The High and Low Speech Level Passive Voice in Javanese and Sundanese: A Comparative Study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1607.26Keywords:
Javanese, Sundanese, politeness hierarchy, passive voice, speech-level variationAbstract
This study investigates passive constructions in Javanese and Sundanese by addressing two central research questions: how passive forms in both languages are structurally and morphologically constructed across different speech levels, and how their passive markers function, particularly in expressing intentionality and unintentionality. Employing a descriptive–comparative qualitative approach supported by textual analysis and interviews with native speakers, this research identifies and compares the forms and types of passive voice in each language and examines the semantic roles of their passive markers. The findings show that Javanese exhibits five passive patterns, including verbs affixed with di-, di- -i, di- -ake; their krama counterparts dipun-, dipun- -i, dipun- -aken; verbs with ke- or ke- -an; personal-verb passives; verbs with the infix -in-; and verbs with ka-. Meanwhile, Sundanese presents only two passive types: verbs with di-, di- -an, or di- -keun, and verbs with ka- or ka- -an. A key distinction lies in the opposite semantic function of the ka- prefix: it signals intentionality in Javanese but unintentionality in Sundanese. These findings address the descriptive gap in the comparative study of Austronesian passive systems, clarify the influence of speech levels on morphosyntactic patterns, and provide insights relevant to the teaching of local languages.
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