26 Numeral is used to count people, animals, things and concept. Like
English, Indonesian differentiates numerals into two types; they are cardinal numeral e.g. satu ‘one,’ dua ‘two,’ banyak ‘many,’ semua ‘all,’ se- ‘a an,’ tiap
‘every’ etc. and ordinal numeral e.g. keenam ‘sixth,’ dua koma lima 2.5 ‘two point five,’ etc. Besides, according to Dwijatmoko 1992, penggolong or
classifier shows the kind of noun which comes with a quantifier. Its use is optional. There are a lot of classifiers used in Bahasa Indonesia. He adds that
there are three main classifiers used; namely orang, which literally means ‘person,’ for persons, buah, which literally means ‘fruit,’ for inanimate things and
ekor, which literally means ‘tail,’ for animals p. 30. Nomina ‘noun’ is similar to countable and uncountable nouns in English, for example teman ‘friend,’ buku
‘book’ and kera ‘monkey.’ Since the use of quantifiers in bahasa Indonesia is optional, they can be either used or omitted. For instance,
32 Belilah tiga buah buku tulis. 33 Belilah tiga buku tulis.
Those two examples have the same meaning although classifier buah is omitted in example 33.
b. Singular and Plural
Both Bahasa Indonesia and English have singular and plural concepts. Indonesian calls singular as tunggal and plural as jamak. According to Gradiana
2010, the functions of singular and plural noun in Bahasa Indonesia and English are similar, but the concepts of the words indicating the nouns are different in
terms of consistency p. 24.
27
1 Singular Concept
Bahasa Indonesia uses se- to indicate singular noun. For instance, 34 Seorang murid sedang membaca sebuah buku.
35 Seorang murid sedang membaca buku.
The example 34 illustrates that there is a student who is reading a book. Se-, which is a classifier, in seorang murid means one student. Similarly, se- in
sebuah buku also refers to one book. However, the use of se- is optional. Alwi et al. 1993 state that classifiers indicating tunggal ‘singular’ can be omitted since it
does not change the meaning of the sentence p. 314. Thus, se- can be omitted like in the example 35. Although the word sebuah is omitted, its meaning is still
the same as the example 34. In other words, the example 35 does not use sebuah, but it is understood that it is impossible to read many books in the same
time p. 313. On the other hand, to indicate tunggal or singular in English, article a must be added to every singular generic and singular indefinite countable nouns.
2 Plural Concept
Chaer 2009 says that in Bahasa Indonesia, people usually use numerals and quantifiers like banyak ‘many,’ sedikit ‘few,’ beberapa ‘some,’ semua ‘all,’
setengah ‘half’ and kurang lebih ‘more or less’ to indicate quantity and plurality. In addition, the words indicate unit like kilo ‘kilo,’ hektar ‘hectare,’ gelas ‘glass’
and cangkir ‘cup’ should also be added and put before the uncountable nouns to indicate quantity pp. 52-53.
36 Ada banyak hewan di peternakan itu. 37 Ayah telah menghabiskan beberapa cangkir kopi pagi ini.
28 In other words, in Bahasa Indonesia, numerals and quantifiers optional
are added before nouns to indicate plurality. Similarly, in English, numerals and quantifiers are also added before nouns to indicate plurality. Besides, in English
plural marker -s-ies-es must also be put in the end of regular countable nouns to indicate plurality.
Besides, in Bahasa Indonesia, plurality can also be stated by pengulangan or ‘reduplication.’ Reduplication means the repetition of parts or the whole word
which appearing the new meaning to mark a grammatical or semantic contrast, for instance, orang-orang ‘people,’ meja-meja ‘tables.’ However, Alwi et al. 1993
state that a word can also mean plural without adding any words indicating plurals p. 313. For instance,
38 anjing suka tulang. Depending on its context, the example above means all dogs like bones. It
is unacceptable among Indonesian people to say anjing-anjing suka tulang-tulang. Alwi et al. 1993 agree that reduplication is not identical with plural form
because reduplication supports other meaning. Reduplication can be used to refer similarities, for example, kekanak-kanakan ‘childish,’ and mobil-mobilan ‘playing
cars.’ In other words, though reduplication can be used to show plural form, it cannot be used to indicate plural generic nouns. In brief, in Bahasa Indonesia
numeral and quantifiers optional are added to nouns to indicate plurality. On the other hand, in English plural marker -s-ies-es should be put to regular countable
nouns to indicate plurals.
29
c. Pronomina Penunjuk Atributif
