25 Murid-murid in the sentence above means the readers are more than one student.
Besides those three indicators of plural noun a repeated word
,
kaum
,
para, a word can also mean plural, for example,
34 Anjing suka tulang.
The example was taken from Moeliono and Dardjowidjojo’s book. The word anjing in the sentence is more than one dog since it represents all dogs in the
words. Nonetheless, it is unacceptable among Indonesian people to say anjing- anjing suka tulang-tulang. Moeliono and Dardjowidjojo, 1988 The examples in
the previous discussion show that Indonesian language does not have a strict rule of singular and plural noun. Whether a noun is singular or plural depends on the
meaning of a sentence.
b. Definition of articles
Like in English grammar, there is also the concept of article in Indonesian grammar. However, the functions are different. According to Moeliono and
Dardjowidjojo 1988, an article means a word that limits the meaning and the amount of a noun. There are three kinds of Indonesian articles: articles for
singular sense, plural sense, and neutral sense. To show the difference between Indonesian and English articles clearer, below is the explanation of Indonesian
articles.
26
1 Types of articles
Articles in Indonesian language are divided into three groups, for singular, plural, and generic sense. Articles sang, sri, hang, and dang are for singular sense. The
only article for plural sense is para, and for neutral sense, Indonesian language has article si.
2 The Use of Articles
Like English articles, Indonesian articles explain the reference of nouns, yet it is different than the use of English articles. Table 2.10 explains the use of
Indonesian articles.
Table 2.10: The Use of Indonesian Articles
No Meaning Articles Used for
Examples
1. Singular
Sang respectable
human or thing
35 Sang juara merobohkan lawannya. 36
Sang Merah Putih berkibar di seluruh penjuru tanah air.
Sri respectable
person in a kingdom or
religion 37 Kedatangan Sri Baginda disambut dengan
meriah. 38 Baru-baru ini
Sri Paus berkunjung ke Asia.
Hang respectable
man 39 Segera
Hang Tuah pergi merantau.
Dang respectable
woman 40
Dang Merdu adalah tokoh terkenal dalam hikayat sastra Melayu.
2. Plural
Para group of
people 41 Para guru datang ke depdiknas untuk
membuat soal ujian akhir. 3.
Neutral Si any
people 42 Sedih aku melihat
si miskin mengambil
makanan dari tumpukan sampah. 43 Di mana-mana selalu
si miskin yang menderita
Table 2.10 explains the kinds of articles based on the sense. There are three senses of articles suggested by Moeliono and Dardjowidjojo 1988: singular, plural,
neutral. The table showed that for the singular meaning, the articles are for the respectable person or thing. Meanwhile the plural meaning is for a group of
27 people, and the neutral meaning may refer to singular of generic meaning for
people. Si in example42 referred to one people, yet si in example 43 refers to all poor people in the world. In other words, si in example 42 has singular
meaning, yet in example 43 has generic meaning.
c. Pronomina Penunjuk
