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2.7.2 Gender
Catford in Baker 1992: 95 says that “the gender dimension is absent from in Bahasa Indonesia”. However, there are some deflations of nouns, which point to
feminine and masculine as proposed by Alwi 2003: 235-237 as follows: 1 Deflation of noun is with –wan -wati.
Suffix –wan has allomorph –man and –wati. Allomorph –wati used to point feminine. For example, a feminine worker is called karyawati, meanwhile a
masculine worker called karyawan. In evolution of Bahasa Indonesia, people start to use form of –wan to point both masculine and feminine. If we want to point to
feminine, we use –wati. In other words, wartawati is a feminine journalist, but wartawan can point both masculine and feminine.
2 Deflation of noun with –at -in and –a-i In Bahasa Indonesia, there is a small group of nouns which is deflated by
adding suffix –at and –in which the meanings related to sex differences or number. Table 2.1 below gives the examples of deflation of –at and –in in Bahasa
Indonesia that reflect masculine and feminine. Singularmasculine
Singularfeminine Pluralmasculine - feminine
muslim muslimat muslimin
mukmin mukminat mukminin
- hadirat hadirin
Besides the examples above, we also found form which the difference is only between phoneme a for masculine and i for feminine in the end of word. They
are in table 2.2 below:
31
Masculine Feminine dewa dewi
putra putri pemuda pemudi
mahasiswa mahasiswi
As does with –wan and –wati, there is tendency to use form of i to point feminine, meanwhile form of a to point both masculine and feminine. For
example: 28 Sebagai putra bangsa, Sri Mulyani mengabdikan dirinya demi kemajuan ekonomi Indonesia.
2.7.3 Person
Catford 1965 as quoted by Baker 1992: 95 explains that “Bahasa Indonesia has a nine-term pronoun system where English has only seven”. “Translating
pronouns from Bahasa Indonesia into English will frequently involve loss of information along the dimensions in question” Baker 1992: 96. Bahasa
Indonesia also has person category and the most common distinction is same as English that is first, second, and third person. According to Alwi 2003: 249, here
is person category in Bahasa Indonesia:
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Table 2.3 Person Category in Bahasa Indonesia Person Meaning
Singular Plural
Neutral Exclusive Inclusive
First Saya, aku, ku-, -ku
- Kami
kita Second Engkau,
kamu, Anda, dikau, kau-, -
mu Kalian, kamu
sekalian, Anda sekalian
- -
Third Ia, dia, beliau, -nya
mereka -
-
Bahasa Indonesia has a formality politeness dimension in the person system term and modes of address which can be used to express familiarity or
deference in a similar way. Alwi 2003: 250 defines three parameters used as measurement to use the category of person in Indonesia, as follows: 1 age, 2
social status, and 3 intimacy. The examples are: 29 Adik bertanya kepada paman, “Paman, bolehkah saya ikut ke rumah paman?” Saya: is used by anyone
to anyone, in close conversation such as family; 30 Kata adik kepada teman sekelasnya,”Kemarin aku tidak masuk sekolah karena sakit.” Aku: is used to close
friends, younger, lower social status and position. There is no agreement of verbs related to person category in Indonesia, for example: 31 Saya mengirim pesan
itu, 32 Kalian mengirim pesan itu.
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2.7.4 Tense and Aspect