Does Indonesian Have a Plural?

George Quinn

Visiting Fellow,

Faculty of Asian Studies, ANU

What is “number”?

Number is that feature in the grammar of a language that enables us to distinguish quantities, usually countable quantities.

singular, dual, trial, plural, paucal etc.

English has only singular and pluralIn English this seems to be a “mathematical” distinction between one and more-than-one

Forming plural nouns in English

Add a sibilant book / books, bed / beds, house / houses

Internal vowel change man / men, mouse / mice, foot / feet

Words of foreign origin phenomenon / phenomena, crisis / crises

Irregular formschild / children, ox / oxen, deer / deer, she / they

Translate into English, please…

lukisan besarSaya suka itu

semua

^

How is plural expressed in Indonesian?

Basically Indonesian nouns are not morphologically marked for singular or plural

So they are like the English nouns sheep, deer, craft, fish and a few others

By my count there are probably around a dozen different ways of expressing more-than-one in Indonesian

1. Plural determiners, e.g. … Cardinal numbers

tiga orang, sepuluh rumah, 30 kali

Banyak, semua, bermacam-macam etc.

banyak mobilsemua orangbermacam-macam alasanbeberapa komputeraneka bentuk

2. Pre-noun plural marker paraFor humans only, marking a noun as plural and referring to a particular group

para mahasiswa, para karyawan, para korban

Para is analogous to plural markers in other Austronesian languages e.g.

Tagalog: mga as in mga bahay (houses)Tetun: sira as in uma sira (houses)

3. Pre-verb plural marker pada

In informal and slangy usage the word pada in front of a verb indicates that the subject of the verb is plural

Pada makan yuk!Anak pada main di mana?

4. The absence of a singular marker

If a noun lacks a clear marker of singularity, it may well be plural, e.g.

Saya pergi ke Bali untuk membeli lukisan.

Here lukisan is probably plural because it contrasts with

Saya pergi ke Bali untuk membeli sebuah lukisan.

Saya pergi ke Bali untuk membeli lukisan itu.

5. Plurals in preceding sentences A noun may be perceived as plural if it refers back to a noun with plural referents in a preceding sentence

Dia membeli tiga mobil. Mobil itu diperbaiki sebelum dijual.

Pak Adi membangun sejumlah rumah. Sesudah selesai dibangun, lalu dijual.

6. Reciprocal verbs

A verb with reciprocal meaning will have a subject that is plural

Rumah yang berhadap-hadapan itu…

Pendapat yang berlain-lainan itu…

7. Verbs with an –i suffix

A transitive verb with an –i suffix can sometimes indicate that its object is plural

Dia duduk mengupasi kentang.

8. Reduplicated adjective

If a noun has a reduplicated adjective adjunct, the noun may be plural

Besar-besar ikan itu!

9. Semantic consistency

Logic and semantic consistency often dictate that we understand a certain noun as having plural referents

Orang Australia suka minum bir.

10. Social context

The social context in which a conversation takes place can tell us whether a certain noun used in that conversation has singular or plural referents.

(Looking at a rack of dresses) Baju ini terlalu mahal = These dresses are too expensive.

11. Pronouns that are always plural

A number of pronouns are always plural i.e. they can never be singular.

kalian, mereka, kita

But not kami which, in certain contexts, can be singular.

12. Reduplication

Full reduplication

saudara-saudara, rumah-rumah, anak-anak

Partial or variant reduplication

gerak-gerik, coreng-moreng

The enigma of reduplication

It is sometimes said that reduplication expresses plurality or multiplicity or “more-than-one”.

But is this true?

Some “non-plural” instances of reduplication

Consider these instances of reduplication

kuda-kuda, langit-langitorang-orangan, mobil-mobilanseorang tante-tante, seorang ibu-ibukehijau-hijauan, kekanak-kanakansesuatu, seseorangberjalan-jalan, bermain-main

What is the meaning of reduplication?

Reduplication indicates fuzziness, lack of precision, variety, uncertain or problematic perception of something

Un-reduplicated forms suggest precision, uniformity, clarity, unambiguous perception of something

What does this mean for the idea of plurality in Indonesian? It may be that plurality in Indonesian is not “mathematical” (i.e. more-than-one) but rather a question of clarity of perception

Singular = clear, sharp, precise. Expressed in unreduplicated forms.

Plural = fuzzy, imprecise, variegated. Expressed in reduplicated forms.

But… Indonesian is capable of being precise when talking about plural things So… it is possible that expressing number in Indonesian is both

“mathematical” (one / more-than-one)

and “perceptual” (precise / fuzzy)

Schematically, number may look like this…

Singular

(one)

Plural

(more-than-one)

Sharp, precise

(unreduplicated)

satu gelas

sebuah gelas

tiga gelas

banyak gelas

Fuzzy, variegated

(reduplicated)

langit-langit

seorang tante-tante

anak-anak

buah-buahan

Is reduplication becoming more frequent?

In short… yes, it is. There is some evidence to suggest that reduplication is becoming more frequent, but it is not clear why.

But it is not a new development. It seems to have been happening at least since the nineteenth century.

“People” (orang) in Hikayat Raja Pasai (c.1390)

Maka Sultan Malikul Mansur pun menyuruhkan orang berlengkap akan mengiringkan Sultan itu.

Sultan Malikul Mansur commanded the people to arm themselves in order to accompany the Sultan.

“People” (orang) in Hikayat Raja Pasai (c.1390)

“… dalam negeri ini badak makan anaknya.” Maka kata orang dalam jong itu, “Tiada kami tahu apa ertinya katamu itu.”

“… in this town, rhinoceroses eat their young.” And the people in the junk said, “We don’t know what your words mean.”

“People” (orang) in Hikayat Raja Pasai (c.1390)

Maka orang yang melihati itu pun segeralah ia kembali bepersembahkan segala kata menteri itu kepada Sultan Perlak. Maka titah Sultan Perlak, "Pergilah kamu sambut menteri itu."

The people who saw this, immediately they went back and reported all the minister’s words to the Sultan of Perlak. And the Sultan said: “[All of] you go and greet the minister.”

Occurrences of orang compared with orang-orang, over timeHikayat Raja Pasai (c.1390)

orang = 219, orang-orang = 0

Hikayat Hang Tuah (c.1700) orang = 1711, orang-orang = 1

Hikayat Abdullah (1842 revised 1849) orang = 1172, orang-orang = 540

Extracts from Warta Melaya (1935-1941) orang = 152, orang-orang = 327