Errors in Indirect Yes-No Questions

47 speech. However, the tense change should be from shut into to shut because the verb in the direct command should be changed into to + infinitive in the indirect command. This error could be categorized as both addition error and omission error. It was because the students omitted the word to, and they added –ed to the word shut. Another form of students’ error in forming indirect command is shown in example [24]. In this item, the students made addition error by adding if as the conjunction in indirect command. Indirect command should not use any conjunction. There should be to + infinitive after the reporting clause. This error then could be categorized as addition error since the students added conjunction if, which should not be added into indirect commands. [24] a. Direct Speech  “Lend him your pen for a moment,” I said to Mary. b. Indirect Speech  I asked Mary to lend him her pen for a moment. c. Incorrect Answer  I asked Mary if she could lend him a pen for a moment. Furthermore, the form …could lend him… was considered as tense error. The reported clause in indirect command can be changed without using to + infinitive after the reporting clause but by using that +subject + should + V 1 . However, the students’ answer in this example was considered as error because the students used could instead of should, which was considered as the wrong form. The use of if and could in indirect command, as shown in the incorrect answer in example [24] then changed the meaning of the sentence into indirect question. 48 Example [25] shows error in word order. The error was on the use of wrong order of the words to and not in negative command. The correct order should be not to, but the students used the wrong order as to not. [25] a. Direct Speech  “Don’t believe everything you hear,” he warned me. b. Indirect Speech  He warned me not to believe everything I heard. c. Incorrect Answer  He warned me to not believe everything I heard. Based on surface structure taxonomy, this error in word order was called misordering. It was called so because there was misplacement in some morphemes. In this case, the morphemes were to and not. The next errors found in forming indirect command are illustrated in example [26]. The errors were in the form of adverb error and demonstrative error. [26] a. Direct Speech  “Please fill up this form now,” the secretary asked me. b. Indirect Speech  The secretary asked me to fill up that form then. c. Incorrect Answer  The secretary asked me to fill up this form now. The students’ answers in example [26] indicate that errors in demonstratives and adverbs happened. The error in demonstrative found in the use of word this instead of that. The error in adverb was found in the use of now instead of then. However, demonstrative and the adverb should be changed because there was an assumption that the demonstrative and the adverb should be changed when the reporting verb was in the form of past. Since there were some wrong forms of morphemes used, these kinds of errors were categorized as misformation error. 49

5. Errors in Indirect Exclamations

The same as the other types of indirect speech, indirect exclamations was also distributed in five items, which were in items 5, 10, 15, 20, and 25. Some students still made errors in forming indirect exclamation. The number of students’ who made errors is presented in Table 4.5. Table 4.5: Percentage of Students’ Errors in Forming Indirect Exclamations Item Number Number of Students Who Made Errors Percentage 5 10 15 20 25 10 28 22 15 35 15.15 42.42 33.33 22.72 53.03 From Table 4.5, it can be stated that error still happened in the students’ answer. As the other types of indirect speech, many errors were still found in the students’ answer in the test. The errors found in indirect exclamation were errors in tenses, word order, pronouns, and conjunctions. Two types of errors were found in example [27]. They were error in the tense and pronoun. [27] a. Direct Speech  Jane always says, “What a beautiful girl I am” b. Indirect Speech  Jane always says that she is beautiful. c. Incorrect Answer  Jane always says that I was beautiful. The error in the tense was found in the use of past tense in the reported clause. In this case, the students used the word was instead of keeping the word as is. The 50 direct exclamation in example [27] had present reporting clause, so that the tense in the indirect exclamation should not be back shifted. This error was called misformation error because the students formed the wrong tense by back shifting the tense, which should not be applied in direct speech which has present reporting clause. Error in the pronoun found in example [27] was shown on the use of I in the indirect command. The students did not change the pronoun but they kept the pronoun as I. However, the pronoun should be changed into she because I in the direct speech referred to Jane, not the reporter. Based on surface structure taxonomy, this error could be categorized as misformation error, because the students used incorrect form of pronoun. Another form of error is found in example [28]. Besides tense error, which was found on the use of present tense as in the use of is as to be, error was also happened in the word order. [28] a. Direct Speech  My teacher said, “What a naughty little girl she is.” b. Indirect Speech  My teacher said what a naughty little girl she was. c. Incorrect Answer  My teacher exclaimed what a naughty little girl is she. The word is in the students’ incorrect answer should be placed after the pronoun she. It was because when the students chose to form indirect exclamation using the original pattern of the direct exclamation, there should be no changes in the word order. They should keep the order of the pronoun and to be like they were in the direct exclamation. It is clearly shown that based on surface structure