INVESTIGATING THIRD GRADE PRIMARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' WRITING:THE UTILIZATION OF AFFIXES IN VERBS

A child’s capacity to construct written texts is shaped by factors such as age, environment, and educational background. This research investigates the patterns of verb usage in narrative paragraphs composed by third-grade elementary students, with the objective of describing the degree of complexity in their verb application. Employing a qualitative approach, the study examined 35 authentic writing samples produced by students aged 9–10 years, analyzed with the assistance of Ant.Conc software. The primary focus lies in identifying the forms of verbs utilized within the students’ narratives. Drawing on Keraf’s categorization, verbs are distinguished according to their morphological structure into monomorphemic and polymorphemic types. The findings reveal that third graders demonstrate the ability to employ both categories. While monomorphemic verbs function as primary verbs and auxiliaries, polymorphemic verbs are generally formed through the addition of affixes including ber-, di-, di-kan, meN-, me-i, meN-kan, -kan, and ter-to base morphemes. Notably, polymorphemic verbs occur more frequently than monomorphemic ones, reflecting the students’ developing capacity to construct linguistically complex words. These results carry pedagogical implications, offering teachers insights into the extent to which third-grade learners are able to manipulate affixation processes in their writing.