Redundancy in Malay usage 1

In Malay, certain words carry the meaning of plurality and hence the nouns that follow them should not be duplicated anymore. I shall give two examples below.

Example 1: mengumpulkan (to gather)
a) Ahmad mengumpulkan daun-daun kering lalu memerunnya. [Wrong]
b) Ahmad mengumpulkan daun kering lalu memerunnya. [Correct]
[Ahmad gathered the dry leaves and burnt them.]
Explanation:
'mengumpulkan' has the meaning of being plural in nature. The noun 'daun-daun' (leaves) which is plural shoud be changed to daun (leaf)

Example 2: membanyakkan (to make it more or increase)
a) Johari membanyakkan buku-buku yang dibacanya. [Wrong]
b) Johari membanyakkan buku yang dibacanya. [Correct]
[Johari increased the books that he read.]
Explanation:
'membanyakkan' or to increase denotes plurality. Hence the object 'buku-buku' (books) shoud be replaced with 'buku' (book)

I shall give more examples in the posts to follow.

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 difference between para and semua

In BM, the plural is denoted by certain words known as Kata Bilangan (Numeral Words) such as para, semua, kesemua, sekalian, segala, segelintir, sesetengah, sebilangan kecil, sebilangan besar, banyak and kebanyakan which are used in front of Kata Nama (Nouns)

In this post, I will limit my discussion to the use of para and semua.

Para is specially used in front respectable people such as pemimpin (leaders), guru (teachers), menteri (ministers). It cannot be used for minor or despicable people the like of whom include pencuri (thieves), perompak (robbers), penculik (kidnappers) and pengemis (beggars).
Another thing to note is that this word is used for human beings only.

On the other hand, semua can be used for both human beings, animals and things.

The following are examples of errors in the use of para and their corrections.

1 Para perompak biasanya bersenjata semasa merompak bank atau kedai emas. [Robbers usually are armed when they rob banks or goldsmiths.] [Wrong]
Semua perompak biasanya bersenjata semasa merompak bank atau kedai emas. [Correct]

2 Para kanak-kanak diberi makanan dan minuman dalam majlis itu. [Children were given food and drinks at the function.[Wrong]
Semua kanak-kanak diberi makanan dan minuman dalam majlis itu. [Correct]

That will do for today. We will meet again soon.