Analyzing The Implicature and Politeness: does maturnuwun word or “thank you” has other function for Javanese people?
Introduction
When people have conversation, they exactly want to convey what they thought. However, in the middle of conversation, sometimes there are some intentions which cannot be implied directly to the interlocutor. In some cases, the speaker does not convey or state what he thought directly because he does not want to lose his face or embarrasses someone. Losing face means the notions of being embarrassed, humiliated or disappointed (Rahmawati, 2008). Therefore, when people do not convey what exactly they thought, it can appear misunderstanding between the speaker and the interlocutor as the effect. From those phenomenon, the researcher wants to analyze one of Javanese words which contains ambiguity.
The word that will be analyzed by the researcher is maturnuwun. The meaning of maturnuwun itself is “thank you”. Commonly, the word maturnuwun is used to convey or show the grateful for something. However, in Java, the word maturnuwun or “thank you” sometimes does not used to convey or show the grateful only. It is possible if the other functions of maturnuwun or “thank you” are influenced by the Javanese culture. According to Brown and Douglas, “a language is a part of culture and a culture is a part of a language; the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture (2000, 177).”
In conversational involvement, Javanese culture can be characterized as “high considerateness”. It is according to Deborah Tannen’s book “You Just Don’t Understand”, which characterized the Asian culture as “high considerateness”. In other words, when Asian people have a conversation, they tend to: 1) speak one at a time; 2) use polite listening sounds; 3) refrain from interrupting; and 4) give plenty of positive and respectful responses to their conversation partners (as cited in Levine and Adelman; 1993).
Based on the explanations above, the researcher will analyze the other functions of maturnuwun through implicature and politeness strategies theory. The notions of politeness and implicature are key concepts in the field of pragmatics, yet while there has been numerous studies on politeness and implicature phenomena in various languages, there has been much less attention paid to the intersection between politeness and implicature.
According to Gazdar, a statement or idea which is not conveyed by the speaker’s utterance is called implicature (P. 38). Whereas, politeness strategy is one of the communication strategies which emphasizes on the polite words and action (Brown and Levinson as cited in Rahmawati, 2008; 17). Politeness strategies are developed in order to save the hearer’s face (Brown and Levinson as cited in Goody, 1993). In this case, face means the honor that an individual has, and maintaining the ‘self-esteem’ in public or private situation.
According to Goody (1996), face is divided into two types; they are positive and negative face; positive face represents the want of every participant of conversation that his/her wants be desirable to at least some others. In the contrary, the negative face represents the want of every participant of conversation that his/her actions are not disturbed by others (as cited in Rahmawati, 2008).
The question is now, whether maturnuwun has other functions excluding to show the grateful for something. The analysis will further be extended to see whether the term is consistently used as showing the grateful or brings other meaning. This paper is companied with the result of investigating some people who said maturnuwun word. This investigation is done when the participants are offered by someone in the different places and situations. To get some views of thanks, it is first necessary to discuss and relate the references which have been used to describe the case, and the most importantly to understand the meaning and remedial of concepts of thanks.
Analysis and Discussion
To show the grateful for something, people use thanks to reflect that feeling. That expression definitely conveys what the speaker thought straightly. Furthermore, Nazzal claims that language is context-bound, someone’s utterance should be treated in which is produced (2005, p. 254). From that statement, Nazzal claims that the meaning of the word must be similar with the words which are produced.
However, in Javanese people, when they use this term, they do not exactly want to convey or show the grateful. In other words, they use that term to other function in conversation. This act is influenced by the Javanese culture which is identical with politeness and shy feeling. Therefore, some of the Javanese people do not convey what is in their idea straightly. In addition, Chaika concludes that one of the things that determines meaning of the language is the social-cultural and physical environment (1982, p. 10).
In analyzing the other functions of maturnuwun word, the researcher has two conversations which show the other function of that term. The researcher does not use the questionnaires to get the information, but she investigates the conversation secretly. Therefore, the results of the data are based on natural conversation. In the first conversation, to know the other usage of maturnuwun, the researcher tries to offer a participant with some snack intentionally. This experiment was taken on 2nd of June 2014 in the campus area. The researcher offers a student of English department.
The 1st conversation:
The researcher: rek iki loh jajan, ndang di maem.
(The researcher offers the participant with gorengan (fried food) in the front of humanities faculty).
The participant: maturnuwun.
(At the first, the participant rejects the offering)
The researcher: lhoh? opo’o? ngomong maturnuwun tapi gorengane gak dijupuk.
(The researcher tries to ask the participant)
The participant: gak opo-opo kok. Suwun wes. Hehehe…
(The participant rejects for the twice)
The researcher: serius?
(The researcher makes certainty about the answer of the participant with putting in the gorengan to the participant)
The participant: hehe…
(The participant laughs and takes the gorengan which is offered by the researcher)
After the participant takes the gorengan, the researcher asks to her why she used maturnuwun word in rejecting the offering. The participant told that she used maturnuwun word when she rejected the offering because she was shy. Actually, the participant wanted to say “yes” when the researcher offered her with gorengan. However, she preferred to say maturnuwun (thank you) to keep the politeness.
As the discussion above, the first conversation shows the one of politeness strategies’ types, which is exactly the negative face. It means that the interlocutor wants to get closer with the speaker through saying maturnuwun.
In the different day and place, the researcher finds two people who have conversation. This second conversation is unintentionally founded by the researcher in unexpected place. This event happens in the 4th of June 2014 at the 4 PM in the road between the library and the science and technology building. The participants of this conversation are a boy and a girl who are students from other faculties.
The 2nd conversation:
The boy: bareng a?
(The boy tries to offer the girl with asking her to go home together)
The girl: maturnuwun…
(The girl rejects the boy’s offering with maturnuwun word)
The boy: lhoh ayo, ojok sungkan-sungkan.
(The boy tries to thrust on the girl)
The girl: hehehe… suwun suwun!
(The girl rejects the offering again)
The boy: duluan yo…
(The boy leaves the girls)
The girl: oyi.
(The girl answer)
The researcher approaches the girl when the boy leaves her. After that, the researcher asks the girl about maturnuwun word that she used. The researcher asks some questions to the girl about the using of word maturnuwun even she does not accepts the offering. Then, the girl explains the word maturnuwun that she used. The reason why she used maturnuwun is to reject the offering from the boy politely because if she rejects the offering directly it seems too rude.
As the explanation of the girl who was investigated by the researcher, we can see that it has correlation with positive face of politeness strategies. The girl uses maturnuwun to reject the offering because she does not want the interlocutor losing the speaker’s face. In addition, for keeping the distance to the speaker the girl use maturnuwn word to cover her shy feeling.
If we analyze those two conversations, we will find the similarity between them. In the first conversation the word maturnuwun has implicit meaning. The participant in the first conversation uses maturnuwun word to imply her purpose. The second participant (the girl) uses the word maturnuwun to reject the offering politely.
In other hand, the researcher found the different usage of maturnuwun from both conversations. In the first conversation, actually the participant does not want to reject the offering. Therefore, she uses maturnuwun to get closer with the speaker and takes the snack. While, in the second conversation, the participant (the girl) truly wants to reject the offering from the interlocutor (the boy) because she wants to keep the distance. For that reason, the girl uses maturnuwun to reject the offering politely because she does not want to embarrass the interlocutor (the boy).
As the data which are collected from the Javanese people’s conversation, the researcher finds the different results in the word thanks usage. It is supported by Searle (1975 as cited in Pishghadam, 2012) who states that the speaker utterance has multiple meaning.
Conclusion and Suggestion:
As the result of investigation the conversation, the researcher finds the differences in the usage of maturnuwun. In Java, Maturnuwun word or “thank you” is not only used to show the grateful for something. Maturnuwun has some functions in conversation, it can be used to reject the offering and it can be used to cover the shy feeling and to show the respect or the politeness. The different function of maturnuwn word is the impact of the Javanese culture itself which is identical with politeness and shy feeling. In short, the words do not always convey what the speaker thought straightly. Yet, the meaning of the word will be changed depends on its context.
The importance of this investigation is to show the different usage of thanks in Java. It is also important for the readers who do not know the Javanese culture. Hopefully, this research can reduce misunderstanding in the middle of conversation. In addition, the researcher expects for the next researcher to explore more about the riches of Indonesian language through the great theories of the language.
Reference lists:
Chaika, E., (1982). Language the social mirror. Rowley: Newbury house publisher, INC.
Gazdar, G. Pragmatic: Implicature, presupposition, and logical form, New York: Academic press. Retrieved form: http://ling.umd.edu/~alxndrw/Readings/Implicature/gazdar79.pdf
Grosjean, F., (1982). Life with two languages. Harvard, United States of America: Harvard University Press.
Levine, R.., D. and Adelman, B., M. (1993). Beyond language: cross-cultural communication (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs., New Jersey: A paramount communications company.
Nazzal, A., (2005). The pragmatic functions of the recitation of qur’anic verses by muslims in their oral genre: The case of insha’ Allah, ‘God’s willing’. International Pragmatics Association, 15:2/3, 251-273. Retrieved from: http://elanguage.net/journals/pragmatics/article/view/493/421.
Panggabean, C. I. T. (2010). Pemahaman lintas budaya dalam pembelajaran bahasa inggris. Okara. 2(5). 146-230.
Pishghadam, R., and Norouz, K., P. (2012). Insha’ Allah (God’s Williing) and its function in Persian. Studies in Literature and Language, 1(4), 6-11. DOI: 10.3968/j s11. 1923156320120401.273. Retrieved from: http://www.cscanada.org.
Rahmawati, A. N. (2008). Politeness strategies used by the main character (Marcus) in “get rich or die trying” movie (Undergraduate’s thesis). The State Islamic University of Malang. Malang.
Introduction
When people have conversation, they exactly want to convey what they thought. However, in the middle of conversation, sometimes there are some intentions which cannot be implied directly to the interlocutor. In some cases, the speaker does not convey or state what he thought directly because he does not want to lose his face or embarrasses someone. Losing face means the notions of being embarrassed, humiliated or disappointed (Rahmawati, 2008). Therefore, when people do not convey what exactly they thought, it can appear misunderstanding between the speaker and the interlocutor as the effect. From those phenomenon, the researcher wants to analyze one of Javanese words which contains ambiguity.
The word that will be analyzed by the researcher is maturnuwun. The meaning of maturnuwun itself is “thank you”. Commonly, the word maturnuwun is used to convey or show the grateful for something. However, in Java, the word maturnuwun or “thank you” sometimes does not used to convey or show the grateful only. It is possible if the other functions of maturnuwun or “thank you” are influenced by the Javanese culture. According to Brown and Douglas, “a language is a part of culture and a culture is a part of a language; the two are intricately interwoven so that one cannot separate the two without losing the significance of either language or culture (2000, 177).”
In conversational involvement, Javanese culture can be characterized as “high considerateness”. It is according to Deborah Tannen’s book “You Just Don’t Understand”, which characterized the Asian culture as “high considerateness”. In other words, when Asian people have a conversation, they tend to: 1) speak one at a time; 2) use polite listening sounds; 3) refrain from interrupting; and 4) give plenty of positive and respectful responses to their conversation partners (as cited in Levine and Adelman; 1993).
Based on the explanations above, the researcher will analyze the other functions of maturnuwun through implicature and politeness strategies theory. The notions of politeness and implicature are key concepts in the field of pragmatics, yet while there has been numerous studies on politeness and implicature phenomena in various languages, there has been much less attention paid to the intersection between politeness and implicature.
According to Gazdar, a statement or idea which is not conveyed by the speaker’s utterance is called implicature (P. 38). Whereas, politeness strategy is one of the communication strategies which emphasizes on the polite words and action (Brown and Levinson as cited in Rahmawati, 2008; 17). Politeness strategies are developed in order to save the hearer’s face (Brown and Levinson as cited in Goody, 1993). In this case, face means the honor that an individual has, and maintaining the ‘self-esteem’ in public or private situation.
According to Goody (1996), face is divided into two types; they are positive and negative face; positive face represents the want of every participant of conversation that his/her wants be desirable to at least some others. In the contrary, the negative face represents the want of every participant of conversation that his/her actions are not disturbed by others (as cited in Rahmawati, 2008).
The question is now, whether maturnuwun has other functions excluding to show the grateful for something. The analysis will further be extended to see whether the term is consistently used as showing the grateful or brings other meaning. This paper is companied with the result of investigating some people who said maturnuwun word. This investigation is done when the participants are offered by someone in the different places and situations. To get some views of thanks, it is first necessary to discuss and relate the references which have been used to describe the case, and the most importantly to understand the meaning and remedial of concepts of thanks.
Analysis and Discussion
To show the grateful for something, people use thanks to reflect that feeling. That expression definitely conveys what the speaker thought straightly. Furthermore, Nazzal claims that language is context-bound, someone’s utterance should be treated in which is produced (2005, p. 254). From that statement, Nazzal claims that the meaning of the word must be similar with the words which are produced.
However, in Javanese people, when they use this term, they do not exactly want to convey or show the grateful. In other words, they use that term to other function in conversation. This act is influenced by the Javanese culture which is identical with politeness and shy feeling. Therefore, some of the Javanese people do not convey what is in their idea straightly. In addition, Chaika concludes that one of the things that determines meaning of the language is the social-cultural and physical environment (1982, p. 10).
In analyzing the other functions of maturnuwun word, the researcher has two conversations which show the other function of that term. The researcher does not use the questionnaires to get the information, but she investigates the conversation secretly. Therefore, the results of the data are based on natural conversation. In the first conversation, to know the other usage of maturnuwun, the researcher tries to offer a participant with some snack intentionally. This experiment was taken on 2nd of June 2014 in the campus area. The researcher offers a student of English department.
The 1st conversation:
The researcher: rek iki loh jajan, ndang di maem.
(The researcher offers the participant with gorengan (fried food) in the front of humanities faculty).
The participant: maturnuwun.
(At the first, the participant rejects the offering)
The researcher: lhoh? opo’o? ngomong maturnuwun tapi gorengane gak dijupuk.
(The researcher tries to ask the participant)
The participant: gak opo-opo kok. Suwun wes. Hehehe…
(The participant rejects for the twice)
The researcher: serius?
(The researcher makes certainty about the answer of the participant with putting in the gorengan to the participant)
The participant: hehe…
(The participant laughs and takes the gorengan which is offered by the researcher)
After the participant takes the gorengan, the researcher asks to her why she used maturnuwun word in rejecting the offering. The participant told that she used maturnuwun word when she rejected the offering because she was shy. Actually, the participant wanted to say “yes” when the researcher offered her with gorengan. However, she preferred to say maturnuwun (thank you) to keep the politeness.
As the discussion above, the first conversation shows the one of politeness strategies’ types, which is exactly the negative face. It means that the interlocutor wants to get closer with the speaker through saying maturnuwun.
In the different day and place, the researcher finds two people who have conversation. This second conversation is unintentionally founded by the researcher in unexpected place. This event happens in the 4th of June 2014 at the 4 PM in the road between the library and the science and technology building. The participants of this conversation are a boy and a girl who are students from other faculties.
The 2nd conversation:
The boy: bareng a?
(The boy tries to offer the girl with asking her to go home together)
The girl: maturnuwun…
(The girl rejects the boy’s offering with maturnuwun word)
The boy: lhoh ayo, ojok sungkan-sungkan.
(The boy tries to thrust on the girl)
The girl: hehehe… suwun suwun!
(The girl rejects the offering again)
The boy: duluan yo…
(The boy leaves the girls)
The girl: oyi.
(The girl answer)
The researcher approaches the girl when the boy leaves her. After that, the researcher asks the girl about maturnuwun word that she used. The researcher asks some questions to the girl about the using of word maturnuwun even she does not accepts the offering. Then, the girl explains the word maturnuwun that she used. The reason why she used maturnuwun is to reject the offering from the boy politely because if she rejects the offering directly it seems too rude.
As the explanation of the girl who was investigated by the researcher, we can see that it has correlation with positive face of politeness strategies. The girl uses maturnuwun to reject the offering because she does not want the interlocutor losing the speaker’s face. In addition, for keeping the distance to the speaker the girl use maturnuwn word to cover her shy feeling.
If we analyze those two conversations, we will find the similarity between them. In the first conversation the word maturnuwun has implicit meaning. The participant in the first conversation uses maturnuwun word to imply her purpose. The second participant (the girl) uses the word maturnuwun to reject the offering politely.
In other hand, the researcher found the different usage of maturnuwun from both conversations. In the first conversation, actually the participant does not want to reject the offering. Therefore, she uses maturnuwun to get closer with the speaker and takes the snack. While, in the second conversation, the participant (the girl) truly wants to reject the offering from the interlocutor (the boy) because she wants to keep the distance. For that reason, the girl uses maturnuwun to reject the offering politely because she does not want to embarrass the interlocutor (the boy).
As the data which are collected from the Javanese people’s conversation, the researcher finds the different results in the word thanks usage. It is supported by Searle (1975 as cited in Pishghadam, 2012) who states that the speaker utterance has multiple meaning.
Conclusion and Suggestion:
As the result of investigation the conversation, the researcher finds the differences in the usage of maturnuwun. In Java, Maturnuwun word or “thank you” is not only used to show the grateful for something. Maturnuwun has some functions in conversation, it can be used to reject the offering and it can be used to cover the shy feeling and to show the respect or the politeness. The different function of maturnuwn word is the impact of the Javanese culture itself which is identical with politeness and shy feeling. In short, the words do not always convey what the speaker thought straightly. Yet, the meaning of the word will be changed depends on its context.
The importance of this investigation is to show the different usage of thanks in Java. It is also important for the readers who do not know the Javanese culture. Hopefully, this research can reduce misunderstanding in the middle of conversation. In addition, the researcher expects for the next researcher to explore more about the riches of Indonesian language through the great theories of the language.
Reference lists:
Chaika, E., (1982). Language the social mirror. Rowley: Newbury house publisher, INC.
Gazdar, G. Pragmatic: Implicature, presupposition, and logical form, New York: Academic press. Retrieved form: http://ling.umd.edu/~alxndrw/Readings/Implicature/gazdar79.pdf
Grosjean, F., (1982). Life with two languages. Harvard, United States of America: Harvard University Press.
Levine, R.., D. and Adelman, B., M. (1993). Beyond language: cross-cultural communication (2nd ed.). Englewood Cliffs., New Jersey: A paramount communications company.
Nazzal, A., (2005). The pragmatic functions of the recitation of qur’anic verses by muslims in their oral genre: The case of insha’ Allah, ‘God’s willing’. International Pragmatics Association, 15:2/3, 251-273. Retrieved from: http://elanguage.net/journals/pragmatics/article/view/493/421.
Panggabean, C. I. T. (2010). Pemahaman lintas budaya dalam pembelajaran bahasa inggris. Okara. 2(5). 146-230.
Pishghadam, R., and Norouz, K., P. (2012). Insha’ Allah (God’s Williing) and its function in Persian. Studies in Literature and Language, 1(4), 6-11. DOI: 10.3968/j s11. 1923156320120401.273. Retrieved from: http://www.cscanada.org.
Rahmawati, A. N. (2008). Politeness strategies used by the main character (Marcus) in “get rich or die trying” movie (Undergraduate’s thesis). The State Islamic University of Malang. Malang.
No comments:
Post a Comment