whether the error is in main or subordinate noun phrase, preposition, adverb, adjective and so forth.
Many researchers use the linguistic category taxonomy as a reporting tool which organizes the errors they have collected, although some use it to add to the
description of errors provided by other taxonomies Dulay, et.al. 1982: 147.
2.3.1.1 Omission
Omission errors are characterized by the absence of an item which must appear in a well- formed utterance Dulay et.al, 1982: 154.
For example: Mary the President of the new company, He is laugh, The bird help the man, He was call Dulay et. al. 1982: 148
The words of: Mary, President, new, company are the content morphemes that carry the burden of meaning. From the example above, the learner omit an
item be which must appear according to the English structure. If one omits one of the grammatical morphemes omission of be he could not even begin to guess
what the speaker might have had in mind. Language learners omit grammatical morphemes much more frequently
than content words. Within the set of grammatical morphemes, however, some are likely to be omitted for a much longer time than others. For example, it has been
observed that the copula is, are, the - ing marker in laughing, the –s in the third
person marker in helps, and the omission of –ed in the past tense and the past
participle in called. Omission errors are found in great abundance and across a greater variety of morphemes during the early stages of L2 acquisition.
2.3.1.2 Addition
Addition errors are the opposite of omission. They are characterized by the presence of an item which must not appear in the utterances Dulay et.al, 1982:
156. Addition errors are divided into: Double marking, Regularization and Simple addition.
2.3.1.2.1 Double Marking
Many addition errors are more accurately described as the failure to delete certain items which are not required in some linguistic constructions, but not in
other Dulay et.al, 1982: 156. For example: He doesn’t knows my name, We
didn’t went there, and I didn’t spilled it. In most English sentence, some semantic features such as tense may be
marked syntactically only one. We say; I didn’t go, although go takes a past tense
marker when there is no auxiliary such as do on which to mark the tense, as in; They went to lunch an hour ago, the English rule for tense formation is place the
tense marker on the first verb. In a simple affirmative sentence, the main verb is the only verb, and thus takes the tense.
In a sentence where an auxiliary is required in addition to the main verb, the auxiliary, not the main verb, takes the tense. Learners who have acquired the
tensed form for both auxiliary and verb often place the marker on both, as in He doesn’t knows my name, We didn’t went there, and I didn’t spilled it. The double
marking happens because of two items rather than one marked for the same feature tense, in this example.
2.3.1.2.2 Regularization
Regularization errors that fall under the addition category are those in which a marker that is typically added to a linguistic item is erroneously added to
exceptional items of the given class that do not take a marker Dulay et.al, 1982 : 157. For example eated, beated, hitted and putted are regularizations whenever
there are both regular and irregular forms and construction in a language, learners apply the rules used to produce the regular ones to those that are irregular,
resulting in error of regularization.
2.3.1.2.3 Simple Addition
Simple Addition errors is the “grab bag” sub category of addition. If an
addition error is neither double marking nor regularization, it is called simple addition Dulay et.al, 1982: 158. For example; No particular features characterize
simple additions other than those that characteristic all addition errors or the use of an item which should not appear in a well
– formed utterance. For example: I
doesn’t know, I can doed it, the fishes doesn’t live in the water, I takes it. And they will coming.
2.3.1.3 Misformation
Misformation errors are characterized by the use of the wrong form of morphemes or structures, while in omission errors the item is not supplied at al, in
misformation errors the learner supplies something, although it is incorrect Dulay et.al, 1982: 158. Misformation indicates that some learning has transpired and
that barring certain attitude or environmental circumstances, the learner is on his or her way to target proficiency. For example;
He don’t looking, He gots a flower, She were not looking, and I no have it.
2.3.1.4 Misordering
Misordering errors are characterized by the incorrect placement of a morpheme or group of morpheme in an utterance Dulay et.al, 1982: 162.
Misordering errors occur systematically for both L1 and L2 learning in the constructions that have already acquired, specifically simple direct and
embodied indirect question, for example; What Daddy is doing?, I don’t know
what is that, and what this is?
Or using the declarative sentence order that has been acquired. During a later phase of acquisition, when learners have acquired the simple question order, they
prod uce: I don’t know what is that? In which is is misordered.
2.3.2 The Causes of Error
Richards 1974:173 states that there are two sources of the learner’s errors. They are the errors caused by the learner’s native language and the
structure of the English itself. The causes of error are categorized into interlingual factors and intralingual and developmental factors.
Error can be defined as any mistake from a native speaker’s point of view generated by the misapplication of one or more rule of the structural rules of
English. An error indicates the failure of the learner to master the code of the target language. The problem of determining what the
learner’s mistake is one of some difficulties and involves much more sophisticated studies, and error analysis
is usually correct to them. Error analysis is very useful in quantifying the degree of difficulty for each learning problem. Error analysis can tell us the intensity of
the difficulty or the size of the problem.
2.3.2.1 Interlingual Factor
Interlingual factor is caused by the interference of the learner’s mother
tongue and the errors reflect their native language or mother tongue structures. The learner’s native language somehow automatically interferes with the learners
