BBI3212

ENGLISH SYNTAX AND MORPHOLOGY

PROJECT REPORT

SEMESTER 1 2021/2022

DATE:

15th JANUARY 2022

STUDENT NAME MATRIX NUMBER

NOORA ATIKAH BINTI OMAR J46169
NUR FEIZRINA BINTI MOHD FEISAL J46163
 This report has chosen five different ‘unusual’ words to be discussed further. All
these words are taken from the same blog, www.cilisos.my. The blog generally discusses
current affairs and news happening in Malaysia. The way they approach these topics is
through a more casual and entertaining method.

The first word to be discussed in this report is KOed, from the article ‘9 Overseas
Product Names Only Malaysians Will LOL At’ dated 3 November 2021, by Jake Lim. This
article is written for a more mature audience, considering the subjects and language used in
the article. There is a mix of Bahasa Malaysia and English words in this article. The
sentence in which the word is found is:

“Please note that a lot of the content here may be vulgar if you have a dirty enough mind. If
you’d rather not be offended, please click here to see the writer KOed on the floor of a bar.”
(Jake Lim, 2021)

KOed is a slang word that uses the word KO, short for knockout. It means victory in
boxing in which one's opponent is knocked to the mat and unable to rise within a specific
amount of time. In this article, the word KOed is used with the definition being ‘passed out’ or
‘fainted’.

The word is formed with an ‘ed’ affix to create the past tense verb KOed. The internal
structure of this word is shown in the tree diagram below:

V Af

KO -ed
Figure 1.1 The internal structure of the word ‘KOed’
 The second word chosen is gomen from the article ‘JAKIM’s Budget This Year Is
More Than Double One Ministry’s Budget. Can You Guess Which?’ dated 25 November
2021, by Badd from the same blog. This article falls under the politics category, where it
discusses budget allocations for various government departments. The sentences in which
the word is found are as follows:

“We’ll let them figure that out among themselves, but it did got us thinking: how much budget
did some interesting gomen departments get this year?”

“This is the Institute of Strategic and International Studies, Malaysia (ISIS), and maybe it’s
not really a gomen department per se. It was listed under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
B/P13 in the Budget, but we’re not sure whether it’s just the gomen just paying them for
research or something.”
(Badd, 2021)

The word gomen is a word commonly used by Malaysian internet users, originating
from the English word government. The phonetic for the word government has been
simplified to produce the word gomen, in which both words carry the same meaning. In this
article, the writer used the word gomen as a noun.

The third word discussed in this report is motherly est from the article ‘Which
Malaysian Politician Has The Sexiest Voice? We Listened To All 222 MPs.’ dated 24
November 2021, by Jake Lim. This easy-going article talks about the different voices of each
of the 222 Malaysian member of parliament. The phrase that uses the word motherly-est is
as follows:

”Motherly-est Voice”
(Jake Lim, 2021)

The word motherly-est is formed from the English adjective motherly, which is
defined as resembling or characteristics of a mother, in terms of being caring, protective and
kind. The word motherly-est is formed with an ‘est’ affix to create a superlative adjective of
motherly-est. Therefore, in the article, motherly-est is describing the ‘voice’ as being of the
highest degree of motherly. The internal structure of this word is shown in the tree diagram
in the next page:
 A

A Af

motherly -est
Figure 1.2 The internal structure of the word ‘motherly-est’

The fourth word chosen is cucuk-ed from the article ‘What Happens If You Get
Tested Positive While Travelling Out of Malaysia? We Check.’ dated 22 November 2021, by
Ivory Anne. This article is informal and easy to read as the sentences are bilingual which
makes it easy to find unusual word that has been used in the article to form a complete
sentence.

“Getting cucuk-ed may decrease your odds of getting the worst of C-19, but in some cases
it can still be severe enough to require hospitalization.”
(Ivory Anne, 2021)

Cucuk-ed is a slang that uses two different languages – Bahasa Malaysia and
English to form a past tense verb, which translated to injected in English. While there is no
rule of past tense in Bahasa Melayu, it is common to mix different languages to form a slang
word that suits the sentence written. In this case, the writer of the article decided to use
cucuk-ed instead of injected as it is the style of the writing, which is informal and laid-back.

The way the word is formed is from the root verb cucuk that is paired with ‘-ed’ affix
to construct the past tense verb cucuk-ed. The internal structure of this word can be shown
in the tree diagram as follows:
 V

V Af

cucuk -ed
Figure 1.3 The internal structure of the word ‘cucuk-ed’

The fifth and last word chosen is the word anywho from an article titled ‘Is Legoland
Still Fun if You’re an Adult. We Review” dated 9 December 2021, also by Jake Lim.. This
article is chosen because of the natures of the language used which are informal and
humorous.

“Anywho, after spending a weekend there, here are the thoughts of two overgrown children
that grew up mucking around with Lego sets.”
(Jake Lim, 2021)

The writer used the adverb anywho to show the manner of the article being written,
which is casual and laid-back. Anywho or anyhoo is an informal word derived from the word
anyhow. According to the dictionary of Merriam-Webster (n.d.), anywho is a humorous way
of pronouncing anyhow. The history of the word dated way back in the 1850s appropriated
by the Scots and Irish onie-hoo – an Irish and Scottish pronunciation of anyhow (Merriam-
Webster, n.d.).

The structure of the word anyhow involves compounding, a combination of lexical

categories. Since the rightmost morpheme determines the category of the entire word,
meaning anyhow is an adverb because its rightmost component is an adverb.
REFERENCES

1. Lim, J., 2021. 9 overseas product names only Malaysians will LOL at. [online] CILISOS -
Current Issues Tambah Pedas!. Available at: https://cilisos.my/9-overseas-product-names-
only-malaysians-will-lol-at/

2. CILISOS - Current Issues Tambah Pedas!. 2021. JAKIM’s budget this year is more than
double one ministry’s budget. Can you guess which?. [online] Available at:
https://cilisos.my/budget-2022-jakim-finas-giacc-dbp-unity-isis-compare/

3. Lim, J., 2021. Which Malaysian politician has the sexiest voice? We listened to all 222
MPs.. [online] CILISOS - Current Issues Tambah Pedas!. Available at:
https://cilisos.my/which-malaysian-politician-has-the-sexiest-voice-mp/

4. Anne, I. 2021. What happens if you get tested positive while travelling out of Malaysia?
We check. https://cilisos.my/nuklear-malaysia-plant-mutagenesis-radiation-gamma-
greenhouse/

5. Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Anyhow. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved January

14, 2022, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anyhow

6. Merriam-Webster. (n.d.). Anyhoo. In Merriam-Webster.com dictionary. Retrieved January

14, 2022, from https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anyhoo

7. Lim, J., 2021. Is LEGOLAND still fun if you’re an adult? We review. [online] CILISOS -
Current Issues Tambah Pedas!. Available at: https://cilisos.my/is-legoland-still-fun-if-youre-
an-adult-we-review/