In English, the subject must be concord with the verb in a sentence. In the sentence above, t
he word “sounds” should be in singular form agreement for word “a” denotes singular form. Therefore, the word “sounds” should become “sound”
in order to agree with the previous word. Besides, the word “music” actually refers to the sound that comes out from the box, then, definite pronoun is used.
Thus, the correct sentence is It has a sound, a beautiful sound that makes me love the music
.
2 Subject – Verb Agreement
No. Corpuses
Types of Grammatical Interference
Correct Sentences
a.
Q:
What is the best gift you have ever received?
A: It have a sounds, a
beautiful sounds
that makes me love a music.
Interference relates to transfer of morphemes.
It has
a sound, a beautiful sound that makes me love
the music.
In Standard English grammar, a verb always agrees with its subject also in person. In the sentence above, the interviewee translates the
verb “punya” into English “have” without following the subject–verb agreement. This error happens
because Bahasa Indonesia has no rules about this agreement. Thus, the correct sentence of it is It has a sound, a beautiful sound that makes me love the music.
3 Active – Passive Voice
No. Corpuses
Types of Grammatical Interference
Correct Sentences
a.
Q:
Being a woman, what piece of advice would
you give to a man? A:
I think that woman can be said that “I have
advice for you”.
Interference in particular word order.
I think that woman can s
ays “I have advice for you”.
This agreement is based on the category of voice. Interference in this part, relates to grammatical relation, especially in particular word order, because it
explicitly conveys unintended meaning in target language.
Datum a: Q: Being a woman, what piece of advice would you give to a man? A:
I think that
woman can be said that “I have advice for you”.
Structurally, the sentence above is well-formed, but it does not make sense. Although grammatically correct, it semantically has passive voice sense. In
passive construction, the verb is preceded by auxiliary verb, but not in active. Through the question, it can be seen that actually the interviewee wants to say it in
active voice but she utters in passive voice. So that, the appropriate sentence is I think that
woman can say, “I have advice for you”. 2.
Syntax Error 1
Pronoun – Antecedent Agreement
No. Corpuses
Types of Grammatical Interference
Correct Sentences
a. Q:
What is the worst date you have ever
been on? A:
So he have three
girlfriend including
me, but before that I know that they have
more than one hundred girlfriend.
Interference relates to transfer of morphemes.
So he has three girlfriends including me, but before
that I know that he has had more than one hundred
girlfriends.
A pronoun should not too far away from its antecedent; otherwise, it will
cause misunderstanding. Antecedent is the noun that goes before or precedes the pronoun and that the pronoun points back to.
30
A problem arises in the fact that English has three expressions for the third singular pronoun which refer
30
Barbara Hansen and Rebecca McDaniel 1998, loc.cit.
specifically to male, to female or to unknown object, that is he, she, it. In contrast, Bahasa Indonesia has no specific expression for the third singular pronoun, except
dia that refers to all sexes. Therefore, most Indonesian bilinguals often forget to
specify them, so the non-congruent systems of languages convey their English into interference.
Datum 1: Q: What is the worst date you have ever been on? A:
“So he have three girlfriend including me, but before that I know that they
have more than one hundred girlfriend.” In the sentence above, the misuse of pronoun makes several interpretation
of meaning possible. Therefore, to make the sentence clear, the interviewee should determine the pronoun and its antecedent whether it is singular or plural.
Thus, the appropriate sentence is So he has three girlfriends including me, but before that I know that he has had more than one hundred girlfriends.
2 Parallel Structure
No. Corpuses
Types of Grammatical Interference
Correct Sentences
a.
Q:
What is the best gift you have ever
received? A:
That makes me
know what jobs or what kind activity
that I love it. Interference in particular
word order.
That makes me know what kind of job or what kind
of activity that I love.
Faulty of parallelism can happen to anyone for any reason, like lack of grammar, language interference, etc. This occurs commonly and interferes with
the coherence of sentences. At first, this error interferes only theoretically because it does not violate the word order. Nevertheless, this interference tends to violate
the existing pattern in the target language, because the dependent clause of the
sentence does not follow the rule of both singular-plural and subject-verb agreement. This is the type of interference in particular word order.
Datum 1: Q: What is the best gift you have ever received? A:
“That makes me know what jobs or what kind activity that I love it.”
In the sentence above, there are two dependent clauses and two independent clauses. In the two dependent clauses, faulty parallelism occurs. They
should have been shared the same grammatical form. The datum shows that the interviewee is not aware with her speech which consist of parallel structure. In the
first dependent clause, she begin in the plural form but in the second clause, she uses singular form. It shows a lack of parallelism. It should be plural is joined by
plural and singular is joined by singular; jobs with activities and job with activity.
Thus, the appropriate sentence restructuring it is That makes me know what kind of job or what kind of activity
that I love.
3 Ambiguity
No. Corpuses
Types of Grammatical Interference
Correct Sentences
1.
Q:
Being a woman, what piece of advice
would you give to a man?
A: I think, when you
