Sasak Strong Pronoun at Kekeri

1.      Introduction

Every language has special properties pointed to the independent word whose grammatical function and has ability to govern a verb in a sentence that is widely known as Strong Pronoun. This term refers to person, people and non living things. In the other word it can be appeared in the form of noun. Thus, this paper presents the strong pronoun of Sasak that belonged to Meno-Mene dialect and is especially spoken at Kekeri village. Generally, Sasak is a language spoken by Lombok islanders who live in the eastern Indonesia. This regional language is classified into five dialects. Each dialect has its own traits. So does with Sasak spoken at Kekeri. It possess the peculiarity of Strong Pronoun that almost lookalike with its pronominal clitics. Therefore, to prove whether it is strong pronoun or pronominal clitics, it requires to be testified by analyzing syntactical order in various grammatical environments.

2.      Pronoun

The theory of structural Pronoun deficiency is firstly discussed by Cardinaletti & Starke. Cardinaletti & Starke cited in Testelets (1996, p.2) classify pronouns into three categories (a) strong pronoun, (b) weak pronoun and (c) clitic pronoun or pronominal clitic.

(a)    Strong pronoun has characteristics that equivalent to full noun phrase or shows its behavior like NP.   

1.      a. I              watches            movie

    1SG(SP)  V-PRESENT

b. Beautiful lady who was sitting in the bench yesterday watches          movie

                                          NP                                             V-PRESENT

I is an independent word or free bound morpheme that has grammatical function as subject. I is equal and has the same function with NP in (1a) . Therefore, it is a strong pronoun.

(b)   Weak pronoun (WP) is often morphologically simpler. It is an interface between strong pronoun and clitic pronoun/pronominal clitic. Therefore, it constitutes both characteristics of strong pronoun and of pronominal clitics. In the other word, weak pronoun is deficient with respect to the strong pronoun.

2. a. I        throw   them        flower

        1SG    V       3PL(SP)

    b. I       throw   ‘em            flower

                    1SG   V        3PL(WP)                                                  (Wallenberg,2006, p.2)

Weak pronoun is showed in (2b) by the use of ‘em as an object. This form respect to strong pronoun them in (2a)

(c)    Pronominal clitics are deficient with respect to weak pronoun and strong pronoun. It depends to its host. It means, clitics can not be labeled as a word without its host. However, it still bears grammatical function. The morphological and syntactical trait is depicted in the following sentence.

3        a. Aku         mem-buka jendela

    1SG(SP) ACT-open window

b. Ku-buka             jendela

    1SG(PCL)-open window

Notice the grammatical environment where clitics occurs that showed by (3b). It is clearly depicted that  ku respect to strong pronoun aku. Ku has to be attached to the verb buka in order to be labeled as a word. Therefore, it is morphologically dependent.

3.      Related Previous Work

In his paper Austin discussed the distribution of clitics in Sasak. However, he outlined the types of clitics found in Sasak and its strong pronoun that his found.

Tabel 1. Strong Pronoun (SP) and its Pronominal Clitics (PCLs)

Num/ Gender	Ngenó- Ngené		Menu-Meni		Menó-Mené		Meriaq-Merikuq
	SP	PCL	SP	PCL	SP	PCL	SP	PCL
1sg	Aku	Ku	Aku	Ko	Aku	K	Aku	K
1pl	Ite	Te	Ite	Te	Ite	T	Ite	T
2masc	Ante	Mèq	Kamu	Ò	Kamu	M	Kamu	M
2fem	Kamu	Bi
3	Ie	Ne	Ie	Ng	Ie	N	Ie	N

Strong pronoun found in every dialects in Lombok is the same in terms of addressing first person singular, first person plural and third person/people. Sasak people used aku to indicate first person singular and used the term ite to point first person plural. Meanwhile, to indicate the third person wither it is plural or singular, Sasak people used ie. In addressing Second person, most of dialects tend to use “kamu”. However, the term used in Ngenó- Ngené is devided into two categories; ante and kamu. Ante is the special address for feminine and Kamu is regarded for masculine.

4.      Strong Pronoun (SP) and Pronominal Clitics (PCLs) in Kekeri Sasak

Strong pronoun that applied in Sasak especially spoken in Kekeri are slightly different from other dialects. Austin (2004, p.5) found that strong pronoun to address first person singular is only aku and ku is regarded as its pronominal clitics. In Kekeri Sasak, ku is not a pronominal clitic but a strong pronoun or free form pronoun meanwhile the posisition of  pronominal clitic is occupied by ke. The strong pronouns of Sasak spoken at Kekeri are described in the following table along with their pronominal clitics.

Table 2. SP and PCL of Kekeri Sasak

	SP	PCL
1sg	Ku	Ke
1pl	Ite	Te
2sg	Diq	De
2pl	Diq + Pade	De + pade
3sg	Nya	E
3pl	Nya + Pade	E + pada

Considering that weak pronoun in Kekeri Sasak is not found, writer only focuses on Strong pronoun and Pronomional clitics. By disregarding weak pronoun, writer concludes that ke is pronominal clitic and ku is strong pronoun based on these following characteristics concern with both pronominal clitics and strong pronoun’s characteristics:

1. The first characteristic that differentiates strong pronoun ku from pronominal clitic ke is the ability of conjoining as showed in (1a) and (1b).

(1)    a. Ku dit diq                                 “you and I”

          1Sg or 2SG

      b. *Ke dit diq                                “you and I”

      1Sg or   2SG

Strong pronoun ku in (1a) can conjoin with conjunction “dit”. This contrast with pronominal clitic  ke in (1b). Those sentences prove that ke is clitics and ku is strong pronoun.

2. Another evidence that shows ke is pronominal clitic and ku is strong pronoun is the ability to be stressed.

(2)   a. Ku    doang  yaq      te-beng

   1Sg   only     FUT     PASS-give

   “I’m the only one person will be given”

                

b.*Ke   doang  yaq    te-beng

    1Sg  only    FUT   PASS-give

    “I’m the only one person will be given”

(2a) points that the strong pronoun ku can be stressed, where as when pronominal clitics ke is stressed, it lead to ungrammatical sentence as in (2b).

3. The ability of standing on its own. This fact clearly appears in answering an interrogative  sentences. Examples (7a) and (7b) show that clitics pronoun ke cannot stand alone without its host meanwhile ku has the ability to appear as a word.

(3)   a. Sai    epe-ang    ni? Ku

    Who has-REL   DEM ? I

    “who is the owner of this? Me”

b. *Sai    epeang ni? Ke

      Who has       DEM? I                 

           “who is the owner of this? Me”

4. The phonetically assimilation when both ku and ke comes after nouns which is ended by vowel. (8a) clearly shows that the existence of phonetically assimilation when the pronominal clitics ke precedes the noun “buku” in which it encodes possessive marker. Whereas (8b) reveals that there is no phonetically assimilation when ku is positioned after the noun “book”. However it also bears function as possessive marker.

(4)        a. bukung-ke                buku-ng-ke                  “my book”

    Book 1SG.POSS

b. buku ku                                                       “my book”

                            Book 1SG.POSS

5. The capability of being relativised. Pronominal clitics can not be relativized like Strong pronoun. When the PCL -ke is relativized, it results ungrammatical sentence as in (9b).

(5)        a. Ku  saq    nangis   nu

                           1SG REL cry        DEM

                           “I’m the one who cry”

b. *Ke-saq           nangis   nu

      1SG.CL.REL  cry        DEM

                            “I’m the one who cry”

5.      Conclusion

All languages have a number of element that show their peculiarity and features of their own language. It can be dependent and independent syntactically or morphologically. In Sasak that spoken at Kekeri, there are two types of pronoun identified. Those are strong pronoun and pronominal clitic or clitic pronoun. Kekeri Sasak possesses the typical strong pronoun that almost lookalike with its pronominal clitics namely strong pronoun ku with its pronominal clitics ke. This strong pronoun is testified and compared with its pronominal clitic in 5 different grammatical environments that cover (1) the ability to conjoin with conjunction dit, (2) the ability to be phonologically stressed (3) The independency or the ability to stand on its own (4) phonetically assimilation with another word and (5) relativization.

Bibliography

Austin, Peter.K. 2004. Clitics in Sasak, Eastern Indonesia. Http://www hrelp.Org/aboutus/staff/peter_Austin/ Austin sasak.pdf. Accesed on March 25 at 09.48 a.m.

Testelets, Yakov. 1996. Strong and Weak Pronoun in Russian: Lexical, Structural or Pragmatic Difference? Moscow:Russian State University for Humanities Press.

Wallenberg, Joel.C. 2006. English Weak Pronoun and Object Shift. Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press.