CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1. Background of the Study
A new born child has been completed with Language Acquisition Device L.A.D. This is a kind of an innate ability for a child to speak a language. However this innate ability does not
automatically make herhim able to speak a language. A child must develop this innate ability in a social environment. Parents or people around herhim teach herhim consciously or
unconsciously; and shehe tries to imitate what they speak. Shehe gradually has an ability to speak. In other words, shehe acquires the ability to speak through the several steps.
According to Taylor and Taylor 1990: 227 the changes of language performance may be treated according to the following six phases. First, a neonate or infant up to 1 year of age
uses pre-linguistic means, such as crying, using gestures and vocalization. Second, as a toddler 1- 2 years of age takes an uncertain but inevitable step into the world of walking, he steps into the
world of verbal communication by learning how to pronounce speech sounds and use individual words. Third, a child of 2-3 years old can communicate most of his physical and social needs by
using language, which includes budding syntax some grammatical morphemes and word combinations. Fourth, a preschooler 3-5 years old, before starting school elaborates on the basis
of communication skills and language already acquired. He can produce a variety of utterances to communicate a variety of messages. In interacting with his peers, he hones his conversational
skills, which include taking turns rapidly and staying on the topic at hand. Fifth, a schoolchild 6- 12 years of age is skilled in communicating ideas through sentence and discourse of varied
structure and complexity. His syntax is secure. He also learns a means of communication other than oral speech, namely reading and writing, which will play important roles in his further
intellectual development. Sixth, a high school student has further room for development in language and communication skills if he wishes to become a fully literate member of his society.
The pre-school children begin to combine words. Children’s two-word combinations are followed by utterances that are three and more words long, and as children’s utterances get longer,
they also become increasingly complex. Children’s first sentences tend to be simple declarative sentences lacking many of grammatical morphemes. By the time, pre-school children can produce
complex sentences, and it is said that at this point they essentially mastered the grammar of their language.
The structure of language in terms of phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax have been found to play an important role in the understanding of how language is produced and
comprehended during activities such as speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Based on the illustration above, the researcher wants to study about The Indonesian Language Used by Pre-
school Children: A Study on Syntax.
2. Scope and Problems of the Study
In order to make analysis easier, the writer limits the discussion of this research that is only on syntactic structure of the utterances produced by pre-school children. Therefore, the writer
focuses only on the following problems. 1. What are the phrase structure rules of the utterances produced by pre-school children?
2. How are the constituent structures of pre-school children’s utterances described in the X-bar theory?
3. Hypothesis
Pre-school children have been able to produce some utterances. They use the words to refer to an object and event in their environment. The preschoolers elaborate on the basis of
communication skills and language already acquired. They can produce a variety of utterances to communicate a variety of messages. They have been able in producing phrases, namely noun
phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase, adverbial phrase, prepositional phrase, determiner phrase, and inflectional phrase.
4. Purposes and Significance of the Research
By answering the question, the purposes of this research are 1. To describe the phrase structure rules of utterances produced by pre-school children;
2. To formulate the constituent structures of pre-school children’s utterances in the X-bar theory.
The significance of this study are as follows. 1. The results of this study are expected to give contributions to theoretical studies that support
further research and can give benefits to the development of linguistics, especially on children’s language development.
2. The result of this study is expected to be used by communities in developing language skills to children.
5. Previous Studies
There are three research projects that become the references for the writer to present this project. First, Language Acquisition of Children Aged 6-30 Months was conducted by Haniva
2008. She described the children’s first language acquisition, observed from phonological, semantic, and syntactical aspect. Her research had found the respondents’ first language
acquisition corresponds with that mentioned in the children’s first language acquisition theory.
The second is Syntax and Language Acquisition written by Eisenbeiss 2012. She investigated the acquisition of syntax. In order to address the issues, she used naturalistic
sampling, experiments and semi-structured elicitation. The research reported in her paper that
current research on syntactic development is characterized by debates about the respective contribution of learners’ input and innate predispositions for language acquisition, the time course
of syntactic development, and the role of learners’ age and potential implications for monolingual, bilingual and L2-acquisition.
The other research project was conducted by Sayekti 2011 discussing Understanding the Hyponymy Relation of Animal Concept by 3;0 to 4;6 Years Old Children. In her research, she
xi
discussed the hyponymy words and their meaning or description that had been understood by the child. In her paper, she found that the two respondents can describe the semantic feature of the
hyponymy relation of animal concepts.
The difference between this reaserch with research projects before is the writer would like to find out the constituent structures and the phrase structute rules of the Indonesian language
used by pre-school children. Referring to the X-bar theory, the writer conducted a research on the analysis of syntactical structure in the Indonesian language used by pre-school children.
6. Organization of the Writing
Kategori