A ESSAY IN COMPARATIVE OF THE ENGLISH AND INDONESIAN ARTICLES

COMPARATIVE LINGUISTICS

Compiled by:
Lely Lukman

(130110101052)

FACULTY OF CULTURAL STUDIES

JEMBER UNIVERSITY
2016
A Essay in Comparative of the English and Indonesian Articles
Fromkin, et al (1984) in Nadar F_X (1996) , states that to understand the nature of
language we must understand the nature of this internalised, unconscios set of rules which is
part of every grammar of every language. An article is a special part of speech. It cannot

easily be combined with other parts of speech. Every language may have various forms of
each articles. Articles is important for the learner of language especially as a second or
foreign language. It is a word that is used to a longside a noun to indicate the type of
reference made by the noun. In this essay I explore the similarities and differences of the
articles in English and Indonesian. Bahasa Indonesia has no real equivalents of the English
definite and indefinite articles. The articles are used in English no corresponding word occurs
in Bahasa Indonesia. In these cases, bahasa indonesia and English is interesting to discuss.
In English, a noun phrase normally functions as the head of the noun phrase. Quick and
Greenbaum (1973:59) add that the noun phrase has functions as a subject, a compliment of
preposition phrase and a complement of sentences. whereas a noun phrase in indonesian may
be defined as a phrase with a noun in its structure. Noun phrase in indonesian may be
expanded not only to the left of the head nouns, as premodifiers but also it is to the right as
post modifiers. Premodifiers consist of adjectives, nouns, numeral and articles. The post
modifiers mostly consist of phrases with prepositions. For example :
a) Enam mobil
Six
car
Enam is a numeral and mobil is a noun. The structure is similar to that of the English
six cars
b) Enam buah mobil
Six
class car
Buah is a noun classifier. Actually there are many noun classifiers in Indonesian. The
complexity of the noun classifier can engender difficulties in learning the indonesian.
The noun classifier is put between the noun and the numeral. In english, there are
noun phrase structures with noun classifiers indentical in indonesia, such as six pairs
of pants, six pieces of silver and six sheets of paper. In english, the Enam buah
mobil is six units of cars.
c) Mobil enam buah
Car
six
class
The numeral and noun classifier is put on the right of the head noun. When the other
determiners exist, such ini (this), nya (possessives), itu (that), adjectives, the numeral
and noun classifiers should be put on the left in the head noun. For example :
Empat buah mobil ini
four class car these
In English, it is these four houses
d) Mobil mahal
Car
expensive
In english, it may be expensive car

The adjective expensive is put on the right on the head noun. The noun phrase in
English has the adjective on the left of the head noun. More adjectives in the
indonesia noun phrase can also be put after mahal (expensive)
e) Enam buah mobil mahal
Six
class car
expensive
In English, it is Six expensive cars. The combination of a numeral, a noun classifier,
adjective and head noun is also possible. The acceptable structure is the numeral and
noun classifier should be put before the head noun and the adjective after the head
noun.
f) Enam buah mobil mahal
dekat
stasiun
Six
class car
expensive
near the/a station
Dekat danau is a qualifier. This is classified as prepositional phrase in indonesian
context. Dekat has function not only as an adjective, but also as prepositon preceding
a proper noun (stasiun). The position of a qualifier is always after the head noun. It
has similiar position to a qualifier in an English noun phrase.
g) Enam buah mobil merah mahal
dekat stasiun
Six class car
red
expensive near station
In the phrase noun phrasemobil merah mewah is uncceptable. It should put yang
between merah and mewah., because it is useful to put adjectives after adjective. In
English, the six expensive red cars near station is not acceptable.
Noun phrase in Indonesia can be formed with a noun head preceded by premodifiers
that consist of numeral and noun classifier. It is followed by adjectives and prepositional
phrase, for example a) enam buah (Numb. Class) mobil (head) merah mahal (adjective)
dekat stasiun (prep. Phrase). On the other hand, a noun phrase in English also has a noun
head that can be preceded by numeral, adjectives nd followed by a prepositional phrase, for
example b) six (number) expensive red (adjective) car (head) near the/a station (prep.
Phrase).
In (b) the word buah is a noun classifier. Buah can be put with nouns such as mobil
(car), gedung (building) and hadiah (present). However it is not suitable for orang (man),
dokter (doctor) and anak (child). They are included the noun classifier because of orang. The
word of indefiniteness in indonesian is expressed by forming se+ noun classifier, for
example sebuah, sebutir, sepucuk, sepatah and others. Another word can be expressed
indefiniteness is Suatu. The word Suatu is commonly very suitable to use abstract nouns such
as problem, question and opportunity etc. However the word suatucannot be put with
animals and person.

Commonly when we dropped indefinite articles in Indonesian, it will not change the
meaning of the sentence, for example the word sebuah is included an indefiniteness, it will be
be deleted. saya menunggu di dekat sebuah stasiun. The sentence is expressed without
using dekat sebuah stasiun. It will be saya menunggu didekat stasiun. The sentence wil not
change the meaning of the sentence. In English, the definite articles are more clearly. A is
used before a word beginning with a vowel or a consonant sounding like consonant, while an
is used before words beginning with a vowel (Woods and McLeod (1990) in Nadar F.X
(1996). An indefinite article is used before a singular countable noun and certain numeral
expressions (Thompson and Martinet (1980) in Nadar F.X (1996). We can see that the use of
indifinite articles in Indonesian is different to the use of indifinite articles in English. In
English, we can not be easily deleted the indefinite article. It is not always unacceptable. On
the other hand In Indonesia ,we can delete the indifinite articles but it will not change the
meaning.
According to Moeliono et a (1993), there are the three different kinds of articles that
express defiteness in Indonesian. They consist of articles referring to singularness, referring
to neutrality and reffering to group and plurality. Articles refer to singularity are sang, sri,
hang (old use) and other. The definite article refers to neutrality is si. The last, the article
refers to plurality or group is para. In indonesia a noun can be definite without the
introduction of definite articles or the function of words as definite articles. The definite
article in English, the is the same for singular and plural and for all genders (thomson,
1983:3). It is used with noun that the only one. Noun are made definite by a phrase, made
definite by a previous sentence. The is also used with noun made definite by reference
forward with superlative and ordinal number (first, second, next and same). The is also used
to refer to a class distinct from the other (close,1975;135). The is also used as part of a name
of a country, seas, rivers,ships, hotels, organisations and newspapers.
The usage of definite articlle in Indonesia and English

1. To

refer

Indonesian
to Sang, sri, hang, dang + noun

English
The + noun

singularity
2. To denote plurality Para + plural human noun

The + noun

or group
3. To denote defiteness

The + noun ( singular or

Ini, itu, yang, nya, + noun

plural)

4. To denote neutrality

Si + noun (human + non The + noun (plural/ singular

5.

human)
singular/ plural
Zero definite article + noun

Zero definite article

noun)
the

From the table above, I conclude that the indefinite articles in Indonesia and English
are relatively similiar. They are placed in front of the head nouns. The meaning of the
indefinite articles are also similiar, for example a and suatu has meaning one. The function
of the articles a and suatu express the word of definiteness. However the form of the article
are different. In Indonesia article, the form of se with noun classifier that is acceptable.
Whereas in English the article used is a or an depending on the first sound of the noun.
The usage of the definite article in indonesia and english is not easy. In Indonesian
definite article, We have to understand how the usage of both before the head noun such as
para, si, sang and others that after he head noun such as tersebut, nya, ini, itu in front of the
head noun. In English, they have to be placed in front of the head noun. Understanding the
underlying the indefiniteness and defiteness in both languages may diminish the errors in
using them. For indonesian learners, the use of the definite and indefinite articles in English
will be a problems if they are not understand the concepts of english article well. According
McLeod (1990:156), The problem of comparing the articles in Indonesia and English is when
definite articles used in English frequently zero articles are used in Indonesia.
The article in indonesia and English differ in form. The differences in use and rules
create problems as leaners. The problems in english article are related not only to the effort in
determining a noun, but also knowing the word start with vowels or consonants. In
Indonesian,nonindonesia speaker find a difficult to use the se+ noun classifier. In Indonesia,
a noun in a sentence may be definite without being intoduced with a definite article. There are
some reason of typical problem for indonesia learners, firstly they are confused how to use it
and secondly they fell hesitant. This happend because by the absence of definite articles in
Indonesia is written discourse. The articles are used in English no corresponding word occurs
in Bahasa Indonesia.

References

Wood, Edward and Nicole McLeod.1990.Using English Grammar Meaning NF Form.New

York:Pretice Hall
Moeliono, Anton M. 1993. Tata Bahasa Baku Bahasa Indonesia. Jakarta: Department
Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan Republik Indonesia.
Nadar, F.X.1996. A comparative study of The Indonesian and English Articles. In journal of
humaniora,3, 1996:47-56.
Internet
http://mylanguages.org/indonesian_articles.php (downloaded on december, 10 2016)