tersebut in Formal Reference Chains in Malaysian Malay

Tersebut follows a noun and tells readers to retrieve its referent from an earlier mention: keputusan tersebut means “the decision in question,” “that decision,” or, in strongly legal English, “the said decision.” It is especially characteristic of news reports, official correspondence, regulations, and legal or administrative prose (formal). Its meaning combines anaphora—looking backward in the text—with an institutional tone.

The referent is the same in both versions. Tersebut changes how the writer manages the reference chain and what genre the sentence evokes; it does not make the decision more distant in space.

The basic pattern: noun + tersebut

Tersebut is postnominal: laporan tersebut, pemohon tersebut, syarikat tersebut. Any descriptive material that belongs inside the noun phrase normally precedes it, so the anaphoric form closes the phrase.

In kedua-dua saksi tersebut, quantity and the noun come first; tersebut instructs readers to identify the complete group from prior discourse. English puts those before the noun or may use no visible determiner in a translation. Copying English order as tersebut laporan is ungrammatical.

Prior mention is part of the meaning

Tersebut normally presupposes that the audience can recover the referent from something already named, quoted, or otherwise made salient in the document. It is poor writing when used to introduce a completely new participant with no recoverable anchor.

The first sentence introduces seorang pemandu. The second retrieves that same participant as pemandu tersebut. English often shifts from a driver to the driver; formal Malay can shift from an indefinite noun phrase to noun + tersebut. This does not mean Malay has reproduced the English article system. It has chosen an overt backward-pointing expression suited to the genre.

The antecedent need not be the immediately preceding noun, but readers must be able to find it without guessing. If a report mentions three companies and then says syarikat tersebut, the chain is defective unless only one company is currently salient.

News and administrative usage

News writing uses tersebut to maintain reference while avoiding ambiguity among participants. Administrative writing uses it for applicants, documents, provisions, premises, payments, and dates already defined. The form sounds normal in these genres, though clear writers still vary reference rather than repeat it mechanically.

The second example illustrates that tersebut is number-neutral. Dokumen tersebut can retrieve one document or several; the first sentence and real-world context supply the number. Malay does not add plural agreement to tersebut.

In plainer public-facing writing, repeating a short noun phrase with itu, using an appropriate pronoun, or omitting a recoverable argument can be easier to read. Institutional tone is useful only when the genre calls for it.

Legal precision and tersebut di atas

Legal drafting values explicit reference chains because rights and duties must be attached to the right party or provision. Tersebut and the longer tersebut di atas “mentioned above” are therefore common (legal/formal). The longer form should genuinely point to preceding material; it is not decorative formality.

English legal translation often uses said, aforementioned, or the above. Ordinary English translations may simply use the or that. Do not let a stiff English gloss mislead you into thinking tersebut is archaic: it remains productive in contemporary Malaysian institutional prose. It is, however, markedly formal outside those settings.

tersebut versus itu

Both itu and tersebut can retrieve a previously established referent. Itu is the unmarked choice across conversation and ordinary writing. It can also point physically or invoke shared knowledge. Tersebut is narrower: it explicitly evokes prior mention and formal textual management.

The first is natural conversation. Replacing itu with tersebut while chatting with a colleague can sound as though the speaker has suddenly begun reading from a memorandum. The second fits a news report or formal summary whose preceding sentence introduced the report.

Avoiding heavy reference chains

Formal writers sometimes repeat tersebut after every mention in the belief that repetition guarantees precision. It can instead make prose monotonous and conceal weak paragraph structure. Once the subject remains unambiguous, Malay can continue with a lexical repetition, an appropriate pronoun such as ia for a nonhuman institutional subject in formal prose, or an omitted argument.

Only rayuan needs the explicit backward link here. Adding tersebut to every subsequent noun would not make the new keputusan refer to an earlier decision; in fact, it would falsely suggest such an antecedent. Cohesion depends on accurate chains, not maximum repetition. See reference chains for paragraph-level choices.

Common Mistakes

1. Using tersebut before the noun

2. Introducing a new referent with no antecedent

3. Importing formal anaphora into casual conversation

4. Treating tersebut as a plural form

Key Takeaways

Postnominal tersebut retrieves a previously introduced referent and gives the reference an institutional formal tone. It is productive in Malaysian news, administrative, and legal prose, but conversational Malay normally prefers itu. The form does not mark spatial distance or plural number, and it cannot repair an ambiguous antecedent. Good formal writing uses it selectively, with a clear prior mention and a real need for textual precision.