Avoiding the Silence when Talking
Socrates : Oh Uhm. What the FUCK is idiomatic
Mello : Hmm. Look at that man Look at that guy
Socrates : Oh That Oh Looks like a bad guy. Ap123-25
The utterance Look at that man Look at that guy indicates that Mello tried to change the topic of conversation. Mello saw a person near them and asked
Socrates to see the man. Before changing the topic, Mello still tried to give a simple response to the previous topic
. It shows that he might respect Socrates’ feelings.
The next couple, Sri and Maria, also applied the expression of changing the topic of conversation. The expression is intended to know more information about
something. The following is the example of the conversation. Excerpt 8
Context : Sri and Maria talked about food with peanut sauce,
especially batagor. Maria
: = How about siomay?
Sri : Siomay? Not really big fan of it as well. Ap321-22
Based on the data, at first, Sri commented on the food, Batagor. She explained the reason. Then, Maria tried to change the topic by giving the question
How about siomay?. This expression is lead to a new topic in order to get to know Sri’s reason for the other food with the peanut sauce, especially Siomay.
Similarly, the other couple, Al and Esti, expressed changing the topic of conversation. The expression is to get more information about the acquaintance.
The conversation can be explored in the following excerpt. Excerpt 9
Context : Esti and Al introduced themselves, and they asked
about the class they had chosen and the origin. Esti
: Oh So, Al…so, Al…where do you come from? =
Actually? = Al
: = Ehm…= I come from…ehm…Central Java = PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
and how about you? Ap613-14
Excerpt 9 shows that the expression of changing the topic of conversation is where do you come from?. The expression used by Esti is to move to another
topic. The data said that they introduced themselves and asked about the class they had chosen. Then, Esti tried to change the topic by asking Aan’s origin since
the present researcher assumes that they probably did not know each other well.