Sapaan Uda dan Uni dalam Bahasa Minangkabau Kontaminasi

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Sapaan Uda dan Uni dalam Bahasa Minangkabau
Kontaminasi dengan Sapaan Mas dan Mbak dalam Bahasa Jawa
Adrias, M.Pd., STKIP PGRI Sumatera Barat
Abstract
Indonesia secara geografis adalah berpulau-pulau dan menjadikan masyarakatnya memiliki
perbedaan bahasa yang disebut dengan bahasa lokal atau bahasa daerah. Dalam berkomunikasi
sehari-hari, pada umumnya masyarakat Indonesia menggunakan bahasa daerah termasuk dalam
menggunakan sapaan. Di minangkabau sapaan untuk saudara laki-laki atau panggilan pada
laki-laki yang dianggap lebih dewasa dari dirinya, maka dipanggil dengan Uda. Begitu juga
untuk saudara perempuan atau pada perempuan yang dianggap lebih dewasa dari dirinya, maka
dipanggil Uni. Namun, akhir-akhir ini seiring perkembangan zaman sapaan untuk Uda dan Uni
mulai diganti dengan sapaan bahasa daerah lain yang dianggap lebih berprestise. Masyarakat
Minangkabau ketika berada pada pusat keramaian, perkantoran, dan sewaktu berbelanja di
swalayan lebih senang mengucapkan sapaan Mas untuk panggilan pada laki-laki dan sapaan
Mbak untuk panggilan pada perempuan. Pengaruh unsur bahasa nusantara maupun bahasa asing
pada sapaan Uda dan Uni secara perlahan akan merusak tatanan bahasa daerah di Indonesia
khususnya bahasa Minangkabau. Untuk itu, bahasa daerah perlu mendapat perhatian khusus,
karena seiring perkembangan zaman akan selalu mempengaruhi perekmbangan bahasa daerah.
Kata Kunci: Kontaminasi, Mas dan Mba, Sapaan, Uda dan Uni
1. Pendahuluan
Bahasa Indonesia merupakan bahasa persatuan bangsa Indonesia yang tercantum dalam
Sumpah Pemuda Indonesia pada butir ketiga. Selain memiliki bahasa permersatu bangsa
Indonesia juga memiliki keberagaman bahasa daerah sebagai khazanah bangsa. Keberagaman
bahasa daerah tersebut merupakan komponen penting yang perlu dijaga oleh semua masyarakat
Indonesia. Salah satu dari keberagaman bahasa daerah yang ada di Indonesia adalah bahasa
Minangkabau. Bagi masyarakat Minangkabau, bahasa Minangkabau merupakan bahasa pertama
atau disebut dengan bahasa Ibu yang masih terpelihara dengan baik di kalangan penuturnya.
Secara umum masyarakat Minangkabau dalam interaksi komunikasi sehari-hari lebih cenderung
menggunakan bahasa Minangkabau termasuk dalam tegur sapa. Namun, seiring perkembangan
zaman dan kemajuan di segala aspek membawa sebuah perubahan bagi masyarakat termasuk
perubahan bagi pengguna bahasa. Perubahan dan perkembangan pengguna bahasa juga sampai
pada tingkat pengguna bahasa daerah khususnya bahasa Minangkabau.
Penutur bahasa daerah khususnya masyarakat Minangkabau mulai menerima perubahan
terhadap perkembangan bahasa terutama dalam penggunaan sapaan. Faktor-faktor yang dapat
mempengaruhi perkembangan bahasa daerah khususnya penggunaan sapaan diantaranya
kemajuan teknologi seperti penggunaan bahasa pada dunia maya, menerima informasi baik
media elektronik maupun media cetak. Kemudahan dalam menerima informasi dalam kemajuan
teknologi membawa dampak positif bagi perkembangan ilmu pengetahuan. Namun, bagi
perkembangan budaya khususnya budaya berbahasa menjadi kontaminasi sebagian pengguna
bahasa daerah. Masyarakat lebih cenderung mengikuti perkembangan bahasa yang sesuai
dengan informasi yang mereka terima di situasi saat ini. Masyarakat pengguna bahasa lebih
bangga menggunakan bahasa yang baru mereka terima dibandingkan bahasa daerah yang lebih
duluan mereka kenal yang sudah dianggap kuno bahkan kurang berprestise. Akibatnya perlahan
mereka mulai meninggalkan bahasa asli daerah, tanpa mereka sadari secara perlahan mereka
telah merusak keberagaman bahasa.
Salah satu bentuk bahasa daerah Minangkabau yang sudah mulai ditinggalkan
penuturnya adalah penggunaan sapaan Uda dan Uda. Masyarakat Minangkabau lebih cenderung
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menggunakan sapaan Mas dan Mbak dalam bahasa Jawa yang dianggap lebih berprestise. Untuk
itulah, dalam makalah ini membahas faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi masyarakat
Minangkabau menggunakan sapaan Mas dan Mbak dalam bahasa Jawa dibandingkan Uda dan
Uni dalam bahasa Minangkabau.
2. Kata Sapaan
Menurut Chaer (2006: 107) kata sapaan adalah kata yang digunakan untuk menyapa,
menegur, atau orang kedua yang diajak bicara. Bagi masyarakat Minangkabau kata sapaan yang
digunakan oleh penutur dalam komunikasi sehari-hari merupakan cerminan kesopanan
berbahasa dalam peristiwa tutur. Misalnya, dalam menyapa, menegur, atau memanggil lawan
tutur. Seseorang tidak tepat memakai kata sapaan untuk menyapa orang lain, terutama untuk
orang yang lebih tua maka orang tersebut dianggap kurang sopan atau dalam filosofis
masyarakat Minangkabau tidak tahu kato mandaki. Menurut Ayub, dkk. (1984: 10-13) dalam
penelitiannya kata sapaan nonkekerabatan yang berlaku di Minangkabau dilihat dari segi
pemakaiannya dapat dibagi menjadi: (1) sapaan umum, (2) sapaan adat, (3) sapaan agama, dan
(4) sapaan jabatan.
Bentuk sapaan umum digunakan dalam hubungan tidak resmi, baik dalam kekerabatan
maupun di luar kekerabatan. Contoh bentuk sapaan umum yang masyarakat Minangkabau
adalah Uda dan Uni. Sapaan yang digunakan untuk menyapa seseorang yang memiliki peranan
penting dalam suatu kaum disebut sapaan adat. Misalnya, bentuk sapaan adat yang digunakan
dalam bahasa Minangkabau Datuak yang dimaknai adalah orang yang dituakan dalam suatu
kaum atau suku tertentu. Selanjutnya, sapaan agama merupakan sapaan yang digunakan untuk
menyapa dan menyebut seseorang yang bertugas atau mengetahui hal-hal yang berhubungan
dengan agama. Kata sapaan ini diberikan kepada seseorang dan disesuaikan dengan pekerjaan
dan keahlian tersebut dalam bidang agama. Bentuk kata sapaan agama yang digunakan oleh
masyarakat Minangkabau adalah Buya kata sapaan terhadap ulama dan Garin kata sapaan
terhadap penjaga masjid. Untuk kata sapaan jabatan adalah kata sapaan yang diberikan kepada
seseorang yang berkaitan dengan jabatan yang dipangkunya dan tidak dikaitkan dengan
hubungan kekerabatan. Sapaan jabatan ini biasanya disesuaikan dengan jabatan seseorang,
misalnya Kapalo Kampuang bentuk kata sapaan terhadap kepala kampung.
Bagi masyarakat Minangkabau sapaan Uda dipakai dalam hubungan kekerabatan
hubungan genetik, sapaan umum, dan hubungan kekerabatan akibat perkawinan. Apabila
ditinjau dari kesantunannya, sapaan Uda juga dipakai dalam hubungan kekerabatan melihat
statusnya dari hubungan akibat perkawinan tanpa melihat umur. Seperti sapaan Uda terhadap
saudara laki-laki suami atau Istri. Walaupun demikian, usia dari suami ataupun istri lebih tua,
tetapi ia tetap memanggil Uda dari saudara tua laki-laki suami atau istri. Hal tersebut
menggambarkan pentingnya kesantunan dalam tutur sapaan bagi masyarakat Minangkabau.
Sapaan juga merupakan salah satu komponen bahasa yang penting karena dalam sapaan itu
dapat ditentukan suatu interaksi akan berlanjut (Kartomihardjo, 1988: 238).
Sapaan Uda dan Uni dalam bahasa Minangkabau biasanya merupakan sapaan pilihan
utama dalam tegur sapa bagi penuturunya. Untuk kondisi saat ini sapaan tersebut sudah mulai
terkontaminasi dengan berbagai sapaan bahasa asing terutama dengan sapaan Mas dan Mbak
dalam bahasa Jawa. Disaat berada di pusat perbelanjaan, perkantoran atau tempat-tempat yang
dianggap tempat publik maka peristiwa penggunaan sapaan Mas dan Mbak terjadi. Dari
gambaran permasalahan di atas dapat diuraikan faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi penggunaan
sapaan Uda dan Uni dalam bahasa Minangkabau yang kontaminasi dengan sapaan Mas dan
Mbak dalam bahasa Jawa sebagai berikut.
1) Media massa elektronik
Kata media massa berasal dari medium dan massa, kata "medium" berasal dari bahasa
latin yang menunjukkan adanya berbagai sarana atau saluran yang diterapkan untuk
mengkomunikasikan ide, gambaran, perasaan dan prinsipnya semua sarana aktivitas mental
manusia. Kata "massa" yang berasal dari daerah Anglosaxon berarti instrumen atau alat yang
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pada hakikatnya terarah kepada semua saja yang mempunyai sifat massif. Tugasnya adalah
sesuai dengan sirkulasi dari berbagai pesan atau berita, menyajikan suatu tipe baru
dari komunikasi yang sesuai dengan kebutuhan fundamental dari masyarakat dewasa ini.
Berbagai macam sajian komunikasi ditayangkan oleh media massa elektronik sampai pada
penggunaan sapaan dalam bahasa prokem maupun penggunaan sapaan pada daerah tertentu.
Untuk penggunaan sapaan daerah yang sering muncul di media massa elektronik adalah sapaan
Mas dan Mbak dalam bahasa Jawa. Akhirnya hal tersebut sangat mempengaruhi penggunaan
sapaan yang terdapat di daerah khususnya sapaan dalam bahasa Minangkabau.
2) Sapaan Mas dan Mbak dianggap lebih sopan
Bagi sebagian masyarakat Minangkabau sapaan Mas untuk panggilan laki-laki yang
lebih tua begitu juga untuk panggilan Mbak lebih sopan dibandingkan dengan panggilan Uda
dan Uni dalam bahasa Minangkabau. Hal tersbut dipengaruhi oleh pradigma yang berkembang
dalam masyarakat Minangkabau bahasa yang digunakan dalam tuturan masyarakat Jawa
memiliki intonasi yang lembut.
3) Sapaan Mas dan Mbak dianggap lebih berprestise
“Maaf Mbak, pakaian yang ini apa diskon Mbak?” Mbak yang dipanggil tersebut bukan
berasal dari Jawa tapi asli perempuan Minang yang seharusnya dipanggil dengan Uni. Kasus
lain juga dapat dikemukakan “Mas, pengurusan buku tabungan yang sudah hilang bagian mana
ya Mas?” Mas yang dipanggil bukan laki-laki yang berasal dari Jawa atau bukan keturunan
Jawa tetapi asli Minangkabau. Pemakaian kata sapaan dari peristiwa tersebut dianggap lebih
memiliki prestise dan komunikatif sebagian masyarakat Minangkabau. Kemampuan
komunikatif itu adalah kemampuan untuk menggunakan bahasa sesuai dengan fungsi, situasi,
norma, dan konteks sosialnya (Chaer dan Agustina, 1995: 5). Sapaan mengandung bentuk
penghormatan atas perbedaan status sosial, jabatan, budaya, usia, dan tingkat keformalan
tuturan. Sapaan Uda dan Uni dalam masyarakat Minangkabau, selain berkaitan dengan unsur
kekerabatan juga mengandung penghormatan terhadap lawan bicara. Namun, di Minangkabau,
sapaan Uda dan Uni mulai tertajadi pergeseran kurang mengandung unsur penghormatan
terhadap lawan bicara.
4) Sapaan Mas dan Mbak dianggap lebih moderen
Di era perkembangan zaman yang maju ini, sistem kehidupan manusia sudah semakin
tinggi sehingga tidak bisa dipungkiri adanya pertemuan antarbudaya yang kadangkala
berbenturan satu sama lain. Adanya benturan budaya itu memaksa seseorang untuk
menggunakan ‘bahasa lain’ sebagai pengungkap ide bahkan agar terjadi komunikasi yang baik,
budaya bawaan ‘disingkirkan terlebih dahulu’. Oleh karaena itu, kaitannya dengan
perkembangan sapaan dalam bahasa Minangkabau juga membawa pergeseran makna bagi
sebagian masysarakat. Anggapan pengganti sapaan Uda dan Uni dengan Mas dan Mbak dalam
bahasa Jawa lebih moderen dan sesuai perkembangan zaman. Namun, sapaan Uda dan Uni
sudah dianggap tidak mampu mengikuti perkembangan zaman dan dianggap kuno atau
kampungan. Kedua sapaan itu sudah mengalami pergeseran menjadi sebuah sapaan terhadap
para status sosialnya yang dianggap rendah.
3. Penutup
Penggunaan sapaan Uda dan Uni dalam bahasa Minangkabau di kalangan masyarakat
Minangkabau khususnya ditempat perbelanjaan dan instansi perkantoran mengalami penurunan
cukup signifikan dan terkontaminasi dengan penggunaan sapaan Mas dan Mbak dalam bahasa
Jawa. Hal itu terjadi karena berdasarkan hasil survei dan pengamatan sebagian besar masyarakat
Minangkabau lebih cenderung menggunakan sapaan Mas dan Mbak dalam bahasa Jawa.
Pembiaran itu bisa terjadi karena sapaan Uda dan Uni dalam bahasa Minangkabau sudah
dianggap tidak bergengsi, tidak sopan, tidak moderen, dan dipengaruhi oleh perkembangan
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media massa elektronik lebih cenderung menggunakan sapaan Mas dan Mbak dalam acara yang
ditayangkan.
Pustaka Acuan
Ayub, Asni. dkk. 1984. Sistem Sapaan Bahasa Minangkabau. Jakarta: Pusat Pembinaan dan
Pengembangan Bahasa.
Chaer, Abdul. 2006. Tata Bahasa Praktis Bahasa Indonesia. Jakarta: Bharatara Karya Aksara.
Chaer, Abdul dan Agustina. 1995. Sosiolinguistik, Perkenalan Awal. Jakarta: Rineka Cipta.
Kartomiharjo, Soeseno. 1988. Bahasa Cermin Kehidupan Masyarakat. Jakarta: Depdikbud.
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Pelestarian Bahasa Lokal pada Masyarakat Urban
Dr. Sugiyono, Badan Bahasa
Dr. des. Luh Anik Mayani, Badan Bahasa
1. Situasi kebahasaan di Indonesia
Berdasarkan tipe ekologi bahasa, Mühlhäusler (2002:385) menggolongkan situasi
kebahasaan di Indonesia ke dalam tipe ketiga, yaitu ekologi kompetitif. Ekologi ini ditandai
dengan adanya perbedaan kekuatan bahasa-bahasa dalam suatu ekologi bahasa dan juga ditandai
dengan adanya rekontruksi ekologi secara berkelanjutan.
Dalam hal ini, kekuatan bahasa Indonesia berkompetisi dengan kekuatan bahasa daerah.
Dengan kedudukannya sebagai bahasa nasional, bahasa Indonesia menjadi semakin penting,
sedangkan bahasa daerah menjadi terpinggirkan. Sebagai bahasa resmi negara, bahasa Indonesia
secara umum digunakan, misalnya, dalam bidang pendidikan dan administrasi pemerintahan.
Dengan demikian, bahasa Indonesia memiliki prestise yang lebih tinggi dibandingkan dengan
bahasa daerah, baik di tingkat nasional maupun regional.
2. Hubungan antara migrasi dan penggunaan bahasa
Resosudarmo dan Suryadarma (2011:1) memaparkan bahwa tingkat urbanisasi di
Indonesia mengalami peningkatan yang sangat pesat. Pada tahun 1950 tingkat urbanisasi adalah
15%, lalu berkembang menjadi 30% pada tahun 1990, dan mencapai 48% pada tahun 2005.
Lebih lanjut mereka menjelaskan bahwa migrasi dilandasi oleh alasan ekonomi. Seseorang akan
bermigrasi jika keuntungan yang dia dapatkan karena bermigrasi lebih besar dibandingkan
dengan tidak bermigrasi.
Migrasi berdampak pada perubahan penggunaan bahasa. Penelitian yang menampilkan
efek migrasi terhadap penggunaan bahasa di Indonesia, di antaranya pernah dilakukan oleh
Steinhauer (1994), Himmelmann (2010), Sofian (2012), dan Anderbeck (2013). Hasil studi dari
tiap-tiap penelitian tersebut adalah sebagai berikut.
Berdasarkan penelitiannya tentang situasi bahasa dan linguistik di Indonesia, Steinhauer
(1994) mencontohkan bahwa pada tahun 1990 penggunaan bahasa Minangkabau menjadi lebih
luas dibandingkan dengan penggunaan bahasa Batak sebagai akibat dari kebiasaan pemuda
Minang untuk merantau (bermigrasi) ke daerah perkotaan (ibid 1994:761).
Selanjutnya dia juga menyebutkan bahwa migrasi dapat mengubah daerah yang secara
linguistik bersifat homogen menjadi lebih heterogen. Misalnya, daerah Sumatra yang menjadi
target transmigrasi (Lampung, Sumatra Selatan, Jambi, Riau dan Sumatra Utara). Karena
transmigrannya berasal dari pulau Jawa, bahasa Jawa pun dipakai di daerah tersebut (ibid
1994:765).
Berkaitan dengan urbanisasi, secara umum dia menyimpulkan bahwa ciri dari
kehidupan urban adalah penggunaan bahasa Indonesia dianggap lebih tepat dibandingkan
dengan penggunaan bahasa lokal (ibid, 1994:758).
Himmelmann (2010) yang melakukan studi kasus di Sulawesi Tengah menyoroti
adanya pergeseran bahasa di daerah Tomini-Tolitoli. Dalam hal ini, bahasa Indonesia
menggeser penggunaan dan ranah bahasa lokal. Dia menjelaskan ada dua skenario pergeseran
bahasa, yaitu imigrasi dan emigrasi (ibid 2010:52—53). Imigrasi adalah skenario penutur
bahasa lain dari luar daerah “mengambil alih“ komunitas tutur bahasa Tomini-Tolitoli.
Sementara itu, emigrasi adalah skenario perpindahan penutur bahasa Tomini-Tolitoli ke pusatpusat pendidikan dan pekerjaan yang mengharuskan mereka untuk menggunakan bahasa
Indonesia.
Menurutnya faktor utama penyebab pergeseran bahasa, dari bahasa daerah ke bahasa
Indonesia, adalah penggunaan bahasa Indonesia sebagai bahasa utama di sekolah, pesatnya dan
meluasnya jaringan televisi, dan perkembangan sistem transportasi yang sangat cepat (ibid 2010
60—61).
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Sejalan dengan hasil studi yang dikemukan oleh Himmelmann (2010), Anderbeck
(2013) menyatakan bahwa faktor-faktor yang berkontribusi terhadap penurunan status hidup
bahasa-bahasa lokal di antaranya adalah urbanisasi, politik sentralisasi, dan bahasa Indonesia
sebagai medium pendidikan. Mengenai penurunan status hidup bahasa-bahasa di Indonesia,
Anderbeck (2013) melaporkan bahwa 178 bahasa lokal di Indonesia berstatus terancam punah
atau mengalami penurunan status.
Sofiah (2011:302) yang meneliti tentang pemakaian bahasa dengan orang tua berbeda
suku menyatakan bahwa bahasa Indonesia mendapat posisi yang cukup dominan dalam
masyarakat urban, seperti di Jakarta dan sekitarnya.
Selain peralihan ke bahasa mayoritas (bahasa yang digunakan sebagai lingua franca
oleh penduduk di daerah urban), urbanisasi juga memunculkan fenomena bilingualisme
(Grosjean 1982). Pendapat ini sejalan dengan temuan Boyd dan Andersson (1991) yang
melakukan penelitian perubahan bahasa di Swedia. Mereka menjabarkan bahwa hampir
setengah populasi imigran yang merupakan generasi kedua merupakan penutur bilingual yang
aktif. Sebagai kelompok minoritas, mereka menggunakan bahasa ibu mereka, yaitu Finnish
ketika mereka berbicara dengan orang tua atau anggota komunitas tutur yang sudah tua (yaitu
generasi pertama). Sebaliknya, bahasa kelompok mayoritas (bahasa Inggris Amerika) mereka
gunakan ketika mereka berbicara dengan imigran lain atau penduduk asli.
Berdasarkan uraian di atas dapat disimpulkan bahwa migrasi menyebabkan (1) adanya
pergeseran bahasa, peralihan dari bahasa daerah ke bahasa mayoritas/lingua franca. Peralihan ke
bahasa mayoritas mengakibatkan melemahnya status bahasa minoritas yang pada akhirnya dapat
menyebabkan kepunahan bahasa. Misalnya, peran penting bahasa Indonesia sebagai lingua
franca di daerah urban dapat menyebabkan terpinggirkannya bahkan punahnya bahasa daerah.
(2) Terjadinya fenomena bilingualisme: imigran tidak hanya menguasai bahasa ibu mereka, tapi
juga menguasai bahasa mayoritas. Akan tetapi, pada kondisi bilingualisme ini ranah pemakaian
bahasa minoritas sangat terbatas, misalnya hanya pada lingkungan keluarga. (3) Migrasi juga
menyebabkan daerah target menjadi lebih heterogen. Dengan kata lain, migrasi dapat
menyebabkan bertambahnya jumlah bahasa dalam satu ekologi bahasa.
3. Strategi untuk melestarikan bahasa lokal pada daerah/masyarakat urban
Pertanyaan yang muncul kemudian adalah bagaimana cara mempertahankan bahasabahasa yang terdapat dalam ekologi bahasa di daerah urban tersebut? Strategi apa yang dapat
diterapkan untuk mempertahankan keberagaman bahasa tersebut?
Teori ekologi bahasa memandang bahwa (1) tujuan pemertahanan bahasa adalah untuk
menjaga keberagaman bahasa, tidak hanya mempertahankan satu bahasa (Mühlhäusler
1996:322); (2) hubungan fungsional antarbahasa-bahasa menjadi perhatian utama. Ekologi
bahasa didefinisikan sebagai kajian interaksi antara suatu bahasa dan lingkungannya
(Mühlhäusler 2002:375).
Mühlhäusler (2002:386) menyebutkan bahwa tujuan utama perencanaan ekologi bahasa
adalah untuk meningkatkan struktur keragaman yang dapat diterapkan dalam subdomain
sebagai berikut.
 Mempertahankan bahasa-bahasa minoritas dalam ekologi, tidak hanya mempertahankan
bahasa mayoritas yang paling dominan digunakan dalam ekologi.
 Menawarkan sejumlah bahasa untuk dipelajari oleh pembelajar bahasa kedua, tidak hanya
berfokus pada satu bahasa.
 Melibatkan penutur asli serta non-penutur asli dalam program revitalisasi bahasa.
Selanjutnya, setiap bahasa memiliki sistem ekologinya masing-masing. Sistem ekologi
yang mendukung suatu bahasa belum tentu dapat mendukung bahasa lain (Mühlhäusler 2002:
376).
Strategi yang dapat diterapkan untuk tiap-tiap daerah urban tidaklah sama. Daerah urban
harus dibedakan menjadi dua, daerah urban yang relatif homogen dan daerah urban yang
heterogen. Selain itu, strategi pemertahanan bahasa lokal juga disesuaikan dengan vitalitas
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bahasa itu sendiri. Contoh strategi pemertahanan bahasa lokal di daerah urban dipaparkan
sebagai berikut.
a) Strategi untuk daerah urban yang relatif homogen
Ekologi bahasa yang dicontohkan di sini adalah ekologi bahasa Bali. Bahasa Bali adalah
satu-satunya bahasa daerah asli yang dituturkan di Bali. Status vitalitas bahasa Bali adalah
bahasa yang berkembang (developing language). Bahasa ini sudah memiliki sistem tulis dan
sudah diajarkan di sekolah selama puluhan tahun. Bahasa Bali masih digunakan secara luas
dalam komunikasi sehari-hari oleh mayoritas orang Bali. Di daerah perkotaan, selain bahasa
Bali, bahasa yang juga dituturkan adalah bahasa Indonesia dan bahasa daerah yang berasal dari
daerah asal imigran.
Dalam seting homogen seperti ini, mengajarkan bahasa Bali sebagai satu-satunya
bahasa daerah yang diajarkan di sekolah tidak akan merusak ekologi bahasa di daerah ini.
Sebagai bahasa yang berkembang, cara lain untuk mempertahankan bahasa Bali adalah untuk
mendorong para orang tua yang masih berusia muda untuk menggunakan bahasa Bali di rumah
dengan dan di lingkungan anak-anak. Selain pemertahanan, peningkatan prestise bahasa Bali
dapat dilakukan dengan menerbitkan karya sastra, seperti puisi, cerita pendek, cerita rakyat,
serta permainan.
b) Strategi untuk daerah urban yang heterogen
Contoh ekologi bahasa dengan seting heterogen yang dicontohkan di sini adalah ekologi
bahasa Tajio, satu bahasa daerah di Sulawesi Tengah. Tajio adalah bahasa dengan status
tergeser (shifting language). Ia belum memiliki sistem tulis dan tidak diajarkan di sekolah. Tajio
hidup dalam ekologi bahasa bersama dengan bahasa daerah lain, yaitu bahasa Pendau, Kaili,
Bugis, serta bahasa Bali dan Jawa di daerah transmigrasi. Bahasa Indonesia berfungsi sebagai
lingua franca untuk interaksi antara penduduk lokal Sulawesi dan imigran yang berasal dari luar
Sulawesi. Sementara itu, bahasa Kaili digunakan sebagai bahasa utama dalam komunikasi di
antara penduduk lokal Sulawesi. Dalam hal ini, bahasa Tajio memiliki peran yang sangat
terbatas, hanya digunakan di antara penutur bahasa Tajio.
Dilihat dari fungsi tiap-tiap bahasa daerah dalam komunitas tutur tersebut, bahasa yang
dapat dipilih untuk diajarkan di sekolah adalah bahasa Kaili. Alasannya adalah karena bahasa
ini memiliki kedudukan yang lebih tinggi dibandingkan dengan bahasa daerah lainnya. Akan
tetapi, harus diingat bahwa hanya mengajarkan satu bahasa daerah di sekolah tidak
mencerminkan ekologi bahasa di daerah tersebut. Dengan kata lain, pemertahanan semua
bahasa dalam ekologi tersebut seharusnya dilakukan dengan mengajarkan semua bahasa daerah
yang ada (cf. Mühlhäusler 1996).
Akan tetapi, dilihat dari status vitalitasnya, bahasa Tajio dapat dipertahankan dengan
cara mengembangkan komunitas tutur untuk mendukung, menggunakan, dan melindungi bahasa
tersebut secara eksklusif. Mendorong para orang tua untuk menggunakan bahasa daerah di
rumah, dengan dan di sekitar generasi muda.
Selanjutnya, upaya pemertahanan bahasa Bali dan bahasa Jawa di wilayah ekologi
bahasa Tajio tentunya berbeda dengan cara mempertahankan bahasa Bali di Bali atau bahasa
Jawa di Jawa. Karena keduanya hanya digunakan dalam komunitas tutur Bali/Jawa yang sangat
terbatas, upaya pemertahanannya adalah dengan mengharapkan para orang tua untuk
menggunakan bahasa daerah dan menciptakan domain penggunaan bahasa daerah di komunitas
mereka. Tujuannya adalah untuk memberikan kesempatan kepada anak-anak mereka untuk
menggunakan bahasa daerah. Domain-domain yang dimaksud bisa berupa rumah tangga, pusat
komunitas, tempat ibadah, dsb.
4. Simpulan
Migrasi menyebabkan (1) adanya pergeseran bahasa, peralihan dari bahasa daerah ke
bahasa mayoritas/lingua franca. Peralihan ke bahasa mayoritas mengakibatkan melemahnya
status bahasa minoritas yang pada akhirnya dapat menyebabkan kepunahan bahasa. Misalnya,
269
peran penting bahasa Indonesia sebagai lingua franca di daerah urban dapat menyebabkan
terpinggirkannya bahkan punahnya bahasa daerah. (2) Terjadinya fenomena bilingualisme:
imigran tidak hanya menguasai bahasa ibu mereka, tapi juga menguasai bahasa mayoritas. Akan
tetapi, pada kondisi bilingualisme ini ranah pemakaian bahasa minoritas sangat terbatas,
misalnya hanya pada lingkungan keluarga. (3) Migrasi juga menyebabkan daerah target menjadi
lebih heterogen. Dengan kata lain, migrasi dapat menyebabkan bertambahnya jumlah bahasa
dalam satu ekologi bahasa.
Strategi yang dapat diterapkan untuk tiap-tiap daerah urban tidaklah sama. Daerah urban
harus dibedakan menjadi dua, daerah urban yang relatif homogen dan daerah urban yang
heterogen. Selain itu, strategi pemertahanan bahasa lokal juga dapat disesuaikan dengan vitalitas
bahasa itu sendiri.
Daftar Pustaka
Anderbeck, Karl. 2013. (submitted for publication in Pacific Linguistics’ ICAL 2012
Proceedings, Vol. 2: Language Documentation and cultural practices in the
Austronesian world).
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Massachussetts, and London, England: Harvard University Press.
Himmelmann, Nikolaus. 2010. “Language Endangerment Scenarios: A Case Study from
Northern Central Sulawesi”. In Florey, Margaret (Ed), Endangered Languages of
Austronesia. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lewis, M. Paul, Gary F. Simons, and Charles D. Fennig (eds.). 2013. Ethnologue: Languages of
the World, Seventeenth edition. Dallas, Texas: SIL International.
Mühlhäusler, Peter. 1996. Linguistic Ecology. London: Routledge.
Mühlhäusler, Peter. 2002. “Ecology of Languages”. In Kaplan, Robert B. (Ed), The Oxford
Handbook of Applied Linguistics (pp.
). ford: ford ni ersity Press.
Rehner, Jon et.al. (Eds). 1999. Revitalizing Indigenous Languages. Arizona: Flagstaff.
Resosudarmo, Budy & Daniel Suryadarma. 2011. The effect of childhood migration on human
capital accumulation: evidence from rural-urban migrants in Indonesia. (Working
Papers in Trade and Development). Canberra: Australian National University.
Sally Boyd & Paula Andersson. 1991. “Linguistic Change Among Bilingual Speakers of
Finnish and American English in Sweden – Background and Some Tentati e Findings”.
In Gothenburg Papers in Theoretical Linguistics 63. Göteborgs University Sweden.
Sofiah, Nia Kurnia. 2011. “Pemakaian Bahasa dalam Keluarga dengan rang Tua Berbeda
Suku (Sebuah Studi Kasus)“. In Prociding on The 5th International Conference on
Indonesian Studies. FIB Universitas Indonesia. https://icssis.files.wordpress.com/2012/
05/1819072011_24.pdf.
Steinhauer Hein. 1994. “The Indonesian language situation and linguistics; Prospects and
possibilities”. In Bijdragen tot de Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde, 150 Volumes of
Bijdragen; A Backward Glimpse and a Forward Glimpse 150 (1994), no: 4, Leiden,
755-784. http://www.kitlv-journals.nl.
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Peranan Analisis Medan Makna (Semantic Field) dalam Pengayaan Kosakata
N.K. Mirahayuni, Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya
Susie Chrismalia Garnida, Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya
Abstrak
Makalah ini membahas manfaat analisis linguistik tentang konsep medan makna dan analisis
kohesi dalam membantu pengayaan kosakata pembelajar bahasa. Makalah ini didasarkan atas
lima penelitian terpisah namun sejenis yang dilakukan oleh lima mahasiswa S1 UNTAG
Surabaya untuk tugas akhir mereka tentang tipe-tipe relasi semantik. Sumber data dalam kelima
penelitian tersebut adalah teks fiksi dan non-fiksi. Fokus dari makalah ini adalah bagaimana
analisis semantik seperti ini membantu pembelajar bahasa memperluas dan memperkaya
jejaring kosakata mereka bersamaan dengan kegiatan membaca ataupun analisis karya sastra.
Makalah ini menunjukkan bahwa, melalui satu kata kunci, seorang pembelajar bahasa dapat
membangun satu jejaring (network) kosakata yang luas dan kompleks, dengan masing-masing
butir kosakata menunjukkan relasi semantik tertentu dengan kata kuncinya dan juga konteks
pemakaiannya. Makalah ini juga membahas langkah-langkah analisis dan bagaimana masingmasing langkah ini membantu pengayaan kosakata secara bertahap dan praktis.
Kata kunci: medan makna, tipe-tipe relasi semantis, pengayaan kosakata pembelajar bahasa
1. Pendahuluan
Pertumbuhan penguasaan kosakata dalam konteks amatlah mendasar khususnya bagi
pembelajar bahasa asing.Terlebih bagi pembelajar di bidang kebahasaan dan kesastraan,
kebutuhan penguasaan kosakata beserta rentang nuansa makna denotatif dan metaforik semakin
meningkat untuk dapat memahami kekayaan makna diksi naskah-naskah secara lebih lengkap.
Seorang pembelajar bahasa Inggris, misalnya, akan menghadapi hampir setengah juta kata
dalam kamus Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, selain begitu banyak istilah teknis
yang hanya ada dalam kamus khusus untuk bidang-bidang tertentu dan neologisme terbaru,
termasuk juga perubahan bentuk kata benda dan kata kerja dan kata-kata jadian (derivasi) dari
kata-kata yang ada dalam kamus tersebut (Denning, et al., 2007:3). Keuntungan dari kosakata
yang amat besar ini adalah tingkat kecermatan dan rentang pilihan kata yang ada dalam bahasa
tersebut. Dalam bahasa Inggris terdapat banyak kata yang bersinonim yang perbedaan nuansa
maknanya amat tipis.
Akan tetapi, kosakata yang luarbiasa besar jumlahnya ini dapat juga memberi kerugian,
khususnya ketika seorang pembelajar bahasa harus menggunakan kamus untuk mencari kata
yang tidak diketahuinya. Suatu bahasa dengan kosakata yang besar seperti bahasa Inggris dapat
menjadi beban yang besar ketika seseorang memulai untuk mempelajari kata-kata dan
maknanya. Apakah jumlah kosakata ini akan menjadi keuntungan atau kerugian bagi seseorang,
yang jelas, seseorang yang memiliki penguasaan kosakata yang luas dapat mengatakan sesuatu
dengan cara-cara yang menyiratkan perbedaan halus (Ibid., hlm. 4). Selain itu, penguasaan
kosakata yang memadai dapat menunjukkan apakah seseorang adalah seorang pembicara yang
baik atau membosankan, dan apakah ia berhasil atau gagal dalam suatu tes sikap dan wawancara
mencari pekerjaan. Dalam hal ini, keberhasilan ataupun kegagalan seringkali disebabkan oleh
seberapa memadai kemampuan kita untuk berbicara, memahami dan membaca dan menulis.
Metode dan strategi belajar telah dipromosikan demi peningkatan penguasaan kosakata
bagi pembelajar, baik penguasaan kata demi kata dalam lembar aktivitas (misalnya, Molinsky
dan Bliss, 2007; Hunter dkk., 2005) ) dengan atau tanpa konteks pemakaiannya (misalnya, seri
English Vocabulary in Use oleh McCarthy dan O’Dell (1994, 1999).
Berbagai situs online menyediakan sarana belajar kosakata, seperti misalnya Wordnet,
Framenet Data, dan Visuword.com. Situs Wordnet, misalnya, dirancang sebagai sistem
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pengacuan leksikal secara online berdasarkan teori psikolinguistik tentang daya ingatan leksikal
manusia. Dalam sistem ini, butir-butir leksikal yang dari kategori-kategori leksikal nomina,
verba dan adjektiva yang menunjukkan satu konsep leksikal dirancang dalam suatu relasi
sinonim, sementara tipe relasi semantis lainnya dihubungkan dengan kelompok sinonim tersebut
(Miller, dkk., 1993:1). Dalam tulisan-tulisan terpisah, Miller (1993), Fellbaum (1993), Fellbaum
dkk. (1993), Beckwith dkk. (1993) menjelaskan prinsip kerja dan rancangan sistem Wordnet
dan implementasinya sebagai piranti lunak pencari data. Situs Framenet, misalnya,
menyediakan
secara
online
Framenet
Index
of
Lexical
Unit
(http://framenet.icsi.berkeley.edu/findupal/reading_activity) berupa daftar butir leksikal beserta
definisi, ilustrasi pemakaian baik secara literal maupun ungkapan serupa yang lebih metaforik.
Melalui situs seperti http://www.visuword.com, tersedia link dengan berbagai situs kamus
sinonim, kamus thesaurus, kamus kosakata dan kamus elektronis. Kesemuanya diharapkan
dapat mendorong penguasaan kosakata secara cepat, praktis, akurat dan tepatguna.
Makalah ini membahas bagaimana analisis medan makna, khususnya analisis tipe-tipe
hubungan makna (semantic relations) dapat membantu bukan saja penguasaan kosakata dalam
naskah, hubungan semantik antar kata, terlebih kekayaan makna dan tujuan pemilihan diksi
tertentu. Makalah ini bertolak dari hasil-hasil penelitian yang dilakukan beberapa mahasiswa di
bidang linguistik tentang hubungan semantik (semantic relations) yang bertopik seputar konsep
tentang medan makna (semantic field) dan kohesi dalam naskah-naskah fiksi dan non-fiksi.
Dalam makalah ini dibahas bagaimana analisis klasifikasi hubungan-hubungan semantik bukan
saja membantu pembelajar bahasa mengidentifikasi tipe hubungan semantik tertentu,
melainkan juga lebih jauh dapat mengungkap hubungan antara pilihan tipe semantik relations
tertentu dan fungsinya dalam naskah. Selanjutnya, dibahas juga bagaimana nuansa dan tipe
makna itu membentuk suatu jejaring (network) pengayaan kosakata.
Hubungan atau relasi semantik (semantic relations) adalah salah satu konsep dasar
pemerian hubungan makna antar kata atau kelompok kata dalam bidang ilmu semantik. Dalam
konsep ini, makna kata dapat diidentifikasikan bukan berdasarkan fitur makna bawaan (innate
semantic features), melainkan berdasarkan hubungan tertentu dengan kata yang lain, misalnya,
hubungan sinonim, antonim, polisemi dan kolokasi (cf. Halliday dan Hasan, 1976; Kreidler,
1997). Pengetahuan tentang hubungan makna kata seperti ini secara kuantitatif dan kualitatif
menambah penguasaan kosakata bagi pembelajar bahasa. Selanjutnya, ketika kata-kata yang
diidentifikasikan adalah bagian dari satu naskah utuh yang memiliki tema atau pesan tertentu,
maka pemerian tipe makna kata dapat dimanfaatkan untuk memahami lebih lanjut apa fungsi
pilihan kata dengan tipe hubungan makna tertentu terhadap inti pesan atau tema yang hendak
disampaikan.
Makalah ini mencoba membahas dua pertanyaan pokok: (1) apa tipe relasi semantik
yang ditemukan dan (2) apa fungsi pilihan tipe relasi semantik tertentu terhadap isi pesan teks.
Pembahasan ini diharapkan dapat memberikan gambaran khususnya kepada pembelajar bahasa
tentang memanfaatkan analisis linguistik untuk pengayaan kosakata, dan pemahaman teks.
2. Metode
Pembahasan ini mengembangkan hasil penelitian dari lima (5) tugas akhir mahasiswa
seputar pemanfaatan konsep relasi semantik dalam memahami hubungan suatu tema dalam teks
fiksi dan non-fiksi dengan pilihan kata dan jenis hubungan yang tampak dalam kata-kata yang
menjabarkan konsep tema tersebut. Kelima skripsi tersebut adalah: Firdaus Ma’wa (2011,
selanjutnya diacu dengan FM), Ayu C. Irnanda (2014, atau ACI), Danang T. Hutomo (2014,
atau DTH), Fauzan D. Rahman (2014, atau FDR) danVinessa Ravinda, (2014, atau VR). Kelima
skripsi tersebut memiliki keserupaan dalam bidang penelitian, yaitu analisis medan makna
(semantic field atau model analisis linguistik sejenis yaitu analisis kohesi leksikal, namun
bervariasi pada sumber dan jenis data. Dari pemerian hasil penelitian dalam tugas akhir ini
dikembangkan bagaimana analisis linguistik terhadap tipe relasi semantis dapat
mengembangkan pemahaman terhadap aspek tema atau isi pesan suatu teks, baik teks fiksi
maupun non-fiksi.
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3. Hasil
Dari lima penelitian berbeda dapat dideskripsikan hasil-hasil berikut ini. Kelima
penelitian tersebut memberikan hasil berupa pemerian tipe-tipe relasi semantis antarkata.
Kecuali satu penelitian (FM), keempat penelitian memulai identifikasi dan pemilihan data
setelah mengetahui dan menentukan tema dari teks yang menjadi sumber datanya.Tema-tema
tersebut adalah leadership atau kepemimpinan (ACI), racism atau rasisme (DTH), survival atau
pertahanan hidup (FDR) dan health atau kesehatan (VR).Tema-tema tersebut menjadi kata
kunci utama untuk pemilihan data berupa kosakata dalam teks. Sementara FM memulai dengan
menentukan beberapa kata kunci berupa nama-nama tokoh utama dan obyek yang sering
muncul dalam dua teks cerpen yang dianalisis.
ACI menganalisis medan makna dari kata kunci “leadership”. ACI meneliti tipe-tipe
relasi semantis dengan kata kunci leadership dalam sebuah buku non-fiksi bertopik manajemen
kepemimpinan (Maxwell, 2011). Dari analisis ditemukan 259 repetisi atau perulangan (baik
repetisi utuh maupun parsial), 30 sinonim, 135 antonim, 243 hiponim, 6 kata umum, 422
kolokasi.
DTH menganalisis medan makna dengan kata kunci “racism”. DTH meneliti tiga tipe
relasi semantik (yaitu sinonim, antonim dan hiponim) dari sebuah karya otobiografi berjudul
Malcolm X Autobiography (A. Haley) dengan kata kunci racism. Dari hasil analisis ditemukan
sejumlah kata dan frasa yang menunjukkan ketiga jenis hubungan semantik di atas, yaitu
sinonim (14), antonim (4) dan hiponim (21).
FDR menganalisis medan makna dengan kata kunci “survival” . FDR meneliti tipe-tipe
relasi semantik verba-verba dengan kata kunci survival dari sebuah novel berjudul The Hunger
Games (S. Collins). Dari kata kunci itu diperoleh 77 verba dengan rincian 34 hiponim, 13
sinonim, 21 antonim, and 14 kolokasi.
VR menganalisis medan makna dengan kata kunci “health”. VR meneliti tipe-tipe relasi
semantik dengan kata kunci “health” dari kata sifat (adjektiva) pada sejumlah iklan produk
kosmetik. Hasil analisis terhadap 55 adjektiva ditemukan 20 hiponim, 4 sinonim, 16 antonim,
and 15 kolokasi.
FM menganalisis medan makna dengan kata kunci tokoh-tokoh utama dalam cerpen.
FM meneliti tipe-tipe hubungan kohesif dengan kata-kata kunci berupa tokoh-tokoh utama
dalam dua cerpen karya W.S. Maugham, yaitu Mr. Know-All dan The Station. Tipe relasi
semantik yang ditemukan yaitu perulangan, sinonim, superordinat, general words, kolokasi,
complimentariness, part to part, part to whole, dan proximity.
4. Pembahasan
Bagaimana analisis medan makna dan tipe-tipe relasi semantik dapat membantu
pengayaan kosakata bagi pembelajar bahasa? Ada empat butir yang dapat dibahas pada
kesempatan ini.
Pertama, analisis medan makna dan tipe-tipe semantik dilakukan terhadap kata-kata
dalam pemakaiannya yang nyata di dalam teks yang dipelajari dalam kelas-kelas membaca
ataupun analisis karya sastra. Kelima penelitian yang disebutkan di atas mengambil data dari
teks tertulis baik naskah fiksi maupun non-fiksi. Fakta ini membantu pembelajar mengenali
hubungan makna kata dalam konteks pemakaiannya. Aplikasinya bagi pembelajar bahasa
adalah bahwa pengayaan kosakata ini dapat dilakukan terhadap berbagai jenis naskah dengan
tingkat kompleksitas struktur dan informasi yang dapat disesuaikan dengan tingkatan
pembelajaran. Model analisis medan makna ini dapat dilakukan secara integratif dengan
memanfaatkan materi pembelajaran kelas ketrampilan berbahasa maupun kelas analisis sastra
ataupun teks.
Kedua, analisis dapat dilakukan dalam secara bertingkat, dimulai dari identifikasi
hubungan perulangan, sinonim, antonim, hiponimi dan kolokasi. Analisis dapat dimulai dengan
tahapan yang paling mudah, misalnya identifikasi item yang menunjukkan perulangan (repetisi)
penuh (misalnya, leadership—leadership) maupun perulangan sebagian (misalnya, leadership—
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lead, leader, leading). Analisis dilanjutkan dengan mencari sinonim. Misalnya, dalam naskah
yang diteliti, kata kunci survival bersinonim dengan verba-verba sprint, run, struggle, defend,
hurdle, keep moving, gather courage, would live, and stay alive; kata kunci racism bersinonim
dengan segregation, humiliation, bigotry, degradation, slavery, dst. Analisis antonim
menghasilkan satu set kata dengan makna berlawanan, misalnya dari kata kunci racism
ditemukan kata-kata antonim seperti: liberating, respect, integrate; dari kata kunci health
ditemukan sejumlah adjektiva dalam iklan produk kosmetik seperti weak, damaged, fragile,
coarse, thick, unmanageable, thin, stubborn, dark, pigmented, dull, dry, scaly, harsh, tired, and
cracked. Analisis hiponim dengan kata kunci health, misalnya, menghasilkan adjektiva seperti
glossing, smooth(-er), soft(-er), luxurious, even, radiant, gorgeous, supple, mild, gentle,
beautiful, rich, cool, dewy, delicate, balanced dan luminous. Analisis kolokasi dengan kata
kunci health menghasilkan adjektiva seperti silky, shiny, stronger, shinier, natural, age-defying,
younger, sparkling, brighter, thick, thin, even-toned, youthful, ageless, dan glowing.
Ketiga, analisis dilanjutkan identifikasi yang bersifat struktural, misalnya, jenis kata,
bentuk frasa, fungsi dalam kalimat. Misalnya, kata kunci leadership memiliki hubungan
semantik tertentu dengan berbagai kata dan frasa seperti repetisi (lead (V), leading (Adj));
sinonim: a winning coach (FN); to gain influence (FV), to invest with authority (FV), have some
power and authority (FV), delegate (FV); antonim: to oppress, to beat your peers, shrink their
influence down, rarely get it, lack power (FV); kata umum: (FN) the top person, the busiest
people,the boss; hiponim: leadership characteristics, leadership ability, a great leader, the top
leader (FN) dan kolokasi: organization and team, the desires to innovate (FN); continually
growing, traditionally thought of as a top-down activity, empower them to succeed, direct them
in their work, pay a price, give up other opportunities, sacrifice some personal goals (FV).
Dari kata kunci racism, ditemukan sinonim seperti segregation, humiliation, bigotry,
hatred, degradation, lynching, race mixing, slavery (FN), demolished, despised, inveigh(-ed),
brainwashed (V), racial (Adj), racist (N); antonim seperti: liberating, respect, integrate; dan
hiponim seperti: aristocrat, black, black American, (Atlantic) slave trade, negro community,
Negro Integrationists, Negro nationalism, white person, Negro opponents, (galaxy of) Negro
writers and artists, white students, Arab league, black race, white folks, Ethiopians, a real
Georgia Negro, Negroes of Lansing, nigger, nigger jokes, black neighborhoods, white television
audience.
Keempat, analisis selanjutnya adalah identifikasi fungsi frasa atau kalimat yang
mengandung kata atau frasa tersebut dengan kata kunci. Perulangan penuh, misalnya, dapat
menambah kosakata terutama ketika kata kunci muncul sebagai penjelas (modifier) dalam suatu
frasa. Pada kata kunci leadership, misalnya, perulangan parsial umumnya mengacu kepada figur
atau sosok pemimpin dan tindak kepemimpinan. Sinonim umumnya menambah kosakata
tentang tindakan seorang pemimpin. Antonim berupa kosakata yang menunjuk kepada
tantangan dan kesulitan yang dialami seorang pemimpin dan karakteristik pemimpin yang
buruk. Hiponim berupa kosakata yang mengacu kepada bagian dari kepemimpinan itu sendiri.
General words berupa kosakata umum tentang seorang pemimpin. Sementara kolokasi berupa
kosakata yang mengacu kepada ciri-ciri kepemimpinan, kegiatan seorang pemimpin, tantangan
dan kesulitan yang dihadapi seorang pemimpin. Dari analisis ini diketahui bahwa satu kata
kunci (yaitu leadership) menghubungkan kepada sejumlah jenis relasi semantik dan ratusan
butir kosakata yang menunjukkan relasi tersebut.
Demikian juga dari kata kunci racism, misalnya, ditemukan bahwa kata-kata yang
menunjukkan relasi makna hiponim mengacu kepada kelompok orang tertentu seperti black,
white, American; relasi sinonim menunjuk kepada tindakan rasisme yang berhubungan dengan
penghinaan, segregasi, ketidaktersediaan pekerjaan dan yang serupa; relasi antonim mengacu
kepada makna lawan dari rasisme seperti independent, respect or liberate.
Dari kata kunci survival, ditemukan sejumlah kata kerja yang menunjuk kepada
tindakan untuk bertahan hidup baik dalam bentuk sinonim (sprint, run, struggle, defend,
survived, hurdle, keep moving), antonim (deteriorate, die, suffer, suffocate, sends a searing
pain, trembling, have not yet had the courage, can’t tolerate, destroyed, exhausted, fall, dying,
274
banish), hiponim (grapple, attack, protect, hidden, fight, guarded, competing, hunting, shot,
scramble, flee, extinguished, avoid, dodge, cover, face, treat, recovering, heal, escape) dan
kolokasi (gasping for air, break, won the games, letting me go, had enough to eat).
Dari analisis terhadap tokoh utama dalam cerpen, ditemukan bahwa tokoh bernama Mr.
Warburton diacu dengan berbagai sebutan yang berbeda-beda seperti the Resident, George, the
(good) master, the kind of jungle traveller, tuan, a colonial, a white man, a young man, a rich
young man, a good fellow, old man, a gentleman, a young fool, a capable fellow, the devil, the
old devil, yang menunjukkan berbagai peran dari tokoh tersebut dalam cerita. Sementara sebuah
bungalow tempat kerja Mr. Warburton diacu dalam cerita dengan berbagai bentuk: bungalow,
piles, a long living room, a broad verandah, two bedrooms, the fort, room, the dinning room,
the sitting room, the office, sitting room, house, the place. Investigasi lanjutan terhadap makna
masing-masing butir leksikal dan variasi pemakaiannya dalam konteks akan menambah
keluasan pengetahuan pembelajar bahasa tentang makna dan pemakaian kata. Demikianlah
investigasi dapat berlanjut terus hingga membentuk satu network kosakata pembelajar.
5. Simpulan
Penelitian-penelitian tentang analisis medan makna dan tipe-tipe hubungan semantik
antarkata dengan sumber data berupa naskah fiksi dan non-fiksi dapat membantu pembelajar
bahasa dalam usaha pengayaan kosakata melalui pemerian tipe-tipe hubungan semantik antara
satu kata kunci dengan sejumlah kata-kata yang ditemukan dalam teks. Dari satu kata kunci
dapat ditemukan sejumlah besar kata atau frasa dengan hubungan semantik tertentu dalam
konteks pemakaiannya. Pemerian tipe hubungan semantik juga menyatakan hubungan
fungsional antara butir leksikal dengan kata kuncinya. Manfaat dari analisis ini adalah
pengayaan kosakata bagi pembelajar bahasa melalui pembentukan satu jejaring atau network
kosakata dengan pemahaman akan nuansa makna dan pemakaian dalam konteksnya.
Pustaka acuan
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Haley’s Malcolm X Autobiography. Skripsi S1. Jurusan Bahasa dan Sastra Inggris,
Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya.
Denning, K., Kessler, B., dan Leben, William R. 2007. English Vocabulary Elements. Edisi
Kedua. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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Collins’s The Hunger Games. Skripsi S1. Jurusan Bahasa dan Sastra Inggris,
Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya.
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Maugham entitled Mr. Know-All and The Outstation. Skripsi S1. Jurusan Bahasa dan
Sastra Inggris, Universitas 17 Agustus 1945 Surabaya.
Fellbaum, C. 1993. English verbs as a semantic net. Diakses dari (http://www.wordnetcode.
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=Reading_activity (Tanggall akses: 18 Mei 2014)
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Kreidler, M. 1998. Introducing English Semantics. London; Routledge.
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University Press.
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_______, Beckwith, R., Christiane Fellbaum, C., Gross, D., dan Miller, K. 1993.
Introduction to WordNet: an on-line lexical database. Diakses dari (http://www.wordnetcode.
princeton.edu/5papers.pdf (Tanggall akses: 18 Mei 2014)
Molinsky, Steven J. dan Bliss, Bill. 1997. Handbook of Vocabulary Teaching Strategies.
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Synonym dictionary. Diakses dari http://www.visuword.com (Tanggal akses: 18 Mei 2014).
Vinessa Ravinda, 2014. A semantic field analysis of “adjectives of health” used in cosmetic
product advertisements. Skripsi S1. Jurusan Bahasa dan Sastra Inggris, Universitas 17
Agustus 1945 Surabaya.
276
The notion of ‘urban’ revisited: Investigating the contexts and
connotations of some ‘urban’ related terms
Masaaki Ogura, The University of Tokyo
Abstract
Human history can be characterized by a struggle to lead better lives, which more or less has
been connected with eagerness to develop cities. Some people enjoy the very urbanized life,
while others do not. Some prefer to live in urban areas and others do not. There are many who
suffer from impoverished lives though they want to live in prosperity. It is thus worth discussing
what urban means. This study investigates how the words urban, city, and related terms are
likely to be understood and defined and what connotations they have. The study is based on
scrutinizing example sentences in dictionaries of English and attested examples from corpora
and other resources.
Keywords: city, connotation, definition, dictionary, suburb, urban
1. City in this century
In this century, the world is undergoing drastic changes in many aspects, including
commerce, transportation, culture, and economics. The development of these human activities
has always been accompanied by the development of cities. Urbanization, which in Europe
“gradually spread from Southeast Europe around 700 B.C. across the whole continent” (Antrop,
2004: 9), has given birth to another form of culture and life. There are diverse types of city in
this world with different characteristics, different cultures and different languages.
With regard to the relationship between culture and language, it is highly important to
consider what cultural aspects are represented by language. Thus, when the nature of a city is
discussed, it is worth examining what connotations the word city can have, since this word may
reflect how the notion of a city is accepted in diverse communities.
This paper briefly reviews how city is described in some English dictionaries and how it
is used, referring to attested examples from corpora. Section Two goes over definitions of this
word back to the 18th century. Section Three looks at definitions in some English dictionaries
today and investigates this word in terms of what kind of adjectives this word collocates with.
2. City in the 18th-century dictionaries
Before delving into the complex meaning of the word city, it is worth discussing how
this word has been defined the past. Here, some 18th century dictionaries are consulted. Samuel
Johnson, in his Dictionary of the English Language 8th (1786), defines this word as follows:
1. A large collection of houses and inhabitants.
2. [In the English law] A town corporate, that hath a bishop and a cathedral church.
3. The inhabitants of a certain city, as distinguished from other subjects.
His definition gives us a view that the term was associated with its population and also
with the central function of administration. The definition seems to have been provided from his
experience in England, but this notion partly holds in our age, which is discussed later. John
Walker (1791), possibly having referred to Johnson, gives the following definition as “A large
collection of houses and inhabitants; a town corporate, that hath a bishop; the inhabitants of a
city” (Walker 1791). Both Johnson and Walker mentioned the word bishop in their definitions,
which reflects political aspects of the use of the word city at that time. This type of definition
suggests that city served as central to politics. In what follows, some definitions in English
dictionaries are overviewed.
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3. City with various meanings
3.1. Definitions of city in English dictionaries
In the above section, we have observed the basic definition of city in 18th-century
English dictionaries. Here, some differences in definitions between those dictionaries and ones
in our age are examined. American Heritage English Dictionary (online) defines this word as
“A center of population, commerce and culture; a town of significant size and importance,”
while Macmillan Dictionary (online) describes it as “a large important town” in the same way
as Oxford Dictionaries (online) does. These three dictionaries are more or less similar in that
they incorporate importance into their definitions of city. But these definitions slightly differ
from each other. While American Heritage English Dictionary refers to cultural aspects of this
word, Macmillan and Oxford emphasize political aspects as Johnson and Walker did. In any
case, these definitions do not seem to provide insight into how the notion of city can be
interpreted. The next subsection investigates corpora and reveals various aspects of city which
are not included in dictionaries as definitions.
3.2 Combination with adjectives in COCA corpus
In this subsection, the combination of city with adjectives is addressed in order to
describe what kinds connotations and contexts this word can bear. The Corpus of Contemporary
American English (COCA) reveals that the word city frequently collocates with adjectives such
as big, inner, and new. Typical pairings of city with adjectives are as follows:
I've even said to him,' OK, you want to live in a bigger city, great. Let's work through this,'
" Martins said. "' During a course of a season, you're home, on average, 60 nights. So if you
want to live in a bigger city, go buy a place in a big city and live there in the offseason.'
(USA Today, 2012)
He wanted to know how I knew Felicia, he wanted to know what I was doing. I told him I
was an architect, working on a project to design a new city, on a small scale, on an island.
(Kyra, 2008)
He looked up from what he was doing, and with a low snort, he explained, " It's a project of
theirs. A city. A new city built with all the new technologies. New magic. Whatever you
want to call it. " (Baffalo Wolf, 2003)
As these above examples show, the word city, collocating with big or new, seems to
entail the notions of success, artificiality and opportunity, and thus to be used with
success-oriented concepts. Plus, what is important here in considering the notion of a city is to
see how the word suburb is used, because a city is not something that exists by itself, but
something that should be considered in relation to its surroundings. Though the above
examples, on the surface, show some relationship between potential happiness and living in
cities, there has been much debate about the merits of living in the city versus in the suburbs (E.
Adams, 1992: 353). In an investigation of the word city in terms of its connections with
adjectives, the COCA shows some examples of suburb and the adjectives it often takes.
A decade ago, Whitefield, a remote suburb of Bangalore, made headlines on those rare
occasions when gangs of armed bandits burst into homes at night. (TIME, 2005)
This usage of remote is well defined in Oxford Dictionaries (online) as “an area where
people live that is outside the centre of a city.” AHD also defines suburb in terms of distance
from a large city as in “A usually residential area or community outlying a city.” In addition,
this word is often combined with the notion of middle-class as in
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The school is situated in a middle-class suburb of a major west coast Canadian
city. (Physical Educator, 2006)
She got out of the car, went up to her room, sat on the floor, filed her nails, screamed an
obscenity, dialed David's number, hung up after two rings, screamed again, changed into
shorts and sneakers, and jogged three miles to the teacher's house in a middle-class suburb
of St. Paul. (Esquire, 2009)
In addition, as suggested in the middle-class examples, this word can be modified by
low-rent and other terms related to social class:
In a sun-baked, low-rent suburb of the City of Angels, she was found on a Sunday morning.
(CBS News, 1998)
Then we're out of it, onto streets with bigger houses, then into a modest suburb. (For The
Water, 2011)
Looking at these examples can lead to the perception that suburb can take on some
meaning related to not being rich. The word, however, sometimes can carry adjectives related to
wealth before it.
He claims to live in a posh suburb with a car and a job. (CS Monitor, 2011)
I talked to a business-man in a rich suburb that spends much more money on education
than the cities. (Essebce, 1992).
From these examples alone, the notions of city, urbanization or suburbs are so intricate
that they can have a variety of connotations and thus cannot be defined in a clear-cut way.
3.3 Examples in GloWbe
So far, we have discussed some usages of the words city or suburb in COCA. Here in
this subsection, we are going to see varieties of usages of city and suburbs in the Corpus of
Global Web-Based English (GloWbe). Looking at the following examples from this corpus
suggests that the word suburbs might be a notion which is defined in relation to some kind of
big, central city.
I Have lived 4 years here 1 year in Dumaguete and 3 years here in Tagaytay. Before I came
here I lived in one of the suburbs of London. My wife comes from Romblon. I felt as safe in
Romblon as in my home in the suburbs of London. (GlowBe, Philippines: General)
There were reports of heavy fighting in several suburbs of Aleppo over the weekend, as
well as battles between militants and the armed forces in the capital. On Saturday, the
Syrian Army's elite Fourth Division, commanded by President Assad's brother, led a
counterattack on the opposition fighters in the Damascus suburbs of Barzeh and Mezzeh.
(GlowBe, India: General)
From this, it can be said that just as the word city has various connotations, so do the
meanings of the word suburbs which can vary since the meaning of this term seems to be
determined in relation to the meaning that city has in a particular context. Of course, the basic
meaning of suburb can be “an outlying district of a city, especially a residential one” as Oxford
Dictionaries defines. The examples of city and suburb cited here tell us that the meanings of
these words highly depend on contexts, and words in general are so much context-bound that
they are sometimes too difficult to be accommodated in dictionaries.
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4. Conclusion
This paper has discussed how the word city and one of the words related to cities,
suburbs, are used and has demonstrated the connotations that these two words can have. It is
concluded here that the notion of city is complex and can vary depending on the broader
context. Thus, it should be noted that when we discuss city, it is necessary to keep various
cultures and communities in mind rather than relying on the sole image that we intuitively and
empirically have based only on the context that one has been familiar with.
References
A Critical Pronouncing Dictionary and the Expositor of the English Language, 1st edition. 1791.
London.
A Dictionary of the English Language, 8th edition. 1785. London.
American Heritage Dictionary. Available at http://www.ahdictionary.com. (Accessed 4 July
2014).
Antrop, M. 2004. Landscape Change and the Urbanization Process in Europe. Landscape and
Urban Planning, 67 (1-4), 9-26.
E. Adams, Richard. 1992. Is Hapiness a Home in the Suburbs?: The Influence of Urban Versus
Suburbian Neighborhood on Psychological Health. Journal of Community Psychology,
20 (4), 353-372.
Macmillan Dictionary. Available at http://www.macmillandictionary.com. (Accessed 4 July
2014).
Oxford Dictionaries. Available at http://www.oxforddictionaries.com. (Accessed 4 July 2014).
280
Reflection of Madurese Culture in a Writing Class of English Department In
Trunojoyo University Madura
Zakiyatul Mufidah, University of Trunojoyo Madura
Abstract
The starting point of this present paper is the observation that the culture, values and way of
thinking of people can be seen from the language they use both intentionally or unintentionally.
The study of language and culture has shown that through language we can frequently reflect
the cultural values of certain community as well as its social and economic background. This
paper focuses on the way in which written expression in a writing class reflects the cultural
values of Madurese university students in Madura. Being asked by certain questions as the
guidelines, some students are instructed to narrate their answers by writing a narrative paragraph
which describes their personal views and belief. From their writing paper, the researcher has
found some finding such as the close relationship between religious values and their future plan
as well as how they define and draw their life and other findings which reflect their cultural
values as Madurese who take higher education.
Keywords: Language, Madurese Culture, Religious Spirit, Writing Expression
1. Introduction
One of effective ways to express our thinking and personality is through language.
Language can communicate both implisit and explicit ideas. It has not only grammatical
meaning but it also brings social meaning (Coupland, 2007). This social meaning then, becomes
an interesting and challenging point to be analyzed since it probably reveals what beyond the
language itself. Cultural values, norms, religious spirit, social background are those belong to
the social meaning of a language. This paper is inspired by written expression of students in the
writer’s writing class when they are being asked to write a paragraph about their future dreams.
Some expressions such as “Amin”, “Ya Allah”, “InsyaAllah” are easily found in their writing
regardless the formal and academic context they engage in. Such expression might seem
common and is not really special, but it will be interesting to go deeper beyond the language and
expression they use to see the cultural values they have and this will be discussed later.
Analyzing Madurese culture cannot be a apart from the geographical aspect of its
island. Although this island belongs to the East Java province but it is frequently called as
“outside Java” since its culture, characteristics and values are obviously different from the
Javaneses’. Clearly, Madurese has their own language which completely different from
Javanese language, so it becomes one of the reason why Madurese is often excluded from Java.
Madurese becomes a single ethnic which geographically bond with Java Island and has an
apparent cultural identity. Rifai (2007) states that characteristics are not always seen, but it
bases behaviour, attitude, speech, thought, determination that will somehow appear within
social interaction. The strong characters of Madurese mostly identified by others as it can
signify the identity of Madurese themselves. In a social life, Madurese is often underestimated
and considered as a group from different class or stratification, this is proven by many humor or
anecdote which ridicule Madurese.
However, this paper aims to explore the cultural identity and values of Madurese
University Students through the language they use. Language and culture are two inseparable
entities as both of them play a special role in the society. One of the most common ways of
identifying a person is by his or her language because language is inherently involved in
socialization, the social group whose language you speak is an important identity group for you
(Spolsky, 1998). Even though there are many identity marker such as food, fashion, physical
281
appearance to identify the cultural background of someone, but language can easily
communicate the thought in their mind which surely influenced by certain internalized norms
and values in their life.
The close relationship between language and culture is recognized by many linguists,
some of them are Ronald Wardaugh. He claims that the structure of language determines the
way in which the speaker of that language view the world (Wardaugh, 2006). Even though the
language does nothing but it still influences the people to adopt the world view toward
themselves. In line with Wardaugh, Malinowski in Stern (2009) views culture through a
somewhat more interactive design, stating that it is a response to need, and believes that what
constitutes a culture is its response to three sets of needs: the basic needs of the individual, the
instrumental needs of the society and the symbolic and integrative needs of both the individual
and society. The recent study by Elmes (2013) claims that the culture of a people finds
reflection in the language they employ: because they value certain things and do them in certain
way, they come to use their language in ways they reflect what they value and what they do.
Therefore, through the use of language both spoken and written it possibly reflects the cultural
values of the speaker or writer and how they express it.
2. Reflection of Madurese Culture
The relationship between language and culture is shown in the students’ writing telling
about their future dreams and their viewpoint in defining success. There are a lot of expressions
and word choices used by students that explicitely express their cultural and religious
background. This clearly reflects that cultural values determines the way the language users
view the world (Wardaugh, 2006). Madurese students have a unique perspective when they
narrate about their future dreams and explain the meaning of success. Instead of declaring their
personal interest in the future, most of students demonstrate that taking their parents to go to
Mecca for hajj become their most priority for their future plan. This might be not surprising
since most of Madurese people are moslem and still hold religious values tightly (Rifai, 2007).
However, there is a prominent point to be analyzed a bit deeper as they take higher education in
which the learning process and socialization usually lead them to be more liberal in thinking;
moreover they are taking English study program which aoutomatically introduce them with
western culture.
The writer presumes that that they will have a dream or future plan such as being an
ambassador (eventhough some of them mention so), working in international company, taking
higher education in master program, going abroad, or any dream that will related to their
education background. But the writer is totally wrong, in this case they still consider the five
obligation for moslem which one of them is go to hajj to Mecca. It is very interesting because
they keep their religious values to be applied in the next future. Most of students almost mention
it as their biggest determination, even when they mention they want to work as lecturer, teacher,
ambassador and etc but those are only the ways to make their dream (taking their parents to go
to hajj) come true. The data also tells the writer that parents are the one whom they respect to
very much, as if parents are their everything. For this explanation, the writer assumes that there
are two reasons explaing this fact. Firstly, it can be cultural reason, meaning that their culture
has taught them to put parents above all, even when they are growing adult, respecting parents
seems not enough untill they can do something for them. One of the strong characters of
Madurese people is solidarity and respectability especially to the parents (Rifai, 2007). Parents
become the person to be formost honoured. This is reflected in Madurese proverb bhuppa’,
bhabhu’, ghuru, rato; that means mother, father, teacher and government. This cultural values
have been internalized in the students way of thinking and how they behave towards themselves
and their parents. Secondly, it can be religious reason which teach them to honoured parents as
their obligation. The argumentation lies on the Islam doctrine stated from Al Quran and the
sunnah prophet Muhammad that claim ridhallah fi ridhol walidain means God’s blessing is
upon Parents’s blessing. The doctrine has been taught in every Islamic boarding school or in any
Informal Islamic Based school. Getting blessing from God is the priciple in achieving
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happiness, that is why every individul considers paents as the key to achieve success. In
addition, success does not always mean being rich, prosperous and wealthy; but most students
think that success is more than that, it should be able to fulfill psychological and spiritual
happiness, in Islamic term it is called berkah.
The issue of building happy family is the next category which dominantly appear in
students’ writing. Most female students mention that they want to be a great housewife and
some male students also express that they want to get a beutiful and great wife. For this data the
writer assumes that being married becomes very impotant for them to draw a future plan. In
some cultures being married will dtermine the sosial dignity of someone, even it will determine
the soacial status of the person. Implicitly, they are quiet afraid of being single because the
society where they live in are still consider marriage status as the measurement to look at
someone’s social status. My personal argumentation is that being married is one of the tools to
be secured socially, it means that it can avoid any negative stereotype or minus perception from
the society. Both male and female students seem agree with this since they almost mention “to
have a happy family” in the last sentences in their future plan. They don’t want to be insecured
socially when they are already estblished economically. Moreover, Rifai (2007) also stated that
one of strong characteristics of madurese people is kinship. Madurese people have their own
perspective about this. They believe that having as many family as possible is one of the
successfulness in life. Therefore, there is also famous saying among madurese ala’-bhala’
which means searching, building, collecting, and enlarging kinship (generally) through
marriage.
The next major issue appears in students writing is that they want to give benefit for
others. Extremely, some of them stated that being rich and prosperous are just useless if they
cannot be usefull for their surroundings. From this data, it can be inferred that their perspective
in defining success is influenced by cultural and religious values. Culturally, Madurese usually
reckon kinship and brotherhood as the main thing. They might bet their everything for solidarity
(Rifai, 2007). Meanwhile, it is also religous values which affect the students perspective. Islam
teaches its people to be the best by giving benefit to others as stated in Sunnah which says the
best people according to Allah are those who give benefit for others. This is obvious to conclude
that what the students mostly write about their future plan comprises cultural and religious
aspect they perform.
The last interesting writing expression to be noticed is that there are some Arabic
expression such as Insya’Allah, Amin Ya Allah, Bismillahirrohmanirrohim found in the
students writing. This expression explains what kind of religious values they perform. It is not
only reflected in an oral expression but it also clearly exposed in their writing expression. They
are not reluctant to show their identity as a good Muslim who uses such symbols in any context.
This data shows how most of Madurese students like to use such symbols not merely to show
their identity but it is a habit, a culture that is already internalized in their mind. So, it will easily
reflect when they express it through the writing expression.
Although the writer found those issue as the dominant point in the students’s writing,
but there are some minor category which also appears in student writing such as they want to be
an ambassador, musicial, tour guide, teacher, lecturer, translator and so forth. Again, these
future plan are mentioned in the beginning but in the last sentence they usually write that they
want to make their parents proud and happy. Based on this data, it can be inferred that most of
students are parent-centered. They take their parents as the reason in wahatever they want to do
and to be in the next future. This fact explains that parent give a huge contribution to draw the
students perspective in defining the success and in deciding their future plan. This situation is
once again can be cultural or religious or even both. Obviously, parents are the center agent
which influence their pespective and how they view the world. To sum up, some expression
used by students which reflect their culture are listed below:
283
Table 1: Expressions used by students reflecting their culture
Category of Cultural values
Category of religious values
Minor category
To have great husband and To take my parents to mecca
To be an ambassador
children
To have a happy family
Will go to Pilgrimage with my To be a tour guide
parents
To be smart and best mother for To give benefit for others
To be a Musician
my children
To be a housewife
To see other best creatures of Enterpreneur
Allah
To have wife who always cares of Can make an Islamic cartoon and International writer
me
it’s my way to “berjihad”
I am so pity to look at my parents To make my parents happy and To be a Translator
work hard
proud of me
Money is not really important
I pray to God everytime asking To be a Journalist
for the best, life with wealth and
luxury is not important
To make my parents happy and Go To Heaven
To be a teacher
proud of me
Can get beautiful woman to be My parent is my everything
To be a lecturer
my wife
Amin Ya Allah
Bismillahirrohmanirrohim
3. Conclusion
Language and culture have a strong relationship. Language can reflect the culture of
people who use the language. And, culture can be identified by the language used by the users.
Madurese culture is reflected through the students’ writing about their future plan and how they
see the world. Some expressions used by the students explain that their culture is strongly
influenced by religious values they hold. It can be seen from the expression they deliver in their
writing such as using Arabic terms and symbols, considering life as dedication for parents and
others and having obsession to build a happy family.
References
Coupland, N. (2007). Style : Language Variation and Identity. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Elmes, d. (2013). The Relationship between Language and Culture. National Institute of Fitness
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Rifai, A. M. (2007). Manusia Madura. Yogyakarta: Pillar.
Spolsky, B. (1998). Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Stern, H. H. (2009). Fundamental Concepts of language Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Wardaugh, R. (2006). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics; Fifth Edition. Malden, USA:
Blackwell Publishing.
284
Bilingual Essay and Its Impact on the Students’ Writing Performance
Viqi Ardaniah, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Airlangga
Abstract
The present study concerns students’ writing performance. Apart from the grammaticality,
awareness of sentence elements is indicated to be the problem in writing a composition or an
essay. This can be shown from the students’ essay in which some sentences do not have either
subject or predicate or both. One way to improve the students’ writing performance is that the
students write the essay in bilingual language, Indonesian and English. In the present study, two
groups of writing class of twenty English Department students were treated differently in 6
weeks; one was asked to write bilingual essay whenever the lecturer asked the students to write
particular essay and another group was asked to write English essay. The sentence elements
written in the essay of both groups were compared. Then, the number of mistake relating to the
sentence element was counted. The result of the study has found that writing bilingual essay
encourages the students to be aware of the sentence elements, so that confusing sentences due to
lack of subject or predicate are not found in the essay.
Keywords: Awareness of sentence elements; bilingual essay; writing performance
1. Introduction
Writing essay is considered difficult task for the English Department students because
they have to write their idea or argument in Standard English language. This means that they
must grammatically and systematically write the essay. Grammatically, the sentences must have
correct tenses and represent complete thought which should not be incomplete (fragment) or
run-on sentence. Systematically, the essay they write must meet the criteria of how to write an
essay i.e. talking about one topic, and consisting of at least three paragraphs or five paragraphs
commonly (Zemach & Rumisek, 2003).
Due to the criteria of writing a good essay, some errors are found in the students’
writing. The errors include punctuation, capitalization, tenses, subject-verb agreement, and the
sentence elements that they write. Of these common errors, the sentence element is the most
serious problem that should be concerned because it can lead to confusion of the readers to
understand the essay. Some sentences do not have verb, or subject or only fragment; some
sentences can only be dependent clause; some can be phrases. This indicates that the students’
awareness of sentence elements is poor. The awareness of sentence elements refers to “sensitive
and critical response to the use of language by oneself” (Crystal, 2008) which means that the
students should be aware of the use of subjects, verbs, objects, complements, adverbials in the
sentence.
The students’ awareness of sentence element should be increased as early as possible,
so that their writing is improved and understood. One way to increase the students’ awareness of
sentence elements is write the essay in bilingual language; Indonesia and English. The present
study is administered to answer a question, what are the differences of the sentence element in
essay writing between those who write the essay in bilingual languages and those who write the
essay only in English?
2. Theoretical Framework
Teaching writing sentences appropriately is necessary in the class of essay writing
because it gives positive effects on student writing for any level. Activities concerning sentence
elements will add the student linguistic repertoire (Wolfe, Britt, & Alexander, 2011).
Furthermore, the lecturers/teachers should teach sentence structure since writing is
developmental process (Pardo, 2006). Knowing sentence elements is very important for the
285
students, so that they will not write any confusing sentences which may have no subjects or
verbs or both or may be just phrase.
There are five functional categories that constitute a clause; Subject, Verb, Object,
Complement, and Adverbial. No matter the sentences the students write either simple sentence
or multiple sentence, any form of sentence (simple, complex, compound) must represent
complete thought or have two categories i.e. Subject and Verb (Quirk, Greenbaum, Leech, &
Svartvik, 1985; Shertzer 1986). For the simple sentence construction, Quirk et.al. (1985) state
that the choice of verb can determine such sentence structures as SVO, SVC, SVA, SVOO,
SVOC, and SVOA. The A is for Adverbials; the double O (OO) is for Indirect Object and
Direct Object; the C is for Complement. For the complex sentence construction, the sentence
consists of only one main clause and has one or more SUBORDINATE clauses which function
as the sentence element. For the compound sentence construction, the sentence consists of two
or more coordinated main clauses which are commonly linked by the conjuction but, and, yet,
or, and so (Meyers, 2005).
The importance of teaching sentence element in the class should be facilitated by one
good method that can be applied, so that the students’ awareness of sentence elements is
increased. The method inlvolves the use of students’ native language i.e. Bahasa Indonesia.
Brown (2002) proposed in the principle of language teaching known as “the native language
effect”. The use of Bahasa Indonesia in the classroom forces the students to have comparison
between Bahasa Indonesia (L1) and English language (L2) (Harmer, 2007). Bahasa Indonesia as
the native language of the students will help them to understand the system of the English
language. Interferring effects from Bahasa Indonesia to the English language will be noticeable
when the students are asked to write the bilingual essay. Interferrence of Bahasa Indonesia does
not always cause negative transfer due to the differences between Indonesian and the English
language. When the students write Bahasa Indonesia sentence in the essay, they should be aware
of the sentence elements. This awareness helps them to realize that one sentence must have clear
element e.g. its subject, verb, object, complement, main clause or SUBORDINATE clause.
Consequently, once they are asked to write the essay in English, they are aware of the English
sentence elements.
3. Method
Two classes of essay writing were involved. One class is control group, and another is
experimental group. Every two weeks within six weeks the experimental group consisting of
twenty students was asked to write essay in bilingual language. There were three types of essay
that they had to write. From each essay they wrote, the sentences were analyzed for their
elements. If one sentence does not have the main element either Subject or Verb, it will be
counted as one mistake. If one sentence is only dependent clause or phrase or one sentence has
two or more independent clauses without cordinatio, it will be counted as one mistake. All the
mistakes would be counted for its percentage compared to the number of sentences in one essay.
The average percentage can be taken after all mistakes in regular class are counted. Then, it was
compared to the mistakes in the essay that the students wrote in final examination. Finally, all
the results taken from the experimental group will be compared to the results of the control
group in which twenty students were asked only to write the essay only in English language. In
control group, even though the students did not write the bilingual essay, the lecturer kept
reminding them to be aware of the sentences they wrote that the sentence must have complete
element especially the subject and the verb.
4. Results and Discussion
In the experimental group, the exercise of writing bilingual essay for six weeks has
influenced the students’ writing performance. There are thirteen students who successfully
reduce the number of sentence element errors. The number of sentence element errors
significantly declines. From Table 1, five students did not make any errors in the sentence
element of essay writing when they wrote the final exam essay. This result indicates that the
286
exercise has made them aware of the sentence elements. They have avoided such mistakes as
dependent clauses or phrases (fragment) in their writing. In other words, the sentences they
wrote represent complete idea or complete thought all of which consist of Subject and Verb
(Zemach & Rumisek, 2003). The sentences in their essay are simple sentences with the
constructions of SVO, SVC, SVA, SVOO, SVOC, and SVOA, compound sentences and
complex sentences (Quirk et.al.,1985).
For the experimental group students, they still have sentence element error in final exam
essay. Seven students did not show any progress in their sentence element. The number of error
is increased in their essay writing. Most or the errors refer to the sentence construction where
there are noun phrases without verbs, compound sentences without cordination or conjunction,
and complex sentence in which there is only subordinate clause. It is known that a subordinate
clause is incomplete and must be used with a main clause to express a related idea (Shertzer,
1986).
Meanwhile, seven students have increased their awareness of sentence elements
because they are able to reduce the number of sentence element error which can be seen in the
final essay. The sentence element errors found in their essay relate to the sentence without
subject and compound sentence without conjunction. That the sentence does not have subject is
because the subject of the sentence is preceded by preposition. The presence of preposition
before the subject makes the sentence incorrect. Besides, the compound sentences that they
wrote do not have conjunction, so the sentences are run-on. However, compound sentences
indicate that the students have written sentence elements such as the subject, the verb, the object
or the adverbials properly, but they do not put appropriate punctuation where comma is
preferred to separate the sentences rather than period. This shows that the students are critical
and sensitive enough to sentence elements, but not to punctuations (Crystal,2008). From those
errors, their awareness of sentence elements have been embedded to the linguistic repertoire of
English language (Wolfe, Britt, & Alexander, 2011).
Experimental
Group
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
Table 1. The Percentage of Sentence Element Error
in Experimental Group and Control Group
Average
Sentence
Control
Average
Sentence
Mistake of
Element
Group
Mistake of
Element
Sentence
Error in
Sentence
Error in
element
Final Exam
element
Final Exam
(exp.group) (exp.group)
(contr.group) (contr.group)
15,8
37,5
1.
5
4
22
6
2.
26,3
33
13
0
3.
6,3
0
24
4,3
4.
8,25
12
12,6
13,3
5.
7,7
16,7
27,15
0
6.
11,2
33
20
13,6
7.
17,3
33,3
7,75
4,3
8.
15,2
5,2
19
14
9.
4,7
30,7
17,65
10,5
10
7,2
0
17
12,5
11.
20,85
21,4
11
0
12.
7,8
0
20,1
6,25
13.
12,15
0
3
0
14.
16,7
20
2
3,2
15.
22
0
12,6
15
16.
30
26,7
46,2
61,5
17.
19,4
19
17,3
35,2
18.
15,65
27,8
22,5
10,3
19.
0
10
4,35
0
20.
17
0
287
The results of experimental group show that bilingual essay which is given as the
weekly exercise in the class of essay writing has increased the students’ awareness of sentence
elements. The students do not regard the differences of the linguistic system between Bahasa
Indonesia and English which possibly lead them to have negative transfer or mistakes. They
notice that the sentence of English and Bahasa Indonesia in written or standard form must have
subject and verb or represent complete thought. Apart from the fact that the interference of
Bahasa Indonesia on English essay writing is salient, the same sentence element between two
languages has facilitated them to write, so that the sentences they write have complete element.
As Brown (2002) suggests, “the native system will exercise both facilitating and interferring
(positive and negative transfer) effects on the production and comprehension of the new
language”. In addition, the exercise of bilingual essay has formed good writing habit for the
students since the students in any level must be able to write essay in clearly or systematicallyorganized way (Warburton, 2006). This writing habit can simultaneously increase the students’
awareness of sentence element.
If the students write bilingual essay, they gain a lot by comparing L1 and L2. The
translation that they have through bilingual essay will help the students make a virtue “out of the
students’ natural language-processing behaviour”. How well the students understand the
sentence elements can be seen from the translation (Harmer, 2007). If the sentence in L1 essay
has complete elements, the students will translate the complete element to L2 essay. As a result,
such mistakes as noun phrases without verbs, compound sentences without conjunction, and
complex sentence in which there is only subordinate clause will not be found in their essay.
In the control group, the number of sentence element error varies. Ten students wrote
more element sentence errors in final exam essay than in weekly essay. In other words, the
number of sentence element error is increased. Six students successfully wrote the final exam
essay without sentence element errors and four students have reduced the number of errors that
can be seen in their final exam.
For the ten students, the errors are various including compound sentences without
conjunction, complex sentence where there is only dependent or subrodinate clause, sentence
without verbs or only noun phrases, sentence without subject or only prepositional phrase and
verb phrase. Compared to the experimental group students who have reduced the number of
sentence element error, the sentence element errors in the control group are more various. The
students have more opportunities to write incorrect sentences due to lack of sentence elements.
In this study, from the comparison between writing perfomance of experimental group
students and control group, it is found generally the exercises that require the students to write
bilingual esssay have helped the students increase their essay writing perfomance in terms of
their awareness of sentence elements. Whenever they write the sentences in the essay, they are
aware that they have to express the idea in a complete thought by writing the subject, verb,
object and other elements in the sentence clearly. Their awareness of sentence element does not
guarantee that all sentences are correct. Those who have some errors wrote complete elements
in the compound sentences, but the compound sentences in their essay do not have conjunction.
This makes their sentence run-on (Meyers, 2008). On contrary, the control group students are
not requested to write bilingual essay whenever they write essay. Moreover, they are asked to
concern the sentence elements; therefore, some students can decrease the number of sentence
element errors in their essay
The students’ sentence construction that is improved for both group is SVO. The
number of error for this construction is gradually decreased. They are aware that the sentence
needs clear subject either person, thing, or idea being described (Shertzer, 1986) and the subject
should not be preceded by any preposition.
Another finding in this study is concerned with the number of the students that
improved their sentence. The number of students that improved the sentence element in the
control group is much more than that in the control group. It indicates that their writing process
develops within certain period (Pardo, 2006).
288
5. Conclusion
Writing bilingual essay has affected the students’ writing performance especially their
awareness of sentence elements. Whenever the students write a sentence, they must be aware of
the sentence element, so that their sentence can be easily understood by the readers of their
essay. In addition, in the experimental group, the type of sentence construction error is more
improved than that in the control group. In the other word, in the experimental group the
sentence element errors are less various than in the control group. The experimental group has
such errors of sentence construction as noun phrases without verbs, compound sentences
without cordination or conjunction, and complex sentence in which there is only subordinate
clause, while the control group has compound sentences without conjunction, complex sentence
where there is only dependent or subrodinate clause, sentence without verbs or only noun
phrases, sentence without subject or only prepositional phrase and verb phrase.
References
Brown, H. (2002). English Language Teaching in "Post-Method" Era: Toward Better Diognosis,
Treatment, and Assessment. In J. Richard, Methodology in Language Teaching: An
Anthology of Current Practice (pp. 9-17). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crystal, D. (2008). A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics; Sixth Edition. Blackwell.
Harmer, J. (2007). The Practice of English Language Teaching; Fourth Edition. PearsonLongman.
Meyers, A. (2005). Gateways to Academic Writing; Effective Sentences, Paragraphs, and
Essays. New York: Longman.
Pardo, L. S. (2006). The Role of Context in Learning to Teach Writing: What Teacher
Educators Need to Know to Suppott Beginning Urban Teachers. Journal of Teacher
Education, 378-394.
Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G., & Svartvik, J. (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the
English Language. New York: Longman.
Shertzer, M. D. (1986). The Elements of Grammar. New York: MacMillan.
Warburton, N. (2006). The Basics of Essay Writing. London and New York: Routledge.
Wolfe, J., Britt, C., & Alexander, K. P. (2011). Teaching the IMRad Genre: Sentence
Combining and Pattern Practice Revisited. Journal of Business and Technical
Communication, 119-158.
Zemach, D., & Rumisek, L. (2003). College Writing from Paragraph to Essay. Macmillan.
289
Resistensi Bahasa Jepang; Studi Kasus pada Penamaan Badan Usaha di Tokyo
Mulyadi, FIB, UGM
Abstraksi
Bahasa Jepang mengalami banyak kontak dengan bahasa asing. Akibat dari kontak tersebut
terutama dari hasil kontak kebudayaan, mengakibatkan munculnya berbagai fenomena
kebahasaan. Fenomena krbahasaan yang akan dibahas pada makalah ini adalah tentang
fenomena kebahasaan sebagai akibat bentuk dominasi bahasa asing terhadap bahasa Jepang
serta resistensinya yang tercermin pada penamaan badan usaha di Tokyo. Metode penelitiannya
adalah metode deskriptif. Data yang digunakan adalah data kuantitatif, lalu diklasifikasikan
menurut cara penulisannya (ortografi), komposisi morfem dilihat asal kategorinya, dan struktur
sintaksisnya. Hasil penelitian ini adalah diketahuinya bentuk-bentuk ortografis dan fonologis
nama-nama badan usaha dan komposisi atau susunan kata atau morfem pembentuk nama.
Secara fonologis pada umumnya mengikuti konstruksi silabel CV, teapi ada beberapa yang
mendapatkan afiksasi X di akhir kata (nama), selain itu bila dilihat dari asal kategorinya maka
ada yang berasal dari verba, nomina, pronomina, ajektiva, dan bahkan bukan kata penuh yaitu
partikel walaupum dalam bentuk yang dilesap.
Kata kunci: Dominasi, resistensi, asal-usul
1.Latar Belakang
Bahasa Jepang seperti bahasa-bahasa yang lain bukanlah merupakan bahasa yang bebas
dari pengaruh bahasa lainnya. Bahasa dan pemakainaya adalah sesuatu yang sama, artinya bila
bahasa itu seing mengalami kontak maka pemakainya pun demikian. Pernyataan bahwa
masyarakat Jepang itu exclusive, maka kurang lebih sama dengan mengatakan bahwa bahasa
Jepang itu tertutup dan banyak orang yang mengatakan bahwa orang Jepang adalah bangsa yang
tertutup. Pernyataan itu mungkin ada benarnya, tapi bahasa Jepang bukanlah bahasa yang
exclusive terutama bila dilhat dari sisi pembentukan kosakatanya.
Hipotesis Sapir dan Whorf menyatakan bahwa bahasa mempengaruhi budaya, dan
sebaliknya budaya juga mempengaruhi bahasa. Sehingga secaara budaya, banyak sekali produk
budaya yang masuk kedalam negara Jepang yang diiringi dengan masuknya bahasanya juga.
Misalnya, budaya Cina masuk ke Jepang, maka bahasanya juga masuk ke Jepang. Bahasa
Inggris masuk ke Jepang, masuk pulalah budayanya.
Dalam persentuhan budaya dan bahasa tersebut, satu sisi ada yang kuat dan sebaliknya,
sehingga ada bahasa atau budaya yang terdominasi. Dan pendominasian ini akan memunculkan
resistensinya sebagai akibatnya.
Dominasi suatu bahasa akan muncul dalam berbagai sisi kehidupan tergantung budaya
yang sering bersentuhan. Bahasa yang menjadi dominan adalah bahasa yang dianggap
budayanya lebih tinggi. Fenomena kebahasaan yang mendominasi dan yang resisten terhadap
bahasa lain bisa kita lihat dalam pemakaianna pada kehidupan sehari-hari. Dalam makalah ini
akan dibahas mengenai resistensi bahasa Jepang terhadap bahasa asing. Karena resistensi tidak
pernah ada tanpa dominasi, maka adalah sangat wajar bila dalam pembahasan ini didahului
beberapa contoh pemakaian bahasa yang merupakan dominasi bahasa asing. `
Data mengenai dominasi dan resistensi bahasa penulis ambil dari pemakaiannya pada
penamaan badan usaha di Tokyo. Alasan pemilihan Tokyo sebagai tempat diambilnya data
adalah karena Tokyo merupakan kota besar yang sangat heterogen. Beraneka macam industri
dan beraneka latar belakang konsumennya ada di Tokyo dan juga karena penduduknya yang
mungkin bisa dikatakan merupakan masyarakat yang paling sering bersentuhan dengan budaya
asing bila dibandingkan dengan kawasan lainnya. Walaupun ada kemungkinan pemilik atau
pemberi nama badan usaha tersebut bukan orang Tokyo.
290
Nama-nama badan usaha tersebut penulis ambil dari situs yang memuat asal usul namanama badan usaha di Jepang yaitu www.yurai.jp. Yang mengalami resistensi sebanyak 176
buah.
Dalam makalah ini penulis akan mendeskripsikan dan mengklasifikasikan bentukbentuk serta asal usul kategori kata sebagai penyusun nama badan usaha yang cara
pembentukannya penulis anggap diluar kaidah penulisan bahasa Jepang. Tujuanya adalah untuk
mengetahui bagaimana gambaran resistensi bahasa Jepang yang terdapat pada penamaan badan
usaha tersebut.
2. Landasan Teori
Aturan penulisan nama badan usaha memang telah diatur oleh peraturan menteri
kehakiman no. 51 Pasal 2 Ayat 1Tahun 1964 (www.moj.go.jp/MINJI/minji44.html) yang berisi
bahwa penamaan badan usaha hanya boleh menggunakan karakter kanji, hiragana, katakana,
huruf Latin, angka Arab, apostrof, & (ampersand), koma, hyphoon, titik dan titik tengah (・).
Tetapi tidak mengatur bahasa dan cara pembentukannya.
Adapun sistem penulisan dalam bahasa Jepang dipakai tiga huruf yaitu kanji dan
hiragana, untuk bahasa Jepang bukan unsur serapan dan katakana untuk penulisan unsur serapan
atau nama asing (Mulyadi, 2004). Dengan melihat sistem penulisan pada bahasa resmi tersebut
maka penulis berpendapat bahwa bila ada unsur bukan serapan tetapi diperlakukan seperti
bahasa asing maka ini adalah sebuah indikasi adanya resistensi terhadap bahasa asing. Sesuai
dengan contoh resistensi bahasa Indonesia oleh Wijana (2014) misalnya nama- nama badan
usaha yaitu benafix (maksudnya ben apik (agar bagus), Q-Loan Laundry (untuk
mengungkapkan kiloan), Yoga Pancing dengan maksud Pancing Yoga dan lain sebagainya.
Saussure berpendapat bahwa bila ada kata maka ada acuannya (signifie dan signifier).
Demikian juga bahwa pemberian nama bukanlah sesuatu yang semena-mena pasti ada
tujuannya. Nama badan usaha adalah sebagai parole sedangkan languenya bisa berupa maksud
yang diinginkan oleh pembuat nama tersebut. Berkaitan dengan maksud penamaan badan usaha
ini, Obata (via Ebara, 2009) menyatakan bahwa untuk membuat kesan pada kota atau jalan
penulisan nama merupakan hal yang penting. Penulisan ini bisa berupa tulisan kanji atau sistem
tulisan lainnya.
Hal yang paling dekat dengan fenomena pemberian nama adalah pemberian nama anak.
Pemberian nama terhadap bukan tanpa tujuan dan bahkan tujuannya adalah agar anak
mendapatkan masa depan yang bagus. Agar mempunyai masa depan yang bagus orang tua
memilih nama yang bagus pula. Selain itu ada juga contoh yang lain, misalnya di Singapura
pemberian nama jalan dilakukan dengan cara menghindari racialisme, dengan cara pemberian
nama yang dipilih tersebut diharapkan bisa menjadi semangat nation building. Selain itu,
penamaan jalan diusahakan mengakomodasi bahasa yang dipakai oleh ras yang menjadi warga
di negara itu yang resmi (Yeoh, 1996). Mengenai tujuan penamaan lebih lanjut Lowrey dkk
(2003) menyatakan bahwa pemberian nama selain agar nama tersebut memberi manfaat, juga
diharapkan nama tersebut mudah dihafal oleh pasar atau konsumen sasaran. Agar tidak mudah
dilupakan maka nama tersebut harus khas dalam semantik dan fonetik. Semantik dan fonetik
mempunyai pengaruh terhadap memory pendengarnya.
Dalam beberapa kasus penamaan badan usaha di Jepang untuk mendapatkan bentuk
fonologi yang khas maka diambil unsur bahasa asing. Mengenai pengambilan unsur asing ini
secara umum, La Charite dkk (2005) menyatakan unsur serapan kebanyakan yang sangat
banyak diserapnya adalah unsur fonologis sedangkan unsur fonetis mempunyai peran yang lebih
sedikit. Tetapi, mungkin karena sistem ortografi yang berbeda dengan unsur asing yang dipakai
dalam penulisan nama badan usaha di Jepang, maka sisi fonetislah yang lebih menonjol
3. Analisis
Bahasa Jepang merupakan bahasa yang besar dan sangat berpengaruh apalagi ditunjang
dengan kekuatan ekonomi negara yang sangat tinggi. Maka dari itu adalah berlebihan bila
291
bahasa Jepang itu didominasi oleh bahasa asing. Tetapi, walaupun demikian terdapat fenomena
dominasi bahasa asing terhadap bahasa Jepang. Dominasi ini terdapat pada penamaan badan
usaha. Dengan adanya dominasi tersebut maka akhirnya muncul resistensinya yang nampak
juga pada penamaan badan usaha di Jepang, khususnya di Tokyo. .
Dominasi dalam penelitian ini adalah penguasaan atas suatu bahasa sehingga unsur
bahasa asingnya lebih menonjol. Sedangkan resistensi yang dimaksud adalah bahasa yang
nampak seperti bahasa asing.
Nama perusahaan yang bukan dalam bentuk dominasi ataupun resistensi, yaitu nama
yang memakai bahasa Jepang dan ditulis dengan cara Jepang juga sangat banyak. Misalnya
seperti berikut:
(1) Asahi Shinbunsha
(2) Ajinomoto
(3) Emori Shouji. dll
Sedangkan wilayah kebahasaan tertentu yang didominasi oleh bahasa asing bisa kita
lihat pada penamaan badan usaha seperti berikut:
(4) Bridgestone, nama ini berasal dari bahasa Ingris yang merupakan terjemahan dari nama
marga Ishibashi, yaitu ishi’batu’ dan bashi ‘jembatan’
(5) Raimuraito, merupakan kata bahasa Inggris limelite yang ditulis dengan hiragana
(bukan katakana)
(6) JALUX , berasal dari JAL (Japan Airline) dan bahasa Latin LUX ‘cahaya’
(7) ACCESS, berasal dari bahasa Inggris access
(8) Edowin, berasal dari nama orang asing yaitu Edwin
(9) Catena, berasal dari bahasa Latin catena ‘pertautan’, dan lain sebagainya
Karena adanya dominasi ini maka muncullah resistensi. Resistensi kebahasaan penulis
dapatkan pada penamaan badan usaha di Tokyo sebanyak 176 buah badan usaha. Bentuk-bentuk
resistensi tersebut nampak pada cara penulisan yang menggunakan singkatan atau kata yang
ditulis dengan huruf Latin. Misalnya:
(1) SMBC, singkatan dari Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation
(2) FDK, singkatan dari Fuji Denki Kagaku
(3) TBK, singkatan dari Toukyo Buhin Kougyou
(4) CSK, singkatan dari Computer Service Kabushikigaisha, dan lain sebagainya.
Data mengenai nama badan usaha yang ditulis dengan huruf Latin tersebut yang penulis
dapatkan sebanyak 14 buah.
Kemudian dilihat dari asal kata yang dipakai pada penamaan ini ada yang berasal dari
nama tempat, data yang terkumpul sebanyak 15 buah, nama orang ada 34 buah yang berisi
beraneka cara pemakaian yang berbeda, misalnya ada yang menggunakan nama marga saja, ada
yang menggunakan nama marga dan nama diri, ada yang gabungan dari beberapa marga dan
ada pula yang menggunakan nama marga ditambah dengan kata lain.
Badan usaha yang menggunakan nama tempat adalah sebagai berikut:
(1) Chiyoda, berasal dari nama tempat di Tokyo yaitu Chiyoda
(2) Ebara Shokuhin, nama ini berasal dari Ebara yang merupakan nama daerah di Tokyo
sekarang bernama Shinagawa, dan shokuhin yang berarti ‘produk makanan’
(3) Hachiban, kata ini bila diterjemahkan kedalam bahasa Indonesia berarti nomor 8 dan
berasal dari nama jalan raya kelas 8
(4) Bisukee Horudingu, berasal dari nama tempat Ebisu dan bahasa Inggris holdings
(5) Musashi, berasal dari nama tempat di sekitar Tokyo yaitu Musashino
Sedangkan yang menggunakan nama marga adalah sebagai berikut:
(6) Takamura , berasal dari nama marga Takamura
(7) Oonambaa, berasal dari nama Ono. Nama ini bila ditulis O No maka bisa dibaca
menjadi O Number, dan cara baca katakananya menjadi oonambaa
(8) Yonex berasal dari nama marga Yonezawa dan afix X
(9) Takakyuu, berasal dari nama marga Takahisa, hisa dalam Takahisa bila ditulis dengan
kanji bisa dibaca juga kyuu
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(10) Kosei, berasal dari nama marga Kobayashi Makoto, ko dari kobayashi dan sei
merupakan cara baca makoto pada saat ditulis dengan kanji.
Dari data yang penulis dapatkan bahwa nama badan usaha yang berasal dari kata bahasa
Jepang terdapat sebanyak 29 buah badan usaha. Misalnya
(1) Eizai, berasal dari kata eisei zairyou ‘produk kesehatan’
(2) Konami, berasal dari kata konami ‘gelombang kecil, riak’
(3) Sangi, berasal dari kata sangi ‘tiga ajaran’
(4) Sanwa, berasal dari kata san ‘tiga’ dan wa’ harmoni’, dan lain sebagainya
Dalam penamaan badan usaha bukan hanya kategori nomina atau pronomina saja yang
digunakan tetapi juga memasukan kategori lainnya, misalnya pada penamaan berikut:
(1) Asukuru, berasal dari frasa “asu kuru” ‘akan datang besok’
(2) Daiei, berasal dari frasa “ookiku sakaeru “’memakmurkan secara besar-besaran’
(3) Maruha, berasal dari frasa ‘ha wo marukusuru’ ‘membundarka gelombang’
Nama badan usaha (28),(29) dan (30) mengandung unsur kategori nomina, verba dan
ajektiva, serta partikel yang dilesapkan.
Penamaan yang memakai unsur fonetis (karena bunyinya) adalah sebagai berikut:
(1) Genkii, sebetulnya berasal dari kata genki, agar mirip dengan bunyi kata lucky maka
bunyi/ ki/ nya dipanjangkan
(2) Kokosu, karena bunyinya menarik
(3) Merukusu, berasal dari Me(iji). L(eather). X
(4) Nikon, dari nikkou dan bunyi/ n/
Yang tidak kalah menariknya dalam penamaan badan usaha di Tokyo adalah
goroawase, suatu cara penyebutan salah satu allomorf angka dengan silabel pertamanya saja.
(1) Ikuyo, berasal dari tahun pendirian 194-7, 1 dibaca /i/ dari ichi, 9 dibaca /ku/, 4 dibaca
/yo/ dari yon
(2) Misumi, nama ini merupakan gabungan nama Mitsui, Mitsubishi dan Sumitomo. Bunyi
/mi/ yang pertama berasal angka 3 kanji yang terdapat pada penulisan Mitsui dan
Mitsubishi. Sedangkan /sumi/ merupakan kependekan dari Sumitomo
4. Simpulan
Masyarakat Jepang ternyata selain merupakan masyarakat yang terbuka dalam bahasa,
dalam hal ini bisa dilihat pada terdapatnya dominasi nama badan usaha atas bahasa asing, tetapi
juga ada unsur penolakan terhadap banjirnya nama-nama badan usaha berbau asing tersebut.
Usaha masyarakat Jepang agar tidak begitu saja memakai kata asing maka dicarilah nama yang
unik tetapi tidak memakai bahasa asing. Usahanya tidak sederhana tetapi cukup rumit dari
meringkas frasa, menambahkan afik yang tidak ada dalam bahasa Jepang sendiri yaitu X dan i,
penyingkatan-penyingkatan serta goroawase sehingga memunculkan bahasa yang seperti
bahasa asing yang penulis anggap sebagai bentuk resistensi bahasa Jepang.
Resistensi yang muncul pada penamaan badan usaha ini tidak bisa dianggap begitu saja
sebagai suatu argumentasi bahwa masyarakat Jepang membenci bahasa asing, tapi paling tidak
bisa diketahui bahwa sikap bahasa masyarakat Jepang adalah bahwa yang unik dan yang
menarik tidak harus dari bahasa asing tetapi bisa dibuat dari bahasa sendiri.
Daftar Pustaka
Obata, Lifemann. (2009)、Meikai Nihongo Dai 14 gou Edisi Februari. 2009｡
Lowrey, Tina M., Shrum. L.J., Dubitsky Tony M. 2003. Journal of Advertising Vol 32 No 3;
The Relation Between Brand-Name Linguistic Characteristics And Brand-Name
Memory. Taylor and Francis Ltd
La Charite, Darlene and Paradis, Carole. 2005. Category Preservation and Proximity versus
Phonetic Approximation in Loanword Adaptation Darlene. Linguistic Inquiry, MIT
Press
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Mulyadi. 2004. Kajian Fonologis Unsur Serapan pada Bahasa Jepang.Universitas Gadjah Mada.
Laporan Penelitian
Yeoh, Brenda S. A. 1996. Street-naming and Nation-building: Toponymic Inscriptions of
Nationhood in Singapore.Area
Wijana, I Dewa Putu.2014. Bahasa, Kekuasaan, dan Resistensinya:Studi tentang Nama-nama
Badan Usaha di Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta. Makalah
www.yurai.jp
www.moj.go.jp/MINJI/minji44.html
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Bahasa Jawa Di Yogyakarta Dan Usaha Pemertahanannya
Latif Amrullah, IAIN Tulungagung
Abstrak
Bahasa selalu berubah bersamaan dengan perkembangan manusia itu sendiri. Dikarenakan
adanya kontak dengan budaya dari luar, sebuah bahasa dapat mengalami perubahan jumlah
penutur. Namun terjadinya perubahan internal pada penutur juga dapat mengakibatkan
terjadinya perubahan bahasa. Kasus-kasus tersebut akan mempengaruhi keberadaan bahasa
beberapa waktu mendatang. Hal ini sebagaimana yang terjadi pada bahasa Jawa di kawasan
Provinsi D.I Yogyakarta bagian timur. Berkaitan dengan alasan-alasan tersebut, maka
dilakukanlah penelitian ini dengan tujuan untuk menggali lebih jauh faktor-faktor yang
mempengaruhi posisi bahasa Jawa dalam masyarakat multibahasa.
Kata kunci: Bahasa Jawa, masyarakat multi bahasa, orang Jawa
1. Pendahuluan
Berbicara tentang bahasa Jawa, pembahasan ini tidak dapat lepas dari keberadaan
masyarakat Jawa itu sendiri, sebuah susunan kemasyarakatan terbesar di Indonesia dengan
tingkat penutur bahasa terbesar, dimana mereka sebagian besar mendiami pulau Jawa.
Masyarakat Jawa tersebar dari Jawa Barat hingga Jawa Timur, dengan beraneka ragam dialek
kebahasaan. Penduduk asli Jakarta menggunakan dialek Melayu-Betawi karena sejarah kota
yang panjang dimana dahulu kota ini merupakan pusat perdagangan dengan pengaruh bahasa
Melayu yang kental. Lalu di Jawa Barat bagian tengah dan selatan, masyarakat menggunakan
bahasa Sunda, dimana bahasa ini, pada beberapa leksikon, memiliki kesamaan dengan bahasa
Jawa di Yogyakarta. Masyarakat yang tinggal di Jawa Timur bagian utara dan timur telah lama
dihuni oleh orang-orang Madura yang tetap mempertahankan bahasa Madura. Akan tetapi yang
disebut dengan bahasa Jawa yang sebenarnya merupakan bahasa yang digunakan masyarakat
penutur yang berada di Jawa Tengah dan Jawa Timur bagian barat (Suseno, 1993: 11).
Eksistensi budaya tidak dapat terlepas dari pengaruh politik geografis tersebut karena
memang politik memegang peranan yang sangat kuat dalam pembentukan masyarakat. Pada
jaman dahulu, pemerintah yang berkuasa terletak di kerajaan sehingga masih memungkinkan
untuk menggunakan pola sentralisasi. Apapun yang dititahkan oleh sang raja, masyarakat pasti
akan siap melaksanakannya. Begitu pula dengan kondisi pulau Jawa sekitar tahun 1700an
dimana pusat pemerintahan berada di Kartasura dan Yogyakarta, hal tersebut mengakibatkan
pusat kebudayaan juga berada di dua kerajaan ini. Bahasa yang juga merupakan bagian dari
budaya, secara terpelihara dan terjaga digunakan oleh masyarakat hingga sekarang dengan
mengacu kepada bahasa standar yang berasal dari kerajaan. Semakin masyarakat menjauhi pusat
kebudayaan, maka penggunaan bahasa akan semakin menjauhi bahasa standar karena juga
adanya pengaruh dari kebudayaan luar. Oleh karena itu, dalam tulisan ini bahasa yang
digunakan sebagai obyek kajian adalah bahasa Jawa yang berada di sekitar pusat kerajaan
Yogyakarta.
Di dalam masyarakat Jawa terdapat suatu prinsip hidup yang menjadi ciri khas
masyarakat yakni prinsip hormat. Prinsip ini menunjukkan bahwa setiap orang, dalam hal cara
bicara dan pembawaan diri, harus selalu menunjukkan sikap terhadap orang lain berdasarkan
derajat dan kedudukan sosial di masyarakat (Suseno, 1993: 60). Prinsip ini secara langsung
menyiratkan bahwa bahasa sebagai bagian dari budaya dan cara hidup memang harus senantiasa
memperhatikan derajat dan kedudukan, agar tidak terjadi kesalahan komunikasi antar penutur
bahasa dan juga demi menjaga keselarasan dalam berhubungan. Adanya derajat sosial akan
berimplikasi dengan adanya hierarki sosial, tetapi ini bukanlah suatu batas pergaulan, artinya
bahwa masyarakat diharapkan bisa menempatkan diri pada situasi tertentu dengan berperilaku
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yang tertentu pula, sehingga akan terjalin tata krama masyarakat yang baik. Sebagai dampak
dari adanya hierarki sosial dan penempatan diri yang berbeda dalam situasi yang berbeda, maka
bahasa sebagai media bicara juga turut beragam, yang di dalam masyarakat Jawa dikenal
dengan istilah unggah-ungguh atau sopan-santun kebahasaan.
Unggah-ungguh adalah aturan bahasa berdasarkan letak tata krama. Dari pengertian ini
terkandung makna bahwa ketika seseorang mampu menggunakan sopan santun berbahasa,
apabila berbicara dengan orang lain, bahasa yang digunakan selalu tertata, sesuai dengan aturan
kebahasaan, tata susila, selalu membuat hati menjadi senang. Ada beberapa faktor yang
mempengaruhi sikap sopan-santun kebahasaan bahasa Jawa, antara lain faktor umur antar
penutur, faktor kekerabatan, faktor derajat kepangkatan, faktor garis keturunan, faktor kualitas
pribadi, serta faktor keintiman (Harjawiyana, 2005: 13). Sehingga dapat diamati bahwa unggahungguh merupakan suatu hal yang kompleks dalam sebuah sistem komunikasi yang dilakukan
oleh masyarakat Jawa. Kesemuanya mempunyai implikasi terhadap eksistensi individu tertentu
di dalam masyarakat.
Menurut Poedjosoedarmo (1968 dalam Suseno, 1993: 62-63), bahasa Jawa terdiri dari 2
tingkat utama yang berbeda dalam kosakata dan tata bahasa. Tingkatan kromo berfungsi untuk
mengungkapkan penghormatan, sedangkan tingkatan ngoko berguna untuk mengungkapkan
keakraban. Untuk istilah sekitar 850 kata yang berkaitan dengan kehidupan sehari-hari, bahasa
Jawa mempunyai bentuk ngoko dan kromo. Jumlah tersebut masih harus ditambah dengan
sekitar 260 kata pada tingkat bahasa ketiga yakni kromo inggil, dimana tingkatan ini berisi
mengenai pribadi, tindakan-tindakan, serta untuk pengungkapan rasa hormat yang amat tinggi.
Selain itu, masih ada juga kombinasi tengahan yang merupakan percampuran antara ngoko dan
kromo. Sehingga bahasa Jawa mempunyai sebelas tingkat bahasa dimana masing-masing sesuai
dengan hubungan kepangkatan sosial tertentu. Oleh karena itu, penggunaan bahasa Jawa
mengandalkan kesadaran akan kedudukan sosial masing-masing penutur dan lawan tutur.
Dalam tulisan ini, peneliti mengambil sampel khusus yakni dusun Pundung, Desa
Tirtomartani, Kecamatan Kalasan. Dusun ini merupakan daerah urban yang telah banyak
bersentuhan dengan pengaruh kota, seperti pendidikan, pergaulan, pekerjaan, namun juga masih
mempertahankan tradisi sosio-kultural masyarakat dengan memegang teguh falsafah budaya
Jawa. Sehingga daerah ini layak untuk dijadikan obyek pengamatan. Berdasarkan informasi dari
masyarakat bahwa dusun ini telah ada sejak jaman kemerdekaan sekitar tahun 1945. Meskipun
tidak ada bukti tertulis, namun silsilah keturunan masih ada. Pada sekitar tahun 1998-2004
penulis secara aktif terlibat dalam interaksi sosial kemasyarakatan, mendapati bahwa bahasa
Jawa dipergunakan oleh hampir semua golongan masyarakat, bahkan anak-anak pun dapat
menggunakan bahasa Jawa dengan baik dan sedikit penggunaan bahasa Indonesia. Mereka
mengetahui kapan harus menggunakan ngoko atau kromo. Saat itu bahasa Jawa digunakan
dalam aktifitas formal masyarakat seperti rapat perkumpulan warga, arisan ibu-ibu PKK,
peringatan HUT RI, atau gotong royong. Sedangkan remaja juga menggunakan bahasa Jawa
ketika berkomunikasi informal, atau ketika berbicara dalam forum rapat kepemudaan. Di dalam
tulisan ini, para remaja ini dianggap sebagai generasi pertama karena pengamatan dimulai dari
titik ini.
Selanjutnya, seiring dengan perjalanan waktu dan perubahan dinamika sosial di
masyarakat, terjadi pergeseran bahasa yang digunakan di masyarakat. Generasi pertama masih
menggunakan bahasa Jawa dalam sebagian besar situasi kemasyarakatan, sedangkan generasi
kedua dan ketiga, atau remaja dan anak-anak saat ini, banyak yang tidak mampu menggunakan
bahasa Jawa dengan baik. Mereka hanya mengetahui bahasa ngoko, namun dalam tingkat
kosakata yang terbatas. Selebihnya mereka hanya menggunakan bahasa Indonesia. Sejak tahun
2005 hingga sekarang, kegiatan kepemudaan menggunakan bahasa Indonesia, bahkan dalam
percakapan non-formal. Anak-anak usia sekolah dasar banyak yang tidak mampu menggunakan
bahasa Jawa kromo. Padahal pada era generasi pertama, mereka mampu menggunakan kromo
pada usia yang sama dengan anak-anak saat ini.
Dari bukti-bukti yang ada di lingkungan masyarakat tersebut, terlihat bahwa terjadi
pergeseran penggunaan bahasa pada masyarakat generasi kedua dan ketiga. Oleh karena itu,
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penelitian ini akan mengamati faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi pergeseran penggunaan bahasa
Jawa oleh masyarakat. Selain itu, akan disampaikan solusi yang ditawarkan terkait dengan
fenomena kebahasaan tersebut agar bahasa Jawa tidak mengalami kepunahan. Sebagai penutup,
akan disampaikan kesimpulan hasil penelitian pada bagian akhir.
2. Metode
Dusun Pundung merupakan salah satu perkampungan di wilayah kelurahan
Tirtomartani, kecamatan Kalasan, kabupaten Sleman. Kampung ini dikategorikan kecil karena
hanya memiliki sekitar 170 kepala keluarga. Sebagian besar pekerjaan warga adalah petani dan
buruh, meskipun juga ada yang berprofesi sebagai karyawan pabrik, pedagang, karyawan
swasta, wirausaha, PNS, dan TNI/Polri. Kampung ini terbelah oleh akses jalan kabupaten yang
merupakan sarana lalu lintas penghubung dimana setiap jam berangkat dan pulang kerja selalu
ramai, disamping itu akses menuju pusat kota juga tidak terlalu sulit karena cukup ditempuh
dalam waktu 30 menit. Sehingga banyak anggota masyarakat yang bekerja atau belajar di pusat
kota dan mereka bersentuhan dengan pola kehidupan perkotaan. Tentunya aspek bahasa, secara
disadari atau tidak, pasti juga akan terlibat.
Penelitian ini menggunakan metode pengamatan terlibat, dimana penulis secara pasif
masuk ke dalam masyarakat. Perlu dicatat bahwa penulis juga merupakan anggota komunitas
masyarakat tersebut, sehingga telah memiliki pemahaman terlebih dahulu mengenai wilayah ini.
Obyek pengamatan terdiri dari warga dewasa sebagai generasi pertama, lalu remaja dan anakanak sebagai generasi kedua dan ketiga. Dengan adanya 3 generasi yang berbeda ini, diharapkan
akan ada pembanding sebagai data yang akurat.
3. Masyarakat Multibahasa
Dewasa ini masyarakat umumnya menguasai beberapa bahasa sekaligus, terutama bagi
mereka yang mengalami kontak dengan budaya atau bahasa dari luar wilayahnya. Akan tetapi
tidak menutup kemungkinan juga adanya individu di masyarakat yang hanya menguasai satu
bahasa atau ekabahasawan. Kasus ini biasanya terdapat pada orang yang telah lanjut usia
dimana mereka tidak mampu lagi untuk belajar bahasa pada usia tersebut atau bagi mereka yang
tidak mengenyam pendidikan pada waktu dahulu. Otak mengalami kesulitan untuk merekam
kosakata baru karena daya serap yang menurun. Selain itu, apabila berhasil menyerap kosakata
yang ada, mereka akan mengalami interferensi bahasa pada tahap fonologis, sistem gramatikal,
leksikal, dan semantik (Kridalaksana, 1985: 26) yang dikarenakan perbedaan cara ucap dengan
bahasa pertama mereka.
Dalam skala yang lebih luas di dalam masyarakat penutur suatu bahasa, terdapat pula
suatu kelompok penutur yang menguasai bahasa lebih dari satu, maka inilah yang dimaksud
dengan masyarakat multibahasa. Masyarakat seperti ini terjadi karena adanya beberapa etnik
yang membentuk masyarakat tersebut sehingga menjadi masyarakat yang majemuk
(Sumarsono, 2007: 76). Di beberapa tempat, hal ini dianggap wajar bahwa masyarakat berbicara
dengan beberapa bahasa, seperti misalnya bahasa Jawa digunakan di lingkungan rumah, bahasa
Indonesia pakai di lingkungan sekolah, dan bahasa Inggris diucapkan oleh penutur dalam
kontak bisnis perdagangan dengan pebisnis dari luar negeri (Wardhaugh, 1988: 94-95). Pada
tataran kebangsaan, sulit untuk menemukan suatu negara yang benar-benar ekabahasa. Ada
sebuah pandangan yang salah mengenai ekabahasawan ini yakni anggapan bahwa bangsabangsa di Eropa hanya memiliki satu bahasa pada negara tersebut. Memang betul bahwa orang
Perancis menggunakan bahasa Perancis, orang Jerman menggunakan bahasa Jerman, tetapi pada
kenyataannya hal ini jauh berbeda karena hampir semua negara-negara di Eropa terdapat
kelompok minoritas bahasa yang memilik bahasa ibu berbeda dengan bahasa nasional mereka
(Trudgil, 1978: 129-130).
Bilingualisme, atau bahkan multilingualisme, tampaknya sudah mulai menjadi hal yang
wajar di Asia, terutama bagi negara-negara yang merdeka pada kurun waktu abad ke 20.
Menurut pandangan Kridalaksana (1985: 22) ada dua pokok permasalahan yang menjadi
kendala dalam permasalahan kebahasaan ini, yakni 1) Negara yang secara formal telah memiliki
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bahasa kebangsaan, tetapi bahasa kebangsaan itu belum merupakan kenyataan sosial, sehingga
persoalan yang dihadapi adalah bagaimana menyebarluaskan bahasa itu ke seluruh negeri; dan
2) Negara yang secara formal sudah memiliki bahasa kebangsaan dan bahasa itu sudah
merupakan kenyataan sosial masih juga mengalami persoalan, karena bahasa kebangsaan itu
harus didewasakan dan dimodernisasikan sesuai dengan tuntutan kemajuan. Dari kedua
permasalahan tersebut, negara Indonesia masih menghadapi tantangan yang ke 2 yakni
mengenai pendewasaan bahasa.
Dalam proses pendewasaan bahasa ini, bahasa Indonesia menyerap kosakata entah yang
berasal dari bahasa daerah atau bahasa asing luar negeri. Tampaknya pengaruh bahasa daerah
sangat kuat dalam proses pembentukan bahasa Indonesia karena memang budaya masyarakat
Indonesia telah berakar denga kuat. Sedangkan adanya serapan dari bahasa asing terkesan
merupakan suatu “keharusan” yang dikarenakan tidak adanya kosakata tersebut dalam bahasa
Indonesia. Dalam satu sisi, bagi mereka yang mendukung penggunaan bahasa Indonesia secara
menyeluruh, masyarakat sebaiknya menggunakan bahasa Indonesia karena ini merupakan
bahasa yang telah diterima dan disepakati sebagai bahasa nasional, yang artinya masyarakat
harus belajar tentang bahasa Indonesia. Akan tetapi, di sisi lain posisi bahasa daerah akan
semakin terancam karena kehilangan penutur bahasa. Maka akan timbul segolongan masyarakat
yang merasa perlu untuk tetap mempertahankan bahasa daerah dalam kehidupan dan
masyarakat. Pada tataran ini seolah-olah terdapat suatu “persaingan” antara bahasa daerah dan
bahasa nasional dalam kerangka aplikasi praktis (Kridalaksana, 1985: 22-23).
4. Fenomena Kebahasaan
Dengan berdasar pada adanya bilingualisme dalam masyarakat dan juga perkembangan
budaya, maka secara langsung mempengaruhi masyarakat dalam berbahasa. Fenomena yang ada
di dusun Pundung adalah bahwa bahasa Jawa mulai mengalami reduksi secara perlahan-lahan
sehingga hanya bahasa Jawa ngoko saja yang sering dipakai oleh masyarakat, sedangkan bahasa
Jawa kromo mulai jarang dipakai. Berikut ini adalah beberapa hal yang berpengaruh terhadap
pemakaian bahasa Jawa di dusun Pundung.
4.1. Pengasuhan di Keluarga
Keluarga memegang peranan sangat penting dalam tumbuh kembang anak. Mereka
akan melakukan imitasi terhadap orang-orang yang ada dalam keluarga dan lingkungan sekitar.
Pengasuhan yang baik akan menjadikan anak berbahasa dengan baik, akan tetapi pengasuhan
yang buruk akan berakibat pada hilangnya nilai-nilai budaya jawa. Seperti dalam kasus berikut:
Ibu
: “Nendra ora pareng nakal to!” (diucapkan dengan nada berteriak keras)
Anak : “Yo ben tho mak!” (diucapkan dengan nada berteriak lebih keras)
Si anak laki-laki yang berusia 3 tahun berkelahi dengan tetangga yang sama umurnya.
Hal ini diketahui oleh si ibu yang kemudian memarahinya dengan suara berteriak keras. Apa
yang dilakukan si ibu sebenarnya sangat berpengaruh terhadap kondisi psikologis anak karena
anak mendapat tekanan dari orang tua. Selain itu, usia 3 tahun merupakan periode emas ketika
anak melakukan penyerapan kosataka dari lingkungan sekitarnya. Dengan orang tua yang marah
tersebut, maka anak akan berasumsi bahwa apa yang dilakukan oleh ibu adalah wajar dan bisa
dicontoh. Perlu diingat bahwa anak belum dapat memilah mana yang benar dan mana yang
salah.
Bagi beberapa keluarga yang berpendidikan menengah dan berprofesi sebagai petani,
buruh, atau karyawan, mereka berkomunikasi dengan anak menggunakan bahasa Jawa. Fakta ini
bertahan hingga sekitar tahun 2002. Orang tua ketika mengasuh anak, menyuapi, ngudhang,
menggunakan bahasa Jawa secara terus menerus dengan harapan bahwa si anak nantinya akan
terbiasa mendengar bahasa Jawa. Akan tetapi kecenderungan yang ada saat ini sudah mulai
berubah. Beberapa keluarga muda, entah ayah atau ibu di dalam mendidik anak cenderung
menggunakan bahasa Indonesia. Akibatnya kakek atau nenek mereka juga turut menggunakan
bahasa Indonesia karena si anak tidak memahami bahasa Jawa. Hal ini tentunya sangat
berbahaya dalam kurun waktu beberapa tahun mendatang. Orang tua memang masih
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menggunakan bahasa Jawa, anak-anaknya sudah mulai mengajarkan bahasa Indonesia kepada
cucu-cucunya dengan melupakan bahasa Jawa.
Alangkah baiknya apabila pengasuhan di dalam keluarga menggunakan bahasa Jawa
setiap harinya, sehingga selain belajar sopan-santun berbahasa, anak juga akan belajar sopansantun budaya Jawa sebagai identitasnya. Orang tua sebagai model percontohan bagi anak-anak
sebaiknya tetap mempertahankan penggunaan bahasa Jawa ketika berbicara dengan anak-anak,
terutama menggunakan bahasa Jawa kromo. Meski demikian, ada pihak yang beranggapan
bahwa bahasa Indonesia harus diajarkan sejak dini karena khawatir apabila anak-anak tersebut
tidak bisa berbahasa Indonesia kelak. Pandangan ini sebenarnya kurang tepat. Anak-anak sudah
dapat belajar bahasa Indonesia di sekolah, televisi, atau majalah anak. Perlu diingat bahwa
konstruksi dan kosakata bahasa Indonesia jauh lebih mudah dibanding bahasa Jawa. Justru yang
lebih sulit adalah bagaimana mengajarkan bahasa Jawa kepada anak-anak.
Dengan pengajaran bahasa Jawa yang baik di dalam keluarga, yakni menaikkan
kedudukan si anak dengan cara orang tua berbicara kepada anak menggunakan bahasa Jawa
kromo, maka si anak belajar bahwa berbicara kepada orang lain harus mempertimbangkan
posisi dan kedudukan tertentu. Berbicara kromo dengan anak merupakan salah satu metode
pembelajaran bahasa yang sangat tepat, artinya bahwa dengan meng-kromo-kan anak, orang tua
memberi teladan bahwa bahasa ini sangat penting. Ketika anak bergaul dengan lingkungannya,
harapannya mereka telah dibekali dengan kemampuan berbahasa yang halus, sehingga dengan
sendirinya bahasa Jawa ngoko yang masuk ke dalam dirinya tidak mengganggu bahasa Jawa
kromo yang telah ada.
4.2. Pendidikan
Faktor berikutnya yang mempengaruhi pergeseran bahasa Jawa adalah proses belajar di
sekolah. Proses pendidikan di semua jenjang pendidikan selalu menggunakan bahasa Indonesia
sebagai bahasa pengantar. Mulai dari taman kanak-kanak, guru sudah mulai menggunakana
bahasa Jawa meski dalam percakapan individu dengan murid terkadang guru menggunakan
bahasa Jawa. Selanjutnya di jenjang sekolah dasar, selama 6 tahun pola pembelajaran sama
seperti sebelumnya, ditambah lagi anak-anak mulai menggunakan bahasa Indonesia dan Jawa
bersamaan ketika berbicara dengan teman. Di tingkat SMP dan SMA hingga perkuliahan bahasa
Indonesia menjadi sangat dominan, bahkan dapat menggeser kemampuan berbahasa daerah.
Masyarakat di dusun Pundung menyekolahkan anak-anak mereka di sekitar kampung
yang tidak terlalu jauh: ada 2 taman kanak-kanak, 2 sekolah dasar, 2 SMP. Tidak ada SMA atau
perguruan tinggi di sekitar kampung. Selain itu beberapa orang tua menyekolahkan anak-anak
mereka di sekolah swasta seperti sekolah dasar Islam Terpadu. Bagi anak-anak yang bersekolah
di sekitar kampung, mereka masih menggunakan bahasa Jawa dengan baik, meski generasi
ketiga hanya mampu berbahasa Jawa ngoko. Para pemuda yang bersekolah di SMA atau
perguruan tinggi di pusat kota, mereka dapat berbahasa Jawa dan Indonesia dengan cukup baik,
meskipu penguasaan bahasa kromo sudah berkurang. Akan tetapi bagi generasi ketiga justru
semakin menghilangkan kemampuan bahasa Jawa. Menghilangnya kemampuan berbahasa
tersebut disebabkan oleh penggunaan bahasa Indonesia yang terlalu banyak, sehingga anak-anak
mengalami kesulitan untuk menggunakan bahasa Jawa karena tidak adanya lawan tutur. Kasus
ini semakin terlihat jelas di sekolah swasta dimana sebagian besar peserta didik berasal dari
keluarga menengah ke atas dan berekonomi kuat sehingga pola berbahasa mereka praktis selalu
menggunakan bahasa Indonesia.
Untuk masalah penggunaan bahasa dalam ranah pendidikan, sebenarnya hal ini tidak
terlepas dari peran politik pemerintah. Saat ini pemerintah, terutama di Yogyakarta, sudah mulai
mengambil kebijakan dengan mewajibkan semua jenjang pendidikan untuk mengajarkan bahasa
Jawa di sekolah. Pengajaran ini diwujudkan dalam mata pelajaran muatan lokal bahasa Jawa
yang diberikan mulai tingkat sekolah dasar hingga SMA. Hal ini merupakan salah satu usaha
pemertahanan bahasa yang efektif, karena semua siswa pada akhirnya akan belajar bahasa Jawa,
bahkan bagi siswa yang belum pernah mendengar kosakata bahasa Jawa.
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Selain itu, guru sebagai pihak yang bersentuhan langsung dengan murid-murid alangkah
baiknya apabila menggunakan bahasa Jawa layaknya di rumah sendiri. Hal ini selain sebagai
usaha pemertahanan bahasa Jawa, juga dapat sebagai sarana untuk mengajarkan anak
bagaimana menghormati orang yang lebih tua di luar lingkungan keluarga. Sesuai dengan
Konferensi UNESCO tahun 1953 bahwa pendidikan sedapat-dapatnya diberikan lewat bahasa
ibu berdasarkan asumsi pemajanan terhadap bahasa ibu selama mungkin menguntungkan bagi
perkembangan kecendekiaan, keemosian, dan kemasyarakatan individu (Moeliono, 1981: 61).
Tidak perlu malu untuk menggunakan bahasa Jawa di lingkungan sekolah, karena sekolah yang
menggunakan lebih banyak bahasa Jawa, memiliki kecenderungan bahwa siswa yang ada
menjadi lebih sopan dan hormat kepada orang lain jika dibandingkan dengan sekolah yang
menggunakan bahasa Indonesia sepanjang waktu.
4.3. Pergaulan
Memang rumit untuk menentukan di lingkungan pergaulan mana anak-anak dan remaja
di dusun Pundung termasuk. Akan tetapi secara umum mereka bergaul dengan teman sekolah
dan lingkungan rumah. Untuk siswa sekolah dasar negeri yang terletak di dekat dusun, mereka
cenderung menggunakan bahasa Jawa dalam pergaulan, karena memang siswa yang bersekolah
di tempat tersebut berasal dari ekonomi menengah ke bawah. Sehingga kontak bahasa yang
terjadi adalah bahasa Indonesia dalam proses belajar dan bahasa Jawa dalam aktifitas pergaulan.
Sedangkan bagi siswa SMP, karena mereka memiliki teman yang berasal dari berbagai latar
belakang keluarga berbeda, beberapa menggunakan bahasa Indonesia dan juga bahasa Jawa.
Sedangkan siswa SMA terlihat sangat jelas bahwa mereka cenderung menggunakan bahasa
Indonesia, khususnya ragam bahasa yang sering digunakan oleh anak-anak muda saat ini. Dari
fenomena ini terlihat bahwa semakin tinggi tingkat pendidikan seorang anak, maka dia semakin
menjauhi bahasa Jawa. Hal ini dikarenakan perasaan malu menggunakan bahasa Jawa karena
terkesan konvensional, atau mereka memang berusaha untuk beradaptasi masuk ke dalam
sebuah sistem pergaulan yang terkesan lebih nyaman untuk menggunakan bahasa Indonesia.
Di dalam pergaulan masyarakat, anak-anak masih menggunakan bahasa Jawa dengan
teman sepermainan karena mereka juga teman satu sekolah sehingga mempunyai keintiman
yang tinggi. Akan tetapi beberapa warga cenderung menggunakan bahasa Indonesia ketika
berkomunikasi dengan anak-anak ini. Hal ini dikhawatirkan akan semakin menjauhkan anakanak dari penguasaan bahasa Jawa. Lalu bagi para remaja, mereka tetap menggunakan bahasa
Jawa ngoko dalam percakapan dengan sesama remaja. Namun dalam kegiatan perkumpulan
pemuda, terjadi alih kode yang dilakukan oleh para remaja. Untuk sekedar bercakap-cakap
dengan sesama remaja dalam kondisi santai, mereka menggunakan bahasa Jawa ngoko.
Beberapa remaja menggunakan bahasa Jawa kromo alus ketika berbicara dengan pemuda yang
lebih senior dan tua. Akan tetapi ketika rapat perkumpulan telah dimulai, maka bahasa
Indonesia digunakan sepanjang waktu karena mereka berusaha menyesuaikan dengan situasi
formal rapat. Hal ini dianggap wajar karena situasi rapat menuntut pemakaian bahasa formal.
Akan tetapi ada satu fenomena yang cukup menyedihkan di kalangan remaja. Saat
mereka berbincang-bincang dengan tetangga yang lebih tua, justru bahasa Indonesia yang
mereka gunakan padahal lawan bicara selalu menggunakan bahasa Jawa. Hal ini menyebabkan
penilaian terhadap remaja semakin menurun karena ketidakmampuan untuk menggunakan
bahasa Jawa kromo. Semakin para remaja ini jauh dari penguasaan bahasa Jawa, tanpa disadari
sebenarnya mereka juga telah mulai kehilangan tata kesopanan dalam pergaulan. Para remaja
terkesan individualis karena tidak menyapa ketika berpapasan dengan orang yang lebih tua atau
acuh terhadap lingkungan sekitar. Pada tingkat ini, mereka telah jauh dari falsafah nilai luhur
budaya Jawa.
Oleh karena itu, dalam pergaulan hendaknya seluruh komponen masyarakat bekerja
sama untuk menciptakan lingkungan yang kondusif untuk menunjang kemampuan anak
berbahasa Jawa dengan baik. Para tokoh masyarakat dan para orang tua hendaknya tetap
menggunakan bahasa Jawa ketika mereka berbicara dengan orang yang lebih muda, dan juga
memberikan dorongan positif bahwa bahasa Jawa sangat penting dan berguna. Para pemuda
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harus tetap menjunjung tinggi bahasa Jawa, tidak perlu malu menggunakan bahasa Jawa karena
bahasa ini banyak memuat kearifan lokal.
5. Kesimpulan
Bahasa merupakan suatu sistem budaya yang komplek, dimana usaha untuk
mempertahankannya tidak cukup hanya dilakukan oleh satu pihak saja, melainkan harus ada
upaya kolaboratif dari berbagai pihak dalam rangka pelestarian bahasa. Dengan usaha
pemertahanan bahasa Jawa ini, khususnya di lingkungan masyarakat, diharapkan keberadaan
bahasa Jawa, terutama tingkat kromo, tidak tergerus oleh keberadaan bahasa nasional serta
bahasa asing. Pengasuhan di keluarga menjadi faktor penentu kesuksesan usaha ini karena anakanak belajar pertama kali dari orang tua. Ketika anak telah mantap dengan bahasa Jawa yang dia
miliki, maka pada tahapan selanjutnya bahasa Jawa akan semakin mudah untuk dikuasai dan
diaplikasikan dalam pendidikan serta pergaulan.
Pustaka Acuan:
Harjawiyana, Haryana dan Th. Supriya. 2005. Marsudi Unggah-Ungguh Basa Jawa.
Yogyakarta: Penerbit Kanisius.
Kridalaksana, Harimurti. 1985. Fungsi Bahasa dan Sikap Berbahasa. Flores: Nusa Indah.
Moeliono, A.M. 1981. Pengembangan dan Pembinaan Bahasa. Jakarta: Djambatan.
Sumarsono, 2007. Sosiolinguistik. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.
Suseno, Franz Magnis. 1993. Etika Jawa: Sebuah Analisa Falsafi Tentang Kebijaksanaan
Hidup Jawa. Jakarta: Gramedia Pustaka Utama.
Trudgill, Peter. 1978. Sociolinguistics An Introduction. Middlesex: Penguin Books.
Wardhaugh, Ronald. 1988. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. New York: Basil Blackwell.
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Tutur Bahasa Mario Teguh Pada Acara Golden Ways Metro Tv
(Kajian Sosiolingustik: Alih Kode & Campur Kode)
Wahyu Damayanti,S.Pd., Balai Bahasa Provinsi Kalimantan Barat
Abstrak
Golden Ways Metro TV sebuah acara yang menampilkan seorang motivator terkenal Mario
Teguh. Sebagai motivator Mario Teguh tentu saja berkomunikasi melalui bahasa yang mudah
dipahami oleh semua kalangan baik tua maupun muda. Pemirsa yang heterogen menjadikan
Mario Teguh menyelipkan bahasa selain bahasa Indonesia yaitu bahasa asing dan bahasa
Jawa.Tujuan penelitian ini yaitu mendeskripsikan wujud variasi pemilihan alih kode dan
campur kode dan faktor penyebab pemilihan alih kode dan campur kode pada tutur bahasa
Matior Teguh di Metro TV. Metode penelitian ini metode deskripsi kualitatif. Data yang
diperoleh adalah ungkapan bahasa MarioTeguh pada acara Golden Ways Metro TV, penulis
mengambil data dari you tube sebagai rekaman dokumenter. Hasil penelitian, bahwa terdapat
pengalihkodean dengan menyebutkan kalimat yang dialihkodekan dan pengalihkodean tanpa
menyebutkan kalimat yang dialihkodekan baik itu dalam bahasa Inggris maupun bahasa Arab.
Variasi campur kode yaitu adanya kata dan frasa dalam bahasa Inggris. Untuk bahasa Jawa dan
bahasa Arab hanya terdapat wujud kata. Faktor pemilihan alih kode dan campur kode
menciptakan suasana akrab dan santai, mengaitkan topik dengan konteks yang dibicarakan
dalam pemakaian dua bahasa, ingin menciptakan suasana keakraban dari suasana formal di
televisi menjadi informal.
Kata kunci : Alih kode, Campur Kode, Mario Teguh, Metro TV
1. Pendahuluan
Komunikasi dapat terjadi apabila komunikator dapat menyampaikan pesan secara
sederhana sehingga pesan tersebut diterima dan dipahami oleh komunikan. Ada beberapa faktor
yang dapat mempengaruh agar komunikasi dapat berlangsung dengan baik dan sesuai dengan
keinginan para penuturnya, yaitu siapa penutur, siapa mitra tutur, kapan dan di mana tuturan itu
terjadi.
Peran bahasa sangatlah penting karena bahasa merupakan alat komunikasi yang sangat
variatif,artinya untuk menyampaikan sebuah maksud seseorang bisa bermacam-macam makna.
Sebagian besar informan berusaha semaksimal mungkin agar pesan yang akan disampaikan
tidak membingungkan penerima berita, baik dari maksud dan tujuan maupun beberapa kosakata
yang umum digunakan oleh informan.
Rangkaian kata demi kata dapat merangsang pendengar untuk dapat melakukan apa
yang disampaikan pembicara. Bahasa sederhana dan mudah dipahami menciptakan suasana
komunikasi yang menyenangkan bagi semua orang. Hal ini banyak dilakukan oleh para
motivator agar apa yang disampaikan dapat dipahami oleh seluruh kalangan tanpa mengenal
kelas sosial.
Bahasa motivasi merupakan sebuah bentuk dorongan. Sebagaimana pendapat
Pamungkas (2012:131) bahwa:
“Pada era global yang penuh dengan dinamika kehidupan ini tentu permasalahan yang dihadapi
manusia semakin kompleks. Kekompleksan hidup yang harus dihadapi manusia terkadang menjadi
suatu hal yang menurunkan semangat manusia, sehingga tidak sedikit manusia yang putus asa dalam
menghadapi hidup. Dalam hal demikian, nasihat yang dapat membangkitkan semangat sangat
diperlukan. Oleh karena itu, tatanan bahasa yang digunakan sebagai bahasa motivasi juga sangat
spesifik dengan kandungan makna yang sangat dalam. Bahasa Indonesia dalam hal ini sangat berperan
besar, apalagi untuk memberikan motivasi bagi masyarakat Indonesia. Bahasa yang dikenal
masyarakat Indonesia, yaitu bahasa Indonesia, tentunya lebih dapat masuk ke dalam diri orang-orang
Indonesia daripada motivasi yang diberikan dengan menggunakan bahasa yang lain”.
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Satu diantara motivator yang sangat terkenal di Indonesia adalah Mario Teguh1. Kata
bijak Mario Teguh disampaikan dengan bahasa yang mudah dimengerti serta mudah dipahami
sehingga banyak kata-kata motivasi hidup yang diungkapkan sering menjadi acuan banyak
orang bagaimana seharusnya memandang hidup ini, baik untuk tampil sebagai pribadi lebih baik
maupun cara yang harus dilakukan dalam menyikapi berbagai persoalan dalam hidup. Hal
menarik dari beliau adalah setiap ungkapan kata-kata yang mengandung makna mendalam tidak
pernah mengedepankan agama tertentu sebagai acuan dari kebenaran apa yang diungkapkan
sehingga ia dikenal sebagai motivator yang bisa diterima semua kalangan. Dalam proses
penyampaian pesan yang dikemukakan oleh Mario Teguh cukup banyak dan memiliki banyak
tahapan, diantaranya meliputi : pengirim memiliki ide atau gagasan, ide diubah menjadi sebuah
pesan, pemindahan pesan, penerima mendapat pesan, penerima memberi tanggapan dan
mengirim umpan balik kepada pengirim.
Acara Golden Ways Mario Teguh, merupakan ajang tatap muka serta cara mendekatkan
diri seorang Mario Teguh kepada para fansnya. Acara yang disiarkan secara live tersebut tidak
hanya menarik perhatian penonton yang bisa menyaksikan secara langsung di studio Metro TV,
namun juga mengundang banyak perhatian pemirsa yang hanya bisa menyaksikan acara tersebut
melalui televisi. Sebuah konsep acara yang mengusung tentang cara memotivasi diri untuk bisa
hidup lebih maju dan lebih baik ini telah membuka banyak orang tentang arti pentingnya sebuah
motivasi.
Sebagai motivator dengan banyak pemirsa dengan latar belakang berbeda baik itu
dalam status sosial maupun suku bangsa, tentunya Mario Teguh harus mampu menyampaikan
sebuah pesan dengan bahasa yang mudah dipahami oleh semua kalangan. Hal ini yang
dilakukan Mario Teguh dalam memberikan bahasa motivasi yang dapat diterima meski kadang
muncul bahasa asing (bahasa Inggris) dan kadang terselip juga bahasa Jawa di sela-sela tutur
bahasa beliau. Munculnya alih kode dan campur kode yang dilakukan Mario Teguh membawa
variasi tersendiri pada acara Golden Ways di Metro TV. Variasi bahasa Mario Teguh
menjadikan suasana pada acara tersebut menjadi hidup.
Berdasarkan latar belakang yang disajikan, masalah yang dikaji dalam penelitian ini adalah:
1. bagaimana wujud variasi pemilihan alih kode dan campur kode pada tutur bahasa Mario
Teguh?
2. apa faktor penyebab pemilihan alih kode dan campur kode pada tutur bahasa Mario
Teguh?
Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk mendeskripsikan wujud variasi pemilihan alih kode
dan campur kode dan faktor penyebab pemilihan alih kode dan campur kode pada tutur bahasa
Matior Teguh di Metro TV. Manfaat penelitian ini diharapkan dapat menjadi barometer bahasa
khusus untuk penutur bahasa pada media televisi sehingga dapat diterima secara luas bagi
masyarakat, di samping itu dapat bermakna bagi upaya pembinaan dan pengembangan ilmu
bahasa, baik bahasa Indonesia maupun bahasa-bahasa lainnya.
1
Nama aslinya adalah Sis Maryono Teguh, namun saat tampil di depan publik, ia menggunakan nama Mario Teguh.
Ia meraih gelar Sarjana Pendidikan dari Institut Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan (IKIP) Malang. Mario Teguh sempat
bekerja di Citibank, kemudian mendirikan Bussiness Effectiveness Consultant, Exnal Corp. menjabat sebagai CEO
(Chief Executive Officer) dan Senior Consultan. Beliau juga membentuk komunnitas Mario Teguh Super Club
(MTSC). Pak Mario lahir di Makassar, 5 Maret 1956. Tahun 2010 kembali meraih penghargaan dari Museum
Rekor Indonesia, MURI, sebagai Motivator dengan Facebook Fans terbesar di dunia. Di awal tahun 2010,
Beliau terpilih sebagai satu dari 8 Tokoh Perubahan 2009 versi Republika surat kabar yang terbit di
Jakarta. Sebelumnya Beliau membawakan acara bertajuk Business Art di O’Channel. Kemudian namanya semakin
dikenal luas oleh masyarakat ketika ia membawakan acara Mario Teguh Golden Ways di Metro TV. Pada saat ini
Mario Teguh dikenal sebagai salah satu motivator termahal di Indonesia.
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2. Landasan Teori
Teori Hymes (dalam Suhardi dan Sembiring, 2005) tentang fungsi sosial bahasa yaitu
latar, peserta, hasil, amanat, cara, dan sarana. Unsur-unsur yang terdapat dalam setiap
komunikasi bahasa disajikan dalam bentuk SPEAKING, uraian sebagai berikut.
1. Latar (Setting and Scene) : latar merujuk pada tempat dan waktu terjadinya percakapan.
2. Peserta (Participants) : peserta merujuk pada peserta percakapan penutur dan mitra tutur.
3. Hasil (Ends): hasil merujuk pada hasil percakapan (yang diperoleh secara sengaja atau
tidak) dengan tujuan percakapan.
4. Amanat (Act Sequence) : amanat menunjuk pada bentuk dan isi amanat dalam bentuk katakata dan percakapan.
5. Cara (Key) : cara merujuk pada pelaksanaan percakapan .
6. Sarana (Instrumentalities) : sarana merujuk pada bentuk lisan atau tulisan.
7. Norma (Norms) : norma merujuk pada aturan-aturan perilaku percakapan.
8. Jenis (Genres) : jenis merujuk kepada kategori.
Suatu peristiwa tutur memiliki tujuh faktor tersebut di atas sehingga ketika penekanan
diberikan pada satu faktor tersebut, bahasa yang dipakai memiliki fungsi tertentu. Pada acara
Golden Ways di Metro TV beberapa poin menurut Hymes merupakan acuan dasar terjadi
komunikasi bahasa sebagaimana yang telah dijelaskan pada SPEAKING.
Alih kode adalah istilah umum untuk menyebut pergantian atau peralihan pemakaian
dua bahasa atau lebih, beberapa variasi dari satu bahasa, atau bahkan beberapa gaya dari suatu
ragam (Rahardi, 2001:20). Alih kode (code switching) adalah peristiwa peralihan dari satu kode
ke kode yang lain. Misalnya penutur menggunakan bahasa Indonesia beralih menggunakan
bahasa Jawa atau bahasa lain. Alih kode merupakan salah satu aspek ketergantungan bahasa
(language dependency) dalam masyarakat multilingual. Dalam masyarakat multilingual, seorang
penutur sangat sulit mutlak hanya menggunakan satu bahasa. Dalam alih kode, masing-masing
bahasa masih cenderung mendukung fungsi dan masing-masing fungsi sesuai dengan
konteksnya. Suwito (1985) mengungkapkan beberapa faktor yang menyebabkan alih kode atau
campur kode antara lain.
1. Penutur
Pembicara kadang-kadang sengaja beralih kode terhadap mitra bahasa karena maksud
dan tujuan tertentu. Dari pribadi pembicara, ada berbagai maksud dan tujuan beralih kode,
antara lain pembicara ingin mengubah situasi pembicaraan, yakni dari situasi formal yang
terikat ruang dan waktu ke situasi formal yang tidak terikat ruang dan waktu. Pembicara
kadang-kadang melakukan campur kode bahasa satu ke dalam bahasa yang lain karena
kebiasaan.
2. Mitra Tutur
Mitra bicara dapat berupa individu atau kelompok. Dalam masyarakat atau kelompok
bilingual, seorang pembicara yang mula-mula menggunakan satu bahasa dapt beralih kode
menggunakan bahasa lain dengan mitra bicara yang mempunyai latar belakang bahasa daerah
yang sama.
3. Hadirnya Penutur Ketiga
Untuk menetralisasi situasi dan menghormati kehadiran mitra tutur ketiga, biasanya
penutur dan mitra tutur beralih kode, apalagi bila latar belakang kebahasaan mereka berbeda.
4. Pokok Pembicaraan
Pokok pembicaraan atau topik merupakan faktor yang dominan dalam menentukan
terjadinya alih kode. Pokok pembicaraan yang bersifat formal biasanya diungkapkan dengan
ragam baku, dengan gaya netral, dan serius. Pokok pembicaraan yang bersifat informal
disampaikan dalam situasi “bebas”, “santai” dengan menggunakan ragam non-formal. Dalam
ragam non-formal kadang terjadi “penyisipan” unsur bahasa lain. Di samping itu, topik
pembicaraan non-ilmiah (percakapan sehari-hari) menciptakan pembicaraan yang santai.
Pembicaraan yang santai juga dapat menimbulkan campur kode.
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5. Fungsi dan Tujuan
Fungsi bahasa yang digunakan dalam pembicaraan didasarkan pada tujuan
berkomunikasi. Fungsi bahasa merupakan ungkapan pada tujuan tertentu, seperti perintah,
menawarkan, mengumumkan, memarahi, dan sebagainya. Pembicara menggunakan bahasa
menurut fungsi yang dikehendakinya sesuai dengan konteks dan situasi komunikasi. Alih kode
dapat terjadi karena situasi dipandang tidak seseuai atau tidak relevan. Dengan demikian, alih
kode menunjukkan adanya saling ketergantungan antara fungsi kontekstual dan situasional yang
relevan dalam pemakaian dua bahasa.
6. Ragam dan Tingkat Tutur Bahasa
Pemilihan ragam dan tingkat tutur bahasa banyak didasarkan pada pertimbangan pada
mitra bicara. Pertimbangan ini menunjukkan suatu pendirian terhadap topik tertentu atau
relevansi dengan situasi tertentu. Alih kode dan campur kode lebih sering timbul pada
penggunaan ragam non-formal dan tutur bahasa rendah dibandingkan dengan penggunaan
ragam bahasa tinggi.
Suwito (1985) menyatakan campur kode terjadi apabila seorang penutur menggunakan
suatu bahasa secara dominan mendukung suatu tuturan disisipi dengan unsur bahasa lainnya.
Hal ini biasanya berhubungan dengan karakteristik penutur, seperti latar belakang sosial, tingkat
pendidikan, dan rasa keagamaan, Ciri yang menonjol biasanya berupa kesantaian atau situasi
informal. Namun, campur kode juga bisa terjadi karena keterbatasan bahasa seperti ungkapan
yang tidak ada padanannya, sehingga menyebabkan adanya keterpaksaan menggunakan bahasa
lain, walaupun mendukung satu fungsi. Beberapa wujud campur kode antara lain; penyisipan
kata, penyisipan frasa, penyisipan klausa, penyisipan ungkapan atau idiom, dan penyisipan
bentuk dasar baster (gabungan bentuk asli dan asing).
Alih kode berbeda dengan campur kode. Suwito (1985) menyebutkan jika penutur
menggunakan satu klausa yang jelas-jelas memiliki struktur gramatika bahasa lain, penutur
telah melakukan alih kode. Namun, jika penutur menggunakan satu kata atau frasa dari bahasa
yang lain ke dalam bahasa yang digunakannya, yang telah terjadi adalah peristiwa campur kode.
Pembahasan mengenai alih kode dan campur kode dalam penelitian ini mengacu pada pendapat
yang dikemukakan oleh Suwito.
3. Metode Penelitian
Metode penelitian ini menggunakan metode deskriptif, yaitu mendeskripsikan data atau
fakta yang ada dalam pemakaian bahasa. Sumber data dalam penelitian ini adalah tutur bahasa
Mario Teguh pada acara Golden Ways. Data diperoleh dari Youtube pada acara Golden Ways
Metro TV sebanyak 24 kali siaran. Teknik pengumpulan data yang digunakan adalah teknik
dokumentasi yaitu mengunduh dari Youtube antara bulan Januari – Juni 2014. Data yang
diperoleh berupa tutur bahasa yang diucapkan Mario Teguh pada acara Golden Ways Metro TV
yang disiarkan setiap hari Minggu pukul 19.30. Setelah data diunduh, langkah selanjutnya
adalah analisis data. Analisis data dimulai dengan pentranskripsian data, identifikasi data,
pengklasifikasian data, dan penginterpretasian data.
4. Pembahasan
Tutur bahasa Mario Teguh dalam acara Golden Ways beberapa kali mengalihkodekan
bahasa Jawa ke dalam bahasa Indonesia, mengalihkodekan bahasa Inggris ke dalam bahasa
Indonesia. Ada 3 bentuk alih kode yang dilakukan oleh Mario Teguh yaitu (1) pengalihan kode
dari bahasa Jawa dan bahasa Inggris yaitu dengan menyampaikan kembali kalimat yang
dialihkodekan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia dan (2) pengalihan kode bahasa asing (bahasa Arab
dan bahasa Inggris) dengan tidak menyebutkan kembali ke dalam bahasa Indonesia.
Pengalihkodean dengan menyebutkan kalimat yang dialihkodekan
Berikut alih kode yang dituturkan Mario Teguh dalam bahasa Jawa, bahasa Bali, dan bahasa
Inggris, Mario Teguh berusaha untuk mengulang kembali kalimat yang telah disampaikan.
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1. Ada anak yang melihat saya dan bilang ,”Motor satusan ae digowo nang sekolah. Motor
seratus ribuan saja dibawa ke sekolah,sakit hati tho.(16/5/2014)
Kalimat sebelumnya menggunakan bahasa Jawa “Motor satusan ae digowo nang sekolah”
selanjutnya oleh Mario Teguh diulang kembali dengan bahasa Indonesia Motor seratus ribuan
saja dibawa ke sekolah.
Pengalihan kode dari bahasa Inggris ke dalam bahasa Indonesia dengan menyebut kembali
kalimat alih kode yang digunakan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia,
2.
Untuk gagal butuh waktu juga tidak?kalau anda sukses pada umur 45 tahun atau gagal
waktu yang digunakan sama, good…it’s not how long your lives, tapi how important your
lives. Hidup itu bukan panjangnya tapi pentingnya. Anda tidak bisa hidup kalau yang anda
lakukan tidak penting.(16/5/2014)
Kalimat bahasa Inggris berikut ini it’s not how long your lifes, tapi how important your lifes
dialihkodekan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia oleh Mario Teguh sebagai berikut Hidup itu bukan
panjangnya tapi pentingnya.
Mario Teguh dengan sengaja melakukan alih kode karena pemirsa yang heterogen, tidak hanya
bahasa Jawa meski kadang diselipkan bahasa Jawa tetap Mario Teguh melakukan alih kode ke
dalam bahasa Indonesia. Begitu juga jika Mario Teguh menggunakan bahasa asing dalam hal ini
bahasa Inggris, beliau mengalihkodekan ke dalam bahasa Indonesia.
Di awal acara sebagai salam pembuka Mario Teguh juga melakukan pengalihkodean dengan
menggunakan bahasa Bali Kuno yaitu pada data berikut.
3. Salam sejahtera bagi kita semua, om swasti astu (19/1/2014)
Om swasti astu merupakan bahasa Bali Kuno yang artinya salam sejahtera untuk Anda sebagai
salam pembuka. Ucapan salam sejahtera telah diucapkan sebelum kata Om swasti astu,berarti
pengalihkodean dari bahasa Indonesia dengan mengulang kembali arti kalimat sebelumnya
dengan menggunakan bahasa Bali Kuno.
Pengalihkodean bahasa asing (bahasa Arab dan bahasa Inggris) tanpa menyebutkan
kalimat yang dialihkodekan
Berikut ini beberapa data pengalihkodean tanpa menyebutkan bahasa yang dialihkodekan oleh
Mario Teguh. Untuk data-data dibawah ini pengalihkodean dalam bahasa Inggris.
4. Berarti kalau ada masalah, tugas pertama kita harus mengerti kenapa masalah datang pada
Anda. Kalau iya, what’s define you? (19/1/2014)
5. Tahu ndak, saya punya kebiasaan kalau disakiti hati saya oleh orang saya bilang apa,I will
remember this.(16/5/2014)
6. Laki-laki berharap wanita pilihannya wanita to be the mother his child.(12/1/2014)
7. Bagaimana cara melupakannya, give him time.(12/1/2014)
Kalimat what’s define you, I will remember this, to be the mother his child, dan give him time,
yang dituturkan Mario teguh pada acara Golden Ways merupakan bentuk alih kode ke dalam
bahasa asing khususnya bahasa Inggris. Kalimat tersebut dalam bahasa Indonesia berarti apa
kesimpulan Anda, saya akan mengingatnya, untuk menjadi ibu bagi anaknya, beri dia waktu.
Mario Teguh sesekali menggunakan alih kode dengan bahasa Arab. Di bawah ini beberapa data
pengalihkodean dalam bahasa Arab.
8. Sahabat-sahabat saya yang baik hatinya, selamat malam Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi
wabarakatuh.
9. Laki-laki muda yang dihina oleh wanita akan menikah dengan wanita muda yang lebih
cantik, insya Allah. (19/12014)
Untuk data (9) alih kode yang digunakan pada salam pembuka dengan mengucap
Assalamualaikum warahmatullahi wabarakatuh yang artinya semoga rahmat Allah tercurah
untukmu. Alih kode bahasa Arab lainnya yang muncul kata insya Allah memiliki arti jika Allah
mengijinkan.
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Campur Kode
Pada acara Golden Ways di Metro TV tutur bahasa Mario Teguh sering menyisipkan
kata bahasa Inggris, bahasa Jawa, dan bahasa Arab. Penyisipan kata non-Indonesia tersebut
menyebabkan terjadinya campur kode. Dalam bahasa Inggris ada dua macam wujud
pencampurkodean yang dilakukan Mario Teguh, yaitu wujud kata dan wujud frasa. Sedangkan
Dalam bahasa Jawa dan bahasa Arab, penulis hanya menemukan satu wujud pencampurkodean
yaitu wujud kata.
Campur kode bahasa Inggris dalam wujud kata sebagai berikut.
10. Uang sedikit beli handphone mahal, padahal tidak ada yang ditelpon. (19/1/2014)
Campur kode yang dilakukan Mario Teguh terdapat pada data 10 yaitu kata handphone yang
berarti telepon gengam. Mario Teguh melakukan campur kode untuk mengakrabkan suasana
yang lebih santai sehingga acara tersebut tidak monoton dan campur kode dalam kata
handphone juga tidak asing di telinga pemirsa.
Campur kode bahasa Inggris dalam wujud frasa berikut ini.
11. Sekarang kita yang harus move on ke Ibu Ulfa.(12/1/2014)
Frasa move on merupakan campur kode yang dilakukan Mario Teguh yang berarti pindah ke Ibu
Ulfa dengan menunjuk Ibu Ulfa sebagai peserta yang naik ke panggung.
Campur kode dalam kata bahasa Jawa sebagaimana data di bawah ini.
12. Aku sih ndak bilang cinta, tapi rabi yuk. (8/6/2014)
13. Begitu putus langsung bikin status aku rapopo. (16/5/2014)
Mario Teguh biasanya juga menyisipkan campur kode dalam bahasa Jawa sebagai contoh kata
rabi dan ra popo yang berarti nikah dan tidak apa-apa, Sebagai latar belakang orang Jawa,
kebetulan Mario Teguh asli Malang, Jawa Timur tentu saja bahasa ibu tidak akan lepas dari
kehidupannya. Selain itu Mario Teguh ingin menciptakan suasana lebih akrab,santai serta
sebagian besar pemirsa mempunyai latar belakang bahasa daerah yang sama yaitu daerah Jawa.
Campur kode bahasa Arab ditemukan pada tutur bahasa Mario Teguh
14. Dia disuruh istikharah, kamu istikharah juga ya? (8/6/2014)
15. Mana orangnya tadi, sudah insyaf ya? (8/6/2014)
Sebagaimana kita ketahui bahwa sebagian masyarakat Indonesia beragama Islam, sedikit
banyak tahu arti dari kata tersebut. Mario Teguh menciptakan suasana yang relevan yaitu
adanya saling ketergantungan antara fungsi kontekstual dan situasional yang relevan dalam
pemakaian dua bahasa.
5. Penutup
Penggunaan lebih dari satu bahasa sebagai komunikasi bahasa telah tercipta adanya alih kode
dan campur kode. Mario Teguh telah melakukan alih kode dan campur kode dalam acara
Golden Ways di Metro TV. Adapun hasil dari analisis penelitian ini sebagai berikut.
1. a. Variasi alih kode yaitu adanya pengalihkodean dengan menyebutkan kalimat yang
dialihkodekan dan pengalihkodean tanpa menyebutkan kalimat yang dialihkodekan baik
itu dalam bahasa Inggris maupun bahasa Arab.
b. Variasi campur kode yaitu adanya kata dan frasa dalam bahasa Inggris. Untuk bahasa
Jawa dan bahasa Arab hanya terdapat wujud kata.
2. Faktor yang menyebabkan Mario Teguh melakukan alih kode dan campur kode dari bahasa
Indonesia ke bahasa Inggris, bahasa Arab, dan bahasa Jawa atau sebaliknya diantaranya;
a. ingin menciptakan suasana akrab dan santai pada acara Golden Ways dengan berbagai
kalangan.
b. ingin menciptakan suasana yang relevan dengan konteks yang dibicarakan dalam
pemakaian dua bahasa.
c. ingin menciptakan suasana keakraban dari suasana formal di televisi menjadi informal
dengan memunculkan bahasa daerah.
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Daftar Pustaka
Nirmala, Vita. 2013. Tukul Arwana dalam Bukan Empat Mata: Analisis Alih Kode Campur
Kode. Kandai Jurnal Bahasa dan Sastra. Volume 9, Halaman 302-313.
Pamungkas, Sri. 2012. Bahasa Indonesia dalam Berbagai Perspektif dilengkapi dengan Teori,
Aplikasi dan Analisis Penggunaan bahasa Indonesia Saat ini. Yogyakarta: Andi
Yogyakarta.
Rahardi, Kunjana. 2001. Sosiolinguistik, Kode, dan Alih Kode. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar
Suhardi, Sembiring.2005. “Aspek Sosial Bahasa”dalam Pesona Bahasa Langkah Awal
Memahami Linguistik. Jakarta: PT Gramedia Pustaka Utama.
Suwito, 1985. Sosiolinguistik: Teori dan Problema. Surakarta: Henary offset.
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Campur Kode dan Alih Kode dalam Komentar Facebook
Syarifah Lubna, Balai Bahasa Provinsi Kalimantan Barat
Abstrak
Sosialisasi manusia dapat memanfaatkan jaringan media sosial facebook. Facebook
memungkinkan masing-masing orang dari segala tempat untuk tetap berhubungan satu sama
lain. Oleh karena tidak berasal dari tempat yang sama, ada banyak varian bahasa yang muncul
dalam komentar facebook. Setiap orang yang berasal dari tempat yang sama, cenderung
menggunakan bahasa ibu untuk mengomentari hal yang dibagi oleh pemberi komentar. Yang
berlainan suku dan berasal dari negara yang sama akan menggunakan bahasa persatuan yaitu
bahasa Indonesia, bahkan yang berlainan negara, akan menggunakan bahasa Inggris sebagai
bahasa pergaulan internasional. Perbedaan-perbedaan bahasa ini akan dideskripsikan melalui
campur kode dan alih kode yang terjadi dalam komentar-komentar facebook tersebut. Dari data
yang ada, tampak bahwa sebagai penutur multibahasa, orang Indonesia yang diwakilkan oleh
Data 1 dan 2 cenderung melakukan alih kode, minimal pada tataran dialek ketika berbicara pada
mitra tutur yang diketahui mempunyai latar belakang kebahasaan yang sama. Alih kode yang
dilakukan secara intern, misalnya bahasa Indonesia dalam dialek Melayu, Betawi, dan Jawa
serta secara ekstern yaitu bahasa Inggris. Saat melakukan alih kode, terdapat campur kode pada
tataran kata, ungkapan dan kalimat. Campur kode pada data yang berasal dari dalam negeri
yaitu dari bahasa Melayu, Betawi, Jawa, Bali, dan bahasa gaul. Sedangkan campur kode yang
berasal dari luar yaitu dari bahasa Inggris, Arab, dan Perancis.
Kata kunci: alih kode, campur kode, komentar facebook.
1. Pendahuluan
Sebagai makhluk sosial, walaupun disela rutinitas kesibukan bekerja, manusia tetap
ingin berhubungan dan bersosialisasi dengan kenalan satu dan yang lainnya. Sosialisasi ini
dapat memanfaatkan jaringan media sosial yang terhubung via internet dengan menghubungkan
piranti komunikasi masing-masing individu. Ada banyak jejaring sosial yang ada di masyarakat
sekarang, satu diantaranya adalah facebook. Facebook memungkinkan masing-masing orang
dari segala tempat untuk tetap berhubungan satu sama lain.
Saat berhubungan atau berkomunikasi melalui facebook. Penutur mempunyai dinding
untuk menulis atau berbagi apa yang ada di pikirannya atau pengalaman apa yang hendak
dibaginya kepada orang lain atau teman-teman yang terhubung melalui facebooknya. Status atau
pengalaman yang dibagi ini disebut dengan status. Biasanya ia akan mengutarakan pendapatnya
dengan bahasa yang dikuasainya. Setelah itu, temannya akan membaca dan mengomentari apa
yang barusan ditulisnya. Setiap orang Indonesia yang umumnya multibahasa, akan memilih satu
bahasa yang dikuasainya untuk menulis status di facebook yang dibagi di dindingnya.
Kemudian pemberi komentar akan mengomentarinya.
Pemberi komentar ini belum tentu berasal dan berada di tempat yang sama. Itu
sebabnya, kadang ada banyak varian bahasa yang muncul dalam komentar facebook. Setiap
orang yang berasal dari tempat yang sama, cenderung menggunakan bahasa ibu atau bahasa
pergaulan yang sama untuk mengomentari hal yang dibagi oleh pemberi komentar atau penulis
status. Yang berlainan suku dan berasal dari negara yang sama akan menggunakan bahasa
persatuan yaitu bahasa Indonesia. Bahkan yang berlainan negara, akan menggunakan bahasa
Inggris sebagai bahasa pergaulan internasional. Tulisan ini akan mendeskripsikan campur kode
dan alih kode yang terjadi dalam komentar-komentar facebook tersebut.
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2. Sumber data
Data yang digunakan dalam tulisan ini bersumber dari facebook penulis. Data diambil
secara acak dari teman yang menulis status di beranda facebook dengan memperhatikan
ketersediaan unsur campur kode dan alih kode dalam komentar-komentar yang dikemukakan
terhadap status dalam data 1 dan data 2.
Data 1.
Status: DN ingin tahu 20 Mei 2014 8:14
Ngomong politik dikit bolehkn?? Dipikiranku klo sampai Jokowi jadi capres dan JK jadi
cawapres nya, rasanya gak cocok aja…. Jokowi mbok yo ngalah biarin JK yg jadi capres nya
hehehehe…. Ngegosip sama tetangga sebelahpun tentang siapa capres jagoannya, punya
pendapat yang sama…. “kasian amat ya JK dari dulu koq jadi wakil presiden aja”
Komentar:
1.1. APM: ngompol juga ah pagi2… karena itu JK itu memang gak bisa jadi pemimpin krn dia
selalu di nomor 2 kan… hihihi… spesialis wapres…
1.2. RI: takutnya ada pulau, dan satelit yang dijual lagi… laaa kalo2 sampai jadi
1.3. RI: saya takut kalau jokowi jd presiden mengulang kesalahan yang sama
1.4. DN: JKW gak takut kualat po yo sama JK, wong tuo koq dinomor duakan hehehee….
1.5. DN: iya mungkin setelah ini JKW nyalon jadi presiden Amerika hahaha
1.6. RI: kepedean jadi presiden amerika
1.7. NA: sy pun mikir gt ga bu, kasian JK, harusnya dya capres jokowi wakil. tp 5 thn lalu JK
kan capres bu wakilnya wiranto…
1.8. DN: cocok padahal tu JK same wiranto.. wah sayang sekali 5 taun lalu tak bisa diulang
lagi…. :-))
1.9. OIB: prabowo~Hatta aja..jkw g cucok jd presiden..
1.10. FCQ: http…(link berita dengan judul: PDID Siapkan Sanksi Jika JK Suka ‘Over’
Kewenangan-Tribunnews.com)
1.11. DN: OIB: iye lah b… apelagi banyak didukung oleh partai2 Islam dahlah itulah die…
sebenarnye sih suke same JK, eh jadi bawahan JKW pulak tak jd lah….
1.12. DN: FCQ: haha… siap2 aja klo beneran jadi…
1.13. FCQ: aku RAPOPO Aku RApuh Porak POranda….
1.14. KF: mau nye pa JK…… blum tentu menang.. bagosss Prabowo htta… 100% pasti
menang…
1.15. H: hidup Jokowi-JK, xixixi lakum dinnukum waliadin aja
1.16. NKJ: aku setuju, HK seoarang negarawan hebat, dan pantasnya jd RI1, tp simple aja
jawabannya Din.. krn elektabilitas Jkw sekarang yg diinginkan (sebagian besar) rkyat utk
jd RI-1, dan dipilih JK utk bisa melengkapi kekurangan2 Jkw.. apalagi JK skrg tdk punya
modal mesin politik, hal yg diharuskan konstitusi utk maju sbg capres.. 
1.17. DN: FCQ: jargonnya JUPE ;-))
1.18. DN: KF: aok meh pak…. hehehhe :D
1.19. DN: H: menghargai pilihan rakyat xixixixix…
1.20. DN: NKJ: iya sih Bli… tapi rasanya lebih pantas JK yg jadi capres nya… 
1.21. FCQ: yang terjadi sesungguhnya adalah de Javu Golkar 2004. dengan kata lain, pemenang
sesungguhnya adalah Akbar Tanjung.
1.22. NS: Terbukti Jokowi mau nrima bekasnya SBY….
Data 2.
Status YSR 22 Juni 2014 9:40
Maine = Lobsters :D
Komentar:
2.1. WA: wah jd inget yg makan otak lobster…he..he..
2.2. YSR: WA haha..saking semangatnya ya :D
2.3. WA: pas liat foto ini, dia akhirnya gugling otak lobster…langsung manyun pas baca di
internet…ha..ha..ha..
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2.4. YSR: Hahaha! Pengalaman berharga, Will! :D
2.5. DSK: darah tinggi ma’am banyak banyak makan itu :p
2.6. YSR: DSK sekali2… :D
2.7. ZA: Kok jadi bingung?
2.8. YSR: p. ZA hehe..penasaran aja itu pak, rasanya gmn krn masaknya hanya direbus
menggunakan air laut…ternyata maknyus! :D
2.9. MF: Really love this picture, Y
2.10. EL: ngilerrrrr
2.11. YL: itu lobster beneran ya bu? Hheheee… Gede banget ya….
2.12. DL: belom makan dah kenyang duluan, y :D
2.13. YSR: Thanks a lot, MF! The lobsters were fresh and very tasty! :D
2.14. YSR: EL hehe… YL Alhamdulillah beneran, bukan replika :D
2.15. YSR: Mb DL hihi..iya tuh, makanya diliatin dulu :D
3. Campur kode dan alih kode
Analisis Data 1
Latar belakang status adalah beranda facebook Syarifah Lubna dinding DN. Topik
mengenai dunia perpolitikan Indonesia saat ini, tepatnya tentang calon presiden dan wakil
presiden 2014-2019. Status pada data 1 berupa bahasa Indonesia dalam ragam santai.
Kesantaian penutur ditunjukkan dengan melebihkan jumlah tanda baca dengan tujuan penegasan
bertanya tetapi tetap dengan intonasi suara yang pelan. Selain itu penutur juga menyingkat
penulisan huruf pada ketikan statusnya, yaitu kata “kan” menjadi “kn”, “kalau” menjadi “klo”,
“mengalah” menjadi “ngalah”, “yang” menjadi “yg” dan “saja” menjadi “aja”. Terdapat campur
kode dalam bahasa Betawi yaitu pada kata “Ngomong”, “dikit”, “gak”, “biarin”, “ngegosip”,
“kasian amat” dan “koq”. Selain dalam bahasa Betawi, juga terdapat campur kode dalam bahasa
Jawa yaitu “mbok yo ngalah”. Empat belas orang teman penutur menyukai statusnya dan
terdapat 22 komentar di bawahnya.
1.1. Tidak terdapat alih kode dalam komentar ini. Komentar masih dalam bahasa Indonesia
ragam santai. Campur kode terdapat dalam ungkapan “ngompol” dan kata “gak” yang
berasal dari kata bahasa Betawi.
1.2. Tidak terdapat alih kode dalam komentar ini. Ragam bahasa yang digunakan masih dalam
situasi non formal bahasa Indonesia yang ditunjukkan dengan melebihkan tanda baca titik
diakhir kalimat. Campur kode terdapat pada kata “laaa kalo2” yang berasal dari bahasa
Betawi.
1.3. Tidak terdapat alih kode dan campur kode dalam komentar ini. Ragam santai ditunjukkan
dengan menyingkat penulisan kata “yang” menjadi “yg” dan penulisan nama tidak diawali
dengan huruf kapital.
1.4. Alih kode terjadi secara intern atau ke dalam yaitu pada tataran dialek Jawa yang terdapat
dalam komentar ini, meskipun kata “gak” juga turut mewarnai kalimat ini. Alih kode
disertai dengan campur kode dalam bahasa Jawa yaitu “gak takut kualat po yo sama JK,
wong tuo koq dinomor duakan hehehee….” Tujuan penutur melakukan itu untuk
menegaskan pokok pembicaraannya.
1.5. Alih kode kembali pada bahasa Indonesia dalam ragam santai. Penggunaan kata “nyalon
jadi” menegaskan ketidakformalan bahasa yang digunakan.
1.6. Tidak terdapat alih kode dalam komentar ini. Kesantaian dan ketidakformalan diperlihatkan
dengan absennya huruf kapital pada nama Negara dan campur kode terdapat pada
ungkapan “kepedean jadi presiden amerika”.
1.7. Terdapat alih kode ke dalam bahasa Melayu dalam komentar ini. Hal ini bertujuan untuk
lebih mengakrabkan suasana. Ketidakformalan masih tampak pada penyingkatan tulisan
“saya” menjadi “sy”, “kasihan” menjadi “kasian” “tapi” menjadi “tp”, dan “tahun” menjadi
“thn” serta kata sapaan “bu” yang seharusnya diawali dengan huruf kapital. Campur kode
dalam bahasa Melayu tampak pada kata “mikir”, “gt ga”, dan “dya”.
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1.8. Alih kode terjadi pada tataran dialek, dari gaya bahasa Indonesia menjadi bahasa Melayu
disebabkan karena penutur mengetahui bahwa mitra tuturnya mempunyai latar belakang
kebahasaan Melayu, ia menyahutnya dengan dialek yang sama. Ketidakformalan masih
tampak pada penyingkatan kata “tu” dari “itu” dan “taun” dari “tahun” serta pelebihan
tanda berhenti titik pada akhir kalimat. Campur kode ke dalam bahasa Melayu juga
dilakukan dengan menggunakan kata “same”.
1.9. Komentar ini masih dalam ragam santai. Campur kode dalam bahasa gaul dengan
menggunakan kata “aja”, “g” yang merupakan kependekan dari “gak” dan “cucok”.
Ketidakformalan tampak pada penyingkatan kata “jadi” menjadi “jd” dan tanda titik yang
berjumlah dua diakhir kalimat.
1.10. Penutur komentar ini menyatakan pikirannya dengan mengaitkan sebuah berita dari Koran
portal. Tautan berita tidak dideskripsikan campur kode dan alih kodenya.
1.11. Alih kode kembali dilakukan dalam tataran dialek bahasa Melayu karena penutur
mengetahui bahwa mitra tuturnya mempunyai latar belakang kebahasaan tersebut. Campur
kode dalam bahasa yang sama juga memperkuat komentar ini “iye lah b… apelagi banyak
didukung oleh partai2 Islam dahlah itulah die… sebenarnye sih suke same JK, eh jadi
bawahan JKW pulak tak jd lah….” Ketidakformalan juga tampak pada penyingkatan
penulisan kata ulang dengan angka “2” di belakang kata yang dimaksud untuk diulang, dan
“jd” merupakan kependekan dari kata “jadi”.
1.12. Komentar ini beralih kode kembali pada bahasa Indonesia ragam santai dialek Betawi
yang tampak pada campur kode pada tataran kata “aja”, “klo” yang merupakan singkat
“kalo” dan “beneran”. Kesantaian juga diperlihatkan dengan penulisan kata ulang dengan
angka “2” dibelakang kata yang dimaksud.
1.13. Tidak terdapat alih kode dalam komentar ini. Campur kode terdapat pada ungkapan
“RAPOPO” yang merupakan bahasa Jawa dan ternyata merupakan kependekan dari kata
dalam bahasa Indonesia “RApuh POrak POranda”.
1.14. Alih kode terjadi kedalam dialek bahasa Melayu dengan mengganti bunyi huruf vokal “a”
menjadi “e” dalam kata “maunye” dan pergantian huruf “u” menjadi “o” dalam kata
“bagosss”. Ketidakformalan tampak pada pengurangan huruf “k” pada kataan sapaan “pa”
yang seharusnya juga diawali dengan huruf kapital. Pelebihan tanda titik diakhir kalimat
dan pelebihan huruf “s” untuk penegasan pada kata “bagosss”. Selain itu penyingkatan
penulisan juga terjadi pada kata “blum”, dan “htta”. Penulisan nama “Hatta”, selain
disingkat menjadi “htta” juga tidak ditulis dengan huruf kapital untuk menegaskan
ketidakresmian pembicaraan.
1.15. Tidak terdapat alih kode dalam komentar dan campur kode terdapat dalam ungkapan doa
bahasa Arab yaitu “lakum dinnukum waliadin” dan “aja” yang berasal dari bahasa Betawi.
1.16. Tidak ada alih kode dalam komentar ini. Campur kode terdapat pada kata “simple” yang
berasal dari bahasa Inggris.
1.17. Tidak terdapat alih kode dan campur kode dalam komentar ini.
1.18. Terdapat alih kode dan campur kode ke dalam bahasa Melayu Ketapang yaitu pernyataan
“aok meh pak”.
1.19. Tidak terdapat campur kode dan alih kode dalam komentar ini.
1.20. Tidak terdapat alih kode dalam komentar ini dan campur kode terjadi pada kata sapaan
“bli” yang berasal dari bahasa Bali.
1.21. Tidak terdapat alih kode dalam komentar ini. Campur kode terdapat pada ungkapan “de
Javu” yang berasal dari Perancis.
1.22. Tidak terdapat campur kode dan alih kode dalam komentar ini.
Analisis Data 2
Latar belakang status adalah beranda facebook Syarifah Lubna Dinding YSR. Topik
mengenai dunia kuliner yaitu diunggahnya foto YSR sedang mengamati disertai pose menahan
kepala dan memegang sungut satu diantara setumpuk lobster yang terdapat dalam nampah.
Separuh nampah besar ini berisi lobster-lobster, dan separuhnya lagi digunakan untuk
312
meletakkan piring-piring kertas, garpu-garpu plastik, dan tusuk makanan seukuran sumpit.
Dalam statusnya ia menyebut “Maine = Lobsters”. Maine adalah sebuah negara bagian Amerika
Serikat. Dengan menulis simbol = (sama dengan), ia mengidentikkan negara ini dengan udangudang besar tersebut. Bisa jadi hal ini disebabkan karena lobster tersebut berasal dari Maine
yang posisinya berdekatan dengan samudera Altlantik. Status ini menggunakan bahasa Inggris
karena kata lobster disertai huruf “s” yang bermakna plural atau jamak. Meskipun sejatinya
ditulis dalam bahasa Inggris, tapi status ini sangat bisa dipahami dalam bahasa Indonesia karena
penulisan lobster dengan s tidak berpengaruh dan memberikan kerancuan dalam arti. Terdapat
32 orang menyukai status ini dan ada 15 komentar di bawahnya.
2.1. Terdapat alih kode kebahasa Indonesia ragam santai dengan menyingkat penulisan, kata
“jadi” menjadi “jd” dan “yang” menjadi “yg”, serta memberikan tiga tanda titik di akhir
kalimat yang merujuk pada makna kalimat itu diucapkan secara perlahan dan pelan sambil
tertawa kecil. Alih kode disebabkan oleh pengetahuan penutur tentang mitra tutur yang
memiliki latar belakang kebahasaan yang sama. Terdapat campur kode dalam tataran kata
berupa kata dalam bahasa Betawi yaitu “inget” dalam komentar ini.
2.2. Komentar kedua (2.2.) langsung menanggapi dengan simbol turut tertawa. Tidak terdapat
aih kode maupun campur kode dalam kalimat ini. Komentar masih dalam bahasa Indonesia
ragam santai.
2.3. Tidak terdapat alih kode dalam komentar ketiga, tetapi terdapat campur kode dalam bahasa
Betawi pada kata “manyun” dan interferensi bahasa Inggris pada kata “gugling”.
2.4. Tidak terdapat alih kode dan campur kode dalam komentar ini.
2.5. Tidak terdapat alih kode pada komentar ini, komentar masih dalam ragam santai bahasa
Indonesia. Campur kode terdapat pada kata “ma’am” yang berasal dari bahasa Inggris.
2.6. Tidak terdapat alih kode dan campur kode dalam komentar ini.
2.7. Tidak terdapat alih kode dan campur kode dalam komentar ini.
2.8. Tidak terdapat alih kode dalam komentar ini. Bahasa yang digunakan masih dalam ragam
santai. Hal ini ditegaskan dengan penulisan kata yang disingkat “gmn”, “krn”, dan “dgn”.
Campur kode terdapat pada kata “aja” dan “gmn” yang merupakan kependekan penulisan
kata “gimana” yang merupakan bahasa Betawi dan “maknyus” yang berasal dari bahasa
Jawa.
2.9. Komentar ini beralih kode keluar dalam bahasa asing yaitu bahasa Inggris tapi masih
menggunakan ragam santai karena status sebenarnya tertulis juga dalam bahasa Inggris.
Alih kode disebabkan karena penutur tahu bahwa mitra tuturnya mampu menggunakan
bahasa yang sama, walaupun semua komentar lain dalam bahasa Indonesia. Tidak terdapat
campur kode didalamnya.
2.10. Komentar beralih kembali ke dalam bahasa Betawi dengan kata “ngiler” yang ditegaskan
dengan penambahan tiga huruf dibelakangnya.
2.11. Tidak terdapat alih kode dalam komentar ini. Campur kode terdapat dalam kata “beneran”
dan kalimat “Gede banget ya….” yang berasal dari bahasa Betawi.
2.12. Tidak terdapat alih kode dalam komentar ini. Campur kode terdapat dalam kata “belom”,
“dah”, dan “duluan”yang berasal dari kata dalam bahasa Betawi.
2.13. Komentar beralih kode dalam bahasa Inggris karena sutu tujuan yaitu menjawab komentar
sebelumnya yang diajukan dalam bahasa yang sama dan tidak ada campur kode
didalamnya.
2.14. Komentar beralih kembali ke dalam bahasa Indonesia karena mitra tutur mempunyai latar
belakang kebahasaan yang sama. Terdapat campur kode dalam bahasa Betawi pada kata
“beneran”.
2.15. Komentar tidak beralih kode dan terdapat campur kode dalam tataran kata dengan
penggunaan kata sapaan bahasa Jawa yaitu “mbak” yang disingkat dengan huruf “mb”
dan kata lain yaitu “tuh”, dan “diliatin”.
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4. Penutup
Dari data yang tersaji di atas, tampak bahwa sebagai penutur multibahasa, orang
Indonesia yang diwakilkan oleh Data 1 dan 2 cenderung melakukan alih kode, minimal pada
tataran dialek ketika berbicara pada mitra tutur yang diketahui mempunyai latar belakang
kebahasaan yang sama. Alih kode yang dilakukan secara intern, misalnya ke dalam bahasa
Indonesia dialek Melayu, Betawi dan Jawa serta secara ekstern yaitu bahasa Inggris. Saat
melakukan alih kode, juga terdapat campur kode pada tataran kata, ungkapan dan kalimat.
Campur kode pada data yang berasal dari dalam negeri yaitu dari bahasa Melayu, Betawi, Jawa,
Bali dan bahasa gaul. Sedangkan campur kode yang berasal dari luar yaitu dari bahasa Inggris,
Arab dan Perancis.
Pustaka Acuan
Chaer, Abdul dan Agustina, Leonie. 2010. Sosiolinguistik Perkenalan Awal. Jakarta: Rineka
Cipta.
Mahsun. 2005. Metode Penelitian Bahasa. Tahapan, Strategi, Metode dan Tehniknya. Jakarta:
Rajawali Pers.
Sumarsono. 2013. Sosiolinguistik. Yogyakarta: SABDA.
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Managing Students' Dynamic Learning in Speaking Class
via Interactive Role-Plays (A Pre-Experimental Design)
Muhamad Ahsanu, Faculty of Social and Political Sciences, Jenderal Soedirman University
Abstract
This paper is concerned with the exploration of the effectiveness of Role-Plays in
making a dynamic learning in speaking class whose main goal is to make students' speaking
ability and confidence increase significantly. The underlying reasons of this mini research is,
firstly, to prove as to whether this teaching technique is effective or not, and, secondly, is to
help teachers seek out an interactive, dynamic, and effective teaching technique that can trigger
students active participation and boost their learning confidence in speaking English for varied
purposes and in a range of contexts. It is assumed that tools and processes determine ends. The
pre-experimental design is chosen which has only one experimental class without any control
class. The number of the subjects is twenty three students taking interpersonal speaking class.
Hence, the treatment of the subject, taking place for seven weeks, is only given to that
experimental class projected to see the mean difference of their performance before and after the
treatment. The finding shows that the pre-test score is 77 whereas the post-test is 79 implying
that the technique give a slight significance. To strengthen the test results, this paper also use
questionnaires articulating and demonstrating the effectiveness of the technique.
Keywords: Role-play, Interactive learning, speaking class, pre-experimental design
1. Introduction
Of so many definitions of learning, there might be one kind that fits this research paper.
Learning (Brown 2000: 7) involves some forms of practice, perhaps reinforced practice. Brown
further clarifies that the concept of learning becomes every bit as complex as the concept of
language. Teaching cannot be defined apart from learning. According to Brown (2000),
teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learner to learn, setting the conditions
for learning. Brown highlights that our understanding of how the learner learns will determine
our teaching style, our approach, methods, and classroom techniques. Learning a second
language is a long and complex undertaking.
For so many years, education was synonymous with textbooks, lecturers, blackboard
and whiteboard, chalk and boardmaker. Yet a number of facets have united to change the faces
of education and open the ways to novel notions and techniques. Inevitably, many of these have
encouraged an expanding interest in the idea of interactive and dynamic learning. Parallel with
this, the core queries related to teaching and learning are raised to address that issue: a) should
learning be teacher-centered, or student-centered? and b) how can learning be made active
rather than passive?
The fruit of the intense debates among educationalists especially language teachers
pertaining to both active learning and student-centered learning which have been in a state of
flux is the concept of group learning as against individual learning. Group learning here
particularly refers to dynamic learning in which the dynamics of a team or group enable its
members to learn from one another (van Ments 1999: 2). This idea presumes that working as
part of a group can heighten the individual's understanding of the subject and facilitate the
transition from theory to practice.
2. Literature review
2.1 Classroom Learning management
Teachers or lecturers might find in their classroom learning that there are often very few
contexts where students learn English only for the aims of listening and reading, withou any
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need to interact with others in speech. Yet when it comes to giving students opportunities to
talk, constraints such as large, multilevel classes, traditions of learning, an examination-oriented
curriculum, and difficulties in accessing resources all seem to stand in the way of organizing
talk (Lewis 2002). Another important aspect of classroom management is the role of the teacher
or lecturer. Teachers or lecturers sometimes fear losing their central classroom role as practiced
in the traditional classroom, where students asked questions that teachers could answer. Another
typical situation is that a teacher is encouraging everyone to talk in pairs or in groups of three to
four, and the talk is so successful that the teacher next door complains.
Many great ideas run through language teaching like cooperative learning, authenticity,
and task-based syllabuses, to name just a few. Underpinning them all becomes the essential
ability of a teacher or lecturer to manage students and the environment to make the most of the
opportunities for learning and practicing language. In tandem with this, Stevick (1996) in Lewis
(2002: 47) articulates three hopes, which also become the writer's hopes, for both students and
teachers. In classroom learning, he hopes the students to be involved, to feel comfortable while
being involved in that classroom activity, and to be listening to one another as well as to the
teacher. Teachers are hoped to be in general control, to allow and encourage originality in
students and to look "relaxed and matter-of-fact giving information about appropriateness or
correctness rather than criticizing or praising."
2.2 Dynamic Learning
In the writer's simple analogy, dynamic learning is what people call cooperative
learning. With cooperative learning, students work together in groups whose usual size is two to
four members. Jacobs and Hall (2002) underline that cooperative learning is more than just
putting students in groups and giving them something to do. Its principles and techniques are
tools which teachers use to encourage mutual helpfulness in the groups and the active
participation of all members. Other advantages resulted from cooperative learning for second or
foreign language learning include increased student talk, more varied talk, a more relaxed
atmosphere, greater motivation, and increased amount of comprehensible input (Liang, Mohan,
and Early 1998; Olsen and Kagan 1992 in Jacobs and Hall 2002). Yet, in implementing
cooperative learning is not like waving a magic wand and everything is done in a second.
Teachers or lecturers need to explain to students why they are using it, to start it slowly, be
patient and be persistent.
2.3 Speaking Class
Of all the four skills, speaking seems intuitively the most important one: people who
know a language are referred to as speakers of that language and therefore many foreign
language learners are mainly intrigued in learning to speak. Thus, according to Ur (1996)
classroom activities that develop learners' ability to express themselves through speech would
be an important tenet of a language program. This can be realized through a role-play. This, in
Ur's belief (1996), is a way for students to 'get the feel' of what communicating in the foreign
language really feels like.
To earn this, there should be good speaking activities. They should be highly
motivating. Speaking tasks in role-plays are intrinsically enjoyable in themselves. How about
teachers' (lecturers) involvement? In role-play activities, it is better for teachers or lecturers to
stand back so that they can watch and listen to what is going on (Harmer 1998). Sometimes
teachers or lecturers need to intervene in some way if the activity is not going smoothly, or if a
student in a role-play cannot think of what to say.
The key factor in L2 or foreign language development is the opportunity given to the
learners to speak in the language-promoting interaction. Teachers or lecturers should arouse the
learners' willingness, needs, and reasons to speak. In support of this notion, Shumin (2002: 208)
views that the functions of spoken language are inherently interactional and transactional. The
primary intention of the former is to maintain social relationships, whereas that of the latter is to
convey information and ideas. Therefore, as suggested by Rivers (1987) in Shumin (2002),
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language instructors should provide learners with opportunities for meaningful communicative
behavior about relevant topics by using learner-learner interaction as the key to teaching
language for communication since communication derives essentially from interaction.
2.4 Interactive Role-Plays
Amongst the frequently used interactive techniques, role-play plays a central role not
only due to its practical procedures but more importantly because of its marked effectiveness in
augmenting students' speaking skills. Role-play is used to refer to all sorts of activities where
learners imagine themselves in a situation outside the classroom (Ur 1996: 131). Thus, role-play
can be one of the ways to vary the kinds of spoken interaction that learners can experience in the
classroom. The idea of role-play is that of asking someone to imagine that they are either
themselves or another person in a particular situation (van Ments 1999: 4). In practice, they are
required to behave exactly as they feel that person would. As Ladousses (in van Ments 1999: 9)
puts it: the idea of 'role' is that of taking part in a specific situation, the idea of 'play' is
associated with a safe environment and encouraging creativity. Role-players are not concerned
with an audience, but only with themselves and other role-players. Their aim is to feel, react and
behave as closely as possible to the way someone placed in that particular situation would do.
2.5 Running the role-play
There are many ways of organizing a role-play depending on its purpose and the type of
student involved. They are like Fish-bowl, Multiple, Role-rotation, Role-reversal, Doubling,
Mirroring, etc. Yet, in this slot, the researcher solely describes of multiple technique for it is the
technique that the researcher most frequently used in his teaching of Speaking class. Multiple
techniques are just one alternative approach that teachers and lecturers can employ in their
teaching. In this, the class is split up into a number of small groups of two or three students and
each group enacts the role-play at the same time. In other words, a number of identical roleplays take place in parallel. The classic way of using this method is where the class wants to
explore the interaction between two people in either formal or informal interviews.
2.6 Starting the role-play
The kick-off of the actual role-play is usually fairly straightforward. It may be that the
design of the warm-up is such that it leads smoothly into the role-play. In conventional roleplays, it will be necessary for a teacher or a lecturer to give some sort of starting signal. The
participants/students should be clear as to when they are 'in' the role-play and when the rules
governing it apply. The type of lead-in will vary with the teacher/lecturer and the particular
scene to be acted out. In some cases, it is proper to provide a situational start; the
teacher/lecturer may utter 'I'd like you to take over as chairperson and start the meeting.
3. Research method
3.1 Pre-Experimental Design
The writer has measured a group of speaking class students on a dependent variable
(O1), in this respect, their speaking abilities. They were introduced to the experimental
manipulation (X), seven-week treatment of Role-play technique designed to increase their
communicative competence (Hymes 1971). Following the experimental treatment, the
researcher has again measured group speaking performance (O2) and proceeded to account for
differences between pre-test and post-test scores by reference to the effects of X. Thus, this
research used the one group pretest-posttest design or so-called pre-experimental design (Cohen,
Manion, and Morrison 2007) represented below.
Experimental
O1
X
O2
O1 = pretest
O2 = posttest
This design, as elucidated by Best and Kahn (2006), provides some improvement over
the first, for the effects of the treatment are judged by the difference between the pretest and the
posttest scores. Thus the writer means to find out a mean gain from pretest to posttest to see as
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to whether there is a significant improvement in speaking ability as a result of students' using
role-play technique in their speaking class activities. However, the weakness of this design is
that there are some relevant factors that are not controlled. In other words, if participants do
significantly better on the posttest than on the pretest, it cannot be assumed that the
improvement is merely due to the given treatment (Gay, Mills, and Airasian 2006: 251).
Something may happen to the participants that make them perform better the second time, and
the longer the study takes, the more likely it is that this something will threaten the validity.
4. Finding and discussion
4.1 Pretest results
On the basis of the procedures outlined in the research design, the sample was given
pretest to seek out their starting level of speaking performance used as the basis for determining
the existence of the improvement of their speaking ability after the treatment was given. As
shown in Table 1 below, the average of their speaking ability resulted from the pretest was 77.
This obviously indicates that their speaking performance was relatively good in terms of scaled
continuum of 10 to 100. In other words, their speaking ability is just above average. There
might be many factors that can explain this, yet one very possible reason is that the students
taken as the sample are in their second semester meaning that they have already had their
speaking one class from which they learnt about basic to pre-intermediate levels of
communication. Whatever the result does not influence the result of the research as the writer
just intended to know their current level of their speaking ability.
Table 1: Pretest score
Average of Pretest scores
77
4.2 Posttest results
Having given the treatment to the one-shot group, that is the sampled speaking class
students, they were given the second test, namely posttest, meant to know the significant
improvement of their speaking performance after learning their speaking class employing the
role-play technique. Table 2 depicts that the average of the posttest scores was 79 which vividly
shows a slight increase of their speaking performance. Phrased differently, the difference of
both pretest and posttest is merely 2 points. From this figure, it can be inferred that the role-play
does not give significant effect on the students speaking ability. Bluntly, it can be said that the
technique is not effective as a device to improve students' speaking performance. However, the
writer assumes that the pretest scores were in average quite high, so to upgrade their
performance from that point seemed to be quite challenging for both teacher and students. In
other words, whatever technique used in that circumstance the posttest score will remain around
that pretest score. To verify this assumption, the writer went further with the questionnaire items
to ensure that the increment of 2 points has another deep meaning. This is detailed in the
discussion of the results of the questionnaires (see Table 3) related to the utilization of the roleplay technique used by their lecturer in the course of seven weeks in their second semester.
Table 2: Posttest score
Average of Posttest scores
79
4.3 Questionnaire results
Table 3 displays the whole results of the questionnaires given to the sampled students
aimed to strengthen the results of both pretest and posttest. The questionnaires were given right
after the posttest was delivered to ensure that their mindset and perceptions on the use and
effectiveness of the role-play technique. Principally, there are five items to be rated by the
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students including 1) effective technique, 2) equal opportunity, 3) interactive and collaborative,
4) confidence building, and 5) involvement and engagement. Each of these is presented
successively below.
Table 3: The tabulated questionnaire items
Very agreeable = 5 Agreeable = 4 Undecided = 3
No
Item
5
1
Role-play technique is an effective
IIIII IIIII
teaching technique for speaking
III (13)
class because it makes everybody
speak and play a role that makes the
class dynamic.
2
Role-play technique gives an equal
IIIII III
opportunity for all students to talk,
(8)
to debate, to exchange ideas, and to
express opinions.
3
Roles-play technique makes the
IIIII IIIII
speaking class interactive and
III (13)
creates collaboration among
students.
4
Role-Play technique can build my
IIIII IIII
confidence to speak with class(9)
mates, to speak in front of the class
and trigger me to use English inside
and outside the class.
5
Role-play technique makes me
IIIII IIIII
engaged and involved in the class
(10)
discussion and makes me able to
speak English more bravely,
enthusiastically and fluently.
Total
53
Disagreeable = 2
4
3
IIIII IIIII
0
(10)
Very Disagreeable = 1
2
1
Total
0
0
23
IIIII IIIII
II (12)
II
(2)
I
(1)
0
23
IIIII III
(8)
II
(2)
0
0
23
IIIII IIIII
I (11)
III
(3)
0
0
23
IIIII IIIII
(10)
II
(2)
I
(1)
0
23
51
9
2
115
The first item in the questionnaires to be rated is regarding as to whether the role-play is
an effective teaching technique or not. The students' opinionated responses are displayed in
Chart 1 below. From the chart, it can be inferred that the majority of the students represented by
47% of the sample expressed their agreement that role-play is a very effective teaching
technique for their speaking class. In quite the same tone, 30% of the respondents also indicate
that they agreed with the proposition that role-play is just an effective method. Only 23% of
them mentioned that they less agreed with the statement. From this, it can be finally concluded
that the role-play in the eyes of most students is an effective teaching technique.
Chart 1: Effective technique
Very agreeable
23% 0%
Agreeable
47%
30%
Less agreeable
Disagreeable
Very diasagreeable
The next item proposed was concerning with the fact whether the role-play can provide
them with an equal opportunity to participate in the speaking activities or not. Somewhat similar
to Chart 1, Chart 2 likewise indicates similar tendency of the respondents' opinions in which
319
52% of them agreed that the technique give them an equal chance to express their ideas,
feelings, objections, and the like. Based on the writer's observation, no single student was
dominant the practice sessions since the role-play procedures prevented from doing it where the
students were required to play their given roles only without intervening their partner's roles.
So, it was very much like an exchanging activity. This choice is even supported by 35% of the
respondents showing a very strong agreement of the truth of that equal opportunity sharing.
Chart 2: Equal opportunity
9% 4%0%
Very agreeable
35%
Agreeable
Less agreeable
Disagreeable
Very diasagreeable
52%
Chart 3, too, demonstrates more or less related results where 56% which is more than a
half of the respondents uttered that this technique is very interactive and brings up the sense of
collaboration among the students. This is no longer surprising as many reserachers, partly
lamented in the theoritical framework, have found similar findings in their scientific projects.
As elaborated in the framework, this technique by nature was designed in such a way that
learners could perform interactive communication, making meaning potential, negotiating
meanings, without being inhibited by other students' participation. Since in a role-play students
have to cooperate one another if they wish to perform properly in their speaking acitivies,
collaboration is a necessity. This is evidenced by the percentage of 35% of the sample agreeing
that the role-play really promotes such cooperation.
Chart 3: Interactive and collaborative
9% 0%
Very agreeable
Agreeable
35%
56%
Less agreeable
Disagreeable
Very diasagreeable
Having a good self-confidence is vital in augmenting productive skills like speaking.
Therefore, this item was considered important to be included in the questionnaires. It was
surprising that nearly the entire respondents gave a shared opinion on the potential of the roleplay in building their confidence in their interactive speaking activities. Virtually no student
seemed to be lack of confidence when they were engaged in conversation or discussions. They
seemed not to care with their unstructured or ‘broken’ English as long as they were understood
by their speaking partners. They even asked their friends when they stumbled with certain
words, phrases or expressions they had not learnt yet. They just kept talking on and on as if they
wanted to play their maximum roles. This is of course validated by the fact that 39% and 48%
320
of the respondents exposed their agreement and high agreement respectively. Only few, which
is 13%, did they reject the claim. This automatically denotes that this technique can enliven the
respondents' self confidence in their reciprocal interaction.
Chart 4: Confidence building
13% 0%
Very agreeable
39%
Agreeable
Less agreeable
Disagreeable
48%
Very diasagreeable
The last item to consider is concerning with the driven engagement and involvement
undergone by the respondents during their intensive talk in the speaking class. Apparantly, this
figures come to support the foregoing facts in which the role-play technique non-consciously
ignited the students' involvement and engagement in the class discussion. Having monitored
from corner to corner, the writer learnt that no student was reluctant to participate in the tasks
given during the speaking class. Once their roles were clearly set and defined they reacted
hastily to commence the speaking activities. Probably, they had a sense of freedom in their
group discussions without being watched and monitored by the whole class since everybody
was busy executing their own roles. So, what was mostly heard was a series of English 'noises',
a chained of pure fun, and an endless questions, answers, comments, and suggestions since
many of the role-plays were about problem solving. These elaborations are reflected in the
figures in Chart 5 where 44% of the respondents were very agreeable with the proposition, 43%
also just agreed with it and only 9% and 4% seemed to less agree and disagree with the
statement.
Chart 5: Involvement and engagement
0%
9% 4%
Very agreeable
44%
Agreeable
Less agreeable
Disagreeable
43%
Very diasagreeable
In brief, it can be summed up that despite the fact that the difference of pretest and
posttest average scores was very slight showing little significance of the effectiveness of the
role-play technique in developing students' speaking performance, the scaled opinions of the
respondents on the meaningfulness of the role-play represented in the five items above clearly
demonstrate that students' speaking ability can be potentially propelled by this technique on
condition that it is properly administered by the teacher or lecturer.
321
5. Conclusion
As a technique, role-play has proved to be very powerful. It is highly motivating and
enables students to put themselves in situations they have never experienced before; in
particular it opens the way for them to put themselves in others' shoes. Much of our behavior in
interpersonal interactions is governed by our assumptions about our own role, other people's
roles, and the way we perceive these roles. Therefore, it is natural that when we want to teach
subjects like Speaking which involve interpersonal behavior we should turn to role-playing as a
potent teaching technique. This technique can be used at different levels to teach simple skills of
communication to show how people interact and their stereotyping of others, and to explore
deep personal blocks and emotions.
Role-play is best used in teaching where the tutor wants students to experience and
become involved in the situation they are studying and to formulate their attitudes towards it. It
is an excellent way of developing interpersonal and communication skills and provides highly
motivating and memorable lessons. It is part of the duty of a teacher / lecturer to point out stages
and difficulties. The fact remains that using role-play is basically both simple and enjoyable.
The only requirement is that it is to be done in a thoughtful way.
References
Best, J. W. And Kahn, J. V. 2006. Research in Education. (10th Edition). Boston: Pearson
Education Inc.
Brown, H. D. 2000. Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. (4th Edition). New York:
Longman.
Cohen, Manion, and Morrison. 2007. Research Methods in Education. (6th Edition). London:
Routlege.
Gay, L. R., Mills, G. E., and Airasian, P. 2006. Educational Research: Competencies for
Analysis and Applications. (8th Edition). Ohio: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Harmer, J. 1998. How to Teach English: An Introduction to the Practice of English Language
Teaching. Essex: Longman
Hymes, D. 1971. On Communicative Competence. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania
Press.
Jacobs, G. M. And Hall, S. 2002. Implementing Cooperative Learning. In Richards, J. C. And
Renandya, W. A. (Eds.). Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current
Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 52-53.
Lewis, M. 2002. Classroom Management. In Richards, J. C. And Renandya, W. A. (Eds.).
Methodology in Language Teaching: An Anthology of Current Practice. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 41-48.
Shumin, K. 2002. Factors to Consider: Developing Adult EFL Students' Speaking Abilities. In
Richards, J. C. And Renandya, W. A. (Eds.). Methodology in Language Teaching: An
Anthology of Current Practice. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 208-210.
Van Ments, M. 1999. The effective Use of Role-play: Practical Techniques for Improving
Learning. (2nd Edition). London: Kogan Page Limited.
Ur, P. 1996. A course in Language Teaching: Practice and Theory. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
322
The Need for a New and Modern Polish Pronouncing Dictionary
Przemysław Wiatrowski, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland
Abstract
Poland lacks an up-to-date, modern pronunciation dictionary. So far, there have only been two
dictionaries of this type published – one in 1977, the other in 1990. Both lexicons contain
entries which were controversial even at the time of publication. Moreover, they were compiled
dozens of years ago. This makes much information contained in them obsolete as it does not
take account either of the most recent changes in Polish pronunciation or recommendations
codified in the standards of correct Polish pronunciation from 2006. Hence, it is of paramount
importance to compile a new dictionary with correct data. The aim of the article is to present a
preliminary project of a lexicon of this type (in the traditional, hard-copy version as well as online). The article discusses the assumptions behind the dictionary, problems arising when
selecting entires, pronunciation variants (standard and colloquial pronunciation) and the level of
detail in the information provided (pronunciation, stress, division into syllables, intonation
contour in the case of selected phonetic phrases).
Keywords: lexicography; Polish pronunciation dictionary; principles of correct Polish
pronunciation
1. Polish spelling versus pronunciation
Maria Steffen-Batóg (1997: 145), an eminent Polish scholar, writes:
Rozbieżności pomiędzy wymową a pisownią są zjawiskiem powszechnym,
występującym w różnych językach w różnym nasileniu. Są one związane z
zachowawczym charakterem pisowni, która nie nadąża za rozwojowymi procesami
fonetycznymi i fonologicznymi języka.
[Discrepancies between pronunciation and spelling are a common phenomenon occurring
in different languages with various intensity. They are related to the conservative nature
of spelling which does not keep pace with phonetic and phonological developments in
language].
Significant differences between spelling and pronunciation can be noticed in such
languages as English and Polish. The spelling systems in these languages are not perfect, i.e.
one grapheme rarely corresponds to one phone. The language which comes close to the ideal
here is Indonesian, even though it too contains lexemes whose spelling does not reflect their
phonetic rendering (Chaer 2007: 186). Pronunciation uncertainties focus most of all on words
containing grapheme <e> which can denote phonemes /ə/ or /e/ depending on the context
(Chaer 2007: 202, Chaer 2013: 109, Muslich 2008: 105).
In Polish, full graphical equivalence of speech is rare. Examples of words where
spelling and pronunciation are perfectly aligned include los [lͻs] – 3 letters and 3 phones, mama
[mama] – 4 letters and 4 phones and rower [rͻvɛr] – 5 letters and 5 phones. In most cases,
however, there are quantitative or qualitative differences between how a word (phrase, text) is
pronounced and how it is written. Identical orthographic phones are noted in different ways. For
instance, the phone [u] may be represented by letters <u> (ul [ul]) or <ó> (sól [sul]), phone [x]
by letter <h> (huk [xuk]) or digraph <ch> (chór [xur]), phone [f] by letter <f> (foka [fͻka] or
<w> (lew [lɛf]). Also, the same graphical sign can be rendered as two separate sounds. This is
the case of letter <b> which can signify phones [b] (bas [bas] , [bʲ] (bis [bʲis]), [p] (chleb [xlɛp])
or – as pronounced by Poles in north-eastern Poland – [pʲ] in liaisons like <chleb i sok> [xlɛpʲ i
sͻk].
323
It is worth reminding the reader of the most important rules governing the distribution
of phones in standard, general Polish (Wierzchowska 1967, 1971, 1980, Steffen-Batogowa
1975) which need to be reflected in the dictionary being developed. Polish is characteristic for
the so-called nasal vowels (apart from Polish, these occur in two other national languages only –
Portuguese and French). In the initial and mid position, they are pronounced only before
fricative consonants (spirants). At the end of words, the orthographic letter <ą> is pronounced
as the nasal vowel [ͻw] (vowels in Polish are pronounced asynchronously and are
polysegmental in structure) whereas the orthographic letter <ę> is pronounced either as the
nasal vowel [ɛw] or as the oral vowel [ɛ]. Letter combinations <an>, <am>, <on>, <om>, <un>,
<um>, <in>, <im>, <yn>, <ym>, <en>, <em> occurring in foreign words before a spirant (such
as awans, konspekt, kunszt, inżynier, rynsztok, enzym) can also have alternative pronunciations.
They may be pronounced letter by letter or with the nasal vowel replacing them. All of the
renderings mentioned above conform to the orthophonic standard of Polish. What is incorrect,
however, are renderings where the nasal vowel is left out in the middle of Polish words before a
spirant (e.g. [vͻns] instead of [vͻws] or the final orthographic letter <ą> is pronounced as [ͻm]
(e.g. [sͻm] instead of [sͻw] , [ͻw] (e.g. [sͻw] instead of [sͻw] or [ͻ] (e.g. [sͻ] instead of [sͻw] .
There are no nasal vowels before affricates, plosive consonants as well as phones [lʲ] and [w]
(e.g. ręce [rɛnʦɛ], ciąć [ʨoɲʨ], dąb [dͻmp], wzięli [vʑelʲi], wziął [vʑͻw]).
We must also take stock of questionable phenomena which are described by
phoneticians and lexicographers in different ways. For example, it is still held as generally
evident that it is mainly in the region of Wielkopolska (western part of Poland) that the
grapheme <w> is pronounced as the voiced consonant [v] or – before [e] or [j] vowels – [vʲ]
after letters denoting voiceless consonants (such as <p>, <t>, <k>, <s>, <sz>, <ch>) (elsewhere
in Poland this is pronounced as voiceless [f] or [fʲ]). Both renderings – voiceless [f]/[[fʲ] and
voiced [v]/[vʲ] – are correct, but the first one (with [f]/[fʲ] is given primacy (Dunaj 2006).
Importantly, the Wielkopolska variant with [v]/[vʲ] is now a pronunciation relic (Nowakowski,
Wiatrowski 2008: 94–95).
Particular attention needs to be given to the pronunciation of the letter <ń> after vowels
but before affricates and plosives. In such phonetic positions, the letter is rendered by a group of
two phones made up of [j] and – depending on the right-hand phonetic environment – the semiopen sonorant in its predorsal-dental [n] or predorsal-alveolar [n] version. Some phoneticians
extend the group of sonorants occurring after [j] to include the bilabial [m] and velar [ŋ].
However, no detailed studies have been conducted in this respect.
What also needs to be discussed is the distribution of soft nasal resonance (sometimes
referred to as the nasal [j]). From the articulatory point of view, it is a voiced, high, frontal, nonsyllabic, flat (due to the shape of the lips) nasal vowel. It occurs as a rendering of the
orthographic letter <ń> after a vowel but before a spirant (e.g. in words such as pański, koński,
hiszpański, chiński). Some scholars believe that it also occurs at the end of words as the
rendering of the letter <ń> (e.g. in lexemes such as koń, broń, słoń, dłoń). The feature is not a
Polish standard, however, but a variety in the southern region of Małopolska.
2. Polish pronunciation dictionaries published so far
In the history of Polish lexicography, so far there have only been two dictionaries
devoted solely to the phonetic transcription of Polish pronunciation. Słownik wymowy polskiej
PWN (Dictionary of Polish Pronunciation, Polish Scientific Publishers edited by Mieczysław
Karaś and Maria Madejowa was published in 1977. At the time, it was a pioneering publication
in Poland containing over 36000 entries. Lexical items were taken from Mały słownik języka
polskiego (Concise Dictionary of the Polish Language) of 1968 edited by Halina Auderska,
Zofia Łempicka and Stanisław Skorupka. Consequently, the entries only covered common
Polish names to the detriment of proper names and foreign, unassimilated words. What is more,
the authors used international phonetic notation (the system is not commonly known in Poland,
especially among Polonists) which limited the readership to the community of specialists who
knew the international phonetic alphabet and foreigners learning Polish. The dictionary is
324
descriptive and normative as it registers different variants of Polish pronunciation which the
authors assess and valuate accordingly.
The other publication is Podręczny słownik poprwnej wymowy polskiej (Concise
Dictionary of Correct Polish Pronunciation compiled in 1990 by Stanisław Urbańczyk and
Władysław Lubaś. It contains over 6600 entries, 1500 of which are Polish and foreign proper
names and acronyms. In line with the authors declared intention, the dictionary registered words
which are often used and raise doubts as to their pronunciation. We do not know, however, what
was the method of establishing usage frequency. The authors used orthographic-phonetic
notation which means that signs from the Slavic phonetic alphabet were employed only when
indispensable. The decision to use this form of notation was motivated by the need to reach a
wide readership which would not only cover specialists and foreigners, but also anyone
interested in the standards of correct pronunciation. It was also for this reason that the
information supplied in the dictionary is basic and simplified (short explanatory notes). It is
important to note that, contrary to the intention of the authors, the use of orthographic-phonetic
notation prevents foreigners learning Polish from using the dictionary. As in the case of the
1977 publication, the Concise Dictionary of Correct Polish Pronunciation is descriptive and
normative.
In many places, the two dictionaries recommend different pronunciation standards.
There are, for example, different recommendations on how to pronounce the singular genitive of
nous like kwestia, partia, kopia. The 1977 dictionary gives preference to forms following the
pattern of [kfɛstʲji], allowing [kfɛstʲi] as a variant. In the 1990 publication, forms without [j] are
not allowed (Osowicka 2000: 149).
Another drawback is that there are no clear recommendations on how to pronounce
nasal vowels, recommendations which would be backed by research carried out before the
dictionaries were published. The authors of the Dictionary of Polish Pronunciation write about
synchronous pronunciation of nasal vowels in several places in the text, considering
asynchronous forms to be incorrect. Such views are in stark contrast to the findings made by
phoneticians who proved that the so-called nasal vowels are polysegmental in Polish and are
pronounced asynchronously (e.g. Koneczna 1934, Dukiewicz 1967, Wierzchowska 1966,
Steffen-Batogowa 1975). The authors of the Concise Dictionary of Correct Polish Pronunciation
do not take any position on this issue, but their notations in relevant entries suggest to the
uninitiated reader that nasals should be pronounced synchronously. They also propagate
pronunciation mistakes recommending that nasals be pronounced before the [lʲ], [w] phones.
The 1990 publication furthers the incorrect information according to which the
combination of voiceless consonant + the orthographic letter <w> is pronounced with
heterogeneous voicing by the inhabitants of the region of Wielkopolska. In fact, such nonhomogeneous pronunciations of [kv]//[kvʲ] combinations (a phenomenon which is untypical for
Polish phonetics of obstruent groups) disappeared over thirty years ago. Małgorzata WitaszekSamborska (1985: 94) showed clearly that this feature dies out together with the old generation
of intelligentsia living in Poznań (the capital city of the Wielkopolska region .
The orthographic letter <ń> positioned after a vowel but before hard affricates and
plosives (except for [k] and [g]) relatively often encodes the so-called articulatory dilation. The
phenomenon had not been identified in detail neither when it comes to the timbre of phones
producing the dilation nor from the perspective of its distribution and intensity of occurrence.
Decisions made in this context by the authors of the two dictionaries were based only on their
intuition instead of relevant research.
It is a glaring mistake to inform readers that soft nasal resonance (nasal [j]) occurs,
among others, in the final position to render the orthographic letter <ń> as in koń. The feature is
not a Polish standard, but a variety in the southern region of Małopolska.
It is worth noting that the dictionaries leave out the problem of division into syllables.
Neither do they provide any detailed guidelines on intonation. As for supra-segmental
phonetics, the only recommendations concern independent word stress while there is no
information on secondary stress or phonological phrases.
325
It would be difficult to take stock of all the gaps, inconsistencies and defects which are
present in the two analysed dictionaries. More comprehensive lists of problems have been
included in other publications (Kurzowa 1979, Saloni 1982, Madejowa 1992, Osowicka 2000).
3. What should a new and modern dictionary of Polish pronunciation look like?
Beyond any doubt, Poland lacks a pronunciation dictionary which would be free of
mistakes made in previously published lexicons. Such a dictionary should contain
recommendations taking account of the reality of present day Polish pronunciation. In the case
of a large portion of orthophonic information, linguists follow their intuition which is not
buttressed by sound experimental research. This most important postulate is still valid today. It
is only regrettable that, so far, Polish phonetics has not seen wide-ranging studies on a
representative group of speakers from the entire territory of Poland who would differ in terms of
their gender, age, geographic and social origin and education (profession). After all, it is not
possible to recommend correct usage solely on the basis of random recordings or heard or
overheard phonetic features. Properly planned observation must take into consideration the
degree to which a phenomenon is widespread. The criterion of frequency is very important in
the case of orthophonic standards and yet quantifiers such as common, frequent, rare etc. so
readily used by orthophoneticians are not backed by any numerical data which would confirm
the quantitative scope of the phonetic phenomena described.
The actual work on the dictionary must be preceded by studies based on a large body of
research material. Their aim will be to verify current views on the phenomena mentioned in the
first and second part of the article. The list of detailed problems to be identified and described is
in fact much longer. For example, it is important to investigate depalatalisation of labial vowels
which may result from asynchronous pronunciation (as in [pjaɲinͻ] . Neither are there any
convincing studies on the pronunciation of postpalatal consonants before different vowels. It is
generally believed that these are pronounced synchronously before vowel [i] (e.g. kilof,
gimnazjum) and asynchronously when positioned before vowels [a], [ͻ], [u] (e.g. kiosk, magia,
kiur), but there is no clear indication on how they are pronounced before vowel [ɛ] (e.g. kiedy,
cegielnia). Another task is to establish the rules governing the distribution of all voiceless
sonorants (Steffen-Batóg 1996). The issue is poorly researched not only when it comes to
standard Polish, but also with respect to its varieties. What is much more complex, though, is
the problem of clusters where component obstruents are separated by a sonorant (or nonsyllabic back vowel [w]) as in plwać, krwawy (but also płciowy, jabłko). It is also necessary to
investigate the patterns of inter-word voicing in prepositional phrases. It is not clear whether the
final consonant in the preposition is always voiced when it comes before a voiced phone with
which the following word begins (e.g. od Anny, nad lasem) and whether the current rule covers
only simple prepositions or can be extended to complex ones, e.g. popod, spopod, ponad, znad
etc. (Nowakowski, Wiatrowski 2008: 93–96).
With the results of such studies, it will be possible to determine the incidence of
different pronunciation patterns (how much rooted they are in common usage). This will open
the way to introducing potential changes to pronunciation rules formulated by Bogusław Dunaj
(2006) which, being the most up-to-date, should be the basis for normative recommendations
included in the new dictionary addressed to a wide group of readers interested in correct
pronunciation.
The issue of readership raises the question of the method whereby pronunciation entries
should be written down. Undoubtedly, notation should be both in Slavic and international (IPA)
alphabets. The former is very well known and has been used on many occasions by Slavic
philologists (including Polonists). As for the international alphabet, it is obvious that it is more
accessible to readers without philological background and foreigners studying aspects of Polish
pronunciation. Also, it seems that the dictionary will have to resort to semi-phonetic notation.
After all, average users of Polish are not familiar with any phonetic alphabet and the
information they look for must be provided in a legible format. This will ensure that the
dictionary will reach beyond specialists (philologists) and foreigners learning Polish – the
326
authors of previous publications did not offer such solutions, which left them open to allegations
that the dictionaries they compiled were only accessible to a limited group of readers. However,
we must bear in mind that the suggested format of notation will increase the volume of the
dictionary in its hard-copy version. The same does not apply to the electronic version.
The proposed dictionary should contain as complete a representation of Polish
vocabulary as possible. Mere selection of entries would not be enough given that, for non-native
users, each Polish word sounds foreign (Kurzowa 1979: 267). For example, native speakers
have no problems pronouncing nouns such as szal, chata, rzeka or czapka. Foreigners, on the
other hand, struggle with digraphs <sz>, <ch>, <rz>, <cz>, which, in the words above, are not
rendered as two separate phones but as one consonant. Hence, the dictionary should be based on
Wielki słownik ortograficzny PWN z zasadami pisowni i interpunkcji (Great PWN Spelling
Dictionary with Rules of Spelling and Punctuation) of 2011 (Third Edition, revised and
expanded edited by Edward Polański. The dictionary is a comprehensive publication
containing about 140,000 entries. It takes account both of common and proper names (Polish
and foreign), colloquial lexical items, terms, borrowed words and acronyms. Given its scope, it
is not only a dictionary of spelling, but also of words used in contemporary Polish. Based on
such material, the proposed publication would be the biggest dictionary of Polish pronunciation
to ever have been created.
Each entry should include the orthographically written word (highlighted
typographically) and its equivalent(s) provided fist in semi-phonetic notation (with the use of
orthographic characters), then transcribed to the Slavic alphabet and finally to the international
phonetic system. Practical to use, the dictionary should be descriptive and normative, i.e. it
should register different pronunciation variants and evaluate them for correctness.
Where there are pronunciation variants, these should be marked by an appropriate
system of labels based on the work of Bogusław Dunaj (2009 . Taking stock of different factors
(social, situational, stylistic) determining pronunciation, he identified the following phonetic
variants:
 geographical (territorial , including variants which are more or less equivalent in terms of
scope (e.g. [paɲɛnka]/[paɲɛŋka] as well as those which are dominant (e.g pronunciations
like [tfͻjɛ]) and peripheral (e.g. pronunciations like [tvͻjɛ]);
 chronological including variants which are regressive (e.g. pronunciations like [ɟɛnɛraw]
compared to the more common [gɛnɛraw] and innovative ones (e.g. asynchronous
pronunciation of consonants [c], [ɟ] before vowel [ɛ], penultimate stress in forms like
osiemset, czytaliśmy, gotowalibyście);
 situational variants related to the type of communication situation including variants which
are accurate (e.g. pronunciation of past tense forms [jatw], [mukw] and colloquial (e.g.
pronunciation of past tense forms [jat], [muk]
 stylistic variants related to pace (lento, moderato, allegro) and non-standard delivery, e.g.
[jɛst]/[jɛs]);
 hypercorrect variants (as an attempt to avoid dialect forms or the influence of writing on
pronunciation e.g. [pʲjɛtnaɕʨɛ] instead of [pʲjɛtnaɕʨɛ]).
In the group of correct phonetic renditions there are only few geographical variants (e.g.
[ŋ] in Polish words before phones [k], [g] in the pronunciation of the inhabitants of western and
southern Poland). Regressive variants (the ones less and less often used) are allowed as a
second-best option. Situational and hypercorrect variants are easier to assess if we introduce two
levels of language standard when making normative decisions: received standard (to be used in
official contacts) and functional standard (appropriate for everyday, unofficial contacts)
(Markowski 2007: 32–34). The former covers accurate situational variants, the latter colloquial
situational variants as well as some innovative and chronological (more and more widespread)
and hypercorrect variants. As for stylistic variants, only accurate lento pronunciation is codified
(Dunaj 2009: 30–31).
327
In line with lexicographic convention, basic entries are singular nouns, singular
nominative of masculine adjectives, verbs in the infinitive, positive degree adverbs, etc.
(Żmigrodzki 2005: 64 . However, the dictionary should also account for pronunciation variants
of different grammatical forms. For example, in the case of verbs, these are most often singular
and plural forms of past tense as well as imperative and conditional forms in both numbers.
There may also be problems with pronouncing certain cases of declined parts of speech (e.g.
singular genitive, dative or locative and plural genitive or nouns). It is to be decided, however,
whether each entry should include all variant forms such as past tense forms of verbs (which run
into long lists in Polish), or whether these should be described in detail in the introduction to the
dictionary. There are certain drawbacks to both solutions. The former would expand the volume
out of proportion whereas the latter would have to be considered from the perspective of
average users who rarely study introductory chapters preceding the dictionary proper.
Dictionaries are usually consulted because people have a question to which they want to find a
quick and precise answer. This is why we need to ensure that all the information making up an
entry is presented in a clear manner. In the electronic version, it will be definitely possible to
attach recordings of all grammatical forms to individual entries (even though the work will be
very time-consuming).
The entries must also include information of the stressed syllable (especially in the case
of words where the stress falls on a different syllable than the penultimate one). Also, standards
should be set for basic and complex phonological words with secondary and subordinate stress.
The available dictionaries do not address this issue. Basic phonological words comprising a host
and a clitic which may create pronunciation problems should be registered in entries referring to
the relevant host (in a correctly sampled phonetic phrase), e.g. czytał na głos (stress fall on na)
– czekał na głos (stress fall on głos).
Readers must also be informed about the division into syllables. There is no
pronunciation dictionary that either discusses the issue or highlights the division. Yet the
problem is important as the division of the orthographic word does not always go hand in had
with how the phonetic word is broken down. For example, let us look at foreign words such as
mozaika, autobus, Europa which are orthographically divided into: mo-za-i-ka, a-u-to-bus, E-uro-pa. Their phonetic break-up, however, is different: [mͻ-zaj-ka], [aw-tͻ-bus], [ɛw-rͻ-pa].
Finally, there is the question of intonation, a language phenomenon which is especially
difficult to study for lack of sufficiently good and objective research tools and theoretical
categories. In the case of pronunciation dictionaries, the main problem is technical and has to do
with the method of transcribing the melody of speech. Traditional intonation graphs are
meaningless to non-specialists. The problem could be solved – only in the electronic version –
by providing recorded examples including declarative, imperative and interrogatory utterances.
Numerous, properly selected examples should also demonstrate different combinations of
sentence stress (Ladefoged 2001: 98–103).
4. Conclusion
The need to create a descriptive and normative dictionary of Polish pronunciation is
clear and uncontested but still unfulfilled. The lack of such a publication which would conform
to modern standards related to content and technical requirements is evident when we look to
the radio, television or schools where literal pronunciation is rife and mistakes are propagated
through the teaching process.
The question of compiling a new pronunciation dictionary which would reflect current
language practice remains open (Osowicka 2000: 156). The comments made in this article are a
first step on a long way towards creating such a lexicon. Undoubtedly, the proposed dictionary
(in the traditional and electronic format) needs to be the result of multi-faceted work involving a
large group of experts (including phoneticians, text readers and IT specialists) and considerable
financial resources.
328
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Chaer, A. 2013. Fonologi Bahasa Indonesia. Jakarta: Rineka Cipta.
Dukiewicz, L. 1967. Polskie głoski nosowe. Analiza akustyczna. Warszawa: PWN.
Dunaj, B. 2006. Zasady poprawnej wymowy polskiej. Język Polski, 3, 161–172.
Dunaj, B. 2009. Warianty fonetyczne a norma wymawianiowa. In Ożóg, K (ed. . Język żyje.
Rzecz o współczesnej polszczyźnie. Rzeszów: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu
Rzeszowskiego, 27–31.
Koneczna, H. 1934. Studjum eksperymentalne artykulacji głosek polskich. Prace Filologiczne,
16, 33–174.
Kurzowa, Z. 1979. Problemy wymowy w ujęciu leksykograficznym. (Uwagi i postulaty na
marginesie Słownika wymowy polskiej). Polonica, 5, 264–283.
Ladefoged, P. 2001. A Course in Phonetics. Boston: Thomson Learning.
Madejowa, M. 1992. Kilka uwag o współczesnej wymowie polskiej. Język Polski, 4–5, 327–
336.
Mały słownik języka polskiego. 1968. Warszawa: PWN.
Markowski, A. 2007. Kultura języka polskiego. Teoria. Zagadnienia leksykalne. Warszawa:
Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
Muslich, M. 2008. Fonologi Bahasa Indonesia. Tinjauan Deskriptif Sistem Bunyi Bahasa
Indonesia. Jakarta: Bumi Aksara.
Nowakowski, P., Wiatrowski, P. 2008. Fonetyka polszczyzny miejskiej Poznania –
perspektywy badawcze. In Święcicka, M (ed. . Miasto – przestrzeń zróżnicowana
językowo, kulturowo i społecznie 2. Bydgoszcz: UKW, 85–106.
Osowicka, M. 2000. Analiza jakości informacji fonetycznych zawartych w głównych
wydawnictwach ortofonicznych Słowniku wymowy polskiej PWN oraz Podręcznym
słowniku poprawnej wymowy polskiej. Acta Universitatis Nicolai Copernici. Studia
Slavica, 4(337), 143–158.
Podręczny słownik poprawnej wymowy polskiej. 1990. Warszawa: Spółka WydawniczoKsięgarska.
Saloni, Z. 1982. Uwagi o słowniku wymowy polskiej. In Maciejewski, J (ed. . Z zagadnień
fonetyki i fonologii współczesnego języka polskiego. Toruń: UMK, 30–43.
Słownik wymowy polskiej PWN. 1977. Warszawa: PWN.
Steffen-Batogowa, M. 1975. Automatyzacja transkrypcji fonematycznej tekstów polskich.
Warszawa: PWN.
Steffen-Batóg, M. 1996. On the pronunciation of some Polish consonant clusters containing
sonorants. Studia Phonetica Posnaniensia, 5, 61–85.
Steffen-Batóg, M. 1997. Studies in Phonetic Algorithms. Poznań: Sorus.
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Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN.
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Szkolnych.
Wierzchowska, B. 1980. Fonetyka i fonologia języka polskiego. Wrocław: Ossolineum.
Witaszek-Samborska, M. 1985. Regionalizmy fonetyczne w mowie inteligencji poznańskiej.
Slavia Occidentalis, 42, 91–104.
Żmigrodzki, P. 2005. Wprowadzenie do leksykografii polskiej. Katowice: Wydawnictwo UŚ.
329
Linguistic Loss of Li Niha in Its Contacts with Other Languages
Ingatan Gulö, STBA Teknokrat, Lampung
Abstract
As a language spoken mainly by those who live in Nias Island, Li Niha is facing its big
challenge as its native speakers start to speak other languages such as Indonesian and English,
and in particular cases, as other people with different linguistic backgrounds start to learn the
language. This study is a result of observations done on the language interactions with other
languages in different places such as Gunungsitoli, Sibolga, and Pekanbaru. While in one hand
certain foreigners eventually try to speak the language and in the other hand many native
speakers begin to master other languages, Li Niha appears in a new form as it loses its special
characteristics. The linguistic loss found and reported in this paper covers phonological aspects,
orthographic varieties, and grammatical issues. These impacts of language interaction in urban
life are considered dangerous to the existence of the language.
Keywords: Grammar, Li Niha, linguistic loss, Nias, pronunciation
1. Introduction
Li Niha is the vernacular of the people who live in the island located in the west part of
Sumatera. It is nationally and internationally known as Nias (language) or Bahasa Nias and is
native to less than one million speakers (Brown, 2001: xi) whose attitude is generally not
supportive toward the language (Brown, 2001: 7; Duha, 2010: 171). In recent pieces of research,
it is mentioned that the language consists of five dialects namely South, West, North,
Gunungsitoli, and Middle dialects (Marulafau, 2004: 2; Ndruru, 2007: 3). As Gunungsitoli
dialect is widely used in daily communications, books, and songs, the analysis here focuses on
the dialect. The features discussed, however, are applicable to the other dialects because
differences between them are mostly related to the vocabulary items and intonation.
Nias is a unique language. It is unique not only in comparison to languages in Indonesia
but also in comparison to languages worldwide. In addition to the fact that Nias is an open
syllable language, it also has some unusually found features such as voiced bilabial fricative
sound, non-nasal trilled sounds, mutation system, and peculiar type of ergativity (Brown, 2001;
Gulö, 2014a). As the speakers move to other cities such as Medan, Pekanbaru, or Jakarta and by
then they or their children become fluent at other languages, their ability to speak Li Niha
decreases.
Losing its special features is not the only phenomenon happening as a result of this
language contact. As the speakers learn other languages, they also influence the new languages
as a result of their first system of language and by so doing ‘create’ another dialect of the new
languages. This is clearly seen in the dialect of Indonesian spoken in Medan, Sibolga, or Nias
itself (Gulö, 2014b). In both cases, this two-direction influence depends on how good the
speakers are at both first and second languages. There are facts in which they are good at both.
There are many cases, however, which show that Nias is losing its particular features as it
comes to contact with other languages. These facts have underlain the need and the emergence
of this research.
2. Method
This is a descriptive-analytical and qualitative research that makes use of available facts
or information to analyze and to make a critical evaluation (Kothari, 2004: 110; Stake, 2010: 19,
20). Main objective of this synchronic study is to find what features of Li Niha dissappear as it
comes to contact with other languages. The data were gathered in places such as Gunungsitoli,
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Sibolga, Medan, Pekanbaru, and Lampung as the researcher traveled to those places. In addition
to those direct interactions with the native speakers, the data were also taken from wider sources
such as books, song lyrics, and social media. This was possible to do as this topic covers a wide
range of linguistic issues and usages. Above all, as a native speaker of the language, the
researcher had chances to conduct personal observations on the language.
The data were processed by directly studying the formal grammar and features of the
language in books and observing the real pronunciations of phonemes from the native speakers,
especially those who speak Nias as their only language. The next step was to observe the actual
usages and pronunciations of those features in urban societies. In this process, lots of actual
sources such as song lyrics and social media texts were involved.
3. Discussion
3.1 Loss of Orthographic Features
Among four orthographic features presented here, the group of letters ndr is often used
inappropriately when writing in Li Niha. Considerable number of proofs in which these letters
are used correctly is found in Nias old literatures. Nias linguistic items such as sindruhu ‘true’
(Harefa, 1970: 9), ndraono ‘children’ (La’ija, 1971: 35), and andre ‘this, here’ (Halawa et al.,
1983: 119) are examples of how these letters are used together.
The data taken from postings and comments in Nias Facebook group of humors show
that these three letters has reduced into two letters only; r is omitted from the cluster. In those
data, sindruhu, ndraono, and andre are written as *sinduhu, *ndaono, and *ande respectively.
This is mostly influenced by letters nd found in Indonesian as the major language used in
Indonesia. As a matter of fact, Indonesian does not have ndr cluster of letters. Using ndr or nd is
not merely a matter of choice as nd in Indonesian is pronounced differently from ndr in Nias.
See point 3.2 for further explanation on the phonological importance of these letters.
Another linguistic feature that Li Niha loses is the right letter for open-mid central
unrounded /ɜ/ sound. In the language, this phoneme is represented by letter o with an umlaut
over it. In Nias latest and well-known dictionary entitled Kamus Li Niha: Nias - Indonesia, for
example, words containing this sound are always written correctly as in böi ‘don’t’, möi ‘go’,
and tödö ‘heart’ (Lase, 2011: 68, 206, 300). In contrary, these words are respectively written as
boi, todo, and moi in many Nias song lyrics. Other cases in which letter ö are typed as plain o
can be found in books (Zalukhu, 1992) and social media. In addition to the fact that this letter is
unique and thus should be maintained, substituted it by o is also confusing as the language also
has a lot of words with plain o but pronounced as open-mid back rounded sound. This underlies
the need of typing ö correctly. Due to difficulty in typing the right letter, sometimes ö is also
incorrectly substituted by o with tilde (Zalukhu, 2012), circumflex (Zebua, 1996), or numeral 6.
Those instant solutions make Li Niha lose its original feature.
The third orthographic loss of Li Niha in its contact to other languages is related to letter
w with a circumflex over it. Nias has both this letter ŵ and the plain w in its vocabulary items.
Letter ŵ carries voiced bilabial fricative sound // present in the language. See point 3.2 for its
phonological significance. One of problems about this letter is that it is often left unmarked
(Duha, 2012; Zalukhu, 2012), treating it the same as plain w.
The other problem is that there has been conventional marking in which the letter w
pronounced as /w/, like that in Indonesian and English, is marked but the letter w which carries
the voiced bilabial fricative sound is left unmarked (Hämmerle, 1999 and 2012). In Nias
dictionary mentioned above (2011: xv), Lase accepts the suggestion of Halawa in Nias Portal
website to re-visited the use of these letters by leaving the one that sounds like Indonesian or
English w unmarked and marking the one that sounds differently by a circumflex. This,
however, is ignored in Nias song lyrics, books, and writings in social media.
The last orthographic feature often ignored in Li Niha is the use of apostrophe which
indicates intervocalic stops between certain letters or syllables. As Indonesian and most other
languages such as Bataknese and Minangese known by Nias native speakers do not use
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apostrophe with the same functions, it is not uncommon to find words in which the apostrophe
is substituted by a full stop. The data gathered for the purpose of carrying out the objective of
this research provide many examples in which the right use of the apostrophe is ignored. In
sentence Fahuo-huo mao khö de’u iada’a; da ufondrondrongo ‘A cat is talking to a rat right
now; let me listen to it’, for example, is written Fahuo-huo mao kh6 de.u ia da.a, da.ufondrondrongo. Other incorrect usages would write de’u ‘rat’ as *de,u with a comma, *deu without a
mark at all, or *de u leaving a space between the syllables.
3.2 Loss of Phonological Features
While the ones explored above are overtly seen in writings or printed materials, the
issues brought up here are seen in spoken Nias. Three of those four features above are discussed
partially to avoid overlapping explanation providing in this part. It is quite complex to separate
orthographic features from their phonological issues. The consonant cluster ndr, for example, is
not pronounced like nd in Indonesian anda ‘you’ or English splendid. Just like in English, letter
n in Indonesian cluster nd is always grouped with the preceding vowel and d with the one that
follows. Anda is divided into an-da and splendid into splen-did in their syllabifications. In
contrary to this, Nias letter n in the cluster ndr is not grouped with the preceding vowel. The
three letters are treated as one phoneme with non-nasalized voiced alveolar plosive trill sound.
This sound is rarely found in languages generally (Ladefoged and Maddieson, 1996: 230; Blust,
2013: 201). Thus, incorrectly writing andre ‘here, this’ as *ande is identical to incorrect
pronunciation of the word.
Another phonological issue similar to ndr is Nias cluster of m and b. This mb carries
voiced bilabial trill // sound. In writing system, there is no problem about this group of letters
because many languages allow these letters to occur in sequence, but there is a problem about it
related to Nias phonology. Just like ndr is treated as a phoneme, mb is also considered as one
sound in Li Niha. Thus, unlike Indonesian sem-bah ‘worship’ or English word im-bal-ance,
Nias words such as ambö ‘less’ and umbu ‘wellspring’ are divided into a-mbö and u-mbu
respectively (not *am-bö and *um-bu) because Nias mb is non nasal. Accordingly, the
syllabification of the word andre above is a-ndre, not *an-dre. Quoting from Blust, trilled
sounds are rarely found in world languages (2013: 672). These letters, however, are often
treated the same as those in Indonesian or other languages such as Bataknese, making Nias lose
its phonological feature.
That those Nias groups of letters are divided into such a way of syllabification is based
on the fact that Nias is an open syllabic language. All syllables of Nias words end in vowels, not
in consonants. This stands out as another feature being lost as borrowing words from other
languages into Nias increases from time to time.
Related to voiced bilabial fricative sound // whose orthographic feature explained
above in 2.1, formally being represented by letter ŵ, it is surprisingly found that many people
are unable to pronounce it correctly. The word baŵa // ‘mouth’, for instance, is mostly
pronounced as /w/, // or /v/. In addition to inaccurately writing it as *yaahowu or
*ya.ahowu, for further instance, Nias greeting ya’ahoŵu is often pronounced // or
/v/ by nonnatives because this is another Nias unusual sound (Brown, 2001: 12) and is
rarely found in the world languages. The problem is that native speakers who have been
speaking other languages which absolutely do not have this sound, are also unable to pronounce
Nias words with this sound correctly. Some Nias singers, for example, miss this pronunciation.
Other phonological features but less influenced ones are voiced dental fricative //
represented by letter d and voiceless velar fricative sound // represented by letters kh. There are
Nias dialects that treat d as voiced alveolar plosive as in other languages surrounding the island
but there are dialects, such as Gunungsitoli dialect, that treat it like those letters th in English
mother or they. When it comes to contact with other languages, this voiced dental fricative
phoneme is easily affected by voiced alveolar plosive represented by the same letter in the other
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languages. While languages such as Indonesian and Bataknese do not have (or ocurring less
often, as in Indonesian akhir ‘end’) velar fricative sound, Nias is full of it. In Nias contact with
other languages, however, this phoneme is mistakenly treated as // or // alone.
3.3 Loss of Grammatical Features
As an ergative language, Nias maintains the same grammatical case for the object of a
transitive verb and the single core argument of an intransitive verb while treating the agent of a
transitive verb differently (Brown, 2001: xi; Crysmann, 2009). This morphological ergativity is
carried out by mutation system. The examples below illustrate ergativity in Li Niha.
(1) Tohare zikhö (Ants come).
(2) I’a zikhö (He eats ants).
(3) I’a sikhö (Ants eat [it]).
Focusing on the second part of the first sentence, zikhö is in mutated form of sikhö ‘ant’
as it is the single argument of the intransitive verb Tohare ‘come, arrive’. In the second, it is
also in mutated form as it is the object of the transitive verb -a ‘eat’. In the third, in contrary, the
word is in its unmutated form as it is now the agent of the verb -a. This can be seen easily from
the English translations provided. It needs to be underlined that the pronominal prefix I- in the
second sentence refers to an indefinite agent while in the third, it refers to the noun sikhö.
As this system is not known in most languages with which Li Niha is being in contact,
Nias natives who are very fluent at those other languages, and thus less knowledgeable about Li
Niha, often incorrectly put words in ergative and asbolutive cases. Among the data found,
sentences below exemplify how Nias loses this unique grammatical feature.
(4) Mofökhö *ya’ugö (You are sick).
(5) Olifu ia *fahö (He forgot the chisel).
Sentence (1) is exemplified by incorrect sentence (4) and sentence (2) by that in (5).
While there were many similar data about the ergative, no datum was found about the incorrect
use of the asbolutive form as in sentence (3). This can be understood as the forms of the whole
sentences in (2) and (3) are easily distinguished.
As a language that allows adjectives and nouns to be the predicates of sentences, the
adjective Mofökhö ‘sick’ in sentence (4) is considered in the same syntactic function as Tohare
in (1). In other words, as Nias personal pronoun for you in (4) is the single core argument of the
predicate Mofökhö, it has to be in mutated form ndra’ugö ‘you’, not ya’ugö. In (5), the personal
pronoun ia ‘s/he’ is the agent of the verb olifu ‘forget’. According to the right construction
discussed above, the word for chisel thus should be in mutated form ŵahö ‘chisel’ (not fahö)
because it is the object of the transitive verb that begins the sentence. Other related examples are
those in (6) and (7) below.
(6) Mate *ya’odo
(I die).
(7) *Ya’aga mofanö (We go).
That in (6) re-emphasizes the ungrammatical sentence provided in (4). Here, the
predicate is the verb Mate ‘die’. According to Brown (2001: 197), this intransitive verb should
be followed by mutated personal pronoun ndra’odo ‘I’ (in this case, mutated form of unmutated
ya’odo ‘I’) as the subject of the sentence. Besides this mutated form, it is also acceptable to use
pronominal suffix -do to replace the free form ndra’odo without any difference in meaning.
Seen from the datum, however, personal pronoun *ya’odo is used instead of the right form
ndra’odo or -do.
In sentence (7), the personal pronoun *Ya’aga ‘we’ is incorrectly used. Looking at the
verb mofanö ‘go, leave’, the only conclusion possible to draw is that it is the predicate and thus
needs a subject in mutated form. In other words, the right structural order and case of the
sentence is like that in (1) or like the grammatical versions of (4) and (6). To make this sentence
grammatical, the unmutated personal pronoun *Ya’aga should be changed into mutated
ndra’aga and moved to the end to have Mofanö ndra’aga (We go) or into pronominal suffix -ga
to have Mofanöga with the same meaning. This construction is influenced by English or
333
Indonesian structure which tends to put the subject in front of the sentence like in We go or
Kami berangkat ‘We leave’. That in (7) is only acceptable in fronting, where the subject is
moved to the beginning of the sentence, but the context where this data is used does not support
this possibility.
4. Conclusion
Linguistic loss of Li Niha in its contact with other languages covers areas such as
appropriate characters, phonology, morphology, and syntax of the language. The ones easily lost
are features that become its special characteristics; features that make Nias different from other
languages. In other words, this linguistic loss is dangerous to the existence of the language. It is
suggested that Nias native speakers try not to ignore the language special futures in their effort
to study other languages and that nonnatives who study Li Niha respect the language by trying
to write and pronounce the words appropriately.
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Exploring Meta-Pragmatic Awareness of Indonesian Learners of Japanese:
Focusing on Speech Act of Refusal by Intermediate Proficiency Students
Lisda Nurjaleka, Semarang State University
Abstract
Kompetensi pragmatik diperlukan para pembelajar bahasa untuk dapat berpartisipasi dalam
komunitas bahasa sasaran. Menyediakan pendidikan yang efisien dan efektif mengembangkan
kemampuan pragmatik sangatlah penting dalam pendidikan bahasa Jepang. “Meta-pragmatic
awareness” didefinisikan sebagai pengetahuan mengenai arti sosial dalam bentuk variabel
bahasa kedua dan kesadaran dimana bentuk-bentuk ini menandai aspek-aspek yang berbeda
dalam konteks sosial dan oleh karena itu “tekanan yang sangat penting dibalik arti dapat
menimbulkan kapasitas pada pemakaian bahasa” (Verschueren, 2000: 439). Penelitian ini akan
menyelidiki tentang kesadaran akan meta-pragmatik pembelajar bahasa Jepang orang Indonesia
berkemampuan menengah. Penelitian akan dilakukan dengan memberikan pertanyaan sesuai
kemampuan bahasa mereka dan membuat penolakan dalam situasi tertentu pada angket DCT
yang diberikan. Terdapat dua situasi yang dihadirkan bagi mereka dalam memberikan
pernyataan penolakan terhadap permintaan untuk memfotokopikan dokumen dari seseorang dan
permintaan untuk memandu mahasiswa asing keliling kota, dalam angket tersebut diberikan
batasan-batasan. Para responden diuji untuk dapat menggunakan pengetahuan pragmatik
mereka. Kami juga akan melakukan interview menanyakan alasan dibalik pemilihan ungkapan
tersebut untuk memahami kemampuan meta-pragmatik mereka. Diasumsikan bahwa
pengetahuan meta-pragmatik mengandung banyak kesalahpahaman. Selain itu responden tidak
menyadari kekurangan pengetahuan mereka pada tindak tutur bahasa Jepang dan bagaimana
memberikan ungkapan penolakan. Kami memberikan kesempatan pada para responden untuk
meningkatkan kemampuan pragmatic melalui instruksi secara eksplisit dan terorganisir.
Kata kunci: Meta-pragmatic, Tindak tutur penolakan, Strategi penolakan
1.
Introduction
Communicative, or pragmatic, competence is the ability to use language forms in a
wide range of environments, factoring in the relationships between the speakers involved and
the social and cultural context of the situation (Lightbown and Spada, 1999; Gass and Selinker,
2001). Speakers who may be considered “fluent” in a second language due to their mastery of
the grammar and vocabulary of that language may still lack pragmatic competence; in other
words, they may still be unable to produce language that is socially and culturally appropriate.
On learning foreign language, how the learners choose and use discourse on daily
communication might be different, depend on their knowledge of the social and cultural
background of the second language. This is the background of the metapragmatic research.
Smooth social interaction requires that individuals engage in continuous negotiations with other
individuals, in order to avoid or minimize social predicaments of various sorts. Refusals are
common, and yet need a high understanding between the speaker and interlocutors. Refusals are
categorized as a face-threatening act, and the possibility of offending someone is inherent in the
act itself (Beebe & Takahashi, 1985). For this reason, refusals are often regarded as strategies.
More direct the refusal, the more the threat to the person's face. Because of this risk, some
degree of indirectness usually exists (Brown & Levinson, 1978:132); the person who refuses
may need to soften the force of the refusal. To this end, making reasons to refuse are also
important for reducing face threatening. On this paper we wanted to make a connection on
language use of refusal and the pragmatic process by the Japanese language learners of
Indonesian.
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Pragmatic competence can be seen to be the understanding of that aspect of meaning
‘which is derived, not from the formal properties of words and constructions, but from the way
in which utterances are used and how they relate to the context in which they are uttered’
(Leech and Short, 1981:291). This knowledge is seen to be what is ‘required to use language
learner then in cultural situations’ (Levinson, 1979:393). The second language learner then is
now widely seen as not only requiring a target language grammar that produces target language
sentences, but as gradually ‘learning a complex network of interdependent social and linguistic
conventions concerning who may say what to whom, when, and under what circumstances’
(Rintell, 1990:75)
This paper investigates the learners ‘meta-pragmatic awareness in refusal strategies.
“Meta-pragmatic awareness” is defines as “knowledge of the social meaning of variable second
language forms and awareness of the ways which these forms mark different aspect of social
contexts. (Kinginger and Farel, 2004). This paper aims to illustrate this point by looking at the
use of a refusal formula in Japanese by learners, which includes meta-pragmatic and evaluative
comments. To the extent that such meta-pragmatic comments presuppose the speaker’s
awareness of the effects of language use and refer to canons of appropriateness (Lucy 1993: 17),
They are fundamentally meta-pragmatic (Verschueren 2004: 55,58), and this is how I will refer
these expressions throughout. Such refusal meta-pragmatic comments exemplify one way in
which speakers routinely deal with problematic talk.
By asking them to make different kinds of refusals sentences for a situation and
restriction set of opponent to measure and know their pragmatic knowledge. Then we asked the
reasons for each choice to understand their meta-pragmatic knowledge. In order to understand
their awareness of pragmatic aspects in Japanese, we also asked them to compare their own
refusal strategies in Japanese and Indonesian, and to make comments on the differences and to
analyze the reasons for them.
2.
Background of the study
The development of L2 pragmatic competence entails the ability to use a wide range of
conversational routines and discourse strategies to manage one’s communicative interactions
with others. Over the past two decades, researchers have established that a foreign language
learner’s development of various aspects of pragmatic competence may be facilitated by the
instruction of pragmatic routines and strategies in the language classroom (House, 1986, 1996;
Tateyama et al., 1997; Wildner-Basset, 1984, 1994; see also Kasper, 1997 for a review of this
literature). When such instruction is explicit, it appears to be particularly beneficial since it
enables learners to develop an awareness and understanding of the differences between L1 and
L2 pragmatic preferences, and thereby “counteract negative L1 transfer through ‘noticing’
(Schmidt, 1993) and through making attempts to use alternative, more L2 norm-oriented
expressions” ( House, 1996, p.247).
Speakers employ a variety of communicative acts, or speech acts, to achieve their
communicative goals, including Searle’s seminal broad categories – classification,
commissives, declarations, directives, expressive, and representatives – as well as more specific
acts such as apologies, requests, complaints, and refusals (Kasper and Rose, 2001). A great deal
of research has been done on the speech acts of apologies and requests, including studies by
Olshtain and Blum-Kulka (1985), Blum-Kulka and Olshtain (1986) House and Kasper (1987),
Trosborg (1987), Tanaka (1988), and Faerch and Kasper (1989) (as cited in Kasper and Dahl,
1991), as well as those by Brown and Levinson (1987), Blum-Kulka and House (1989), BlumKulka, House and Kasper (1989), Barlund and Yoshioka (1990), and Bergman and Kasper
(1993) (as cited in Kasper and Rose, 2001). Fewer studies on complaints and refusals have
appeared in the literature; Olshtain and Weinbach (1987), Beebe, Takahashi and Uliss-Weltz
(1990), Chen (1996), and Murphy and Neu (1996) represent some of this research.
Meta-pragmatics is the ability to make explicit judgments about the effectiveness,
conciseness and the relevance of social verbal and non-verbal interactions (Karmiloff-Smith,
1987)“Metapragmatic awarness is “ the ability to talk about a whole speech act or the
336
coordinates of a given speech act [and] develops later and separately from pragmatic
competence.” (Savich, 1983). “Metapragmatic awareness includes that ability to reflect on
appropriate [ ] behaviors, to judge them, and to modify and produce them in hypothetical
situations.” (Wilkinson & Milosky, 1987).
However, it is not easy to improve the skills of talking appropriately depending on the
situation. According to the previous studies, learners’ language ability in pragmatic aspects does
not necessarily improve as other aspects such as grammar, listening, or reading skills improve.
Olshtain & Blum-Kulka (1985) pointed out that pragmatic competence sometimes lags behind
grammatical competence.
This study aimed
1. to explore a meta-pragmatic awareness of Indonesian learners of Japanese.
2. to use this instrument to investigate the acquisition of metapragmatic skills in student.
Above study initiate a problem on Japanese learners with a different socio-cultural
background from its language. How they understand the concept of Japanese refusals and its
level of politeness with the limitation input and output of Japanese if it’s compare in daily Japan
situation. The Japanese learners in Indonesia are assumes that they will hard to understand that.
Furthermore, a study regarding meta-pragmatic on refusal expression that targeting Japanese
learners of Indonesian are a few. So, in this study, we will discuss further on exploring metapragmatic of Japanese learners of Indonesian, and investigating the acquisition of the expression
their use on the questionnaire.
3.
Methods
The subjects are Japanese language learners focusing Indonesian learners in Semarang
State University. We targeted the experiment to 50 students. And we have 42 students that have
been collected and filled the questionnaire. We also limited the characteristic of the student into
intermediate proficiency. The subjects are asked to fill the DCT questionnaire about refusal, and
then they will ask some question regarding the questionnaire orally. The follow-up interview
will be recorded. In this way, we hoped to get more answers than writing them down since the
subjects can response as they think and writing does not slow them down. However, because
they need to talk about their own answer later, we asked the subjects to write down the recorded
answers before moving on to the next section.
There are two steps to find the meta-pragmatic awareness among Indonesian learners.
The students were given a DCT questionnaire to measure how they react for a request and the
respond it by declining the request. There are two requests on the questionnaire.
(1) You are at the university, and then suddenly someone come to you and asks a favor to copy
some documents for him/her. You could not copy for him, because you have something to do.
What would you say in Japanese, when you wanted to refuse the favor?
(2) You are at the university, then someone come to you and ask a favor to accompany an
internship from Kanazawa University for a city tour. You could not accompany the internship,
because you have something to do. What would you say in Japanese, when you wanted to refuse
the favor?
First, please read the following two conditions carefully.
< Condition 1 > There are six settled interlocutors on the questionnaire, which are he/she is your
lecturer in Japanese department or other department lecturer’s such as general courses. He/she
is your best friend/ a friend or an acquaintance from a class, a junior from Japanese department.
<Condition 2> the reasons for the refusal can be anything. But you have to be noted that you do
not want to hurt the interlocutors feeling.
Now, please record your answers about the following questions.
① Imagine the situations and then record what you would say in Japanese in each situation.
② After recording what you would say, please prepare the reason why you answered by
those statement. We will have follow up the answer for a questionnaire by an interview.
The follow up interview will conduct in Indonesian. This part can be Indonesian
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(1)
Why did you use the expression in each situation? Please tell me what knowledge or rules
you used when answering the questionnaire. If you used different expressions in different
situation, why did you change the expression? If you used the same expression, why did
you choose to use the same one? Please make sure to include all the expressions and
situations.
(2) Please look again to the recording of your answers for the questionnaire. What would you
say in Indonesian in the same situations?
(3) Why did you use the expression in each situation? Please tell me what knowledge or rules
you used when answering the questionnaire. If you used different expressions in different
situation, why did you change the expression? If you used the same expression, why did
you choose to use the same one? Please make sure to include all the expressions and
situations.
(4) Please compare the answers you made both in Japanese and in Indonesia. Do you think the
ways to give refusal differ in Indonesia and in Japanese? What do you think are the
differences?
The DCT questionnaire 1 is to investigate the extent of the subject’s knowledge about
expressions to use when giving refusal in Japanese. The follow up interview, we asked them to
give reason for their choices, and what they think the differences in each expression, that is,
their meta-pragmatic knowledge. In question 2 and 3, the subjects are to give refusal in
Indonesian and explain the reasons for their choices. Then in question 4, they are asked to
compare the differences in their answers and make comments. By comparing their own answers,
the subjects seem to realize the characteristics of their responses better. We hoped to understand
what the subjects think of their own knowledge and skill of giving refusals in Japanese.
4.
Data and Analysis
First, all the sentences of request were transcribed and then categorized according to the
linguistic form into a scale that has been described below. The number in each category was
counted by each strategy and subcategory (linguistic form: variation). The scale used in this
study was adapted from CCSARP, a study by Blum-Kulka, House, & Kasper. (1986b), and has
been adjusted. The form of semantic formula was developed by Ikeda (2009) from Beebe
Takahashi’s semantic formula. They categorized refusal strategies into two types, ‘direct
strategies’ and ‘indirect strategies’. Semantic formula that categorized are apologize part
(Gomen nasai, Sumimasen, moushwiake arimasen), refusal imply part (chotto, ~desuga, ~kedo),
reason part (yoji/ yotei ga aru node), feelings part ( ~shitain desuga, go sasoi arigatou
gozaimasu), alternative part (hontou ni sumimasen, ~san ni doudeshouka) are included in this
order of refusal expression as its subcategories. The categories for direct and indirect will be
determined on conclusion part, for example for direct categories (ikemasen, dame desu) and
indirect categories will be determine such as ( ie ni kaeritai desu. Jikan ga nai desu. etc).
Several changes were made to this semantic formula so that it fits better to this study.
Some parts on its original were omitted from the chart because there were no hit strategies
found in this experiment. The ‘gratitude’ part and ‘expectation on the next occasion’ were
excluded as the same reason.
(1)
The total numbers and the proportion
Chart 1 shows the total numbers and the proportion of the expressions in each category,
and the used expressions and the numbers categorized into the scale. As we can see on situation
one, on the semantic formula that shows above, we can see that mostly student gives apologize
to the opponent regardless opponent their facing, and student tend to make a variation of
apologizing such as gomen nasai, sumimasen or moushiwake arimasen. But the common way of
expression on using apologize is gomen nasai and sumimasen. Gomen nasai use are rather high
up to 37 student used it.
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Chart 1: Linguistic forms for the refusal used in the expressions
Strategy
Semantic Formula (situation 2)
Semantic Formula (situation 1)
Apologize
Refusal
imply
Reason
Conclusion
Feelings
Linguistic form
(variation)
Gomen nasai
Sumimasen
Moushiwake arimasen
Chotto
~desuga, ~kedo
Direct
Indirect
~shitain desuga
used
% to total
Answers by learners
19-37
2-35
1-10
4-16
11-26
34-41
1-10
32-41
1-14
45%-88%
5%-83%
2%-24%
10%-38%
26%-62%
81%-98%
2%-24%
76%-98%
2%-33%
Variation depends on the
opponent
Lower to average student use
refusal imply
Mostly student gives reason
Most of student use indirect
refusal
Less student gives an feelings
Alternative
Hontou ni sumimasen
~san ni doudeshouka
1-7
2%-17%
Less student gives alternative
Apologize
Gomen nasai
Sumimasen
Moushiwake arimasen
Chotto
Shouryaku
19-31
2-35
5-6
5-16
11-17
34-40
4-10
32-38
4-14
45%-74%
5%-83%
12%-14%
12%-38%
26%-40%
81%-95%
10%-24%
76%-91%
10%-33%
Variation depends on the
opponent
2-7
5%-17%
Refusal
imply
Reason
Conclusion
Feelings
Alternative
Direct
Indirect
~shitain desuga
Hontou ni sumimasen
~san ni doudeshouka
Students tend to use an ellipsis expression such as chotto and ~desuga, but not mostly
student used it. As to the reason, almost 98% student has an obligation to add a reason on their
refusal expression. And on the subcategories of conclusion for the expression whether it is a
direct refusal or indirect refusal, student mostly gives an indirect refusal regardless who is the
opponent their facing. As to the variation and feelings, student much less uses the function. Less
than 14 people gives feeling regret to refuse the request on situation one.
On the situation two, is not much too different with situation one, both are the request
expression to do something. Most of the subjects us indirect refusal and mostly adding the
reason to make the opponent understand the situation why there are refusing the request.
In spite if the amount in query preparatory in total, no one used ‘gratitude’ and
‘expectation for another opportunity’ categories that has been omitted because there were no
categories found in this experiment. We can see that, the reason for the student do not gives
feeling gratitude because it is assume that this is a request expression and not oblige to gives
gratitude towards the opponent. No one used an ‘expectation for another opportunity’ categories
is because on the given situation, they were requested to do something not offering something or
an invitation expression.
(2)
Reasons for using the forms
Chart two shows the reasons for the choices that are the subject’s meta-pragmatic
knowledge. On this experiment don’t specifically asked to explain the differences between all
the variations. We examine answered from the representatives of the opponent. Some explained
the reason, saying that they don’t know the exact difference between the expressions.
Sometimes, student explained the reasons for the choice as they know the expression from the
‘kaiwa’ or ‘speaking’ class but don’t’ know the specific reason why choosing the answer.
339
Oohashi (2006) stated that
“Japanese likes to make an ambiguity statement such as” chotto kyou wa…”, because it
much less familiar in Japanese society rather than stated the specific reason. On the contrary
in English society it was a polite act to give an explanation of a reason when refusing.
“(p.60)
Here we can see that there are miss interpreted that the student knows that a statement
of ‘chotto’ is a part as a Japanese culture but student seems to not know how to use it, because
many student use both ambiguous statement an also explain the reason.
Chart 2: Reasons for the choice: meta-pragmatic knowledge
Strategy
Semantic Formula (situation 1)
Apologize
Linguistic form
(variation)
Gomen nasai
expressions
Situation, reasons, rules
Gomen,
Sumimasen
Hontou ni
sumimasen
To friends, close friends, to juniors,
to close juniors
To JPN teachers, to MKU teachers,
to friends, to close friends, to
juniors, to close juniors
To JPN teachers, to MKU teachers
Students thinks ellipsis such as
chotto and ~desuga, is a part of
refusal expression
The use of ‘reason’ are high to all
the opponent
Refusal
imply
Moushiwake
arimasen
Chotto
~desuga, ~kedo
Reason
~node
Conclusion
Direct
Indirect
Feelings
~shitain desuga
Go sasoi
Hontou ni sumimasen
~san ni doudeshouka
Alternative
Apologize
Refusal
imply
Gomen nasai
Sumimasen
Moushiwake
arimasen
Chotto
Shouryaku
Semantic Formula (situation 2)
Reason
Conclusion
Direct
Indirect
Feelings
~shitain desuga,
Go sasoi
arigatougozaimasu
Hontou ni sumimasen
~san ni doudeshouka
Alternative
Ima wa chotto,
ikitain desuga etc.
Yoji ga aru node,
jugyou ga aru node
etc
Dekinai
~san to yakusoku ga
arimasu kara
Copy shitain desuga
~san nara dou
deshouka?
Student makes indirect refusal
because they think that Japanese
does too
6 student gives feelings regret to the
Japanese teacher and MKU teacher
Less than 4 student gives an
alternate to help the opponent
Gomen,
Hontouni
sumimasen
Up to 31 student use gomen nasai
regardless their opponent and up to
35 student use sumimasen
Ima wa chotto,
ikitain desuga etc.
Students thinks ellipsis such as
chotto and ~desuga, is a part of
refusal expression
The use of ‘reason’ are high to all
the opponent
Yoji ga aru node,
jugyou ga aru node
etc
Dekinai
~san to yakusoku ga
arimasu kara
Ikitain desuga
desuga
~san nara dou
deshouka?
Student makes indirect refusal
because they think that Japanese
does too
Up to 14 student gives feeling
regret, because the chances in
reality really hard to refuse
Up to 7 students gives an alternate,
and recommend other people.
As a whole, we can see from the chart that in most cases, student do not know many
rules about how, when and why they use the expressions. However, as student can answer “I am
340
not sure” when they think they don’t know the reason, we believe student have some confidence
when they do tell the reasons.
While a few of the students understand the politeness levels of each expression and the
differences between the expressions, the data show that most of them had rather confused
understanding of them. As we can see from the chart, there are many misunderstandings, and
some of them could lead to pragmatic failures. For instance, fewer students give variation on
apologizing with ‘moushiwake arimasen’ ‘sumimasen’ ‘hontou ni sumimasen’ and ‘gomen
nasai’ to the opponent their facing. As it mentioned earlier, most of the students gives an
indirect refusal and making reason is one of the use of politer expression, however, in Japanese
society not all the expression has to make a conclusion as an indirect regards to the interlocutors
their facing. We can directly refuse to close friends or close juniors and make a politer by
adding some alternatives or giving feeling regret. We can see that as a whole, their metapragmatic knowledge is very limited, and even they have been exposed to and somewhat
learned about polite expressions, they have no acquired the skills or knowledge to produce
them.
(3)
The differences in refusal expression between Japanese and Indonesia
Finally, we asked the students what they think are the differences between refusal
expressions in Japanese and those in Indonesian. We asked the question to know more about the
student’s understanding on refusal variations and the difference in refusal making.
We categorized the answers according to the topics the students mentioned. Many
student comments that “Japanese has more variations” more indirect” or “more polite” were
made. Less student answers there is no difference between the refusals strategies in the two
languages. Far more people believe that Japanese language system itself is polite than that of
Indonesian.
Many made comments that in Japanese they can make an indirect refusal by adding
“chotto” or “~desuga” and it feels they can express the feeling by not hurting opponent’s
feeling. Many agreed that rather than Indonesian, Japanese has polite expressions which can be
used. But they still confused which expression should be used to which opponent. Regarding the
directness level, many answered “Indonesian is more direct than Japanese”, and another said
“Japanese has more roundabout way of expressing politeness,” and yet another subject said
“Japanese is more ambiguous.” They believe that in Indonesian, refusal strategies can be more
direct, and the language does not have many variations. Students adding facial expression,
prosody, voice tone etc to makes regret in a refusal expression they made.
Students seem to think that the difference in the amount in their own answers in
Japanese came from the difference of the language systems between Japanese and Indonesia,
rather than their lack of knowledge. This stereotyping can be very dangerous because not only
they may be perceived as rude persons but it may be an obstacle to acquire more metapragmatic knowledge.
5.
Limitation of the study
The subjects were given a limited opponent so they can express the answers
accordingly. This sometimes makes the subject confused due the variations of the opponent and
how they expressed it differently. On this study, we have limited the situations by only made a
refusal for a request situation, but it seems it is still too wide and need to be focused. And that
made it difficult to conclude because of many variations. Although the subjects were being
asked about the difference of the languages, it is still need to further deepen the question in the
next study.
Another point to mention is that the subjects answered only the refusal sentences they
acknowledge within class, so it is still need further investigation, whether the refusal they made
is the knowledge pragmatic they have or is there any influenced by their first language. So to do
that this study must further investigate by comparing them.
341
6.
Conclusion
The aim of this paper is to answer the question of how the learners ‘meta-pragmatic
awareness” in refusal strategies and what is the background of their answers of refusals
expressions.
The results show that the meta-pragmatic awareness of the subjects in making refusal is
generally very limited. Even without time limitation, they cannot produce many variations, and
their knowledge about the differences and how and when to use them is not often accurate.
Obviously, they do not have enough knowledge even though they have had some exposure to
the information through classes. And it still needs more knowledge to give them in the classes
for this pragmatic knowledge of Japanese.
There are some interesting results from this study. First, pragmatic knowledge they have
in classes were not balanced by the explanation of the teachers for those situations. This lead
subjects to miss interpret the knowledge for that situation. Although the middle proficiency
learners can produce appropriate refusal sentences, the subjects in this study had trouble
producing them. Through the comments on the reasons and the differences about the
expressions, we can see that they simply lack the necessary knowledge to produce accurate
refusals.
Second, many subjects seem to believe that the misinformation to be correct. Some of
the subjects said that they “learned” the misinformation at classes, and at least they believe they
did. The problem is that they do not have enough chances to correct their misunderstandings:
they do not use Japanese in their daily lives and in addition, the teachers may not correct their
mistakes in pragmatic aspects often.
Considering the fact that most of them are intermediate students and has learn Japanese
for three or more years in Japanese classes and still they lack the pragmatic knowledge because
most of classes focus on grammar etc. I feel that Japanese curriculum should do something
about the situation. We need to offer more information on pragmatic knowledge explicitly in
Japanese classes. Even Though they do know about some expressions of refusals, they cannot
produce them at all, or in appropriate ways. We should offer classes for them to organized and
explicit instruction focusing pragmatic aspects will be indispensable in order to realize the goal.
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Now Japanese or English?
Code-switching used by the intercultural couples in Tokyo
Sachie Banks, Bunkyo University
Abstract
This study investigated how intercultural couples in Tokyo use their native languages, Japanese
and English, in their communication. It aimed to understand the functions and meanings of
code-switiching in intimate relationships. Two research questions were explored: How do
couples use Japanese and English in daily communication? And how was this manifested in
their perception of each other? Participant observations were conducted at a birthday party and a
house party where multiple intercultural couples were socializing. During the fieldwork, three
married couples participated in semi-structured interviews. Triangulating the data for analysis
revealed three significant functions of code-switching: eliciting emotions, creating a “unique
code” shared only by the two and maintaining a power and identity balance, which contributes
to their intimacy. Although the couples used code-switching almost subconciously, it seemed
important that they gradually developed their own communication styles over the years. Further
investigation into the couple’s language use in a wider context should be illuminating.
Keywords: code-switching, Japanese and English, intercultural relationships
1. Introduction
This study was initiated from my personal experience and curiosity. As a Japanese
native speaker married to American husband working in Tokyo, I often socialize with
intercultural couples and always wondered how and why we employ two languages in our
interactions. Examining how languages are used and shared in intercultural couples may bring a
clue to the complexity of intercultural relationships. It is pivotal to communicate and form
successful relationships across boarders amid globalization. Ample studies, however, suggest
there are many challenges to forming close relationships beyond language and cultural barriers
(Kumamoto-Healey & Nanri 2009). Duck (1991) maintained that carefully adjusting and
adopting an appropriate communication style is critical in a close personal relationship. It is
worthwhile to pay close attention to the communication styles shared by intercultural couples,
who might have once experienced barriers, yet developed strong ties.
2. Functions of code-switching
Code-switching, ‘bilingual speakers alternating between languages in interaction with
other bilinguals’ (Molinsky 2007: 622), has attracted great attention from researchers with
various interests. According to Nishimura (1997), linguists have examined diverse aspects of
code-switching, while syntacticians have aimed to identify rules manifested within various
framework. Sociolinguists have analyzed factors provoking code-switching and its functions
and meanings. Conversational analysts have searched for correlations between code-switching
and conversational strategies (Nishimura 1997). Blom & Gumperz (1972), for instance,
identified two types of code-switching in their ethnographic study: ‘situational switching and
metaphorical switching’. The former indicates that bilinguals switch codes according to the
given context and the latter occurs when people employ unexpected language in order to convey
special meanings. Gumperz (1982) further proposed ‘conversational switching’, through which
bilinguals constantly switch languages to expand a flow of conversation.
As for Japanese and English speakers, Nishimura (1997) conducted in-depth analysis
into a community of second generation Japanese (Niseis) in Canada. She discovered that
depending on the base language, Japanese, English or mixed, individuals employ different types
of code-switching, such as borrowing of nouns or applying symbolic functions. Similar analysis
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was conducted by Azuma (1997) who studied how a group of bilingual college students in Japan
employed Japanese and English.
While a number of studies examined code-switching from assorted perspectives within
the communities, little research analyzed the dynamic of code-switching used by Japanese and
English speaking couples. Parr (2013) who examined code-switching used by romantic couples
of English and Spanish speakers revealed that code-switching played a role of expanding or
limiting their intimacy. Some couples employed code-switching to express identity, add humor
and convey ‘natural’ feelings. Investigating the language use of Japanese and English speaking
couples should contribute to a deeper understanding of roles of code-switching in intimate
relationships.
3. Design of Study: Ethnographic approach
This small-scale study employed ethnographic perspectives and strategies. Participant
observations were conducted at a birthday party (about 2.5 hours) and a home party (5 hours) in
Tokyo where both Japanese and non-Japanese people were socializing. One couple at the
birthday party and two couples at the home party participated in the semi-structured interviews.
Interviews explored two research questions: How do couples use Japanese and English in daily
communication? And how was this manifested in their perception of each other? All the couples
were working and living in Tokyo (Table 1) and are fluent in Japanese and English.
Observations were centered on the interviewed couples, particularly when they were naturally
talking and answering the interview questions. Due to the ethical considerations in festive
environments, the interviews were not recorded. However, field notes were taken during and
right after the fieldwork. The names of the couples are pseudonyms.
Couple A
Couple B
Couple C
Table 1: Backgrounds of the Participants
Names
Nationality
Years of
Dates of
marriage
Fieldwork
Aya
Japan
6.5 years May 24, 2014
Andy
Australia
Birthday party
Junko Japan
9 years
May 31, 2014
John
Ireland
Home party
Kana
Japan
4 years
May 31, 2014
Kevin U.S.
Home party
4. Findings from observations and interviews
4.1 Couple A: Aya and Andy
When I met the couple at the party, Aya said to me, ‘Hi, I’m Aya, nice to meet you’ in
English. Then she quickly asked, ‘Why am I talking in English? Nihongo de iindayone?’ (in
Japanese is OK, right?) and Andy replied ‘Yeah’. I therefore assumed that their main language
would be English. When we sat and talked, however, they said they would usually use only
Japanese to each other. There are two reasons for this. First, Aya, who works for a Spanish
organization, feels that her Spanish is stronger than English. Unless it is a special occasion, such
as meeting her in-laws, English does not come out naturally. Second, Andy learned Japanese
from middle school to university in Australia. He also studied at a graduate school in Tokyo.
After fifteen years of living in Japan, he is accustomed to talking in Japanese everyday. Here are
their ideas of how they share Japanese and English:
 We may have a high expectation towards learning and using foreign languages. When we
use a foreign language, we want to do well and we want to be perfect. So there is no need of
mixing languages or using the two at the same time.
 At an early stage of relationship, however, we did use simple Japanese and English. We
were talking in the ways (in Japanese and English), which we would both understand. For
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
example, in Andy’s Australian accent, it was difficult for Aya to distinguish ‘bought’ and
‘brought’ and he gradually adjusted.
Over the years, we have developed an idea ‘using one language properly’ is the way we are
most comfortable with. Aya thinks they are unique because she switches and mixes Spanish
and Japanese at her work and knows many other couples who constantly use two languages.
She said that it is important to maintain this sort of ‘unspoken shared understandings of our
own’ in a relationship.
Examples of code-switching witnessed in the field.
Although they emphasized that they do not use English to each other, there were some
occasions in which Aya switched Japanese to English and Andy corresponded.
 Whenever they spoke to another English speaker, such as Andy’s colleague, both of them
quickly switched to English, including the moments when they addressed to each other.
 When Aya was going to get her drink, she asked Andy ‘Do you want another one?’,
although we were talking in Japanese.
 When we were joking about Andy thinking about a woman in Kimono, Aya quickly
switched to English and made fun of Andy.
 I pointed out that they actually use English while talking in Japanese. Aya figured she was
using English probably due to the international atmosphere in the party. Then she asked
Andy ‘Do we talk in English?’ and Andy jokingly looked at Aya and said ‘Why are you
talking in English?’
Later on, Aya realized that they almost subconsciously use English when they make fun
of each other or they joke about something. For instance, she may say ‘Oh Andy’ with
exaggerating gesture of having a headache. Although she did not know why she does so, she
thought that English was good for making fun of something without being too serious.
4.2 Couple B: Junko and John
Junko first met John in his English class in her hometown in Hiroshima. Therefore, it
was natural for them to talk to each other only in English at the beginning. ‘But now we talk in
Japanese most of the time’, they noted. After nine years of marriage and John living in Japan
almost eleven years, Japanese has become the main language, although they also use English for
fun. Where they lived and how others reacted to them seemed to have a significant impact on
their communication style. They first lived in her hometown, where ‘a foreigner extremely
stood out because all the residents were Japanese’ as she described. They spoke English outside
the house because everyone would stare at John if he spoke Japanese. Meanwhile, they spoke
Japanese at home as he gradually started understanding it. When they moved to China, Junko
spoke English to hide her Japanese identity and John used Japanese to avoid someone
understanding their conversation. After returning to Japan when John started working for a
Japanese company, his Japanese dramatically improved. Now they are both comfortable with
Japanese and would talk in English only when they do not want Japanese people to know what
they say. They described their long journey of using Japanese and English as follows:
 It was always ‘fun’ using one language to another. Even though when we made severe
mistakes in English or Japanese and created misunderstandings, those were recognized as
funny episodes of our relationship experience.
 In the beginning, Junko tried to use Japanese and English depending on situation. When the
topic was easy to understand, she used Japanese for John who was interested in learning
Japanese. When she had to explain something complicated, she used English to avoid
misunderstanding and frustration. Later when John became fluent, she started talking, just
like she would do to other Japanese native speakers. In this way, our communication style
has adjusted quite a lot over the years.
 Although we usually use Japanese, we would talk in English when Junko’s brain is in an
‘English mode’. For instance, when we watch movies in English, we talk about the movie in
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




English and also say ‘Oh my God’, ‘No way’ and many others while watching the movie.
But right after that, we may switch to Japanese ‘Onaka suitane, nani tabeyoo ka’ (I’m
hungry. What shall we eat?) when the ‘English mode’ is over.
John speaks Japanese to her, even though he is extremely tired or falling asleep. But he
switches to English when he is passionate about something, such as watching football or
playing video games.
We play with languages a lot. For instance, we saw a big balloon with a Japanese sign,
which probably meant ‘blue impulse’. Since then we started saying ‘Ah tsukaretane,
impulsive sleeping shiyo (Oh I am so tired, I will sleep impulsively)’ or ‘I’m so hungry, I
want impulsive eating’.
We talk in English with Japanese accent (flat tone with emphasized vowels) for fun.
We often add Japanese ending word to our English in Japanese accent. We say, ‘We go back
home soon yo’ (yo emphasizes the statement) or ‘It’s raining soon yo’.
We switch to English when avoiding cultural misunderstanding. For instance characters in
Mario Kart are different in Japanese and English. So, we just stay with English.
Examples of code-switching witnessed in the field
 Ten people at the party played an iPhone application game. Junko explained the rules to
everyone in English for about twenty minutes. While so doing, she stopped and asked John
‘Uranaishi tte eigo de nandakke?’ (What’s uranaishi in English?). John responded in
English ‘Ah that’s fortuneteller’ and Junko said ‘Oh yeah, fortuneteller’.
 In the game, John got killed and had to leave the game. Junko was talking in Japanese to the
Japanese participant of the game, but switched to English to John ‘Do you wanna know who
the killer is?’ Then she explained what she meant by ‘knowing the killer’ in English to
everyone.
It was evident that she asked John a question in Japanese when she was thinking in
Japanese to search for a vocabulary. But she quickly switched to English, when expecting wider
audience may also want to know their conversation, as she was responsible for explain the
complex rules of the game.
4.3 Couple C: Kana and Kevin
As soon as they were asked about their communication style, they immediately said
‘98% Japanese’. Even when they first met in Osaka, Kana’s hometown, they were already
talking in Japanese. Kevin started learning Japanese in 2001 at his American university. After
living in Japan for ten years, Kevin has no problem communicating in Japanese. He even
described his personality has already become almost Japanese. So, when do they use English?
They were able to give many examples as follows:
 When we are upset, angry, tired or want other one to shut up, we use English. It is easier to
express feelings in English somehow. When we want to say something passionately, we use
English. English is a better way to say things straightforward than Japanese. It is good to
express our feelings to each other like this.
 When we are tired, we also write messages in English because it is easier.
 We talk in English in Italian accent (with an exaggerating accent of tones) for fun.
 We always talk to our cats only in English, although we do not know why.
 We often make a joke in English by citing something from American TV shows, such as
South Park or comedies.
 We create our original words by mixing Japanese and English. For instance, we call our cats
‘Nekozu’, meaning neko (cat) and English plural ‘s’. We also say ‘Suuing’, su (nest) and
‘ing’. So we say, ‘Acchi de nekozu suuing shitenne’ (Cats are nesting over there), but no
Japanese and English speakers would probably understand what we say.
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

Kana eats two sunny side eggs every morning and we call it ‘bundoru’ (bundle). Kevin may
ask ‘Kyoo, bundoru taberu’ (Are you going to eat bundle today?), although probably
nobody would understand us.
Maybe we did not have our original words in the beginning, but it has expanded gradually
as relationship had grown.
Examples of code-switching witnessed in the field
When we played the iPhone application game, code-switching frequently occurred between
Kana and Kevin. Likewise, even though the interview was in Japanese, Kevin answered in
English, when he tried to make his point.
 Kevin did not understand how to play the game at the beginning. He was saying ‘E, chotto
matte, doo yuu koto? Nikai namae o erabu tte koto?’ (Hold on, what does this mean? Shall I
choose names twice?), although he was not supposed to tell anyone what he sees on the
screen. Kana tried to explain the rules in Japanese, but got frustrated because he was still
talking loudly. Eventually, she told him ‘Shut up!’ and ‘Stop talking!’ Kevin continuously
asked further questions in Japanese. When he finally understood, he said ‘Thank you, that’s
what I was all asking!’
 During the game, when everyone passionately discussed who the killer was, Kevin told
Kana in Japanese why he was not the killer. She seemed very concentrated and asked ‘What
do you mean?’ or ‘How can I trust you?’ while talking in Japanese. The ratio of English
gradually exceeded Japanese between the two during the discussion.
 When Kevin was asked when he would use English to Kana, he answered ‘when I am upset,
angry, tired’ and ‘because English is good for expressing feelings’ in English. Other part of
the interview, such as talking about his experience of learning Japanese, he used Japanese.
Likewise, when he agreed with Kana strongly, he said ‘Oh yeah, yeah’.
5. Data Analysis
Listening to the couples and observing their communication in the fields were extremely
helpful to gain insights into their language use. In particular, it was enlightening to witness how
the code-switching described (or not described) in the interviews occurred in social situations
as situational and metaphorical switching (Blom&Gumperz 1972). It happened that all the
couples were using Japanese as a main language1. When they switched to English, they were
expecting to create the following impact: eliciting emotions, creating a ‘unique code’ shared
only by the two and maintaining a power and identity balance.
Interestingly, all of them mentioned that jokes or passions are easier to be conveyed in
English, not Japanese. Aya, for instance, pointed out English can make jokes without being too
seriously and Kevin and Kana mentioned English is good for expressing feelings. They
considered it was the characteristics of the languages, rather than their personalities. According
to Dewaele (2009), the preference of using a particular language to express emotions is related
to various independent variables, most importantly, frequency and proficiency in the languages.
My participants who used Japanese much more frequently than English, however, chose English
to express feelings because of the easiness, lightness or straightforwardness of the language.
Likewise, how to use English or not created a ‘unique code’ between the two. In the
case of Couple A, who said they would not usually code-switch, being persistent in Japanese
itself seemed to be their unique code. As Aya described, shared unspoken understanding was an
important part of their relationship. Similarly, Couple C also had shared communication style, in
which they would use only English when talking to cats. Couple B and C employed English to
“play with the language”, which can be comprehensible only for the couples. It involved
changes of the accent, combining the lexical and grammatical essence of the two languages and
1
Originally, it was planned to collect data from couples who use English as a main language as well. Due
to the schedule conflicts, data was not be able to obtained from this fieldwork.
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borrowing from one language to another. Couple B also utilized English and Japanese according
to the situations, to avoid others understanding what they say. Creating original words and
communication style unique to them might have contributed towards their intimacy.
Another finding suggests that couples’ communication styles have been adjusted and
developed through several stages. Couple A and B used to talk in the ways, which non-native
partners would understand. It was aimed to avoid misunderstandings and language burdens as
well as showing respect and consideration for the partner who is willing to communicate in the
other’s language. Couple B also modified their language use depending on how they relate to
others, which is a key concept of identity negotiation (Menard-Warwick 2008). Couple C was
mainly using Japanese from the beginning, but they developed their own communication style
through expanding their unique codes. During this process, the power and identity balance
between the two seemed maintained. One helped the other to understand his/her language and it
led them to find the most comfortable way to communicate. Overall, the direct correlation
between employing code-switching and its effect on developing intimate relationships were not
clearly identified. They sometimes switched languages almost subconsciously and struggled to
explain why or how it happens. However, the information obtained from this study revealed that
the couples have adjusted and developed their own communication styles over the years. Shared
understanding developed as a result of such negotiation seemed to play a pivotal role in their
relationship experience.
6. Conclusions and future practice
With ethnographic perspectives and tools, this study revealed that the couples, who use
Japanese as a main language, switched to English to express emotions, create ‘unique code’
shared only by the two and maintain a power and identity balance. The study was able to reveal
an aspect of communication styles, which were uniquely developed by the intercultural couples
over the years. While successful communication style should be one of the variables that
contribute to the relationship, the significance of code-switching in the intimacy building
process remained unclear. Further data collection in wider context with detailed syntactic,
lexical and phonological descriptions and comparative analysis into the couples whose main
language is English should be illuminating.
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