Number Indonesian Grammatical Categories

28 verbs that followed by an object are used in the passive form as argued by Azar 1989: 120. “Some languages use the passive more frequently than English in everyday contexts. The main function of the passive in English and in a number of other languages is, as already mentioned, to avoid specifying the agent and to give an impression of objectivity” Baker 1992: 106.

2.7 Indonesian Grammatical Categories

The five main grammatical categories proposed by Baker above exist in Bahasa Indonesia. Sometimes, the rules are more complex or simpler than English. It causes the translation is longer or shorter than the target text.

2.7.1 Number

In most languages, the concept of singular, plural, and generic are exist. “In Bahasa Indonesia, singular is marked with the using of words: satu, suatu, or esa” Alwi et. al. 2003: 284. They used for countable nouns. For example: 13 Aku masih menunggu dengan sabar datangnya satu keajaiban meskipun aku sendiri sudah lelah, 14 Aku berharap pada Tuhan Yang Esa agar Dia memaafkan aku dan menerimaku di sisiNya saat aku kembali. Meanwhile, for non-countable nouns, Chaer 2000: 88 proposes that for “non-countable nouns are marked by adverb of measure set should be placed in the front of the nouns in order to be able to count, such as gram, ton, cm sentimeter, km kilometer, persegi, liter, kubik; including words express the name of nouns’ places, such as karung, gelas, kaleng, truk, and gerobak, and also words of seikat, sepotong, sekerat, 29 setumpuk, seiris”. He adds that “into this nouns group include words of: 1 material, such as cement, sand, flour, sugar, etc; 2 substance, such as water, smoke, air, and gasoline”. For example: 15 Ayah membeli satu ton pupuk, 16 Dia sudah minum segelas air. Chaer 2000: 88 writes that “plural concept in Bahasa Indonesia is commonly marked by repeating the noun”. For example: 17 Buku-buku di perpustakaan disusun dengan rapi, 18 Di musim penghujan seperti ini, jalan- jalan pantura sudah rusak parah. He adds that “when the word related to singular concept is looked into a group, the noun can be formed reduplication such as batu- batuan or limited by para, kaum and banyak before the noun”. For example: 19 Sayur-mayur didatangkan dari daerah Lembang, 20 Goreng-gorengan ini dijual di warung bu Maodah, 21 Kaum buruh menderita akibat kebijakan yang salah diterapkan oleh mantan Presiden Megawati, 22 Banyak buruh berdemo menuntut keadilan untuk hidup mereka. Bahasa Indonesia has classifiers of nouns. According to Chaer 2000: 116, the classifiers of nouns used to divide nouns into certain categories; they are orang is for human, ekor is for animal, buah is for fruits, pucuk is for letter, etc”. The examples are: 23 Saya mempunyai dua orang kakak, 24 Dalam kandang itu ada tiga ekor ular kobra, 25 Dia membawa dua buah buku dan sebuah pensil. Bahasa Indonesia doesn’t have agreement of verbs in number concept. Singular and plural nouns do not require different verb forms. For example: 26 Ibu saya suka sekali memasak; 27 Ibu dan bibi saya suka sekali memasak. 30

2.7.2 Gender