THE NEGATIVE INFLUUENCE FROM INDONESIAN TO ENGLISH: A CASE IN THE ARTICLE “ABOUT BALI” Ida Ayu Kade Dwijati Udayana University dayu.dwijati89@gmail.com Abstract This study focuses on finding out the aspects of language being interfered and the factors which caused those interferences in the English article ‘About Bali’ published on the official website of Bali Government Tourism Office. It is found that the interferences in terms of semantics in which the writer/translator’s word choices were interfered by the lexical meaning without considering the grammatical context of the sentence where those particular words are places. Besides, the copula ‘are’ was missing in one of the sentences which caused the meaning of the sentence become incomplete. The uses of singular and plural markers are not consistent. These interferences are caused by the influence of Indonesian language mastered by the writer/translator that showed the lack of knowledge regarding the rules of both English and Indonesian languages, meaning of words that were chosen, the direct translation from Indonesian into English which affected the structure, word choices and the meaning in the target language. Keywords: interference, language aspect, factors I INTRODUCTION Indonesia as a multilingual nation which consists of multilingual societies has a great need on language learning process, especially the foreign language. This is to enable the Indonesians to communicate internationally in globalization era. This need is followed by certain obstacles since most of Indonesians have acquired their mother tongue first, followed by Indonesian language as their national language, and they have to learn about foreign language which in this case is English. Therefore, it is very possible that the Indonesians will be interfered by their mother tongue or their national language while speaking or practicing the English language. Referring to the phenomenon of interference, Kridalaksana (1993: 84) stated that interference (from bilingualism perspective) is the use of other language elements by the bilingual language learner individually in a language; the characteristics of other language can still be recognized, the interference differs based on the medium, style, and context used by the language learner. Further, based on the language teaching perspective, interference is the language error in which the elements of the learner’s own language was transferred into other dialect or language that the learner is currently learning. According to Weinreich (1953) in Sudipa, et.al. (2011; 2), language interference is the effect of a language learner’s first language on their production of the language they are learning. The effect can be on any aspect of language: grammar, vocabulary, accent, spelling, etc. Based on this definition, mailto:dayu.dwijati89@gmail.com 2 | Ida Ayu Kade Dwijati Lingual (Vol. 3, No.5, 2015) it can be stated that interference happens because of the effect caused by the first language of the learner that influence the language he/she is currently learning. The above statements on interference are very useful to support this study. Besides, it is a very good exercise to find out the aspects of English language which are interfered by the Indonesian language norms as well as the factors which caused those interferences. Furthermore, this study showed as to how deep the understanding of the researcher on both English and Indonesian through the analysis of the data found in the article “About Bali” published by Bali Government Tourism Office on their official website on October 3rd, 2011. II MATERIALS AND METHOD 2.1 DATA SOURCE The data of this study were obtained from an article entitled “About Bali” published by Bali Government Tourism Office on their official website ((http://www.disparda.baliprov.go.id/en/About-Bali2) on October 3rd, 2011. Besides, the data of this study is a primary data since they were obtained from the primary source which is the official website as to where it was published. 2.2 METHOD AND TECHNIQUE OF COLLECTING DATA The data of this study was collected by using documentation method. This was conducted by reading thoroughly the source text. While reading the source text, the note-taking technique was applied. The data representing interference were noted and marked in the data source. 2.3 METHOD AND TECHNIQUE OF ANALYZING DATA The collected data was classified and sorted in order to ensure that the final data are those which represented the interferences. The final data will be analyzed qualitatively by applying the theory defined by Richards (1975:36) in Sudipa, et.al. (2011: 18) which stated that: “the problems happen is a matter of interference which may be defined as the use of elements from one language while using/speaking another and may be found at the levels of pronunciation, morphology, syntax and vocabulary”. Based on the above theory, the interference can be found in the levels of pronunciation, morphology, syntax and vocabulary which will be traced through the analysis of the data in this study. Moreover, in order to analyze the factors influenced the interference found in the article; this study refers to the interlanguage concept proposed by Selinker in Richards (1974:31) which is quoted in Sudipa, et.al. (2011: 20). It is stated that in order to describe the factors that influenced the interferences, linguistic factors have to be considered. Therefore, the above-mentioned theories were also supported by the concept proposed by Sudipa, et.al. (2011) through their book entitled “Interference; The The Negative Influuence from Indonesian to English: A Case in the Article “About Bali” | 3 Influence of Bahasa (Indonesian) to English which provided the types of interference in terms of syntax and semantics. III RESULTS AND DISCUSSION There are several data represented interference in certain aspects of language found in the data source. Those data are presented below along with the analysis. 3.1 SEMANTICS The interference in this part indicates that the writer of the article still sticks on the lexical meaning of the lexicon in Bahasa (Indonesian) without considering the context. However, Huddleston (1994: 35) in Sudipa, et.al. (2011: 48) stated that basically context of the sentence does not merely base on the lexical meaning, but also requires the contextual meaning which is called grammatical meaning. In order to get the appropriate meaning, this study is based on the lexical meaning by Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary (Hornby: 2005) which is combined with the grammatical context. Here are the data obtained from the source: (3-1) They wash the ceremonial equipment on the sea or springs to bring back the purity. The word choice ‘wash’ in the above grammatical context is merely based on the lexical meaning which means ‘to clean’. Based on the context of the sentence, the word ‘purify’ is more appropriate since the context of the sentence is more to the ritual context. The meaning of these two words can be seen through their lexical meaning. The word ‘wash’ means to make something or somebody clean by using water or soap, while the word purify means to make something or somebody pure by removing substances that are dirty or evil from their souls. In the above context, the word purify is more appropriate since the cleaning in the above sentence is cleaning spiritually which is not merely by water. (3-2) They wash the ceremonial equipment on the sea or springs to bring back the purity. The use of the phrase ‘the ceremonial equipment’ only contains the lexical meaning of ceremonial thing and the equipment. These two words are still very general in use since the ceremonial does not reflect a specific ritual purpose and the equipment which follows the word ceremonial does not specify whether or not it is a ritual equipment. In regards to the context of the sentence, the things which are brought to the sea or springs are sacred and symbolizing God. Therefore, the word ‘effigy’ can be more appropriate in this context. This happens because of the Indonesian concept sarana upacara which was translated directly into English ‘the ceremonial equipment’ without considering the meaning of word ‘effigy’ which is stated in dictionary: a statue of a famous person, a Saint or a God. (3-3) Then during Nyepi, Balinese remains dormant by conducting catur brata penyepian (four challenges on Nyepi day)... 4 | Ida Ayu Kade Dwijati Lingual (Vol. 3, No.5, 2015) Based on the above sentence, it can be seen that the use of the word ‘dormant’ is less appropriate to state the activity of Balinese during Nyepi Day. Dormant means not active or growing now but able to become active or to grow in the future. In the above context, to fulfil the context that only on that particular day Balinese people stop all their activities and stay at home, the ‘rested’ would be more appropriate by considering its meaning: to relax, sleep or do nothing after a period of activity. (3-4) Then during Nyepi, Balinese remains dormant by conducting catur brata penyepian (four challenges on Nyepi day)... Based on the concept of Nyepi day, Balinese people have to pay attention on catur brata penyepian which comprises of four forbidden activities during that day in which Balinese are forbidden to do any activities that belong to those activities. Those activities can also be treated as challenges, however, it is actually forbidden to do so. Therefore, it will be better to use ‘forbidden activities’ that is more acceptable in the target language. This is based on the lexical meaning of these two words in which ‘challenge’ means a new or difficult task that tests somebody’s ability and skill while the word ‘forbidden’ means not allowed. For example: Photography is strictly forbidden in the museum. 3.2 COPULA The influence of Indonesian language structure in which there is no obligation on copula ‘be’ is one of the factors that caused the interference when the learners practice their writing in English. Here is a data found in the source. (3-5) Bali is densely populated with over 3.5 million, almost all of the Balinese Hindu Religion. The part ‘almost all of the Balinese Hindu Religion’ from the above sentence does not convey the clear idea as to what that particular part means. This is because of the copula be which is missing. This is also due to the direct translation from Indonesian into English hampir semua orang Bali beragama Hindu. Copula ‘are’ should be added to give the complete idea of the sentence. Therefore, the above sentence can be formulated as follow: Bali is densely populated with over 3.5 million; almost all of the Balinese are Hindu 3.3 THE USE OF SINGULAR AND PLURAL MARKERS The placement of the markers for singular and plural in Indonesian language are different than the English one. According to Alwi, et. al. (1998: 244-245) in Indonesian, the markers come before or after the noun in the form of seperate words from the noun. For example: tiga buah buku, beberapa helai kertas, beberapa butir telur, buku tigas buah, etc. However, in English the plural marker of a noun is regularly marked by suffix –s and the noun is preceded by quantifier, for example: two persons, three motorbikes. Besides, the irregular plural marker can be seen in different way, such as child-children, fish-fish. The Negative Influuence from Indonesian to English: A Case in the Article “About Bali” | 5 (3-6) ...they are Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, Ceningan & Menjangan island that are..... The above sentence mentions four islands in which the word ‘island’ should be added by suffix –s. However, the writer only wrote island which on this case shows the writer is not precise and also interfered by the Indonesian version that was translated directly from pulau Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, Ceningan & Menjangan which does not show any plural marker because every noun has been mentioned. (3-7) To bring harmony into life, a Balinese has conducted some stages of spiritual procession since they were still in womb. The phrase ‘a Balinese’ shows a single Balinese which is supported by the following word ‘has’. However, the inconsistency of the plural and singular markers can be seen from ‘they were’ which refers to a Balinese. Therefore, either ‘they were’ to be changed into ‘he/she was’ or ‘a Balinese has’ to be changed into ‘the Balinese people have’. Therefore, there will be two new patterns for the above sentence: a) To bring harmony into life, a Balinese has conducted some stages of spiritual procession since he/she was still in womb. b) To bring harmony into life, the Balinese people have conducted some stages of spiritual procession since they were still in womb. IV CONCLUSION The interference of Indonesian language into English was found in the data source are in terms of semantics where the word choices made by the writer or translator of the article were inappropriate in either from the lexical meaning or grammatical meaning. Besides, copula ‘are’ was missing which caused the meaning of the sentence is incomplete. The inconsistency of the subject and the markers caused the sentence which subject is singular was given a plural marker and vice versa. The factors caused the occurrences of the interferences from Indonesian language into English, are direct translation where the writer/translator of the article translate the Indonesian language into English directly which influence the structure and word choices as well as the meaning in target language (English); and the lack of knowledge in which the writer/translator of the article has limited knowledge on the words choices he/she has made. Therefore, it is very important to master the languages that involve in the translation works in order to reduce the interferences from one language to another. REFERENCES Alwi, et. al. 1998. Tata Bahasa Baku Bahasa Indonesia. Jakarta: Balai Pustaka. Hornby, AS. 2005. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. Oxford: Oxford University Press. http://www.disparda.baliprov.go.id/en/About-Bali2/ 6 | Ida Ayu Kade Dwijati Lingual (Vol. 3, No.5, 2015) Kridalaksana, Harimurti. 1993. Kamus Linguistik. Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama. Sudipa, I Nengah, et.al. 2011. Interferensi: Pengaruh Bahasa Indonesia dalam Bahasa Inggris. Denpasar: Udayana University Press