Browsing by Author "Siti Afifah Hashim"

This study mainly examines grammatical signs that convey six verb function messages in English and Malay; Linguistic Trueness (Factuality), Immediacy, Control, Person, Focus Number and Purpose and how consistently these grammatical signs convey all the messages. This cross-linguistic study also seeks to discover if there are similarities and differences in the use of the grammatical signs and also to discover how much English and Malay rely on grammatical signs to convey all the six verb functions messages. Knowing how much the two languages rely on grammatical signs to communicate the various messages is essential in providing some hints or clues for the researcher to make an assumption as to whether or not the English and Malay are synthetic in nature. Using a meaning-based framework proposed by Reid (1991) and Govindasamy (2005), both advocates of the Columbia School of Linguistics, this study examines the verb features or grammatical signs in English and Malay from two different genres; academic and journalistic. Data was culled from 30 English academic articles (TESOL Quarterly), 30 English journalistic articles (The Economist), 30 Malay academic articles (Jurnal Pendidik/Asia Pacific Journal) and 30 Malay journalistic articles (Dewan Masyarakat). Results showed that the verb functions Factuality, Immediacy, Control, Person and Focus Number are supported by grammatical signs in English; English relies on grammatical signs to convey these messages. It was found that that these verb functions i.e. Factuality, Immediacy, Control, Person and Focus Number are supported partially in Malay; Malay does have grammatical signs to convey these messages but fewer compared to English. The verb function Purpose is supported by grammatical signs in Malay but not in English. There are grammatical signs that convey the Purpose message in Malay but no specific grammatical signs were found to convey such message in English. When there are no grammatical signs found to convey the message, it means that context is needed to help language users interpret the intended message. It was discovered that there are a few verb features that interfere the provision of the information on the six verb functions; To+V (English), Untuk+V (Malay), Modal+V (English, Malay), V+ing (English), V+en (English), V+ed (English), Syntagmatic Relation (English) and Others (English). It has to be noted that even though these verb features or grammatical signs do not convey the verb function messages, they do carry other meanings. The overall results also showed that both English and Malay do not qualify/do not meet the criteria to be regarded as synthetic languages. They are both analytical as much context is needed to communicate the verb function messages.

This study identifies the verb functions in two genres, namely short stories and academic articles. A comparison is made between the two sets of texts to see whether there is any differnce in the use of verbs. The purpose behind the selection of these two genres is because these two genres are seen to differ from each other on its rhetorical organization. The study on English verb functions is done using the meaning-based framework as proposed by Reid (1991). In this framework, language is seen as a tool of communication that can be perceived and learnt as a system. The findings of this study show that verb can be categorized according to their functions. The verb functions identified include `Temporal Relevance`, `Linguistic Factuality`, `Person`, `Verb Number` and `Degree of Control`. The various forms appear to have their own distinctive features and help in conveying specific communicative messages. Apart from that, the sutdy also shows that there exists some differences concerning the verbs sed in both genres. It appears that both genres have their own patterns of verb use. For example, one feature is that short stories use more past forms that non-past form. Another is that, there is a greater use of the First and Second Person pronoun is short stories compared to academic articles. This may be due to the fact that short stories involve a lot of conversations and therrefore, there is a need for the deployment of the First and Second Person pronoun. In contrast, academic articles use more non-past forms that the past form. There are some similarities too in that there is widespread use of linguistically factual events in both short stories and academic articles. This shows that the events in both genres convey more more completed actions and thus, indicate linguistically `true` messages. The study on verebs concerning the Degree of control tells that both genres have deployed the "Active form more than the Passive form. Clearly, it dawns on us that both genres allow the Actors/Agents greater control over the event. In terms of te Verb Number, it was found the both genres have verb patterns that flaunt the Subject-Verb Agreement Rule (SVA). When examined closely such instances reveal that they have been so constructed to convey a differing set of messages. A greater need to getting a precise message well conveyed has sosmehow led to the `violation` of the SVA rule. The rule has been useful in detailing patterns of use that have been glossed over in grammar textbooks.