Contrastive Analysis of Japanese and Indonesian Passive Sentences

Abstract

This study describes the similarities and differences between Japanese and Indonesian passive sentences through a pairing technique. Passive sentences in both languages are classified into several types based on their syntactic functions and categories and the semantic roles in 21 types of Japanese passive (JP) sentences and 22 types of Indonesian passive (IP) sentences. The findings show that all types of Japanese direct passive (CJ) sentences can be paired directly with the Indonesian di-V construction. Some of the Japanese indirect passive (KJ) sentences can be integrated into the constructions di-V, ter-V, ke-|-an, and construction ditinggal-V-intr, while others could not be paired with Indonesian passive sentences at all but could be expressed by active sentences with Indonesian words that convey opposing meanings. In contrast, the process of pairing Indonesian passive sentences with their Japanese counterparts indicates that type A9, personal passive, and some ter-V constructions could not be paired with Japanese passive sentences but could be expressed through active sentences by putting the object in front. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2016.v7n1s1p317