'Hal ini demikian kerana' is wrong grammatically

I will start this year's first post with the expression 'Hal ini demikian kerana'. It has been deemed correct to translate 'It is because' until Tatabahasa Dewan, third edition included 'adverba' or adverb as one of the Kata Tugas (Functional words).

As an adverb, 'demikian' cannot act as a predicate. As such, 'hal ini demikian' is grammatically wrong. If 'hal ini' is followed by 'berlaku' to form 'hal ini berlaku', then it is correct because 'berlaku' can function as the predicate of 'hal ini'.

With the explanation above, 'Hal ini demikian' should be changed to 'Hal ini berlaku demikian' or 'Hal ini dikatakan demikian'. I will explain why this grammatically correct. An adverb modies a verb. In this case, 'demikian' modifies the verb 'berlaku' and 'dikatakan'.

Now let me make two sentences one of which has he old expression 'Hal ini demikian keran' and do the necessary change to make it correct grammatically.

1 Pelajar miskin itu tidak mempunyai uniform sekolah. Hal ini demikian kerana keluarganya tidak mampu membelinya. [The poor student has no school uniform. This is becaue his family cannot afford to buy it.] [Hal ini demikan kerana is wrongly used here]

2 Pelajar miskin itu tidak mempunyai uniform sekolah. Hal ini dikatakan demikian kerana keluarganya tidak mampu membelinya. [The poor student has no school uniform. This is becaue his family cannot afford to buy it.]

Adjectives denoting plurality

In today's post, I will discuss adjectives which denote plurality. Certain adjecitves such as 'cantik' (beautiful) can denote plurality when it is duplicated. For example, 'cantik-cantik' means 'all of them are beautiful'. When we are using duplicated adjectives, we must be carelly not to duplicate the nouns they describe or else the sentence will be incorrect.

Let us look at the mistakes made in this aspect.

1 Anak-anak Encik Lim tinggi-tinggi. [wrong]
Explanation: 'tinggi-tinggi 'means 'all of them are tall', Hence, 'anak' should not be duplicated. The correct sentence is 'Anak Encik Lim tinggi-tinggi'. [correct]
Of course, we can correct sentence 1 to:
Anak-anak Encik Lim tinggi. [correct]

2 Semua buku profesor itu tebal-tebal. [wrong]
Explantion: 'tebal-tebal' means 'all of them are thick'. Hence, 'semua buku' should not be used as it also convey the meaning of being plural. Just leave out 'semua' and the sentence is correct.
When you should have written is:
Buku profesor itu tebal-tebal. [correct] or
Semua buku profesor itu tebal. [correct]

The correct usage of 'kata bilangan'

Kata bilangan or counting words are tricky in their usage. However, if you follow the rules below, you should be able to use them correctly.

Group 1 Kata Bilangan needs no penjodoh bilangan.
These include Semua (All), Kesemua (All), Para (All, for respectable people), Segala (All, for things or matter), Sesetengah (Some), Segelintir (A small number of, for people), banyak (A lot of or many), Sebahagian (part of, for uncountable nouns), setiap or tiap-tiap (every), sekalian (all, for people). Look at their usage in the sentences given below.
a) Semua pelajar dikehendaki memakai uniform semasa berada di sekolah. [All students are require to wear uniform when they are in school.]
b) Kesemua ayam ini akan disembelih untuk kenduri. [All these chickens will be slaughtered for a feast.]
c) Para pemimpin hendaklah menunjukkan teladan yang baik. [All leaders should set good examples.]
d) Segala rancangan dapat dilaksanakannya dengan berjaya. [All his plans could be executed successfully.]
e) Sesetengah kanak-kanak tidak suka makan buah durian. [Some children do not like to eat durians.]
f) Segelintir murid di sekolah itu lemah dalam Matematik. [A small number of pupils in the school are weak in Mathematics.]
g) Banyak barang yang dijual di kedai itu. [Banyak things are sold in the shop.]
h) Sebahagian getah dari Malaysia dieksport ke negara Jepun. [Part of the rubber from Malaysia is exported to Japan.]
i) Setiap peserta diberi sehelai baju-T. (Every participant was given a T-shirt.]

Group 2 Kata Bilangan has penjodoh bilangan or no penjodoh bilangan depending on the noun that follows it.
a) If it is followed by a concrete noun, then penjodoh bilangan is needed.
(i) Dua orang pelajar sedang membaca buku di perpustakaan itu. [Dua students are reading books in the library.]
(ii) Kedua-dua buah buku ini dikarang oleh Shahnon Ahmad. [These three books were written by Shahnon Ahmad.]
(iii) Beberapa batang jalan di bandar ditenggelami air bah. [Some roads in town were flooded.]
(iv) Berpuluh-puluh biji buah durian dijual oleh Pak Ali. [Hundreds of durians were sold by Pak Ali.]
[Note that dua can be replaced with tiga, empat, seratus, seribu or sejuta; kedua-dua can be substituted by ketiga-tiga, kelima-lima and so on; berpuluh-puluh can be replaced with beratus-ratus, beribu-ribu and so on]

b) If it is followed by an abstract noun, the no penjodoh bilangan is needed.
(i) Tiga hal ini akan kami bincangkan nanti. [These these matters will be discussed by us afterwards.]
(ii) Keempat-empat cadangan ini dikemukakan oleh Ai. [These four suggestions were put forward by Ali.]
(iii) Beberapa isu ditimbulkan dalam mesyuarat itu. [Several issues were raised in the meeting.]
(iv) Beribu-ribu kematian bayi berlaku di negara-negara membangun setiap hari. [Thousands of deaths of babies occurred in developing countries every day.]

The use of transitive verb in a statement

In Bahasa Melayu or Malay, a transitive verb must be given the prefix meN (me, mem, men, meng, meny or menge) when it appears in a statement (ayat penyata). Look at the following examples (wrong and correct sentences)

1 Dia lepaskan burung yang baru ditangkapnya itu. (incorrect)
Dia melepaskan burung yang baru ditangkapnya itu. (correct)
[He released the bird which he had just caught.]

2 Saya suka baca surat khabar. (incorrect)
Saya suka membaca surat khabar. (correct)
[I like to read newspapers.]

3 Pegawai itu jalankan tugasnya dengan cekap. (incorrect)
Pegawai itu menjalankan tugasnya dengan cekap. (correct)

4 Mereka sedang ikuti kursus itu. [incorrect]
Mereka sedang mengikuti kursus itu. [correct]

5 Pelajar itu susun kerusi dan meja di dalam kelasnya. (incorrect)
Pelajar itu menyusun kerusi dan meja di dalam kelasnya. (correct)

6 Ibu lap permukaan meja itu dengan kain. (incorrect)
Ibu mengelap permukaan meja itu dengan kain. (correct)
[Mother wiped the surface of the table with cloth. ]

So much for the correct use of transitive verb in a statement in Bahasa Melayu.