Indonesian Language Interference in Mandarin Writing Discourse

of Chinese Literature Student

Niza Ayuningtias

, Vivi Adryani Nasution

Departement of Chinese Literature , Universitas Sumatera Utara, Jl. Universitas No. 19 Kampus USU, Medan, Indonesia

Keywords : Language Interference, Syntactical Interference, Language

Abstract : This study dealt with Indonesian interference in Mandarin Writing discourse of Chinese Literature’s student.

It aimed at describing syntactical interference which found in Mandarin writing discourse of Chinese

Literature’s student in Universitas Sumatera Utara and describing interferences which were the most

dominant syntactical interference There were 101 including phrases and sentences collected as primary data.

All these data were analyzed by using interference theory and sociolinguistic perspective. This research also

used qualitative descriptive method and applied Miles and Huberman theory for the analysis. The research

findings showed that the Interference on sentences is prominient. The highest frequency is sentence (83%)

and followed by phrase (16,83%).

1 INTRODUCTION

The development of Mandarin language has

experienced a significant increment in Indonesia.

This is evidenced by the number of educational

institutions both formal and informal which

organize Mandarin teaching. One of universities that

sees the importance of organinizing Mandarin

language in this global trade period is the Universitas

Sumatera Utara. The Universitas Sumatera Utara

established the Department of Chinese Literature in

2007.

Mandarin language learners in Department of

Chinese Literature of Universitas Sumatera Utara are

from various cities and regions in Indonesia and their

first language must be Indonesia language. The first

language will affect the second language (foreign

language) because the first language is the language

that is first known and learned by the speakers, while

the second language is learned after mastering the

first language. This is language contact which

probably occur language interference. The language

interference is a phenomenon of one’s failure in

acquiring the second language.

Mandarin is used by bi/multilingual people

commonly influenced by the fisrt language.

According to Harmer (1990:215), the first language

acquisition commonly influnces the students’ ability

in acquiring the second language. The way it

influnces in the procces of acquiring the second

language may be indirect, in which learnes cannot

differ the patterns and rules of those language (Troike

2006:35).

Although Weinrich (1970), Mackey (1970),

Haugen (1978) and Apple & Muysken in (Fauzianti ,

2016:97) said that language interference occurres

commonly in speech (oral), but it can possibly occurr

in writing. The language interference can be a

positive transfer and negative transfer. But in this

research dealt with the negative transfer of language

interference.

Weinrich (1953:14-47) in Chaer (2004:67)

divided the form of interference into three parts.

phonological interference, lexical interference, and

grammatical interference (morphology and syntax).

Grammatical interference consists of two

elements. This elements are morphology interference

and syntactical interference. In the syntax field

consists of sentence and phrase. The following are

examples of interference which found in Department

of Chinese Literature’s students from Indonesian to

Mandarin :

1) Syntactical interference on phrase

老师 Budi X

Lǎoshī Budi

(teacher) Budi

Ayuningtias, N. and Nasution, V.

Indonesian Language Interference in Mandarin Writing Discourse of Chinese Literature Student.

DOI: 10.5220/0010103218371843

In Proceedings of the International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches (ICOSTEERR 2018) - Research in Industry 4.0, pages

1837-1843

ISBN: 978-989-758-449-7

1837

Budi 老师 

Budi lǎoshī

Budi (teacher)

This phrase above meant to “Mr. Budi”. The

correct stucture of the prase above is “ Budi lǎoshī ”.

But due to the influence of the first language

( Indonesian) structure, many students had made

mistakes.

2) Syntactical interference on sentence

老师对不起，今天我不能来上

课，因为我生病。 X

Lǎoshī duìbùqǐ, jīntiān wǒ bù néng lái shàn

gkè, yīnwèi wǒ shēngbìng。

(Sir, I am sorry, today I can not attend

class, because I am sick.)

老师对不起，因为我今天生病，所

以今天不能来上课。

lǎoshī duìbùqǐ, yīnwèi wǒ jīntiān

shēngbìng, suǒyǐ jīntiān bù néng lái shàngke。

(Sir, I am sorry, because I am today

sick , therefore today can not attend class.)

This sentence above meant to “ Sir, i’m sorry,

because today i am sick, therefore i can not attend

your class”. This sentence expressed “cause and

effect” by using “因为 yīnwèi.....所以 suǒyǐ……”.

The patterns of sentence should first mention the

reason or cause statement then followed by the

consequences statement. The pattern of sentence

should be “ 因为”+ reason/ jīn tiān wǒ shēng

bìng “今天我生病+ “所以”+ bù nén lái shàng kè “不

能来上课”. But because it was influenced by the first

language (Indonesian) habits, the use of the

words yīnwèi ... suǒyǐ "因为 ... 所以" were reversed.

Many sentences come to the consequences first and

then followed by the reasons.

3) Syntactical interference on sentence

我们打算吃饭在印尼饭馆。 X

Wǒmen dǎsuàn chīfàn zài yìnní fànguǎn

(We plan to eat in Indonesia restaurant.)

我们打算在印尼饭馆吃饭。 

Wǒmen dǎsuàn zài yìnní fànguǎn chīfàn.

(we plan in Indoneisa restaurant eat)

This sentence above means "we plan to eat in

Indonesian restaurants". The adverb zài " 在 " has

the meaning "di (in)". In Mandarin, the adverb zài "

在 " was placed after the subject, because many

students who put adverbs zài "在" after the predicate

still followed the structure of Indonesia language.

Because of several factors such as habits, level of

students and length of study of Mandarin, students of

the Department of Chinese Literature still brought

and interfered with the elements of Indonesian into

Mandarin. If this continues to occur, habits of the

mother tongue will confuse the mastery of good and

true Mandarin.

Based on phenomena above, the researcher did

this study to figure out the form of syntactical

interference and the most dominant of the syntactical

interference was.

2 METHODOLOGY

This type of research was field

research. The data were collected in the environment

of the Departement of Chinese Literature, Faculty of

Cultural Sciences, University of North

Sumatra. Qualitative descrptive method was used as

the reserch method. Descriptive research is a study

of certain phenomena or populations obtained by

researcher and the results of the analysis were

presented through informal and formal methods.

Data collection was divided into primary data and

secondary data. Primary data consisted of phrases

and sentences that contain interfaces in thediscourse.

Primary data was collected through the assignment of

writing discourse that had been determined by the

researcher. The number of words in one writing

discourse was 300 words. There were five themes

that had been given and students could choose one of

them. Discourse’s themes were, (1) "爱好", (2) "家

人 ", (3) "朋友", (4) " 旅游", (5) " 学校生活".

Secondary data was obtained through journals, books,

prior research and the internet.

2.1 Data Analysis

The data of grammatical interference that had been

collected then come to the stage of data analysis.

According to Miles and Huberman (1992:15) there

are three stages of data analysis, there are :

1.Reduction

The data that had been through the collection process

by using note-taking techniques were classified based

on the grammatical interference of the syntactic field

in the form of phrases and sentences.

2. Presentation of Data

The information obtained through the informant were

presented sequentially starting from the data from the

essay and the type of syntactic interference.

3. Conclusion / Verification Conclusion

The results of data that had been reduced and

presented were evidence for drawing conclusions to

get the truth verified.

ICOSTEERR 2018 - International Conference of Science, Technology, Engineering, Environmental and Ramiﬁcation Researches

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Data analysis calculation method suggested by

Halliday and Hasan (1976: 201) was used to calculate

langugage interference. The number of language

interference is divide by the total number of

language interference then multiplied by one hundred.

The number of language interference

The total of language interference

× 100%

2.2 Data Persentation and Technique

The results of the analysis were presented through

informal and formal methods. According to

Sudaryanto in (Mahsun, 2005: 116) informal methods

are formulations using ordinary words, including the

use of technical terminology. Formal methods are

formulations using signs or symbols.

In this grammatical interference study, researcher

used two colors as markers. Green was used to mark

phrases and red was used to mark sentences.

In this study, researcher also used the procedure

for marking the examination of Mandarin writing

discourse. He Lirong (2003: 22-24) divided the

markers for examining essays/discourse in Mandarin.

1. 删减符号 shān jiǎn fúhào is a marker used to

delete words or sentences that are not needed.

This marker uses a sign

2. 增添符号 Zēngtiān fúhào is a marker used to add

words or the sentence needed.This marker is used

at the top of words or sentences that need addition

by writing words or sentences that need to be

added. This marjer uses a sign

3.填到符号 tián dào fúhào is a marker used to move

the position of a word or sentence from front to

back or vice versa. This marker uses a sign

4. 复原符号 fùyuán fúhào is a marker that is used to

maintain the previous one that is wrong and has

used the 删减符号 shān jiǎn fúhào sign to be

deleted. But by using the sign 复原符号 fùyuán

fúhào under the word or sentence it is considered

correct.This marker uses a sign

5. 错字符号 cuòzì fúhào is a marker used to mark

grammatically incorrect sentences. This marker

uses an X sign.

6. 别字符号 biézì fúhào is a marker used to mark

wrong words or pronunciation. This marker uses

two signs, namely a sign placed under the wrong

word, and can also use a sign by circling the

wrong word or pronunciation.

7. 好词句符号 hǎo cíjù fúhào is a marker used to

express the use of phrases or sentences that are

very good and true. This marker uses two

signs, or ~~~~~~~~~ which is used

under the phrase or sentence

8. 问题符号 wèntí fúhào is a marker used to mark

confusing and awkward words or sentences. This

marker uses two signs, or ? which

are used under the wording of the word or

sentence.

9. 前移符号 qián yí fúhào is a marker used to direct

a sentence to move the position to the front. This

marker uses a sign

10. 后移符号 hòu yí fúhào is a marker used to direct

a sentence to move position to the back. This

marker uses a sign

11. 另起行符号 Lìng qǐ háng fúhào is a marker used

to direct a sentence to move in a new line. This

marker uses a sign

3 DISCUSSION OF THE RESULT

The result of this research showed that there

were language interference on sentence and

phrase. This research found 101 data consisted

of indonesian interference in the use of Mandarin

writing discourse on phrase and sentence.

3.1 Syntactical Interference on Phrase

1) 韩国语言

hánguó yǔyán

(Korean) (language)

韩国语言 X

韩语 

Hán yǔ

(Korean)

Mandarin interference was found on the phrase "

韩国语言 hánguó yǔyán". In Indonesia language, this

phrase means "Korean". The students were

influenced by the Indonesian language pattern by

translating the words "language and country" directly

into Mandarin.

Indonesian Language Interference in Mandarin Writing Discourse of Chinese Literature Student

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The right pattern in Mandarin is "country name

(without 国) + 语". Therefore the right phrase should

be "韩语".

2) 男韩国 X

Nán hán guó

(Guy) (Korea)

男韩国孩

韩国男孩 

hán guó nán hái

(Korean guy)

Mandarin interference was found on the phrase "

男韩国 nán hán guó". In Indonesian language this

phrase means "Korean guy". The students were

influenced by the noun phrase pattern in Indonesia

language “explained and explain (diterangkan

menerangkan)” but the other hand, the pattern of noun

phrases in Mandarin is “explain and explained

(menerangkan diterangkan”. While the word "孩 hái"

was placed after the word "男 nán" to emphasize the

purpose was "guy" (young man). Therefore the

correct phrase to replace the noun phrase above is "

韩国男孩 hán guó nán hái".

3) 和其他 X

Hé qī ta

(and) (another)

和其他

等等 or 什么的 

děng déng shénme de

(and so on/etc)

Chinese interference was found on the phrase "和

其他 Hé qī ta". In Indonesian language this phrase is

referred to "and others / etc.". The students were

influenced by the Indonesian language phrase pattern

where the word "and another" translated word by

word into Chinese.

The use of the word "和其他 Hé qī ta" in

Mandarin does not sound natural (自然语言 zíran

yǔyán) In Mandarin to express “and so on or etc.” The

right phrase is "等等 děng déng or 什么的 shénme

de.

4) 低学校

dī xuéxiào

(basic) (school)

低学校

小学校

xiǎo xuéxiào

(Elementary School)

Mandarin interference was found on the phrase "

低学校 dī xuéxiào". In Indonesian language this

phrase is referred to "elementary school (SD)". The

students were influenced by the Indonesian phrase

pattern where the word "basic" was translated as "低

dī" which means a "basic / low".In Chinese the right

phrase for referring to elementary school level (SD)

is "小学校 xiǎo xuéxiào"

5）读书三级

Dú shū sān jì

(study 3 grade)

读书三年级

读三年级 

Dú sān nián jì

(grade 3 )

Chinese interference was found on the phrase "读

书三级 dú shū nián jì". In Indonesian language this

phrase referred to "grade 3". The students were

influenced by the Indonesian language pattern where

the word "school" was translated "读书 dú shū" and

"grade 3" was translated "三级 sānjí".

The phrase pattern above did not match the pattern in

Mandarin. The right word used is "年级 nián jì"

while the word "书 shū" does not need to be placed

after "读 dú". Therefore, the correct phrase to replace

the phrase above is "读三年级 dú sān jì".

3.2 Syntactical Interference on

Sentence

1) 但是我的姐姐不参加旅游跟我们。X

dān shì wǒ de jiějie bù cānjiā lǔyóu gēn wǒmen.

(but) ( my sister) (did not) (take a vacation with

us)

但是我的姐姐不参加旅游跟我们。

一起

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但是我的姐姐不跟我们参加旅

游。

但是我的姐姐不跟我们一起参加旅

游。 

dān shì wǒ de jiějie bù gēn wǒmen yīqǐ cānjiā

lǔyóu.

(but my sister did not have a vacation with us)

Mandarin interference was found on the sentence

"但是我的姐姐不参加旅游跟我们 dān shì wǒ de

jiějie bù cānjiā lǔyóu gēn wǒmen". In Indonesian

language this sentence means "But my sister did not

had a vacation with us". The students were influenced

by the Indonesian language pattern. Although this

sentence is acceptable in Indonesian, but the pattern

is not acceptable in Mandarin.

" tidak ikut liburan dengan kami (did not have a

vacation with us)" was not in accordance with the

Mandarin language pattern. In Indonesian language

pattern, the word “不 bù (tidak)” was placed before

the word “ 参加 cānjiā (ikut)”. The other hand, the

nagation sentence pattern in Mandarin commonly

used together with the word "跟 gēn" or the pattern is

"不 bù + 跟 gēn + ........ + (一起 yī qǐ)". Therefore,

the right sentence should be 但是我的姐姐不跟我

们一起参加旅游。dān shì wǒ de jiějie bù gēn

wǒmen yīqǐ cānjiā lǔyóu.

2) 我们学到了很多关于中国的知

识在中文系。 X

wǒmen xuédaò le hěn duō guānyǔ zhōngguó (de)

zhīshi zài zhōngwénxi.

(We) (learn) (have) (a

lot) (about) (China) ( knowldage) (in

Departement of Chinese Literature)

我们学到了很多关于中国的知识在中

文系。

我们在中文系学到了很多关于中

国的知识。 

wǒmen zài zhōngwénxi xuédaò le hěn duō

guānyǔ zhōngguó (de) zhī shi.

(We have learnt about China a lot at Departement

of Chinese Literature.)

Mandarin interference was found on the sentence

"我们学到了很多关于中国的知识在中文

系 wǒmen xuédaò le hén duō guānyyǔ zhōng guò (de)

zhī shi zài zhōng wénxi". In Indonesian language this

sentence means " We have learnt about China a lot at

Departement of Chinese Literature ". The Indonesian

sentence pattern above was different from the

Chinese sentence pattern. The adverb in Indonesian

sentence above was placed at the end of the sentence

while in Chinese the adverb was placed after the

subject.

The sentence pattern in Mandarin should be

Attributive ( díng yǔ) + subject (主语 zhǔyǔ) + Kt.

Description (状语 zhuǎngyǔ) + Predicate (谓语 wèyǔ)

+ complement (补语 bǔyǔ) + attributive (dìng yǔ) +

object (宾语 bìnyǔ). Therefore, the correct one is 我

们在中文系学到了很多关于中国的知

识。 wǒmen zài zhōngwénxi xuédaò le hěn duō

guānyǔ zhōng guó (de) zhī shi.

3) 我十二点晚上完做的作业。X

Wǒ shí ér diǎn wǎn sha

̀ng wan zuò de

zuòyè.

(I) (12 o’clock) (in the night) (finish) (do)

(auxilary) (homework)

我十二点晚上完做的作

业。 X

Wǒ shí ér diǎn wǎn shàng wan zuò de

zuòyè

我晚上十二点做完作业。

Subject adverb of time Predicate Object

我晚上十二点做完作业。

Wǒ wǎn shàng shí ér diǎn zuò wan zuòyè.

(I finished doing my homework at 12 o’clock in

the night.)

Chinese interference was found on the sentence "

我十二点晚上完做的作业 Wǒ shí ér diǎn wǎn

shàng wan zuò de zuòyè". In Indonesian language,

this sentence means "I finished doing homework at 12

o'clock ". From the sentence structure above, it looked

like that the students were influenced by the

Indonesian language pattern "finished doing(selesai

mengerjakan)" became "完做" wan zuò (完 wan

(finished), 做 zuò (do) and "12 o’clock in the night

(jam 12 malam)" became "十二点晚上 shí ér diǎn

wǎn shàng ".

In Mandarin the predicate must be followed by the

word " 完 wan (finished) or others result

complement’s words. Except 完 wan, there are other

results complement such as 懂 dòng, 开 kāi, 见 jiàn,

到 dào and so on. The right sentence structure in

Mandarin is "Subject + Predicate (verb) +

Indonesian Language Interference in Mandarin Writing Discourse of Chinese Literature Student

1841

Complementary results (结果补语 jiē guǒ bǔyǔ)".

Example:

a. 我听懂了老师的话。

Wǒ tīngdòng le laǒ shī de huà.

Subject Predicate (auxilary) Object

( I listened to the teacher )

Therefore, the correct sentence to replace the

sentence’s pattern above is “我晚上十二点做

完作业 Wǒ wǎn shàng shí ér diǎn zuò wan zuòyè.

4) 我一直做我妈妈骄傲。 X

wǒ yīzhí zuò wǒ māma jiāo ào.

(I Always make) my mother proud)

我一直做我妈妈骄傲

我一直让我妈妈骄傲。 

wǒ yīzhí ràng wǒ māma jiāo ào

(I always make my mother proud of me.)

Mandarin interference was found on the sentence

"我一直做我妈妈骄傲 Wǒ yīzhí zuò wǒ māma

jiāo ào". In Indonesian language this sentence means

"I always make my mom proud of me ". It looked

like the students were influenced by the Indonesian

language element where the word "membuat (make)"

was translated directly into "做 zuò" which means

doing or making. In Indonesian language, the word

“membuat (make)” could mean “produce; make

(influence someone). Therefore the use of word “做

zuò " in this sentence was wrong, because this word

referred "produce; become ; make/doing something

(no indication to influence someone) ". But the word

"makes" which was referring to was"influential

activity (引起动作的施动者 yǐnjìn dòngzuò de shī

dòng zhě) . Therefore the right word to replace the

word "做 zuò” is" 让 ràng "(我一直让我妈妈骄

傲 wǒyīzhí ràng wǒ māma jiāo ào).

5) 从 Marsela， Putri 岛不远坐船

10 分钟就到了。 X

cóng Marsela, Putri dǎo bù yuán zuò

chuán 10 fēn zhong jiù daò le.

(from Marsela, Putrri island not far by boat

10 minutes then arrive (auxilary)).

从 Marsela ，Putri 岛不远。坐船 10

分钟就到了。

从 Marsela 到 Putri 岛不远。坐船

10 分钟就到了。 

Cóng Marsela dào Putri dǎo bù yuán . zuò chuán

10 fēn zhong jiù daò le.

(From Marsela island to Putri island is not far. It

is only 10 minutes by boat.)

Mandarin interference was found on the sentence

"从 Marsela, Putri 岛不远远船 10 分钟就就了

cóng Marsela, Putri dǎo bù yuán zuò chuán 10 fēn

zhong jiù daò le". In the Indonesian language this

sentence means "From Marsela island to the Putri

island is not far. It is only 10 minutes by boat". From

the sentence structure above, it looked like that the

students were influenced by the Indonesian language

sentence pattern "from Marsela, the Putri island is not

far ". In Indonesian language this expression is still

acceptable where the word "to" is changed to a

punctuation mark ", (comma)". But in Mandarin the

word "从 cóng (from) must be followed by the word"

到 dào ", therefore the correct pattern to fix the

sentence pattern above is" 从 cóng .... + 到 dào ... " .

The right sentence is 从 Marsela 到 Putri 岛不

远。坐船 10 分钟就到了。Cóng Marsela dào

Putri dǎo bù yuán . zuò chuán 10 fēn zhong jiù daò

le”.

6) 我很爱他们都。 X

Wǒ hěn ài tāmen dōu.

(I) (very) (love) (them) (all (particle))

我很爱他们都。

我都很爱他们。 

Wǒ dōu hěn ài tāmen.

(I love them.)

Mandarin interference was found on the sentence

" 我很爱他们都。wǒ hěn ài tāmen dōu." In

Indonesian language this sentence means“ I love all

of them”. It looked like the students were influenced

by the Indonesian language element where the word

"semua" was translated directly became "都 dōu"

which means “all”.

The particle “都 dōu” in the sentence above was

not appropriate with the mandarin structure. It only

can use before the object. Therefore the use of “都

dōu” in this sentence was wrong. The sentence should

be “我都很爱他们” (Wǒ dōu hěn ài tāmen).

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1842

4 CONCLUSIONS

The research result showed that the total number

of Indonesian interferences in the use of

Mandarin writting discourse were 101 data. The

sytactical interference occured on sentence and

phrase. Of the two elements observed,

syntactical intereference on sentence was

prominent. The highest frequency was sentence

(83%) and phrase (16,83%). It shows that the

majority of the third year students need to learn

more intensively Mandarin so that they can

master the Mandarin very well.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This reserch was funded by Universitas

Sumatera Utara, based on “Kontak Pelaksanaan

Penelitian TALENTA Universitas Sumatera

Utara Tahun Anggaran 2018 Nomor:.

2590/UN5.1.R/PPM/2017 tanggal 16 Maret

2018”.

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