Intraclause and Intersentence Conjunctions in Indonesian: A Descriptive Study

Abstract

This study examines the use of intraclause and intersentence conjunctions in Indonesian through a descriptive qualitative approach. The study aims to identify the forms, functions, and errors in the use of conjunctions found in academic writing, particularly in thesis documents. Data were collected through documentation, reading, and note-taking techniques, and were analyzed through stages of identification, classification, interpretation, and conclusion drawing based on Indonesian grammatical rules. The findings reveal that conjunctions in Indonesian are generally divided into intraclause conjunctions, including coordinative, correlative, and subordinative conjunctions, as well as intersentence conjunctions. Various errors were identified, such as inappropriate conjunction functions, incorrect placement of conjunctions, excessive use of conjunctions, and illogical relationships between clauses. The most frequent errors involved the conjunctions maka, sehingga, adapun, karena, and the correlative pair tidak hanya … tetapi juga …. In addition, errors in the use of intersentence conjunctions weakened cohesion and coherence within paragraphs. The study also found several factors causing these errors, including limited understanding of conjunction functions, the influence of spoken language habits, lack of attention to sentence parallelism and coherence, the tendency to construct long and complex sentences, and insufficient language editing. Therefore, understanding the syntactic rules and proper use of conjunctions is essential in improving the quality of academic writing so that sentences become more effective, logical, cohesive, and easier to understand.