Brighter Shine: morphological restriction

1. Background of the study

Morphology is the mental system involved word formation or to the branch of linguistics that deals with words, their internal structure, and how they are formed (Arnoff and Fundeman: 2011: 1). In other words, morphology is study of morphemes and their arrangement in forming word. The set of words in a language is never quite fixed. There must be some processes by which new complex words are created. And even when a complex word is likely to be listed in the lexicon, it is useful to think of the relationship between it and its base in terms of these same processes. These processes and how they can be formally describe using morphological rules.

According to Chaer, there are three morphological processes, namely (1) Affixation (2) Reduplication, and (3) Compounding (2003: 177-188). This research is focus on the reduplication words, especially in Indonesian language. Reduplication is a repeating morpheme of the process basic forms, either in full, in part, or to change the sound of word (phoneme).

The writer does this research because there are some words in Indonesian language which are not appropriate with the reduplicate theory as general. In other words, in Indonesian language, there are several reduplicate words that do not have reduplicate shape as in other country. Therefore, the writer tries to inform there are some differences in reduplication words especially in Indonesian language.

2. Objective of the study

Commonly, a reduplicate word is the repeat of morpheme with the process basic forms, either in full, in part, or to change the sound of word (phoneme). Most of reduplication words in other language have similarities. In other words, they have similarity such as in repeat and attachment the base either preceding or following it. However, in Indonesian language there is a reduplicate word that little bit different with another reduplicate. Therefore, the writer tries to give some information about the different one. With the aim the readers know about the uniqueness of Indonesian language.

3. Theoretical frame work

To know about the differences between the reduplication words in common shape and the reduplicate words in uncommon shape as in one of the Indonesian reduplication words. The writer uses some theories to know the differences. The theory is “In reduplication, a continuous substring from either the beginning or the end of a word is copied. Languages may use reduplication for inflection or derivation (Arnoff and Fundeman: 2011: 81)”. “Reduplication is repetition of grammatical units, both of part or total unit, whether or not the phoneme variation (Chaer, 2003: 182)”. From those explanations, Reduplication is a repeating morpheme of the process basic forms, either in full, in part, or to change the sound of word (phoneme). Characteristics of the process of reduplication can be divided in three parts :( i) The Reduplication generally does not change the word class category (class words), (ii) The reduplication can be returned in its basic form, (iii) The basic form of the reduplication is always a unit contained in language use. For example:

- Reduplication of entire stem in Malagasy:

be ‘big, numerous’ be-be ‘fairly big, numerous’

fotsy ‘white’ fotsi-fotsy ‘whitish’

maimbo ‘stinky’ maimbo-maimbo ‘somewhat stinky’

hafa ‘different’ hafa-hafa ‘somewhat different’

(keenan and polinsky 1998:571)

From those examples above, the base word in Malagasy ‘hafa’ (adjective) à ‘hafa-hafa’ (noun) the lexeme is repeated and the function of the words changed. ‘maimbo’ (adjective) à ‘maimbo-maimbo’ (noun) the lexeme is also repeated and the function of the words changed.

- Reduplication of entire stem in Indonesia:

kuda ‘horse’ kuda-kuda ‘horses’

rumah ‘house’ rumah-rumah ‘houses’

(Chaer, 2003: 183)

From both of the examples, the base word in Bahasa Indonesia ‘kuda’ (sing) à ‘kuda-kuda’ (plur). ‘rumah’ (sing) à ‘rumah-rumah’ (plur). The entire of those lexemes are repeated and the grammatical functions also changed.

- Reduplication in the sequence of the lexeme in Mangap-Mbula:

kuk ‘bark’ kuk-uk ‘be barking’

kel ‘dig’ kel-el ‘be dingging’

kan ‘eat’ kan-an ‘be eating’

(Bugenhagen 1995:53)

From those examples, the base word in Mangap-Mbula ‘kuk’ (simple present) à ‘kuk-uk’ (present continuous). ‘kel’ (simple present) à ‘kel-el’ (present continuous). From both examples, the reduplication happens in the sequence of the lexeme. And the reduplication also changes the grammatical function.

- Reduplication in the sequence of the lexeme in Bahasa Indonesia:

Pertama ‘first’ pertama-tama ‘firstly’

Perlahan ‘slow’ perlahan-lahan ‘slowly’

Sekali ‘once’ sekali-kali ‘for once’

(Chaer, 2003: 184)

From those examples the base words in Bahasa Indonesia ‘pertama’ (adv) à ‘pertama-tama’ (adv). ‘perlahan’ (adv) à ‘perlahan-lahan’(adv). In this example, the reduplication happens in the sequence of the lexeme and it does not change the grammatical or the words function.

Those are the examples of reduplication words in common ways, and that all are derived from different languages. All those examples are appropriate with the theory how the reduplicate words should be. However, in Bahasa Indonesia there is a reduplicate words that uncommon happens in other languages. It becomes the uniqueness one because we rarely found this reduplication in other countries. This reduplication is repeated entire the lexeme and the vowel sound of the lexeme changed or becomes various. As the examples:

One of Bahasa Indonesia reduplications:

‘mondar-mandir’ à the vowels of both lexemes are not same

‘corat-coret’ à the vowels of both lexemes are not same

‘pontang-panting’ à the vowels of both lexemes are not same

‘bolak-balik’ à the vowels of both lexemes are not same

From those examples, this reduplications word is different with others. The differences are placed in the vowel in the lexeme that can change or do not have similarity with previous lexeme.

In another example, there is a reduplication that quite same with the reduplication words above. This duplication also repeats the lexeme, but the vowel in the lexeme does not change as in the Bahasa Indonesia. This reduplication just changes the consonant in the lexeme. Therefore, this reduplication does not become the special one because the vowels of the lexeme do not become varieties. For the examples:

One of English reduplication words:

- willy-nilly à the vowels do not change

- hocus-pocus à the vowels do not change

- mumbo-jumbo à the vowels do not change

- hanky-panky à the vowels do not change

- hodge-podge à the vowels do not change

- handy-dandy à the vowels do not change

- hoity-toity à the vowels do not change

- helter-skelter à the vowels do not change

(Liber Rochelle: 2009: 81)

From all those examples, there are some differences between each of the reduplicates words. Therefore, the writer wants to give some information about the differences by taking some examples of reduplications from other language with Bahasa Indonesia.

4. Data Collection Procedure

The idea of this research is started from the curiosity of the writer to know about the morphological rules because it is the basic segment in morphology. When she studies about morphological rule, she interests with the reduplication word because there are many examples words in Indonesia that reduplicate. She tries to find the similarities of the reduplicate words in Bahasa Indonesia with other reduplication words in different languages.

The writer starts to look for the journal or the article about reduplication words in the internet at June 10^th 2013. It took several days because sometimes the signal of the internet does not have good performance, and also the writer should divide her time for other analysis.

The writer got the journals and the articles by searching in the Google scholar. She looked for the journals and the articles that can support her research. At the first, the writer did not get the article or the journal as the topic that she will discuss, because the journals or the articles about reduplication words especially in Bahasa Indonesia are quite difficult to find. Therefore, she stopped her searching in the several days. She went to the library with hope she will get the material about the topic that she will discuss. Disappointingly she did not get the books to support this research.

At June 12^th, she looked for the material about reduplicate words again. She looked for in the Google scholar. Fortunately, the signal of the internet supported to download the related articles and the journal. After she got some material from the internet, she looked for the material from the electric books that were given by her lecturer. And the last source for this research is dictionaries. The dictionaries help the writer to choose the appropriate words. She used English and Indonesian dictionaries.

5. Data analysis

After the writer collected the data and the sources, she filters the data and resources to choose the good one. After that, she made the outline of this research. The outline contained the main point that will be discussed. The writer tried to make this research easy to understand for everyone. Therefore, she uses some dictionaries to choose the appropriate words for this research.

After that, the writer arranged every single point of this research. Before he arranged every single point that will be discussed, she got confused. She confused with the location of the points. She solved her confusion with looking the instructions and the feedback from her lecturer. She combined the theories and the examples from the books and the journals or the articles.

The process of this research took many times, especially in the filtering the source for every point that will be discussed. Such as, when she will put some of the theories about reduplication words, she confused which is the good and the appropriate one. The writer must be careful to choose every single word.

It was not easy work, because it was the first time for the writer to make an analysis about language. Hopefully, this research gives some benefit for the readers.