Sundanese Nominal Groups: Meaning in Text

Abstract

This paper considers the nominal group in Sundanese, a Malayo-Polynesian language of West Java, Indonesia, through Systemic Functional Linguistics. In particular, it builds a meaning-based description of Sundanese nominal groups, born of educational concerns associated with developing literacy programs. To this end, it describes not only the formal syntagms at play, but also their functions; not only the paradigmatic choices that are available, but how they are taken up in text; and not only the grammar by itself, but how it realizes meanings in discourse. The result is a richly co-textualized and metafunctional description of Sundanese nominal groups that is illustrated through texts from a range of genres and registers. It first steps through the nominal group textually, detailing the resources available for tracking participants and for organizing informational prominence. Next it explores the nominal group interpersonally, considering the attitudes and graduation nominal groups realize and the relative social relationships between speakers. Finally, it considers the nominal group ideationally, exploring its resources for organizing experience and the ways it elaborates entities and metaphorically realizes events and occurrences. Together, this builds a detailed view of Sundanese nominal groups that can aid the ongoing development of literacy programs in Indonesia.