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