Examples: Direct speech: Jack asked Jane, ‘Don’t go now I still need you.’
Reported speech: Jack asked not to go now because he still needed Jane. Direct speech: Mr. Tim said to Robin, ‘Go away now’
Reported speech: Mr. Tim asked to go away then. Direct speech: He said to her, ‘Will you be here tomorrow?’
Reported speech: He asked her that would be there the next day. In the first and the second example, there should be an object after reporting verb
asked in each reported speech since they belong to reported command. It is clear that
the first speaker asks the second speaker to do something. Therefore, the first reported speech should be Jack asked Jane not to go then because he still needed
Jane , and the second reported speech should be Mr. Tim asked Robin to go away
then . While in the third reported speech, there should be conjunction since it is
yesno-question of reported speech. The appropriate conjunction is ifwhether. The third reported speech is incorrect because there is no subject in reported clause of
reported speech after conjunction. The correct reported speech is He asked her ifwhether she would be there the next day.
From the examples of errors above, it seems that students had not understood yet the use of reporting verb ask in reported command and in reported question whether
or not it should be followed by object. Omission of Grammatical Morpheme
This type is characterised by the absence of an item that does not contribute much to the meaning of the sentence Dulay et al., 1982.
50 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Examples: Direct speech: I’ve never eaten meat,’ he explained.
Reported speech: He explained that he never eaten meat. Direct speech: ‘Will you do this for me, Jim?’ Grace said.
Reported speech: Grace asked me whether I would do that for. The first and the second example above are incorrect because there is omission of
the grammatical morpheme in each reported speech. In the first direct speech, there is omission of auxiliary had. The reporting clause of direct speech is past tense.
Therefore, the tense of reported clause of reported speech changes into past perfect tense had + past participle eaten. The correct reported speech should be He
explained that he had never eaten meat. The second reported speech is incorrect
because there is no indirect object her. The correct reported speech is Grace asked Jim whether he would do that for her.
2. Addition
Addition errors occur when there is presence of an item which must not appeared in a well-formed utterance Dulay et al., 1982. From the data collected, there were
19 addition errors made by the students 37.25. Those 19 errors were divided into two types, 2 errors of double marking 3.92 and 17 errors of simple addition
33.33. There was no error of regularization found in the test. Double Marking
This error is characterised by the presence of two items or more rather than one in a sentence when only one marker is required Dulay et al., 1982.
Example: Direct speech: ‘Will you do this for me, Jim?’ Grace said.
Reported speech: Grace asked Jim whether he would did those for her. 51
Direct speech: My mom said, ‘What are you doing now, Honey?’ Reported speech: My mom asked me what is I am doing now.
Direct speech: My mom said, ‘What are you doing now, Honey?’ Reported speech: My mom asked to me what were I’m done at that time.
The first example is incorrect because there are two past forms, would and did, appear in a sentence. Would is past form of will and it should be followed by
infinitive. The correct reported speech is Grace asked Jim whether he would do that for her
. The second and the third reported speech have the same error that is the presence of two to be. In the second example, there are two to be appear, is and am.
Is should not be used since the subject is I. The correct reported speech is My mom
asked me what I was doing then . Am changes into was because the reporting clause
of direct speech is past tense. The third example also has two to be, were and am. Those two to be are incorrect used in that reported speech. The sentence should be
My mom asked me what I was doing at that time. Seeing the errors the students made, especially the to be, students had not
mastered it well. They had not understood which correct to be which should be used with any certain subject.
Simple Addition If an addition error is not a double marking nor a regularization, it is called a
simple addition error Dulay et al., 1982. Examples:
Direct speech: He said to her, ‘Will you be here tomorrow?’ Reported speech: He asked to her if she would be there the next day.
Direct speech: Mr. Tim said to Robin, ‘Go away now’ Reported speech: Mr. Tim asked to Robin to go away then.
52 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Direct speech: My mom said, ‘What are you doing now, Honey?’ Reported speech: My mom asked me that what am I doing now.
Some students had not understood the use of reporting verb ask. It can be seen in the first and the second example above. Students made error by putting to after
reporting verb ask. Ask can be used with or without personal indirect object in reported question. While in reported command or request, ask must be followed by
object. However, ask is not followed by to. The first sentence should be He asked her if she would be there the next day
. The second sentence should be Mr. Tim asked Robin to go away then.
In the third example, there is conjunction put in the sentence which should not be put there, that. The third example is WH-reported question. The
conjunction used in WH-question is the form of WH-word. The correct conjunction used in the third example should be what. Therefore, the correct sentence should be
My mom asked me what I was doing then.
3. Misformation
The use of the wrong form of the morpheme or structure in a sentence is called misformation error Dulay et al., 1982. In reported speech test, students made 5
misformation errors 9.80 that fell under the alternating form category. While, there was no error of overreguralization and archi form found in the test.
Alternating Form This error is characterised by the use of two or more forms in random alternation
even though the language requires the use of each only under certain conditions Dulay et al., 1982.
Example: Direct speech: Jack said to Jane, ‘Don’t go now I still need you.’
Reported speech: Jack asked Jane not to go now because he still needed him. 53
The 5 alternating form errors found in the test occurred in the same sentence as it was presented in the example above. The sentence is incorrect in the object pronoun.
The correct object is her because it refers to Jane woman. Therefore, the correct reported speech should be Jack asked Jane not to go then because he still needed
her.
4. Misordering
There were 13 misordering errors 25.49 found in the test. Students often made the incorrect placement of a morpheme or a group of morphemes in reported
speech Dulay et al., 1982. Students often made this type of error in reported question. It indicates that students had not understood the changing of word order
from direct speech into reported speech. Examples:
Direct speech: My mom said, ‘What are you doing now, Honey?’ Reported speech: My mom asked what am I doing now.
Direct speech: ‘When do you return my dictionary?’ Paula said. Reported speech: Paula asked Susan when did she return her dictionary.
The first sentence is incorrect because am should be put after I. However, the correct to be is was not am since the tense of reported speech changes into past
continuous tense because of past reported clause of direct speech. The correct sentence is My mom asked what I was doing then. The correct sentence for the
second example is Paula asked Susan when she returned her dictionary. The second example is incorrect because the presence of past auxiliary did after when seems to
form question sentence whereas the direct question should be altered into reported statement. The auxiliary did in the sentence should be omitted and the verb which
should change into past tense is return not the auxiliary do. 54
