Prosiding Seminar Nasional Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni 2016 Jurusan PBS, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan Universitas Jambi Mendalo Darat, 5 Agustus 2016
SHORT NOTICES IN BANDAR LAMPUNG: ERRORS AND VARIATIONS Redika Cindra Reranta (
[email protected]) Ingatan Gulö (
[email protected]) STBA Teknokrat Lampung Abstract: Apart from the grammatical rules set forth by grammarians and language experts, lots of interesting linguistic cases keep occurring in the society. In the use of Bahasa, for example, there are many common mistakes related to the tendency of how a society uses the language. This can be seen clearly from short notices in malls and other public places in Bandar Lampung. Such consideration has underlined the effort of conducting this research on the language used by common people in real situation. The objectives were both to describe the errors occurring and to prevent the spread of those errors. Steps taken were to gather necessary data in form of Indonesian short notices in public places. The data collected were then classified into smaller groups according to the kinds of the mistake they consisted of. Having the data classified, a comprehensive analysis were then conducted in order to be able to answer the research questions and describe the errors therewith. The data were also examined one by one so that the characteristics as well as the reasons why certain mistake occured could be thoroughly comprehended. The result of the analysis shows various kinds of findings. The first kind of error found is related orthography. The second is rather grammatical in nature. The third finding is related to the borrowing system of English words. Keywords: errors, language variety, short notices, sociolinguistics Introduction Bahasa Indonesia is one of important elements of Indonesian’s identity. It is learned by students from elementary schools to universities in Indonesia (state and private). In addition, it is also taught in some other countries such as Thailand and Italia. The use of the language as the official language in Indonesia is something ironic because there are so many mistakes produced in the society like in short notices, billboards, and advertisements. In Bandar Lampung, for instance, some errors can be easily found in public places. Some of them are considered as common mistakes and thus cause no problem for society to use them. However, this phenomenon will continue to other words if there is no action to to take. This research was conducted in order to find out the kinds of the errors made and analyze them in details. The findings were then described in order to share linguistic knowledge to fellow researchers and speakers of the language. Theory and Method In order to complete the data for this research, the researchers collected the data by taking photos of short notices, banners, billboards, and advertisements in Bandar Lampung city. The activities of taking photos were done selectively depending on how important the data were. This research employed qualitative method in which the data were classified based on the types of the mistakes. The theory used covers those principles of standard Indonesian both for the words and for the grammar as well as other related linguistic principles. Findings and Discussion As the result of analysis, the researchers classified the data found into some categories. Those categories are (1) orthographical error, (2) grammatical nature, and (3) English borrowings. 1. Orthography From the data analyzed, the writers found that most of the mistakes made in relation to the writing system occur as a result of phonological simplification. The words look differently from their acceptable forms but they sound the same when pronounced. 138
Prosiding Seminar Nasional Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni 2016 Jurusan PBS, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan Universitas Jambi Mendalo Darat, 5 Agustus 2016
The word mie ‘noodle’, for instance, was written mi in the data colected. Seen from the conventional way of writing the word, the letter e is absent in the actual use of the word mi with the same referent in the society. These two forms phonologically carry the same sound but the latter is preferred by the society as it is shorter or simpler than the former. In Indonesian vocabulary, the word for green is hijau. However, the researchers found some data in Bandar Lampung in which the form of the word has changed into ijo with the same meaning. The use of ijo is quite common in some other regions like West Java and this finding becomes a strong proof that the way the society uses a language can easily spread from one place to another. Phonetically, pronouncing ijo is much easier than pronouncing hijau as the speaker does not have to produce the glottal fricative and the diphthong sounds carried by the letter h and au. Another datum found related to this phenomenon of phonological simplification is the word tralis ‘window frames’. The word has actually been known as teralis in the society but it is interesting that in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, it is written terali, not teralis. Apart from the notion of terali here, tralis is again linguistically much simpler than teralis as the word changed from three to two syllables. This explains why tralis was found in the data being used by some people. Similar to that is the use of the word setel ‘to set’ or ‘to fix’. From the data collected, it was found that this word has changed into stel. Most of the cases occur in repair shops around the city. The word keseleo ‘sprained’ has also attracted the researchers’ attention as it was found written kasleo instead. As seen when comparing the two forms, the actual use shows that two types of change have occured here. First, the formal one has been made shorter: from a four to a three syllable word. Second, the first letter e in the conventional form has been changed into a in the datum. The replacement of e by a makes the syllable easily produced. The last datum related to the tendency of simplicatioin that the researchers need to present here has something to do with a more serious language use in the society as it deals with certificate. Indonesian word for certificate is ijazah but the researchers found data in which the word was written ijasah. It is linguistically acceptable that ijasah is easear to pronounce than ijazah but as certificates are important documents, there is a need to pay attention to the formal use of the words. In addition to the occurence of phonological simplification discussed above, there is also a fact that the variation of short notices in Bandar Lampung has resulted from linguistic background of the speakers or the language users. The words saraf ‘nerve’, provinsi ‘province’, and serifikat ‘another Indonesian word that also means certificate’ were written sarap, propinsi, and sertipikat respectively. As seen here, the voiceless and voiced labiodental fricative sounds represented by letters f and v have been replaced by a voiceless bilabial plosive sound represented by letter p in the three words. Lingusitic explanation for this rests on the fact that the local language Lampungese does not employ the voiceless bilabial plosive sound p in its vocabulary items. Depending on whether a person approches this phenomenon by being prescriptive or descriptive, it could be considered either an error or a variation of language use in the society. Among other errors and variations of short notices found by the researchers also imply confusion faced by the language users. What is meant by this is that the actual use of the language or words do not show a phonological simplification. In contrary, the actual use is more difficult to pronounce than the conventional or formal use of the underlying word. The words pengecatan ‘painting’ and penjilidan ‘book binding’, for example, were mistakenly written into pengecetan and penjilitan. In the case of pengecetan, the use of e in the syllable -cet- makes it more difficult than if the letter is replaced by letter a as in the correct form of the word. This means that the error existing here implies a different type occurence. Further, even if the other word penjilitan can be pronounced effortless, easier than that with d, the interview with the respondents speaks differently. They choices of using either that with t or d was more because they were not so sure which was correct and thus thew were confused which one to use. This led them to put whatever they thought okay at the time they made the notice. A similar case is also found related to the use of vermak or fermak. The correct use of these two forms, as found in the Indonesian dictionary, is permak ‘alterations. However, some people are not aware of this formal used and thus trapped in confusion between using voiced labiodental fricative 139
Prosiding Seminar Nasional Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni 2016 Jurusan PBS, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan Universitas Jambi Mendalo Darat, 5 Agustus 2016
sound like in vermak and the voiceless type of the same sound like in fermak. In addition to the correct form permak, vermak and fermak can be found many around Bandar Lampung. The last case that the researchers need to present related to the writing forms of the short notices taken around the city is the occurence of what can be called as a ‘cool’ way of writing it. The researchers found this datum terima qost, a notice for a vacant room, in front of a boarding house. Even though the use of qost, except indekos which means to leave in a boarding house, is not found in the Indonesian dictionary, kost or kos is more commonly used than qost by society. Here, by using qost, the owner of the building made a creative writing to attract the readers’ attention. 2. Grammatical Error The two lines below illustrate a result of grouping phrases in a notice. As the notice is quite long, it needs to be devided into two parts. The parts, however, were not made in linguistically appropriate groups. Pos Pengaduan Masyarakat atas Kinerja Kepolisian Looking at the first line Pos Pengaduan ‘a service for public complaints’ in isolation from the second, no problem is found. However, the problem appears when it is read with the next line Masyarakat atas Kinerja Kepolisian which literally means ‘Society about the Police Work’. The phrase Masyarakat does not grammatically go with the other part atas Kinerja Kepolisian. In contrary, it should be paired with the upper line so that the first will read Pos Pengaduan Masyarakat and the second atas Kinerja Kepolisian. By doing this, the last line will be in a preposition phrase and this is grammatiocally acceptable. Another datum the researchers found related to this is presented below. The notice was found in a parking area in Bandar Lampung. Mohon ... Parkir motor Anda dengan rapih In addition to placing the word mohon ‘please’ in its own line, which is debatably acceptable, the word Anda ‘you/your’ is not put together with its necessary part motor ‘motorcycle’. In this construction, to put motor and Anda in the same line is very important as they form the same noun phrase. The phrase means your bike or your motorcycle. So, it is absolutely not a grammatically appropriate one to have this notice below. Park your Motorcycle orderly It is obvious here that the word motor should go in the same line with Anda in order to have a well-formed phrase. Further, the word rapih should be replaced with rapi. They convey the same meaning but the former is an informal one and often considered grammatically unacceptable. Errors related to parallelism were also found in the data collected by the researchers. For example, there is a notice reading kambing dan masak ‘goat and cook’. The word cook here is not in the form of noun (not referring to a person who prepares food) but in its verbal form that refers to the action of cooking. Thus masak here is not parallelly used with kambing. There are many other examples for this type of mistakes found around the city. The last one is in relation to writing a foreign words such as workshop. In the data, there are several examples in which one-word linguistic items are made separated. The word workshop, for instance, was written work shop. These are among the errors and variation found related to grammatical notion of the language. 3. English Borrowing It is obvious from the data that words borrowed from English become one of popular mistakes found by the researchers. The errors were influenced by Indonesian phonological system into English word spellings. 140
Prosiding Seminar Nasional Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni 2016 Jurusan PBS, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan Universitas Jambi Mendalo Darat, 5 Agustus 2016 The words second, tubeless, and cover were written seken, tubles, and kaper. In those errors, the writers of those words wrote each word spelling based on its pronunciation usually spoken in Indonesian. In the case of seken, the syllable -cond is written -ken. Phonologically the Indonesian seken sounds similarly to the English word second. The mistake is also implied in the word tubeless. It is written tubles. The letter e in the syllable tube and one of letter s in the syllable less were absent in the actual use of the word tubles. However, people still
have the same referent for those spellings. This kind of problem also occurs in the word cover which is written as kaper. This error shows two problems which are interesting to be discussed. First, the syllable co- is written as ka- because of its pronunciation. Second, the syllable -ver is written -per due to Lampungese pronounce the sound /v/ as /p/. Another issue about English borrowings is found in only half of the words. For instance, the words laundry was written laundry and hardware became hadware. In the case of loundry, the mistake is only found in the first syllable. The last syllable -dry is written correctly. It is because the local people commonly use the letter y for the sound /i/. This kind of mistakes also happens in the word hardware which is written as hadware. The syllable hard- is written had-. It is based on its pronunciation. On the other hand, the syllable -ware is written appropriately. Conclusion The data analyzed show how errors and variation resulted from the way the society uses the language vary from one aspect to another. It has to be emphasized here, however, that the purpose of the researchers is descriptive rather than prescriptive. The mistakes and language variation have been brought about merely for a linguistic elaboration. It is true also that low education, especially less linguistic knowledge really plays a role in this matter but it is also obvious that some linguistic items have changed with patterns and with logically acceptable reasons. Bibliography Achmadi, and Suminar Setiati. 1986. Penuntun Penulisan Ilmiah. Jakarta: UI-Press. Al-Mekhlafi, A. M., and R. P. Nagaratnam. 2009. Difficulties in teaching and learning grammar in an ELF context. International Journal of Instruction, Vol. 4(2), 69-92. Bhela, Baljit. 1999. Native language interference in learning a second language. International Education Journal, Vol. 1(1), 22-31. Depdikbud. 1983. Pedoman Umum Ejaan Bahasa Indonesia yang Disempurnakan. Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan Pengembangan Bahasa. Emmaryana, Fajariani. 2010. An Analysis in the Grammatical Error in Students’ Writings. Jakarta: Syarif Hidayatullah State Islamic University. Galasso, Joseph. 2002. Interference in Second Language Acquisition: A Review of the Fundamental Difference Hypothesis. Northridge: California State University. Henderson, Michael M.T. 1985. The Interlanguage Notion. Journal of Modern Language Learning, Vol. 21, 23-27. Mustakim. 1994. Membina Kemampuan Berbahasa. Jakarta: Gramedia. Riley, Philip. 2008. Language, Culture, and Identity. London: Continuum. Sneddon, James Neil. Indonesian: A Comprehensive Grammar. London: Routledge. Tim Penyusun Kamus Pusat Bahasa. 2005. Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia. Jakarta: Balai Pustaka.
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