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Definiteness And Indefiniteness: A Contrastive Analysis Of The Use

Of Determiners Between The Malay Language And English
Khazriyati Salehuddin
khazudin@pkrisc.cc.ukm.my

Tan Kim Hua

kimmy@pkrisc.cc.ukm.my

Marlyna Maros
marlyna@pkrisc.cc.ukm.my

Faculty of Social Science and Humanities

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the Malay language interference in the production of
erroneous English structures among secondary ESL learners. The strong version of
Contrastive Analysis claims that the differences between L1 and L2 structures results in
negative transfer due to the transfer of old habits into new ones. However, this version of
CA is only predictive in nature and is not always true. Errors made by learners give us
better insights into the process of language learning. Thus, errors are now regarded as a
very important tool for diagnostic purposes in language teaching. The procedure in
carrying out this investigation follows Norrish’s (1992) approach to conducting Error
Analysis. This includes sample collection, identifying, describing errors, explaining and
evaluating errors. The corpus of this research consists of 873 sentences, collected from 51
essay samples. There were 826 uses of determiners with 175 occurrences of errors. The
subjects were Malaysian secondary school students who are learners of English as a
second language. The results indicate that determiner is a possible problematic area for
Malay learners of English. The different aspects of the incorrect use of English
determiners that reflect the Malay grammar are related to specific places of location,
instrument, countries as Adjectives, name of Subject, agreement to the Noun, and
Cardinal numbers. The differences in the possessive forms in both languages also
attributed to the errors.

Introduction

The strong version of Contrastive Analysis claims that the differences between L1 and L2
structures results in negative transfer due to the transfer of old habits into new ones.
However, this version of CA is only predictive in nature and is not always true. Errors
made by learners give us better insights into the process of language learning. Due to
this, errors are now regarded as a very important tool for diagnostic purposes in language
teaching.

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This paper aims to investigate Malay interference as a possible cause in the production of
erroneous English structures among ESL learners. The corpus of this research consists of
873 sentences, collected from 51 essay samples. The subjects were Malaysian secondary
school students who are learners of English as a second language.

The procedure in carrying out this investigation follows Norrish’s (1992) approach to
conducting Error Analysis. This includes sample collection, identifying, describing
errors, explaining and evaluating errors. The results indicate that determiner is a possible
problematic area for Malay learners of English.

Determiner

Celce-Murcia & Larsen-Freeman (1991: 19) describes determiner as a special class of

words that limits (or determines) the nouns that follow them. These words could be in
the form of articles (the, a(n)), demonstratives (this, that, these, those), and possessive
determiners (my, your, his, her, its, our, their). Structurally, determiner precedes an
adjective if there are adjectives in the noun phrase. In cases where no adjectives are
present, they are positioned directly in front of a noun. Where the sentence “I put my
backpack on the front porch, and now I can’t find it.” Is concerned, two determiners can
be detected. The first is my, a possessive determiner that precedes the noun backpack
while the second is the, a definite article that precedes the adjective front. In both cases,
both my backpack and the front porch are noun phrases.

Where the English structure is concerned, we can say that a determiner is an optional
element in the noun phrase that occurs at the front most position in the noun phrase. It
can be in a form of definite / indefinite articles, demonstrative or possessive determiners
and of course, quantifiers.

Determiner

Articles Demonstrative Possessives Quantifiers

[a, the] [this, that, these, those] [my, your, his, her, our, their, its] [many, one, some, much]

Below is the deep structure of a noun phrase with various forms of determiners.

NP NP NP NP

Det AP N Det AP N Det AP N Det AP N

The adj girl a adj girl This adj girl That adj girl

Smart smart smart smart

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NP NP NP NP

Det AP N Det AP N Det AP N Det AP N

My adj girl Your adj girl Their adj girl His adj girl

Smart smart smart smart

Since determiners are modifiers of nouns, where the English structure is concerned, they
are often restricted with respect to the number and / or countability of the head nouns
with which they can co-occur. In other words, there are some determiners that occur only
with singular count nouns like a, one, another and there are also determiners that occur
only with plural count nouns: these, those, many, both, two, three, and so on (1999: 83).

NP NP NP NP NP NP

Det N Det N -pl Det N Det N -pl Det N Det N -pl

This girl These girl That girl Those girl One girl Two girl

There are a few determiners that occur only with uncountable nouns and they are the
quantifiers much, and (a) little while there are also some determiners that occur with
either singular or uncountable nouns such as this and that. Determiners like some, all,
no, and other occur with either plural nouns or uncountable nouns, while determiners
such as the, my, his, and other possessive determiners, can occur with any kind of
common noun and thus are not restricted with regard to the number and countability of
the head noun. These agreement features are useful information about determiners and
nouns that are unique to a language like the English language (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-
Freeman 1999: 83).

NP NP NP NP NP NP

Det N Det N -pl Det N Det N -pl Det N Det N -pl

much rice many girl this rice some girl some rice some girl

Where the English language is concerned, there can be as many as 3 determiners prior to
the head noun. All the other, my other two, the first four. The determiner slot itself
consists of three subcategories: (1) predeterminers (words like all and both), (ii) core
determiners (articles like a and the, demonstratives like this and that, and possessives like
my and his), and (iii) postdeterminers (quantifiers like three and comparative reference

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terms like other, both of which may occur in either order). (Celce-Murcia & Larsen-
Freeman 1999: 83).

NP NP

Det det det N -pl Det det det N -pl

All the other child All the other child

Like the English language, determiner in the Malay language forms part of a noun phrase.
Coined as kata penentu in the Malay grammar (Abdullah Hassan 1993: 54), the Malay
equivalent to the English determiner, however, is often illustrated as, and only limited to,
the words “itu” and “ini”. These words, on the other hand, are described by the Kamus
Dewan (Third Edition) as kata penunjuk.

Nik Safiah Karim (1995), on the other hand, describes both “itu” and “ini” as
demonstrative determiners (pp. 14) and definite articles (pp. 15). She illustrates the use
of “itu” as definite article in Pelukis itu rakyat Australia (for The artist is an Australian
citizen). She also shows in the paper that the Malay sentence can also be translated as
That artist is an Australian citizen – only that the one with the word that has both deictic
and numeral connotations; and that the example she chooses is not in relation to the
above Malay sentence.

In comparing the Malay grammar to that of the English, Nik Safiah Karim (1995: 9-15)
demonstrates the use of the English determiners as follows:

Pekerja itu telah tiba. Pelanggan saya Puan Chong

(Noun + Det: Dem1) (Noun + Det: Pos2)
The worker has arrived. My client is Mrs Chong.
(Det: Art + Noun) (Det: Pos + Noun)

Sepupu dia pekerja kilang. Teman saya sangat rajin.

(Noun + Det: Pos) (Noun + Det: Pos)
His cousin is a factory worker. My friend is very industrious.
(Det: Pos + Noun) (Det: Pos + Noun)

Ibu itu Seluar biru ini

(Noun + Det: dem) (Noun + Adj + Det: dem)
That mother This blue trousers
(Det: dem + Noun) (Det: dem + Adj + Noun)

1
Demonstrative Determiner
2
Possessive Determiner

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Seluar biru abang ini Pegawai kanan itu

(Noun + Adj + Det: Pos + Det: Dem) (Noun + Adj + Det: Dem)
This elder brother’s blue trousers That senior officer
(Det: dem + Det: Pos + Adj + Noun) (Det: Dem + Adj + Noun)

Despite the difference in the terms used, they structurally agree in the sense that the
words “itu” and “ini” has to be the final element in any Malay noun phrases. Should
there be modifiers after the head noun, the modifiers come between the head noun (on the
left) and the “kata penentu” (on the right). Abdullah Hassan (1993: 54) stresses that there
must not be any other word after the “kata penentu” in the Malay noun phrase. Abdullah
Hassan’s description is true to a certain extent because he does not regard numerals as
determiner.

Where this study is concerned, the Malay numerals are regarded as determiners since
they, like quantifying determiners, quantify the nouns. Thus, using Awang Sariyan’s
example of a Noun Phrase (1988: 81), the noun phrase “Beberapa orang anak muda
kami” [Some of our younger generations] is described as Det: Num + Classifier +
Compound Noun + Det: Pos. Another example, also from Awang Sariyan (1988: 87)
would be “Tangan kirinya” [His left hand], which could be explicated by Noun +
Adjective + Det: Pos. Thus, using the deep structure in syntactical analysis by Celce-
Murcia and Larsen-Freeman (1999), the tree diagram for the noun phrases would be
drawn as the following.

NP NP NP

N det: dem N AP det: dem N AP det: dem

Ibu itu seluar adj itu pegawai adj itu

biru kanan

NP NP

N AP det: pos det: dem det: num class N det: pos

Seluar adj abang ini beberapa orang anak muda kami

biru

Where this study is concerned, it is observed that out of 826 uses of determiners in the
students’ writing, a total of 175 (21%) of errors were detected. Although not all errors
are due to mother tongue interference, a large number of errors that occurred in the use of
determiners does indicate interference of the Malay grammar. The following subheadings

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illustrate the instances of the incorrect use of English determiners that reflect the Malay
grammar.

Specific Places or Locations

In the Malay grammar, the name of specific places or location like park, canteen, school,
sea need be collocated with determiners, unless those places or locations have been
specified earlier, or expressed deictically. Thus, expression like the following is
grammatically correct in the Malay grammar.

• Kadang-kadang, saya membawanya ke taman untuk bermain.

• Selain dari itu, saya akan mendapat kenalan dari serata dunia seperti Perancis,
Amerika Syarikat dan England.
• Kami juga pergi ke kantin bersama-sama.
• Dia bekerja sebagai seorang pembaca meter di Jabatan Air Jerantut.
• Tsunami disebabkan oleh kejadian dari laut.

Unlike the Malay language, the mentioning of those places or location in English requires
a determiner, in any case. If the expressions are not expressed deictically, it will then be
expressed either with a definite article, or an indefinite article. Thus, where this research
is concerned, the students fail to insert the article “the” and produces sentences like the
following:

• * Sometimes I bring it to __ park to play

• * Moreover, I will have friends from around the world such as France, __ United
States and England.
• * We also go to __ canteen together.
• * He works as a meter reader at __ Jerantut Water Department.
• * Tsunami was caused by an effect from __ sea.

Instruments

The Malay grammar also does not require one to have any form of determiner in front of
instruments like computer, piano, internet. Thus, sentences like the following are
acceptable.

• Hobi saya adalah berbasikal, bermain komputer, bermain bolasepak dan membaca
novel.
• Kadang-kadang saya mengulangkaji menerusi internet.
• Dia bermain piano sementara saya menyanyi.

The English grammar, however, requires the instruments mentioned above be preceded
by determiners and if neither a possessive determiner nor a demonstrative determiner is
used, the use of either a definite article or an indefinite article is necessary. Thus, the

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sentences below, that could be result of an interference of the Malay language, are
ungrammatical.

• * My hobbies are cycling, playing __ computer, playing football, and reading

novel.
• * Sometimes I do my revision from __ internet.
• * She plays __ piano while I sing.

Countries as Adjectives

In the Malay language, when using the name of a country as adjectives that modify the
head noun, no determiners are required as in the following:

• Saya mahu menjadi seperti Khalid Jamlus, penyerang pasukan bolasepak

Malaysia.
• Saya mempunyai banyak setem-setem dunia seperti setem Amerika, setem
Australia dan pelbagai lagi

English, on the other hand, requires a determiner before the Adjective which can appear
in all forms.

• * I want to be like “Khalid Jamlus”, the striker of __ Malaysian football team.

• * I have many world stamps such as __ American stamps, __ Australian stamps
and many more.

Name of Subject/Programme

In referring to a particular subject or programme, no determiner is required. Thus, the

following Malay sentences are grammatical.

• Saya suka matapelajaran bahasa Inggeris kerana matapelajaran tersebut

memperkenalkan…
• Saya juga meminati matapelajaran sains kerana matapelajaran ini
membincangkan…
• Nasib baik kami berada dalam kelas yang sama kerana dia dari kelas peralihan.

However, mentioning the name of a subject without the definite article “the” makes the
sentence ungrammatical.

• * I like __ English subject because the subject introduces me to many words…

• * I also like __ science subject because this subject discusses
• * Luckily, we are in the same class because she is from remove class.

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Agreement to the Noun

Subject-verb-agreement is not a property of the Malay language and thus, the determiners
that precede a noun need not agree with the nouns itself.

• Kesemua negeri tersebut kehilangan harta mereka.

As mentioned above, some determiners of the English language have to agree with the
noun that comes after it. Thus, “*this balls” would be ungrammatical and the correct
version would be “these balls”. The example below shows that the choice of determiner
could be to the interference of the students’ mother tongue.

• * All this countries lost their property.

Forms of Possessive Determiner

The forms of the Malay possessive determiners are similar to that of the noun in question.
In mentioning “my ball”, a person would express it in Malay as “bola saya”, with “saya”
in the similar form as the nominative case for “I”. The forms of the Malay possessive
determiners also remain the same when a proper name is used. For example, for “Ali’s
ball”, the grammatical Malay form would be “bola Ali”, with no inflections of any forms
are required. Possessive determiners in the form of common nouns would also remain
the way a common noun would look like and these common nouns also come after the
head noun.

• Pada masa lapang saya, saya mengumpul setem.

• Saya dan keluarga saya amat sedih dan bersimpati dengan keluarga pemandu itu
• Nama ibu saya ialah Zaleha binti Yusuff.
• Dia seorang ibu yang cantik dan baik terhadap anak-anaknya
• Hobi ibu saya adalah memasak, membaca dan lain-lain.
• Namanya ialah Fiona Tee.
• Hari ini adalah harijadi Princess Isabella.
• Princess Isabella sangat marah dengan tindakan lelaki itu
• Hobinya melukis.
• Nama kawan baik saya ialah Nurina Bt Nasaruddin.
• Namanya ialah Haziq.

In contrast, the forms of English possessive determiners are dissimilar to that of the noun
in question. “my ball”, for example, would take a genitive form as it is a genitive case,
while “Ali” would have to be inflected to “Ali’s” to show that Ali is the possessor of the
ball. Common nouns also have to be inflected to “teacher’s ball” to show that the ball
belongs to the “teacher” and all of them come before the head noun.

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• * During I leisure hours, I collect the stamps.

• * My family and I were very sad and sympathise with the driver family
• * My mother name is Zaleha binti Yusuff.
• * She is a beautiful mother and kind to his children.
• * My mother hobbies are cooking, reading and others.
• * She’s name is Fiona Tee.
• * Today was Princess Isabella birthday.
• * Princess Isabella was very angry at the man action.
• * She’s hobby is drawing.
• * My best friend name is Nurina Bt Nasaruddin.
• * He name is Haziq.

Cardinal numbers

Malay grammar does not require any form of a determiner to precede a cardinal number.
Thus, sentences like the ones below are perfect in the Malay language.

• Dia lahir pada 1 Oktober 1992.

• Dia anak ke enam dari tujuh orang adik beradik.

However, in the English language, mentioning a cardinal number without a definite

article (i.e. the) is grammatically incorrect. Thus, the following examples illustrate that
there might be a transfer from the Malay language into the students’ production in the
English language.

• * She was born on __ 1st October 1992

• * She is __ fifth from seven siblings.

Conclusion

All the above sub-sections clearly shows that although approaching the teaching of the
English language from the Contrastive Analysis perspective seems not to be a popular
approach, in the teaching of English determiners to Malaysians, the use of Contrastive
Analysis might just be the best tool to teach the subject matter. It is hoped that the
analysis and illustration of the above data could help teachers to plan their English
lessons and approach their teaching of English determiners in the manner that is most
appropriate to their students.

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References

Abdullah Hassan. (1993). Tatabahasa Pedagogi Bahasa Melayu. Kuala Lumpur: Utusan
Publications and Distributors Sdn. Bhd.

Asmah Hj. Omar. (1975). Essays on Malaysian Linguistics. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan
Bahasa dan Pustaka.

Asmah Hj. Omar. (1993). Nahu Melayu Mutakhir (Edisi Keempat). Kuala Lumpur:
Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

Awang Sariyan. (1988). Penerapan Teori Linguistik Transformasi-Generatif dalam

Analisis Teks: Satu Kajian Kesinambungan Bahasa. Dalam Nik Safiah Karim.
(Penyunting). Linguistik Transformasi Generatif: Satu Penerapan pada Bahasa
Melayu. Ms. 63-94. Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

Celce-Murcia, M. & Larsen-Freeman, D. (1999). The grammar book: An ESL/EFL

teacher's course. Rowley: Newbury House.

Kamus Dewan. (2000). Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

Norrish, J. (1992). Language Learners and their Errors. London: Macmillan Press.

Nik Safiah Karim. (1995). Malay Grammar for Academics & Professionals. Kuala
Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka.

Biodata of authors

Khazriyati Salehuddin is a lecturer at the School of Language Studies and Linguistics,

Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM. Her research areas include contrastive
linguistics, cognitive linguistics, psycholinguistics, and semantics. Her Ph.D thesis is on
cognitive semantics.

Tan Kim Hua lectures in linguistics at the School of Language Studies and Linguistics,
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM. Her research areas centre around
corpus driven research which include among others, corpus lexicography, specialised
corpus, contrastive bilingual corpus and language processing. Her Ph.D thesis is related
to electronic lexicography.

Marlyna Maros is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Language Studies and Linguistics,
Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM. Her research areas include contrastive
linguistics, contrastive pragmatics, discourse analysis and sociolinguistics. Her Ph.D
thesis is on the speech act of complaint in Malay.

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