Meanings and Functions of Inflectional Affixes of the Verbs in

Bahasa Tamiang

Devi Pratiwy, Pardi, Asnani, M. Manugeren, Safitri Hariani and Sri Wulan

Faculty of Literature, Universitas Islam Sumatera Utara, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords: Affix, Verbs, Meaning, Function, Bahasa Tamiang.

Abstract: This paper is aimed to seek the functions and meaning of inflectional affixes in BahasaTamiang. By

following Creswell (2017) the method applied in this analysis is qualitative research in which the data were

gathered byconducting interview and participating observation. The data then were analyzed by using the

immediate constituent analysis and paraphrase.The meaning of the arguments was found by following

Chafe’s and Fillmore’s Case Grammar. The result of the analysis is that BahasaTamiang has some

inflectional affixes to form verb in the morphological process; they are [N-], [be-], and [di-]. [N-] that can

be realized into /n/, /m/, /ɳ/, /ɳ/, /ɳǝ/, ɳa/ according to the phonetic environment in which the affix is

attached. Conjugation in inflectional morphology appeared in BT is diathesis and person. However,

diathesis is more dominant than person. Person generally appears in passive verb in which the AGENT is

the third person.

1 INTRODUCTION

Morphology in general consists of two sub fields;

inflectional and derivational morphology (see

Bauer, 1988; Katamba, 2004; Widowsen, 1997;

Stump, 2001; and Aronof & Fudeman, 2005). In

inflectional and derivational morphology, affixes

can be categorized into inflectional and derivational

affixes. Following Bauer (1988:12) he argued that

an affix which possibly produces a new word form

of a lexeme from a base is an inflectional affix,

while an affix which produces a new lexeme from a

base is derivational one. He also provided the

example to this matter, as a word form recreate.

This word form can be analyzed into a prefix re-, a

root create, and a suffix -s. The prefix makes a new

lexeme recreate from the base create. But the suffix

-s just provides another word form of the lexeme

recreate. The prefix re- is derivational, but the

suffix -s is inflectional.

In line with the example above, understanding

about the functions of the affix can be drown; 1)

derivational affix produces new lexeme (new word);

and 2) inflectional affix functions to produce

grammatical word from a lexeme (see Bauer

1988:12-13). Furthermore, there are some ways to

differentiate inflectional affix from derivational one

(see Bauer, 1988; Katamba, 2004), they are 1) a

derivational affix can change the category of the

word attached, while inflectional affix cannot.,2) a

derivational affix may have an inconstant meaning,

while the inflectional affix may have the constant

one, and 3) based on the general rule, a derivational

affix is less productive than the inflectional one.

The study of morphology from derivational and

inflectional perspective in which Malay language

(including Bahasa Indonesia) is still rare in number

(Subroto, 1987 in Ermanto, 2008). Moreover, Malay

language is not typologically flection. So, this paper

is aimed to seek the function and meaning of

inflectional affixes in Bahasa Tamiang (BT for

short) for the reason that BT is Malay variant and

one of the indigenous languages spoken in

Indonesia. This paper focuses on affixational

process of morphology. This due to the fact that this

process is regarded the productive one to form word

(see Bauer, 1988; Plag 2004; Katamba, 2004; Yule,

2006). Affixation is the process of adding or

attaching affix to the root. Affix which is attached

before the root is called prefix, after the root is

called suffixation, and inside the root is called

infixation. Besidesfocusing in affixational process,

this paper is also limited to the analysis of verb.

This is due to the character of the verb that has the

function as the predicate of the sentence.

Pratiwy, D., Pardi, ., Asnani, ., Manugeren, M., Hariani, S. and Wulan, S.

Meanings and Functions of Inﬂectional Afﬁxes of the Verbs in Bahasa Tamiang.

DOI: 10.5220/0008884503150318

In Proceedings of the 7th International Conference on Multidisciplinary Research (ICMR 2018) - , pages 315-318

ISBN: 978-989-758-437-4

315

Furthermore, in syntactical construction, this word

category determines other category(s) which joins in

the construction.

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

The process of inflectional morphology in the

languages is known as conjugation and inclination

(Verhaar, 1999:121). Conjugation is inflectional

alternation in verb, while declination is the

inflectional alternation in noun and other word

categories as pronoun and adjective. In line with

(Verhaar, 1999) (comp. with Bauer, 1988),

conjugation includes tense, aspects, modes,

diathesis, and person, number and type. Tense

relates to the time shown by the verb; as present,

past or future. Aspect deals with the meaning or

sense delivered by the verb; as stative, inchoative,

punctual, durative/progressive, (im)perfective,

resultative/non-resultative, and habituative. Then

mode relates to speaker’s behavior toward the thing

being spoken. Verb seen in modes illustrates

indicative, conjunctive, optative/desiderative,

interrogative and negative. Diathesis relates to the

role of transitive verb in which it can play as the

agent or not. Diathesis is also differentiated whether

the verb is active or passive (some particular

languages recognize medial diathesis). Furthermore,

some particular languages also give mark to the verb

according to the preceding person (first, second or

third), also to number (singular, plural, dual or trial),

and the type (masculine, feminine and neutral).

By referring the previous research results under

Bahasa Indonesia (in case that Bahasa Indonesia and

Bahasa Tamiang are under the same branch of

Malay language), it is understood that categories of

inflectional morphology as tense, aspects, number

and modes are not recognized in Bahasa Indonesia.

These categories are stated lexically. As mentioned

before, Bahasa Indonesia does not belong to

flectional language, however the diathesis and

person categories can be found in Bahasa Indonesia

(Aliva,ad. Al. 1991: 1908).

Some affixes in Bahasa Indonesia which

function to derive verb are [meN-], [di-], and [ber-].

[meN-] marks the verb as the active category in

which the subject in syntactic construction has the

role of AGENT. While [di-] functions as passive

marker to state that the role of subject is PASIENT.

This morphological process is regular, productive,

applicable, and occur in verb formation with

ACTION PROCESS (transitive) semantic feature,

as in the examples of the words cari “find”, pukul

“strike”, dorong “push”, produce the word form

mencari, memukul, danmendorong. Prefix [ber-]

which is attached to the word will produce the

output of verb form as in lari ‘run’ becomes berlari

‘run’. In this process Subroto (1987 in Ermanto

2008) stated that basically there is not different

reference between lariand berlari, so that it can be

included in inflectional category.

Inspired by the papers written by (Aliva, 1991)

and (Ermanto, 2008) which proposed some

inflectional affixes found in Bahasa Indonesia, the

analysis about the inflectional affixes in

BahasaTamiang in terms of functions and meanings

is conducted.

3 METHODOLOGY

This study adopted qualitative method to conduct

research as proposed by (Creswell, 2017). The data

used in this study are mainly spoken data obtained

from the selected informants based on selected

criteria. The data will be taken from the storytelling,

207 Swadesh word list and the list of tentative

derivational words from 100 roots, and conversation

among villagers in various traditional activities. The

main technique was participating observation which

proposed to learn to speak and comprehend the

language as fluently as possible. The data are

collected from conversations and narrative text.

Besides participating observation, interview

informant to gain general information on their

activities, occupation, belief and customs, history of

the people and the village was conducted. Then, 207

basic Swadesh word list and another self-designed

set of 100 roots with its tentative derivational forms

which showed various word formations was also

used. The interview conducted was one-on-one

interview (Cresswel, 2017) in which the researcher

asked questions to and recorded answer from only

one informant in every session. During the

interview, the researchers stick with the questions,

but are flexible enough to follow the conversation of

the interviewee. To gain a clear understanding, the

researchers also use the pictures and gestures which

refer to the words being asked, to catch the

equivalent word in Tamiang. Data were gathered

from depth interview and participating observation.

The technique of analyzing data follows Cresswell

(2017). The data available were deduced following

immediate constituent analysis. Then the data were

also paraphrasing in the possible construction to get

the appropriate functions. This paper was also used

the case grammar by Chafe (1970) and Fillmore

ICMR 2018 - International Conference on Multidisciplinary Research

316



(1971) to get the meanings presented by the

arguments.

4 DISCUSSION

4.1 Functions and Meanings of

Inflectional Affixes

BahasaTamiang has at least three affixes which are

attached to the root which may have function to

create verb; they are [N-], [be-], and [di-]. All the

affixes are prefixes.

4.1.1 Prefix [N-]

Including the inflectional affixes, [N-] has function

to derive word from grammatical category of active

verb from the lexeme of PROCESS verb, and it will

mark AGENT in the slot of subject. The meaning of

this prefix is to give active marker in which the

subject plays the role as the AGENT in a formal

style. The following sentences illustrate the

statement:

/NdaɲaRidaonpakiskatbǝlaɳ/

NdaPre[N-]find edible fern near paddy field

Nda finds the edible fern near paddy field

/ambǝmacǝbukucǝRitǝ/(formal style)

I Pre[N-]read book story

I read the story book

Referring to the above paraphrase, it is proved that

[N-] is only the active marker in formal style. Nda

and ambǝ are the subjects from the two sentences

above as the arguments from the predicate /caRi

/and /bacǝ/, which are attached by the prefix [N-

],and which become /ɲaRi/ and /macǝ/. However,

the predicates (active verbs) may have other

arguments which function as the objects of the

active constructions above. In another side, these

two active verbs after being attached by the prefix

[N-] may also have the role as the intransitive verb,

as exemplified below:

/ambǝtǝɳahmacǝ/

I [Progress] read

I am reading

Furthermore, prefix [N-] is proposed to construct an

appropriate form of the PROCESS verb /caRi/ and

ACTION /bacǝ/ with the AGENT argument in the

subject slot /ambǝ/. This kind of process is included

in the category of inflectional process.

Based on the above analysis, it is seen that the

arguments from the verb form with the prefix [N-]

may have the role as the AGENT or have the

meaning of AGENTIVE which belong to the

diathesis category of inflectional ACTION verb.

4.1.2 Prefix [be-]

[be-] as an inflectional affix can attach ACTION

verb which may function to form the verb

appropriately in a formal style. This inflectional

affix [be-] basically has the meaning as the

ACTION verb marker. However, the obvious

meaning of the affix can be seen as follows:

/Mat lancabǝlaRikejaRmpuanɲǝ/

Mat LancaPre[be-]run chase woman his

Mat Lanca chased his wife

The above paraphrase shows that the verb form

functions intransitively in which the argument posts

only in subject slot. In the construction, the

argument is played by the phrase Mat lanca.

However, /mpuanɲǝ/ actually is not the argument of

/bǝlaRi/ but kejaR/.

It is seen that [be-] which is attached to

PROCESS verb as shown in the above paraphrase

delivers the meaning of progressiveness to the verb.

Affix [be-] has another meaning comparing to

the above paraphrase, however it can maintain the

root category.

/ bǝsole? SajǝkǝjǝcucuNdani/

Pre[be-] Make up just work grandchild Ndani

My grandchild is just making your face up

[be-] in the above paraphrase shows that the action

is done dynamically.Based on the analysis above, in

the formal style, prefix [be-] is appropriately used

even it is optional. It means that if [be-] does not

occur to precede the verb, the sentence is still right

grammatically. The occurrence of the affix is just to

create the proper construction.

Another point which can be drawn is that prefix

[be-] attached to the verb need the AGENT

argument in the subject position. It can be

concluded that the verb belongs to inflectional verb

with diathesis category.

4.1.3 Prefix [di-]

Affix [di-] belongs to inflectional category with

some conditions that this affix only functions to

produce the appropriate word form with the

argument. Based on the function, this affix can be

categorized as inflectional affix. The function of this

affix is to derive grammatical word from the

passive. In the construction, the object argument

will become the AGENT from the PROCESS

Meanings and Functions of Inﬂectional Afﬁxes of the Verbs in Bahasa Tamiang

317

lexeme. This affix also gives mark to the verb in

which the subject argument is PASSIEN. While, the

AGENT argument fills the slot of compliment,

which occurs after the verb immediately. In general,

the inflectional affix [di-] will be used when the

AGENT arguments are the third person. The

following construction will explain more clearly:

/dikumpul-kumpuldape? hatubambu/

Pre[di-]collect get one bamboo

/something is gathered finally one part of bamboo is

received

The occurrence of inflectional affix [di-]

functions form the verb grammatically with

PASSIENT argument in subject slot, and AGENT

as the complement which come after the verb

directly. The passive construction aboveis seen the

person function appears inside. AGENT argument is

presented by the third person.

5 CONCLUSION

1. BT has some inflectional affixes to form verb in

the morphological process; they are [N-], [be-],

and [di-]

2. [N-] can be realized into /n/, /m/, /ɳ/, /ɳ/, /ɳǝ/,

ɳa/ according to the phonetic environment in

which the affix is attached.

3. Conjugation in inflectional morphology

appeared in BT is diathesis and person.

However, diathesis is more dominant than

person. Person generally appears in passive verb

in which the AGENT is the third person.

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