MISS UNIVERSE CONTEST 2010
By
DEWI PERMATA SARI 107026001180
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT
LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
“
SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH
”
JAKARTA
MISS UNIVERSE CONTEST 2010
A Thesis
Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Strata One (S1)
By
DEWI PERMATA SARI 107026001180
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT
LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY
“
SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH
”
JAKARTA
i
Dewi Permata Sari, An Analysis of Grammatical Interference in Interview Session of Puteri Indonesia 2009 on Miss Universe Contest 2010. Thesis: Letters and Humanities Faculty. UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta, 2011.
In this research, the writer discusses language interference from the grammatical aspect. It is one of bilingualism aspect that occur on the level of the structure and cultural sense whether oral or written, especially when somebody is learning his/her second language. In this case is Indonesian to English in interview session of Puteri Indonesia 2009 on Miss Universe contest 2010 as the unit of analysis of this research. It is chosen because the interviewee sometimes uses her Indonesian language that often contains error in her conversation.
The purpose of the study is to find out the types of grammatical interference and the factors cause grammatical interference in the interview. The writer focuses the study on the interview of Puteri Indonesia 2009 on Miss Universe Contest 2010. In this research, the writer uses qualitative method of content analysis, explains some theories that related to grammatical interference, and then collects the data of the interview. Based on the theories, the writer selects some sentences included grammatical interference from the interview and analyzes them one by one.
As a result of the research, the writer concludes that not all sentences spoken by the interviewee are fulfill the English Standard. It shows that there are many grammatical errors due to language interference that influence bilingual’s speech. In other words, her sentences are interfered by her mother tongue, namely Bahasa Indonesia and those caused by the interviewee did not master English grammar.
ii
AN ANALYSIS OF GRAMMATICAL INTERFERENCE IN
INTERVIEW SESSION OF PUTERI INDONESIA 2009 ON MISS
UNIVERSE CONTEST 2010
A Thesis
Submitted to Letters and Humanities Faculty in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Strata One (S1)
Dewi Permata Sari
107026001180
Approved by:
Dr. H. Muhammad Farkhan, M. Pd
Advisor
ENGLISH LETTERS DEPARTMENT
LETTERS AND HUMANITIES FACULTY
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY “SYARIF HIDAYATULLAH”
JAKARTA
iii NIM : 107026001180
Title : An Analysis of Grammatical Interference in Interview Session of Puteri
Indonesia 2009 on Miss Universe Contest 2010
The thesis entitled has been defended before the Letter and Humanities
Faculty’s Examination Committee on May 25, 2011. It has already been accepted as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Strata 1.
Jakarta, May 25, 2011
Examination Committee
Signature Date
1. Drs. Asep Saefuddin, M.Pd (Chair Person) _________ _________ 19640710 199303 1 006
2. Elve Oktafiyani, M.Hum (Secretary) _________ _________ 19781003 200112 2 002
3. Dr.H. Muhammad Farkhan, M.Pd (Advisor) _________ _________ 19650919 200003 1 002
4. Drs. H. Abd. Hamid, M.Ed (Examiner I) _________ _________ 150 181 922
5. Drs. Asep Saefuddin, M.Pd (Examiner II) _________ _________ 19640710 199303 1 006
iv
I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and that, to the best of my
knowledge and belief, it contains no material previously published or written by
another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for
award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institute of higher
learning, except where due to acknowledgement has been made in the text.
Jakarta, May 18, 2011
v
All praises to Allah SWT, Almighty and Merciful, The Great Creator
and The Lord of Universe, for guiding the writer amazingly and mysteriously
during the process of this research. Peace and salutation are upon the greatest
prophet, Muhammad SAW, his family, and his companions.
The writer would like to give her sincerest gratitude to her beloved
parents, her father, for giving advice, understanding, and financial encouragement
during the process of her thesis, also her mother, for her everlasting love and her
every-time-prayers. It makes the writer realize that she would have never finished
her study without their support.
The writer also would like to express her deepest gratitude to the
individuals for helping her finishing this thesis and for their contribution in the
process of writing until it had become a complete work. They are as follows:
1. Dr. Abd. Wahid Hasyim, M.Ag, the Dean of Letters and Humaties
Faculty.
2. Dr. H. Muhammad Farkhan, M.Pd, the Vice Dean of Letters and
Humanities Faculty and also as the writer’s advisor of for guiding and suggesting her in making a good thesis from the beginning until the end
of writing.
3. Drs. A. Saefuddin, M.Pd, the Head of English Letters Department and
vi
5. All the staff of library and academic of Adab and Humanities Faculty
and State Islamic University.
6. The writer’s beloved brother Praka Nanang Nur Anhar along with his wife, Rita Anita Sari, for becoming inspiration of her success and always
give her support; financially, morally and spiritually.
7. The writer’s friends: Yasir Mubarok, Ka’ Nopita and Ka’ Denny, for help and support in making this thesis; Esa Yolanda, Nur Izma, Putri
Martanti, Nurul Laily, and Cici Puput for the wonderful friendship and
for the help in the process of writing; Sohibussirri, Sangkawentar,
Hendri Aditia, for laughs and every funniest things they brought.
8. All fellows at English Letter Department especially Linguistics class
who cannot be mentioned one by one.
May Allah SWT, The Almighty and The Merciful, bless them all. The
writer realizes that this paper is not fully perfect. Therefore, the writer would like
to accept any constructive suggestion to make this paper better.
Jakarta, April 15, 2011
vii
ABSTRACT ………... i
APPROVEMENT ……….... ii
LEGALIZATION ………... iii
DECLARATION ………. iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .…….……….… v
TABLE OF CONTENTS ……….. vii
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ……….... 1
A. Background of Study ………...1
B. Focus of the Study ……….. 5
C. Research Question ………5
D. Objective of the Research ……….. 6
E. Significance of the Research ………. 6
F. Research Methodology ………6
1. Method of the Research ……… 6
2. Data Analysis ………. 7
3. Instrument of the Research ……….. 7
4. Unit of Analysis ……… 7
5. Time and Venue ……… 8
CHAPTER II. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ……...………... 9
A. Grammar ………... 9
1. The Definition of Grammar ………. 9
2. Types of Grammar ………... 12
B. Grammatical Interference ……… 13
1. The Definition of Grammatical Interference ……… 13
2. Types of Grammatical Interference ……….. 16
viii
Interference ………..
D. Error Analysis ... 22
1. Morphological Error ... 22
2. Syntax Error ………... 23
CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDINGS ………...………. 24
A. Data Description ……….…24
B. Data Analysis ………. 28
CHAPTER IV CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION ... 46
A. Conclusion ... 46
B. Suggestion ………..…… 47
BIBLIOGRAPHY ……….. 49
1 A. Background of Study
Language is always changing, evolving, and adapting to the needs of its
users. These happening exist because of social, economic, and cultural contact. As
an integral part of culture, language cannot be separated from the problem
mentioned above. People cannot avoid the language interplay, especially in an
open speech community, which has a relationship with another one. The
communities will have a contact language with all linguistic events as
consequences.
If the same speaker uses two or more languages interchangeably, it
means that the language is in a state of contact. The language contact between first
language and second language will create interplay. As a result, many language
problems arise in human life, either oral or written.
People speaking divergent languages populate many areas of the world.
This diversity often comes as a classic problem in human communication.
Therefore, a language may become a lingua franca to ease communication among
people based on understanding among them.1 English has become “the lingua
franca of the world” to substitute Latin in the previous time.2
As an international
language, English is widely used in every corner of the world, either as a native
1
Abdul Chaer dan Leonie Agustina, Sosiolinguistik: Suatu Pengantar (Jakarta: Rineka Cipta, 1995), p. 109.
2
language or a second language and almost information on any subject presented in
English, so that the rest of the world knows what is new. For this reason, scholars
and educated people need to be able to use English.
In Indonesia, English is used mostly as the first foreign language.
Considering this status, English is acquired only through learning and teaching
activity design and conducted as well as possible. Nowadays, many Indonesian
people are able to speak English, but not all of them speak the language in the
right way and base on Standard English. When they speak, their English are often
interfered with Indonesian structure as their native language. It is occurred
because they think that the main purpose of their communication is just
understanding, then the communicators can catch what they say even its grammar
is neglected. This phenomenon happens in bilingual or multilingual countries,
either in the movie dialogues, interview, newspapers, books, and magazines, or
even in the high-class contest, such as Miss Universe. If their sentences are
analyzed one by one, there are some errors reflecting the structure of Indonesian
language. Some sentences may not contain any grammatical errors, but it
sometimes sounded uncommon and awkward in English.
Indonesian people sometimes transfer the structure of their first language
into another one, in this case, Indonesian who knows English. If these two
language structures were same, it would not be an important problem, because it is
helpful based on alignment and similarity. It is mentioned as positive transfer.3
3
However, the opposite case would happen if the two systems were
different then the chaos begins. This transfer is known as negative transfer.
Negative transfer occurs when a speaker adopts the system of his/her native
language on the target language that was not the same language, for example,
Indonesian language has defined-define (DM) pattern, but in contrast English has
define–defined (MD) pattern. Therefore, when they translated a phrase new house
into English, their translation would be house new that should be new house.
Aware or not, bilingual speakers often do this kind of transfer that more
recognized as language interference4.
How far this language interference comes about, of course, depends on
how far bilinguals master their target language. If they do not understand even
master the target language, they will mostly transfer their source language
structure into target language. The similar case happened to Qori Sandioriva, the
winner of Puteri Indonesia 2009. She got a lot of criticism in public through her
speech in interview session on Miss Universe 2010, which is „so indigenous”. She
made lots of error when she answered several questions from interviewer, so her
English sounded awkward because she broke the rules of Standard English.
Errors occurs on various aspects of language and happens both on oral
and written5. Therefore, the awkward and uncommon sentences often come up.
Weinreich says, “Interference is the occurrence of these deviations which occur in
4
Ibid, p. 15.
5
the speech of bilinguals as a result of their familiarity with more than one
language and language contacts.”6
The language interference also occurs on various aspect of language,
such as phonology, syntax, morphology, and lexical. Interference happened at
level of morphology and syntax is called grammatical interference. It happened
when Puteri Indonesia 2009, Qory Sandioriva, stated her opinions in interview
session on Miss Universe Contest 2010, which took place in Las Vegas, United
States on August 17, 2010. She mostly transferred the structure of Bahasa
Indonesia into English without realizing that this transfer led her into error due to
language interference. This situation attracted the writer to analyze them further.
In the interview session, Qory still adopted the structure of Bahasa
Indonesia when she was answering some question in English. As quoted from the
video, when the interviewer asked, “Being a woman, what piece of advice would you give to a man?” Qory replied “I think when you down, your woman can make you up”. Maybe she wanted to say that when men feel upset, women can cheer them up, but the message becomes ambiguous because it
deviates from Standard English grammar. The absence of auxiliary verb (are) and
ambiguous sentence form bad sentence. Instead, good sentences suppose to
appropriate with Standard English grammar and does not create double meanings,
such as “When you fall down, your woman can raise you up.”
Based on description above, the writer is interested to learn about how
source language do interfere target language in English conversation. In addition,
6
the writer also wants to find out why and what factors that cause the grammatical
interference in interview session of Puteri Indonesia 2009 on Miss Universe
Contest 2010. As a hypothesis, grammatical interference creates errors in using
target language and it occurs because the lack of competance leads her to transfer
the structure of Bahasa Indonesia as her source language into English as the target
language uncontrollable. As a result, her English sounds awkward because it
deviates from Standard English.
B. Focus of the Study
Based on the background of study above, this research will be focus on
grammatical interference in English Sentences of interview session of Puteri
Indonesia 2009 on Miss Universe Contest 2010. Here, the writer tries to analyze
the sentences that sound awkward and uncommon in English spoken standard
based on linguistics theories that related to this research.
C. Research Question
According to the focus of the study, the writer proposes two questions
that will be interesting to discuss as follows:
1. What types of grammatical interference that occur in English sentences of interview session of Puteri Indonesia 2009 on Miss Universe Contest
2010?
2. What are the factors that cause grammatical interference in English sentences of interview session of Puteri Indonesia 2009 on Miss
D. Significance of the Research
The writer hopes this thesis can be useful to enrich the writer‟s
knowledge about linguistics, especially in the field of grammar, to find out the
factors of grammatical interference. Moreover, the writer also hopes that this
thesis can be helpful to understand how far source language interfere someone
when using target language in communication. Beside that, the writer hopes this
thesis can be benefit for readers as bilingual users in order to minimize and
anticipate the mistakes in their English speech and writing because of interference
of grammar.
E. Research Methodology
1. Objective of the Research
The objective of the research is to analyze the types of grammatical
interference in English sentences of Puteri Indonesia 2009‟s interview session on
Miss Universe Contest 2010 by identifying every element of the sentences. Then,
the writer tries to know the factors that cause grammatical interference in English
sentences of the interview.
2. Method of the Research
The available data in this study are the sentences of Qory Sandioriva in
the interview session on Miss Universe 2010 contest. Then, to analyze every
sentence in the interview, the writer tends to use the qualitative method of content
analysis to analyze them and solve the problems that will be studied further in this
3. Data Analysis Technique
In this study, the data that have been recorded and expected contain
grammatical interference will be classified in several categories of grammatical
interference. Then, it will be compared and analyzed based on English standard as
described in the theoretical framework. Further, the writer will fix the errors that
appear in the English sentences with Standard English grammar by using the
theory of error analysis by Carl James about grammatical errors that include
morphology and syntax errors. The analysis will prove whether the sentences are
in accordance with the rules of Standard English grammar or out of the rules.
4. Instrument of the Research
The instrument of this research is the writer herself who analyzes the unit
of analysis by downloading the video of Puteri Indonesia 2009 on Miss Universe
Contest 2010 interview from youtube7, quoting the sentences that contain
grammatical interference, then analyzing those important data using the theory
described previously. The writer also uses many books to support the research as
references.
5. Unit of Analysis
The unit of analysis in this research is the video in interview session of
Puteri Indonesia 2009, Qory Sandioriva, on Miss Universe Contest 2010 in
August 17, 2010, which took place in Las Vegas, United States. The data source,
which takes 3:46 min, was downloaded from www.youtube.com.
7
Official Miss Universe, Miss Indonesia Universe 2009. Accesed on December 6, 2010,
6. Time and Venue
This research started on seventh semester of academic year 2010-2011, at
English Letters Department, State Islamic University Jakarta and at certain
libraries in Jakarta that provide information and references about this material.
9 A. Grammar
1. The definition of Grammar
Nowadays, the study of grammar plays a significant role to form good
sentences. Without grammar, the spoken and the written language will be useless
and difficult to comprehend. In other words, grammar facilitates the learners to
understand what people said or written both in native and in target language
communication.
People associate grammar with errors and correctness but knowing about
grammar also helps them to understand what makes sentences and paragraphs
clear, interesting, and precise. Moreover, knowing about grammar will find out
that all languages follow grammatical patterns or not.
Every language has its own distinct grammar. Either Indonesia or English
has its own unique grammar. Both languages have different patterns, for instance
word order phrase, which word defines and which word is defined. This pattern is
“to show which of two collected substantives in secondary and which in
primary.”8
In Bahasa Indonesia, the defined word (primary) of a nominal sentence
is put in the first position, but it is placed in the second on English.
8
In Bahasa Indonesia: rumah baru
primary secondary
In English: new house
secondary primary
However, both languages also have a common pattern in sentence
structure, for example, Subject-Predicate-Object in:
Human needs water
Manusia butuh air
S P O
According to the structuralist point of view, grammar is the study of the
rules governing the use of a language. “For British linguist, such study is called
syntax, but for American linguist, it is named as a grammar.”9
The word grammar
is used in many different senses. Most people are familiar with grammar both as a
subject they studied in school and as a kind of language etiquette.
Different from the previous understanding, Veit defines grammar as “a
person‟s subconscious language knowledge.”10
Someone use his/her grammar
whenever he/she speak or write to understand someone else‟s speech or writing.
The subconscious knowledge must include some system, some set of principles
for putting words together into sentences in grammatical way. These principals
are called as grammatical rules; rules that people follow in order to create
sentences and these rules are important component of grammar.
Producing and uttering sentences are important part of how people make
sense of the world. “In traditional terms, grammar has been discussed in terms of
9
Muhammad Farkhan, An Introduction to Linguistics, (Jakarta: Lembaga Penelitian UIN Jakarta, 2006), p. 71.
10
morphology and syntax; the former handling structure and the latter handling
structures „larger‟ than the word.”11
Fromkin and Rodman define syntax as “the part of the grammar that
represents a speaker‟s knowledge of sentences and their structures.”12
Syntax
incorporates the grammar of phrase, clause, and sentences.
The smallest unit in syntax is sentence. According to Frank, “a sentence
consists of a subject and a predicate.”13
This definition is more satisfactory,
because it is possible to identify the structural functions of subject and predicate in
a sentence.
As stated before, grammar is not only about syntax but also morphology.
Morphology is how people form words. Carstair-McCarty states, “The area of
grammar concerned with the structure of words and with relationship between
words, involving the morphemes that compose them is technically called
morphology.”14
Two basic divisions in morphology are lexical morphology (word
formation) and inflectional morphology (conjugation and declination).
People ability to arrange words in different ways allow them to produce
on infinity of grammatical sentences, but since not all arrangements are
grammatical, their grammar must consist of rules to arrange them. Violations of
the rules result in ungrammatical sentences. From the statement above, grammar
11
Carl James, Error in Language Learning and Use: Exploring Error Analysis, (New York: Longman Inc, 1998), p. 154.
12
Victoria Fromkin, An Introduction to Language: 7th edition (Boston: Heinle Thomson Co., 2003), p. 117.
13
Marcella Frank, Modern English: A Practical Reference Guide, (New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc, 1972), p. 1.
14
plays a significant role to make someone clearly understand what people said or
wrote. Grammar helps a person to speak and to write well because it enables
people to comprehend and produce language.
2. Types of Grammar
Linguists recognize a number of types of grammar in linguistics studies:
a) Prescriptive grammar
Prescriptive grammar attempts to legislate what grammar should be. This
grammar is usually called as the role of various parts of speech. It attempts to tell
the users of the language how to use it in order to speak correctly. This grammar
was a formative influence on language attitudes in Europe and America during the
18th and 19th centuries. Prescriptive grammarians lay out rules about what they
believe to be the correct or incorrectuse of language. “They wished to prescribe
rather than describe the rule of grammar, which gave rise to the writing of
perspective grammars.”15
Some linguist even called this grammar as traditional
grammar.
b) Descriptive grammar
Descriptive grammar refers to the structure of a language that is actually
used by speakers and writers. It observes and records how language is used in
function, and advocates teaching the function of grammatical structure. It does not
tell the learners how they should speak but it describes the learners‟ linguistic
knowledge or capacity of its speakers. “It explains how it possible for someone to
speak and understand what the learners know about sounds, words, phrases, and
15
sentences of learners‟ language.”16
Descriptive grammarians generally advise
people not to be overly concerned with matters of correctness in a language;
which one is good or bad.
c) Universal Grammar
Linguists investigate thousands of languages of the world and describe
the ways in which they differ from each other, the more they discover that these
differences are limited. There are linguistics universals that pertain to each of the
parts of grammars, the way in which these parts are related and the forms of the
rules. These principles comprise universal grammar, which defines the basis of the
specific grammars of all possible human languages and constitutes the innate
component of the human language faculty that makes normal language
development possible and shared by all human languages.17
B. Grammatical Interference
1. The Definition of Grammatical Interference
When using target language, learners sometimes gets influence from their
native language, for instance, when Indonesians speak in English, they tend to
transfer the structure of Bahasa into English. It is shown that Bahasa interfere
their English. If these two language structures were same, it would not be an
important problem, because it is helpful based on alignment and similarity. This
transfer is called as positive transfer. However, the opposite case would happen if
16
Ibid, p. 14.
17
the two systems were different then the chaos begins, and this confused transfer is
known as negative transfer.18
Negative transfer occurs when a speaker adopts the system of his/her
native language on the target language that was not the same language, for
example, Indonesian language has defined-define (DM) pattern, but in contrast
English has define–defined (MD) pattern. Therefore, when they translated a
phrase new house into English, their translation would be house new that should
be new house. Bilingual speakers, aware or not, often do this kind of transfer that
more recognized as language interference.19
Alwasilah defines interference as “the interplay between languages.”20
The definition is based on the view that aware or not, a language is always
changing as long as the language is still used. One of these language changes
happens due to the influence of other languages. The influence of the system or
pattern of the learners‟ native language on the language they are learning.
Robert Lado and Sunyono, as quoted by Aslinda, express another
opinion that has not much difference, that “such effect is could be a product of
habitual influence of the first language speakers who have mastered the target
language.”21
However, Weinreich tells that language interference also causes
deviations. On his book, Language and Contact, he argues “those instance of
deviation from the norm of either language which occurs in the speech of
18
Henry Guntur Tarigan, Pengajaran Analisis Kesalahan Berbahasa (Bandung: Angkasa, 1988), p. 14.
19
Ibid, p. 15.
20
Chaedar Alwasilah, Sosiologi Bahasa (Bandung: Angkasa, 1985), p. 132.
21
bilinguals as a result of their familiarity with more than one language, will be
referred to as INTERFERENCE phenomena.”22
Language interference commonly occurs in an open society, either in
bilingual or multilingual countries, such as Indonesia. At a glance, language
interference is similar to code mixing or code switching, but actually these two
language problems have their own different perspective.
In the process of interference, Chaer and Agustina stated “there are three
elements that take significant role”23
, namely:
a) The source language; is a source of interference. A language that give or affects other languages as dominant language in a society, so that the elements of language are often borrowed for the purposes of communication between members of the community. It is normally the learner‟s native language.
b) The target language or recipient language; is that in which communication is being attempted. In the case of a learner, it is the language he/she learning when uses it. This language receives the source language elements, and then aligns the rules of pronunciation and writing into the target or recipient language.
c) The elements of importation; are the elements given in another language and then switch from a foreign language into the target language. That is the deviant linguistic system actually employed by the learner attempting to utilize the target language.
Interference occurs at many aspects of language, such as phonology,
morphology, syntax, and lexicon. Interference on morphology and syntax is called
grammatical interference. The grammatical interference happens when a bilingual
speaker transfers his/her source language system gradually into his/her target
language at many linguistics parts, such as word order, subject-verb agreement,
and so on.
22
Uriel Weinrich, Language in Contact (New York: Mouton Publishers, 1953), p. 1.
23
2. Types of Grammatical Interference
Weinreich as quoted by Heine, distinguished three types of grammatical
interference, namely:
a) “Interference relates to transfer of morphemes from the source
language to the recipient language.”24
This interference occurs because the
transfer of morphemes or words of the source language into the target language
usage, for example, An American Yiddish says not he but I which has been
transferred from his source language /nit er bΛt ix/.25 It should be not him but I.
The morpheme he in the source language belongs to subject or object, but in the
target language (English) it is only used as a subject and never be an object.
b) “Interference relates to the grammatical relations, in particular
word order.”26
This kind of interference is an application of the source language
structure (Ls) into the target language (Lt). Weinreich, as quoted by Heine, prefer
to call the terms “source and recipient” language as “model and replica”
language.27 This interference occurs in the term of syntax, in particular word
order. This type of interference is the most common interference in bilingual
speech. A sentence in English, I and my friend told that story to my father as a translation of Aku dan temanku menyampaikan cerita itu kepada ayah. In the sentence appeared the use of Indonesian structure into an English sentence.
Instead, the best translation of the sentence is My friend and I told that story to my father.
24
Bernd Heine and Tania Kuteva, Language Contact and Grammatical Change (Cambridge: The Press Syndicate of The University of Cambridge, 2005), p. 2.
25
Uriel Weinreich, (1953), op.cit., p. 30
26
Bernd Heine and Tania Kuteva (2005), loc. cit.
27
Weinreich has his own opinions deals with this interference. He divided
this interference associated with syntax into three types, namely:
1) “The replica of the relations of another language explicitly conveys an unintended meaning, for example, a German speaker says in English, This woman loves the man on the model of German, intending to communicate the message The man loves this woman, but producing the opposite effect.
2) The replica of the relations of another language violates an existing relation pattern, producing nonsense or a statement which is understandable by implication, for example, an Indonesia speaker says in English, the hat red on the model of Indonesian topi merah, meaning the red hat.
3) The replica of the relations of another language which constitutes interference only theoretically, consists in the unnecessary imposition of a relation to a language where no obligatory relations exist in the equivalent domain, for example, a native Indonesian speaker were to maintain the Indonesian-type word order of Subject + Predicate + Object in English speech, What are you doing?. This would not violate English grammar, but it would be superfluous monotonous.”28
c) “Interference relates to functions or meaning of grammatical
forms.”29
This interference is associated with grammatical function or meanings
of languages, which occur when a speaker identifies a morpheme or a word of the
source language grammatical then, use it in the target language. In this case, this
interference occurs when an Indonesian speaker who knows English, for instance,
involved in a conversation. He/she likes to transfer English words into Bahasa
without awareness, for example, Planningku setelah lulus sarjana adalah
melanjutkan sekolah lagi. The word planning is put as a subject although it is used
as a verb in English.
28
Uriel Weinreich, (1953), op.cit., p. 37
29
According to a theory of language acquisition, the transfer or language
interference of source language into target language will always happen in
communication.30 Interference that occurs in speech events can not be eliminated,
but the amount can be overcome. Higher education and knowledge people have,
less interference will be produce.
C. Causes of Grammatical Interference 1. Bilingualism and Multilingualism
To be able in using two different languages, people have to master those
languages. The first is their mother tongue or source language, and the second is
another language that becomes target language. Generally, a person who uses both
languages is called a bilingual and “the ability to use them distinctively is termed
as bilingualism; while the ability to use three or more languages refers to
multilingualism.”31
and a person who has ability in using more than two language
is multilingual Beside language contact as described previously, bilingualism
comes up as another common factor that causes grammatical interference.
Bloomfield in his book “Language” said that the competence of a
bilingual must be equal in using the two languages “…bilingualism, native-like
control of two languages.”32
However, the Bloomfield concept of bilingualism had become a
controversial theory among linguists because it was rare to find a speaker who
mastered two different languages equally well. It means that the person has the
30
Abdul Chaer, Psikolinguistik: Kajian Teoritik (Jakarta: Rineka Cipta., 2003), p. 261
31
Muhammad Farkhan, An Introduction to Linguistics (Jakarta: Lembaga Penelitian UIN Jakarta, 2006), p. 138.
32
same opportunity to learn and use both languages. Therefore, other linguists had
heavily modified this concept.
Robert Lado as quoted by Chaer and Agustina, gives different limitation
of the Bloomfield concept, that in using target language, they do not need to
master both languages equally well but less was allowed.33 From the discussion
above, it can be concluded that bilingualism is one‟s knowledge of two or more
languages that can lead to the situation of interference.
2. Types of Bilingual Competence
Alwasilah distinguish three categories of bilingualism, they are
Compound bilingualism, Coordinative bilingualism, and Sub-ordinative
bilingualism. 34
a) Compound bilingualism
The compound bilingualism indicates that speakers‟ ability to speak a
language is better than other languages. Speakers of this type attach most of their
linguistic elements to the same concept. A bilingual competence of both
languages is still standing on its own.
b) Coordinative bilingualism
The coordinative bilingualism is formed when the experience mastered
two languages are different, because rarely interchangeable in use. It means he/she
almost has the same ability in using both languages. This type of bilingual speaker
usually belongs to the competence of a bilingual.
33
Abdul Chaer and Leonie Agustina(1995), op.cit. p. 114.
34
c) Sub-ordinative bilingualism
Sub-ordinative bilingualism is a concept of bilingualism which indicates
the transfer of source language when using target language interchangeably. A
bilingual on this type, generally can not distinguish the term as separate things.
When they speak or write an idiom for instance, they tend to translate the source
language into the target language word by word.
Speakers who have equal bilingual abilities will face no difficulties, so
there will be no language interference in their communication, and vise versa. If
the writer tracks it deeper, the cause of interference is mostly depend on the ability
of speakers in using a particular language. Thus, their source language influences
their communication in using target language. People who did not master a
language well will create language interference all the time they speak because
their target language still in contact with his source language aware or not.
3. Other Factors Related to Grammatical Interference
Beside language contact and bilingualism, there are two main factors
causing grammatical interference, they are structural and non-structural factor.
1) Structural Factor
Structural factor are those which stem from the organization of linguistic
forms into definite system. The structural factors related to grammatical
interference are the non-congruent systems; complicated functions and
morphemes; and conflict with existing relation pattern.35
35
2) Non-structural Factor
Non-structural factor are derived from the contact of the system with the
outer world.36 The non-structural factors related to grammatical interference are:
a) Loyalty to source language
It leads the speaker to neglect the rule of the recipient language and to
transfer some elements of the source language uncontrollable. Then, interference
emerges because of using them in both written and oral.
b) Individual traits of bilingual speaker
It means that individual competence is important to use both languages
distinctively. The very different pattern in the systems of languages has to be
concerned. If it does not so, it will lead a bilingual to grammatical interference.
c) Circumstances in the speech situation
This factor relates to psychological state of the bilingual speaker.
Inconvenient circumstance can lead a speaker to make errors in speech.
d) Socio-cultural context of the language contact (prestige)
If one language is endowed with prestige, the bilingual is likely to use a
word which can display the social status. Sometimes bilinguals consider the
prestige of one language to show off their ability in using it.
e) The element of time and length of contact
Longer time a speaker live in overseas, more skills of language he gets.
In this case, the element of time and length of contact with different language
systems are important in mastering both languages distinctively.
36
D. Error Analysis
English as the first foreign language in Indonesia is an important language
to learn. Learning the target language is clearly different from learning first
language. The learners inevitably will make errors in the process of first foreign
language learning, but natives sometimes make mistakes in the process of
acquisition.
At a glance, there is no difference between mistakes and errors as stated
by Hornby, they are recognized as synonymous words, sometimes the terms used
interchangeably.37 Instead, they are technically used differently as in some source.
According to Corder, mistake refers to performance errors, while the term
error refers to competence errors, the systematic errors of a learner from which
the source people are able to reconstruct his/her knowledge of the language.38
Errors are classified into vocabulary (lexical error), pronunciation (phonological
error), word formation (grammatical error) and misunderstanding of a speaker‟s or
meaning (interpretive error).39
According to James, there are two types of grammatical errors:
a) Morphology Errors, the failure to comply letter and word in supplying any part of any instance of the word classes.40 Morphology is the identification,
analysis, and description of the structure of words. In English, there are five
lexical words classes; noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and preposition.
37
A.S. Hornby, Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary, (Oxford: Oxford University press, 2003), p. 543.
38 S.P. Corder, “The Significance of Learners‟ Errors,”
Error Analysis :Perspectives on Second Language Acquisition, ed. Jack C. Richards (London: Longman, 1974), p. 25.
39
Carl James, (1998), op.cit. p. 13.
40
Morphology Errors are usually seen in plurality, genitive, and tense, such as
six book*, *bringed, and aboli*shment (√-tion).
b) Syntax Errors, errors that affect texts larger than the word.41 Syntax is the former handling structures larger than the word. These errors happen in phrase
structure, clause structure, sentence structure and intersentence errors
(cohesion), for example, Give *[NP] to the dog.
Grammatical error happens because of competence factor. Learners do not
understand the rule of the target language, so they do transfer of grammatical rules
of their native language into it. This creates an error both in oral and written.
Errors are sign of learning failure and not to be willingly tolerated. It must
be analyzed what kinds of errors that happen to learners. “The fact that learners do
make errors and that these errors can be observed, analyzed, and classified to
reveal something of the system operating within the learner, led to a surge of
study of learners‟ errors, called error analysis.”42
From several definitions above, it can be said that error analysis is the
technique of finding the errors that learner made in speaking and writing using
any principles and procedures provided by linguistics. It is the technique that is
mostly used in many researches.
41
Ibid, p.156.
42
24 A. Data Description
Language interference occurs when two languages in different
grammatical systems come into contact. The language contact produces some
errors, like grammatical errors that ultimately allow some awkward sentences in
target language. For that reason, in this research, the data are several sentences
that may be containing grammatical errors.
The section looks further into samples taken from Miss Universe 2010
Interview Session. The sentences spoken by the interviewee who uses English as
her first foreign language or target language are estimated containing grammatical
interference. The writer gives the number for the collected data to make easier to
analyze. The data were taken from a video of Puteri Indonesia 2009 in interview
session on Miss Universe Contest 2010 as follows:
1. Morphological Error a) Agreement
1) Singular – Plural Agreement
No. Corpuses Types of Grammatical Interference
Correct Sentences Min.
a. Q: What is the best gift you have ever received?
A: It have a sounds, a beautiful sounds that makes me love a music.
Interference relates to
function or meaning of
grammatical forms.
It has a sound, a beautiful sound that makes me love the music.
00:53
b. Q: What is the best gift you have ever received?
A: I love a music now.
c. Q: What is the worst date you have ever been on?
A: So he have three girlfriend including me, but before that I know that they have more than
one hundred girlfriend.
So he has three girlfriends including me, but before that I know that he has had
more than one
hundred girlfriends.
01:49
2) Subject – Verb Agreement
No. Corpuses Types of Grammatical Interference
Correct Sentences Min.
a. Q: What is the best gift you have ever received?
A: It have a sounds, a beautiful sounds that makes me love a music.
Interference relates to
transfer of morphemes.
It has a sound, a beautiful sound that makes me love the music.
00:53
b. Q: What is the worst date you have ever been on?
A: So he have three girlfriend including me, but before that I know that they have more than one hundred girlfriend.
So he has three girlfriends including me, but before that I know that he has had
more than one
hundred girlfriends.
01:49
3) Tense Agreement
No Corpuses Types of Grammatical Interference
Correct Sentences Min.
a. Q: What is the best gift you have ever received?
A: The best gift
somebody ever given to me is the one box, but the case is not good or beautiful.
Interference relates to
function or meaning of
grammatical forms.
The best gift
somebody ever given to me was a box, but the case was not good or irrelevant.
00:35
b. Q: What is the best gift you have ever received?
A: Now, I‟m a singer and
I’m study at singer for jazz, for classical, and of course for pop.
Now, I‟m a singer
and I’m studying to be a singer for jazz, for classical, and of course for pop.
01:04
c. Q: What is the best gift you have ever received?
A: That is makes me know what I want to do.
That makes me know what I want to do.
d. Q: What is the worst date you have ever been on?
A: That is the day that I know he is a playboy.
That was the day that I know he was a playboy.
01:39
e. Q: What is the worst date you have ever been on?
A: He always protect
me.
He always protects
me.
02:14
f. Q: What is the worst date you have ever been on?
A: So, he never touch
me, you know, like a playboy, but he always make me comfortable beside him.
So, he never touches
me, you know, like a playboy, but he always makes me comfortable beside him.
02:27
g. Q: What is the worst date you have ever been on?
A:It‟s a very bad, bad
date, but he inspiring me
to be a taught woman.
It‟s a very bad, bad
date, but he inspired me to be a taught woman.
02:44
4) Active – Passive Voice
No. Corpuses Types of Grammatical Interference
Correct Sentences Min.
a. Q: Being a woman, what piece of advice would you give to a man?
A: I think that woman
can be said that “I have advice for you”.
Interference in
particular word order.
I think that woman can says “I have
advice for you”.
00:11
2. Syntax Error a) Redundancy
No. Corpuses Types of Grammatical Interference
Correct Sentences Min.
a. Q: What is the best gift you have ever received?
A: The best gift somebody ever given to me is the one box, but the case is not good or beautiful.
Interference in
particular word order.
The best gift
somebody ever given to me was a box, but the case was not good or irrelevant.
00:35
b. Q: What is the best gift you have ever received?
A: That makes me know what I love it.
That is makes me know what I love.
c. Q: What is the worst date you have ever been on?
A: It‟s very bad, but I
know the good is now he always care for me, and can be a best friend
for me.
It‟s very bad, but I
know the good is now he always care, and can be a best friend
for me.
02:40
b) Pronoun – Antecedent Agreement
No. Corpuses Types of Grammatical Interference
Correct Sentences Min.
a. Q: What is the worst date you have ever been on?
A: So he have three girlfriend including me, but before that I know that they have more than one hundred girlfriend.
Interference relates to
transfer of morphemes.
So he has three girlfriends including me, but before that I know that he has had
more than one
hundred girlfriends.
01:49
b. Q: What is the worst date you have ever been on?
A: So, he never touch me, you know, like a playboy, but he always make me comfortable beside her.
So, he never touches me, you know, like a playboy, but he
always makes me comfortable beside
him.
02:27
c) Parallel Structure
No. Corpuses Types of Grammatical Interference
Correct Sentences Min.
a. Q: What is the best gift you have ever received?
A: That makes me know what jobs or what kind activity that I love it.
Interference in particular
word order.
That makes me know
what kind of job or what kind of activity that I love.
d) Ambiguity
No. Corpuses Types of Grammatical Interference
Correct Sentences Min.
1. Q: Being a woman, what piece of advice would you give to a man?
A: I think, when you down, your woman can make you up.
Interference in particular
word order.
I think, when you fall down, your woman can raise you up.
00:05
B. Data Analysis
The collected data will be analyzed through qualitative method of content
analysis. The writer rewrites sentences containing grammatical interference
collected from a video of Puteri Indonesia 2009 in interview session on Miss
Universe Contest 2010. Then, she categorizes the compiled data into several
categories of grammatical interference. Next, she analyzes the sentences based on
the English Standard and corrects them into good sentences. Lastly, she analyzes
the factors that cause grammatical interference. From the data description above,
they could be analyzed as follows:
1. Types of grammatical interference a) Agreement
English grammar has given some categories including number, person,
tense, voice, and gender in rule.43 These categories can be discussed in isolation,
but their role in describing language structure becomes clearer when the writer
43
considers them in terms of agreement, for example, in the sentence Alice loves her
dog, the verb loves“agree” with the noun Alice.
1) Singular – Plural Agreement
This agreement is partially based on the category of person, whether the
noun is singular or plural. To minimize errors in singular-plural agreement, a
speaker must correctly identifies and determines whether the subject or the object
is singular or plural.
In English, the vast majority of words become plural simply by adding a
morpheme -s. The plural of words ending in s, sh, ch, z, and x, however, is formed
by adding -es. Different from English, Bahasa Indonesia does not distinguish
singular and plural form, instead using reduplicated form to denote plurality.44
Besides, in Bahasa Indonesia there is no rule about “to be” that can change
depending on the noun in English grammar. As a result, most plural forms are
uttered in English singular form.
Some speakers speak a dialect which does not observe the agreement
convention, so their speech mostly contain interference that relates to function or
meaning of grammatical forms. In other words, this interference causes several
errors due to abandonment of different language system that is the function of
morpheme in singular-plural agreement, which produces morphology errors in
target language.
Datum a: Q: What is the best gift you have ever received?
A:“It have a sounds, a beautiful sounds that makes me love a music.”
44
In English, the subject must be concord with the verb in a sentence. In the
sentence above, there are several discrepancies in determining which noun is
singular and which noun is plural. The word “sounds” should be in singular form
agreement for word “a” denotes singular form. Therefore, the word “sounds”
should become “sound” in order to agree with the previous word. Besides, the
word “music” actually refers to the sound that comes out from the box, then,
definite pronoun is used. Thus, the correct sentence is It has a sound, a beautiful sound that makes me love the music.
Datum b: Q: What is the best gift you have ever received? A:“I love a music now”
Noun in English grammar is also divided into uncountable noun and
countable noun. Most countable nouns are words for separate things that can be
counted, but uncountable are usually words for things as a quantity or mass, such
as sugar and coffee. In this case, music belongs to uncountable noun because it is
categorized as quantity. Therefore, it does not need any number to count. So the
word “a” should be omitted because uncountable noun is never preceded by
indefinite article, like “a/an”. Thus, the correct sentence is I love music now.
Datum c: Q: What is the worst date you have ever been on?
A: “So he have three girlfriend including me, but before that I know that they have more than one hundred girlfriend.”
As explanations in the previous section, a speaker must correctly identifies
and determines whether the subject or the object is singular or plural. Generally,
the plural form is formed by adding final morpheme –s or –es in the singular
phrase that comes after it must follow the plural agreement by adding the
morpheme –s. Thus, grammatically, the word “girlfriend” should become
“girlfriends”. Therefore, the correct sentence is So he has three girlfriends
including me, but before that I know that he has had more than one hundred girlfriends.
2) Subject – Verb Agreement
This agreement is based on the category of person, which covers the
distinctions of the first person, the second person, and the third person. In
Standard English grammar, a verb agrees with its subject in person. If the subject
is the first person singular (I), the verb is the first person (am, was, do, have), if
the subject is the second person singular (you), the verb is the second person (are,
were, do, have) and if the subject is the third person (he, she, it), the verb must be
in the third person too (is, was, does, has). Interference on this section is
categorized as interference relates to transfer of morphemes because there is no
such agreement in the source language.
Datum a: Q: What is the best gift you have ever received?
A:“It havea sounds, a beautiful sounds that makes me love a music.” In the sentence above, the interviewee translates a verb “punya” into
English “have” without following the subject–verb agreement. The third person
singular “it” should be followed by third singular verb “has”, not “have”, instead
“have” is used after the second person subject. Therefore, the appropriate phrase
is “it has” wherein the verb has following the subject it. This error happens
correct sentence of it is It has a sound, a beautiful sound that makes me love the music.
Datum b: Q: What is the worst date you have ever been on?
A: “So he have three girlfriend including me, but before that I know that they have more than one hundred girlfriend.”
In the sentence above, the third person singular “he” should be followed
by the third person singular verb “has”, not “have”, instead “have” is used for the
third person plural. So that, the appropriate phrase is “he has”. Therefore, the
appropriate verb following the subject is has. This error happens because Bahasa
Indonesia has no rule about this agreement. Thus, the correct sentence of it is So
he has three girlfriends including me, but before that I know that he has had more than one hundred girlfriends.
3) Tense Agreement
Learning to use verbs correctly will help someone to communicate clearly,
what action is occurring and when it occurred. Verbs indicate the time of an action
by their form. The form tells whether the action is in the past, the present or the
future. In English, these variations of verb to indicate time differences are called
tenses45.
Every native speaker of English knows the tense patterns. There are six
principal tenses used: Present Tense, Past Tense, Future Tense, Present Perfect
Tense, Past Perfect Tense, and Future Perfect Tense.
45
English rules are reflection of the way the educated people using the
language. The rule is simple enough in theory, but in practice, foreigners,
especially Indonesian, sometimes ignore the rules for some reasons. Ignoring the
tense pattern occasionally produces awkward sentences.
Different from English, Bahasa Indonesia does not classify its verb into
specific time. It is only noted by adverb of time, like sedang, sudah, sekarang, etc,
for example, I study English means Saya belajar bahasa Inggris, and I studied
English yesterday means Saya sudah bealjar bahasa Inggris kemarin in Bahasa
Indonesia. The verb “belajar” is never change in active voice. Therefore, when
Indonesian bilinguals speak in English, they sometimes forget to use appropriate
tenses in their sentences. For this reason, an Indonesian bilingual needs to master
English tenses to make obvious sentences.
Interference on this section belongs to interference relates to function or
meaning of grammatical forms because inexistence of tenses in source language
leads the bilingual speaker to juxtapose sentence in the target language. This
interference causes several errors, such as using wrong tense and using double
verb (auxiliary and main verb).
Datum a: Q: What is the best gift you have ever received?
A:“The best gift somebody ever given to me is the one box, but the case
is not good or beautiful.”
Statements about the experience of a person‟s life is normally shared in the
past tense. The past form will not have a helping verb. Grammatically, if a past
tense clause comes in the beginning sentence, it is not allowed to switch another
the sentence above, the interviewee tries to tell her story but she uses different
tense in one sentence. She utters her first clause in the past tense but continues it
in the present tense. It creates ungrammatical sentence and confuse the
interlocutors about the time when she gets her gift. Furthermore, the choice of
word “beautiful” is not suitable for describing the case. It will be better if she uses
a word “irrelevant” Thus, the correct sentence is The best gift somebody ever
given to me was a box, but the case was not good or irrelevant.
Datum b: Q: What is the best gift you have ever received?
A: “Now, I’m a singer and I’m study at singer for jazz, for classical, and of course for pop.”
By using tenses, the speaker indicates the time of an action. The present
progressive in a sentence is always preceded by auxiliary verb be (am, are, is,
was, were, be, been) and its verb must be followed by –ing form. In the sentence
above, the interviewee tends to use present progressive tense, but she uses
inappropriate verb because the verb in the sentence is not followed by –ing form.
So that, the correct sentence is Now, I’m a singer and I’m studying to be a singer
for jazz, for classical, and of course for pop.
Datum c: Q: What is the best gift you have ever received? A:“That is makesme know what I want to do”
Looking at the sentence above, the writer can see that the subject is
followed by auxiliary verb and main verb, whereas it should be ended by -s at the
main verb. Actually, the sentence is verbal, so the auxiliary verb does not need to
come out because it is not in continues form. Thus, the verb that appropriate in the
simple present is used. For that reason, the good sentence is “That makes me know what I want to do.”
Datum d: Q: What is the worst date you have ever been on? A:“That is the day that I know he isa playboy.”
As stated in the previous analysis, a statement about experience of a
person‟s life is normally uttered in the past tense. In the sentence above, the
interviewee uses present tense, whereas she is telling about her worst date that she
has ever been on. Thus, the correct sentence is that was the day that I know he was
a playboy.
Datum e: Q: What is the worst date you have ever been on?
A:“He always protect me.”
The sentence above shows the present form. It may, or may not, has
auxiliary verb. In the simple present tense above, there is no auxiliary verb, so the
main verb must be added by –s morpheme to follow the rule of simple present.
This rule is simply enough but Indonesian bilinguals sometimes forget to use it
properly. Thus, the correct sentence in simple present is He always protects me.
Datum f: Q: What is the worst date you have ever been on?
A: “So, he never touch me, you know, like a playboy, but he always make me comfortable beside him.”
As stated before, the verb in a sentence must agree with its subject; but the
sentence above does not do so. It is simple present form that the main verb should
be added by –s or –es to make the sentence clear. However, the sentence above
verb. Thus, the good sentence is So, he never touches me, you know, like a playboy, but he alwaysmakes me comfortable beside him.
Datum g: Q: What is the worst date you have ever been on?
A: “It’s a very bad, bad date, but he inspiring me to be a taught woman.”<
