Verb or noun phrase? Anomalous noun phrase construction in the Indonesian language
Tuesday, July 22nd, 2008 by Agro RachmatullahThe Indonesian language has this weird construction of phrases that seem like verb phrases but can actually be noun phrases. For example, the phrase “makan malam” (literally “to night-eat”) looks like a verb phrase, and it is indeed so in the example sentence “Kemarin saya makan malam.” (I ate dinner yesterday). However it can also mean the noun phrase “dinner”, such as in the sentence “Makan malamnya sangat sederhana.” (The dinner was very modest). Using the standard grammar to change a verb to noun, one expects it to be “makanan malam” (night food) which isn’t the case.