The conversation is performed by Shonda and Sebastian when they are in Sabrina and Jason’s wedding rehearsal. Sebastian who is attracted to Shonda tries
to grab her attention. Unluckily, Shonda always avoids him to show that she has no interest to date a very young man. In her response, Shonda gives an account as
a joke that she does not want to be caught by police because of dating with a young man. It is performed as she attempts to maintain her social relationship so
that the dispreferred response does not impose her relationship with Sebastian.
k. To Shows that the First Speaker’s Utterance is Unnecessary to be Uttered
or Responded
In Jumping the Broom, there are some absences or irrelevant responses performed by the characters. Those absences are usually performed to show that
the first’s speaker utterance is unnecessary to be uttered or responded. The example of this function is demonstrated as follows.
Mrs. Watson : Are there no phones on the island? Geneva
: Claudie.
Datum no. 19 In the first part of the dialogue, Mrs. Watson asks Geneva whether there
are no phones on the island as she does not response to the invitation. As the preferred response, Mrs. Watson expects that her question will be answered by a
relevant answer. Instead of answering Mrs. Watson’s question with an expected answer, Geneva calls Mrs. Watson’s name to show Mrs. Watson that the question
is unnecessary to be answered. It appears as Mrs. Watson has already asked too many questions. In other words, the dispreferred response is performed to show
that the first speaker’s utterance is unnecessarily to be answered.
The conversation takes place in a hallway of Sabrina’s house when Sabrina and Mrs. Watson get ready to greet Jason’s family. After they open the
door, Geneva, Sabrina’s aunt, surprisingly arrives without making any confirmation before. It makes Mrs. Watson asks many questions about the reason
why she does not response to the invitation. Finally, Geneva asks Mrs. Watson to stop the question as it is unnecessary to be answered.
l. To Invoke the First Speaker’s Understanding of a Certain Circumstance
or Reason. The last function of the dispreferred social acts is to invoke the first
speaker to understand a certain circumstance. This function generally occurs when a speaker performs dispreferred social act by appealing for understanding in order
to attract the first speaker’s sympathy or understanding. The following example is presented to give further description about this function.
Willie Earl : Yall dont do the Electric Slide? What yall do, the
Riverdance or something? Sabrina
: No, Willie Earl. Its just so cliche, you know. They do it at the end of every black wedding, and we just...
Datum no. 30 This datum shows an occurrence of dispreferred social act of a question
which is performed by appealing for understanding and giving an account. This dispreferred social act is performed by the speaker to invoke the first speaker’s
understanding of a certain condition or reason which influences the occurrence of dispreferred social act. In this context, Sabrina intends to invoke Willie Earl’s
understanding about the reason why she cannot perform both Electric Slide and Riverdance which are expected by him.
