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that of pranatacara as one way to promote language awareness of Javanese in particular and the application of linguistic theory in researches.
1.1.1 Reasons for Taking up the Topic
One reason for taking up the topic is that the pranatacara genre is as I have outlined above, unique in its lexico-grammar in which lexical items are well-selected,
mostly from the highest speech level and not normally used in daily communication. However, such a genre is only used in formal wedding receptions as a means of
preservation of culture heritage. The use of the unique form of the Javanese language will give a special flavor to the wedding event as if it were the wedding of the Javanese
royal family prince and princes. A lot of metaphors, personification, and many other figures of speech are used in this genre as shown in the following example.
Bangke’ane hanawon kemit tandha yenta prigel ulah kridhaning asmara lan tansah bisa nuju prana mring
kakung. Asta nggandhewa dhenta yenta beksan bisa gawe gregeting pria. Ananging saksampunipun ginarwo pria
sagetha sedaya punika namung kagem keng raka. Prasetyono 2003:152
The quotation above can be literally translated as follows:
Bangke’ane hanawon kemit tanda Her hip bee-like kemit indicating that
prigel ulah kridaning asmara lan skilful in engineering the work of romance and
tansah bisa nuju prana mring kakung always can arouse the interests to male.
Asta nggandewa denta; yenta beksan
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Her arms are similar to two-bows; when dancing bisa gawe gregeting pria.
can create the interests of sex of males. Ananging saksampunipun ginarwo pria
But after being married to man sageta sedaya punika namung kagem keng raka.
hopefully all those only for her husband.
and the free or dynamic translation goes as follows:
Her hip is like that of a bee, an indication of having skillful love-making performance and always being able to
sexually satisfy the man. Her arms are like two bows of which the strings are being pulled, and thus arousing the
men’s libido when dancing. However, after this moment of marriage, all of these are hopefully presented to her only
husband.
Unfortunately, only very few guests at the wedding event know the message or description presented by the pranatacara and they may, therefore, smile a little bit due
to understanding the message. The message is actually good for the newly wedded couple, that is to be loyal to the spouse. Meanwhile, other guests may be just busy talking
among themselves while enjoying the meals or snacks and take no attention to the pranatacara’s messages.
Another reason is that it is a bad thing that such a high value of literary genre of the Javanese language starts to be neglected or forgotten especially by the young Javanese
generation although it is somehow a must in their formal wedding receptions. When the
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Javanese language is well-cultivated and developed, it can accommodate the need for communication at any occasion—romantic, sacred or some other possible situations.
Still another reason is that Javanese is getting least attention even by its native speakers. Teguh Supriyanto 2006 labeled it as ‘hidup segan mati tak mau’ being
neither alive nor dead. The Javanese language is still alive with all its limited use. It is dead in the sense that most Javanese people are not interested in the study of its
literature, vocabulary, grammar, norms of speech, writing system, and calendar system. However, it is a good thing that the Government of Central Java has launched the
teaching program of the Javanese language at schools of all levels elementary to high schools. Moreover, as of February 2006 there has been an International Mother Tongue
Day. This is to fight against the negative impact of globalization era. In the teaching and learning of Javanese as a vernacular, most students think that
it is a difficult subject. Research Fathur et al. cited in Supriyanto 2006 indicates that Javanese people of 50 years of age or above cling to using Javanese at rural or urban
areas. Meanwhile, only 72 of 30-49 year old people use Javanese in rural areas, and 28 use mixed language in urban areas. The worst thing is that only 18 of Javanese
people of below 30 years of age use Javanese in the urban areas. In addition, the Javanese family 83 living in the urban areas does not use Javanese at home among family
members including children of below 5 years of age. Even if they do use Javanese, they use it in the lowest speech decorum. In other words, they do not use the correct and
acceptable form of Javanese. The problem of Javanese teaching and learning lies in almost all areas of teaching
domains: methodology, materials, teachers, and students’ motivation. Supriyanto 2006 suggested that the focus of Javanese teaching and learning be on communicative
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performance in different speech levels of Javanese, rather than focus on vocabulary memorization such as names of flowers, animals, and so on.
The good news is, nevertheless, that Javanese is not anymore considered to be a local content of the curriculum Sunoto, 2005. Thus, there is no reason for not offering
Javanese lessons at schools. Even there is an indication that there are only few Javanese teachers Suara Merdeka Cyber News of February 17, 2006. Most of the Javanese
teachers are those native speakers without majoring in Javanese teaching. Therefore, I am highly motivated to investigate this type of discourse, namely
that of a wedding ceremony of the Javanese tradition focusing on the use of the pranatacara’s Javanese language in terms of interpersonal meaning.
1.1.2 Reasons for Taking up Interpersonal Meanings
