The Role of Korean Syntax in Sentence Structure and Affixation Errors in Indonesian: A Study on Negative Transfer

This study investigates the syntactic and morphological errors made by Korean learners of Indonesian, focusing on word order, passive sentence construction, affixation, and subject omission errors. The findings indicate that these errors primarily result from negative transfer, where learners apply Korean grammatical structures to Indonesian, leading to systematic mistakes. A major challenge is word order errors, as Korean follows a Subject-Object-Verb (SOV) or Subject-Adverbial-Object-Verb (S-Adv-O-V) structure, whereas Indonesian adheres to a fixed Subject-Verb-Object (SVO) order. This difference leads learners to misplace objects and adverbial phrases, producing unnatural sentences. Another frequent issue is passive sentence construction errors. Korean learners often place the agent before the passive verb, mirroring Korean syntax, resulting in incorrect structures like “Surat ini dia dikirimkan kepada guru” instead of “Surat ini dikirimkan kepada guru oleh dia.” Affixation errors also arise due to differences in morphological structure. Korean learners incorrectly apply “-kan” to intransitive verbs or overuse repetition, influenced by Korean verb formation patterns. Subject omission is another common mistake. Korean frequently omits pronouns when understood from context, while Indonesian requires explicit subject pronouns. This results in incomplete sentences like “Pergi ke sekolah” instead of “Saya pergi ke sekolah.” These findings align with Selinker’s (1972) Interlanguage Theory, which explains how second-language learners create a transitional linguistic system influenced by their first language. To minimize these errors, Indonesian language instruction for Korean learners should emphasize contrastive grammar analysis, focusing on sentence structure, passive voice usage, affixation rules, and subject placement. Explicit instruction and targeted exercises can help learners develop greater grammatical accuracy and fluency in Indonesian.