37 The researcher found more verbs of which initial sounds are ri:.
However, the researcher consulted a previous research conducted by Saragih 2008 which states that there are only 301 verbs prefixed by
re-
in English. The researcher found the verb
reevaluate
in the editorial published on September 21
st
, 2011. Since referring to
the Saragih’s list of re-prefixed verbs in his research, the researcher looked up on it. However, the verb
reevaluate
was not on the list. Although the verb can be paraphrased as ‘evaluate again’, the researcher ignored
it as the verb was not found on the list. The last finding related to the use of prefix
re
- in this research is that there was no hyphenation found. It means that ambiguity is not an important issue for
The Jakarta Post
readers. It is also possible that the diction used in
The Jakarta Post
was quite understandable for the daily news paper’s readers so that it is
unnecessary to add a hyphen between the prefix
re
- and the base to which the prefix is attached.
4. Suffix –
en
The en-suffixed verbs in
The Jakarta Post
editorials occurred 18 times, which means 56.25 of the editorials contained verbs ending in suffix -
en
. From the frequency, almost all verbs occurred more than once, with
threaten
was the verb in this category which was the most frequently used six times. Only one
verb
broaden
was used once. There were six different bases which the suffix –
en
was attached to. The syntactic category of the bases constructing the verbs are either adjective or noun.
38
no verb base word class
morphological process freq
1 broaden
broad adjn -
1 2
heighten height n
- 2
3 threaten
threat n -
6 4
strengthen strength n -
5 5
weaken weak adj
- 2
6 worsen
worse adj -
2
Table 4.4 Verbs containing suffix -
en
As seen from table 4.4, all the verbs filling the table have English bases. All of them can be decomposed into a base plus the suffix
–
en,
except the word
worsen
which omits one
e
due to the phonological constraint
.
Phonologically, the adjective base
worse
ends in s sound, which means it meets the requirement. The sound s is an obstruent since it is fricatives.
The suffixed verbs in the editorials had adjective bases and noun bases. There was not any
verb base found. It proves the Bauer’s statement as cited by Szymanek 1989, p. 274 that there is not any verb-forming suffix which modifies
a verb base. Referring to
The New Oxford American Dictionary,
the suffix –
en
forms verbs when attached to adjective bases and it constructs an adjective when it is placed after a noun. However, table 4.4 showed three suffixed verbs which
were formed from a noun, i.e.
heighten
,
threaten
, and
strengthen
. The researcher ignored
broaden
since
broad
is possibly an adjective. Considering the phonological constraint
that “the adjectival base must be monosyllabic and it must end in an obstruent preceded by an optional sonorant”, the three verbs do not have
adjectival bases although they meet the other criteria. The researcher analysed them as irregular.
Strengthen
is an exception as stated in the chapter two. It may also be possible that the other verbs are exceptional as well.
39 From the analysis, it can be concluded that the bases in this category were
visible since all of the verbs could be decomposed into bases plus suffix -
en
. In other words, the affixation occurring in each verb was not combined with another
morphological process. There are some exceptional words included in this category, which hindered the researcher in determining whether they are products
of -
en
suffixation or not.
5. Suffix –
