3. Creating Harmony
This function aims to keep the conversation being cool. Cheung and Ma 2011:145 state that c
reating social harmony refers to “a healthy relationship among people in society”. In other words, this function shows good relationships
among others by using certain expressions. The phatic expressions involved in creating harmony are expressing wishes,
congratulating, agreeing on something, apologizing, thanking, giving
compliments, criticizing indirectly, saying bad words, and joking Jumanto, 2014:11-13. All graduate students created harmony using different expressions of
phatic communication. It has been found that there were 51 utterances or 4.7. The finding shows that the conversation produced by Socrates and Mello is
to create harmony. Those students used the expression of agreeing on something. The conversation is illustrated in the following excerpt.
Excerpt 47 Context
: Mello and Socrates started gossiping someone near to them.
Mello : Hmm. Look at that man Look at that guy
Socrates : Oh That Oh Looks like a bad guy.
Mello : Yeah. Ap124-26
The conversation shows that Socrates made gossip about someone. Socrates stated his comments and Mello responded
Socrates’ expression by saying Yeah. This means that Mello agreed what Socrates thought. The expression produced by
Mello was to create harmony in order to make the conversation run smoothly. Likewise, the couple of females, Sri and Maria, expressed phatic
communication to create harmony. In this case, one of them created harmony by giving surprise. The excerpt of the conversation is as follows.
Excerpt 48 Context
: Sri asked Maria where she usually practiced singing. Maria
: It’s at my home. So, I have a little studio = at my home. = Sri
: = Okay. = So sweet Ap348-49
The conversation explains that Maria told Sri about the place where Maria had singing practice. Maria said that she had a studio in her house. The expression
produced by Sri showing the function of creating harmony is So sweet. It can be interpreted that Sri was quite surprised and gave compliments in order to create a
nice situation in conversation and to show good relationship. In addition, the couple of a male and a female student, Socrates and Rose,
also created the function of creating harmony in different way. One of the ways was by joking. The example of the conversation is in the following excerpt.
Excerpt 49 Context
: Socrates and Rose talked about their activities on the day before.
Rose : Yesterday, ehm…after finishing the…what is it…
seminar, and then I went to my boarding house, and
then after that I slept, until maybe 8 o’clock. Socrates
: You slapped whose face? Ap58-9
The data shows that Rose told Socrates about her busy day on the day before. Socrates was pretending that he caught the word slapped instead of slept.
After that, he tried to make a joke by saying You slapped whose face?. The expression produced by Socrates can be considered as creating harmony because
it is to avoid the intense situation in the dialogue.
4. Making Gossip
This function aims to talk about one’s life in informal contexts and is
supposed to be women’s world. Holmes 1992:331 states that women like to talk PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
about one’s private life without involving the third person. Bergmann 1993, quoted in Tracy, Ilie, and Sandel 2015:700 mentions three stages of making
gossip, namely opening, content, and closing. Based on the data, the present researcher found that the couples of male
students liked gossiping. The result shows that there were 29 utterances presenting 2.7 as the expressions of gossiping. The analysis of each stage can be described
as follows.
a. Opening
In creating gossip, it requires a way to open gossiping. The way of opening gossip is various based on the context. The excerpt of the conversation of the
couple of male students, Socrates and Mello, can be seen in excerpt 50. Excerpt 50
Context : Socrates and Mello talked about their
assignments and impressions of certain subjects. Mello, then,
moved to another topic. Socrates
: Oh Uhm. What the FUCK is idiomatic Mello
: Hmm. Look at that man Look at that guy
Ap123-24 In the above, it can be stated that Socrates and Mello still discussed about
something. Suddenly, Mello probably kept an eye on someone and asked his friend, Socrates, to look at that person. In this case, Mello tried to open a topic,
especially for gossiping someone. The other couple, Aan and Mello, also used another way of opening gossip.
One of them felt annoyed with the campus policy related to the sports facilities in campus. The following is the excerpt of the conversation.
Excerpt 51 PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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