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For Malay, when no contextual clues are given, a lexical form can be confusing because sometimes it can have more than one meaning. We postulated that most confusing meanings can be disambiguated through observing their morphosyntactic and morphosemantic structures. We used corpus data and analyzed the possible features of takut ‘fear’ that can help decide which form of takut in Malay to choose. If a default lexical verb meaning is intended (i.e., the original meaning), the feature [Experiencer-(Stimulus)] is needed and the takut (v) form is used. If a causative meaning is intended, the men-(t)akut-kan form is used. If a passive meaning is intended, there are some possibilities, as the choice could depend on the syntax of the passive form, such as whether the [Experiencer] is a first- or second-person pronoun (e.g., benda itu saya takut-i ‘the thing feared by me’) or other pronouns (e.g., benda itu paling di-takut-i oleh-nya ‘that thing feared most by him/her’) or whether an adversative meaning is intended ([ke- -an] form). We propose that both the morphosyntactic and morphosemantic structures of takut need to be considered to better understand the use of the different meanings of Malay derived and inflected forms.

The polysemous adverb just is frequently used by efl learners, but many learners are still unaware of how just should be used. The aim of this study is to examine how frequently different meanings of the adverb just are employed by native speakers and Taiwanese efl learners in their essays and to identify the differences in the lexico-grammatical patterns. Drawing data from one native-speaker corpus and two Taiwanese efl learner corpora, we investigated ( i) the overall frequencies of just, ( ii) the frequencies of just by meaning categories, and ( iii) the lexico-grammatical patterns of the different meanings of just, as well as their semantic and syntactic features. Results showed that the overall frequencies of just were similar in the native speaker and learner corpora, but there was a smaller variety of the use of adverbial just in the learner corpora. By examining the lexico-grammatical patterns, we found that the meanings of the adverbial just were induced in the following patterns: first, when it modified different syntactic structures; secondly, when it co-occurred with specific contextual clues; and, thirdly, when it interacted with particular tense/aspect of a verb. In addition, semantic features and lexical choices had a pivotal role in determining whether the use of a particular sense of just was acceptable in a sentence. By providing corpus-based teaching material for the uses of adverbial just, it is hoped that our study will shed light on the perplexing issue of adverb acquisition.

This study examined 25 emotion terms in Malaysian Malay and used corpus data to investigate whether these emotion terms appeared with the [meN-], [meN‑ -i], [meN‑ -kan], and [‑kan]-only forms. The emotion terms were patterned in four different ways. Category One included local emotion verbs that conformed to the pattern [Affector-Affectee]. In this category, the verbs were dominated by the [meN‑ -i] form, with a small number including the suffix [‑kan]-only. A verb in the [meN‑ -kan] form was either a Category Two [Causer meN‑ -kan Causee] pattern or a Category Four [Experiencer meN‑ -kan Event] pattern, among which Category Two had a higher number of instances. Category Three included two possible patterns – [Experiencer meN‑ -i Stimulus] and [Experiencer meN‑ (Stimulus absent)]. We found that the emotion terms with the [meN-]-only form were largely “narrating” the emotions of the speaker or situation, which provided the background, while the emotion terms with the [‑kan]-only form were largely “proposing” the emotion of the speaker or the subject being referred to (cf. Hopper 1983; Bambang Kaswanti Purwo 1988). We were able to discern not only emotion terms in Malay but also their different uses in [meN-], [meN‑ -i], [meN‑ -kan], and [‑kan]-only forms.

Hēi diào ‘to turn black’ (黑掉) denotes a change-of-state meaning, but in social media, it has a special pragmatic use that emphasizes “bad consequences” following an uncooperative act, whether right or wrong. This metaphorical and new transitive use of hēi diào, which is unique among netizens, has changed the literal status of hēi ‘black’ to other additional accomplishment/achievement meanings. Our study examined the expression hēi diào using data from a social media corpus, the PTT Bulletin Board System. We also analysed all the constructions of hēi diào and similar [V diào (掉)] patterns in the corpus. Unlike most previous work, which analysed the uses of [V diào] only, our study observed pragmatic connotations of hēi diào in social media—uses that only materialized in certain contexts.

Lagi, a less studied Malay adverb, has meanings such as ‘in addition’, ‘again’, ‘more’, and ‘yet/still’. We aimed to see how these meanings could be related in a single word and to find the conceptualization and grammatical paths involved. We also intended to find out whether this word carries any underlying meanings not specified in dictionaries. In the corpus, although many examples have lagi in the sentence-final position, some unconventional sentence-initial uses were also found in news headlines. We found that lagi serves a special function in news headlines, emphasizing the repeatedness of events that were often negative or undesirable. The seemingly unrelated meanings of lagi can be categorized based on three meaning concepts – addition/more meaning, less-more continuum, and temporal lagi (‘yet/still’, ‘again’). In addition to these concepts, we also found several possible grammaticalization paths that contribute to the different uses of lagi.

The occurrences of kill and killer are often understood as negative; however, evidence suggests that these words also have positive meanings. To many people, the use of kill and killer indicates physical death, but we found other meanings of these words. First, death is the worst possible outcome, but it is not necessarily a consequence of kill and killer. Second, killer, in particular, has a strong positive meaning that is extended from the ‘deadly’ meaning of kill. Third, we found that the figurative use of killer appeared more often in magazines and newspapers, as well as in fiction but with different purposes, when we compared the data from magazines and newspapers with those from different genres. The results obtained by analysing magazine and newspaper corpora in the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) showed the importance of pragmatic interpretation in understanding meanings.

Corpora are resourceful tools for linguistic observation, as they can provide quick statistics about a word compared with manual analysis. However, in some circumstances where qualitative analysis is needed, the use of a quantitative method may not produce the required results. Based on the keyword love, four types of materials were used to show the plausibility and implausibility of using corpora. First, romantic English songs were used to illustrate the kind of input students received from these songs. Second, we compared the songs to students’ essays on general essay topics. Then, we contrasted the first two sets of data to a native speakers’ corpus. Lastly, we showed how the creativity element can be reproduced by students through extended use of metaphors “Love is X”. While the students may have been exposed to more colloquial uses of love in love songs, their general essays showed a more neutral use, with fewer occurrences of love. In comparing the different texts, this paper will show how a corpus-based approach can be complemented by a qualitative examination of texts. Regarding pedagogical implications, corpora are a good resource of authentic materials and should be encouraged in the classroom as a reference for recurring language patterns.

The analysis in this paper was based on five Malay narratives of the “frog story”. In these narratives, the types of lexical arguments and their relations with information flow and topic continuity were analyzed. It was found that most narrators used one lexical argument in telling the frog story (e.g., sarang itu jatuh “the nest fell”). About 60% of the verbs in the narratives contained one lexical argument only. Some transitive verbs that usually require the presence of both lexical arguments were used with one lexical argument only when produced in speech (e.g., dia mencari ø di merata tempat “he searched (for) ø everywhere”). Objects were sometimes omitted, as their meanings could be predicted from previous context. Despite the omission of objects, transitive constructions still prevailed in the stories. The most frequently occurring lexical arguments were objects (O) (37%), followed by intransitive subjects (S) (29%) and transitive subjects (A) (27%). In addition, our results showed that new information in Malay was usually allocated to the core argument of the object and to locative expressions, indicating that most of the new information appeared at the end of a clause. On the other hand, topic continuity was held between the subjects in two continuous intonation units. This clear-cut division of discourse functions in the heads and tails of constructions was consistently found in the five pieces of narration. This observation not only showed how ideas could be continued in Malay oral narratives, but also contributes to the study of discourse structure in Malay.

This paper analyses English news reporting in Malaysia (New Straits Times) and in the United Kingdom (The Times) over several consecutive months during the SARS epidemic in 2003. While the physical features (word counts, standardised type/token ratio, number of sentences, etc.) of both corpora were consistent (and the two newspapers used mostly the same metaphorical lexis), differing features of the two newspapers were found in the rhetoric meaning. A corpus-based investigation of the presentation of news, selection of lexis, and the foci of reporting during the SARS epidemic is thus proposed. The results show that news from Malaysia focused on patriotism along with an emotional hopeful attitude, while news reporting in The Times seemed to be emotionally detached and less personal, reporting mainly on the fall of the stock markets and cancellations of cultural and sports events. In addition, The Times was found to have often considered manifestations of global economic status and power.

Two types of passive in Malay are compared using corpora examples, the dipassive and the kena adversative passive. It is proposed that the latter is constrained by pragmatic specifications related to the contexts in which it appears. In one analysis, 50 instances of each of these two passives collected from two newspapers were compared as to their frequency, degree of transitivity, and two pragmatic functions: their connotations and their register. The results show that the kena adversative passive is lower in frequency, higher in transitivity, less formal in register, and that it has a negative connotation for recipients of the actions when compared with the dipassive. In a second analysis, an additional 100 examples of the kena adversative passive were collected (50 from classical Malay manuscripts and 50 from Internet sources) and compared with the instances from newspaper articles. The results show that the kena passives from all three sources reflect similar features of transitivity and pragmatic use in discourse. Some of the kena instances from the Internet display more colloquial usage than those from the other sources, manifest, for example, by simplified spellings in kena phrases and by the frequent occurrence of code-switching whereby an English past participle form is used following kena (as in kena caught).

Many instances of ter- in Standard Malay of Malaysia have confusing active and passive forms (i.e., a construction such as [Noun TER-VP] can represent both active and passive functions). Two criteria, namely (a) substitution by a canonical passive marker, and (b) addition of the agentive phrase, are established in order to distinguish the passive and the active. Utilizing a modern corpus and a historical corpus, words comprised of passive ter- were extracted and were then compared to the Malay canonical passive di- and the adversative passive kena . The results show that ter- appears less frequently than di- but more frequently than kena . Additionally, ter- is used informally in contexts related to personal daily life, typically denoting an unintended action. This study not only provides a criteria-based methodology to extract a particular meaning from the multiple meanings of a grammatical morpheme, but also it discusses the grammaticalization process of these different functions of ter- utilizing corpora data. The results indicate that ter- develops from perfected to imperfected to stative forms in addition to other grammaticalization patterns such as from ability to possibility and from definite to superlative forms.