According to Nation (2000), the categories of words’ knowledge are form (spoken, written and word parts), meaning (form and meaning, concept and referents, and associations), and use (grammatical functions, collocations, and constraints on use like register, frequency and the like). The components are presented as follows. Table 2.1 The Components of Knowing a Word Form spoken R P What does the word sound like? How is the word pronounced? written R P What does the word look like? How is the word written and spelled? word R P What are recognizable in this word? What word parts are needed to express the meaning? Meaning form and meaning R P What meaning does this word form signal? What word form can be used to express this meaning? Concept and referents R P What is included in the concept? What can the concepts refer to? associations R P What other words does this make us think of? What words could we use instead of this one? Use grammatical function R P In what patterns does the word occur? In what patterns must we use this word? collocations R P What words or types of words occur with this one? What words or types of words must we use with this one? constraints on use (register, frequency,...) R P when, and how often would we expect to meet this word? Where, when, and how often can we use this word? Additionally, Tyler and Nagy (1989) as cited in Lardiere (2006: 73) state that there are three kinds of derivational morphology knowledge, namely relational, syntactic, and selectional knowledge. Relational knowledge is the knowledge (or perception) that two words are morphologically related to each other; that is, they share a common lexical base (e.g., argue~argumentas opposed to off~offer or depart~department). Syntactic knowledge is the knowledge that derivational suffixes mark words for syntactic category in English (e.g., X-izeV; X-ationN). Selectional knowledge is knowledge of the selectional restrictions on the
Plag (2003) says that suffix –able posseses some meanings. He adds that for the verb base, the meanings are ‘is capable of Xed’ like in breakable, deterrable, readable, changeable and ‘liable or disposed to X’ like in agreeable, perishable, variable; changeable. According to Carstairs and McCharty (2002), the adjectival suffix –able is only derived from verbs yet Plag (2003) states that suffix –able can attach to nouns to form adjectives which can produce meaning ‘characterized by X’ as in fashionable, knowledgeable, reasonable and ‘capable of being Xed’ like in marriageable, jeepable, kitchenable, roadable. For the loan words, suffix –able changes in to –ible like in comprehensible, discernible, flexible, reversible. Suffix –able and its allomorph –ible mostly does not change the base word writing system in the new words as presented as follow. Illustration 2.2 The Examples of Suffix -able 2.1.3.4 Suffix –al According to Carstairs and McCharty (2002) the examples of the words with this suffix are original, normal, personal, and national which have nouns as the base words. The meaning of the words with suffix –al is ‘having the form of X’ or ‘having the character of X’ as in accidental and universal. Plag (2003) states that most of the base for suffix –al is Latinate like in colonial, cultural, federal, institutional, modal. He adds that there are two variants of this suffix; -ial and The variation can be seen in the following examples.
alternations include the ending sound [d] or [t] becomes [s] like in a and b, the ending sound [ive] becomes [εpt] like in c, and the ending sound [djus] becomes [dΛkt] like in d. Suffix –ive has a variant –ative like in argumentative, quantitative, and representative. The explanation is concluded in the following illustration. Illustration 2.5 The Examples of Suffix -ive 2.1.3.7 Suffix -ary Szymanek (1989) states that adjectives with suffix –ary are characterized by irregular and unpredictable semantics which are found mostly in lexicalized nouns with suffix –ion and –ment like in expansionary, revolutionary, reactionary and the like. He mentions the meaning of suffix –ary connotes ‘the idea of tendency or purpose’. According to Plag (2003), this suffix usually attaches to noun like complementary, evolutionary, fragmentary, legendary, precautionary whose meaning is ‘relating to X’. Suffix –ary does not change the writing system of the bases as follow. Illustration 2.6 The Examples of Suffix -ary The variation of suffix –ary is –ory. Marchand (1969:338) in Szymanek (1989:237) says that “the usual semantic implication of adjectives in –ory is ‘destined to, serving for, tending to ___’ what is denoted by the (Latin or English)
In dealing with the changes of writing system, suffix –ing sometimes changes the writing system of the new For all numbers in this suffix, there are changing in the new words. For number (1), (10), and (19) the words conclude, challenge, and convince is ended with the alphabet ‘e’. This alphabet has to be omitted when the suffix –ing is added. Therefore, the answers are concluding, challenging, and convincing. Regarding to the meaning carried, suffix –ing is the present adjectives participles. It belongs to the participial adjectives since it is derived verbs and the adjectival word class at the same time (Gao,1997; Folse, 2012 as cited in Reilly, 2013). In this research, number (19) shows the rule of the transitive verb which shows emotion in convincing which describes the cause of the action convince. Thus, the correct answer is convincing. For number (1) and (10), the transitive verbs of action with their intransitive equivalent are concluding and challenging. Therefore, the correct answer for number (1) is concluding, and number (10) is challenging. The third best-mastered suffix is suffix –ive with the distribution 161 students (59.6%) . The knowledge is presented in the following figure. Figure 4.3 The Students’ Knowledge of Suffix -ive The figure above shows that semester 4 students contribute the highest number of the students’ correct answer for the third time after their knowledge in suffix –al and –ing (61 students or 67.8%). With the difference of 1, semester 6
in the test belong to this group. The inappropriateness in this research means that the meanings of the adjectival suffixes do not appropriate to the context required. However, the words with inappropriate adjectival suffixes do exist in English so they do not belong to non-existent words group. This group contributes 343 students (15.9%) which mostly consist of semester 2 students (130 students or 18.1%). In this group, the higher the semester is, the less the students use inappropriate adjectival suffixes since semester 4 and 6 are in the second and third place in using the suffixes. As many as 99 students (36.7%) use inappropriate adjectival suffixes in suffix –able. They use approaching, approached, sustained, sustaining, detected, detecting, and other answers. It presents that the students frequently use adjectival suffixes –ing and –ed. However, the meaning of the suffixes is not ‘is capable of being Xed’ and ‘disposed to X’. Thus, these suffixes are inappropriate to use in sentences (3), (12), and (21). Most of the students are from semester 2 (37 students or 41.1%), the next are semester 6 and 4 (32 and 30 students). Suffix –ary is the next suffix with answers which belong to inappropriate adjectival suffixes. There are 78 students (28.9%) who make mistakes in this group. Most of the students are from semester 2 with the distribution 31 student (34.4%). Semester 4 and 6 are in the second and last position (27 and 20 students). The students usually use regulating, regulated, regulative, transitive, transited, transiting, and other answers. The answers show that the adjectival suffixes used are –ing, -ed, and –ive. This means that the words regulate and transit trigger the
In consequence, the do not fully transfer their knowledge in English adjectival suffixes during semester 6. Therefore, the factor influenced the differences among the semesters is the courses taken by the students. Based on the courses offered by the ELESP Department, the higher the semester is, the less deliberate the practice is. Thus, the students’ knowledge based on the test given is decreasing from semester 4 to semester 6.