The Constructions of Active and Passive Sentences Produced by A Three-Year-Old Indonesian Child
In the process of acquiring active and passive sentences, children start the new step in adding complexity within clause. In understanding those two constructions, children do not only have to understand how words placed in order but children also have to understand semantic roles because in passive...
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| Summary: | In the process of acquiring active and passive sentences, children start the new step in adding complexity within clause. In understanding those two constructions, children do not only have to understand how words placed in order but children also have to understand semantic roles because in passive sentences the linking between syntactic function and semantic roles changes (Van Valin, 2004). The present study aims to know how the constructions of active and passive produced by a three-year-old Indonesian child. Active and passive constructions in Indonesian and sentence analysis proposed by Putrayasa (2009a) and (2009b) are used in analysing the active and passive sentences produced by the child. The data is transcription of 120 minutes audio recording of an Indonesian child in her daily activities. It is found 16 patterns of active sentences and 6 patterns of passive sentences. From those patterns, it is known that the participant has already understood the basic word order of sentence in Indonesian depending on syntactic function that is S+P+O. Concerning to semantic roles, the participant can place the agent in front of the verb in active sentence and place patient in front of the verb in passive sentence. It proves participant’s understanding in the order of active sentence that is agent-verb-patient and passive sentence that is patient-verb-agent. The participant is able to make active sentence in declarative, interrogative, and imperative forms. It is concluded that the participant has understood the basic grammatical operation as proposed by Lust (2006). |
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