The production of affixes in the writings of Indonesian children aged 10-11 years

Affixation is one of a morphological process in Indonesian language. The affixation process is related to the addition of affix elements, such as prefix, infix, confix, or suffix attached to the base words. Affix in Indonesian language is a bound grammatical unit which is not considered as a word or main word, and has an ability to attach to other units to form words or new words (Ramlan, 2009, p. 55). This affixation research started with a brief observation of Indonesian language textbooks and children's story books. During the observation, we found and assumed that the use of affixes in textbooks and children's story books are not appropriate with children's cognitive ability. Indeed, there have been previous studies, but existing research only focus on children aged 3 to 5 years. Research on the use of affixes, particularly for children above aged 3-5 years has yet to be conducted. Thus, we saw the need to conduct a research that focuses on the production of affix used by children aged 10-11 years. The question raised in this research is how children aged 10-11 produce verb-forming affixes in written Indonesian as reflected in their writing. The purpose of this research is to identify the production of affix in written Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia) used by children aged 10-11 years. Based on the findings, we are encouraged to conduct research focusing on the production of affixes in written Indonesian that are used by children aged 10-11 years. This research also aims to identify the types and meanings of verb-forming affixes in written Indonesian that are used by children aged 10-11 years. The method of this research is mixed methods, which are both qualitative and quantitative in nature (Creswell, 2009, p. 304). Qualitative methods are used to describe each verb-forming affix and explain the affix categories, particularly transitive verb-forming affixes and intransitive verb-forming affixes, while quantitative methods are used to describe the distribution of affix production used in the writings of children aged 10-11 years. Data sources are children's writing on the topic of transportation facilities. The results show that children aged 10-11 years produce transitive verb-forming affixes more frequently than intransitive verb-forming affixes. The dominant affix in transitive verbs is me-, with the meaning of melakukan or 'do [something],' while the most prominent affix in intransitive verbs is ber-, with the meaning of sedang mengerjakan or 'working [on something].' Other verb-forming affixes are also found in this research, such as affixes me-i, me-kan,-kan,-i, memper-, memper-kan, ber-, di-kan, ber-an, ke-an, di-, ter-, di-i, dan N-.