Excerpt 29 1 A : ro ho tu pesta nami da?
come you to party our ok? ‘wouild you come to our party?’
2 B : pesta aha? party what?
‘what party’
3 A : muli itokku. muli ito hu
married sister my ‘my sister is going to get married’
4 B : olo, ro pe au. .
yes, come T I ‘I’ll come’
The expected response to A’s invitation is realized as preferred though it is not coming immediately, as preceded by an AP of question-answer. It is not because of the
practice of the repair pairs in line 2 and 3 the base SPP occurs. However, in TBL conversation a preferred response to invitation for a party is commonly followed by
giving an invitation card to the person being invited. Even when invitation card is not given the response would be the preferred regardless of whether or not the invited
person attend the party.
4.1.1.6 Accusation-denial
In general accusation in TBL is responded by denial. Although the person accused really did something wrong heshe will never admit it or make an apology. Put
another way, an apology is not explicitly expressed in Toba Batak conversation. If
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there is an admission there would be a counter-reason to weaken the accusation. That is why there is no a word for apology in TBL. The data in excerpt 30 and 31 show how
accusation-denial operated.
Excerpt 30 1 A : hoen namarmeami do ho.
only to play T you. ‘you just keep playing’
2 B : ido, alai satongkin. ido, alai satokkin
yes, but a moment ‘yes only a moment’
Excerpt 31 1 A : torus ho tarlambat.
torus ho tarlabbat always you late
‘you are always late’
2 B : boa baeon, dao do jabukku. how to do, far T house my
‘what to do, my house is far away’
3 A : antong kos ma ho. attong kos ma ho
so board T you ‘so you’d better stay in a dorm’
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From excerpt 30 it is shown that B in line 2 responds in a preferred first before launching the dispreferred. For the situation above A has the right to accuse or blame B
as they are brother and sister. Eventhough it is hierarchial that a brother is superior, anyhow, B as a sister has admitted her doing wrong in case of her counter reason. This
means that B wants to hold her face or prestige. In excerpt 31, the dispreferred response in line 2 is assessed by A by a proposal
for B to stay in a dorm so that she will not be late anymore. An assessment always occurs in third position as a minimal post expansion. This occurance with a
dispreferred base SPP which is not able to close needs a post expansion, that is, the closing third sequence. A has a manuever here to dilute the dispreferred response of B,
as what is expected is the preferred over dispreferred. So the post sequence in the case is not only for closing but it is made as place to dilute the disagreement as dispreferred.
The FPP speaker for accusation-denial expects the preferred response as proved by the third closing sequence, whereas the SPP speaker always respond in a disagreement or
dispreferred. According to Sinwongsuwat 2010, when a minimal post expansion fails to
achieve closure or is not chosen alternative, non-minimal expansion occurs. The base SPP is neither taken to be the end of the sequence nor followed by sequence-closing
third. What follows is the continuation which not only serves to expand the sequence itself, but also to project further increment to the sequence, and the added turn serves as
SPP projecting further turns, as shown in excerpt 28 previously mentioned.
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4.1.1.7 Compliment- AcceptanceRejection
