A comparative study of Malay and English ‘say’ verbs and ‘as’ alternation

Abstract

Relations between verb classes and syntactic alternations have been studied in many languages, but not Malay. This study discusses whether Malay ‘say’ verbs function like English ‘say’ verbs when undergoing the ‘as’ alternation. 111 Malay speakers aged between 18 and 25 performed two online tasks. In the first task, permutations of 10 Malay ‘say’ verbs and 2 alternants of the ‘as’ alternation were presented, and participants determined the acceptability of each sentence. In the second task, participants assigned the same ‘say’ verbs to 5 categories according to their meaning. Results showed that Malay and English ‘say’ verbs do not have the same semantic meaning when translated directly. Also, Malay verbs that are semantically like one another may not undergo the ‘as’ alternation the same way. Lastly, Malay verbs that are semantically like their English translations may not undergo the ‘as’ alternation the same way either. It is hoped that the study encourages native speakers to appreciate the Malay language more after understanding the finer nuances that even closely-related words have. The semantic and syntactic differences identified are also useful for English speakers who are learning Malay. Future studies can look at other verb classes and syntactic alternations that have yet to be explored.