c. Addition of “to infinitive”
Original Sentence Reconstruction
9. To swear does not prove
anything
10. To be
ignored by his friends enrages him.
Swearing does not prove anything
Being
ignored by his friends enrages him.
Related to the samples above, the addition of “to infinitive” is not correct because the sentences do not refer to one particular action. The
action of these sentences are in general sense. Thomson and Martinet 1969:155 state that the gerund can be used instead of the infinitive
when the action is being considered in a general sense. I think the students do not understand the use of infinitive and gerund well so that
they are still confused differentiating them. d.
Addition of Article “the”
Original Sentence Reconstruction
11. The shopping is our needed
Shopping is our need.
Related to the sample above, addition error occurs because the students added article “the” that must not appear in those sentences. The
use of article “the” infront of gerund as subject is not correct. This occurs because of students’ lack of knowledge in using gerund as subject.
Universitas Sumatera Utara
3. Misinformation Error
Misformation error is characterized by the use of the wrong form of the morphemes or structure. There are 50 misinformation errors in using gerund
as subject made by the students. a.
Misinformation of verb
Original Sentence Reconstruction
12. Swear
does not prove anything.
13. Skip
to him is a better alternative to jogging.
14. Be
a boss made Jacob feel uneasy.
15. Be ignored by his friends
enrages him
16. Go
to nearest market or supermall to buy a goods.
Swearing
does not prove anything
Skipping
to him is a better alternative to jogging.
Being
a boss made Jacob feel uneasy.
Being
ignored by his friends enrages him.
Going
to the nearest market or supermall to buy goods.
Related to the samples above, the type of error is misinformation. Misinformation occurs because the students used the wrong word forms.
The verbs “swear”, “skip”, “be”, “go” are not in the correct form based on their function as the subject of those senteces. There must be
nounpronoun as the subject of sentence. To make them proper with the structure of the sentence, they must be in verb + ing form, “swearing”,
“skipping”, “being”, and “going”. These are the correct forms of samples in the original sentences. This error might occurs because the students do
not understand the use of gerund as subject well. b.
Misinformation of “be”
Original Sentence Reconstruction
17. Was
