The Error Analysis of Derivational Morphology in Efl's English Narrative Composition

International Journal of Language Education, Vol. 2 No. 1, 2018 pp. 22-30

THE ERROR ANALYSIS OF DERIVATIONAL MORPHOLOGY IN EFL’S ENGLISH NARRATIVE COMPOSITION Paramita Kusumawardhani The Academy of Foreign Language BSI Jakarta, Indonesia Email: [email protected]

DOI: 10.26858/ijole.v2i1.4857

Abstract Derivational morphology in the learners’ English narrative compositions was the main purpose of this research. Morphology is the study of morphemes which are the smallest significant units of grammar. There are two kinds of morphology: derivational and inflectional morphology. Derivational morphology is related to affixes such as suffixes, infixes, prefixes, ablaut and reduplication, meanwhile inflectional morphology is related to plural, possessive, past time, progressive, and comparative and superlative. Morphology mostly used in writing and it is one of the difficult parts in English subject. There are four kinds of composition: argumentation, description, exposition and narration. The data was taken from the students of grade XI of a Public High School in Tangerang. Descriptive method was used in this paper. There is some derivational morphology found in this research: derivation of a noun, adverb, gerund after a preposition, gerund after the verb, to-infinitive, present participle, passive participle, modals, and adjective.

Keywords: Morphology, Derivational Morphology, English Narrative Composition, EFL.

INTRODUCTION about meaning and discourse which studies There are four skills in learning English about how syntax is combined. such as; listening, speaking, writing and There are two kinds of morphology; they reading. Writing is the most challenging one as are derivational and inflectional morphology. what we say is different from what we write. Derivational morphology discusses about the Heaton (1988, p. 135) stated, "The writing morphemes can be used to form new words. It skills are complex and certainly difficult to also studies the principles governing the teach, requiring not only of grammatical and construction of new words, without reference theoretical devices but also conceptual and to the specific grammatical role a word might judgmental elements." play in a sentence. Inflectional morphology Some factors made writing in English occurs with nouns, pronouns and verbs. It also considered difficult, such as spelling, studies the way in which words vary (or vocabulary, and grammar. There are many “inflect”) in order to express grammatical aspects of grammar that should be mastered by contrasts in sentences such as singular/plural or learners which can cause some errors in present/past tense. learning English. There are some factors made writing in Thus, the study of the language involved English looks difficult, such as spelling, the learners in appraisal of all of the following vocabulary and grammar. There are many levels of the expression: language phonology aspects in grammar that should be mastered by which studies about sounds, morphology the learners which can make some errors in which studies about meaningful combination learning English. of sounds, lexis which examines about words, Writing is also concerned about the syntax which investigates about meaningful linguistics because “linguistics is the scientific combination of words, semantic which studies study of language” (Todd, 1987, p. 5). In

Paramita Kusumawardhani, The Error Analysis of Derivational Morpholgy in …

linguistics there are branches of the linguistics a morpheme. As mentioned above, a which one of them has the specific purpose that morpheme is the smallest meaning-bearing also helps the learners in learning writing. unit of language; re-, un-, -ing and –ly is not a “With writing, on the other hand, language word, but they do carry meaning. A morpheme competence involves the association of consists of a sequence of one or more meaning with a sign, a visual symbol,” (Todd, phonemes. 1987, p. 8). Morphological processes fulfill two Based on the two theories above, writing primary purposes, they are (1). To create new is the most challenging skill in learning English words in a language; and (2). To modify to teach. It becomes difficult because it is existing words. Morphology is the study of related to some factors, such as suffixes, word formation. There are some observations prefixes, infixes, ablaut, and reduplication. It is about words and their arrangement: also related to some linguistics branches, such • Some words can be divided into parts as morphology, syntax, semantics, which still have meaning; sociolinguistics, and psycholinguistics. So, • Many words have sense by themselves, before started writing, the learners should but some words have sense only when master the theories of writing to avoid the used with other words; mistakes that will be made. • Some of the pieces into which words can be divided can stand alone as words, but THEORETICAL REVIEW others cannot; • These word-parts that can occur only in The Nature of Morphology combination must be combined correctly; The term morphology takes its origin from • Languages create new words morph which means form, shape, etc. and systematically. ology which involves the study of something. Morphology based on Loretto Todd, is a August Schleicher, a German linguist, named part of phonology and it has been described as morphology as a sub-discipline of linguistics in the study of speech sounds and their patterns. 1859 for the first time. It is a study based on the ‘phoneme’ or smallest Aronoff, (2011, p. 2) stated that significant unit of speech. Todd (1987, p. 41) morphology referred to the mental system stated, “Morphology is the study of involved in word formation or to the branch of morphemes, which are the smallest significant linguistics that deals with words, their internal units of grammar.” This definition becomes structure and how they are formed. Kolenchery more comprehensible based on the examples (2015) written that morphology sold with the below. construction of words. Knowing, knowingly Cat ------cats look ------looked and unknowingly are kinds of derivational Sit ------sitting small ------smaller morphology. The base word is understood, and Wood ---- wooden develop ----- development it is added to morphemes –ing, -ly and un-. Unite ----- united red ------reddish Morphemes are related to morphology as they Word formation started to attract the attention are attached to the words to change the of a linguist as a consequence of Chomsky’s meaning of the words. publication in 1970 (Joaquin, 1991). Morphemes can be defined as the minimal Morphological is related to the methods in meaningful unit that cannot be further which new words are formed. They are various subdivided. The structuralists were interested processes by which words can be built in any in establishing a group of language that did languages. The different devices are: (1) bear meaning; so they proposed the concept of suffixes; (2) prefixes; (3) infixes; (4) reduplication; (5) compounding; (6) internal

International Journal of Language Education, Vol. 2 No. 1, 2018 pp. 22-30 change; (7) backformation; (8) shortening of changes them into words of another such bases; (9) suppletion; and (10) alphabet-based group. For example, the English derivational formation. suffix -ly modifies adjectives into adverbs (slow → slowly). The Nature of Derivational Morphology The other examples of English Derivational morphology fulfills two derivational patterns and their suffixes primary functions in English. Morphemes can (Morphological Derivation, 2017): be used to form new words (Morphology • adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → Module, 2011). Derivational morphemes make slowness) new words from old ones (Crystal, 2011). Thus • adjective-to-verb: -ise (modern → creation is formed from creating, but they are modernise) in British English or -ize (final two separate words. → finalize) in American English and Derivational morphemes generally: Oxford spelling 1. Change the part of speech or the essential • adjective-to-adjective: -ish (red → meaning of a word. Thus -meant added to reddish) a verb forms a noun (judgment). Re- • adjective-to-adverb]]-ly (personal → activate means "activate again." personally) 2. Are not required by syntactic relations • noun-to-adjective: -al (recreation → outside the word. Thus un-kind combines recreational) un- and kind into a single new word, but has • noun-to-verb: -fy (glory → glorify) no particular syntactic connections outside • verb-to-adjective: -able (drink → the word -- we can say he is unkind or he is drinkable) kind, or they are severe or they are kind, • verb-to-noun (abstract): -ance (deliver → depending on what we mean. deliverance) 3. Are often not productive -- derivational • verb-to-noun (agent): -er (write → writer) morphemes can be selective about what they'll combine with, and may also have The Nature of Morphemes erratic effects on meaning. Thus the suffix A morpheme is the smallest meaning- -hood occurs with just a few nouns such as bearing unit of language. Morphemes can also brother, neighbor, and knight, but not with be used to indicate the function of the words. most others. e.g., *friendhood, There are two types of morphemes; they are *daughterhood, or *candlewood. free morphemes and bound morphemes. Furthermore "brotherhood" can mean "the Free morphemes are morphemes that can state or relationship of being brothers," but stand by themselves as single words. For "neighborhood" cannot mean "the state or example know, open, tour, etc. Meanwhile, relationship of being neighbors." bound morphemes are morphemes that cannot 4. Typically occur between the stem and any stand by themselves and are typically attached inflectional affixes. Thus in governments, - to the free morphemes. Bound morphemes are ment, a derivational suffix, precedes -s, an re-, un- -ing, -ly, -ist, -ed, -es, -s, etc. Bound inflectional suffix. morphemes are well-known as affixes. Affixes 5. In English, may appear either as prefixes or consist of prefix and suffix. suffixes: pre-arrange arrange-ment. There are two types of free morphemes; Derivational morphology often involves they are lexical morphemes and functional the addition of a derivational suffix or another morphemes. Lexical morphemes are affix. Such an affix usually applies to words of morphemes that carry the content of the one lexical category (part of speech) and messages we convey like verbs, nouns,

Paramita Kusumawardhani, The Error Analysis of Derivational Morpholgy in …

adjectives, and adverbs. The examples are eat, Based on the tables above, it can be sleep, watch, girl, horse, book, tall, blue, round, concluded that derivational morphology is kind happily, fast, early, etc. Functional morphemes of bound morphemes. are morphemes that carry grammatical meaning like conjunctions, prepositions, The Nature of Narrative Composition pronouns, articles, etc. The examples are and, Writing is the most difficult part in English however, since, below, above, over, he, them, subject as what it is said different from what it mine, a, an, the, etc. is written. White and Ardnt (2011) stated that There are two types of bound morphemes; writing is far from being a simple matter of they are derivational morphemes and transcribing language into written symbols; it inflectional morphemes. Derivational is a thinking process in its right. So, before the morphemes are morphemes used to make new learners starting to write an English words but not necessarily in a change in a composition, they should master the English syntactic category, for example, the addition of pattern correctly. derivational morphology re-changes the Dougal (2008) said that a composition is a meaning of the word open if they are combined group of closely related paragraph that develop into reopening. Inflectional morphemes are a single idea. Crystal (2011) also said that morphemes to indicate grammatical functions writing a composition with vocabulary and (they never change the syntactic category). structure which the student has either learnt to Below are the tables of morphemes and bound use orally or written exercises for each lesson. morphemes. These exercises may be of various types. The range from filling blanks to the composition and may be modification, sentences composition and paragraph writing. So, based on the theory of the composition from Mc. Dougal, the activity of writing which is started by mastering words and the grammar itself. The learners should master about the theory of the composition in order to make a good composition. There are four kinds of compositions; they are argumentation, description, exposition and narration. Wishon and Burks (2010) stated that argumentation is used in persuading and convincing; it is closely related to exposition and is often found combined with it. Description is used to create a visual image of Figure 1: Types of Morphemes people, places and even of units of time-days, time of day or seasons, exposition is used in Tabel 1. Types of Bound Morphemes giving information, making explanation, and derivational inflectional interpreting meanings and narration is the form -ation -s Plural of writing used to relate the story of acts or -al -s Possessive events. -ize -ed Past (Hornby, 2006) stated that narration is -ic -ing Progressive telling of a story, meanwhile based on (Echols -y -er Comparative and Shadily, 2006) said narratives are stories -ous -est Superlative

International Journal of Language Education, Vol. 2 No. 1, 2018 pp. 22-30 and plots. They are essays that tell a story, The learners’ English narrative hopefully in an interesting way, that also compositions were used as the research convey themes. Often, if you are asked to write instruments and they were taken from 20 a narrative essay, you will not be asked to learners and it was taken by asking the learners research theory or topic. Rather, you will be to make English narrative composition. After asked to use your imagination instead of a that, identifying, classifying, analyzing and bibliography. You may need to research for correcting were done in order to know what this narrative essay; nonetheless, the writing of kinds of derivational morphology found in the it may come more easily to you for you do not learners’ English compositions. need to quote specific words from primary sources. FINDINGS A narrative paragraph tells a story or a There are some errors found in the series of events. It shows what person or thing learners’ English narrative composition. The does during a particular period. As (White, errors have been identified, classified and 2011) stated that in the narrative it is activities corrected. The errors are about: which are essential; in the description it is things. And in describing things we are usually Derivational of Noun more concerned with the noun rather than the No. Sentence Correction Level verb phrase. Thus, report provides us a reason 1. The lady The lady Derivational for teaching features of the noun phrase which, could could control in noun while occurring in other uses of the language, control her curiosity. are of particular importance and frequency in her describing things, people and places. curiously. 2. He walked He walked to Derivational

to school school with in noun METHODOLOGY with his his anger The data for this research was taken from the angry face. students of grade XI at SMA Negeri 8 Perumnas II face. Tangerang. There were about 30 pieces of the 3. He He couldn’t Derivational students’ English narrative composition used as the couldn’t satisfy the in noun sample. satisfy the hunger Descriptive method was used to do the hungry family. research. There are three types of descriptive family. methods: observation, case study and survey 4. Father Father was Derivational designs. Observational method as a part of was filled filled with in noun descriptive method was used to take the data with angry anger with for this study. with my my brother. Descriptive method was used as (Best, brother. 1974) explained that descriptive method is the 5. The King The King Derivational method which tries to give the explanation was shock was shock to in noun about the symptoms relating with the recent to hear hear about situation. It consists on the effort of giving the about Hercules’ Hercules’ achievement. note, the analysis and the interpretation of the achieve. recent symptoms which have the 6. He He Derivational characteristics as follows: try to give the fact, consented, consented, in noun straight to the problem and the recent variables went with went with aren’t manipulated by the researcher. the bear the bear and and shot shot enough

Paramita Kusumawardhani, The Error Analysis of Derivational Morpholgy in …

enough buffalo to the eating the buffalo to satisfy the porridge. porridge. satisfy the hunger hungry family. Derivational of Gerund after Certain Verb family. 15. Finally, Finally, Derivational in 7. They They Derivational they they gerund after stopped stopped in noun stopped stopped certain verb fighting fighting and fought. fighting. and made made an an agree. agreement. Derivational of Gerund in To-Infinitive 8. The bear It was a very Derivational 16. Anastasya Anastasya Derivational was very glutton bear. in noun tried to stole tried to steal in to- glutton. the fairy the fairy infinitive Godmother’s Godmother’s Derivational of Adverb wand, and wand, and 9. The The Derivational she could she could shepherd shepherd in adverb steal it. steal it. boy boy screamed screamed Derivational of Gerund in Present Participle loud for loudly for 17. Anna Anna Derivational in help. help. Maria Maria the present 10. Charlie Charlie Derivational cried, and cried and participle still kept still kept in adverb her her patient patiently mother mother and and hugged hugged considered considered her cry her crying that it was that it was baby. baby. the the smartest smartest parrot. parrot. Derivational of Gerund in Passive Participle 11. She rested She rested Derivational 18. He went He went Derivational in peacelly. peacefully. in adverb home with home passive participle the with the shooting shot Derivational of Gerund after Preposition bear. bear. 12. After After Derivational arrived at arriving at in gerund the home, home, he after Derivational of Modals he put the put the preposition 19 Anastasya Anastasya Derivationa stone on stone on . tried to steal tried to steal l in modals the table. the table. the fairy the fairy 13. The man The man Derivational Godmother’ Godmother’ spent a spent a in gerund s wand and s wand and long time long time after she could she could for for preposition stole it. steal it. thought. thinking. 14. They They Derivational Derivational of Adjective decided to decided to in gerund 20. They were They were Derivational walk walk after getting getting in adjective around around preposition hungrier. hungry. before ate before

International Journal of Language Education, Vol. 2 No. 1, 2018 pp. 22-30

DISCUSSIONS because after the word “about”, which Based on some theories mentioned above, shows about a preposition, it needs a noun there are some errors found on the learners’ or verb –ing. The word “achieve” is a verb English narrative composition. Mostly, the and the noun for “achieve” is errors are about affixes. “achievement”. So the correct sentence is The above descriptions showed about the The King was shock to hear about errors happened in derivational morphology. Hercules’ achievement. The errors are about derivational in noun, 6. He consented, went with the bear and shot adverb, gerund after preposition and after enough buffalo to satisfy the hungry certain verb, to-infinitive, participle in present family. The sentence is wrong because and passive, modals and adjective. Here are the after the word “the”, which shows about discussions about the derivational morphology the articles, it needs noun. The noun of found in the learners’ English narrative “hungry” is “hunger”, so the correct composition. sentence is He consented, went with the bear and shot enough buffalo to satisfy the Derivational in Noun hunger family. 1. The lady could control her curiously. The 7. They stopped fighting and made an agree. word “curiously” is wrong because it is an The sentence is wrong because after the adverb meanwhile after the word “her”, it word “agree”, which shows as a verb, it needs noun. The noun of “curiously” is needs a noun or adverb. The noun for “curiosity”, so the sentence becomes The “agree” is “agreement”, so the correct lady could control her curiosity. sentence is they stopped fighting and made 2. He walked to school with his angry face. an agreement. The sentence is wrong because the word 8. The bear was very glutton. The “angry” is an adjective as for in this arrangement of the sentence is wrong. The sentence it needs noun after the word word “glutton” is a noun; meanwhile the “his”. The correct sentence is He walked arrangement of the sentence is the bear to school with his anger face. was very glutton, which shows about 3. He couldn’t satisfy the hungry family. The adjective. So the arrangement of the sentence is wrong because the word correct sentence is It was a very glutton “hungry” is an adjective as for after the bear. word “the”, which shows about the articles, it needs noun and the noun for Derivational in Adverb “hungry” is “hunger”. So the correct 9. The shepherd boy screamed loud for help. sentence is He couldn’t satisfy the hunger The sentence is wrong because the word family. “loud” is an adjective, meanwhile after the 4. Father was filled with angry with my word “screamed”, which shows about brother. The sentence is wrong because verb, it needs a noun or an adverb. In this after the word “with”, which shows as a sentence, it needs an adverb and the preposition, it needs noun or verb –ing, but adverb for “loud’ is “loudly”. The correct in this sentence needs noun. The noun of sentence is the shepherd boy screamed “angry” is “anger” so the correct sentence loudly for help. is Father was filled with anger with my 10. Charlie still kept patient and considered brother. that it was the smartest parrot. The 5. The King was shock to hear about explanation of the sentence is same as the Hercules’ achieve. The sentence is wrong above sentence. The adverb for “patient”

Paramita Kusumawardhani, The Error Analysis of Derivational Morpholgy in …

is “patiently”. The correct sentence is should be followed by gerund. There are Charlie still kept patiently and considered some certain verb that should be followed that it was the smartest parrot. by gerund, they are stop, mind, enjoy, keep, finish, quit, postpone, put off, 11. She rested peacelly. The explanation of the consider, think about, discuss, talk about, third sentence is also same as the first and understand, tolerate, admit, advise, can’t second sentence. The adverb for “peace” is help, mention, etc. The gerund of “fought” “peacefully”, so the correct sentence is She is “fighting”, so the correct sentence is rested peacefully. finally, they stopped fighting.

Derivational in Gerund after Preposition Derivational in to Infinitive 12. After arrived at home, he put the stone on 16. Anastasya tried to stole the fairy the table. The sentence is wrong because Godmother’s wand and she could steal it. after the word “after”, which shows as a The sentence is wrong because after the preposition, should be followed by a noun word “tried to” should be followed by to or verb –ing as a gerund. In this sentence infinitive, meanwhile the word “stole” is needs verb –ing as a gerund and the verb – the past participle of “steal” so the correct ing of “arrive” is “arriving”. The correct sentence is Anastasya tried to steal the sentence is after arriving at home, he put the fairy Godmother’s wand and she could stone on the table. steal it. 13. The man spent a long time for thought. The explanation for the second sentence is same Derivational in Present Participle as the first sentence. The word “thought” is 17. Anna Maria cried and her mother hugged the past participle of “think.” In this her cry baby. The sentence is wrong sentence needs verb –ing as a gerund after because the function of the word “cry” is “for.” The verb-ing of “think” is “thinking,” as an adjective and this is present so the correct sentence is the man spent a participle so the word “cry” should be long time for thinking. changed into “crying”. The correct 14. They decided to walk around before ate the sentence is that woman hugged her crying porridge. The explanation of the third baby. sentence is exactly same with the second sentence. The word “ate” is the past Derivational in Passive Participle participle of “eat.” In this sentence needs 18. He went home with the shooting bear. The verb –ing as a gerund and the verb –ing of sentence is wrong because the function of “eat” is “eating.” The correct sentence is the word “shoot” is as an adjective and this they decided to walk around before eating is passive participle so the word “shoot” the porridge. should be changed into “shot”. The correct sentence is He went home with the shot The rest of the errors are about derivational in bear. gerund after certain verb, to-infinitive, and participle in the present and passive, modals Derivational in Modals and adjective. 19. Anastasya tried to steal the fairy Godmother’s wand and she could stole it. Derivational Gerund after Certain Verb The sentence is wrong because after the 15. Finally, they stopped fought. The sentence word “could” as a modal should be is wrong because after the word “stopped” followed by verb 1. There are some

International Journal of Language Education, Vol. 2 No. 1, 2018 pp. 22-30

common modals in English, they are can, Crystal, David. (2011). A Dictionary of could, may, might, will, would, shall, must Linguistics and Phonetics. USA: and should. The verb 1 of “stole” is “steal”, Cambridge University Press. so the correct sentence is Anastasya tried to Dougal, Mc. (2008). Little English. USA: steal the fairy Godmother’s wand and she Cambridge University Press. could steal it. Echols, J. M. & Shadily, H. (2006). Kamus Inggris Indonesia. Jakarta: PT. Derivational in Adjective Gramedia. 20. They were getting hungrier. The sentence is Heaton, J.B. (1988). Writing English wrong because the word “hungrier” is the Language Tests. New York: Longman comparative form of “hungry”, meanwhile Group. the sentence needs adjective after to be in Hornby, A.S. (2006). Oxford Advanced past time “were”. The correct sentence is Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. They were getting hungry. New York: Oxford University Press. Joaquin, A. (1991). The Role of Morphology in CONCLUSIONS the Process of Language Acquisition and There are some mistakes related to the Learning. Barcelona: Universidad derivational morphology found in the learners’ Autonoma de Barcelona. English narrative composition. The mistakes Kolenchery, G. (2015). Analytical found mostly in derivational in noun. The Components of Morphology in mistakes are happened because; (1) Most of the Linguistics. Global English-Oriented learners haven’t mastered the target language Research Journal, 1(1), 161-166. well so they tended to make mistakes in their White, R. & Ardnt, V. (2011). Process Writing. mother tongue; (2) Mostly the mistakes London: Longman Group. happened in derivational noun; (3) The Todd, L. (1987). An Introduction to learners’ weren’t familiar with the derivational Linguistics. Singapore: Longman. morphology; (4) It needs well comprehension Wishon, G. E., and Burks, J. M. (2010). Let’s about using derivational morphology in writing Write English. New York: American especially writing English narrative Book Company. composition; (5) The changing in derivational Morphology Module II. (2011). morphology should be learnt well not only to http://www.ling.upenn.edu/courses/Fall the EFL but also to the learners who want to _1998/ling001/morphology2.html, write well. Retrieved and downloaded on October 28th, 2011. REFERENCES Morphological Derivation. (2017). Aronoff, M. & Kirsten, F. (2011). What is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morpholog Morphology?. United kingdom: ical_derivation, Retrieved and Blackwell Publishing. downloaded on September 25th, 2017. Best, John, W. (1974). Research in Education. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.