Passive Construction in Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian

       Passive Construction in Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian

Written by James Neil Sneddon in Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics. 2006. pp.43-46.

In passive constructions the subject is the patient. Passives occur more frequently than in English, often occurring where a passive would not be acceptable in English; passives in a number of examples below have translations in active voice because a passive in English would be stilted at best. This is further discussed below.

1. In passive type one the verb has prefix di- and the actor is expressed in an agent phrase which follows the verb. The agent can be marked by a preposition, either sama ~ ama or oleh ‘by’:
Saya ditelefon oleh kepala sekolah.
I was phoned by the school principal.

Alis gua dibentuk sama dia.
My eyebrows were shaped by him.

The actor can also occur without a preposition. In this case it must immediately follow the verb:

Gue ditinggal pacar gua.
I was left by my boyfriend.

.. tindakan-tindakan yang dianggap pihak kampus sebage radikal.
.. actions which were considered by the university authorities as radical.

2. Passive in colloquial Jakartan Indonesian (CJI) occur with first person, although infrequent, is acceptable:

Mereka dibantu sama kita juga loh.
They were also helped by us.

Yang diajar saya tu orang-orang keren semua.
The ones taught by me were all top people.

3. In passive type two the verb has no prefix and the actor is a pronoun or pronoun substitute preceding the verb. All three persons can occur. Often an active clause is required in the English translation:

Kurikulumnya gua buat sendiri.
I composed the curriculum myself.

Nasinya lu kemanain?
Where did you put the rice?

4. In CJI this is also usually the case. In the first example below temporal udah and negative kagak precede the agent gua, and in the second modal bisa precedes the agent dia:

Yang laennya tuh udah kagak gua kenal lagi.
I don’t know the others anymore.

Yang bisa dia lakukan hanya minta.
All he can do is beg.

5. However, the rule is not strictly kept in CJI and it is not uncommon for a preverbal component of the predicate to appear between the agent and the verb, as do enggak and tidak ‘not’ and mau ‘intend’ in the following:

Yang sebelah sini gua nggak liat.
I don’t see the ones on this side.

Ini yang mereka tidak pikirkan.
This is what they don’t think about.

Ini yang kita mau angkat.
This is what we are going to raise.

6. In CJI nouns cannot occur as agent in passive this is possible

Kalo elu yang beli harga nggak akan sama dengan yang Ronny atau Anyun ambil.
If you’re the one who buys it the price won’t be the same as what Ronny or Anyun get.

.. apa yang bokap gua perlakukan.
.. what my father does.

The dark side of Yuli, yang banyak orang enggak tau.
The dark side of Yuli, which many people don’t know.

7. Passives in both forms of Indonesian, as in English, allow a statement of an action when the agent is not mentioned, generally because it is not relevant to the situation:

Sekarang temboknya udah dicat warna kuning.
Now the wall has been painted yellow.

Gua dimundurin gara-gara lahirnya bulan Oktober.
I was held back because I was born in October.

This is the major function of passives; the overwhelming majority of passives with di- (passive type one) have no agent expressed. There is remarkable similarity for the different age groups distinguished and all three contexts.