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was a missing of subject it in a sentence So, where did exactly take place?
Those errors occurred as a result of omissions either content morpheme or functional morphemes. Therefore, those belonged to the category of incomplete
application of rules.
4.2.2.2 Overgeneralization
There were found some cases of overgeneralization. However, it does not mean that all respondents made errors in the case of overgeneralization. The errors
which are considered because of overgeneralization are seen in Table 4.19.
Table 4.19 Errors Belonging to Overgeneralization
No Respondent Examples of the errors
1 B
Do you understand now what is a memo? So…Does anyone know what is a memo?
F Can you guess what are they do there?
Now, do you have any idea what will we learn today?
K
…, but if you don’t understand, you can ask me what am I talking about
.
Miss A, would you mind help me to read what is imperative
? 2 F
Has group one wrote in the right order Has they wrote in the right order
3 F
Angga want to be with nine girls He describe this holy bible
…., so the writer tell in … about something else
4 F
And third form are used, so the writer … And then what is the examples, miss A?
Oh, this is the eyes … The eyes of Andy is blue and …
Freckles is something like this
Richards 1974
mentions overgeneralization as “the use of previously
available strategies in new situations” p. 174. It is a case where English learners applied a previously learned rule for a new situation which it does not apply. It
74 goes apart from whether or not the English learners are aware of the
overgeneralized construction they made. The errors belonging to this category are those which result from the misbalance of one application of rules with another
application of rules. Consequently, this resulted in a creation of an incorrect construction alike to others by the influence of the strategy they learned
previously. The researcher considered the errors above as overgeneralization because there were found multiple similar errors in the duration of the
respondent’s teaching. This consideration derived from analyzing the results of transcription. In the transcripts, the researcher found some similar constructions
without finding the correct construction in the respondents’ speech. No 1 is a case of overgeneralization in the structure of clause following
question word order. In their speech, there were found the incorrect structures of embedded clause, yet there was not found any of the correct one. Along studying
English, they learnt about question word order. They learnt the WH word formation where auxiliary always exists to follow WH words and to precede the
noun phrase, as in What is a memo? Because of the great knowledge of such formation, respondents B, F, and K, then overgeneralized the question word order
to use in the structure of the embedded noun clause in question transformation.
The second, No 2, is a case of overgeneralization of the word wrote to be
used for present perfect construction. Here, the respondent adopted the word
wrote not only as simple past verb but also as a past participle verb. It occurred
because the word wrote is an irregular verb and the respondent seemed to be
confused by its irregular alteration, which made the respondent F overgeneralized
75 such word. Some irregular verbs have either two or three forms. For example the
irregular verb write has three forms which are write for simple present, wrote for simple past, and written for past participle and the irregular verb bring for simple
present and brought for both simple past and past participle. In his speech, there
were found some present perfect constructions which used regular verb, such as have you finished? However, the respondent has no difficulty of forming the verb
into past participle verb. Therefore, the existence of the two forms of irregular
verbs had made the respondent overgeneralized the verb form of wrote to
function also as past participle. Another case also occurred in the verb pattern following third person
singular as seen in No 3. In this case the respondent F overgeneralized the function infinitive verb to appear after third person singular. In his speech, there
was not found any correct construction of verb following third person singular
during his teaching. There was only found this utterance This text will also tells a
story but also describe something. In this case, the respondent was confused and thus often mismatched the verb usage. The respondents constructed verbs by
omitting inflection -s for the verbs after third person singular, or in the contrary, attaching inflection -s for the verbs after modal. This is considered as an
overgeneralization case.
The last case, No 4, occurred because of the misuse of is and are. Respondent F, here, overgeneralized the function of is to appear replacing the
function of are. In the contrary, the function of are appeared to replace the
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function of is. This inconsistent use of are and is is regarded as overgeneralization because the respondents overgeneralized their function to replace each other.
4.2.2.3 False Hypothesized Concept
