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CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter is focused on the three research questions in the problem formulation. The first part explores the communicative functions in the graduate
students’ conversation. The second part discusses the functions of phatic communication. The third part presents the ways or the typical conversation styles
the graduate students use language differently related to the communicative functions or functions of phatic communication.
A. Communicative Functions
The communicative functions found in the graduate students ’ conversation
in English language studies of Sanata Dharma University in batch 2015 were in the form of utterances. The utterances were expressed variously depending on
topics and contexts, hence communicative functions might be various. In this point, the graduate students expressed their feelings and thoughts, but they might
not perform all communicative functions. The analysis shows that the graduate students performed eighteen out of
twenty-two communicative functions. They produced avoiding the silence when talking, expressing listening noises, changing the topic of conversation, agreeing
on something, joking, mentioning names or titles, giving compliments, parting, saying bad words, mocking, greeting, thanking, expressing wishes, pacifying,
encouraging, sympathizing, and apologizing to open conversation. To get the details, the present researcher provides the distribution of communicative
functions arranged in the following table. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
Table 4.1 Distribution of Communicative Functions
No. Communicative Functions
Frequency Percentage
1 Avoiding the silence when talking
589 58.0
2 Expressing listening noises
251 24.7
3 Changing the topic of conversation
40 3.9
4 Agreeing on something
30 3.0
5 Mentioning names or titles
16 1.6
6 Giving compliments
16 1.6
7 Joking
15 1.5
8 Parting
13 1.3
9 Saying bad words
10 1.0
10 Mocking
10 1.0
11 Greeting
8 0.8
12 Thanking
7 0.7
13 Apologizing
2 0.2
14 Expressing wishes
2 0.2
15 Pacifying
2 0.2
16 Encouraging
2 0.2
17 Sympathizing
2 0.2
18 Apologizing to open conversation
1 0.1
19 Commenting on something obvious
20 Interrupting
21 Congratulating
22 Criticizing indirectly
Total 1.016
100 Table 4.2 describes that more than half of communicative functions shows
avoiding silence when talking. It can be seen that the frequency is 589 reaching 58.0. It is assumed that the graduate students were trying hard to sustain
conversation by always giving response. Meanwhile, the rest were not found in conversation because the contexts were not suitable for such communicative
functions. It can be assumed that contexts might be influential in performing communicative functions. To know the detailed analysis, it has been provided the
interpretation of several conversation representing the communicative functions of phatic communication. The following is the discussion of each communicative
function. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
