OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA

HBEL4403
MORPHOLOGU, SYNTAX AND SEMANTIC
MAY 2014 SEMSETER

NAME : HASMAYAH ABDUL GHANI
MATRX NO : 800725125990001
HP NO : 0145708903
EMAIL : maeamaezhra@gmail.com















RESEARCH PAPER
ABSTRACT
This is an in-depth research paper on the usage of English language in the local
newspapers often have grammatical mistakes in them. The objective of this paper is to help
the people to know the correct information about is our local newspapers is grammatically
error or correct, the controversies it brings and how well it is affected our society in a
community as well as understanding the importance of using correct English language. The
beginning part of the research, I will stress on the importance of the English itself and the role
of newspaper. Then I will touch the issue of how bad English will affect our society. The
material I use is Daily Express, dated 1
st
of May 2014.
INTRODUCTION
The usage of English Language among Malaysians today is irresistible. It is the only
language that is understandable throughout the world. In short, the usage of English Language
is worldwide. The world economies and culture are increasingly connected and
interdependent socially, politically and technologically because of the main language used
that is English. Although English has been viewed by certain quarters as hegemonic (a form
of neo-colonisation) because it changes life domains, influencing and probably replacing
some aspects of cultures among non-English peoples worldwide, English is an irresistible
world language because it acts as the most popular lingua franca for the great majority of the
world communities. English is now the international currency of Science and Technology
(David Graddol). There are over 1,400 million people living in countries worldwide, where
English is the most language spoken. One out of five of the worlds population speaks English
to some level of competence. English is the main language of books, newspapers, airports and
air-traffic control, international businesses and academic conferences, science, technology,
diplomacy, sport, international competitions, pop music and advertising. (The Future of
English, 2000. Graddol). While Association Professor of University Technology Mara, Dr
Bromeley Philip said, English is not only use in scientific publication but also book
publication.
In Malaysia, especially in Sabah, one of the popular local news papers is Daily
Express. Most of the news papers columns are written in English, and there is actually a
special column for Malay readers. There are many choice of local news paper where English
is the main used language. This is not a surprising fact, as most Sabahan are actually using
English in their daily conversation. The fact that Malaysian English, or Sabahan English is
quite distinct from that spoken by the native speakers in Britain, can be seen especially in the
local news paper. Since, the emphasis in Malaysia and Sabah especially, are communicating
in English, the existence of grammar is somehow neglected.
The recent search among all the English-based news papers, where, Daily Express is
one of the top local news papers, has greatly proved the statement that our English Language
newspaper often has grammatical mistakes in them. By reading the Daily Express, dated 1
st
of
May, 2014, consists of the story of missing MH370 to a waste problem in Pulau Gaya, the
usage of English Language in the news paper itself has greatly affected by the Malaysian or
Sabahan English. The Malaysian English is a form of English used and spoken in Malaysia as
a second language. Although, it is quite different from the Malaysia colloquial English, which
is famously known as Manglish, or street English, but the usage of Street English is
outstandingly shown in the newspaper. As, many Malaysian especially Sabahan, use street
English, where the importance of grammar is somehow neglected, the persistence to speak or
learn English would be it bay. For those who live in the city, this is not a big problem to them,
as they converse in Street English every day, thus, helping in enhancing their vocabulary. But,
to those who live in the rural area, where English is hardly heard or spoken, it is a foreign
language based on the quantity of exposure and the usage of language. As a result, those
unfortunate communities, whose exposure and usage to the language are very limited, will
absolutely refer to the English news paper, for their reading material. Sadly, they would
continue to be so as the pace of modernization and technologies could not be slowed down. .
English is now the international currency of Science and Technology (David Graddol). As
so, they will definitely leave behind not only in terms of the technology but the usage of
English itself.
It is true that much has been done to improve and enhance English as the important
language. In schools stream, English Language is allocation 200 minutes a week, the 2003
programme, where three subject need to be taught in English, distributing a reading material
for the literature in English, English Week, English Camp. There are also a short course for
mastering English for the community, seminars by the local company, where English is
concern. Former Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathirs policy of vision 2020, the goal of turning
Malaysia into a fully developed country by that year which implied emphasis on globalisation
and technological advancement requires full fluency in English on the side of Malaysian
engineers and business people, amongst others. As we know, these entire programmes are
limited on a particular area only, focusing on a certain level of people or proficiency, whereas
the news papers, again, are easily spreading to the whole communities, without considering
the gender, age or education level. Therefore, it is not really affected the whole community,
who, again, read the news paper as their main reading material. This is quite a sad fact though,
because, the government has done quite a lot to make sure that English can penetrated into the
schools community, and, hopefully will grow and affected the whole community.
Ian Mc Neilly, the officer in The National Association for the Teaching of English
said that, For a lot of people not just the young people their daily use of English is in
new media, where non-standard grammatical constructions are more acceptable. Thats
inevitably going to lead to an increased lack of awareness of more standard constructions. The
fact that we are actually moving towards to modernisation and globalisation is quite daunting
as we are still struggling into speaking perfect English. The media impact to the community is
more than we can ever imagine. Newspapers keep the people informed about the political
activities of their government. They give in detail the statements of speeches made by the
rulers at public meetings of on the radio of television. They also report the activities of
political parties and leaders.
Newspapers also describe the economic policies of the government. For example they
describe its import and export policies, its plans for future economic development, and the
prices of different things fixed by it, and so on. Our newspapers have always reported in detail
the economic policies of our different government in the fields of agriculture, industry and
commerce.
Newspapers give a true and correct picture of society. They describe the activities of
the people in different fields like education business industry, law, medicine, science, and so
on. They tell us about the activities of students and teachers, businessmen, industrialists,
lawyers, doctors, scientists and all categories of working people. They convey information
regarding the different crimes taking place every day. Newspapers tell about the
political, economic and social changes in different countries. They give descriptions of
changes government and revolutions in different parts of the world. They give descriptions of
changes taking place in other societies in education, science, and medicine industry
agriculture and defence preparation.
With all the knowledge that we can find in the newspaper, we also need to be aware of
the danger it will bring especially for the youth. If they just focusing on sharing the news,
without taking so much care about the language used, especially the grammar used in it, we
should be worries as newspaper not only for the adult, but it is the reading material especially
for the secondary school student, as there are variety of knowledge that one can find in the
newspaper. And, if the author or even the manager of any publication does not take this
matter seriously, our youth future is in danger. Once again, English is the language of Science
and Technology.
Among all adults, newspapers are cited as the most relied-upon source or tied for most
relied upon everything happened around us. This dependence on newspapers for so many
local topics sets it as the most convenience media in the society. This sense from the public
that newspapers are a place where they can turn to for information on a wide range of local
topics, is terrifying if they do not take serious action to write perfect English. The society
would never notice the level of English used in the newspaper, because it is understandable
and they use it in their daily conversation. Some organization or the government need to take
this matter seriously as we do not want our youth to be effected by this.
Apart from that, the tourism industry also, more or less will be affected by this matter.
In Sabah, especially in Semporna, the increasing of the percentage in tourism industry is
cause by the large number of tourist come to pay a visit every year, especially in Semporna.
Normally, the tourists will make a good preparation, as for the place they are going to visit,
the fee, the surrounding, the situation in the place they are going to visit and the weather.
They will definitely refer to newspapers for quick information. So, if the usage of English
language in the newspaper is only focusing for the local, this will definitely be a bad
experience and knowledge to them. These will not, of course, affecting the tourism industry,
but this matter will be viral among the tourist, and of course among their relatives and friends
back in their hometown.
The advertisement in the newspaper is sometimes affected with the incorrect English
language use. Most of the time, the information in there is hard to understand, as sometimes
the author is trying very hard to write with a bombastic word and sentences, they do not care
with the outcome. I supposed this matter also past the inspection of the editor as well, as it is
always emerging in the newspaper. The words chosen should match the peoples ability. It
does not mean that the author needs to downgrade their ways of writing, but they need to
always be in aware, especially when it comes to grammar. Grammar is the important things
that make the language meaningful.
At this stage of my analysis, it appears that newspapers are the most popular social
media among the society. People referring to it a lot as it are the knowledge provider for all
level. It is not only read by the local but the outsider or tourists as well.
DISCUSSION
The finding reveals that the Malaysian English newspapers also struggling between
using the correct English and use the street English, the language that Malaysian always use
in their daily conversation. The street English, or the Manglish is actually easier to understand
as it match the peoples level. It is widely used, and that is the reason why, the grammatical
errors in it is actually hard to identify. Most of the articles in English versions, in the Daily
Express, are written in Street English, and somehow, there is some grammatical error such as
the article being used, or the mistaken noun to verb. Sometimes, they forgot to use the correct
tense, because most of the story are written a day after, therefore, all the articles in it should
be written in the past tense. This is what the writer or the author sometimes forgets. The
awareness of the spelling also is always being swept away. It might be the result of rushing to
catch the dateline, but then, writing an article with spelling errors in it, and hand it over to
public for their reading material, is not a good idea in order especially if it will be a bad effect
to the youth. Some of the articles are actually translated directly from Malay to English, in
which, the result is quite hilarious. This might happened when the writer is not the one who
acknowledged the story. Not to mention, some bombastic words that is unsuitable to use in
discussing or writing about the topics. Differ from Malay, English language many words
which can be used to describe to define or describe many things. There are also new words
emerge as the impact of the technologies, such as twitter, tweet. Sometimes, being
adventurous, the writer wants to use new words but it did not match the sentences, and
besides, it does not give a correct meaning to the reader. This is quite disturbance to the
readers, and quite dangerous, especially if the readers are among the school students, college
students or even tourists. The headlight topic is the crucial part of the article. This is the part
that should not be neglected by the writer. Sadly, sometimes our interpretation when we read
the topic is far from the content the writer wants to deliver. Sometimes, they do this to gain
readers, because the weirdest the topics are, the more popularity it gains. Therefore , the
writer should bear in mind that, they are dealing with the public and any mistakes may affect
their professionalism. Normally, all the tiny mistakes in the newspapers are not really
obvious to public. This is because, the choice or level of language used is actually the same
English that being used by the readers. Therefore, it is hardly seen or sometimes neglected.
The real problem is when it is read by the professionals or even the tourist, this might cause a
lot to trouble, not only to the reader but also for the writer, in the future. Something has to be
done to improve this situation. Many people claims that, the local newspapers are no match to
the international paper, or even the online paper. But, people make mistakes. They will
always learn from the mistakes. We should not appoint them just for a slight mistake they
made on the spelling or grammar, from the article they have been working on.
CONCLUSION
The findings presented seem to suggest, that for a significant numbers of newspaper,
English can quite easily be considered as the dominant language in all domains. In most cases,
some of the newspapers are written fully in English. For some, newspapers has empowers its
readers as it has opened up their worlds and in some cases has improved their self-esteem,
improved their social status and made them appear more knowledgeable and dependable. It
has become the number one among other social Medias, and for the dignity and the level it
has, we should conserve it and even improve it at times.









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