Grammar Guru

English . Malay . Syntax . Morphology . Etymology

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

Learning a language:

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

KK ‘ni-rempat-i’

Ark. BM kuno

1. Diduduki atau ditumpangi sementara tanpa hak milik tetap
2. (Bkn tempat) didiami secara merempat

[ni-] awalan pasif bahasa Melayu kuno (= BM mutakhir di-) + rempat + -i

“Jāṅan muaḥ yaṃ vanuāmāmu nirempati savañakña yaṃ vuatña jāhat”

📏🤓

[Wikipedia bahasa Indonesia @idwiki]

Prefiks atau awalan "nir-" merupakan bentuk terikat dari tidak/bukan.

Jadi, kata "nirempati" bermakna tidak melakukan atau mempunyai empati.

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

Serabut kelapa
Serabut kepala

Isn’t it interesting how ‘serabut’ (from infixation of ‘sabut’, referring to fibrous material like coconut husk, with ‘-er-’) semantically shifted from the physical appearance of tangled fibres to the abstract notion of messy or chaotic thoughts?

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

I just came across the word ‘dikarenakan’ (to be caused) in Bahasa Indonesia. How fascinating! The subordinating conjunction ‘karena/kerana/karna’ (because) is verbalised & passivised.

Does this mean that there’s the active form ‘mengkarenakan’ as well? How is it used in B Indo?

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

@swarabakti Correct.

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

Malay ‘mampus’ (pejorative ‘to die’) is the stative form of ‘hapus’ (to erase/dispose). It derives from *ma- (stative marker) and *qa(m)pus (the source of ‘hapus’).

*ma is fossilised in words like ‘manis’ (sweet *ma-hemis), ‘merah’ (red *ma-iRaq), ‘mati’ (die *ma-aCay), etc.

[jo 🏝️ @swarabakti]

m- is not the older form of meng-, they have different cognates in other MP languages

Blust reconstructs stative prefix *ma-, which is not retained in Malayic except in fossilized forms (that is, the prefixation for masin and masam happened long before Malay was even a thing).

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

@Simple_Peasant1 In fact:

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

‘Encik’ used to be a form of address for both men and women. For example, the following is from Hikayat Seri Kelantan:

“Adalah seorang perempuan nama Encik Siti.”

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

@AliAhme70978158 @bknshittpsyid You’re repeating some facts that I’ve already stated. As I described, ‘berasa’ or its bare form is used informally to embed clauses.

Also, the question concerned the active form ‘merasa’, and like I stated, embedding a clause with ‘merasa’ is ungrammatical.

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

🤦🏽‍♂️

Even DBP is getting confused!

‘Merasa’ is transitive and it takes a NP as its direct object, whereas ‘berasa’ is intransitive and takes a complement. The latter could also informally be used as a clause-embedding verb.

“Gulai itu sangat masin” appears to be a clause.

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

@AliAhme70978158 @bknshittpsyid Compare with other clause-embedding verbs such as berfikir, berkata, berpendapat, etc.

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

@AliAhme70978158 @bknshittpsyid The use of ‘rasa’ to express “to feel/think” requires the ‘ber-‘ prefix or no prefix at all. See example 3.

‘Merasa’ as a clause-embedding verb is sharply ungrammatical.

- “Saya merasa bahawa gulai itu sangat masin.” ❌
- “Saya (be-)rasa bahawa gulai itu sangat masin.” ✅

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

1 is ❌ as passivisation fails: “Gulai itu dirasa sangat masin.” ❌

2 is ✅: “Gulai itu dirasa oleh ibu dan gulai itu sangat masin.”

Extra:

6. Ibu merasakan masakan gulai sangat penting dalam tradisi Melayu. ✅
7. Masakan gulai dirasakan sangat penting dalam tradisi Melayu. ✅

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

1. Ibu merasa gulai itu sangat masin. ❌
2. Ibu merasa gulai itu dan gulai itu sangat masin. ✅
3. Ibu berasa (bahawa) gulai itu sangat masin. ✅
4. Ibu berasa kecewa kerana gulai itu sangat masin. ✅
5. Ibu terasa kecewa kerana gulai itu sangat masin. ✅

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

Hurrah!

FYI, Malay ‘kepoh’ comes from Hokkien 家婆 (kepô) meaning “grandmother”, “mother-in-law”, “housekeeper”, or the familiar “busybody” depending on the Chinese dialect.

[BFM News @NewsBFM]

📌The Oxford English Dictionary has added Malaysian and Singaporean English words in its latest update.

The newly included words are:

• Agak-agak

• Kaypoh

• Boleh

• Play play

• Jialat

• Wayang

• Mat Salleh

• Assam Laksa

• Ice Kacang

• BTO (Build to Order)

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

Selamat Hari Raya Aidilfitri!

‘Raya’ originally meant “big” but it has undergone semantic shift to the point that it now means something like “celebration”, e.g. musim perayaan.

We still have ‘raya’ unmistakably meaning big in some phrases:

Balai raya
Bandar raya
Jalan raya

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

(k)VntVt

Tagalog: “to have sex” (kantot)
Bahasa Indonesia: “to have sex” (entot)
Bahasa Malaysia: “to fart” (kentut)

It’s not totally clear if ‘kantot’ and ‘entot’ are cognates of ‘kentut’ with the original sense of *qetut (to fart) from Proto-Austronesian. 🤷🏽‍♂️

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

To “look forward” to something is to orient yourself towards an anticipated outcome.

In Malay, ‘harap’ (to hope) is a doublet of ‘hadap’ (to face), from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *qadəp (front, facing).

To hope is to face the future. Expectation, quite literally, has direction.

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

Thematic roles. 😂

Inanimate objects are not typically encoded as agents. Therefore the non-agentive subject “key” primes the reader to encode “hiding” as a gerund in a copular clause, rather than a verbal predicate that encodes a progressive action performed by the subject.

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

That is one heck of a sentential subject!

[To entertain the belief that the 1MDB management knowingly conspired against a sitting PM together with Jho Low who holds no position] would be to stretch the imagination into the realm of fantasy.

I’d extrapose it frfr.

[Melissa Goh @MelGohCNA]

JUST IN : Justice Collin said to entertain the belief that the 1MDB management knowingly conspired against a sitting PM together with Jho Low who holds no position would be to stretch the imagination into the realm of fantasy .

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

Similarly, ‘tahu’ (to know) has also gained a negative interpretation when it is realised as “au” with /t/ and /h/ dropping in sentence-initial position.

A: “Tahu dok?” (Tahu tak?)
B: “Au!” (Tak tahu!) 🙂‍↔️
or
B: “Tau!” (Tahu!) 🙂‍↕️

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

‘Embuh’ has evolved into a negative desiderative verb in Bahasa Terengganu. There is no longer the need to negate it using ‘tak’ when it occurs in sentence-initial position:

A: “Nok gi dok?” (Nak pergi tak?)
B: “Mboh aku!” (Tak nak aku!)
or
B: “Aku takmboh!” (Aku tak nak!)

[Grammar Guru @Morphosyntax]

‘Embuh’ has evolved into a negative desiderative verb in Bahasa Terengganu. There is no longer the need to negate it using ‘tak’ when it occurs in sentence-initial position:

A: “Nok gi dok?” (Nak pergi tak?)
B: “Mboh aku!” (Tak nak aku!)
or
B: “Aku takmboh!” (Aku tak nak!)

[ude. ش‍‌ڡــﹳ @UdaShafiq]

Menarik perkataan “mboh” tu.

Entah berkait dengan baku “embuh” (mahu, ingin) atau tiada kaitan. Tapi macam mirip dengan kata ajakan Perak, “moh kitê”.

mahu:
[Melayu Induk] embuh
[Terengganu] mboh
[Minang] amuêh (amuah < ambuah)
#MinangAriKo