Opening Making Chit-Chat or a Relatively Unfocused Conversation

in closing chit-chat. It can be found that he used the words, I guess as hedges. This expression is to soften Aan’s statement in closing the conversation. Likewise, the couple of female students, Sri and Maria, closed the conversation politely. The expression of hedging was also found to close chit- chat. The conversation is illustrated in the following excerpt. Excerpt 45 Context : Sri intended to close conversation because she was hungry. Sri : Okay. Ehm…I think I have to go home now because I’m really starving. [laughing] Maria : [laughing] Oh Ap3128-129 The data shows that Sri closed the conversation by expressing I think I have to go home now. It explains that Sri was very hungry and she would like to be home quickly. In addition, Sri’s statement is also considered as polite manners. It is because Sri used the words, I think as hedges in order to soften her statement. The couple of a male and a female student, Al and Esti, also used another way of closing the talk. The use of certain words or phrases can be as a sign of closing conversation. The following is the excerpt of the conversation. Excerpt 46 Context : Esti and Al had to attend a lecture at three in the afternoon. Esti : By the way, it’s 3 pm already. = So, we have to – = We have to be in the class. Al : = Ah = We have to move = Okay. Ap655-56 Excerpt 46 shows that Esti ended the conversation by seeing the time. In this case, Esti and Al had the afternoon class at three. Therefore, Esti said By the way, it’s 3 pm already…We have to be in the class. showing that the time for having chit-chat was over. Esti and Al had to be in the class soon.

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.