadaempat, ketinggian angka (1) pada akhir ujaran berkisar di 258,3 Hz. Hal ini berarti bahwaketinggian angka (1) yang seharusnya lebih rendah daripada ketinggian angka (2) pada ujarankata 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 dalamkalimat berita ini berpola sebagai nada tiga penuh dengan kode 214√, dengan pola menurundahulu kemudian naik lagi. Pola kata bernada empat berpola sesuai pola teori yaitu menurunterus. Kata bernada dua bú tidak berpola naik malah menurun. Dari gabungan kata yangdiujarkan terbentuk kombinasi jenis nada seperti dalam Tabel 7 berikut ini:



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Tuturan S1 ini untuk fungsi keterwalian (Halliday, 1976:11-17), yaitu menjelaskanbahwa jawaban dari S2 itu salah, pola nada kalimat meninggi. Kata kunci untuk mengisahkan

informasi sebuah fakta ditunjukkan penggunaan kata kerja shì ’adalah’ dan kata keteranganbúcuò ’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 penelpontersebut 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 radioStrato Surabaya yang merasa jawaban teka-teki yang disiarkan minggu lalu adalah benar. Untukmendapatkan data Hz kalimat berita ini ditampilkan dengan program Praat yang menunjukkanpola nada seperti Gambar 6 berikut ini:


Dapat diketahui pola nada kata bahasa Tionghoa bila digabung dengan kata dibelakangnya akan berubah kurvanya tidak persis sama dengan pola menurut teori. Berikutanalisis datanya:



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Dari Tabel 8 dan Gambar Praat 7 ditemukan bentuk pola nada kalimat berita S2/06/KBini secara keseluruhan bergerak naik. Dalam kalimat berita ini diawali dengan kata Rán 35↗

bernada dua dengan ketinggian nada angka (3) berkisar 222,1 Hz. Setelah S2 mengujarkan kataterakhir cuò 51↘ bernada empat, ketinggian angka (1) pada akhir ujaran berkisar 307,7 Hz.Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa ketinggian angka (1) yang seharusnya lebih rendah daripadaketinggian angka (3) pada ujaran kata awal justru lebih tinggi, jadi pola nada kalimat berpolanaik. Gerak pola nada dua, yang berjumlah tiga kata (Rán dan dua kali kata bú ) ada yangsesuai teori ada yang tidak. Untuk kata Rán pola nadanya sudah sesuai pola teori bergeraknaik. Sementara untuk kata bú yang depan juga bergerak naik, tetapi kata bú yangmuncul belakangan berpola bergerak naik sedikit kemudian turun lagi. Untuk pola kata bernadaempat yang berjumlah lima kata, yang empat sudah sesuai teori bergerak turun, hanya satu katayaitu kata jiù yang berpola setelah turun kemudian naik. Dari gabungan kata yang diujarkanterbentuk kombinasi jenis nada seperti dalam Tabel 9 berikut ini:



63


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Tuturan S2 ini untuk fungsi keterwalian (Halliday, 1976:11-17) yaitu menjelaskanbahwa S2 merasa jawabannya benar. Kalimat tuturan S2 ketika berfungsi sebagai keterwalianpola nada kalimat meninggi. Kata kunci untuk mengisahkan informasi sebuah fakta ditunjukkanpenggunaan kata kerja & kata keterangan jiù shuō búcuò búcuò ’berkata tidaksalah tidak salah’. Menurut konteks pragmatik (Yule, 1996:3; Wijana, 1996:3; Leech, 1993: 19-32) menunjukkan bahwa S2 ingin menegaskan bahwa jawabannya itu juga benar, adapenyangkalan (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 radioStrato yang sedang berdiskusi dengan penelpon tentang jawaban teka-teki jawaban yang benaritu bagaimana seharusnya. Untuk mendapatkan data Hz kalimat berita ini ditampilkan denganprogram Praat yang menunjukkan pola nada seperti Gambar 7 berikut ini:


Dapat diketahui pola nada kata bahasa Tionghoa bila digabung dengan kata dibelakangnya akan berubah kurvanya tidak persis sama dengan pola menurut teori. Berikut tabelanalisis datanya:



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Dari Tabel 10 dan Gambar Praat 8 ditemukan bentuk pola nada kalimat berita ini, bilakata seruan diperhitungkan bentuk pola nada dalam kalimat berita ini secara keseluruhanmenurun karena ketinggian nada dari kata seruan awal “Ooh” 193,5 Hz, sementara ketinggiankata seruan terakhir “eeih” adalah 152,3 Hz. Bila kata seru tidak diperhitungkan kalimat inijustru bergerak naik polanya, karena diawali dengan kata dà 51↘ bernada empat denganketinggian angka (5) di 294,1 Hz dan diakhiri dengan kata hǎo 214 √ bernada tiga padaketinggian nada angka (4) di 309,2 Hz. Ketinggian angka (4) ini masih di atas ketinggian posisiangka (5) nada kata awal yaitu di 294,1 Hz, sehingga memperlihatkan pola nada yang bergeraknaik. Dalam kalimat ini hanya ada satu kata bernada tiga yaitu kata hǎo 214 √. Tampaknya

kata ini berpola sebagai nada tiga penuh yaitu berpola 214√ bukan berpola 211↘ karena terletakdi akhir kalimat. Ditemukan kata bernada satu yang seharusnya stabil pada ketinggian (5) tetapiada yang polanya bergerak naik dulu kemudian turun seperti pada kata jiā . Sementara untukkata shuō , kata ini bergerak turun dulu kemudian naik. Dari gabungan kata yang diujarkanterbentuk kombinasi jenis nada seperti dalam Tabel 11 berikut ini:



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Tuturan S1 (penyiar) ini untuk fungsi keterwalian (Halliday, 1976:11-17) yaitumenjelaskan bahwa memang jawaban S2 salah. Kata kunci untuk mengisahkan informasisebuah fakta ditunjukkan penggunaan kata kerja & kata keterangan shuō bùhǎo eeieeih ‘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 bahwajawaban dari penelponnya itu memang salah, ada unsur penyangkalan (analisis tanpamemperhitungkan kata seru) (Yule, 1996:3).

SIMPULAN

Dari contoh ujaran yang telah diuraikan di atas terbukti bahwa ketika pembicara mengujarkankalimat berita yang hanya sekedar menyampaikan perasaan untuk menyapa seperti pada kalimatS1/01/KB, S2/02/KB. Dengan pengertian bila kalimat berita berfungsi memberi informasiperasaan akan berpola nada kalimat menurun. Sementara bila pembicara merasa informasi yangia terima tidak sesuai kemudian mengujarkan kalimat untuk menyangkalnya seperti terjadi padakalimat S1/05/KB, S2/06/KB, S1/07/KB, kalimat berita ini akan berpola nada kalimat yangbergerak 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 dalammakalah ini berupa kalimat ujaran alamiah. Selain itu oleh karena ketinggian nada tergantungpada ketengangan pita suara (Luo, 2006:11; Xing, 2009:47,93; Zhou, 2003:58), dan dari hasilwawancara dengan para subjek penelitian diketahui bahwa sulit merubah keadaan otot pita suarayang kendur menjadi tegang. Kata bernada satu yang menurut teori berpola mendatar, tidakpernah berpola datar, karena sulit mempertahankan otot pita suara dalam keadaan sama dalamwaktu tertentu. Kata bernada dua yang menurut teori berpola naik terus, sering terjadi pola yangmenurun terus, atau naik-turun, atau turun-naik, karena sulit merubah ketegangan otot pita suaradari kendur menjadi tegang. Kata bernada tiga bila terletak di tengah kalimat menurut teoriberpola menurun sebagian besar sudah berpola demikian. Kata bernada empat menurut teoriberpola turun terus, sudah sesuai teori berpola demikian, karena mudah merubah keadaan ototpita suara dari tegang menjadi kendur. Kata bernada ringan tidak memiliki pola teori, dalamdata ditemukan kadang menurun terus, kadang turun-naik, kadang naik-turun, kadang turun-naik.

CATATAN

* Penulis berterima kasih kepada mitra bestari yang telah memberikan saran-saran untuk perbaikanmakalah.


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DAFTAR PUSTAKA

Fáng Yùqīng ( ). 2008. Shíyòng Hànyǔ Yǔfǎ ( ). Běijīng: BěijīngYǔyán Dàxué Chūbǎnshè.

Guō, Jǐnfú ( ). 1993. Hànyǔ Shēngdiào Yǔdiào Chǎnyào yǔ Dànsuǒ( ). Běijīng: Běijīng Yǔyán Xuéyuàn Chūbǎnshè.

Halliday, M.A.K dan Ruqaiya Hasan. 1976. Cohesion in English. London: Longman.

Huáng, Bóróng dan Liào, Xùdōng ( ). 2005. Xiàndài Hànyǔ ( ).Běijīng: Gāoděng Jiàoyù Chūbǎnshè.

Leech, Geoffrey. 1993. The Principles of Pragmatik. (Diterjemahkan oleh M.D.D. Oka).Jakarta: Universitas Indonesia.

Liú, Yuèhuá ( ); Pān, Wényú ( ); Gù, Wěi ( ). 2001. Shíyòng XiàndàiHànyǔ Yǔfǎ ( ). Běijīng: Shāngwù Yìnshūguǎn.

Luó, ānyuán ( ). 2006. Zhōngguó Yǚyán Shēngdiào Gàilǎn ( ).Běijīng: Mínzú Chūbǎnshè

Miles, Matthew B. & Huberman, A. Michael. 1992. Analisis Data Kualitatif. Jakarta:Universitas Indonesia.

O’Grady, William and Archibald, John. 2000. Contemporary Linguistic Analysis AnIntroduction. Canada: Pearson Education Canada.

Qián, Nàiróng ( ). 1995. Hànyǔ Yǔyánxué . Běijīng: Běijīng YǔyánXuéyuàn.

Sūn, Déjīn ( ). 2006. Duìwài Hànyǔ Yǔyīn Jí Yǔyīn Jiàoxué Yánjiū( ). Běijīng: Shāngwù Yìnshūguǎn.

Wijana, I. Dewa Putu. 1996. Dasar-dasar Pragmatik. Yogyakarta: Andi.

Wú, Jiémín ( ). 2000. Hànyǔ Jiélǜxué ( ). Běijīng: Yǔwén Chūbǎnshè.

Xíng, Fúyì ( ). 2001. Xiàndài Hànyǔ ( ). Beijing: Gaodeng JiaoyuChubanshe.

Xíng, Fúyì ( ) dan Wàng, Guóshèng ( ). 2009. Xiàndài Hànyǔ ( ).Wúhàn: Huázhōng Shīfàn Dàxué Chūbǎnshè.

Xíng, Gōngwǎn ( ). 2003. Xiàndài Hànyǔ Jiàochéng ( ). Tiānjīng:Nánkāi Dàxué Chūbǎnshè.

Yè, Fēishēng dan Xú, Tōngqiāng ( ). 1997. Yǔyánxué Gāngyào( ). Běijīng: Běijīng Dàxué Chūbǎnshè.

Yule, George. 1996. Pragmatics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Zhào, Yǒngxīn. 1998. Hànwài Yǔyán Wénhuà Duìbǐ Yu Duìwài Hanyu Jiàoxué( ). Beijing: Beijing Yuyan Wenhua.

Zhōu, Tóngchūn ( ). 2003. Hànyǔ Yǔyīnxué ( ). Běijīng: BěijīngShīfàn Dàxué Chūbǎnshè.

Linguistik Indonesia, Februari 2012, 69- 83 Tahun ke-30, No. 1Copyright©2012, Masyarakat Linguistik Indonesia, ISSN: 0215-4846

THE CO-OCCURRENCE OF THE CLITIC -NYA ANDDEMONSTRATIVE ITU IN SPOKEN INDONESIAN DISCOURSE

Katharina Endriati Sukamto*Universitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya

[email protected]

Abstract

Spoken discourse normally involves the communicative interaction between a speakerand his interlocutor. During the process of interaction, the speaker will always takeinto account the cognitive status of the information conveyed in the mind of theinterlocutor. The interlocutor, on the other hand, will identify the conveyed informationbased on referring expressions used by the speaker. This paper will focus on referringexpressions 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 functionsof –nya that co-occurs with itu. The finding is that when –nya and itu co-occur in asingle 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 otherhand, does not always indicate identifiability. Itu is identifiable only when it functionsas a demonstrative pronoun that refers to a previously mentioned entity. If itu is notidentifiable, its occurrence is only as a tool to help the speaker delimit a unifiedsegment 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 kognitifsebuah informasi dalam benak pendengarnya. Sebaliknya, pendengar akanmengidentifikasi informasi tersebut melalui bentuk-bentuk acuan yang digunakan olehpenutur. Makalah ini akan membahas bentuk-bentuk acuan dengan klitik –nya yanglangsung diikuti oleh demonstrativa itu dalam wacana lisan Bahasa Indonesia, untukmengetahui fungsi kedua elemen tersebut. Yang ditemukan adalah bahwa apabila –nyadan itu berdampingan dalam satu segmen tuturan, -nya selalu berfungsi sebagaipemarkah pengenal, yang merujuk pada referen yang telah disebutkan sebelumnya.Dalam hal ini klitik –nya menunjukkan milik atau asosiasi dengan referen yang lain. Itutidak selalu berfungsi sebagai pemarkah pengenal. Itu dapat terkenali apabila ituberfungsi sebagai pronomina dan merujuk pada referen yang telah disebutkansebelumnya. Jika itu tak terkenali, kehadirannya hanya sebagai alat untuk membantupenutur membatasi sebuah segmen informasi.

Kata kunci: bentuk acuan, referen, terkenali.

INTRODUCTION

The study of referential choice in natural discourse has been extensively discussed in theliterature (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 toreferents, a speaker will use different referring expressions that are based on the cognitivestatuses of the referents in the mind of the interlocutor. The interlocutor, on the other hand, cannormally identify the intended referents on the basis of the speaker’s referential choice in theongoing 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

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The noun phrase (NP) a new scarf is used here to refer to a referent that is not yet activein the mind of the interlocutor. In this case, the speaker uses the indefinite article a so that theinterlocutor can associate the form with the corresponding entity (scarf) that is new. In thesecond sentence, the pronoun it is used because the referent has been previously mentioned andtherefore it is now in the interlocutor’s focus of attention. In other words, a new scarf belongsto 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 dependenton its adjacent words. Observe the following constructed example in Indonesian:

2. Sule dan istrinya berbahagia dengan kelahiran anak merekaSule and wife his happy with birth child they

Sule and his wife are happy with the birth of their child.

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’ identifiablefor the interlocutor. In this case, –nya has a possessive function and it refers to a person namedSule that has been previously mentioned.

In spoken Indonesian, we often hear speakers who use the determiner itu ‘that’ after aNP with –nya, as in the following constructed example:

3. Sule dan istrinya itu berbahagia dengan kelahiran anak merekaSule and wife his that happy with birth child they

Sule and his wife are happy with the birth of their child.

Itu in (3) modifies the NP istrinya ‘his wife’. Itu here functions as a determiner andtherefore it is not used to track a previously mentioned referent.1 In (4), however, itu functionsas a demonstrative pronoun and therefore it can stand on its own.

4. Itu buku sayathat 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 thatmay arise is: for what purpose do speakers use the two linguistic elements together? If thereferent istrinya in (3) is already in the interlocutor’s focus of attention, what is the discoursefunction of itu then? This paper seeks to explore the discourse functions of the clitic –nya thatco-occurs with the demonstrative itu. A grammar sketch on the functions of each will beillustrated before the discussion.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

This section presents some theories about speakers’ referential choice in spoken discourse. Itincludes 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 speakerand 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 hisinterlocutor can understand what he is saying.

Oral communication is dynamic (Du Bois and Thompson 1991), and its dynamicity ischaracterized by the fact that the speaker will activate one idea after another with “a sufficientlyidentifying language” (Chafe 1994:97) during the ongoing discourse. This means that the


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speaker will use different types of referring expressions depending on the contexts of speechand also on what the interlocutor knows.

During the process of communication, the information conveyed by a speaker cannot beexpressed all at once in one utterance. As human beings we have biological constraints; we haveto breathe when we speak. Speech is thus naturally produced in segments – one is verbalizedafter another, with pauses between the segments. The segments of speech, which are referred toas intonation units (IU)2 in this paper, may contain referents that need to be activated orreactivated from time to time so that our interlocutor can identify the intended referents.

Apart from the biological constraints, human beings also have cognitive constraints, andso the way we activate pieces of information should be based on how active the information isin the mind of our interlocutors. With regard to the cognitive state of a piece of information atthe time of utterance, Chafe (1994) distinguishes three different categories of information statesbased on how “costly” the activation is. The first category is called given information, whichinvolves the least activation cost. An idea that that has been introduced is usually active in themind of the interlocutors, and therefore does not need too much activation. The second categoryis accessible information, which has a higher activation cost than given information. An ideathat was once fully active in consciousness may become semi-active after a period of time, andso 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 mayhave been previously introduced in discourse but has receded into the interlocutor’s long-termmemory or it may be totally new for the interlocutor. The degree of activation cost is typicallyrepresented 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 thespeaker’s mind are activated:

5. A: Have the animals,ever attacked anyone in a car?

B: Well Iwell I heard of an elephant,that sat down on a VW one time.There’s a girDid you ever hear that?

C: No.B: Some elephants and these

theytherethese 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 theNP an elephant. When the same referent was reactivated, the referring expression the elephantwas 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


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was already shared by the interlocutor, he expressed it by using the NP the VW. This exampledemonstrates 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 areferent in the mind of the interlocutor. It is associated with the speaker’s choice of a referringexpression and the assumption that his interlocutor can identify the referent of the chosenexpression. Chafe (1994:94) points out that there are three important components that can makea referent identifiable. They are: (1) the referent is assumed to be shared by both the speaker andinterlocutor, (2) it is verbalized in a sufficiently identifying way, and (3) it is contextuallysalient.

The identifiability of a referent may be accessed through a number of pathways. Forexample, a referent may be identifiable through previous mention. Identifiability by previousmention can be expressed by the use of personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, or a NP. Inexample (5) above, the referents the elephant and the VW are shared by both the speaker and hisinterlocutor because they have been previously mentioned. Both are verbalized in a sufficientlyidentifying way, in the sense that the use of a NP (definite article + N) should be sufficient forthe interlocutor to identify the intended referents. Lastly, the two referents are contextuallysalient as the interlocutor can focus on the ideas expressed as the elephant and the VW (Chafe1994:94).

A referent may also be identifiable by association, meaning that there is an associativerelationship between a referring expression and an associator (Ewing 1999). Observe thefollowing 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 identifiablebecause the interlocutor can associate the referent with the associator, in this case my sister whohas just got married. We see here that a first-mention referent may be expressed with a NP thatcontains 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 willnot be discussed in this paper.

THE DATA

This paper utilizes spoken Indonesian data to examine the discourse functions of the clitic –nyathat is immediately followed by the demonstrative itu ‘that’. The data was taken from fivequestion-answer sessions at a two-day linguistic conference held in Jakarta in 1996. Theduration of the recorded data is 150 minutes (each session lasts for 30 minutes). The speechesused were questions raised by the conference participants and answers given by the plenaryspeakers. The plenary speakers were Indonesian linguists from a number of universities inIndonesia. The conference participants were Indonesian linguists, teachers, practitioners, andstudents.

Although there are only 25 instances of the co-occurrence of –nya and itu in my data, Ifound this phenomenon interesting to be explored.

The examples from the data demonstrated in this paper start with an abbreviation thatappears after the number [e.g. (1) SD)]. The abbreviation indicates the initials of the fivespeakers, i.e., SD, WR, KA, MD, AH.


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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The data was transcribed by using Du Bois et al.’s (1993) transcription convention. In thistranscription system, each single line of the transcript represents an intonation unit, which isdefined as “a stretch of speech uttered under a single coherent intonation contour” (Du Bois etal. 1993:47).

After the transcription, the data were coded in Excel 1997 spreadsheet. For the purposeof 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 usedin spoken Indonesian, the following is a brief overview of the two linguistic items. Theexamples provided here are from my database.

The Clitic –nyaThe grammar books of Indonesian (among others Alwi et al 2003, Sneddon 1996) describe the useof the suffix –nya for three different functions: (1) –nya indicating possession, (2) –nya indicatingpronominalization, and (3) –nya indicating nominalization (see also Dardjowidjojo 1983). Thefirst two mentioned have something to do with anaphora, as they co-refer to a previouslymentioned entity in the discourse. As for the third category, –nya may be suffixed to a verb or anadjective to form a noun. Naturally spoken language, however, reveals that the variability of –nyais wider than that described in the grammar books. As stated by Sneddon (2006:34), the functionsof 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 referentwhose identifiability should be associated with another referent, proposition, or situationalcontext. In a few cases, -nya denotes that the intended referent is only identifiable for thespeaker. It may also be suffixed to a pronoun, a demonstrative, or an adverb. I will add threeother 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 thespeaker, and (6) miscellaneous –nya. As mentioned earlier, in Indonesian, the identifiability of areferent by association may be expressed by a nominal expression that is suffixed by –nya.4

-nya Indicating PossessionThe suffix –nya may be used to indicate possession, and formal as well as informal Indonesianuse this suffix to refer to a third person singular. In the following excerpt, the speaker isexplaining to the interlocutor that his granddaughter is now living with her parents. The suffix-nya after orang tua ‘parents’ indicates a third person possessor, that is cucu saya ‘mygrandchild’ that occurs in the previous intonation unit.

7. (SD)tinggal dengan orang tuanya.live with parents-NYA

‘My grandchild lives with her parents’’

Unlike Standard Indonesian that allows the use of possessive -nya only for a thirdperson possessor (singular and plural), spoken Indonesian uses this suffix to refer to a secondperson possessor as well, as shown in the following:

8. (WR)Terima kasih Pak Yus Badudu atas pertanyaannya.accept love Mr. Yus Badudu on question-NYA

‘Thank you, Mr. Badudu, for your question.’


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The speaker of (8) is thanking Mr Yus Badudu, the person who asked the question. Thistype of -nya occurs quite frequently in spoken Indonesian and it is commonly used as an indirectstrategy for politeness.

Another use of possessive -nya that is considered informal is the one occurring in topic-comment constructions, and -nya – which always occurs in the comment part – may refer backto a first, second, or third person pronoun (singular or plural). The following example showsthat the suffix –nya refers back to a first person singular saya ‘I’:

9. (KA)Karena saya,because Ihobinya macam-macam.hobby-NYA various

‘Because I have many kinds of hobby’

-nya Indicating PronominalizationThe suffix -nya is also used as a pronominal suffix on verbs, indicating a pronominal argumentin a clause. In the following example, the suffix -nya anaphorically refers to cucu bapak ‘yourgrand-daughter’:

10. (SD)Apakah kalimat yang dihasilkannya itu,QW sentence which PASS-result-NYA ITUbertipe subjek predikat,have type subject predicateataukah topik komen.or topic comment

‘Does the sentence produced by her have the constructions of subject-predicate ortopic-comment?’

-nya Indicating NominalizationThe suffix -nya is also used as a nominalizer, which may occur after a verb or adjective to formnominalization. In the following example, -nya is affixed to an adjective:

11. (WR)Tapi ya sulitnya bukan main.But yes difficult-NYA extraordinary

‘But it’s extremely difficult’ (lit. But the difficulty is extraordinary)

-nya Indicating Association or InferenceAnother function of -nya which is not very much elaborated in formal grammar books is the oneindicating association or inference. Here -nya is not anaphoric, but the identifiability of theentity is understood via inference or association with a referent that has been previouslymentioned. Thus, the speaker has a specific frame in his/her mind, and he/she will let theinterlocutor draw an association of what is meant by the linguistic entity affixed by -nya via apreviously mentioned referent. The following example will illustrate this:


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12. (MD)Nggak tahu di IKIP atau di mana itu ya,Not know in IKIP or where ITU yespabrik gurunya tu5 harus sadar betul .factory teacher-NYA TU must aware really

‘(I) don’t know whether at IKIP (Teachers’ College) or some other place, theteachers’ factory has to be really aware ...’

Although pabrik guru in the above example is a first-mention referent, the suffix –nya makes itidentifiable by way of a shared referent, and that is the word IKIP ‘Teachers’ College.’

–nya Indicating the Cognitive Frame of the SpeakerAnother interesting occurrence of –nya in my database is the one suffixed to a first-mentionedreferent, but there is no clue to associate it with another referent. In the following excerpt, thespeaker is giving an illustration of a detective story, but before she mentions that the illustrativescene is going to be taken from a detective story, she informs the interlocutors that she hasforgotten the name of the writer. This particular example shows that when –nya is suffixed to afirst-mention referent, and when the referent cannot be associated with the previously mentionedreferent, then –nya does not code identifiability at all. This sometimes happens in speech, whenspeakers picture their cognitive frame without considering the mental space of theirinterlocutors. 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 –nyaThe last –nya is categorized as miscellaneous –nya, as it may follow other parts of speech otherthan 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 inthe first IU:

14. (SD)Ternyata anaknya,in fact child-NYAyang besar di Jakarta ini,who big in Jakarta thistidak bisa,not canberbicara bahasa Jawa yang halus.speak language Java which politeJadi bisanya hanya berbahasa Indonesia.so can-NYA only have language Indonesia

‘In fact, their children, who are brought up in Jakarta, cannot speak politeJavanese. (They) can only speak Indonesian.’


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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 forthe purpose of this paper, I will discard all of those. Englebretson (2000, 2003, 2006) refers tothese –nya occurrences as epistemic –nya.

The Demonstrative ituThe demonstrative itu in Indonesian has a multi-purpose function. The basic function of itu is asa deictic marker (Kaswanti Purwo 1984); speakers use it to point to an object that is far fromtheir stand-point. Itu also functions to mark a noun phrase that is already active or semi-active inthe 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 PronounThe pronoun itu can be used as either a deictic marker [see example (4)] or an anaphoricexpression. It often occurs immediately after a short pause, and refers back to a referent thatoccurs in the previous intonation unit. Observe the following:

15. (SD)Misalnya l,for example litu kalau anak kita hampir bisa semuaITU if child we almost 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 thespeaker 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 issimilar 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 juga q dan ð,so also q and ðbahasa Inggris,language Englishitu tidak pernah tertanam pada otak kita,ITU not ever planted at brain wesebagai bunyi kita.as sound we

‘Similarly with (the sounds) q and ð in English, they have never been establishedin our minds as our sounds.’

Anaphoric itu does not have to occur at the initial position, but it can occur medially orfinally. In the following example, itu refers to the referent vernacular:


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17. (AH)Tapi yang namanya vernacular tu,but which name-NYA vernacular TUudah ada itu pak.already exist ITU sir

‘But the one called vernacular, it already exists, sir.’

Itu as a DeterminerThe determiner itu does not provide a way for the interlocutor to track a referent. In my spokendatabase, I found that non-tracking itu has two functions: (a) it marks a noun or NP and makesthe referent identifiable, and (b) it marks a unified piece of information in an intonation unitbefore the forthcoming information is introduced. In the following example, itu modifies alexicalized NP and makes the referent identifiable:

18. (KA)Lalu dibuat pertanyaan,then PASS-make questionSiapa mencubit dokter itu?who pinch doctor thatpertanyaan itu tidak ,question ITU nottidak gramatikal.not grammatical

‘Then a question is made: Who pinched the doctor? The question is notgrammatical.’

Interestingly, itu may occur after an indefinite pronoun or a personal pronoun, as shownin the following examples:

19. (WR)Seseorang itu selalu akan berusaha untuk mencari keseimbangan.someone ITU always will make an effort for find Balance

‘Someone will always make an effort to find balance’

20. (SD)Dia itu ditakdirkan untuk bisa menguasai ...he/she ITU PASS-destine for can masterbahasa apa pun.language any

‘He is destined to be able to acquire any language’

21. (WR)Kita itu kok kurang begitu banyak memujiwe ITU PART less so much appreciate

‘We do not appreciate much’

It is very likely that itu in the three examples above has no other function than to modifyor to delimit a linguistic entity that takes a subject position. A similar case can be observed inthe following example:


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22. (SD)Sehari-harinya di rumah itu,every day in house ITU

kami memakai tiga bahasa.we use 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 areferent 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 theheadless relative clause with itu.

23. (SD)Tidak selalu,not alwaysbahwa yang di muka itu,that which in front ITUdikuasai 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 andthe demonstrative itu to convey, track, or delimit a piece of information. In this section, we willobserve the co-occurrence of –nya and itu in a single intonation unit, and how each plays its rolein helping the interlocutors to identify a linguistic entity throughout the ongoing process ofdiscourse.

As we have discussed in the previous section, in almost every occurrence –nya helps theinterlocutor to identify the intended referent via shared information or inference. Thedemonstrative itu, on the other hand, does not always function as a tracking marker. We willnow observe the co-occurrence of –nya and itu in a single intonation unit. Observe thefollowing:

24. (SD)Untuk membunyikan bunyi b,for pronounce sound bitu,ITUvoiced onset time-nya itu berbeda.Voiced onset time-NYA ITU 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 possessorbunyi b. Itu that follows –nya just functions as a determiner, modifying the NP voiced onsettime-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 asingle intonation unit. Observe the following:


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25. (SD)Bahwa antara a,that between adengan p,with pitu,ITUletak,positionApa?whatCara pengucapannya itu,way pronunciation-NYA ITUyang paling berbeda.which most differentDalam arti a,in meaning aitu posisinya itu ada di tengah lidahnya.ITU position-NYA ITU exist in middle tongue-NYA

‘That between the (sound) a and the (sound) p, the position... what is it? The waythey are pronounced is very different. It the sense that the position of /a/ is in themiddle 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 otherinformation is introduced. The last intonation unit is interesting to be analyzed because of therepetitive occurrence of itu. As shown in the previous examples, itu that occurs at the beginningof 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 afterposisinya, the referent is already identifiable. Therefore, itu does not have any other functionthan 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 apreviously mentioned referent.

26. (MD)Kalau saya berada di ,if I exist inEh .. katakanlah di plane,PART say in planedi sana ada beberapa turis.there exist some tourist


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Dan,andBangsa Indonesia penumpangnya sangat banyak.nation Indonesia passenger-NYA very manySaya lihat di sana,I see thereBahkan itu,even ITUApa namanya?what name-NYAStewardessnya itu sudah membagikan koran-koran.stewardess-NYA ITU already distribute newspapers

‘When I was in ... let’s say in a plane, there were a few tourists. I saw that amongthe passengers there were lots of Indonesians. What’s the name? The stewardessdistributed newspapers.’

In example (26), stewardess is new information for the interlocutor, yet the suffix –nyamakes it identifiable, because it is a part of the referent plane, which has been previouslymentioned. Again, itu that follows –nya does not function as an identifiability marker; it ratherdelimits a referent whose identifiability is associated with a previously mentioned referent.

In the following example, itu occurs twice. The first one occurs before the –nyaexpression and the latter is after:

27. (SD)Jadi pengontrolan terhadap lidah,so control towards tonguebibir,lipvocal cords,vocal cordsdan sebagainya,and so ondari otak itu,from brain ITUbarangkali ya,maybe yesitu dari sononya itu sama.ITU from there-NYA ITU same

‘So maybe, control towards (one’s) tongue, lips, vocal cords and other speechorgans from the brain is inherently the same’

The first itu, which is a pronoun, co-refers to the proposition expressed in the first fiveintonation units before itu. At the same time it functions as the topic of a topic-commentconstruction. The suffix –nya which follows dari sono ‘from there’ (dari sono is actually aJakartan 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 itfunctions as a modifier of dari sononya. So, the utterance dari sononya itu is a unifiedmeaningful segment in the intonation unit, before the predicate sama ‘same’ is introduced.


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Itu, however, is identifiable in example (28), because it does not function as marker butas a demonstrative pronoun. In my data, there is only one occurrence for this.

28. (SD)Tapi waktu saya tanya,but when I askIni apa Cha?this what Cha?Dia keluarnya apa tadi.she come out-NYA what previouslyDam.damDia itu keluarnya otomatisnya itu,she ITU come out-NYA automatic-NYA ITUDam,damdan bukan jam.and not jam

‘But when I asked, “What’s this, Cha?” What did she say? Dam. She automaticallysaid that, dam and not jam.’

The utterance Dia itu keluarnya otomatisnya itu is a topic-comment construction, withdia itu [lit. ‘that she’] as the topic. The suffix –nya that occurs after keluar and otomatis refers tothe topic dia and thus makes it identifiable. Itu that follows the word otomatisnya is bothanaphoric 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 isreferential.

CONCLUSION

In this study, we have observed the discourse functions of the clitic –nya that co-occurs with ituin a single intonation unit. Both elements function as effective devices for marking informationflow. The examples illustrated in this paper demonstrate that when –nya and itu co-occur in asingle 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, doesnot always indicate identifiability. It is identifiable when it functions as a pronoun and refers toa previously mentioned entity. It is not identifiable when its function in discourse is as adeterminer. In this case, its occurrence only helps the speaker to delimit a unified segment ofinformation.

NOTE

1 The term ‘tracking’ is adopted from Du Bois and Thompson (1991) and also Himmelmann (1996).2 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 inone line.

3 In his Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian data, Sneddon (2006: 34-43) observes that the suffix –nyacould be placed in eight categories. They are: 1) –nya as a pronoun, 2) –nya as a ligature, 3) –nya as amarker of definiteness and as an emphasize, 4) –nya emphasizing words other than nouns, 5) –nya in


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topic-comment clauses, 6) –nya as a nominalizer, 7) frequent occurrence of –nya, and 8) –nyaserving two functions concurrently.

4 A more detailed discussion on identifiability pathways can be seen in Du Bois & Thompson (1991)and Ewing (1995).

5 Tu is short for itu.6 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 –nyaPART : discourse particlePASS : 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 ofChicago Press.

Dardjowidjojo, Soenjono. 1983. “A Classifier, itu, -nya, or None of the above: The way theIndonesian mind operates,” in S. Dardjowidjojo (ed.), Beberapa Aspek LinguistikIndonesia, 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 ofDiscourse Transcription,” in Jane A. Edwards and Martin Lampert (eds.), Talking Data:Transcription and Coding in Discourse Research, Hillsdale, N.J.: Lawrence ErlbaumAssociates, pp. 45-89.

Englebretson, Robert. 2000. Complementation in Colloquial Indonesian Conversation: ADiscourse-Functional Perspective. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, UCSB.

Englebretson, Robert. 2003. Searching for Structure: The problem of complementation incolloquial Indonesian conversation. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Englebretson, Robert. 2008. “From Subordinate Clause to Noun-phrase: Yang constructions inColloquial Indonesian,” in Ritva Laury (ed.), Crosslinguistic Studies of ClauseCombining: 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.


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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 Formof Referring Expressions in Discourse.” In Language, Vol. 69 No. 2, pp. 274-307.

Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. 1996. “Demonstratives in Narrative Discourse: A Taxonomy ofUniversal Uses,” in Barbara Fox (ed.), Studies in Anaphora, Amsterdam: JohnBenjamins, 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/T87-1034.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.


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 areto test what FoR is dominantly used in Rongga, Balinese, and Indonesian, and to testwhether the use of FoR affects speakers’ cognitive functioning using linguistic and non-linguistic tasks. The results indicate that the absolute FoR is prominently employed inRongga and Balinese, while the relative FoR is pervasively used in Indonesian. Moreinterestingly, the use of FoR influences subjects’ cognitive functioning. In short, thecurrent findings show that the relative FoR is not universal.

Key words: relative frame of reference, absolute frame of reference, intrinsic frame ofreference

Telah lama diperdebatkan oleh para peneliti frames of reference (FoR) apakah FoRrelatif sejatinya bersifat universal atau tidak (Herskovits, 1982; Levinson, 2003). Tujuanutama penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui FoR apa yang digunakan secara dominandalam bahasa Rongga, Bali, dan Indonesia, dan untuk menguji apakah penggunaan FoRtersebut mempengaruhi fungsi kognitif penutur bahasanya. Penelitian ini menggunakanlinguistic tasks dan non-linguistic tasks. Hasilnya menunjukkan bahwa FoR absolutdigunakan secara dominan dalam bahasa Rongga dan Bali, sedangkan bahasa Indonesiamenggunakan FoR relatif secara ekslusif. Hasil penelitian ini juga menunjukkan kalaupenggunaan 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 requirestriangulation of viewpoint, located object, and reference object and employs coordinates basedon the speaker’s viewpoint to specify the relation between the located object and the referenceobject (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 ofreference, 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 isdefined 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 andMary? …the most important property is that they will be facing each other a short distanceapart. It is in this position that John and Mary are situated for the optimal perception ofmessages – both verbal and nonverbal – from the other person…If John and Mary were side-by-side, 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:


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Figure 1. Coincidence Situation

In describing the spatial relation between the cat and the tree in Figure 1, e.g., The cat is to theright of the tree, there is a virtual point of observation coincident with the reference object thetree, i.e., the observer’s front, back, left, and right are directly shifted to the tree. The basic orderof 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 inthis situation combines the point of view of the reference object encountered with the observer’spoint of view by, following Levinson’s explanation (2003: 85), “’flipping over’ the egocentriccoordinates as if they were on a sheet of acetate, and mapping them on the tree. Thus, we havethe ‘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 justdescribed, can also be specified in the canonical encounter situation, i.e., mirror order. In thissituation, the cat could be said to be to the left of the tree. Note that the front is still the spacebetween the tree and the observer. But, to the right orientation is now derived by usingclockwise rotation starting from the front as shown in Figure 3:

Figure 3. Canonical Encounter Situation


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In addition to the relative frame of reference, English also uses the intrinsic frame ofreference, 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 relationbetween 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 theintrinsic frame of reference. Instead of using the relative or intrinsic frames of reference, thelanguages employ an absolute frame of reference, i.e., “one refers to the fixed directionprovided 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 spatialorientations as indicated by Levinson (2003).

The main objectives of this article are to investigate whether the relative frame ofreference is dominantly used in the spatial orientation of Rongga, Balinese, and Indonesian, andto test whether the use of FoR affects the cognitive functioning or spatial reasoning, i.e., the useof 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 rotationtasks, asking direction techniques, and objects reordering. The tasks included verbal expressionsto 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 (ahighly isolating language clustered in the eastern part of the Manggarai regency, betweenManggarai 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 theuse 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 thesense of Levinson (2003). Levinson (2003: 75-76) addresses the use of frames of reference in thevertical planes. More concretely, when a fly is on top of a bottle, the use of the three frames ofreference coincides. Thus, to describe the location of the fly relative to the bottle, “the fly is in linewith the top of the bottle (intrinsic), it appears above the bottle in my visual field (relative), and itis higher in the axis defined by gravity (absolute)” (Levinson, 2003: 75).

In contrast to Levinson’s explanation, the vertical planes in Rongga refers to theverticality of topography of Tanarata. Tanarata, the place where Rongga is mainly spoken, issurrounded by hills and some places located on the hills. This geographical fact makes Ronggaspeakers use particular spatial terms to refer to places that are topographically higher or lowerthan the place where the encounter takes place. In the following paragraphs I describe how suchtopography, 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 inthe 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., Ngekoand Leke that are considered “up there and far” from the speaker. In examples 1 and 2 thespeakers are in Kisol and Waelengga respectively, and the distance between the places ofspeaking, i.e., Kisol, Waelengga, and the places that are referred to, i.e., Ngeko, Leke, is “upand far” from the speakers. “Far” in this context is determined psychologically and on a metricsystem, 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.”

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1. ema ja’o wa’u pu’u zheta ata Ngekomother I come from up people Ngeko“My mother came from Ngeko.” (Arka, 2003)

2. ma’e ndi’i zheta Leke bhoda mainot live up Leke because come

ndi’i we ndia Sere ramba we’ene kazhilive 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 followingexamples.

3. le jam sembilan ke’e zhenge dere maipart o’clock nine may hear sing come

zhele mai kalaup come forest “At (about) 9 o’clock a song coming from the forest up there was heard.”

4. zheke hiwa wutu ja’o pu’u one kepala desaafter year resign I from at head 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 thecommunity as the head of the village….” (The Autobiography ofBapak Antonius Gelang in Arka, 2004b)

In example 4, when saying the sentence the speaker is in Waelengga and the referredplace, 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 (modifiedfrom Arka, 2004b) is to further illustrate the use of zheta and zhele based on the contexts justexplained. For more comprehensive discussion on the other spatial terms please refer toAryawibawa (2010).

Figure 4. The Use of the Prepositions Zhele and Zheta in Vertical PlanesRuteng/Ngeko/Leke (zheta)

Komba (zhele)

(Speaker in Kisol or Waelangga)

In addition to the spatial terms used in the vertical plane, Arka also discusses Ronggaspatial terms in the horizontal plane. However, since his discussion of this issue is brief andthere are some points that need further clarification, Rongga’s frames of reference need furtherinvestigation.

For Balinese, there is a systematic acquisition study on its frames of reference byWassmann 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 yearsof schooling) and twelve adults between 20 and 60 years of age (up to 6 years of schooling),


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with a virtually equal distribution between sexes. Moreover, a simplified version of the Animaltask, i.e., two figurines instead of three, 5- to 10-second delay, was administered to ten childrenaged 4-5 years. Wassmann and Dasen (1998) conducted two experiments, i.e., Animal-in-a-RowTask and Steve’s Mazes Task.

Wassmann and Dasen’s study shows that in the Animal task the subjects showedsystematic response of absolute frame of reference. In the second task, nevertheless, only onequarter of the subjects provided the systematic response of absolute frame of reference, andmost of them mix absolute and relative. Another quarter produced systematic response ofrelative frames of reference. For the first task, the results of the 4- to 5-year-old children can beadded. All the children used the absolute solution in the task. In short, despite the result of thesecond task, Wassmann and Dasen findings show that the absolute system is dominantly used inBalinese.

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 iseasier than the second task as, according to Wassmann and Dasen, expressed by the participantexplicitly: ‘There [on the first table] the animals are looking towards kaja; here [on the secondtable] they are also looking kaja’ (Wassmann and Dasen, 1998: 704). In the second task, asWassmann and Dasen explained, “subjects who mainly provide absolute answers explain thatthey have memorized an image of the path, and they sometimes describe its shape, ‘it’s like theletter U’, ‘like a belly curved towards kauh’. Those who give relative answers talk aboutfollowing 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 subjectsusing left or right, i.e., it is not clear whether they used Balinese left and right terms orIndonesian left and right terms. I suspect, that the use of the relative solution by the participantsin the second task might be affected by the bilinguality of the participants. Specifically, their useof right/left solution in the second task may be influenced by Indonesian, which relies upon theright/left orientation. Since I, as a native speaker of Balinese, find their account (i.e., theirresults that Balinese use relative system, though not dominantly) rather difficult to accept, Ithink 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 non-topological relations that are systematically investigated. Thus, by studying Indonesian FoRsystematically, I expect that the study provides FoR patterns among Rongga, Balinese, andIndonesian that belong to the same language family, i.e., Austronesian, and contrast the patternsto FoR of languages that do not belong to the same language family as the three languages. Inshort, the study is expected to contribute to previous discussions on cross-linguistic spatialdomains.

FRAME OF REFERENCE IN RONGGA, BALINESE, AND INDONESIAN

In the next sections, I would like to investigate frames of reference used in horizontal planes inRongga, Balinese, and Indonesian. I will use 20 utterances in this paper as part of a larger studyI conducted in Aryawibawa (2010).

METHODOLOGY

Participants

Three Balinese monolinguals (20-35 years old), and three Indonesian monolinguals (20-30 yearsold) were interviewed in Bali. The interview for four Rongga speakers was conducted only inTanarata. In my interview with Balinese consultants, I used Balinese since they did not speakIndonesian fluently, with an additional purpose to minimize the interference of Indonesian onthe knowledge they provided. I used Indonesian with my Indonesian consultants for the same

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reason. Indonesian, however, was used in my interview with my Rongga consultants because Idid not speak Rongga. To obtain true knowledge of the Rongga language and culture, I includedelder 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 evento Indonesian for prestige and economic reasons.

Procedures

The frames of reference data used in this study are those involving spatial nominals as in Thegirl is north/south of the chair for the absolute frame of reference, and complex prepositions asin The girl is in front/back of the chair for the intrinsic and The girl is to the left/right of thetree for the relative frames of reference respectively.

I elicited linguistic data for frames of reference using the rotation of objects inspired byone 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 todescribe such contexts. For example, a ball was put at a chair’s front. I then asked my languageconsultants to describe the location of the ball in relation to the chair in each language. Thechair is then rotated 180o. I again asked them to specify the current spatial relation between thetwo objects in each language.

Additionally, I used an “asking directions” technique. For example, I asked mylanguage consultants to tell me how to go to a particular place, e.g., a particular shop, someone’shouse, etc. In this procedure, I made sure that my language consultants are familiar with theplaces, 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 ofreference they predominantly used in such a task. In this fashion, I expected that I could gettheir 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 onesused by Levinson (2003). The tasks were simplified. It is simplified in the sense that I only usedthree different objects to be ordered by the participants. In this task the subjects had to identifythe 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 sametable, i.e., the table was in the north/N-south/S axis. We were facing each other. I then arrangedthree different featured objects, e.g., a toy truck, a toy house, and a ball, on the table based ontheir intrinsic features, i.e., the truck is in front of the house, the ball is in front of the truck, asillustrated below.

I told my language consultant to look at the position of the objects and remember itwell. After that, I took the three objects and switched seats with him. There is an interval ofthree-quarters of a minute delay between the stimulus presentation and the rotation (followingLevinson). I had a conversation during the delay. The purpose of such an interval is to minimizespecific short-term memory effects that could trigger the participants to use relative orientationsince 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 anatural decay period of below 30 seconds (Baddeley, 1990: 31 in Wassmann and Dasen, 1998:


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702). I then asked him to rearrange the same objects exactly in the way he saw them earlier. Theposition of the arrangement is as follows.

In addition to the featured objects, un-featured objects were also used, e.g., a bunch of keys, aneraser, and a book. The experimental procedure I did for the un-featured objects was the sameas that for the featured objects. The reason for using both featured and un-featured objects wasto see whether the features of the objects affected the ordering of the objects especially forparticipants opting for the absolute solution. In this fashion, I expected that I could tap thelanguage 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 anabsolute 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 figuresbelow. 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

Subjects’ reordering offeatured objects

Frames ofreference

1. house’s front, truck’s front, aball

R: house’s front, truck’s front, aball (3)

Absolute system


B: house’s front, truck’s front, aball (3)

Absoute system


I: a ball, truck’s front, house’sfront (3)

Relative system

Figure 6.Subjects’ Reordering of Un-featured Objects in R= Rongga, B= Balinese, I= Indonesian

No. Original un-featured objects’ordering

Subjects’ reordering of un-featuredobjects

Frames ofreference

1. keys, rubber, book R: keys, rubber, book (3) Absolute system2. keys, rubber, book B: keys, rubber, book (3) Absoute system3. keys, rubber, book I: book, rubber, keys (3) 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 locationof mountain, i.e., Mbengan, which is in the northern territory of Rongga. As mena “east” inRongga is associated with the direction where the sun rises, the other directions are determinedusing clockwise rotation, i.e., zhele “north”, mena “east”, lau “south”, zhale “west”. In thissection, I used the object rotation technique to obtain knowledge of the frames of reference usedby Rongga speakers. The spatial situation to describe was a bottle to the right/north of a chair.

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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 kursibottle that beside north side chair“The bottle is north of the 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 kursibottle that beside south side chair“The bottle is south of the chair.”

Further evidence that the absolute frame of reference is dominant in Rongga can also beseen 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 kaju Sis beside north side tree

“Sis is north of the tree.”

The dominant use of the cardinal terms can also be observed from the second linguistictask I used, i.e., asking directions. The following are the responses I got from them (only therelevant parts of the conversation between me and the participant are presented here).

8. Researcher: vende mbo ko Pa Yanani? where house the Pa Yanani “Where is Pak Yanani’s house.”

Participant: la’a molo mena teru molo zheta go to east continue to up

ndia ko mbo Pa Yanani there the house Pak yanani “Go to east and then go up. Pa Yanani’s house is there.”


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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 thechair, are the cardinal terms still used? To specify such spatial situations, the intrinsic frame ofreference is used as illustrated in examples 9 and 10:

9. peli olo wena kursibottle front side chair“The bottle is in front of the chair.”

10. peli muzhi wena kursibottle 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 frameof reference. As the examples show that Rongga, like English, uses complex prepositions olowena “front side” and muzhi wena “back side” to describe the location of the bottle relative to afeature of the chair.

Determining the front and back sides of reference objects is based on the intrinsicfeatures of the reference objects. Accordingly, the front side of a chair, as generally conceivedacross languages, is the side with its arms and with the surface on which we sit. On the otherhand, the back of the chair is the vertical surface against which we lay our back when sitting onit. 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 spatialorientations. The examples I present here are based on the linguistic tasks, i.e., the rotation andasking direction tasks, I did with my Balinese consultants. Thus, given a spatial situationbetween the located object the bottle and the reference object the chair, i.e., the bottle is to theright/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-ebottle-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 ofhills or mountains in Bali, e.g., Mount Agung, Mount Batur, and the term delod/kelod “south” isassociated to a location of sea. However, the daja/kaja and delod/kelod directions in Balineseare not fixed. If we look at the Balinese map in Figure 8 below, for Balinese people who live inthe southern part of the island daja/kaja (indicated by 1) is towards the mountains peppered inthe middle part of the island that splits the island into two (shown by the double lines in thefigure), 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 fixedwhen those people move outside their territory, or even outside Bali. But, for people who live inthe northern part of the island, daja/kaja is towards the south now because the location of themountain is in the south part of their territory.

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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 Wassmannand Dasen (1998), Aryawibawa (2010). Recall that Wassmann and Dasen’s study (1998) showsthat 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 Balineseusing “asking direction” technique that I explained in the procedures above.

The results show that all responses given by my language consultants used the absoluteframe of reference, i.e., all of them use kaja, kelod, etc. in their directions, as shown in example13 (I present the relevant parts of talks between me and the participant here):

13. Researcher: dije umah ye-e Yan? where house him-the Yan

“Where is his house Yan?

Participant: uling umah Mangaye n-kelod-an from house mangaye 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 inBalinese in their second study? I do not have much to say here. Recall now the spatial situationbetween the bottle and the chair in examples 11 and 12 above. When the bottle was placed infront or in back of the chair, as in Rongga, the intrinsic frame of reference was employed inBalinese as illustrated in examples 14-15. Determining the front or back part of referenceobjects in Balinese, like Rongga, is function-based:

14. botol-e di muka kursi-ebottle-the at front chair-the“The bottle is in front of the chair.”

15. botol-e di duri-n kursi-ebottle-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 framesof reference. In other words, the non-dominant use of relative frame of reference in Balinese, aspointed out by Wassmann and Dasen (1998), is not confirmed.

To reveal the frames of reference employed in Indonesian, I used the previoustechniques in Rongga and Balinese. Let me begin with the object rotation tasks. When I asked


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my language consultants to describe the position of the bottle in relation to the chair, i.e., thebottle was to the right/north of the chair, various responses were given by my languageconsultants as shown in examples 16-17:

16. botol itu di sebelah kanan kursi bottle that at side right chair “The bottle is to the right of the chair.”

17. botol itu di sebelah kiri kursi bottle that at side left chair “The bottle is to the left of the chair.”

Two of my language consultants provided me the spatial description of this situation likeexample 16, i.e., they used di sebelah kanan “to the right”, while one of them gave descriptionlike example 17, i.e., he used di sebelah kiri “to the left.” I further tested their knowledge byproviding another spatial situation. I put a book next to a TV, i.e., the book is to the right of theTV from my position, and a bottle next to a gas stove, i.e., the bottle is to the right of the gasstove from my position. Interesting responses were given by my language consultants. In theformer context, the same responses as examples 16-17 were given by the same languageconsultants. More specifically, two of them said that the book is to the right of the TV, whileone said that the book is to the left of the TV. In the latter context, in contrast to the formercontexts, all my language consultants gave me the same responses as illustrated in example 18.

18. botol itu di sebelah kanan kompor gas bottle that at side right stove gas “The bottle is to the right of the gas stove.”

I created another spatial context. This time, I replaced the chair in the previous situationwith a ball and the bottle remained in the same position. The three language consultants gave methe 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 Iwas 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.” Adifferent perspective, however, is given by the language consultant, who used to the left in thefirst two contexts, but to the right in the last three contexts. When I asked why he used to the leftin the first two contexts, but to the right in the last three contexts, he said, “I look at the chairand TV like humans. They have the right and left sides. When I was facing the objects, Iimagine I was facing humans. Therefore, I used to the left in the first two contexts because thelocated 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 facinghumans because they do not have the right and left sides. Consequently, I used my own right,i.e., to the right.”

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The insights of all the participants need to be stated here in order to be able to find outthe basic underlying principles motivating the use of relative systems in Indonesian. Please notethat within the system itself languages differ in applying the principles, e.g. a translationprinciple (an observer’s left/right is directly translated to a reference object with the back of thereference object is between the reference object and the observer) is used in Hausa, a reflectionprinciple (an observer’s left/right is directly mapped to a reference object with the front of thereference 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 thefront 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 cannotbe confirmed in this study since, just looking at the responses given by my Indonesianconsultants, the principles applied seems to be personal, i.e., it depends on how he/she looks atthe reference object, whether he/she looks at it as human or non-human. This finding needsfurther investigation involving more adult subjects. Recall that only three adult subjectsparticipated in this study. A systematic acquisition study including younger subjects (5-11 yearsold) is also imperative to further confirm the relative frame of reference principles inIndonesian.

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 illustratedbelow:


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In contrast to the reordering of the Rongga and Balinese subjects, all the Indonesian subjectsused the right/left orientation in solving the tasks as can be seen below. The reason is that theright/left orientations are frequently used in daily spatial orientations as confirmed in the resultsof linguistic tasks. In other words, the results here suggest that the use of spatial terms is notonly 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, thepositions of the objects were exactly the same as the ordering I had provided initially which wasbased on the objects’ intrinsic features. This indicates that such a reordering might be affectedby the presence of the features, not the fixed bearings, i.e., the absolute frame of reference, perse. To verify this, I provided objects with no intrinsic features to all my language consultantssuch as keys, a rubber, and books. The results can be seen in Figure 10:

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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 donot affect the reordering of objects. All my Rongga and Balinese subjects ordered the objectsusing 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.


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What the evidence shows is that the favored frames of reference in the three languagesseem 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 surfacedifferences. Rather, they could have cognitive effects on spatial reasoning as well. Thus, thefindings of these experiments lend further support to Levinson’ claim that language affectsspatial reasoning.

CONCLUSION

The use of frames of reference in the three languages is based upon different underlyingconcepts. Indonesian employs the relative frame of reference dominantly, while Rongga andBalinese use the absolute frame of reference. Quite interestingly, the distinct uses of frames ofreference in the three languages are not only a matter of using the systems in different ways, butin fact affect the cognitive functioning, i.e., recall memory of the speakers in the threelanguages. This conclusion can be drawn from the results of the non-linguistic tasks whichshowed the dominant use of the absolute frames of reference in Rongga and Balinese and therelative frame of reference in Indonesian in the linguistic tasks, i.e., the object rotation andasking 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 relativeframe of reference is universal is not confirmed. Even though Indonesian relies upon the relativeframe of reference, such a system is not employed in Balinese and Rongga.

As this study is still preliminary, the principles used in determining Indonesian relativeframes of reference, i.e., if it is the 180o rotation, reflection, or translation principle, need furtherinvestigation, 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 DepartmentalSeminar, RSPAS, ANU, November 2004.

Arka, I Wayan. 2005b. Spatial Expressions in Balinese and Rongga. Paper read at Congress ofthe 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.

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Herskovits, Annette. 1982. Space and the Prepositions in English: Regularities andIrregularities in a Complex Domain. Ann Arbor Michigan: University Microfilmsinternational.

Levinson, Stephen. 2003. Space in Language and Cognition. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Mintz, Malcolm Warren. 1994. A Student’s Grammar of Malay & Indonesian. Bukit MerahCentral: 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.

Linguistik Indonesia, Februari 2012, 101 -102 Tahun ke-30, No. 1Copyright©2011, Masyarakat Linguistik Indonesia, ISSN: 0215-4846

Resensi Buku

Judul : Meaning Centered GrammarPenulis : Craig HancockPenerbit : Equinox. 2005Tebal : 260 halaman

Daniel GintingUniversitas Ma Chung

[email protected]

Buku Hancock (2005) yang bertajuk Meaning Centered Grammar ini merupakan buku praktisyang memuat beberapa konsep teoritis mengenai tata bahasa Inggris. Sebagai buku yang praktis,tulisan Hancock ini sama sekali tidak berbicara tentang perdebatan linguistik kecuali bermaksudmenggugah kesadaran pembaca untuk lebih menyelami fenomena tata bahasa khususnya bahasaInggris. Kepraktisannya ini dibuktikan melalui penyedian latihan-latihan pada bagian akhir disetiap bab. Model struktur pohon (PS rules) digunakan oleh Hancock sebagai penjelas contohmodel kalimat. Paling tidak ada beberapa alasan mengapa pendekatan digunakan. Pertama,dengan pendekatan ini Hancock seolah ingin membuktikan bahwa bahasa merupakan a ruledgoverned behavior (Kadarisman, 2010). Kedua, model struktur pohon (PS rules) menjadi wadahvisualisasi konsep abstrak untuk mempermudah pembaca memahami bagaimana pola kerjakompetensi bahasa berlangsung atau bagaimana derivasi kalimat pada struktur lahir (surfacestructure) diturunkan dari struktur batin (deep structure) pada tataran sintaksis.

Tata bahasa (grammar) yang dimaksud oleh Craig Hancock tidak lain adalahkompetensi bahasa yang inheren, alamiah dari penutur asli dan yang berperan sebagai sistempembuat makna (Hancock, 2005:6). Konsep Hancock tentang natural grammar ini seakanparalel dengan konsep kompetensi bahasa dari Chomsky (1965). Dari sinilah istilah a meaning-centered grammar berasal. Peran tata bahasa alamiah (natural grammar) bagi Hancockmerupakan dalam benak penutur bahasa. Kompetensi tatabahasa alamiah ini membuat penggunabahasa mampu memahami, menjelaskan dan menggunakan properti linguistik menjadi pola-polakalimat yang baru sama sekali. Paling tidak ada tiga prinsip dasar dalam bahasa Inggris yangterkait dengan kompetensi tata bahasa penutur yaitu bagimana kata-kata itu disusun (wordorder), dibentuk (inflections) dan ditempatkan dalam posisi yang tepat dalam kalimat sesuaidengan 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 danpandangannya. Struktur bahasa terdiri atas pesan (message), interaksi (interaction) danrepresentasi (representation). Kedua, makna konteks bahasa dapat ditelusuri dari fungsi-fungsisubjek, yaitu, theme, grammatical subject dan actor. Tiga aspek fungsi subjek ini berada dalamstruktur 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 verbaadalah elemen penting dalam klausa yang berperan memberikan fungsi predikasi pada subjekfrase kata benda (Noun Phrase Subject). Ada dua hal yang ditekankan oleh Hancock ketikaberbicara tentang frase kata kerja, yaitu, tense dan aspect. Tense dalam bahasa Inggrismempunyai 7 bentuk (bentuk infinitive, bentuk kata kerja persona ketiga tunggal, kata kerjabentuk lampau beraturan dan tak beraturan, bentuk present participle dan bentuk pastparticiple). Terkait dengan aspect, Hancock (2005:79) mengatakan bahwa kata kerja dalambahasa Inggris bisa memiliki satu atau dua aspek secara bersamaan (misalkan aspek progressifdan aspek perfective).

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Menurut Hancock, karena klausa bawahan yang finit pada dasarnya adalah klausa, makastruktur ini memiliki subjek dan predikat. Ada tiga kategori klausa seperti itu yaitu klausaketerangan adverbial (adverbial), klausa isi (content clause kadang disebut noun clause) dan subklausa relatif (relative clause). Dikatakan finite oleh karena klausa ini memiliki frase kata kerjayang dikombinasikan dengan kala dan modalitas (modality). Dikatakan bawahan karena klausaini tidak bisa berdiri sendiri tanpa kehadiran klausa induk.

Hancock mencoba mengetengahkan aplikasi dan analisis tata bahasa sebagai sumberpembuat 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 completethought bertendensi untuk mengisolisir satu kalimat dengan kalimat-kalimat lain dalam teks.Sebaliknya, pemikiran yang lengkap untuk membentuk makna yang utuh dan lengkapmembutuhkan keterkaitan antara satu kalimat dan kalimat yang lain.

Ada beberapa catatan kritis yang tertinggal ketika membaca buku Hancock ini, MeaningCentered Grammar ini. Pertama, tata bahasa yang dimaksud Hancock dalam bukunya ini adalahkompetensi tata bahasa penutur asli khususnya bahasa Inggris. Bagi pembaca dengan latarbelakang penutur asli, buku ini sebenarnya berperan untuk menggugah kesadarannya (rasingawareness) akan fenomena ruled-governed bahasa.

Kedua, bila buku ini dijadikan sebagai sumber acuan untuk keperluan analisistatabahasa pada bahasa lain tentu prinsip analisis bahasa Inggris yang terdapat pada buku iniperlu diadakan proses penyesuaian (Kadarisman, 2009). Selain itu, bila buku ini digunakanuntuk keperluan mengajar di kelas, ada baiknya bila guru perlu menambah informasi latarbelakang konteks teks (isu-isu sosiolinguistik atau pragmatik) yang dijadikan model pengajaranuntuk membuat diskusi tentang tata bahasa menjadi lebih lengkap.

Sebagai penutup, buku dari Hancock ini memberikan pesan tentang peran tatabahasasangat krusial dalam membangun pesan bahasa yang bermakna. Dalam hal ini Halliday (1985)mengatakan “meanings are realized through wordings; and without a theory of wordings – thatis, a grammar – there is no way of making explicit one’s interpretation of the meaning of atext”. Bahasa adalah sistem pembuat makna. Makna-makna itu hanya akan menjadi mungkinkalau 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: EquinoxPub.

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: PenerbitUniversitas Negeri Malang.

Linguistik Indonesia, Februari 2012, 103 -104 Tahun ke-30, No. 1Copyright©2011, Masyarakat Linguistik Indonesia, ISSN: 0215-4846

JELAJAH LINGUISTIK

Rubrik ini membuka peluang untuk saling berbagi di antara kita tentang beberapakemungkinan topik ini:

a. pencanangan metode penelitian linguistik yang belum lazim digunakanb. daur-ulang metodologi penelitian linguistikc. persoalan data yang – meskipun barangkali belum ditemukan pemecahannya –

penelusurannya berpeluang membuka sesuatu yang baru yang belum pernahmenjadi perhatian peneliti terdahulu

d. penerapan teori linguistik tertentu untuk menjelaskan data bahasa sepertibahasa Indonesia yang membuat peneliti mempersoalkan teori yangbersangkutan

KATA ATAU SINTAKSIS TERLEBIH DAHULU:KASUS JABBERWOCKY DAN BAHASA ALAY

Yassir NasaniusUniversitas Katolik Indonesia Atma Jaya

[email protected]

Ada perbedaan yang besar antara Transformational Grammar (TG), yang dikembangkanChomsky dan pengikutnya pada tahun 1960-an dan 1970-an, dengan Government and Binding(GB), yang diluncurkan pada tahun 1980-an, dan Minimalist Program (MP), yangdiperkenalkan pada mulai tahun 1990-an. TG menempatkan sintaksis sebagai “pintu masukutama” 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 InsertionRule). Sementara itu, GB dan MP menempatkan leksikon sebagai “pintu masuk utama,” bukansintaksis. Di dalam kedua model bahasa ini, kata-kata diambil dari leksikon mental dan dibentukmenjadi frasa dan kalimat melalui mekanisme Teori X-Bar pada GB dan serangkaian operasipenggabungan (merger operation) pada MP (Chomsky, 1995; Radford, 1997, 2009). Untukmemerikan dan menjelaskan pembentukan frasa dan kalimat dalam bahasa alami seperti bahasaIndonesia dan bahasa Inggris, sulit bagi kita menentukan mana yang lebih baik: versi TG atauversi GB dan MP. Akan tetapi, pembentukan frasa dan kalimat versi TG yang menempatkansintaksis sebagai “pintu masuk utama” tampaknya berkinerja lebih baik bila kita kaitkan dengankasus Jabberwocky dan bahasa Alay.

Jabberwocky adalah sebuah puisi yang diciptakan Lewis Carroll. Di dalam puisi initerdapat sejumlah kata-kata “baru” yang diciptakan Lewis Carroll. Perhatikan salah satu petikanpuisi tersebut di bawah ini.

Twas brilig and the slithy tovesDid 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 bahasaInggris karena penutur tidak mengerti makna kata-kata seperti brilig, slithy, toves, gyre, gimble,mimsy, borogoves, mome, raths, dan outgrabe. Akan tetapi, struktur sintaksis petikan puisitersebut masih dapat dikenali dengan mudah oleh para penutur bahasa Inggris.

Gejala serupa Jabberwocky dapat ditemui dalam bahasa Alay, yaitu variasi bahasadalam bentuk tulis yang digunakan dalam komunikasi via SMS atau komunikasi internet melaluiFacebook atau Twitter. Bahasa Alay ini pertama-tama hanya digunakan oleh para remaja di


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Indonesia, akan tetapi kemudian para pengguna SMS, Facebook, dan Twitter mengadopsi variasibahasa ini di dalam cara berkomunikasi mereka. Karakteristik yang menonjol dari Bahasa Alayadalah 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 tidakmemiliki qMo, mANk, cLiD, wAd, cYanK, m, dan qHo di dalam kosakata mental mereka. Akantetapi, struktur sintaksis contoh kalimat bahasa Alay tersebut masih dapat dikenali oleh parapenutur bahasa Indonesia.

TG tampaknya dapat dengan mudah menangani pembentukan frasa dan kalimat dalambahasa alami maupun kasus-kasus seperti Jabberwocky dan bahasa Alay. Seperti dijelaskan diatas, 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 InsertionRule). Untuk bahasa-bahasa alami seperti bahasa Indonesia dan bahasa Inggris, struktursintaksis yang telah terbentuk diisi dengan kata-kata yang diambil dari leksikon mental.Sementara itu, untuk Jabberwocky dan bahasa Alay, struktur sintaksis yang telah terbentuk diisibukan dengan kata-kata yang diambil dari leksikon mental, tetapi dengan kata-kata baru yangdiciptakan seperti brilig, slithy, toves, gyre, gimble, mimsy, borogoves, mome, raths, outgrabedalam Jabberwocky dan qMo, mANk, cLiD, wAd, cYanK, m, qHo dalam bahasa Alay.

Sebaliknya, meskipun GB dan MP tidak mengalami masalah dalam menjelaskanpembentukan frasa dan kalimat dalam bahasa alami seperti bahasa Indonesia dan bahasa Inggris,keduanya sulit menjelaskan hal serupa dalam Jabberwocky dan bahasa Alay. Di dalam keduamodel bahasa ini, pembentukan frasa dan kalimat tidak dimulai dengan membangun struktursintaksis, 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 parapenutur sehingga menjadi pertanyaan besar bagaimana proses pembentukan frasa dan kalimatdapat 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 (7thEdition). Boston, Mass.: Thomson & Wadsworth.

Radford, Andrew. 1997. Syntax: A Minimalist Introduction. London: Cambridge UniversityPress.

Radford, Andrew. 2009. Analyzing English Sentences: A Minimalist Approach. London:Cambridge University Press.


BINCANG ANTARA KITA DARI DUNIA MAYA

DIPERINGAN: BAGAIMANA MEMAKNAINYA?

From: [email protected] On Behalf Of mido_ardianSent: Tuesday, November 08, 2011 8:54 PMTo: [email protected]: [mlindo] Diperingan

Di Salah satu laman berita saya temukan bentuk "diperingan". Lengkapnya adalah "HukumanIrfan Bachdim Diperingan" yang saya kutip dari judul berita di laman tersebut. Apakah bentukdiperingan 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 NasaniusSent: Wednesday, November 09, 2011 7:46 PMTo: [email protected]: RE: [mlindo] Diperingan

Dua-duanya ada dalam lema KBI 2008 dan ada sedikit perbedaan makna.

meringankan v 1 menjadi ringan: bantuanAnda benar-benar ~ pekerjaan saya;

2 menganggap ringan (mudah dsb):kerjakanlah dulu jangan ~ begitu saja;

memperingan v membuat jadi lebihringan: adanya pegawai baru belum ~tugas saya

Salam,Yassir Nasanius

From: [email protected] On Behalf Of Bambang Kaswanti PurwoSent: Wednesday, November 09, 2011 7:54 PMTo: [email protected]: FW: [mlindo] Diperingan

diperingan ‘dibuat lebih ringan’; diperkecil ‘dibuat lebih kecil’

diringankan ‘dibuat ringan’; dikecilkan ‘dibuat kecil’

bk

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From: [email protected] On Behalf Of [email protected]: Thursday, November 10, 2011 10:11 AMTo: [email protected]: Re: [mlindo] Diperingan

Saya tidak mengetahui persis bagaimana kamus bahasa Indonesia disusun. Saya tidak apatisdengan KBBI, hanya saja permasalahan-permasalahan seperti ini harusnya tidaklah cukupbersandar pada keterangan dalam KBBI. Mind set kita harus diubah, yaitu bagaimana diskusikita di sini justru dapat memberi masukan untuk perbaikan KBBI. Mungkin saja menguatkanapa yang sudah ada di KBBI, menambah atau bahkan mengganti.

Saya melihat bahwa baik 'diperingan' maupun 'diringankan' keduanya terdapat dalampenggunaan bahasa Indonesia. Kedua dapat ditemukan dalam data penggunaan bahasaIndonesia sebagai sebuah tuturan yang alami, wajar.

Namun, kita lihat apa yang dijelaskan dalam KKBI sebagaimana dikutip Pak Yassir kurangmembantu atau bahkan sedikit sekali membantu. Saya sependapat dengan keterangan PakBambang. Penjelasan Pak Bambang mengindikasikan bahwa 'diperingan' memiliki nosiperbandingan, sementara 'diringankan' tidak. Hanya saja penjelasan tersebut bersifat umum.Oleh karena itu, kita memerlukan data konkretnya agar paradigma penggunaan keduanyatampak jelas.

Saya belum mengetahui persis apakah nosi perbandingan pada `diperingan' berarti `keadaansudah 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 PakBambang atau teman-teman lainnya memiliki arsip penelitian tentang hal ini dan dapatmemberikan tambahan yang lebih pasti lagi.

Saya akan mulai dengan membuat sebuah analogi dengan kata yang lain yang dapat digunakanuntuk melihat perbedaannya secara jelas. Kaidahnya sama, yaitu diper/memper+Adj dandi/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 kitaberi 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.


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(5) Komputer meringankan pekerjaannya.Komputer memperingan pekerjaannya.Kita merasakan sulit membedakan perbedaan keduanya. Untuk itu kita memerlukan teknikanalisis perluasan agar tampak perbedaannya seperti pada (6) dan (7).

(6) a. *Pekerjaannya sudah ringan dan komputer sekarang meringankannya.-> tidak bisa dari keadaan ringan ke ringanb. 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 inidapat menjadi pemicu eksplorasi-eksplorasi berikutnya.

Salam,Joko Kusmanto

From: [email protected] On Behalf Of Bambang Kaswanti PurwoSent: Thursday, November 10, 2011 11:01 AMTo: [email protected]: RE: [mlindo] Diperingan

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 “tidakbergradasi” di atas itu; <sembuh> saya ganti <marah>. Tidak ada <*mempermarah>; yang ada<memarahkan> [tercatat di KBBI ed. ke-4].

bk

PSKalau dicermati, sebetulnya KBBI yang dikutip oleh Pak Yassir itu isinya sama dengan yangsaya coba tuliskan tentang <diperingan> dan <diringankan>. Pada kutipan KBBI itu jugadisebutkan ada tambahan makna ‘lebih’ pada afiks <memper->.

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From: [email protected] On Behalf Of [email protected]: Thursday, November 10, 2011 12:34 PMTo: [email protected]: Re: [mlindo] Diperingan

Apa yang disampaikan Pak Bambang menarik dan "memperdalam" diskusi masalah ini. Adabeberapa hal yang perlu dikomentari.

"Gradasi" merupakan salah satu cara yang selama ini digunakan untuk menguji apakah sebuahsatuan lingual itu adjektiva atau lainnya di dalam bahasa Indonesia (dan juga bahasa-bahasalainnya). Hanya saja saya tidak tahu persis apakah gradasi merupakan ciri untuk setiap adjektivaatau hanya untuk sebagian saja. Jika sebagian, lantas, ciri apa yang digunakan untuk mengujisebagian yang lain sebagai adjektiva.

Perlu juga kita didefinisikan lebih baik lagi apa yang dimaksud dengan "gradasi". Istilah gradasipada hakikatnya mengindikasi adanya tingkatan, misalnya gradasi warna. Kita mengenal warnadengan 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 lebihmarah 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 karenakata 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, danpaling 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 dankata "senang". Hanya saja, penjelasan sebagai ajd. Tak bergradasi tidak dapat diterimasebagaimana penjelasan di atas. Kelihatannya, ada kemungkinan adj. yang berkaitan dengankeadaan emosional/psikologis seseorang tidak dapat dilekati dengan "memper/diper".

Jika ini benar, kita selanjutnya bertanya "mengapa demikian"? Sejauh ini saya belum memilikipenjelasan yang muncul di kepala.

Salam,Joko Kusmanto


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From: [email protected] On Behalf Of Yassir NasaniusSent: Thursday, November 10, 2011 1:38 PMTo: [email protected]: RE: [mlindo] Diperingan

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 bisadilekatkan dengan afiks meN-/di-kan atau memper-/diper-(meringankan/diringankan/memperingan/diperingan). Sementara itu, tipe 'ungradableadjectives' bisa dilekatkan dengan afiks meN-/di-kan (menenangkan/ditenangkan), tetapi tidakbisa dilekatkan dengan afiks memper-/diper- (*mempertenang/*dipertenang) karenaadanya makna 'gradable' pada afiks 'per-'.

Semoga membantu.

Salam,Yassir Nasanius


Tambahan dari Pak Yassir menunjukkan betapa masalah sesungguhnya tidak sesederhanasebagaimana 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 berkaitandengan pemarkah-pemarkah seperti agak, kurang, sangat, paling, dsb. Adjektiva ungradable(tidak bergradasi) adalah jenis adjektiva lain. Tampaknya ada perbedaan yang perlu didalamiantara bahasa Indonesia dengan bahasa Inggris.

He is an Indonesian -> Dia orang Indonesia.Indonesian (kebangsaan) adalah salah satu bentuk adjektiva tidak bergradasi. Kita tidak dapatmengatakanHe is more (the most) Indonesian. (kecuali bermaksud metaforis)

Dalam bahasa Indonesia, adjektiva tersebut bentuknya sama dengan bentuk nomina-nya. KataÌndonesia' dikatakan sebagai adjektiva dalam òrang Indonesia' karena fungsi sintaktisnya yangmenjadi modifier.

Political speech -> Pidato politis.Kata political dan politis juga merupakan bentuk adjektiva tidak bergradasi. Kita jelas tidakdapat menambahkan pemarkah-pemarkan gradasi/skala. Namun, tampaknya hal tersebut masihmemerlukan 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 yangdisampaikan Pak Yassir, saya kira kita akan mendapatkan permasalahan serius.

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Pertama, konsep tersebut tidak umum dipegang oleh para linguis yang membuat pembedaan"gradable/ungradable adjective". Pada umumnya, pembedaan tersebut berkaitan dengan skalagradasi yang secara semantis, disebutkan dalam (Pander Maat, Henk. 2006. Subjectification ingradable adjectives. In Angeliki Athanasiadou, Costas Canakis & Bert Cornillie (eds.),Subjectification: Various paths to subjectivity, 279−322. Berlin & New York: Moutonde 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 PakYassir 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 orangtuanya dalam tragedi tersebut.

Jadi, saya belum sependapat dengan konsep `gradable/ungradable adjectives' yang diajukan olehPak 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 lebihsupaya tidak membingungkan) dan ada yang tidak dapat dilekati". Ini yang menarik untukdiperdalam lebih jauh lagi. Akan tetapi, saya kira permasalahannya adalah permasalahansemantis.

Salam,Joko Kusmanto

From: [email protected] On Behalf Of Yassir NasaniusSent: Thursday, November 10, 2011 7:51 PMTo: [email protected]: RE: [mlindo] Diperingan

Terima kasih, Pak Joko, atas penjelasan yang sangat mencerahkan. Konsep 'gradable/ungradableadjectives' saya sarikan dari buku Introducing English Grammar David J.Young. Berikutpetikannya:GradabilityIf something is ‘hot’, it may be ‘not very hot’ or ‘intensely hot’ or somewhere in between; thereis an open-ended, continuous scale of ‘hotness’. Adjectives that express this kind of meaning arecalled gradable adjectives. Not all adjectives are gradable; or perhaps it would be more accurateto say that adjectives are not always intended to be interpreted in a gradable sense. The ordinaryinterpretation of the word tubular in the expression tubular bells, or of poetic in poetic licence isnot 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 kelompokini dapat dilekatkan dengan afiks per- karena afiks ini mengandung makna 'gradability'.Adjektiva yang tidak termasuk kelompok 'gradable' tidak dapat dilekatkan dengan afiks per-karena adanya makna 'gradability' dalam afiks tersebut. Mungkin saja kesimpulan ini ditarikterlalu dini, sehingga perlu penelitian lebih lanjut.Thanks again, Pak Joko, for your enlightening comments and feedback.

All the best,Yassir


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Pak Yassir, sebenarnya saya ini juga termasuk salah satu orang yang sedang bingung dalambelantara ini dan belum tahu arah jalan keluarnya. Saya merasa diskusi kita semua tentangmasalah ini telah memberikan masukan yang berharga kepada saya. Tampaknya ini adalahsebuah topik yang menarik dan patut untuk diteliti lebih lanjut dan lebih mendalam.

Saya melihat petikan yang Pak Yassir sajikan memiliki kemiripan dengan apa yang sayamaksudkan. Kelihatannya Young menempatkan adjektiva `tubular' dan `poetic' secara khususdalam kata `tubular bells' dan `poetic licence'. Dalam pengertian itu, tentu saja adjektiva tersebutdigunakan untuk mengacu pada jenis lonceng dan lisensi yang dimaksud. Hal tersebutdikarenakan adjektiva dalam posisi modifier seperti itu, saya kira, bersifat definisional secarasemantis. Namun, kedua adjektiva tersebut secara umum dapat diperbandingkan seperti `leasttubular, more tubular, most tubular' dan `least poetic, more poetic, dan most poetic'. Saya kirapermasalahan tersebut muncul karena adanya campur baur dua tipe analisis yang berbeda, yaituanalisis fungsi sintaktis dan analisis peran semantis.

Apa yang disebut dengan adjektiva ungradable pun ternyata juga dapat digradasi, meskipuntidak 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 sangatbermanfaat dan permasalahan ini menjadi PR yang penting untuk didalami.

Sampai ketemu dengan topik-topik lainnya.

Cheers,Joko

FORMAT PENULISAN NASKAH

Naskah diketik dengan menggunakan MS Word dikirimkan ke Redaksi melalui [email protected] atau dalam bentuk disket dan satu printout. Panjang naskah,termasuk daftar pustaka, adalah minimal 15 halaman dan maksimal 30 halaman, denganspasi tunggal dan jenis huruf Times New Roman 11 point. Naskah disertai denganabstrak sekitar 150 kata dan kata kunci (key words) maksimal tiga kata. Abstrak dankata kunci ditulis dalam dua bahasa: bahasa Indonesia dan bahasa Inggris, diletakkansetelah judul naskah dan afiliasi penulis.

Kutipan hendaknya dipadukan dalam kalimat penulis, kecuali bila panjangnyalebih dari tiga baris. Dalam hal ini, kutipan diketik dengan spasi tunggal, menjorok kedalam (indented) sepuluh karakter, letak tengah (centered), dan tanpa tanda petik. Namapenulis 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 bagianbawah halaman (footnote).

Setiap rujukan baik artikel maupun buku tanpa dipilah-pilah jenisnya, diurutkanmenurut abjad berdasarkan nama akhir, tanpa diberi nomor urut.

· Untuk buku: (1) nama akhir, (2) koma, (3) nama pertama, (4) titik, (5) tahun pe-nerbitan, (6) titik, (7) judul buku cetak miring, (8) titik, (9) kota penerbitan, (10) titikdua (colon), (11) nama penerbit, dan (12) titik, seperti pada contoh berikut:

Gass, Susan M. dan J. Schachter. 1990. Linguistic Perspectives on Second LanguageAcquisition. 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) tandapetik tutup, (11) nama jurnal cetak miring, (12) volume, (13) titik, (14) nomor (kalauada), (15) koma, (16) spasi, (17) halaman, (18) titik, seperti pada contoh berikut:

Chung, Sandra. 1976. “An Object-Creating Rule in Bahasa Indonesia.” LinguisticInquiry 7.1, 41-87.

Steinhauer, Hein. 1985.“Number in Biak. Counterevidence to Two AllegedLanguage 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) tandapetik 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 dalamlema 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 ditulisulang secara lengkap, dimulai dengan tahun terbitan yang lebih dulu, mengikuticontoh ini:

Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1977. “Grammatical Relations and Surface Cases.” Language 53,789- 809.

Shibatani, Masayoshi. 1985. “Passives and Related Constructions: A PrototypeAnalysis.” Language 61, 821-848.


Documents

MASYARAKAT LINGUISTIK INDONESIA No. 01 Feb 2012.compressed.pdf · Linguistik Indonesia diterbitkan pertama kali pada tahun 1982 dan sejak tahun 2000 ... umumnya melalui Cabang MLI