Zhong Yuan Jie

Today is the first day of Zhong Yuan Jie or the Ghost Festival. Ghosts are supposed to be released from hell during the seventh moon of the lunar calendar.

Some people will avoid going out at night for fear of meeting the bad ghost that may harm them. The Chinese will definitely not choose this month for getting married.

In Malaysia, opera shows will be held in various parts of the country in connection with the above festival which is also known as Wu Lan Shen Hui. In some places, instead of the traditional opera show, modern singing and dance troupes will be performing. Usually, money will be raised for the Chinese primary schools for their building funds during such performances.

According to Buddhism, ghosts do exist as they are one of the six realms who undergo samsara or suffering until they achieve nirvana when there is no more rebirths into the six places. Some people do possess 'yin yang' eyes and are able to see 'them' but most of us can't. Some people can have the hair-raising sensation when talking about ghosts which really exist. I belong to this group of people.

The difference between 'kecurian' and 'pencurian'

Many students and the media often use 'kecurian' in place of 'pencurian'. To them only 'kecurian' exists and not 'pencurian'. Let me enlighten readers how to use these two words correctly.

According to Kamus Dewan 4th Edition, 'kecurian' means 'kehilangan harta benda kerana kena curian, kemalingan' which means 'burglared'. The model sentence given in the dictionary is 'Kecurianlah baginda tujuh biji peti yang berisi emas.' This is a reverse sentence. The normal one should be 'Baginda kecurian tujuh biji peti yang berisi emas.' It just shows that 'kecurian' is a kata kerja pasif (passive verb).

We can make a sentence such as the one below.
Rumah Hassan kecurian semalam dan banyak barang yang dilarikan oleh pencuri itu.
[Hassan's house was burglared last night and many things were stolen by the thief'.

As for 'pencurian' it means 'perbuatan mencuri' or the act of stealing or theft. You can make a sentence such as the one below:
Pencurian sering berlaku di taman perumahan itu.
[Theft (The act of stealing) often occurs at the housing estate.]

In conclusion, 'kecurian' is a passive verb and 'pencurian' is a noun. Hence it is wrong to write a sentence such as the one below:
Kecurian sering berlaku di taman perumahan itu. [wrong]

So much for 'kecurian' and 'pencurian'.

Redundancy in Malay usage

For today's post, I will talk about the redundancy in Malay usage with examples.

Redundancy occurs when reciprocal action words such as 'saling' and affix such as 'ber_an' are involved. Let us look at some examples to see what I mean.

Example 1

1 (a)Mereka saling berpandang-pandangan untuk seketika. [salah]

1 (b)Mereka saling memandang untuk seketika. [betul]

1 (c)Mereka berpandang-pandangan untuk seketika. [betul]

Sentence 1(b) and 1(c) mean 'They looked at each other for a moment.'

Explanation:

Sentence 1(a) is wrong because 'berpandang-pandangan' means 'saling memandang' or 'look at each other'. Hence if we write 'saling berpandang-pandangan' it is equivalent to saying 'saling saling memandang' which shows redundancy clearly.

Example 2

2 (a) Penghuni asrama itu saling bantu-membantu semasa tinggal di sana. [salah]

2 (b) Penghuni asrama itu saling membantu semasa tinggal di sana. [betul]

2 (c) Penghuni asrama itu bantu-membantu semasa tinggal di sana. [betul]

Sentence 2(b) and 2(c) carry the meaning of 'The residents of the hostel helped one another while staying there.'

Explanation:

Sentence 1(a) is wrong because redundancy occurs in it. This is because 'bantu-membatu' means 'saling membantu' or 'help each other (for two persons) / help one another (for more than two persons). The use of 'saling bantu-membantu' incurs redundancy as it will mean 'saling saling membantu'.