Morphological Forms of Serial Verb Constructions in a Transliteration Corpus of Fourteenth-Century Classical Malay Literature
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24256/ideas.v14i2.11365Keywords:
Classical Malay Literature, Morphological Forms, Serial Verb Constructions, Transliterated Manuscript CorpusAbstract
A verb exists and plays an important role across all languages worldwide. It can be in the form of a singular or serial predicate. A singular predicate is relatively straightforward to identify, while a serial predicate is more complex, particularly when determining the morphological form of serial verbs. This study aims to identify and describe the serial verb constructions through a morphological approach of each component on the first (V1) and the second verb (V2) that both present as one predicate in a clause. Applying a descriptive qualitative method, the data of this study are verbs appearing side-by-side in a transliteration corpus of classical Malay literature within 69,378 words, namely Hikayat Bayan Budiman (HBB). Quantification between V1+V2 is not a main part of this study, but it complements a close observation on serial verb constructions, suggesting the dominance of word formation production in HBB. The result of this present study shows that 260 serial verbs construct V1+V2. The construction exhibits nine morphological forms in combination. These are (a) base form + base form, (b) base form + affixed verb, (c) base form + reduplicated verb, (d) base form + compound word, (e) affixed verb + base form, (f) affixed verb + affixed verb, (g) affixed verb + reduplicated verb, (h) reduplicated verb + affixed verb, and (i) reduplicated verb + compound word. In the context of HBB, V1 consistently uses the base form with four types of morphological processes, and it is found that compound verbs do not occur in V1. An affixed verb is not followed by a compound word, and a reduplicated verb is not followed by a reduplicated verb. Across morphological forms of serial verb, affixation is the most productive and plays a crucial role. The current study suggests that the adopted theory of serial verb construction in Indonesian is considered as a serial predicate and compound sentence with implicit relation.
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