This slide was presented at Konferensi Linguistik Tahunan Atmajaya 14 which was at Atmajaya University in April2016.

1. ERRORS AND VARIATIONS OF ENGLISH
EXPRESSIONS ON BEMO AS THE KUPANG CITY’S
MODE OF PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION
BY
MARCELINUS YERI FERNANDEZ AKOLI
akolimarcel@yahoo.com.au
UNIVERSITAS NUSA CENDANA

2. 1. Introduction
1. Why to investigate this issue ?
There must be something or a message
lying behind all the words, statements,
terms and prayers which were written
on the public transports.
2. How many modes of public transports are in
Kupang city ?
± 500 (Pos Kupang, 2/12/2015)
3. How many percentages of Kupang public
transports which have verbal expressions ?
Around 90 % of the total number of
these public vehicles

3. There are a number of values lie on the verbal
expressions :
 religious values
 pornographic values
 aesthetic values
 social values
 linguistic values

4. Research Objectives :
(1) To classify errors and variations of English
expressions which are found in Kupang
modes of public transports
(2) To give linguistic, semiotic and cultural
comments dealing with the use of English
statements in the public transports

5. 2. Methodology
It is a descriptive-qualitative method.
Taking photos
Interviews
Barthes (1986)
Krashen (2002)
Odgen & Richards (1989)
Research techniques
Theoretical
Supports

6. 3. Result and Discussion
There are 5 types of errors and variations :
1. Spelling errors
2. Lexical errors
3. Grammatical errors
4. Local Variations
5. Semiotic Variations

7. 3.1 Spelling Errors
CORRECT : SIMPLE BUT STRONG

8. As the word ‘but’ is pronounced as [ˈbʌt], then it
is easily considered as ‘bat’.
It is phonemically-driven adaption
which is mainly caused by perception of
either Bahasa Indonesia or Kupang
Malay variety.

9. CORRECT : FIVE SISTERS

10. The appearance of ‘h’ phoneme makes the word
‘sisther’ more attractive than ‘sister’.
However, in ‘sisther’ aesthetic presence, it
neglects the English grammatical rule in which
there should be –s suffix in the end of the word
‘sister’.
Krashen (2002) considered this situation as
‘a substitute utterance initiator’.

11. 3.2 Lexical Errors
CORRECT : I can’t sleep alone anymore, need you here with me

12. 1. /alone/ is considered as /along/.
2. Although we know it is possible that the
person did misinterpret the word, it is also
true that there might have been a
nasalization process that possibly trigerred
this fact.
[AN] [VN] / [C-V-AN] $

13. CORRECT : DON’T LEAVE ME ALONE

14. ‘leave’ [ˈlıːv] vs ‘live’ [ˈlıv]
[ː]
The driver did not know that there is
other similarly-pronounced word,
i.e. ‘leave’.

15. 3.3 Grammatical Errors
CORRECT : LOVE NEEDS TIME

16. CORRECT : PASSENGERS LOVE MONEY

17. CORRECT : GOD BLESS YOU

18. The three mistakes above are mainly due to lack
of bound morphemes in the final positions of
either verbs or nouns.
Why ? ‘The capacity of L1 as ‘a substitute
utterance initiator’’.
This condition exists when a user acquires a TL
imperfectly. Thus, he/she may substitute the
expression into his/her L1 as an uterance
initiator.

19. In the context of KML as the the L1 of the
performers, the substitution like the examples
above appears when it is shown that :
1. The owner of the minivans might not have
good English background.
2. Either the driver or the assistant might not
have good English background.
3. The performer/ writer of the expressions
might not have good English background.
Consequently, they SUBSTITUTE the English
nouns and verbs behave into the way Kupang
Malay nouns and verbs do.

20. 3.4 Local Variation
CORRECT : BAHODENG COMES BACK / BAHODENG IS BACK

21. In KML, ‘bahodeng’ means ‘being dressy’, or
‘being swanky’.
The sentence is grammatically-incorrect as there
is ‘is’ or a copula between the subject and the
verb which also means that there is a kind of
grammatical redundancy.
Bahodeng is come back
KUPANG MALAY ENGLISH

23. VAFITICK
fafitik
A group of people who make themselves busy, so other
people respect them for what they do
COMMUNITY
TO ACT LIKE A BUSY PERSON
KUPANG MALAY ENGLISH

25. CEWE
LOCAL PRONUNCIATION FOR
‘CEWEK’
A way of exchanging data
wirelessly over short distance
BLUETOOTH
ENGLISH
A girl whose pictures or videos can be accessed using
bluetooth from a mobile phone to others
PEJORATIVE

26. 3.5 Semiotic Variation
‘ACTION’

27. DISCONTINUITY
(Barthes,1986:64)
SYNTAGMATIC UNIT SPEECH UNIT
ACTION X-SEND

28. ‘X-SEND’
‘ACTION’
‘A WAY OF MOVING’
Adapted from Odgen and Richard (1989:10-11)

29. Why ?
The relationship between forms and meanings in three
different cultures
Classic Form
FOLLOWS
meaning
Modern Form function
Postmodern Form Fun/pleasure
Taken from Piliang, 2003: 82

30. COMPARED TO : NO WOMAN, NO CRY

31. NO STRES, NO CRASY
NO WOMAN, NO CRY
PARALLELISM
PARODY INTERTEXTUALITY
‘No Stres, No Crasy’ functions to parodize a situation
of being stress and crazy in the same way as ‘No
Woman, No Cry’.

32. MY TRIP, MY TAPALEUK
COMPARED TO :

33. MY TRIP,
MY TAPALEUK
INTERTEXTUAL
RELATIONSHIP
Tapaleuk = to walk about or going around without
any clear purposes
TAPALEUK ADVENTUREIS PEJORATIVELY
CHANGED INTO

34. 4. Conclusion
I. There are 3 kinds of errors and 2 variations of
English usages at Kupang city’s minivans.
II. There are some overlapping characteristics dealing
with the types and their examples.
a.Five sisther : Spelling and Grammatical errors
b. Bahodeng is come back : Local Variation and
Grammatical Error
c. No Stres No Crasy : Local Variation and Spelling
Error
d. Vafitick Community : Local Variation and Spelling
Error

35. III. Kupang people have highly positive attitude
toward English.
It is indicated by :
 the use of English in public spaces
regardless whether or not they are
accurate.
 They consider the ability to express
something in English is connected to
intelligence, prestige and superiority.

36. KUPLISH = KUPANG
ENGLISH ??

37. To be quite honest, it is quite far to confidently
state that people of Kupang are currently
developing a new style of English in their daily
communication which can be reflected from the
expressions which are showed on the minivans.
However, rest assured that Kupang people are
passively innovating a typically new style of
codeswitching which is a combination of local
vocabulary and English words.

38. THANK YOU
TERIMA KASIH

40. BIBLIOGRAPHY
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Pos Kupang. 2 Desember 2015. Dishub Kota Kupang Gandeng Undana. Versi
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