Cross-cultural understanding (Verbal communication: the way people speak)

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Cross cultural understanding

(Verbal communication: the way people speak)

In communication, there are two ways to convey the message, they are verbal and nonverbal communication. This summary is about ‘verbal communication: the way people speak’. The communication or conversation between two people from different culture can cause misunderstanding. It reflects the culture influences the communication.

People who used to talk more, interrupt more, talk more loudly and quickly are called ‘high involvement’. The ‘high involvement’ people interest in a head discussion, this is because they like to convey what they thought or enjoy the argument. In the other hand, people who speak one at time, use polite listening sounds, refrain from interrupting, are called ‘high considerateness’. Russian, Italian, Greek, Spanish, South American, Arab, and African use ‘high involvement’ style in conversation. In general, the various communication style in Asian cultures are characterized as ‘high considerateness.

Americans use direct way in conversation. There are several expression in English that emphasize the importance of being direct: “Get the point”. “Don’t beat around the bush! ”, “let’s get down to business”. Those examples are used by Americans to convey what they thought directly. Many Americans believe that ‘honesty is the best policy’, and their communication style reflects this. However, Asians consider if people talk in direct way, they seem talk too rude. These differences cultures can cause miss understanding and incorrect judgment.

In America, the way American male and female are different. America female has traditionally been less direct than American male. Its mean Americans female are more polite and soft. In 1980’s there is a course that designed to help women communicate directly, especially in the office. In the 1990’s, there is more recognition of the ‘feminine’. Once again, there are gender differences: it has been observed that men tend to interrupt women than women interrupt man. However, Americans female use direct way to show their feeling.

In conversation, Americans use ‘Ping-Pong’ style. It does not mean people talk with playing ‘Ping-Pong’ ball. ‘Ping-Pong’ is parable of the way to communicate actively or not become passive. For Americans, even two or three seconds of silence can become uncomfortable. In the contrary, most of Asians use ‘bowling’ style in the conversation. Its mean Asian know when they have a turn to talk, the person bowls carefully. The others watch politely, and do not leave their places in line or take a turn out of order. No one else speaks until the ball has reached the bowling pins.

Those differences appear ethnocentric judgments. This is because Americans consider Asians are less interested in conversation. The Asians will have ethnocentric judgment of Americans. Asian feel the Americans are pushy and overly inquisitive. In conclusion, if we can anticipate differences in communication style, our judgments about people more accurate.

summary plot of "A Man Who Had No Eyes" short story

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English prose: plot summary of “A man who had no eyes”

PLOT

The plot is how the author arranges events to develop his basic idea. It is the sequence of events in a story or play. The plot is a planned, logical series of events having a beginning, middle, and end.  The short story usually has one plot so it can be read in one sitting. It is divided into five, they are :

a.      Exposition (introduction)     

 Provides the background information needed to properly understand the story, such as the problem in the beginning of the story, characters, and setting. It can be also used to summarize the topic. It is also the time the story is taking place. In some texts is a very direct exposition, like in a fairytale once upon a time...

-          He was a blind beggar, carrying the traditional battered can, and thumping his way before him with the cautious, half-furtive effort of the sightless..

-          And, thought Mr. Parsons, he was very glad to be alive. A few years ago he had been little more than a skilled laborer; now he was successful, respected, admired… Insurance…

b.      Rising action                         

The basic internal conflict is complicated by the introduction of related secondary conflicts and is the base for the climax.

-          The shabby man pocketed the two half dollars. "Fourteen years, guv’nor." Then he added with an insane sort of pride: "Westbury, sir, I was one of ‘em."

-          "Westbury," repeated Mr. Parsons. "Ah yes. The chemical explosion . . .

c.       Climax

Turning point which marks a change for the better or the worse, in the protagonist’s affairs. Also,  this is where the main part happens or the most dramatic part.

-          He swallowed ---a studied sob---and stood dumbly expectant. He could imagine the next words: Tough luck, my man. Damned tough luck. Now I want to ---

"That’s the story, guv’nor."

The spring wind shrilled past them, damp and quivering.

“Not quite," said Mr. Parsons.

The blind peddlar shivered crazily. "Not quite? What do you mean, you ---? "

"The story is true," Mr. Parsons said, "except that it was the other way around."

d.      Falling action

The conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist unravels, with the protagonist winning or losing against the antagonist. The falling action might contain a moment of final suspense, during which the final outcome of the conflict is in doubt.

-          "I was in C shop," said Mr. Parsons. "It was the other way around. You were the fellow who hauled back on me and climbed over me. You were bigger than I was, Markwardt."

e.       Resolution

The conclusion of the story, conflict  are resolved and creating normality for the characters. More modern works may have no resolution, because of a quick or surprise ending.

-          People in the street turned to stare at him.

"You got away but I’m blind! Do you hear? I’m---"

"Well," said Mr. Parsons, don’t make such a row about it, Markwardt…So am I."

morphological restriction

1. Background of the study

            Morphology is the mental system involved word formation or to the branch of linguistics that deals with words, their internal structure, and how they are formed (Arnoff and Fundeman: 2011: 1). In other words, morphology is study of morphemes and their arrangement in forming word. The set of words in a language is never quite fixed. There must be some processes by which new complex words are created. And even when a complex word is likely to be listed in the lexicon, it is useful to think of the relationship between it and its base in terms of these same processes. These processes and how they can be formally describe using morphological rules.

            According to Chaer, there are three morphological processes, namely (1) Affixation (2) Reduplication, and (3) Compounding (2003: 177-188). This research is focus on the reduplication words, especially in Indonesian language. Reduplication is a repeating morpheme of the process basic forms, either in full, in part, or to change the sound of word (phoneme).

            The writer does this research because there are some words in Indonesian language which are not appropriate with the reduplicate theory as general. In other words, in Indonesian language, there are several reduplicate words that do not have reduplicate shape as in other country. Therefore, the writer tries to inform there are some differences in reduplication words especially in Indonesian language.

2. Objective of the study

            Commonly, a reduplicate word is the repeat of morpheme with the process basic forms, either in full, in part, or to change the sound of word (phoneme). Most of reduplication words in other language have similarities. In other words, they have similarity such as in repeat and attachment the base either preceding or following it. However, in Indonesian language there is a reduplicate word that little bit different with another reduplicate. Therefore, the writer tries to give some information about the different one. With the aim the readers know about the uniqueness of Indonesian language.

3. Theoretical frame work

            To know about the differences between the reduplication words in common shape and the reduplicate words in uncommon shape as in one of the Indonesian reduplication words. The writer uses some theories to know the differences. The theory is “In reduplication, a continuous substring from either the beginning or the end of a word is copied. Languages may use reduplication for inflection or derivation (Arnoff and Fundeman: 2011: 81)”. “Reduplication is repetition of grammatical units, both of part or total unit, whether or not the phoneme variation (Chaer, 2003: 182)”. From those explanations, Reduplication is a repeating morpheme of the process basic forms, either in full, in part, or to change the sound of word (phoneme). Characteristics of the process of reduplication can be divided in three parts :( i) The Reduplication generally does not change the word class category (class words), (ii) The reduplication can be returned in its basic form, (iii) The basic form of the reduplication is always a unit contained in language use. For example:

-          Reduplication of entire stem in Malagasy:

be                    ‘big, numerous’           be-be                           ‘fairly big, numerous’

fotsy                 ‘white’                         fotsi-fotsy                     ‘whitish’

maimbo           ‘stinky’                        maimbo-maimbo         ‘somewhat stinky’

hafa                 ‘different’                   hafa-hafa                     ‘somewhat different’

(keenan and polinsky 1998:571)

From those examples above, the base word in Malagasy ‘hafa’ (adjective) à ‘hafa-hafa’ (noun) the lexeme is repeated and the function of the words changed. ‘maimbo’ (adjective) à ‘maimbo-maimbo’ (noun) the lexeme is also repeated and the function of the words changed.

-          Reduplication of entire stem in Indonesia:

kuda                ‘horse’             kuda-kuda                   ‘horses’

rumah              ‘house’            rumah-rumah              ‘houses’

(Chaer, 2003: 183)

From both of the examples, the base word in Bahasa Indonesia ‘kuda’ (sing) à ‘kuda-kuda’ (plur). ‘rumah’ (sing) à ‘rumah-rumah’ (plur). The entire of those lexemes are repeated and the grammatical functions also changed.

-          Reduplication in the sequence of the lexeme in Mangap-Mbula:

kuk                   ‘bark’               kuk-uk              ‘be barking’

kel                    ‘dig’                kel-el                ‘be dingging’

kan                  ‘eat’                 kan-an             ‘be eating’

(Bugenhagen 1995:53)

From those examples, the base word in Mangap-Mbula ‘kuk’ (simple present) à ‘kuk-uk’ (present continuous). ‘kel’ (simple present) à ‘kel-el’ (present continuous). From both examples, the reduplication happens in the sequence of the lexeme. And the reduplication also changes the grammatical function.

-          Reduplication in the sequence of the lexeme in Bahasa Indonesia:

Pertama           ‘first’               pertama-tama              ‘firstly’

Perlahan          ‘slow’              perlahan-lahan             ‘slowly’

Sekali              ‘once’              sekali-kali                    ‘for once’

(Chaer, 2003: 184)

From those examples the base words in Bahasa Indonesia ‘pertama’ (adv) à ‘pertama-tama’ (adv). ‘perlahan’  (adv) à ‘perlahan-lahan’(adv). In this example, the reduplication happens in the sequence of the lexeme and it does not change the grammatical or the words function.

Those are the examples of reduplication words in common ways, and that all are derived from different languages. All those examples are appropriate with the theory how the reduplicate words should be. However, in Bahasa Indonesia there is a reduplicate words that uncommon happens in other languages. It becomes the uniqueness one because we rarely found this reduplication in other countries. This reduplication is repeated entire the lexeme and the vowel sound of the lexeme changed or becomes various. As the examples:

One of Bahasa Indonesia reduplications:

‘mondar-mandir’ à the vowels of both lexemes are not same

‘corat-coret’ à the vowels of both lexemes are not same

‘pontang-panting’ à the vowels of both lexemes are not same

‘bolak-balik’ à the vowels of both lexemes are not same

From those examples, this reduplications word is different with others. The differences are placed in the vowel in the lexeme that can change or do not have similarity with previous lexeme.

In another example, there is a reduplication that quite same with the reduplication words above. This duplication also repeats the lexeme, but the vowel in the lexeme does not change as in the Bahasa Indonesia. This reduplication just changes the consonant in the lexeme. Therefore, this reduplication does not become the special one because the vowels of the lexeme do not become varieties. For the examples:

One of English reduplication words:

-          willy-nilly à the vowels do not change

-          hocus-pocus à the vowels do not change

-          mumbo-jumbo à the vowels do not change

-          hanky-panky à the vowels do not change

-          hodge-podge à the vowels do not change

-          handy-dandy à the vowels do not change

-          hoity-toity à the vowels do not change

-          helter-skelter à the vowels do not change

(Liber Rochelle: 2009: 81)

From all those examples, there are some differences between each of the reduplicates words. Therefore, the writer wants to give some information about the differences by taking some examples of reduplications from other language with Bahasa Indonesia.

4. Data Collection Procedure

            The idea of this research is started from the curiosity of the writer to know about the morphological rules because it is the basic segment in morphology. When she studies about morphological rule, she interests with the reduplication word because there are many examples words in Indonesia that reduplicate. She tries to find the similarities of the reduplicate words in Bahasa Indonesia with other reduplication words in different languages.

            The writer starts to look for the journal or the article about reduplication words in the internet at June 10^th 2013. It took several days because sometimes the signal of the internet does not have good performance, and also the writer should divide her time for other analysis.

            The writer got the journals and the articles by searching in the Google scholar. She looked for the journals and the articles that can support her research. At the first, the writer did not get the article or the journal as the topic that she will discuss, because the journals or the articles about reduplication words especially in Bahasa Indonesia are quite difficult to find. Therefore, she stopped her searching in the several days. She went to the library with hope she will get the material about the topic that she will discuss. Disappointingly she did not get the books to support this research. 

            At June 12^th, she looked for the material about reduplicate words again. She looked for in the Google scholar. Fortunately, the signal of the internet supported to download the related articles and the journal. After she got some material from the internet, she looked for the material from the electric books that were given by her lecturer. And the last source for this research is dictionaries. The dictionaries help the writer to choose the appropriate words. She used English and Indonesian dictionaries.

5. Data analysis

            After the writer collected the data and the sources, she filters the data and resources to choose the good one. After that, she made the outline of this research. The outline contained the main point that will be discussed. The writer tried to make this research easy to understand for everyone. Therefore, she uses some dictionaries to choose the appropriate words for this research.

            After that, the writer arranged every single point of this research. Before he arranged every single point that will be discussed, she got confused. She confused with the location of the points. She solved her confusion with looking the instructions and the feedback from her lecturer. She combined the theories and the examples from the books and the journals or the articles.

The process of this research took many times, especially in the filtering the source for every point that will be discussed. Such as, when she will put some of the theories about reduplication words, she confused which is the good and the appropriate one. The writer must be careful to choose every single word.

It was not easy work, because it was the first time for the writer to make an analysis about language. Hopefully, this research gives some benefit for the readers.

6. References:

-          Hespelmath and Sims (2010) Understanding Morphology

-          Lieber Locher (2009) Introducing Morphology

-          Aronof and Fudemen (2011) What Is Morphology?

-          Boij Geert (2007) The Grammar of Words

-          http://digilib.unimus.ac.id/files/disk1/133/jtptunimus-gdl-zaidanwarf-6637-3-chapter-i.pdf

-          http://crl.ucsd.edu/~phofmeister/teaching/2011/lecture2-morph.pdf

-          http://chl.anu.edu.au/linguistics/projects/iwa/IndonParGram/papers/Alta.morpho.pdf