Filipino Heritage Language Learners’ Problems (Reading,Writing, Speaking)

Markers Cases Focus Aspects (conjugation of verbs) Linkers Word order Affixation Pronunciation & Spelling

“I get confused over which linker I should use.”

---Heritage Language Learner

MarkersCASE

MARKERSPROPER NAME COMMON NOUN

singular plural singular plural

Nominativesi sina ang ang mga

Genetive

The chicken of the woman

(post)

ni nina ng ng mga

Dative

The woman’s chicken

(pre)

kay kina sa sa mga

Benefactive(for) para kay para kina para sa para sa mga

Some Characteristics of the Language

1. The word order is as follows:PREDICATE MARKER

(NM)/GM

DOER MARKER (GM)/ (NM)

OBJECT/

SUBJECT

AF Nagluto ang babae ng manok.

cooked woman chicken.

OF Niluto ng babae ang manok.

cooked by woman chicken.

2. Filipino has 7 Focuses or Subjects all preceded by Nominative Markers (NM)

Actor Focus (AF)

Object Focus (OF)

Benefactive (BF) Locative FOCUS (LF)

Directional Focus (DF) Causative Focus (CF) Instrumental Focus (IF)

FOCUS PREDICATE NM SUBJECT GM OBJECT/DOER

BM (for)

BENEFICIARY

AF Naglutocooked

ang babaewoman

ng manokchicken

para safor

bata.child

OF Nilutowas cooked

ang manokchicken

ngby

babaewoman

para safor

bata.*child.

BF Ipinaglutocooked for

ang batachild

ngby

babae.

LF Pinaglutuanthe place where cooking took place

ang kalderopot

ngby

babae.

DF Pinuntahanwent to

ang Vons ngby

babae

CF Ikinatuwamade happy (was the cause of happiness)

ang paglulutong babaeWoman’s cooking

ngof

bata.

IF Ipinambiliwas used to buy

ang peramoney

ngby

babae.

*The

*The preferred word order is ”Niluto ng babae ang manok.”

ANG VS. NG

The Uses of ANG

PREDICATE NM SUBJECT

Nagluto ang babae.

cooked. (The) woman

•ANG is used to mark the subject/topic/focus of the sentence

•ANG is used in an identificational sentence to indicate definiteness.

NM DOER DEFINITE MARKER

VERB

Ang babae ang nagluto.

(It was the) woman (who) cooked.

PSEUDO VERB

DOER NM SUBJECT

Gusto ng bata ang baboy.

Like by child (in general) pork.

•ANG is used to denote ‘in general’ in a ‘like/dislike’ sentence.

VERB+Paki SOFTENER

PARTICLE

NM OBJECT/

SUBJECT

Pakiabot nga ang manok.

Please pass (the) chicken.

•ANG is used in formal writing. In conversation, it is replaced by ‘yung,’ conversational form of the demonstrative pronoun iyon meaning “yonder,” far from both listener and speaker.

The Uses of NG

•NG is used to mark the Direct Object.

PREDICATE SUBJECT/

DOER

GM DIRECT OBJECT

Nagluto ang babae ng manok.

cooked (The) woman chicken.

•NG is used to denote possession.

PREDICATE DOER SUBJECT GM OWNER

Niluto ng babae ang

manok

ng lalake.

was cooked by (the)

woman.

(The)

chicken

of man

PREDICATE GM DOER SUBJECT

Niluto ng babae ang

manok.

was cooked by woman (The) chicken.

•NG marks the DOER of passive verbs.

PSEUDO VERB

DOER GM OBJECT

Gusto ng babae ng manok.

Likes (d) by woman (specifically) chicken.

•NG is used to denote ‘specifically’ in a ‘like/dislike’ sentence.

In a request sentence indicated by paki, ANG and NG are interchangeable:

VERB SOFTENER PARTICLE

MARKER SUBJECT/

OBJECT

Pakiabot nga ang manok.

Please pass (the) chicken.

Pakiabot nga ng manok.

Please pass chicken.

Why the Difficulty? L1 interferes with the learning of target language. There are NO MARKERS in English

There are no FOCUSES in English according to one student. ANG, the subject marker is mistaken for THE, which in English would be the same article in front of the DIRECT OBJECT. E.g. Mary cooked the chicken. Possessives are not used as DOERS in English The word order does not change but the markers do, i.e.

PREDICATE DOER OBJECT

Nagluto ang babae ng manok.

Niluto ng babae ang manok.

As noted in the previous examples, both ANG and NG have several uses and sometimes they are interchangeable. HL have fossilized notions of the language as opposed to FL

who are tabula rasa.

Misuse of MarkersProvokes Laughter Discouraging Heritage Language Learners

FOCUS`

PREDICATE NM SUBJECT GM NOUN

AF Nagluto ang babae ng manok.

cooked woman chicken.

OF Niluto ang manok ng babae.*

was cooked chicken by woman

If the markers are interchanged:

AF Nagluto ang manok ng babae.

cooked (The) chicken. woman

OF Niluto ang babae ng manok.

was cooked (The) woman by chicken.

*The preferred WORD ORDER is “Niluto ng babae ang manok.

“Cooked by woman (the) chicken.”

Affixes

Compound the problem because there are several affixes used just to make a word an ACTOR FOCUS verb. Um-, mag-, ma-, magpa-, mang-, makapag-, maki-, maka-, magka-, mapa-

There are more affixes used for the passive verbs because this is the normal way of speaking in our language, with the predicate before the subject.

Nagluto ang babae. The woman cooked.

Nagpaluto ang babae. The woman asked someone to cook.

Nakiluto ang babae. The woman cooked in someone else’s kitchen.

Papaglutuin ang babae. Make the woman cook.

Nakapagluto ang babae. The woman was able to cook.

Nakaluto ang babae. The woman was able to cook..

Pakiluto ang babae. Please cook the woman.

Naluto ang babae. The woman was cooked.

Napaluto ang babae. The woman cooked accidentally.

Ipaluto ang babae. Ask someone to cook the woman.

Ipinagluto ang babae. Someone cooked for the woman.

Ipangluto ang babae. Use the woman for cooking.

Palutuin ang babae. Ask the woman to cook.

Lutuin ang babae. Cook the woman

Iluto ang babae. Cook the woman.

To Illustrate:

Remedy

Constant repetition and correction

Immersion

Worksheets on these structures

More practice in 4 modalities

Student has to take charge of her/his own

learning; the teacher facilitates and guides

lwng

References:

Aspillera, Paraluman S. Basic Tagalog for Foreigners and Non-Tagalogs. (Boston, Rutland, Vermont, Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing), 1993.

Ramos, Teresita V. Conversational Tagalog, A Functional-Situational Approach. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press), 1985.

__________& Maria Lourdes S. Bautista. Handbook of Tagalog Verbs Inflections, Modes, and Aspects. (UH), 1986.

Santiago, Alfonso O. at Norma G. Tiangco. Makabagong Balarilang Filipino. (Manila, Philippines: Rex Book Store), 1991.