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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter provides three parts of discussion, namely literature review, related studies, and theoretical framework. The first part serves the related
theories of this present study. Meanwhile, the second part presents the relevant studies related to the topic discussion. The third part focuses on how the theories
answer the research questions of the study.
A. Review of Related Theories
This part consists of three points related to the topic of this study. They are communication, the concept of phatic communion as phatic communication,
phatic functions, and women and men’s conversational styles. The followings are
the discussion of each point.
1. Communication
Language is used as a means of communication in which people exchange feelings or thoughts. Burton, Déchaine, and Vatikiotis-Bateson 2012:21 argue
that using language to communicate is called as expression of language. It is considered that human language has design features reflecting its function as a
vehicle for communication. Burton et al. 2012:21 mention four ingredients needed in a
communication, namely users, a message, a code, and a signal. It can be simply described that users transmit messages by encoding the messages into a signal.
Those four ingredients have several design features of human language as listed in table 2.1.
Table 2.1 Design Features of Human Language
Ingredient Design Feature
Users Specialized
Interchangeable Sensitive to feedback
Interactive
Message Meaningful
Productive Displaced from the here and now
Code Discrete
Arbitrary Hierarchical
Signal Modality-specific
One-to-many broadcast Directional reception
Rapid fading
Source: Burton et al. 2012:22 The first ingredient is as users a sender and a receiver with four design
features, namely specialized, interchangeable, sensitive to feedback, and interactive. Being specialized means that users use speech specialized for
communication, like the lungs and the vocal tract. Being interchangeable means that users are able to send and receive messages. Being sensitive to feedback
means that users monitor and adjust their production as needed. Being interactive means that users learn the use of language by interacting with other users.
The second ingredient is a message that needs to be meaningful, productive, and displaced from the here and now. Having meaningful message can specify
meaning of the language use as the design feature of semanticity. Being productive means creating new messages since the human ability has to do with
the ability to generate new descriptions and give new information. Therefore, this ability deals with the design feature of productivity. Being displaced from the here
