A Study of First Person Singular Pronouns in Malay Child Language

Dublin Core

Title

A Study of First Person Singular Pronouns in Malay Child Language

Author

NOOR, Petani Mohd

Abstract

Key words: First Person Singular Pronouns, Malay Child Language ABSTRACT This study had been carried out in order to investigate the first person singular pronouns used by children in Malay. In this language, the most prominent first person singular pronouns are "saya" and "aku". However, for kids, the usage of these pronouns sometimes has been substituted by other pronouns. This research used a comedy drama entitled "Lontong" as a text to seek for the findings. The results showed that besides "saya" and "aku", children also use "kita" as well as their own names as the first person singular pronouns. In terms of politeness, using names is considered as the most humble way, followed by "kita" and "saya". Hence, using "aku" is deemed as impolite. Nevertheless, it is not unusual to see "aku" used by kids among their close friends.

Keywords

Article
PeerReviewed

Publisher

IBU Publishing

Date

2013-05-03

Extent

1907