Search

As stated in the National Language Acts, Jawi, or the Arabic script of Malay, is an alternative writing for the Malay language. Therefore, speakers of the Malay language are expected to be able to read Jawi fluently. Unfortunately, this is not the case; even those who are able to read the Qu’ran fluently, are not able to read the Jawi script fluently despite the fact that both are written in the Arabic script. Past studies have shown that many languages of the world have gone through spelling reformation, among others, to increase the literacy rate among their speech communities, and to revitalize the writing system. Thus, this conceptual paper proposes the necessary steps towards reforming the existing Jawi script. This should begin with conducting a scientific study to support previous studies that suggest that the current Jawi spelling system is complex, causing more and more speakers of the Malay avoiding to use it. This article proposes the use of a psychological-based language-processing software and the eye tracking machine to quantitatively analyse the reading process through reaction times and reading duration, fixation count, fixation duration, and visit counts. The findings can then be supported qualitatively through readers’ gaze plot dan heat maps along with verbal data obtained from retrospective interviews conducted on the participants. If data from both analyses confirm that the current Jawi spelling system results in difficulty in reading Jawi, this article proposes a spelling reformation to take place – using the spelling reformation approaches used not only by other languages of the world, but also those that were used in the reformation of previous and the current Jawi spelling system. Spelling reformation is an ongoing process and is vital not only to improve the literacy rate among speakers of particular languages, but also to revitalise their writing systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most studies on the poetry of Sheikh Hamzah Fansuri are focused on religious and divine aspects, while the linguistic aspect has not been thoroughly explored by any scholars, especially those involving the Syair Dagang manuscript, leading to a noticeable gap in the research. This paper addresses relevant issues such as the identification of linguistic styles, manipulation of language, and the effectiveness resulting from such manipulation. This qualitative study employs literature review methods and content analysis of the manuscript Syair Dagang Adanya with catalogue number MSS 3160. The Stylistics Model by Henry Guntur Tarigan is used as the analytical framework, focusing on the comparative stylistic elements consisting of four forms, namely; (1) simile; (2) metaphor; (3) personification; and (4) anticipation. Comparative stylistic elements refer to the position of comparison and balance in poetry production. The analysis finds that Sheikh Hamzah Fansuri utilizes all four forms in his poetry. In addition to using existing similes, Sheikh Hamzah Fansuri creates new similes, introducing freshness and vigour, thereby producing additional meaning brought about by these variations. Metaphors are manipulated by placing ordinary language in a new context to enable the language to shed its usual meaning, align with new meanings, thus expanding the meaning of his poetry. The use of personification allows objects to create meaning, build atmosphere, convey messages, and expand the scope of the poetry to explore sensitive or forbidden issues. The application of the anticipation form can anticipate or predict something to broaden the scope of his poetry when presenting the realities of the present and future simultaneously, while conveying the message of his poetry. This systematic study is expected to contribute to scholarly research on the use of comparative stylistic elements in Syair Dagang Adanya. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mel-frequency cepstral coefficients (MFCC) features and classification techniques based on machine learning are often used in classifying hijaiyah letter pronunciations, however, the classification accuracy performance of hijaiyah letter pronunciations is still low even with the use of machine learning algorithms and MFCC features. Therefore, this study to analyze the features and relevant machine learning techniques will be presented in this study paper. In addition, the number of hijaiyah letters was also increased to 30 letters following the Uthmani resm. This research aims to prove that the suitable feature and relevant classification technique allows for precise classification of the pronunciation of each letter even with large amounts of letters. This research is conducted based on the six main stages in research methodologies which includes signal processing, feature searching, processing and feature selection, classification and lastly, testing, evaluation and analysis. The sampling rate used for all speech signal processing modules in this study is 44.1 kHz. The findings of the study show that the MFCC feature is the most suitable feature to classify the pronunciation of hijayah letters compared to other features that have been extracted based on the rank in the feature selection results. Comparison of accuracy performance shows that Random Forest (RF) classification technique achieves high accuracy by using MFCC feature, which is an average of 97 - 99% for each hijaiyah letter compared to other classification techniques that have been tested in this study. In conclusion, the use of MFCC features and RF classification techniques are able to provide a high performance of hijaiyah pronunciation classification accuracy, which is 98.29% on average even with the use of 30 letters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Malay, like any other languages in the world, is known for its diverse metaphorical expressions to convey specific purposes as an alternative to the literal expressions. Although typically, speakers of a language are able to distinguish literal expressions from the metaphorical ones, little is known about how these differences are identified in the cognition. Hence, this paper discusses findings of a study that investigates the cognitive processes in reading Malay literal and metaphorical expressions from a psycholinguistic perspective. This study that involved 40 Malay students reading 40 Malay sentences with 20 literal and 20 metaphorical expressions used the Tobii TX300 Eye Tracking Devices (APGM) as a tool to link eye movement patterns with reader's cognition. The findings show that only six out of the 20 expressions studied show significant differences between the two expression types in their visit counts, fixation duration, and fixation counts. Qualitatively, analysis of visual representation of heatmaps and gaze plots shows differences when the two types of expressions are read. To explain the difference, the DBP corpus data was used to see how the expressions are used in everyday contexts. This paper concludes that the processing patterns of Malay literal and metaphorical expressions in the cognition of Malay speakers are influenced by the frequency of usage by their speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how the linguistic manifestations of conceptual metaphors are translated from Malay to French. Prior to this, the translation of metaphors has been conducted through the conventional translation theory. Following the increasing interest in discussing metaphors using the cognitive approach, this paper investigates how the cognitive approach can be used to describe this issue from a different perspective at a macro level. To this end, three Malay novels namely Salina, Ranjau Sepanjang Jalan and Angin Timur Laut and their respective French versions namely Salina, Le Riz and Le Vent de Nord-Est were used in this study. All six novels formed a Malay-French Bilingual corpus. Through Metaphorical Pattern Analysis methods (Stefanowitsch, 2006), six linguistic metaphors were selected for the purpose of discussion. Focus was given on linguistic metaphors that show the metaphors of LIFE as LIFE IS A JOURNEY, LIFE IS WAR and LIFE IS A STRUGGLE. This study was based on the cognitive approach proposed by Kövecses (2005). Results of the analysis conducted on the six data suggest that there are differences in the word forms used in Malay and French. However, from the perspective of literal and figurative meaning as well as the conceptual metaphors used, only one sample of the JOURNEY concept was different; the five others maintained the meanings and the conceptual metaphors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parliamentary debate is one of the spoken genres involving key political actors that indirectly highlight social relations through the elements of language used. As such, the analysis of modality in speech clauses is one of the preliminary study that can highlight the role of social actors and their audiences through language. This paper aims to identify and describe aspects of the meaning of modalities used by members of the Government and Opposition in the Parliamentary debate as a way of constructing social relations with their discourse audience. The parliamentary debate selected for the purpose of this analysis is the Budget 2019 debate, the first budget debate after the 14th General Election (2018) and after the transition of power in the New Malaysia era. The analysis used qualitative method, adopting Fairclough's (1992 & 1995) critical discourse analysis approach. The results of the study, revealed thirteen (13) modalities utilized by both the members of Parliament and Opposition. The findings show that informative modality and command modality are utilized by both parties. The use of informative modality is higher frequency, which is 777 times compared to the command modality of only 282 times. Opposition discourse is seen to dominate the use of informative modality with a frequency of 419 times through the meaning of will, ability, knowledge, and refusal more than Government discourse. Government discourse is seen to be more dominant in the use of command modality for the purpose of demand with a frequency of 147 times through the use of the word modality must and should be dominant than the Opposition. It is clear that the use of the word modality by the Opposition discourse is more informative to its audience, while the Government discourse is more in control of its audience. Thus, it can be described that the form of social relations built between the Opposition discourse is more relaxed, and for Government discourse is more formal and serious with the public. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of pronouns differs across languages. The most striking difference between English and Malay lies in the second-person pronoun. There are several options in Malay for the translation of the English second-person pronoun which refers exclusively to the addressee, i.e. 'definite you'. The selection of the appropriate option is dependent mainly on socio-cultural factors. There is also another type of you which refers to people in general and not to the second person in particular, known as 'indefinite you'. Two main English-Malay dictionaries provide contradicting Malay equivalents for indefinite you. A review of the literature failed to yeild any studies or academic discussions on the equivalent of indefinite you and its suitable translation in Malay. Adopting the parallel text analysis method, this paper investigates how the Malay language, as used by Malay society, encodes the functions fulfilled by indefinite you. The findings show that the functions fulfilled by indefinite you in general are not encoded in Malay using any of its second-person pronoun variants such as anda, engkau, awak and kamu. Instead, there are two other methods: (a) the use of words denoting people in general such as orang (people), seseorang (one), siapa-siapa (anyone) and sesiapa (anyone); and (b) the use of the inclusive first-person plural kita. The study discusses the reasons behind the Malay choice of kita as an indefinite personal pronoun from both the linguistic and cultural prespectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Divorce refers to the legal dissolution of a marriage between husband and wife which often bears negative connotations in view of the implications of the act itself and the emotions of the individuals involved. Generally, divorce is an issue that can be discussed explicitly or openly. However, not everyone feels comfortable talking about it directly and, thus, subtle language is used to express it. This paper describes the concept of divorce that exists within the Sarawak Malay community (MMS) by examining the use of euphemistic expressions in the domain of marital relations. A fieldwork was conducted at Kampung Buntal and Kampung Santubong, Sarawak involving interviews with two male informants and two female informants aged 40 and above. Interview questions revolved around the use of language in the topics of divorce. The data was further analyzed using the framework of Image Schemas, Conceptual Metaphors, and Metonymy within the Idealized Cognitive Models (ICMs) by Lakoff (1987). Findings reveal the use of divorce euphemisms such as sik ada jodoh gik (no longer a fated match), sik ada seratan (no longer destined), jodoh setakat tok jak (fate has run its course), seratan setakat tok jak (destiny has run its course), dah putus hubungan (have broken off the relationship), and dah bepisah (have separated) within the community. An analysis from a cognitive semantic point of view allows for a more systematic description of the MMS' way of thinking, for example, through the image schema of Containment, Path and Source-Path-Goals, conceptual metaphors of DIVORCE IS A LOSS, MARRIAGE IS A JOURNEY and DIVORCE IS THE END OF A JOURNEY, DIVORCE IS A BROKEN RELATIONSHIP, and the metonymy BROKEN BOND SYMBOLIZES THE DIVORCE BETWEEN HUSBAND AND WIFE, as well as SEPARATION SYMBOLIZES DIVORCE. This study also explains the relationship between euphemistic meanings and the MMS' experience and knowledge about divorce, which is based on the Malay culture and their belief in God's provision in human life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to describe the aspect of consonant lengthening/gemination (one doublearticulated consonant) in the Patani Malay dialect acoustically. In general, previous studies related to the field of phonetics and phonology are still not sufficient in providing a complete description of the relevant characteristics of a consonant lengthening in Patani Malay dialect. Voice Onset Time (VOT) and Intensity were fully utilized in describing the plosive lengthening in initial word of Patani Malay dialect. Five Patani Malay dialect speakers (men aged 35 - 50 years old from the Muang area in Pattani District) were selected to obtain a total of 300 tokens that were later used in spectrographic analysis. The results of this study indicate that even though consonant lengthening occurs in Patani Malay dialect, it is specific to a particular sound only. Only voiced plosives seem to coincide with the concept of gemination. An in-depth analysis using intensity variables eventually highlighted the differences between the consonants, and their counterparts for the voiceless plosive sound. This study shows that the phenomenon of Patani Malay dialect consonant lengthening involved suprasegmental features. The elongation and emphasis element are phonemic, i.e. suprafix. Word initial plosive in Patani Malay dialect can either be a suprafix or non-suprafix. The study provides important implications in studying cognate languages, and standard Malay language as a second language for some community in Thailand. It will also help the language instructors in the teaching and learning process of non-native speakers in acquiring a second language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first aborigines or the Orang Asli who entered Tanah Melayu were the Negritos. They were considered as 'aborigines' who refer to an advanced, primitive community and face problems with modernity. Nevertheless, the Negritos are still using Mendriq language as a medium of communication. The language phenomenon among Negritos has been evolusioned with the Malay language through loanword because they no longer leave in their small group and they also communicated with outsider communities especially the Malays. Therefore, the Negrito's community has been using a lot of Malay words to communicate and to sustain their social life. This article describes loanword in Malay by Mendriq as a phenomenon of sustaining minority life group. This paper also describes the Mendriq language used by the group of Negritos in Kuala Lah, Gua Musang, Kelantan. This paper employs a descriptive approach in the forms of loanwords such as full loanwords and affixation loanwords. Observation has shown that language plays a significant role in human communication. It is worth studying the elements of loanwords in Malay as a symbol of communication and identity among the Negritos to distinguish one race from another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the constraint interactions that account for the basic syllable types in the Kelantan Malay dialect based on Optimality Theory (OT). Previous analysis of basic syllables in Malay focused only on the possible types of syllables. These analyses do not offer any explanation on the differences found in the possible syllable types found in various Malay dialects even though they all originated from the same parent language. Most of these analyses described the basic syllable template as (consonant)-vowel- (consonant) or (C)V(C), CV, CVC, VC and V. Nevertheless, this paper presents an alternative description using a set of constraint hierarchy in the Kelantan grammar, which is different from the set of constraint hierarchy for the standard Malay variety, in order to account for the basic syllable types in Kelantan Malay. The set of constraints hierarchy proposed for Kelantan Malay comprises *COMPLEXNUCLEI, *COMPLEXCODA, CONTIGROOT >> ALIGN-LEFT >> ONSET >> DEP >> MAX >> *CODA. These constraints are considered universal in the human mind; however, its hierarchy depends on the constraints interaction of the language or the local dialect. The present analysis shows that the explanation available from constraints interaction from OT has greater explanatory power in describing the grammar of a language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to present greeting patterns among undergraduate students at a public higher learning institution in Malaysia. The study emerged from the researchers' random observations on inappropriateness of greetings behavior among the students which brought about the questions of the extent of their sociopragmatic competence. It specifically looks at the greeting patterns based on contexts, formality level and the relationships between the interlocutors. The paper will focus on presenting findings based on sex differences, and relating the gender factor to cultural and sociopragmatic aspects, based on Leech's (1993) sociopragmatics principles and Sherzer's (1987) features of male-female differences in interactions. Data from this study was collected via Discourse Completion Tasks, semi-structured interviews, and ethnographic observations. The DCT consists of 15 elicited settings, distributed to 264 respondents, giving a total of 3960 greeting outcomes. 30 respondents from the group of 264 contributed to the interview data. The ethnographic observations took 3 months of field work. Overall, the findings showed that interlocutors with close social distance preferred nonconventional greetings. Female students with close social relations would greet with the hearer with his/her first name, while male students would nod or said "hi". The presentations of the findings and discussions end with providing implications and suggestions for future research in this area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies is the property of GEMA Online Journal of Language Studies and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Yuqi zhuci refers to abstract words that carries grammatical functions and is typically used at the end of sentences. It has multiple functions that could affect the meaning of the text. This paper aims to identify and describe the translation methods used by translators in handling the yuqi zhuci found in the Chinese - Malay translation. For the purpose of the analysis, this study utilizes the definition of yuqi zhuci by Zhang Bin, the categorization of yuqi zhuci by Shao Jingmin, the categorization of typical yuqi zhuci in Chinese sentences by Zhang Bin as well as the translation methods of yuqi zhuci by Liu Xu. The analysis of this research is descriptive in nature, and based on the context of the text. The results of this study show that the extension and merging methods and the method of changing the sentence structure can be used to deliver the functions of typical yuqi zhuci from the source text in Chinese into the targeted text that is in Malay. The couplet translation method, which is the combination of any of the methods proposed by Liu Xu can also be employed. Factors which determine the methods for translating yuqi zhuci are the functions of typical yuqi zhuci in the source text, the context of the story, the speaker's intention as well as the accuracy of the speaker's intonation. In addition, findings from the study suggest that Zhang Bin's (2010) classification of sentences containing yuqi zhuci can be expanded to include another type of sentence namely the ellipsis sentence. The grammatical function of yuqi zhuci evidently plays an important role in delivering a text's meaning and message. Thus, it is imperative for this linguistic item to be handled with care in translation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are several studies that show the similarities between Negeri Sembilan and Minangkabau dialects, such as the phonological system and greetings. However, this paper attempts to compare the morphosyntax of both dialects. It is the assumption of this study that there is almost no comparative study on the morphosyntax that has been conducted on the dialects of Negeri Sembilan and Minangkabau. Therefore, it is the aim of this study to examine the grammatical categories of the Negeri Sembilan and Minangkabau dialects. In this study, the grammatical category consists of the morphological and the syntactical aspects. The morphological aspects focused on are affixation and determiner while for syntax the aspects focused on are possessive, pronouns and auxiliary. The research was conducted in Bukit Tinggi and Paya Kumbuh in Indonesia; and in the districts of Rembau and Kuala Pilah in Negeri Sembilan. The research samples are based on recordings of interviews conducted in the abovementioned areas. The recordings consist of conversations with 15 informants, representing both dialects studied. Data were transcribed by research assistants who are native speakers of both dialects. The data were also tested for their authenticity and validity, in terms of spelling and structure. The major findings are the use of prefix on nouns (perosak - parusak, kesudahannya - kasudahannyo, sesudah - sasudah), verbs (terjatuh - tajatuh, bersatu-basatu/bertigo-batigo, menyapu - manyapu); circumfix (meN-,,,-kan, such as mambarasiahan membersihkan), and possessive (punya, such as 'Den punyo kodai' - 'Ambo punyo'/ 'Punyo ambo) in Negeri Sembilan dialect are different from Minangkabau dialect. On the other hand, similarities were found in the use of pronouns (den, awak), auxiliary of verbs (sudah/bona, hendak, mau). As a conclusion, this study found that the Negeri Sembilan and Minangkabau dialect differ in terms of sound and lexical, but has similar grammatical system. This study contributes towards the understanding of grammatical categories of the two dialects that share similarities in terms of language and culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the learning styles and strategies used by the French students in the Malay language learning. The study was conducted at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilisations (INALCO), Paris. Subjects of the study consist of 19 students of the Indonesian/Malaysian Language Bachelor Degree Programme, Department of South-East Asia and Asia Pacific (Centre du Asie du Sud-est et Pacifique), INALCO. The study aims at understanding and describing what are the learning styles and strategies used by the students in their language learning. Data were collected through a questionnaire adopted from Wang (2015) and were analyzed using simple statistic which looks at the frequency and percentage of the styles and strategies used by the students. Analysis of learning styles applied by the student in their Malay language learning was done according to the 4 language skills which are reading, writing, listening and speaking based on Christison's (2003) theoretical framework. Analysis for the learning strategies were done based on the Oxford's (1990) theoretical framework which divides strategies into 6 main categories; memory, cognitive, compensation, metacognitive, affective and social strategies. Questions related to strategies used by the students cover all these categories. Findings show that most of the French students prefer employing visual, global, field-dependent and reflective learning styles and tend to use memory, metacognitive, affective and social strategies in their language learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the cognitive processes underlying death euphemisms used by the Sarawak Malay community. These euphemisms are polite forms of language used to replace those that are considered harsh or taboo, and inappropriate for direct speech. Through the use of death-related euphemisms, speakers are able to demonstrate politeness, thoughtfulness and awareness of others' feelings. This study, which adopts the perspective of cognitive semantics, uses the Conceptual Metaphor theoretical framework proposed by Lakoff and Johnson (1980). Several cognitive mechanisms were used to analyse the data such as image schema and conceptual metaphor. The data was collected through interviews, recordings and observations involving informants who were Malay speakers from Kuching, Sarawak. The analysis reveals that the conceptualisation of death euphemisms in Sarawak Malay speakers is based on the source-path-goal image schema, in addition to the conceptual metaphor DEATH IS A BETTER LOCATION, LIFE IS A JOURNEY, and DEATH IS A DEPARTURE [DEATH IS A JOURNEY]. In general, this study shows that the Malay culture and Islam have largely influenced the conceptualisation of death euphemisms in the Sarawak Malay community. This influence is observable through the use of soft expressions to show courtesy, in keeping with the Malay culture, which emphasizes politeness in communication. The reality of death for Muslims who will return to their Creator, Allah s.w.t., is also depicted in the euphemisms investigated. This linguistic study may serve as a reference for readers and researchers on the topic of Sarawak Malay euphemism, particularly in the field of cognitive semantics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to map the structure of language events in the 'Melunas Rindu' novel, a literature text used by students in Form 4 Zone 4 in the states of Johore, Sabah, Sarawak and the Federal Territory of Labuan, Malaysia. The use of literature materials can produce students who think about goodwill, virtues and prioritize politeness. Therefore, such good practice can produce individuals who are proactive in dealing with various situations. Therefore, the politeness aspect needs to be emphasised in oral or written communication in order that no party is offended or is in conflict. In the context of literary writing, language politeness display is manifested through speech events, using certain structures in dialogue in order that the information communicated is conflict-free. The analysis focused on the mapping structure of speech events' of the main character and a supporting characters' dialogue in Chapter 16. This study employed a combination of Leech's Model of Politeness (1983) and Grice's Model of Cooperation (1975) which forms the General Maxim Combination Pattern Model (MPKMU) to analyze the research data. This study used library research, text analysis and quantitative method as the instruments. The finding shows that the mapping structures of speech events are varied to fulfil certain requirements for the purpose of creating a situation of conflict free communication. The existence of these situations assure that all sides are in a comfortable zone apart from escalating effectiveness of communication when each speaker's objectives is achieved. Thus, these situations have manifested the importance of politeness in language. In conclusion, mapping of structure events using the combination of the two models managed to reflect politeness speech events in the 'Melunas Rindu' novel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Orang Asli are the minority groups who were the first natives in Malaysia. They were the first race to inhibit this country about 100 thousand years ago and spoke languages under the Austroasiactic group. One of the languages that attract the researchers is the Mendriq language. Mendriq language is a language used by Orang Asli who are known as Mendriq. These groups dwelled at Kuala Lah, Gua Musang, Kelantan. However, this language is spoken by a total of 245 people only, in three villages known as Kampung Kuala Lah, Kampung Baru and Kampung Kuala Stail. This paper discusses and analyzes the pronouns of Mendriq language. This is a field study conducted at Kuala Lah for 6 months. The data are primary data collected from the native speakers. The data were collected through story telling method by a native speaker of the Mendriq language. Data were then translated by a translator appointed by the Department of Orang Asli, Kelantan. Data consisted of various types of sentences. However, this study focuses on the pronouns of Mendriq language. The pronouns are analysed descriptively. The descriptive analysis revealed that the pronouns have two properties. The first property is that the pronouns have all the three functions; as subjects, objects and possessives or at least two of the mentioned functions. The second function is that the pronouns can only function as subject or object, or possessive only. But each of these types of personal pronouns do represent the first, second and third person pronouns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chengyu is a subcategory of Chinese proverbs, made up of four characters in a beautiful and poetic manner that also expresses certain meanings which are either explicit or implied. This paper discusses strategies used in the translation of chengyu into Malay. Data involved a total of 208 chengyu collected manually from the novel Jia, a great literary work produced by the national writer of China, Ba Jin, in the early 20th century and from its translation entitled Keluarga, a Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka publication (1995). The theoretical framework was eclectic, which includes the definition of translation by Larson (1984), the definition and categorization of chengyu by Wu Zhan Kun and Wang Qin as well as chengyu translation strategies by Chen Wen Bo . This study shows that translation of chengyu is dynamic in nature. It was found that the application of translation strategies were influenced by three main factors, namely the type of chengyu present in the source text, the context of the sentence where it is present as well as the similarities and differences between the thinking concepts of the source and target languages. Among the strategies detected are symbol translation, meaning translation, partial translation, omission, pragmatic translation and literal translation. In this case, the partial translation strategy by Chen can be expanded in scope to be used in the translation of chengyu where the front and back structures differ in meaning. This study also found two new strategies, the couplet strategy which involves a combination of any two strategies and also the natural equivalent strategy. Therefore, fully understanding the meanings of chengyu and applying an appropriate and effective translation strategy is crucial to ensure accuracy in reproducing the meaning while maintaining the same symbol and form in the target language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Undang-Undang Melaka is considered as one of the traditional texts masterpiece. The making of Undang-Undang Melaka was commanded by Sultan Muzaffar and has been widely referred by other Malay states in constructing their traditional rule of laws. This text discusses criminal, commerce and family laws. One of the aspects discussed was on the position of women. Apparently, issues on women have always attracted attention from various perspectives such as law, history, sociology and literature. Linguistics perspective is not an exception. This article attempts to explore the positioning of women in traditional law established in Undang-Undang Melaka (UUM), 2003. The positioning of women is seen based on the linguistics evidence that is from the cognitive semantics approach. The study managed to identify two typologies of women that are derived from the Quran and Hadith. The two typologies are: 'women are from the ribs of man', and 'women's witness is half of a man's witness'. This paper also elaborated on the marriage relationship -- divorce or sustenance of marriage due to illnesses and discusses the witness status for men and women. It is understood that the status of men in becoming a witness is more dominant as compared to women. The findings show that the position of women is best described with cognitive mechanism, namely the image schema and conceptual metaphor. The image schema produced for these two typologies is the image schema PART-WHOLE. The analysis also proves the intellectual of Malays in outlining the laws. Obviously, linguistic analysis on women has further uncovered the superiority of this text and simultaneously enhances the corpus as a research data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presentation of knowledge is a strategic and unique action. It is stated so because the produced discourse conveys a specific area of knowledge, with a specific way and for a specific group of audience. The presentation of knowledge is also a part of communication process between addresser and addressee. This paper explores and analyses the discourse strategy of science and technology (S&T) academic text, which was written in Malay language and published in high impact and indexed journal. The study analysed the Introduction section of the academic texts only. The introduction is a very important section of the text where the writers place the track and direction of their writing. The S&T academic discourse was analysed from two dimensions, namely the discursive properties and textual features. Discursive analysis interprets the property of the text by means of intertextuality and content. Meanwhile, textual analysis describes the features of the text, namely types of process employed in sentences, pre-sentence adverbial type, type of sentences, and Theme type. The findings show that the strategy of introduction section adopted by S&T texts comprises the inclusion of issue and objective of the study, it utilizes intertextuality of stagnant paraphrase technique and situational, and point of view pre-sentence adverbials phrase, and prioritizing action process, simple and marked theme sentences. Identification and explanation of the strategy provides an insight into the S&T academia. This findings can also contribute to understand how the number of academic text published in high impact journal in the medium of the national language can be increased. Indirectly, it would also enrich publications and uphold the Malay language as a language of knowledge, besides benefitting the local students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some key findings from a study of the realisation of the voicing contrast in the speech performance of Malay students in UKM. Acoustics measurements (via spectrographic analysis) were taken of VOT, closure duration, voicing during closure, vowel duration and voice bar of plosive /p, b, t, d, k, g/. For the purpose of final plosives investigation, specific measurements were taken of overall duration of a syllable rhyme and its phonation patterns (Open Quotient, F1 Bandwidth and Spectral Tilt). The results shows that Malay are characterised with Short Voicing Lag (SVL; unvoiced plosives) vs. Voicing Lead (VLd; voiced plosives). This study also indicates the neutralisation pattern of plosive voicing contrast in Malay word final position. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of Islam to the Malay world has brought a huge influence not only in the culture and life style, but also encompasses language elements and thoughts. This phenomenon can be seen in the increase of Arabic words that enriches the Malay vocabulary through borrowing. This research aims to focus on some Arabic words that show a departure in meaning and imply that its original meaning is no longer become the core meaning. These changes occur as a result of semantics assimilation process and the Malay sociocultural lifestyle. The entries that are investigated is 'alim' (pious) and the selection of the entry is based on the 4th Edition of Kamus Dewan, 2007. 'Alim' is polysemy in nature and apparently its core meaning from Arabic has changed when borrowed as loanword into Malay. This paper explains to what extent the changes have taken place based on 470 'alim' concordance lines taken from DBP corpus data bank. The analysis shows that the meaning of 'alim' has widen to other meanings and differ from the list given in the dictionary (4th Edition Kamus Dewan, 2007). It clearly shows that the expansion of meaning is semantically motivated. Based on the semantic cognitive theory using the prototype theory, radial networking category, image schema, metaphor conceptualization and metanomy, each expansion of meaning is well motivated and can be explained theoretically. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the phonology of vowel sequences in four major dialects of Malay, namely Johor dialect, Kedah dialect, Perak dialect and Kelantan dialect. The present study utilizes secondary data cited from previous works (Asmah Haji Omar, 1985; Raja Mukhtaruddin, 1986; Ajid Che Kob, 1984; Teoh Boon Seong, 1994). The phonological analysis proposed in this study is set within the constraint-based approach of optimality theory (Prince & Smolensky, 2004; McCarthy, 2008). It is apparent that all these dialects generally disfavor the occurrence of vowel sequences in the surface representation as they incur onset violation. In the ruled-based approach, underlying vowel sequences are resolved by phonological processes, such as V-deletion, V-coalescence, diphtongization, and ambisyllabification. Each dialect employs different strategy in resolving the sequences, which consequently gives forth dialectal variation in the language. In the constrained-based approach of optimality theory, phonological variation in the Malay dialects is analyzed as the result of satisfying and violating of the universal wellformedness constraints, and each dialect is imposing a particular ranking on those universal constraints. The following constraints, namely *COMPLEX, *VC], CONTIGUITY and WRD≥FOOT are highly ranked and unviolable in the dialects. The constraints that can be violated are ONSET, UNIFORMITY, INTEGRITY, MAX-IO, *CODA, and these constraints are ranked differently in each dialect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the phonology of vowel sequences in four major dialects of Malay, namely Johor dialect, Kedah dialect, Perak dialect and Kelantan dialect. The present study utilizes secondary data cited from previous works (Asmah Haji Omar, 1985; Raja Mukhtaruddin, 1986; Ajid Che Kob, 1984; Teoh Boon Seong, 1994). The phonological analysis proposed in this study is set within the constraint-based approach of optimality theory (Prince & Smolensky, 2004; McCarthy, 2008). It is apparent that all these dialects generally disfavor the occurrence of vowel sequences in the surface representation as they incur onset violation. In the ruled-based approach, underlying vowel sequences are resolved by phonological processes, such as V-deletion, V-coalescence, diphtongization, and ambisyllabification. Each dialect employs different strategy in resolving the sequences, which consequently gives forth dialectal variation in the language. In the constrained-based approach of optimality theory, phonological variation in the Malay dialects is analyzed as the result of satisfying and violating of the universal wellformedness constraints, and each dialect is imposing a particular ranking on those universal constraints. The following constraints, namely *COMPLEX, *VC], CONTIGUITY and WRD≥FOOT are highly ranked and unviolable in the dialects. The constraints that can be violated are ONSET, UNIFORMITY, INTEGRITY, MAX-IO, *CODA, and these constraints are ranked differently in each dialect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]