THE ACQUISITION OF INDONESIAN LEXICAL MORPHEMES BY A CHILD OF THREE-YEARS OLD.
THE ACQUISITION OF INDONESIAN LEXICAL
MORPHEMES BY A CHILD OF THREE-YEARS OLD
A Thesis
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Magister Humaniora
By:
KARTINA RAHMADHANI RAMBE
Registration Number: 8126111014
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2015
ABSTRACT
Rambe, K.R. 8126111014. The Acquisition of Indonesian Lexical Morphemes
by a Child of Three-Years Old. A Thesis. English Applied Linguistics Study
Program, Postgraduate School, State University of Medan.2015
The objectives of this qualitative research on the acquisition of Indonesian lexical
morphemes of an Indonesian child of three-years old were to (1) to find the types
of Indonesian lexical morphemes acquired by a child of three-years old, (2)
describe the types of Indonesian lexical morpheme acquired by the child, and (3)
measure the level of Mean Length of Utterances (MLU) acquired by the child. In
order to collect the data, the research instruments used were tape recorder and
written down in a diary during the six times observation. Based on the analyses,
there were found 82 nouns, 36 verbs, 25 adjectives, and 24 adverbs with their
different numbers of types. Nouns bring the highest position among others lexical
morphemes. The result of findings of this study showed that all types of
Indonesian lexical morphemes, namely nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs were
acquired by the child. Universal Grammar is the most dominant ways in acquiring
the Indonesian lexical morpehemes. Based on Universal Grammar, she had some
morphemes from her innate linguistic knowledge then followed by the imitation,
she acquired the morphemes through her well-understanding, and influenced by
the reinforcement, the surrounding which forced her to follow the previous
utterances. In measuring MLU, she acquired 388 morphemes from 100 utterances
and SKA’s MLU was 3.88. In brief it can be concluded that the Indonesian child
of three-years old had acquired the types of lexical morphemes. Thus, it is
suggested that the child’s language is an interesting study to be conducted, in
order to encourage a child to speak and express well at the early childhood. Some
suggestions are presented especially to parents, teachers and further researcher
for the care of the language acquisition of the children, namely (1) parents should
give stimulus of a language such as having conversation, watching movie, telling
stories and listening to the music, (2) early childhood teachers need to be creative
and adaptive because the children’s needs are different and one must be aware of
this, and (3) further research study to find out the more accurate result on
Indonesian lexical morphemes and in the average MLU.
i
ABSTRAK
Rambe, K.R. 8126111014. The Acquisition of Indonesian Lexical Morphemes
by a Child of Three-Years Old. A Thesis. English Applied Linguistics Study
Program, Postgraduate School, State University of Medan.2015
Tujuan dari penelitian kualitatif ini pada pemerolehan morfem leksikal bahasa
Indonesia pada anak Indonesia berumur tiga tahun adalah untuk (1) menemukan
jenis morfem leksikal Bahasa Indonesia yang diperoleh oleh anak berusia tiga
tahun, (2) menggambarkan bagaimana jenis morfem leksikal bahasa Indonesia
yang yang diperoleh anak berusia tiga tahun, dan (3) mengukur tingkat Mean
Length Utterances (MLU) yang diperoleh. Selama mengumpulkan data,
instrumen penelitian yang digunakan adalah tape recorder dan ditulis dalam
catatan selama enam kali pengamatan. Berdasarkan pengamatan yang dilakukan,
ditemukan 82 kata benda, 36 kata kerja, 25 kata sifat, dan 24 kata keterangan
dengan jumlah jenis yang berbeda-beda. Kata benda berada ditingkat teratas
dibandingan dengan jenis leksikal morfem lainnya. Hasil temuan penelitian ini
menunjukkan bahwa semua jenis morfem Indonesia leksikal, yaitu kata benda,
kata kerja, kata sifat, dan kata keterangan yang diperoleh oleh subjek. Universal
Grammar paling dominan dalam pemerolehan leksikal morfem dalam Bhasa
Indonesia. Berdasarkan Universal Grammar, ia memiliki beberapa morfem dari
pengetahuan bawaan linguistiknya. Kemudian diikuti dengan cara meniru, ia
memperoleh morfem tersebut dengan pemahaman yang baik sedangkan bantuan,
didukung oleh sekelilingnya untuk mengikuti ucapan-ucapan sebelumnya. Dalam
mengukur MLU, ia memperoleh 388 morfem dari 100 ucapan dan panjang ratarata ujaran SKA adalah 3.88. Secara singkat dapat disimpulkan bahwa anak
Indonesia berumur tiga tahun telah memperoleh jenis morfem leksikal. Dengan
demikian, disarankan agar pemerolehan bahasa anak merupakan studi yang
menarik untuk dilakukan, untuk mendorong anak berbicara dan mengekspresikan
dirinya dengan baik sejak usia dini. Disarankan terutama kepada orang tua, guru,
dan peneliti lainnya lebih lanjut untuk memperhatikan pemerolehan bahasa anakanak: (1) orang tua harus memberikan rangsangan bahasa seperti memiliki
percakapan, menonton film, bercerita, dan mendengarkan musik, (2) guru
pendidikan anak usia dini lebih kreatif dan adaptif karena kebutuhan anak-anak
berbeda-beda dan harus disadari, dan (3) adanya penelitian lebih lanjut untuk
mengetahui ketepatan pada morfem leksikal Indonesia dan Mean Length
Utterances (MLU).
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the name of Allah SWT, the most gracious and merciful, all praise for
His mercy, guidance and loving cares which have been given to the writer, in the
process of completing this thesis entitled “The Acquisition of Indonesian Lexical
Morphemes by a Child of Three-Years Old”. As a compulsory in order to fulfill
one of the requirements for the degree of Magister Humaniora at the English
Applied Linguistics Study Program, Postgraduate School of State University of
Medan.
During the process of completing the thesis, the writer has received a lot of
assistance from some people. First of all, she would like to express her special
appreciation to her First adviser Prof. Tina Mariany Arifin, M.A., Ph.D. for being
so helpful in guiding and correcting the contents, layouts, and tenses which she
could spare her valuable time not only from a near distance but also at a distance
was not a real problem; and to her Second Adviser Dr. Didik Santoso, M.Pd., for
being so helpful and cooperative in the supervision of writing this thesis.
Second, her thanks are extended to Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M. Pd., Dr.
Sri Minda Murni, M.S., and Farid Ma’ruf, Head, Secretary and Administration
staff of English Applied Linguistics Study Program; and Prof. Dr. H. Abdul Muin
Sibuea, M. Pd., Director of Postgraduate School, for the administrative procedures
during the completion of this thesis and also all lecturers who had given very
valuable knowledge through out the academic years.
iii
Third, great appreciation are extended to Prof.Amrin Saragih,M.A.,Ph.D.,
Dr. I Wayan Dirgayasa Tangkas, M.Hum., and Dr. Anni Holila Pulungan,
M.Hum., as the reviewers and examiners for the valuable inputs to be included in
this thesis
Then, her deepest gratitudes are expressed to her beloved parents, (Late).
Mara Gading Rambe,S.Pd., and Lismanita, for everything poured to her to achieve
her ambition, her brothers Akbar Khusyairi Rambe, S.Pd. and Imam Ansyari
Rambe who always support, pray and motivate her in achieving further education.
She also would like to thank SKA’s parents who had given the permission
to observe SKA’s language acquistion of the Indonesian lexical morphemes which
had made the research posible to be carried out.
Then, a very special thanks to Aurora (Chairul, Dhani, Tari, Reza, Sugih,
Melita, Ayu, Aisyah, Ami, Tia, Arin, Raisa and Desi) and also her best friends
since senior high school till presents (Mega, Maida, Winda, Elvi, Nanda, Idris,
Dicky and Adel) who have shared the colorful friendship and being good listeners
for every complaint and regarding her feelings of loneliness and emptiness.
Further thanks are directed to her friends and classmates Regular A1 2012 for the
assistence and encouragement, especially to Azizah and Tari, for the heart to heart
conversations via mobile phone, facebook and face to face chit-chat. She really
appreciates the advice and encouragement on many cases.
iv
She would also like to thank her students who never questioned her
craziness during the last year and were patience with getting their grades after the
tests.
May Allah Bless Us All.
Medan,
January 2015
The writer,
Kartina Rahmadhani Rambe
Registration Number: 8126111014
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................... vi
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................. viii
LIST OF APPENDICES ........................................................................................ ix
CHAPTER I .
INTRODUCTION
1.1
The Background of the Study .............................................. 1
1.2
The Problem of the Study ................................................... 6
1.3
The Objectives of the Study ................................................ 6
1.4
The Scope of the Study ........................................................ 7
1.5
The Significance of the Study.............................................. 7
CHAPTER II . REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1
Language Acquisition ......................................................... 8
2.2
Language Acquisition and Language Learning .................. 12
2.3
The Process of Language Acquisition ................................ 14
2.3.1 Learning Through Imitation ..................................... 16
2.3.2 Learning Through Reinforcement............................ 17
2.3.3 Universal Grammar ................................................. 17
2.4
Universal Stages of Children’s Language Development .... 18
2.4.1 Three Years Old Children ........................................ 20
2.5
Morphemes ......................................................................... 22
2.5.1 The Lexical Morpheme ............................................ 23
2.5.2 Grammatical Morpheme .......................................... 26
2.6
Mean Length of Utterances (MLU) .................................... 26
2.6.1 The Measurement of Mean Length of Utterances ... 27
2.6.1.1 Stage I ........................................................ 30
vi
2.6.1.2 Stage II ....................................................... 31
2.6.1.3 Stage III ..................................................... 31
2.6.1.4 Stage IV ..................................................... 31
2.6.1.5 Stage V....................................................... 32
2.6.1.6 Stage V+ .................................................... 32
2.7
Relevant Studies ................................................................. 33
2.8
Conceptual Framework ........................................................ 34
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1
Research Design .................................................................. 36
3.2
Research Setting .................................................................. 36
3.3
Data and Data Source ......................................................... 37
3.4
Techniques of Data Collection ............................................ 37
3.5
Instruments of Data Collection ............................................ 38
3.6
Trustworthiness of the Study ............................................... 38
3.7
Techniques of Data Analysis .............................................. 39
CHAPTER IV. DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS, AND DISCUSSION
4.1
Data Analysis ...................................................................... 40
4.1.1 The Types of Indonesian Lexical Morphemes
Acquired by SKA .................................................... 43
4.1.2 The Ways of Indonesian Lexical Morphemes
Acquired by SKA .................................................... 66
4.1.3 The Measurement of MLU Level ........................... 67
4.2
Research Findings ............................................................... 70
4.3
Discussion ........................................................................... 71
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1
Conclusions ......................................................................... 75
5.2
Suggestions ......................................................................... 76
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................78
APPENDIX ........................................................................................................81-154
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Pages
Table 2.1
Differences between Language Acquisition and Learning .......13
Table 2.2
Brown’s Stage of MLU.. ...........................................................30
Table 4.1
Analysis of the Lexical Morphemes Acquired by SKA ..........42
Table 4.2
The Distribution of Indonesian Lexical Morphemes
Acquired by SKA ......................................................................42
Table 4.3
Analysis of Utterances .............................................................68
Table 4.4
The Measurement of SKA’s MLU Level ................................68
LIST OF APPENDICES
Pages
Appendix A
The Profile of the Subject .................................................... 81
Appendix B
The Profiles of Syifa’s Families .......................................... 82
Appendix C
The Identifications and the Categorization of SKA’s
Utterances into the Types of Indonesian
Lexical Morphemes ..............................................................83
Appendix D
The Display of SKA’s Utterances into the Type of
Indonesian Lexical Morpheme .............................................105
Appendix E
The Types of Indonesian Nouns Acquired by SKA .............132
Appendix F
The Types of Indonesian Verbs Acquired by SKA ..............134
Appendix G
Indonesian Adjectives Acquired by SKA ............................135
Appendix H
The Types of Indonesian Adverbs Acquired by SKA..........136
Appendix I
The Measurement of SKA’s MLU Level ............................137
Appendix J
The Transciption of SKA’s Dialogues .................................141
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Language acquisition is a process by which humans acquire the capacity
to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and
sentences to communicate. Language acquisition usually refers to the firstLanguage Acquisition, which study infants' acquisition of their native language.
This is distinguished from Second-Language Acquisition (SLA), which deals with
the acquisition (in both children and adults) of additional languages (David, 1999:
409).
According to Bloor & Bloor (1995) children will come up with the most
extraordinary things when they start using a language, such as: cute things,
hilarious things, and sometimes, baffling things that may start us wondering
whether we should worry about their language development. Children will
develop their own strategies for learning whatever they find relevant to learn
around them, including a language. Children are much more resourceful, resilient
and creative. The psychologist of behaviorism, Paivio & Begg (1981) state
that children learn to model their behavior on what goes on around them, be the
dress codes, body language, and language uses, usually come first through their
own utterances and later through peers in their family, neighborhood or at school.
Children are learning how to function adequately in their environment and much
of this learning takes place through language itself. This means that the
acquisition of language is going on whenever a language is used around the
children.
The process of Language acquisition can be seen as running parallel
throughout a child’s life every day. S/he learns to communicate through natural
interactions with her/his environment. The process begins in the early life of a
human being and requires a healthy start, sufficient opportunities, and exposure to
a care giving environment that allows the child’s innate predisposition to learn to
communicate to function (Rossetti, 2001). More than half of the world’s
population today uses more than one language while being connected to the
fundamental human activities.
During the language acquisition process large numbers of words have to
be taught (Clark, 2003:12). Clark (2003) also states that the first language
acquisition requires a comprehensive look at where and when children acquired a
language. There are considerable individual differences among children regarding
their vocabulary size and the speed with which they acquire new words.
Environmental factors such as socio-economic and cultural factors and other
factors relating to the home language environment have been found to influence
vocabulary development (Hart & Risley, 1995). By the age of 1 the child is able
to utter single word utterances, and by the end of the second year they are able to
speak 2 to 3 word utterances. This phenomena ease and speed with which children
are able to pick up something so absurdly complicated, make the subject more
interesting and challenging. One of the factors in acquiring the language by
children is child directed speech. Child-directed speech is speech commonly used
by parents or caregivers when communicating with children. The basic idea with
child-directed speech is that parents modify their speech when talking to children.
It helps the children acquire the more complex construction of the word or
sentence.
The process of mastering the language is closely related to the process of
acquiring the language. The process of acquiring a language in a child is naturally
a process of development. This process is usually called language acquisition. In
the process of the development, there are some important things that can be
acquired. It involves language comprehension, language production, and language
perception of the child in acquiring the language because a child is not born with
the knowledge of a particular language. Some psychologists and linguists divide
the problem of language acquisition into vocabulary, meaning, and grammar.
There are two approaches in language acquisition.
Chomsky (1999:75) defines children in a normal life from two until six
years old will acquire language with structure and vocabulary. This is possible
because since birth, they have been equipped with such a device, called Language
Acquisition Device (LAD). The Language Acquisition Device allows children to
analyze the language they hear and extract the rules of grammar that permit them
to create brand-new word. But the ability in acquiring language is not relatively
same among the children. Brown (1873:90) describes five stages of language
development, based on the Mean Length of Utterance (MLU).
…..Mean length of utterance (MLU) is the average number of morphemes
per utterance. It is an index of expressive language development used
beyond the stage of single words, when a child uses two or more words
together in an utterance- which is the number of morphemes --- basic units
of meaning --- toddlers can produce.
MLU is used as a measurement of each child level in acquiring the
language. Children acquire language rapidly at the age of three or four. The
nativists maintain their nature theory that language is basically innate, in which
children were born with special unique human talent that can acquire the grammar
of a language without adults’ instruction or correction.
Language acquisition can be seen as a natural process that will occur to
every normal child. Each child will experience similar stages in language
development although they have different speed. Language acquisition will be
impossible when a child is not interacting with the environment. Through social
interaction with family members and those in the community, the child will
acquire the first and second language. Therefore, each child acquires language as
part of the natural process and as a result of social interaction in the community.
Merry (2011: 4) states that language cannot be developed in a vacuum and there is
no society alive without language. It means that language is a resource that is
available to everyone in a society and the society can exist with the presence of
language. There are also several factors that can influence children language
acquisition, namely health, social economic status, family members, and gender.
Brown (1873) states that the language development by a girl is growing faster
than a boy in the first five years. It is indicated by the numbers of vocabulary
acquired, the length of the sentence, and understanding of the word.
The study of a language includes sociolinguistics, morphology,
grammatics, and others. Morpheme is a part of morphology which is a study of
the small units that have a meaning. Morphemes can be broadly divided into two
types: free morphemes and bound morphemes. There are free morphemes, that is,
morphemes that can stand by themselves as single words and bound morphemes
which are generally identified as affixes. Free morphemes fall into two categories:
lexical morphemes and functional morphemes. The first category is that set of
ordinary nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs that we think of as the words that
carry the content of the messages we convey. These free morphemes are
called lexical morphemes (Chaer:2009). Peter & Terezinha (2006) state that
children usually begin to produce two-morpheme words in their third year and
during that year the growth in their use of affixes is rapid and extremely
impressive for examples the child uttered makanan di atas meja, di atas/on/ it is
kind of functional morphemes, meja /table/ it is kind of lexical morphemes. Both
lexical and functional morphemes are categorized as free morpheme. The word
makanan it derivatives from word makan add with suffix ’an’, it changed the
grammatical function from verb to noun. And it is known as derivational
morphemes (bound morphemes). And as the result child’s utterance consist of 4
morphemes (main+an, diatas and meja). The example of child’s utterance: Banyak
apel itu; apel/ apple/ it is kind of lexical morpheme, banyak /many/ and itu/that/, it
is kind of functional morphemes. Her utterance consist of 3 morphemes (banyak,
apel and itu ).
It is believed that children have started to associate groups of sounds with
meanings and to use them to express their own intentions. Even children at the
age of three to four years have acquired more than 14,000 vocabularies, complex
grammatical constructions, and phonological systems of a language. It will
become increasingly skillful in how they use a language in a range of setting
(David, 1999).
The reseacehr is very much intersted in conducting a study on language
acquisition because it gives information on how the children acquire languages. It
is also interesting to observe how the levels of the 3 years old child in mastering
the language especially in acquiring the lexical morphemes. Moreover, she is also
curious to observe how the environment supports the child in acquiring Bahasa
Indonesia as his/her natural language. This study will be focused on the
Indonesian lexical morphemes in a free (base) form as the consideration to
measure the Mean Length of Utterances of Indonesian children at the age of 3
years.
1.2 The Problems of the Study
In relation to the background of the study, the problems of the study are
formulated as the following:
1. What are the types of Indonesian lexical morphemes acquired by a
child of three years old?
2. How are those types of Indonesian lexical morphemes acquired by a
child of three years old?
3. What level of MLU is acquired by by a child of three years old in
Indonesia?
1.3 The Objectives of the Study
In connection with the problems, the objectives of this study are:
1. To find out the types of Indonesian lexical morpheme produced by a
child of three years old as free morpheme.
2. To describe how those types of Indonesian lexical morphemes
acquired by by a child of three years old
3. To measure the level of MLU acquired by by a child of three years
old.
1.4 The Scope of the Study
A study on language acquisition can cover many aspects of the children’s
progress in the process of acquiring a language. In this research, the researcher
intends to observe the process of a child in acquiring the lexical morphemes as the
part free morpheme that consist of noun, verb, adjective and adverb. The child
who will be observed is the researcher’s relative.
1.5 The Significance of the Study
A study on language acquisition can touch many aspects of a child.
Proficiency to the acquistion of a language, findings of this research is expected to
provide a valuable input that can enrich the study on the development of language
acquisition. It is expected that the findings can show significant relevancy to the
theoretical and practical aspects.
Theoretically, the research findings can provide a basis for further
research on different stages of the children’s language acquisition and to see the
application of theories of language acquisition.
Practically, on the other hand, this research can be made as guidelines for
adults, teachers, those concerned with an early childhood education, especially
parents who are interested in the process of encouraging the young children to
speak as related to the theory of language acquisition. It will be a valuable
reference in assisting and facilitating the children in the process of language
acquisition.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions
Based on the objectives and problems of the study some outstand points
can be concluded as the follow
1.
SKA acquired all four types of lexical morphemes; 82 nouns, 36 verbs, 25
adjectives and 24 adverbs. from the total numbers of those lexical morphemes,
nouns bring to the highest position among others because commonly a child is
surrounded by things in the environment. A child focuses on the use of nouns than
verbs to indicate the action.
2.
By imitation, SKA acquired the language by repeating what she heard from
others. In the present study, the findings showed that SKA would repeated the
anonymous words and the utterances which had corrected by the surroundings.
Reinforcement also found in the observation. SKA asked the unknown words and
then she repeatedly said the name of the words again. Reinforcement process was
also influenced by the environment and surroundings. The surroundings insist her
to utter the previous ones. Universal Grammar is the basic knowledge of a
language which should be supported to run well by the environments such as her
parents, relatives, television shows, and songs. Based on this study, it was found
that the surroundings have very much important roles.
3.
After selecting 100 utterances, the total number of morphemes produced by
SKA is 388. So SKA’s MLU is 3.88. In this case, SKA produced taq questions,
compound words, and complex sentences. It indicates that SKA acquired her
language well.
75
5.2
Suggestions
The proces of children’s language acquisition is very interesting to be
conducted, in order to observe and to encourage children to speak and express
themselves well at an early childhood teachers and parents can observe the
language acquisition then try to show the correct way, in order to train the
children to speak well in according to their age level.
1. Parents
Parents and families are key players to improve and maximize the lexical
acquisition by children at the early age. It’s pretty safe to say that parents start
talking to, and with, their children from the day they were born (and sometimes
earlier!). As a parent and a child’s first teacher, should spend thousands of hours
in conversation with the child.
Giving the direct speech to the children to stimulus of a language such as
having conversation, watching movie, telling a story and listening to the music. It
can help the child to produce Large number of one-word utterances
2. Early childhood teachers
Young children are not like other students. Their needs are unique and
you must be aware of this. It is important to understand that you could be one of
the first adults a young child has interacted with outside of his or her own family.
Teachers in early education need to be creative and adaptive.
3. Other researcher
This research is conducted to give benefits for academies and students
who wants to learn the language acquisition occured at the age of three years old.
For those not only know the language but also can make own observation
due to this subject. It is suggested to motivate others who are interested to widen
the scope of a similar study by doing observation to the children directly to fulfill
the academies or as a requirement to master this related subject.
This study is not a perfect result, this is due to the limitations and insights
of the researcher in describing and discussing problems in the study. Thus, it is
necessary to conduct further research on language acquisition of children at the
age of three years to obtain more perfect result.
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MORPHEMES BY A CHILD OF THREE-YEARS OLD
A Thesis
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program
in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Magister Humaniora
By:
KARTINA RAHMADHANI RAMBE
Registration Number: 8126111014
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
2015
ABSTRACT
Rambe, K.R. 8126111014. The Acquisition of Indonesian Lexical Morphemes
by a Child of Three-Years Old. A Thesis. English Applied Linguistics Study
Program, Postgraduate School, State University of Medan.2015
The objectives of this qualitative research on the acquisition of Indonesian lexical
morphemes of an Indonesian child of three-years old were to (1) to find the types
of Indonesian lexical morphemes acquired by a child of three-years old, (2)
describe the types of Indonesian lexical morpheme acquired by the child, and (3)
measure the level of Mean Length of Utterances (MLU) acquired by the child. In
order to collect the data, the research instruments used were tape recorder and
written down in a diary during the six times observation. Based on the analyses,
there were found 82 nouns, 36 verbs, 25 adjectives, and 24 adverbs with their
different numbers of types. Nouns bring the highest position among others lexical
morphemes. The result of findings of this study showed that all types of
Indonesian lexical morphemes, namely nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs were
acquired by the child. Universal Grammar is the most dominant ways in acquiring
the Indonesian lexical morpehemes. Based on Universal Grammar, she had some
morphemes from her innate linguistic knowledge then followed by the imitation,
she acquired the morphemes through her well-understanding, and influenced by
the reinforcement, the surrounding which forced her to follow the previous
utterances. In measuring MLU, she acquired 388 morphemes from 100 utterances
and SKA’s MLU was 3.88. In brief it can be concluded that the Indonesian child
of three-years old had acquired the types of lexical morphemes. Thus, it is
suggested that the child’s language is an interesting study to be conducted, in
order to encourage a child to speak and express well at the early childhood. Some
suggestions are presented especially to parents, teachers and further researcher
for the care of the language acquisition of the children, namely (1) parents should
give stimulus of a language such as having conversation, watching movie, telling
stories and listening to the music, (2) early childhood teachers need to be creative
and adaptive because the children’s needs are different and one must be aware of
this, and (3) further research study to find out the more accurate result on
Indonesian lexical morphemes and in the average MLU.
i
ABSTRAK
Rambe, K.R. 8126111014. The Acquisition of Indonesian Lexical Morphemes
by a Child of Three-Years Old. A Thesis. English Applied Linguistics Study
Program, Postgraduate School, State University of Medan.2015
Tujuan dari penelitian kualitatif ini pada pemerolehan morfem leksikal bahasa
Indonesia pada anak Indonesia berumur tiga tahun adalah untuk (1) menemukan
jenis morfem leksikal Bahasa Indonesia yang diperoleh oleh anak berusia tiga
tahun, (2) menggambarkan bagaimana jenis morfem leksikal bahasa Indonesia
yang yang diperoleh anak berusia tiga tahun, dan (3) mengukur tingkat Mean
Length Utterances (MLU) yang diperoleh. Selama mengumpulkan data,
instrumen penelitian yang digunakan adalah tape recorder dan ditulis dalam
catatan selama enam kali pengamatan. Berdasarkan pengamatan yang dilakukan,
ditemukan 82 kata benda, 36 kata kerja, 25 kata sifat, dan 24 kata keterangan
dengan jumlah jenis yang berbeda-beda. Kata benda berada ditingkat teratas
dibandingan dengan jenis leksikal morfem lainnya. Hasil temuan penelitian ini
menunjukkan bahwa semua jenis morfem Indonesia leksikal, yaitu kata benda,
kata kerja, kata sifat, dan kata keterangan yang diperoleh oleh subjek. Universal
Grammar paling dominan dalam pemerolehan leksikal morfem dalam Bhasa
Indonesia. Berdasarkan Universal Grammar, ia memiliki beberapa morfem dari
pengetahuan bawaan linguistiknya. Kemudian diikuti dengan cara meniru, ia
memperoleh morfem tersebut dengan pemahaman yang baik sedangkan bantuan,
didukung oleh sekelilingnya untuk mengikuti ucapan-ucapan sebelumnya. Dalam
mengukur MLU, ia memperoleh 388 morfem dari 100 ucapan dan panjang ratarata ujaran SKA adalah 3.88. Secara singkat dapat disimpulkan bahwa anak
Indonesia berumur tiga tahun telah memperoleh jenis morfem leksikal. Dengan
demikian, disarankan agar pemerolehan bahasa anak merupakan studi yang
menarik untuk dilakukan, untuk mendorong anak berbicara dan mengekspresikan
dirinya dengan baik sejak usia dini. Disarankan terutama kepada orang tua, guru,
dan peneliti lainnya lebih lanjut untuk memperhatikan pemerolehan bahasa anakanak: (1) orang tua harus memberikan rangsangan bahasa seperti memiliki
percakapan, menonton film, bercerita, dan mendengarkan musik, (2) guru
pendidikan anak usia dini lebih kreatif dan adaptif karena kebutuhan anak-anak
berbeda-beda dan harus disadari, dan (3) adanya penelitian lebih lanjut untuk
mengetahui ketepatan pada morfem leksikal Indonesia dan Mean Length
Utterances (MLU).
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the name of Allah SWT, the most gracious and merciful, all praise for
His mercy, guidance and loving cares which have been given to the writer, in the
process of completing this thesis entitled “The Acquisition of Indonesian Lexical
Morphemes by a Child of Three-Years Old”. As a compulsory in order to fulfill
one of the requirements for the degree of Magister Humaniora at the English
Applied Linguistics Study Program, Postgraduate School of State University of
Medan.
During the process of completing the thesis, the writer has received a lot of
assistance from some people. First of all, she would like to express her special
appreciation to her First adviser Prof. Tina Mariany Arifin, M.A., Ph.D. for being
so helpful in guiding and correcting the contents, layouts, and tenses which she
could spare her valuable time not only from a near distance but also at a distance
was not a real problem; and to her Second Adviser Dr. Didik Santoso, M.Pd., for
being so helpful and cooperative in the supervision of writing this thesis.
Second, her thanks are extended to Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M. Pd., Dr.
Sri Minda Murni, M.S., and Farid Ma’ruf, Head, Secretary and Administration
staff of English Applied Linguistics Study Program; and Prof. Dr. H. Abdul Muin
Sibuea, M. Pd., Director of Postgraduate School, for the administrative procedures
during the completion of this thesis and also all lecturers who had given very
valuable knowledge through out the academic years.
iii
Third, great appreciation are extended to Prof.Amrin Saragih,M.A.,Ph.D.,
Dr. I Wayan Dirgayasa Tangkas, M.Hum., and Dr. Anni Holila Pulungan,
M.Hum., as the reviewers and examiners for the valuable inputs to be included in
this thesis
Then, her deepest gratitudes are expressed to her beloved parents, (Late).
Mara Gading Rambe,S.Pd., and Lismanita, for everything poured to her to achieve
her ambition, her brothers Akbar Khusyairi Rambe, S.Pd. and Imam Ansyari
Rambe who always support, pray and motivate her in achieving further education.
She also would like to thank SKA’s parents who had given the permission
to observe SKA’s language acquistion of the Indonesian lexical morphemes which
had made the research posible to be carried out.
Then, a very special thanks to Aurora (Chairul, Dhani, Tari, Reza, Sugih,
Melita, Ayu, Aisyah, Ami, Tia, Arin, Raisa and Desi) and also her best friends
since senior high school till presents (Mega, Maida, Winda, Elvi, Nanda, Idris,
Dicky and Adel) who have shared the colorful friendship and being good listeners
for every complaint and regarding her feelings of loneliness and emptiness.
Further thanks are directed to her friends and classmates Regular A1 2012 for the
assistence and encouragement, especially to Azizah and Tari, for the heart to heart
conversations via mobile phone, facebook and face to face chit-chat. She really
appreciates the advice and encouragement on many cases.
iv
She would also like to thank her students who never questioned her
craziness during the last year and were patience with getting their grades after the
tests.
May Allah Bless Us All.
Medan,
January 2015
The writer,
Kartina Rahmadhani Rambe
Registration Number: 8126111014
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
ABSTRACT............................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ...................................................................................... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ....................................................................................... vi
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................. viii
LIST OF APPENDICES ........................................................................................ ix
CHAPTER I .
INTRODUCTION
1.1
The Background of the Study .............................................. 1
1.2
The Problem of the Study ................................................... 6
1.3
The Objectives of the Study ................................................ 6
1.4
The Scope of the Study ........................................................ 7
1.5
The Significance of the Study.............................................. 7
CHAPTER II . REVIEW OF LITERATURE
2.1
Language Acquisition ......................................................... 8
2.2
Language Acquisition and Language Learning .................. 12
2.3
The Process of Language Acquisition ................................ 14
2.3.1 Learning Through Imitation ..................................... 16
2.3.2 Learning Through Reinforcement............................ 17
2.3.3 Universal Grammar ................................................. 17
2.4
Universal Stages of Children’s Language Development .... 18
2.4.1 Three Years Old Children ........................................ 20
2.5
Morphemes ......................................................................... 22
2.5.1 The Lexical Morpheme ............................................ 23
2.5.2 Grammatical Morpheme .......................................... 26
2.6
Mean Length of Utterances (MLU) .................................... 26
2.6.1 The Measurement of Mean Length of Utterances ... 27
2.6.1.1 Stage I ........................................................ 30
vi
2.6.1.2 Stage II ....................................................... 31
2.6.1.3 Stage III ..................................................... 31
2.6.1.4 Stage IV ..................................................... 31
2.6.1.5 Stage V....................................................... 32
2.6.1.6 Stage V+ .................................................... 32
2.7
Relevant Studies ................................................................. 33
2.8
Conceptual Framework ........................................................ 34
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1
Research Design .................................................................. 36
3.2
Research Setting .................................................................. 36
3.3
Data and Data Source ......................................................... 37
3.4
Techniques of Data Collection ............................................ 37
3.5
Instruments of Data Collection ............................................ 38
3.6
Trustworthiness of the Study ............................................... 38
3.7
Techniques of Data Analysis .............................................. 39
CHAPTER IV. DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS, AND DISCUSSION
4.1
Data Analysis ...................................................................... 40
4.1.1 The Types of Indonesian Lexical Morphemes
Acquired by SKA .................................................... 43
4.1.2 The Ways of Indonesian Lexical Morphemes
Acquired by SKA .................................................... 66
4.1.3 The Measurement of MLU Level ........................... 67
4.2
Research Findings ............................................................... 70
4.3
Discussion ........................................................................... 71
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1
Conclusions ......................................................................... 75
5.2
Suggestions ......................................................................... 76
REFERENCES ........................................................................................................78
APPENDIX ........................................................................................................81-154
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Pages
Table 2.1
Differences between Language Acquisition and Learning .......13
Table 2.2
Brown’s Stage of MLU.. ...........................................................30
Table 4.1
Analysis of the Lexical Morphemes Acquired by SKA ..........42
Table 4.2
The Distribution of Indonesian Lexical Morphemes
Acquired by SKA ......................................................................42
Table 4.3
Analysis of Utterances .............................................................68
Table 4.4
The Measurement of SKA’s MLU Level ................................68
LIST OF APPENDICES
Pages
Appendix A
The Profile of the Subject .................................................... 81
Appendix B
The Profiles of Syifa’s Families .......................................... 82
Appendix C
The Identifications and the Categorization of SKA’s
Utterances into the Types of Indonesian
Lexical Morphemes ..............................................................83
Appendix D
The Display of SKA’s Utterances into the Type of
Indonesian Lexical Morpheme .............................................105
Appendix E
The Types of Indonesian Nouns Acquired by SKA .............132
Appendix F
The Types of Indonesian Verbs Acquired by SKA ..............134
Appendix G
Indonesian Adjectives Acquired by SKA ............................135
Appendix H
The Types of Indonesian Adverbs Acquired by SKA..........136
Appendix I
The Measurement of SKA’s MLU Level ............................137
Appendix J
The Transciption of SKA’s Dialogues .................................141
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Language acquisition is a process by which humans acquire the capacity
to perceive and comprehend language, as well as to produce and use words and
sentences to communicate. Language acquisition usually refers to the firstLanguage Acquisition, which study infants' acquisition of their native language.
This is distinguished from Second-Language Acquisition (SLA), which deals with
the acquisition (in both children and adults) of additional languages (David, 1999:
409).
According to Bloor & Bloor (1995) children will come up with the most
extraordinary things when they start using a language, such as: cute things,
hilarious things, and sometimes, baffling things that may start us wondering
whether we should worry about their language development. Children will
develop their own strategies for learning whatever they find relevant to learn
around them, including a language. Children are much more resourceful, resilient
and creative. The psychologist of behaviorism, Paivio & Begg (1981) state
that children learn to model their behavior on what goes on around them, be the
dress codes, body language, and language uses, usually come first through their
own utterances and later through peers in their family, neighborhood or at school.
Children are learning how to function adequately in their environment and much
of this learning takes place through language itself. This means that the
acquisition of language is going on whenever a language is used around the
children.
The process of Language acquisition can be seen as running parallel
throughout a child’s life every day. S/he learns to communicate through natural
interactions with her/his environment. The process begins in the early life of a
human being and requires a healthy start, sufficient opportunities, and exposure to
a care giving environment that allows the child’s innate predisposition to learn to
communicate to function (Rossetti, 2001). More than half of the world’s
population today uses more than one language while being connected to the
fundamental human activities.
During the language acquisition process large numbers of words have to
be taught (Clark, 2003:12). Clark (2003) also states that the first language
acquisition requires a comprehensive look at where and when children acquired a
language. There are considerable individual differences among children regarding
their vocabulary size and the speed with which they acquire new words.
Environmental factors such as socio-economic and cultural factors and other
factors relating to the home language environment have been found to influence
vocabulary development (Hart & Risley, 1995). By the age of 1 the child is able
to utter single word utterances, and by the end of the second year they are able to
speak 2 to 3 word utterances. This phenomena ease and speed with which children
are able to pick up something so absurdly complicated, make the subject more
interesting and challenging. One of the factors in acquiring the language by
children is child directed speech. Child-directed speech is speech commonly used
by parents or caregivers when communicating with children. The basic idea with
child-directed speech is that parents modify their speech when talking to children.
It helps the children acquire the more complex construction of the word or
sentence.
The process of mastering the language is closely related to the process of
acquiring the language. The process of acquiring a language in a child is naturally
a process of development. This process is usually called language acquisition. In
the process of the development, there are some important things that can be
acquired. It involves language comprehension, language production, and language
perception of the child in acquiring the language because a child is not born with
the knowledge of a particular language. Some psychologists and linguists divide
the problem of language acquisition into vocabulary, meaning, and grammar.
There are two approaches in language acquisition.
Chomsky (1999:75) defines children in a normal life from two until six
years old will acquire language with structure and vocabulary. This is possible
because since birth, they have been equipped with such a device, called Language
Acquisition Device (LAD). The Language Acquisition Device allows children to
analyze the language they hear and extract the rules of grammar that permit them
to create brand-new word. But the ability in acquiring language is not relatively
same among the children. Brown (1873:90) describes five stages of language
development, based on the Mean Length of Utterance (MLU).
…..Mean length of utterance (MLU) is the average number of morphemes
per utterance. It is an index of expressive language development used
beyond the stage of single words, when a child uses two or more words
together in an utterance- which is the number of morphemes --- basic units
of meaning --- toddlers can produce.
MLU is used as a measurement of each child level in acquiring the
language. Children acquire language rapidly at the age of three or four. The
nativists maintain their nature theory that language is basically innate, in which
children were born with special unique human talent that can acquire the grammar
of a language without adults’ instruction or correction.
Language acquisition can be seen as a natural process that will occur to
every normal child. Each child will experience similar stages in language
development although they have different speed. Language acquisition will be
impossible when a child is not interacting with the environment. Through social
interaction with family members and those in the community, the child will
acquire the first and second language. Therefore, each child acquires language as
part of the natural process and as a result of social interaction in the community.
Merry (2011: 4) states that language cannot be developed in a vacuum and there is
no society alive without language. It means that language is a resource that is
available to everyone in a society and the society can exist with the presence of
language. There are also several factors that can influence children language
acquisition, namely health, social economic status, family members, and gender.
Brown (1873) states that the language development by a girl is growing faster
than a boy in the first five years. It is indicated by the numbers of vocabulary
acquired, the length of the sentence, and understanding of the word.
The study of a language includes sociolinguistics, morphology,
grammatics, and others. Morpheme is a part of morphology which is a study of
the small units that have a meaning. Morphemes can be broadly divided into two
types: free morphemes and bound morphemes. There are free morphemes, that is,
morphemes that can stand by themselves as single words and bound morphemes
which are generally identified as affixes. Free morphemes fall into two categories:
lexical morphemes and functional morphemes. The first category is that set of
ordinary nouns, adjectives, adverbs and verbs that we think of as the words that
carry the content of the messages we convey. These free morphemes are
called lexical morphemes (Chaer:2009). Peter & Terezinha (2006) state that
children usually begin to produce two-morpheme words in their third year and
during that year the growth in their use of affixes is rapid and extremely
impressive for examples the child uttered makanan di atas meja, di atas/on/ it is
kind of functional morphemes, meja /table/ it is kind of lexical morphemes. Both
lexical and functional morphemes are categorized as free morpheme. The word
makanan it derivatives from word makan add with suffix ’an’, it changed the
grammatical function from verb to noun. And it is known as derivational
morphemes (bound morphemes). And as the result child’s utterance consist of 4
morphemes (main+an, diatas and meja). The example of child’s utterance: Banyak
apel itu; apel/ apple/ it is kind of lexical morpheme, banyak /many/ and itu/that/, it
is kind of functional morphemes. Her utterance consist of 3 morphemes (banyak,
apel and itu ).
It is believed that children have started to associate groups of sounds with
meanings and to use them to express their own intentions. Even children at the
age of three to four years have acquired more than 14,000 vocabularies, complex
grammatical constructions, and phonological systems of a language. It will
become increasingly skillful in how they use a language in a range of setting
(David, 1999).
The reseacehr is very much intersted in conducting a study on language
acquisition because it gives information on how the children acquire languages. It
is also interesting to observe how the levels of the 3 years old child in mastering
the language especially in acquiring the lexical morphemes. Moreover, she is also
curious to observe how the environment supports the child in acquiring Bahasa
Indonesia as his/her natural language. This study will be focused on the
Indonesian lexical morphemes in a free (base) form as the consideration to
measure the Mean Length of Utterances of Indonesian children at the age of 3
years.
1.2 The Problems of the Study
In relation to the background of the study, the problems of the study are
formulated as the following:
1. What are the types of Indonesian lexical morphemes acquired by a
child of three years old?
2. How are those types of Indonesian lexical morphemes acquired by a
child of three years old?
3. What level of MLU is acquired by by a child of three years old in
Indonesia?
1.3 The Objectives of the Study
In connection with the problems, the objectives of this study are:
1. To find out the types of Indonesian lexical morpheme produced by a
child of three years old as free morpheme.
2. To describe how those types of Indonesian lexical morphemes
acquired by by a child of three years old
3. To measure the level of MLU acquired by by a child of three years
old.
1.4 The Scope of the Study
A study on language acquisition can cover many aspects of the children’s
progress in the process of acquiring a language. In this research, the researcher
intends to observe the process of a child in acquiring the lexical morphemes as the
part free morpheme that consist of noun, verb, adjective and adverb. The child
who will be observed is the researcher’s relative.
1.5 The Significance of the Study
A study on language acquisition can touch many aspects of a child.
Proficiency to the acquistion of a language, findings of this research is expected to
provide a valuable input that can enrich the study on the development of language
acquisition. It is expected that the findings can show significant relevancy to the
theoretical and practical aspects.
Theoretically, the research findings can provide a basis for further
research on different stages of the children’s language acquisition and to see the
application of theories of language acquisition.
Practically, on the other hand, this research can be made as guidelines for
adults, teachers, those concerned with an early childhood education, especially
parents who are interested in the process of encouraging the young children to
speak as related to the theory of language acquisition. It will be a valuable
reference in assisting and facilitating the children in the process of language
acquisition.
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions
Based on the objectives and problems of the study some outstand points
can be concluded as the follow
1.
SKA acquired all four types of lexical morphemes; 82 nouns, 36 verbs, 25
adjectives and 24 adverbs. from the total numbers of those lexical morphemes,
nouns bring to the highest position among others because commonly a child is
surrounded by things in the environment. A child focuses on the use of nouns than
verbs to indicate the action.
2.
By imitation, SKA acquired the language by repeating what she heard from
others. In the present study, the findings showed that SKA would repeated the
anonymous words and the utterances which had corrected by the surroundings.
Reinforcement also found in the observation. SKA asked the unknown words and
then she repeatedly said the name of the words again. Reinforcement process was
also influenced by the environment and surroundings. The surroundings insist her
to utter the previous ones. Universal Grammar is the basic knowledge of a
language which should be supported to run well by the environments such as her
parents, relatives, television shows, and songs. Based on this study, it was found
that the surroundings have very much important roles.
3.
After selecting 100 utterances, the total number of morphemes produced by
SKA is 388. So SKA’s MLU is 3.88. In this case, SKA produced taq questions,
compound words, and complex sentences. It indicates that SKA acquired her
language well.
75
5.2
Suggestions
The proces of children’s language acquisition is very interesting to be
conducted, in order to observe and to encourage children to speak and express
themselves well at an early childhood teachers and parents can observe the
language acquisition then try to show the correct way, in order to train the
children to speak well in according to their age level.
1. Parents
Parents and families are key players to improve and maximize the lexical
acquisition by children at the early age. It’s pretty safe to say that parents start
talking to, and with, their children from the day they were born (and sometimes
earlier!). As a parent and a child’s first teacher, should spend thousands of hours
in conversation with the child.
Giving the direct speech to the children to stimulus of a language such as
having conversation, watching movie, telling a story and listening to the music. It
can help the child to produce Large number of one-word utterances
2. Early childhood teachers
Young children are not like other students. Their needs are unique and
you must be aware of this. It is important to understand that you could be one of
the first adults a young child has interacted with outside of his or her own family.
Teachers in early education need to be creative and adaptive.
3. Other researcher
This research is conducted to give benefits for academies and students
who wants to learn the language acquisition occured at the age of three years old.
For those not only know the language but also can make own observation
due to this subject. It is suggested to motivate others who are interested to widen
the scope of a similar study by doing observation to the children directly to fulfill
the academies or as a requirement to master this related subject.
This study is not a perfect result, this is due to the limitations and insights
of the researcher in describing and discussing problems in the study. Thus, it is
necessary to conduct further research on language acquisition of children at the
age of three years to obtain more perfect result.
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