Ling 102/WI Introduction to the Study of Language
Module 4 Activity 4: Malay/Indonesian Morpheme Identification
This activity is in the quiz tool. You have just one chance to submit your answers in the quiz tool,
so use this worksheet to prepare your answers first.
Malay (known in Malaysia as Bahasa Malaysia “the Malaysian language”) and Indonesian
(known in Indonesia as Bahasa Indonesia) are essentially the same language, differing only
slightly more than do American and British English. Malay/Indonesian (MI) is among the top
langauges of the world in terms of numbers of speakers.
Examine the following MI sentences, given in close orthographic spelling. One possible
translation has been given for each. Then answer the questions based on the data (1 point each =
15 points)
MI
ini kuda
ini ali
ali bagus
ali menjual kuda itu
kuda ali bagus
jualan ini bagus
kuda ini dijual oleh ali
ali penjual kain
Glosss
This is a horse.
This is Ali.
Ali is good.
Ali sells that horse.
Ali's horse is good.
This merchandise is good.
This horse is sold by Ali.
Ali is a cloth seller.
Questions 1 – 8 ask you to focus on the morphemes in the data. There are 12 morphemes in the
data above. Four of the 12 are given for you below.
men-an
dipen
present tense marker (as in menjual)
converts a verb to a noun (“sell” > “item that is sold”(merchandise) as in jualan)
passive marker, similar to English –tion (dijual)
“the one who” (“sells” as in penjual)
1. What is the MI morpheme meaning “this”?
a. ini
b. nik
2. What is the MI morpheme meaning “horse”?
a. ud
b. kuda
3. What is the MI morpheme meaning “Ali”, a proper name for a male?
a. ali
b. aliba
4. What is the MI morpheme meaning “good”?
a. bagus
b. diga
Hurley Sp08
Ling 102/WI Introduction to the Study of Language
5. What is the MI morpheme meaning “sell”?
a. jual
b. ual
6. What is the MI morpheme meaning “that”?
a. menjual
b. itu
7. What is the MI morpheme meaning “by”?
a. oleh
b. ini
8. What is the MI morpheme meaning “cloth”?
a. penjual
b. kain
9. Translate this MI sentence into English: kain ini bagus.
a. This bag is good.
b. This cloth is good.
10. Translate this MI sentence into English: kuda bagus ini kuda ali
a. Ali is a good horse.
b. This good horse is Ali’s horse.
11. Translate this English sentence into MI: “Ali’s merchandise is cloth”.
a. jualan ali kain
b. ali jualan kain
12. Translate this English sentence into MI: “Ali is a horse seller”.
a. penjual kuda ali
b. ali penjual kuda
13. Translate this English sentence into MI: “This is a good horse”.
a. ini kuda bagus
b. kuda ini bagus
14. Translate this English sentence into MI: “This horse is good”.
a. ini kuda bagus
b. kuda ini bagus
15. If the MI word mendidik means “educate” (verb, as in “I educate”), what is the
probable meaning of pendidik?
a. educator
b. education
c. school
Hurley Sp08