The conversation produced by the couple of females, Hayu and Star, shows another way of expressing empathy. One of them produced the expression of
sympathizing. The example of the conversation can be illustrated in excerpt 68.
Excerpt 68 Context
: Hayu shared her feeling about her class with new friends in education stream.
Hayu : But then, ehm…it’s not – I’m – it is not that I’m
underrating this class or trying to be judgmental, but = You know sometimes when you’re not with the people
that understand your nature = And you’re being foreign
= Star
: = Hmhm = Hmhm = It must be difficult. Ap418-19
Based on the context, it can be interpreted that Hayu shared anything about her feeling. Star tried to understand what Hayu felt if she were her. The
expression produced by Star includes empathy because she could imagine what Hayu handled was not that easy to cope with.
11. Expressing Respect or Deference
This function shows one’s respect to each other. Expressing respect might
be used for people who do not know each other well Scollon and Scollon, 2001:54. Schriffin 1994, on the other hand, expressing respect is for a person
with a higher status. This function includes expressing wishes, congratulating, agreeing on something, apologizing, thanking, giving compliments, criticizing
indirectly, joking, pacifying, encouraging, and sympathizing Jumanto, 2014:11- 13.
It has been found that expressing respect was found in the couple of a male and a female student’s conversation. In this point, Al and Esti were as new
students and they did not know each other well. Therefore, they produced several phatic expressions to express respect to each other. The result indicates that 3
utterances or 0.3 were to achieve this phatic function. One of the examples is as follows.
Excerpt 69 Context
: Al and Esti talked about their occupation. Al
: BIPA. That’s = Yeah That’s Indonesian Program for Foreigners. So, if you say that I yeah. My expertise
is in Indonesian, how to teach Indonesian for foreigners.
And…but for how to teach English for Indonesian is… yeah…I never have. That’s I – I expect that my – my
– my job now can help me to improve my English. =
Esti : = That’s great = So, what about the learning
teaching activities going on in BIPA class? Ap644-45
Excerpt 69 describes that Al explained more about himself, especially his occupation. He told Esti about his expertise in teaching Indonesian for foreigners.
Esti was so astonished that her new friend was a teacher for BIPA. She gave compliments That’s great to sho
w expressing respect for Al’s amazing occupation.
C. Women and Men’s Conversational Styles
The conversation produced by each couple has several different conversational styles. Actually, the conversational style differences are based on
