Question 11 has two kinds of misformation: the change of subject
he
into
I
and verb
help
into
do
. Because the student changed
he
into subject
I,
he also changed
his
into
my
as the possessive form. This kind of mistake can be categorized as misformation. Next, the change of
helped
into
done
causes different interpretation in meaning although both of the words are verbs.
Do
might be used based on a same semantic meaning with
help
that is: to find or solve the answer. The error has the interpretation as if
my sister
was the one who did the homework, whether the right interpretation is that the subject
I
could do the homework because of the sister’s help.
b. Addition
Addition is the presence of an item which should not appear in the correct form of a sentence Dulay, Burt, Krashen, 1982: 156. The examples of addition
errors are: Question 6 :
Instead of buying a new bicycle, why don’t you have someone fix your old one?
SA : Instead of buying a new bicycle, why don’t you have your
old one is fixed? Question 8 :
Where did you get someone to repair your car? We’re looking for a good mechanic.
SA : Where did you get your car to be repaired?
It is common to see the addition of
be
and
to-be
in the passive causative form in Part B. Question 6 indicates that there are two possibilities behind the additional
be
is
. First, the student is influenced by the rule of regular passive voice:
be
before the verb. Therefore,
is
is put in the passive form of simple present tense. Second, there might be an influence of first language in answering the question.
In Indonesian,
passive form is marked by the use of {
di
-} in the verb Moeliono, 1987: 280. In this case, students acknowledge that be
is
should be added in passive form to mark the passive voice, similar with the form {
di
-} should be added to mark the passive sentence in Indonesian. Due to the transfer of language
diperbaiki
in Indonesian, therefore students decided to put
is
before fixed. Next, question 8 has the additional
to be
before the verb
repaired
. The form of active causative where
get
is followed by
to-infinitive
may cause this error. That is why student kept writing
to
after the object and added
be
to form the passive voice. The student seemed not to acknowledge that the passive form of
have
and
get
causatives are the same.
c. Omission
The first common error of omission that the student did is the omission of the doer or the causer in the passive form. Here, the causer is marked after
by-
phrase. Question 11 : He got his sister to help his homework.
SA : He got his homework helped.
The absence of
his sister
in the answer of question 11 is a significant error in a such of passive sentence. It is because
his sister
gives a new information to the hearer Celce-Murcia, Marianne and Larsen Freeman, 1999: 355. However, it is
stated by Marianne, that most analyses show that there are about 15-20 percent of agent absence in passive voice 1999: 354. The fact of agent absence in passive
sentence is also noted by Carter and McCarthy in Marianne who explain
get
passive sentences have no explicitly stated agent 1999: 349.
The omission of a subject is also common to be found in Part B. Take a look at this example:
Question 6 : Instead of buying a new bicycle, why don’t you have someone
fix your old one? SA
: Instead of buying a new bicycle, why don’t have your old one fixed?
Although the meaning in the passive form is conveyed, the student had been mistaken to omit the causer in passive causative form. It can be observed that the
student might think to put the verb right after don’t because the the student failed to
recognize that don’t is a be for the phrase. The form of an interrogative sentence in
simple present tense has the form:
dodoes + subject + verb + noun phrase
. Instead, the student may look at the sentence as the negative form in simple present which has
rule:
subject+ dodoes + not + verb + noun phrase
. The other possibility of the error is the influence of Indonesian. Here, the
student just tried to translate the causative phrase as ‘
kenapa tidak sepeda lamamu yang diperbaiki?
’. Due to the translation, the student finally omitted
you
as the causer.
d. Misordering
Different from misformation, misordering is the incorrect placement of a morpheme or group of morphemes in an utterance Dulay. Burt, Krashen, 1982: 162.
The general error of misordering is the error of
get
causative. Question 8 :
Where did you get someone to repair your car? We’re looking for a good mechanic.
SA : Where did you get repaired
your car? We’re looking for a good mechanic.
Question 11 : He got his sister to help his homework. SA
: He got helped his homework by his sister. To be looked closely, there is inseparability of
get
and the verbs in both cases. It is general knowledge that
get
passive is used in informal conversation. In the example such as: ‘Barry got invited to the party’ has
get
as an alternative to
be
Celce-Murcia, Marianne and Larsen Freeman, 1999: 345. According to this fact, the student decided to put together be
get
and the verbs and cause misordering of the sentence. The objects of
your car
and
his homework
should be put between
get
and the verbs.
Similar thing also happens with
have
causative. The example is on question 9 as follows:
Question 9 : We need to have someone check out our computer for viruses.
SA : We need to have checked out our computer.
There are two possibilities behind the answer. First, the student noticed ‘
to
have someone check out our computer for viruses’ as the non-finite clause of to- infinitive. Although the form is not right for the passive form, the student changed the
verb into past participle form
checked
in order to add the sense of passive voice. Second, the student noticed the word
have
as the
be
for present participle. It caused student to write down the past participle
checked
after be
have
. By this possibility, it is logical if student did not separate be
have
and
checked out
. There is also an
omission of
for viruses
in the sentence. Hence, the answer is incorrect because the sentence of causative should have
our computer
after
have
causative.
e. The Combinations of Some Errors
The researcher also found some combination of errors in several answers in Part B. The combinations of errors in Table 4.6 are the combination of misformation
and misordering, misformation and omission, omission and misordering, omission and misformation, addition and misformation, addition and omission, and addition
and misordering. One example is student’s answer in question 8. Question 8
: Where did you get someone to repair your car? We’re looking for a good mechanic.
SA : Where did your car is repaired?
In this example, there are two errors in the student’s answer. First is the
omission of the phrase ‘We’re looking for a good mechanic’. This omission may be
caused by the instruction that the students are asked to change the active causative sentence only. Therefore, heshe only changed the active causative sentence into
passive structure. The other missing things in the answer are
you
and
get
. You is omitted because the student transfered the sentence into Indonesian as
“Dimana mobilmu diperbaiki?”. In the other hand, it seemed that the student acknowledged
that the verb for the passive sentence should only be one verb, so heshe omitted
get
and decided
repaired
as the verb for the passive sentence. Second, the sentence pattern shows two kinds of be:
did
and
is
.
Did
refers to the subject
your car
while
is
refers to the past participle
repaired
. The use of
is
in the answer is an addition error. Furthermore, it may relate to the form of passive sentence