English Linguistics Theory for subtype complementary feature in comparison to Javanese Linguistics

Abstract

Dixon is one of the most influential linguists in English Language Studies that proposed the idea of semantic approach in English grammatical analysis. He divided the types of verbs into six categories, including Primary A and Primary B types; and Secondary A, Secondary B, Secondary C, and Secondary D types. In Primary B types, he mentioned “attention” verbs with all of their possible syntactic properties. The “look” subtype, which is one of the subcategories of these “attention” verbs were mentioned of not allowing the existence of that-complement in the O slot. This study was initiated to illicit an extension of Dixon’s idea regarding this syntactic property of that-complement in the O slot of “look” subtype through the analysis of Javanese language structure. Based on the findings from the Javanese language corpus on SEALang Library, there were eight out of 22 samples of verbs (around 36 percent) that Dixon mentioned in the “look” subtype having that-complement in the form of “sing”, “kang”, and “ingkang” in their O slots. In the Javanese translation, these eight verbs consisted of “mirengaken”, “madosi”, “mandeng”, “ndeleng”, “mirsani”, “nginguk”, and “mriksa”. Most of the verbs appeared in the register of ngoko lugu, as this type of language records the most common utilization by the Javanese society. The findings confirmed that Dixon’s idea regarding the disallowance of that-complement in O slot of “look” subtype verbs could not be universally applied.