Tentatif = Aturcara ?????... Sejak bila??

Masalah penyalahgunaan perkataan tentatif ini pernah saya tulis dalam Notes FB saya (di bawah ini salinannya atau klik di sini untuk baca dari FB saya...) tapi ianya masih berleluasa. Agak-agak ada tak sesiapa yang terdiri dari 'Pejuang Bahasa' di luar sana yang ingin memperbetulkan keadaan ini, kerana pagi ni tadi pensyarah saya sendiri 'menyalahgunakan' perkataan tersebut.


Kalau bagus sangat perkataan tersebut, maka sahkanlah penggunaannya dengan memberikan makna sebenar dalam Kamus Dewan; tetapi apabila saya semak di Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu DBP secara online makna perkataan tersebut adalah sama dengan makna perkataan asal Bahasa Inggerisnya, bermakna perkataan ini wujud sebagai perkataan Bahasa Melayu tetapi maknanya adalah berlainan dari apa yang digunapakai oleh umum/ramai (Lihat gambar di bawah):

Jadi, kalau 'ajaran sesat' macam ni, siapa yang patut dipersalahkan..??? 


--------------- My Notes in FB written on June 26, 2009 -------------------------------------
Have you ever received an invitation card and the program for the event is titled 'Tentatif Program'? 

This is now a widely misconception among the university/college students (and sad to say among the lecturers too...) where the term 'Tentatif Program' is being used to mean 'Aturcara Program' or simply 'Tentatif' to mean 'Aturcara.' 

Those of you who really know the meaning of the word 'tentative' will be surprised to know that our university/college students nowadays don't care to look up in the dictionary to check whether the words they are using are appropriate or not. Personally I've asked a few of my students the meaning of the word 'tentative' and most of them give me the answer which is synonym to 'aturcara.' How sad... sad because their teachers from their secondary schools taught them that way (or couldn't care to correct them) and sadder because their lecturers now are also in the same boat. 

Now, let's put this thing straight. 

The true meaning of the word 'tentative' is something like 'unsure' or 'not confirmed'. Nothing related to 'aturcara.' 

The word 'program' in English can mean a few things. A program can mean an event or an activity. An example of its usage is in the following sentence - 'The English Camp program is designed to help our school children to enjoy their holidays while learning and improving their proficiency in the English language.' 

The word 'program' can also mean the flow of events or 'itinerary' or in Bahasa Malaysia 'aturcara.' In the English term "Tentative Program" - program here means this - 'aturcara.' 

So here where the confusion lies. The term 'Tentative Program' means the flow of events is still not confirmed or 'aturcara masih belum confirm', so the BM translation should be 'Aturcara Tentatif' or in a more easily understandable version ' Aturcara Yang Masih Belum Disahkan Kepastiannya'; but then nobody is going to use the latter as the heading in his invitation card! So, if you should use the BM word 'tentatif' here, it should then be 'Aturcara Tentatif' or 'Program Tentatif' (here program = aturcara.) 

The mistake?? The mistake is the most common mistake we used to make when we first studied the English Language when we were in kindergarden or in Standard One. Remember that your English teachers (or parents) used to give this advice or 'rule' when you translate from English to BM -- 'Most of the time, when you translate you reverse the order'. 'Bad boy' translated into 'budak jahat' etc. 

So 'Tentative Program' should then be translated into 'Program Tentatif' NOT 'Tentatif Program'!! 

Another mistake is this - although the word remains unchanged especially in its spelling (unless you are using the British spelling for the word), the meaning actually has changed. In 'Tentative Program' the word program means 'aturcara' but when translated into 'Tentatif Program' suddenly the word program is to mean the event. How convenient!! 

And the worst-case scenario - imagine hearing this from your staff (some of them are lecturers!) - "En. Azmi, program dengan wakil universiti minggu depan tu En. Azmi kena hadir tau, tentatif dia saya bagi besok ya..." 

And do the following checking/test to your younger, fresh graduate staff at your office. "Bagi saya tengok tentatif dia dulu ya sebelum you print" and see whether they come back to correct you...