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'.