A per-...-an noun does not preserve a source clause's arguments unchanged. Participants become possessors or prepositional dependents, a reciprocal event becomes a bounded noun phrase, and a base may develop institutional meanings far beyond a one-time action. This page focuses on those syntactic and lexical choices; first review how the circumfix is formed and how its meaning network is organized if either side is unfamiliar.
From clauses to noun phrases
Pertemuan: participants around a bounded event
In Kami bertemu dengan pemasok, kami is the subject and dengan pemasok names the other participant. Nominalization turns the subject into a possessive dependent while retaining the partner with dengan: pertemuan kami dengan pemasok. Antara ... dan ... can instead present both sides symmetrically.
Kami bertemu dengan pemasok baru kemarin.
We met with the new supplier yesterday.
Pertemuan kami dengan pemasok baru berlangsung selama satu jam.
Our meeting with the new supplier lasted an hour.
Pertemuan antara manajemen dan perwakilan pekerja ditunda.
The meeting between management and employee representatives was postponed. (formal)
Direktur mengadakan pertemuan singkat sebelum makan siang.
The director holds a short meeting before lunch.
The noun cannot simply replace the verb as predicate. Indonesian needs bertemu or a support verb such as mengadakan “hold.”
Perjalanan: traveler, route, and endpoints
The subject of Kami berjalan/bepergian commonly becomes a possessor: perjalanan kami. Origins, destinations, routes, durations, and purposes remain in prepositional phrases or compounds.
Kami berangkat dari Solo menuju Yogyakarta sebelum fajar.
We left Solo for Yogyakarta before dawn.
Perjalanan kami dari Solo ke Yogyakarta berlangsung lancar.
Our journey from Solo to Yogyakarta went smoothly.
Perjalanan dinas ke Balikpapan dibatalkan karena cuaca buruk.
The business trip to Balikpapan was canceled because of bad weather. (formal)
Ia menulis catatan perjalanan selama tinggal di Flores.
She wrote a travel journal while staying in Flores.
Perjalanan dinas is a conventional compound meaning official/business travel; it is not merely any journey made while employed.
Peraturan and pengaturan map arguments differently
Polisi mengatur lalu lintas has an actor and an affected domain. Its process nominalization is pengaturan lalu lintas oleh polisi. Peraturan lalu lintas, by contrast, means traffic regulations: an institutional rule set, not the police's act of directing traffic.
Polisi mengatur lalu lintas di persimpangan itu.
The police direct traffic at that intersection.
Pengaturan lalu lintas oleh polisi mengurangi kemacetan.
The police's direction of traffic reduces congestion.
Peraturan lalu lintas melarang kendaraan berhenti di tikungan.
Traffic regulations prohibit vehicles from stopping on bends.
Pemerintah menerbitkan peraturan tentang pengelolaan sampah.
The government issues a regulation on waste management. (formal)
In peraturan pemerintah, pemerintah can identify the issuing authority or type of regulation; it is not simply the preserved agent of mengatur. This difference is why nominalizers are not interchangeable wrappers.
Institutional nouns have their own valency
Perpustakaan is not an event nominal with an agent and patient. It is an institution/place noun and combines with possessors, institutional affiliations, location phrases, and service descriptions: perpustakaan sekolah, perpustakaan di lantai dua, layanan perpustakaan.
Mahasiswa menggunakan perpustakaan sampai pukul sembilan malam.
Students use the library until nine at night.
Perpustakaan sekolah kami memiliki koleksi buku dwibahasa.
Our school library has a collection of bilingual books.
Layanan perpustakaan untuk penyandang disabilitas sedang ditingkatkan.
Library services for people with disabilities are being improved. (formal)
Buku yang dipinjam dari perpustakaan harus dikembalikan besok.
The book borrowed from the library must be returned tomorrow.
The related base pustaka appears in established compounds such as daftar pustaka “bibliography” and bahan pustaka “library material.” It cannot replace perpustakaan when a building or library organization is meant.
Noun phrases with relative clauses
Because these forms are nouns, demonstratives, numerals, adjectives, and yang clauses can modify them. The relative clause describes the packaged event, institution, journey, or rule rather than restoring the source verb's argument structure.
Pertemuan yang dijadwalkan besok akan berlangsung secara daring.
The meeting scheduled for tomorrow will take place online.
Perjalanan yang tertunda itu akhirnya dilanjutkan pagi ini.
The delayed journey finally continued this morning.
Perpustakaan yang direnovasi tahun lalu kini memiliki lift.
The library renovated last year now has an elevator.
Peraturan yang berlaku saat ini akan ditinjau kembali.
The regulation currently in force will be reviewed. (formal)
Dua pertemuan tambahan dijadwalkan untuk minggu depan.
Two additional meetings are scheduled for next week.
Pertemuan is countable as an event, while a domain noun such as perbankan normally is not. Morphological similarity does not impose identical noun syntax on the whole family.
Competition with neighboring nominalizations
Pertemuan versus penemuan
Pertemuan relates to bertemu and packages people or paths coming together. Penemuan relates to menemukan and profiles finding or what was found.
Pertemuan para ahli itu berlangsung di Jakarta.
The experts' meeting took place in Jakarta.
Penemuan para ahli itu diterbitkan dalam jurnal ilmiah.
The experts' finding was published in a scholarly journal. (academic)
Peraturan versus pengaturan
Peraturan is an established rule or regulatory instrument. Pengaturan is arranging, management, configuration, or the resulting arrangement.
Peraturan gedung mewajibkan pengunjung memakai kartu tamu.
Building regulations require visitors to wear a guest badge.
Pengaturan suhu ruangan dapat diubah melalui panel ini.
The room-temperature setting can be changed through this panel.
Persatuan versus penyatuan
Persatuan profiles unity or an association; penyatuan profiles the act/process of uniting.
Persatuan antarwarga menjadi tema pidato itu.
Unity among residents was the theme of the speech.
Penyatuan tiga unit kerja selesai pada akhir tahun.
The consolidation of three work units was completed at year-end. (formal)
Perjalanan versus keberangkatan and kedatangan
Perjalanan spans the course; keberangkatan packages departure, and kedatangan arrival. Choosing the broader journey noun when only one boundary event matters can obscure the intended time.
Keberangkatan kereta ditunda selama tiga puluh menit.
The train's departure was delayed by thirty minutes.
Kedatangan rombongan disambut oleh kepala desa.
The group's arrival was welcomed by the village head.
Surface similarity does not prove one bracketing
Some pe...an words resemble reduced per-...-an but belong to peN-...-an. Pekerjaan is a genuine reduced per-...-an family tied to bekerja. Perawatan, however, aligns with transitive merawat and commonly names care or treatment; it is analyzed in the peN-...-an network. Pemandangan aligns with memandang, not with a hypothetical bermandang.
Pekerjaan itu membutuhkan ketelitian tinggi.
That job requires great precision.
Pasien memerlukan perawatan lanjutan di rumah.
The patient needs follow-up care at home.
Pemandangan dari puncak bukit sangat indah.
The view from the hilltop is beautiful.
Dictionary family, meaning, and related verbs must all support the bracketing. Visible pe...an alone is insufficient.
Lexicalization and limits on productivity
Established forms may have opaque or narrowed meanings. Perusahaan is “company/enterprise,” perhatian “attention/concern,” and permintaan “request/demand.” Their arguments and collocations must be learned with the whole noun.
Perusahaan kami menerima banyak permintaan dari pelanggan.
Our company receives many requests from customers.
Masalah ini memerlukan perhatian khusus.
This issue requires special attention.
The existence of perhotelan and perbankan does not license any noun as a new industry label. An invented permejaan will not neutrally mean “the table sector.” Use industri mebel or another established phrase.
Industri mebel di Jepara terkenal sampai ke luar negeri.
Jepara's furniture industry is known internationally.
There is no logical shortcut: productive analogy proposes a possible word, but dictionaries, corpora, and expert usage determine whether it has become conventional.
Formal and conversational distribution
Core nouns such as pertemuan, perjalanan, perpustakaan, and peraturan are standard across registers. Conversation also uses shorter or analytic alternatives: ketemuan “meet-up” (informal), perpus “library” (informal abbreviation), and aturan “rule.” Dense sector nouns such as perbankan, perhotelan, and persuratkabaran are particularly common in formal, academic, or bureaucratic prose.
Dalam pertemuan tersebut, panitia membahas perjalanan dinas, anggaran perpustakaan, dan penerapan peraturan baru.
At that meeting, the committee discussed official travel, the library budget, and implementation of the new regulation. (formal)
Nanti pas ketemuan, kita bahas perjalanan dinas, uang buat perpus, sama aturan barunya, ya.
When we meet up later, let's discuss the business trip, money for the library, and the new rule, okay? (informal)
Kajian ini menganalisis perubahan dalam sektor perbankan dan perhotelan.
This study analyzes changes in the banking and hospitality sectors. (academic)
Dia kerja di bank, sedangkan kakaknya mengelola hotel kecil.
She works at a bank, while her older sibling runs a small hotel. (informal)
The shorter alternatives are not spelling variants of the circumfix. They are separate lexical or register choices.
Common Mistakes
Using an event noun as a finite verb
❌ Kami pertemuan dengan pemasok kemarin.
Incorrect — pertemuan is a noun, not the finite predicate ‘met.’
✅ Kami bertemu dengan pemasok kemarin.
We met with the supplier yesterday.
Choosing the wrong participant preposition
❌ Pertemuan saya kepada direktur berlangsung singkat.
Incorrect — the other meeting participant is introduced with dengan.
✅ Pertemuan saya dengan direktur berlangsung singkat.
My meeting with the director was brief.
Replacing a rule with an arranging process
❌ Pengaturan sekolah melarang siswa membawa rokok.
Wrong noun for the intended institutional rule.
✅ Peraturan sekolah melarang siswa membawa rokok.
School rules prohibit pupils from bringing cigarettes.
Assuming every pe...an word is reduced per-...-an
❌ Perawatan diturunkan dari kata berawat.
Incorrect analysis — modern perawatan aligns with transitive merawat in the peN-...-an family.
✅ Perawatan pasien itu ditangani oleh dokter spesialis.
That patient's care is handled by a specialist.
Coining a domain noun from any object
❌ Bidang permejaan sedang berkembang pesat.
Nonstandard coinage — permejaan is not the ordinary name of the furniture sector.
✅ Industri mebel sedang berkembang pesat.
The furniture industry is growing rapidly.
Key Takeaways
- Nominalization rebuilds participant structure: pertemuan kami dengan pemasok, not a noun mechanically substituted for bertemu.
- Institutional peraturan and process pengaturan have different arguments and collocations.
- Compare neighboring event viewpoints: perjalanan, keberangkatan, and kedatangan.
- Surface pe...an may represent reduced per-...-an or peN-...-an; lexical-family evidence decides.
- Core nouns cross registers, while dense domain formations and colloquial alternatives have different stylistic distributions.
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