A. Introduction
Preposition is a word placed before a noun or
pronoun to define its relationship with
another word in the sentence. The name of preposition (pre + position)
means “place before”. Prepositions usually come before another word, usually a
noun or noun phrase.
In english, If a preposition does not come before
another word, it is still closely linked to another word, for example: “Who did
you insist on?”, “On whom did you insist?”, “I insisted on you.” However, many
prepositions can be functioned as adverbs, for example: I am in class and please come
in. The first sentence, the word “in”
roles as a preposition but the second sentence, the word “in” roles as an adverb. A few prepositions can also be conjunctions,
for example: All students did the
assignment but you and I summoned him
but he did not obey. The first sentence there is a “but” that functins as a
preposition but the second “but” of the next sentence roles as a conjunction.
While in Indonesian Language, the using
of preposition is almost the same as english, such as antara (between) like tidak ada hubungan
khusus antara kamu dan dia (There is
no special relationship between you
and him), oleh (by) like surat itu di sampaikan oleh pak pos (the letter was delivered by the postman).
B.
Discussion
1.
Contrastive
Analysis
According to Lado’s statement in Linguistics across Cultures about
contrastive analysis is “predict”. When a systematic comparison of the two
languages has been made, the similarities and differences are revealed. One can
then predict the learner’s difficulties, because they will be in the area of
differences between the two languages, and there will be no learning problems
where there are similarities. The view of what contrastive analysis can
contribute to language teaching has been referred to as the strong version of
the contrastive hypothesis. (Kia, 1975: 86-87).
2.
Kinds
of Preposition
Preposition itself can be devided into
two characters, one-word prepositions
and complex prepositions. One-word
preposition like, before, into, on, etc. Complex preposition is a phrase of two
or more words that function as one-word prepositions, for example: according
to, in spite of, etc. Here are the examples of one-word preposition and complex
preposition
One-word Preposition
|
Complex Preposition
|
In, On, At, Beside, Behind, Under,
Between, Among, After, Before, With, Without, About, Along, Above, Below
By, To, For, From, During, Through,
Toward(s), etc
|
According to, Because of, On account
of, Owing to, In front of
In addition to, In spite to, In spite
of, Instead of, On behalf of, A head of, Along with, A la (From French), Next
to, As well as, Away from, etc
|
One-word
preposition: Complex
preposition:
a. He
is in the kitchen. a. He is getting sick because of you.
b. He
can live without you. b. She is standing in front of me.
c. I
am at home. c. According
to Martin, Abdul was late.
Similarly,
in Indonesian Language, the using of one-word preposition is same as
english, such as berada (right)
Ø English
: he is right here.
Ø Indonesian : dia berada disini.
However,
in producing the complex prepositions,
many indonesians get difficulty on how to differenciate it.
See
these sentences
No.
|
English
|
No.
|
Indonesian
|
1a.
|
His house is next to my house.
|
1b.
|
Rumahnya berada di sebelah rumahku.
|
In
english, the preposition of “next” is “to”, however, in Indonesian Language “next to” means “di sebelah.” But for
those who have difficulty in putting the complex preposition, they may say that
“his house is next behind my house”, it is because in bahasa “behind means di sebeleah” however in english, there should be “to” after next.
Both sentences have the same meanings but in english, the construction is
different from bahasa. Then the preposition of “because of”, in bahasa ”because of” means “karena” and the meaning of “because
(conjunction)” itself is also “karena”.
No.
|
English
|
No.
|
Indonesian
|
2a.
|
He lives because of
you.
|
2b.
|
Dia hidup karena
kamu.
|
The
sentences “he lives because of you” and
“he lives because you” both sentences
if they are translated into Indonesian Language, they have the same meaning,
however in english, the second sentence is wrong because in indonesian, the
word “of” has no meaning while in english, there must be put “of” after “because” due to its a preposition.
The
next example is that the preposition of “up
to”.
No.
|
English
|
No.
|
Indonesian
|
3a.
|
The boxes must be filled up to the last.
|
3b.
|
kotak-kotak itu harus di isi hingga yang terakhir.
|
For
those indonesian people who have not recognised the meaning of “up to”, in indonesian language, it can
be meant that “up” is “on” and “to” is ”for”.
Then,
the difficuly of using prepositon is not only in complex preposition but also
the using of verb and adjective forms
that are followed by certain prepositions. For example:
No.
|
English
|
No.
|
Indonesian
|
4a.
|
he laughed at me.
|
4b.
|
He laughed about
me.
|
The verbs followed by certain preposition: he
laughed at me, there should be “at”
after laughed, however indonesians get confused on what suitable preposition is
after laughed. People may say “he laughed about
me”. In Indonesian interpretation, the meaning is same but in english, the
preposition after laughed itself is wrong. In bahasa, there is no preposition
like that. “he laughed at me” means dia menertawakan saya.
Translation: dia=>he,
menertawakan=>laughed,
saya=>me,
the
sentences above, it can be seen that “at” is meaningless in indonesian
language. Another example is that “wait
for” in sentence
No.
|
English
|
No.
|
Indonesian
|
5a.
|
Wait for me!
|
5b.
|
Tunggu saya!
|
as it can be seen that indonesians mostly forget
to put the preposition of “for” after
the verb “wait.” In indonesian
language, “wait” means “tunggu” and there is no preposition
after “tunggu”.
The
second example is that the adjective
forms that followed by certain preposition like “afraid of” and “different
from”.
See
these sentences
No.
|
English
|
No.
|
Indonesian
|
6a.
|
She is afraid of
tiger.
|
6b.
|
Dia takut dengan
macan.
|
In Indonesian context,
“afraid” means “takut” while “of” means “dari.” However if we translate “dari” into english, it means “from”. For indonesians, it may look
strange that the preposition of “afraid”
is “of” because the meaning will look
wierd in bahasa. So they may replace it with “dengan”, in english, it means “with.”
Ø She
is afraid of tiger (english
translation).
Ø She
is afraid with tiger (indonesian language
translation).
In bahasa, the meaning of She is afraid with tiger is correct,
however the construction of english preposition is not. It must be “she is afraid of tiger.”
Then another example is “Different from”.
See these sentences
No.
|
English
|
No.
|
Indonesian
|
6a.
|
Ali is different from
Ala.
|
6b.
|
Ali berbeda dengan
Ala.
|
In
bahasa “different” means “berbeda” while “from” means “dengan.”
However, in indonesian translation, if we translate “from” based on the word itself, “from” means “dari”, while
“dengan” means “with”.
Ø Ali
is different from Ala (english
translation).
Ø Ali
is differenet with Ala (Indonesian
Language translation).
Indonesians often use the preposition “with” when have to say something
different, like “Ali is different with
Ala”. In indonesian’s translation, the meaning is correct, however in
english, the preposition of “with”
must be replaced with “from”. These
differences preposition of both languages often make indonesians confused on
how to distinguish which suitable preposition is.
C.
Conclusion
The using of prepositions in english for
Indonesian learners depends on what kind of prepositions are. When they have to
put one-word preposition, it may not be a problem, because the construction is
mostly same as bahasa. However when they have to put complex preposition,
verbs, and adjective forms followed by certain prepositions, it can be a
problem because in bahasa, most words do not consist of certain prepositions at
the beginning and at the end of the words.
D.
Reference
Marsudi and Darsono,
Hendro. 2010. Panduan Praktis English
Grammar. Yogyakarta:
Indonesiatera.
Ali, Faidlal. 2009. English Grammar. Yogyakarta: Pustaka
Widyatama.
Essaberger, Josef. 2012.
English Prepositions List. Cambridge:
Cambridge university Press
Grubic, Bob. 2004. Those Problematic English Prepositions. California:
Barkeley.
Electronic
Source:
http://id.wiktionary.org/wiki/Kategori:id:Preposisi
http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/between-versus-among.aspxhttp://id.wiktionary.org/wiki/Kategori:id:Preposisi
