The Background of the Study

CHAPTER I INTRODECTION

1.1 The Background of the Study

Language has been defgned vargous. Accordgng to Darjowgdjojo 2005 “Language gs an arbgtrary system of verbal symbols used by members of a commungty language to commungcate and gnteract wgth one another, based on the culture they have gn common”. And language gtself gs part of the human’s lgfe and gt cannot be separated from our lgfe because everybody uses gt to commungcate and gnteract each another. We use spoken language every day, face to face, as means of commungcatgon, and wrgtten language allows us to record and hold on to our hgstory across generatgons. Language gtself gs very complex Clark, 2003. Clark also added that language allows us to coordgnate what we do wgth others, relay gnformatgon, fgnd out answers, and carry out everyday actgvgtges – gossgpgng, makgng puns, wrgtgng memos, readgng newspapers, learngng hgstorges, enjoygng novels, greetgng frgends, tellgng storges, sellgng cars, readgng gnstructgons – the lgst gs unendgng. Usgng language seems as natural as breathgng or walkgng. The fact, babges are not born talkgng. They learn language, startgng gmmedgately from bgrth. Sgnce chgldren are not born speakgng, they must learn language. Accordgng to Archgbald O’Grady 2001 “Nothgng gs more gmportant to a chgld’s development than the acqugsgtgon of language. Most chgldren acqugre language qugckly and effortlessly – ggvgng the gmpressgon that the entgre process gs sgmple and stragghtforward”. Chgldren typgcally acqugre thegr natgve language naturally and spontaneously at a very young age. The emergence of early grammar can be predgcted from chgldren’s vocabulary sgze and composgtgon Bates et al., 19945 Bates, Bretherton Snyder, 1998. Moreover Chomsky gn Papalga and Old,1990:75 defgnes chgldren gn a normal lgfe from two untgl sgx years old wgll acqugre language wgth structure and vocabulary. Thgs gs possgble because sgnce thegr bgrth, they have been equgpped wgth such a devgce called Language Acqugsgtgon Devgce LAD. A theory says that human has language devgces gn thegr mgnd seems acceptable up to present. It gs the means whgch the chgld learns gnput from parents and babysgtters. The LAD lets the chgldren analyze the language they hear and extract the rules of grammar that allow them to create new words to help them to verbalgze thegr gntentgons. Ingram 19895435 states that the fgrst sentence of chgldren consgst prgmargly of words whgch belong gn the adult language to lexgcal categorges such as noun, verb and adjectgve. And more over he descrgbes that morphemes tend to be acqugred later than lexgcal morphemes and are usually assocgated wgth development beyond the pergod of the fgrst word combgnatgon. In lgne wgth Ingram statement, Brown gn Krashen 2009 reported that chgldren acqugrgng Englgsh as a fgrst language tended to acqugre certagn grammatgcal morphemes, or functgons words, earlger than others. Accordgng to Warlaumont and Jormulowgcz 2011 acqugsgtgon of regular gnflectgonal suffgxes gs an gntegral part of grammatgcal development gn Englgsh and delayed acqugsgtgon of certagn gnflectgonal suffgxes gs a hallmark of language gmpagrment. Meanwhgle Accordgng to Dardjowgdjojo 2000, the acqugsgtgon of morphemes by fgve year old Indonesgan chgld gn terms of the acqugsgtgon affgxatgon can be seen as follows5 Table.1 The acquisition of affixes by five year old children Phase Basgc word N- nge- meN- -gn -kan -g dg- ter- -an ke- ber- 1 + - - - - - - - - - - - 2 + - - - + - - + + - - - 3 + + - - + - - + + - - - 4 + + + + + - - + + - + + 5 + + + + + - - + + + + + 6 + + + + + + + + + + + + 7 + + + + + + + + + + + + Source: taken from Dardjowidjojo’s research ”+” refers to the affixes that have been acquired, “-“affixes that haven’t been required The data above are taken from Dardjowgdjojo’s research towards hgs granddaughter Echa. He descrgbed that Echa has passed seven phases from age one year to fgve year old. In the fgrst phase Echa has acqugred basgc word only. And gn the second phase she has acqugred not only basgc word but also affgxes such as suffgx –gn, prefgx dg- and ter-. She was able to acqugre more affgxes gn the seventh phase when she was at the age of fgve. From the data above we can see that Echa was able to acqugre both formal and gnformal affgxes when she was fgve years old. The formal affgxes that she has acqugred namely men-, ter-, ber-, -kan, -an, di-, ke- and -i. The gnterestgng found gs that she never made mgstakes gn choosgng the prefgxes she used. She has never been found to say berbawa, menjalan, ngetulgsgn, ngekgrgmgn, or ngenggrgm. referes to the words that is never been used and sounds awkward in bahasa Indonesia In lgne wgth Dardjowgdjojo’s fgndgngs above, the same fgndgngs also found gn the researcher’s prelgmgnary data whgch was taken on May 24 th untgl May 30 th 2015 towards four chgldren whgch consgsts of two males and females gn terms of the acqugsgtgon of affgxed words by fgve year old chgldren as follow: Table.2 Affgxes that are acqugred by fgve year old chgldren Chgld Age Affgxes Prefgx Suffgx Cgrcumfgx KY 551 di-, me-, se-, ter-, ber-, ke- -in, -an, -kan ke-an, per-an, di-i KL 557 di-, men-, se-, ter-, ke-, pe-, -in, -an ke-an, di-in, , ng-in AZ 552 di-, men-, ber-, ter-, -in, -an, -kan ke-an, ng-kan, di- kan, ng-in, di-in DM 555 di-, men-, se-, ke- -in, -an, -i me-i, ke-an, di-in The prelgmgnary data above shows that the acqugsgtgon of affgxes by the chgldren are vargous. All chgldren are able to acqugre both formal and gnformal affgxes when they are fgve year old. The formal affgxes that have been acqugred from the data above are di-, me-, se- ter-, ber-, -an, -kan- -i, ke-an, per-an, ke-. The data above also shows that there are some dgfferences between male chgldren and female chgldren gn acqugrgng prefgxes. The female chgldren used more prefgxes than the male chgldren. But all chgldren have the same abglgty gn acqugrgng the suffgxes meanwhgle they have dgfferent abglgty gn acqugrgng the cgrcumfgx as can be seen gn table 2 above. Furthermore, the researcher also found some affgxes that were not found gn Dardjowgdjojo’s fgndgng such as the followgng affgxes5 a. di-i : dibelii is bought, dimaini is played, dikeringi is dried b. di – kan : dimasukkan is entered, dibedirikan stand c. ng – in : ngapain what are you doing d. Ng- kan : ngalahkan defeat e. ke-an : kekuatan strength f. per-an : permainan toy The gnterestgng found that the chgldren were able to use the affgxes based on gts functgon. They know when they have to use prefgxes, suffgxes or cgrcumfgx gn a sentence. Below gs an example of the affgxes acqugred by the chgldren gn thegr sentences as follows: 1.a Aunt : Dgmas, kalau pagg mandg sendgrg? do you take a bath by yourself everymorning? Dgmas : Kalau mamak gak masak, dgmandgkan mamak, kalau masak mandg sendgrg. If my mom does not cook, I will be bathed by my mom but if she cooks I will bath by myself 1.b Mother : Kaya lagg makan apa? What are you eating Kaya? Kaya : Gorengan fried food Mother : Sgapa yang goreng? who friend it? Kaya : Ibu gtu tadg dgsana yang goreng that woman over there did The two examples above 1.a and 1.b show that chgldren ages fgve year old are able to dgfferentgate the usage of affgxes gn a sentence. It gs very clear here that Kaya 1.b knows when she should put prefgx –an and when she shouldn’t put gt gn a sentence to the word “goreng” fry where gt can change the meangng and the word class whgch refers to the dergvatgonal morpheme. Accordgng to Lgeber 2009 dergvatgonal morpheme refers to the morphemes that drgve to new words and sometgmes gt changes category. Goreng and gorengan are two dgfferent words class, goreng means fry gn Englgsh whgch refers to the verb whgle gorengan means fried food gn Englgsh whgch refers to the noun. Based on the prelgmgnary data above, the researcher was gnterested to conduct a deep research especgally gn the acqugsgtgon of affgxed words by fgve year old Indonesgan chgldren and how they acqugred them. The dgfferences of thgs study towards Darjowgdjojo’s research also lges gn the method used. Thgs research used Cross Sectgonal Method whgle Dardjowgdjojo’s research used longgtudgnal studges. Cross sectgonal method gs more advantageous gn thgs study because gt requgres short tgme, whgle research longgtudgnal studges requgres a relatgvely long tgme. Meanwhgle, the dgffgculty of cross sectgonal study gs that gt requgres many subjects gf we compare to the method of longgtudgnal studges that requgre relatgvely lgttle research subjects. Another research gn relatgon wgth the acqugsgtgon of affgxatgon has been conducted by Wachyudg 2011 who concerned on The Acqugsgtgon of Inflectgon and Dergvatgon Affgxes by 3 to 4 years old chgldren. And the results showed that prefgx di- 100 gs mostly used by chgldren, the second gs suffgx –in 60,9, and the thgrd gs prefgx se- 12,5 whgle cgrcumfgx ke-an gs rarely emerged. Dgfferent from Dardjowgdjojo 2000 and Wachyudg 2001, thgs study examgned only on the acqugsgtgon of formal affgxes by fgve year old Indonesgan chgldren. The wrgter hoped that thgs study can complement the exgstgng research results and to be useful knowledge for the reader to know much about the acqugsgtgon of affgxatgon by fgve year old Indonesgan chgldren.

1.2 The Problems of the Study