Vol. 5, No. 12, December 2024
E-ISSN: 2723 - 6692
P-ISSN: 2723 - 6595
http://jiss.publikasiindonesia.id/
Journal of Indonesian Social Sciences, Vol. 5, No. 12, December 2024 3300
KEYWORDS
ABSTRACT
Monologue; Javanese;
Ngangkataken Ulem; Krama
Inggil
Every situated text is modified by the social forces in its particular
context. The present study examined the context of a Javanese
monologue text in a case study of ‘Ngankataken Ulem’ speech. This
study is interested in analysis the generic components of the speech
to determine the communicative purpose and to know the linguistic
repertoire in use of the speech. Data were collected through
observation, unstructured interviews, and document analysis.. As
the result, it could be concluded that ‘Ngangkataken Ulem’ speech
used krama inggil that was the highest level of politeness in Javanese
language as its linguistic choice. The aim was to respect and to
persuade the addressee, hopefully they were able to fulfil the
invitation.
Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-SA 4.0)
Introduction
Monologue speech is kind of purposeful text which is an important part of an event because it
will explain what situation will occur. Every situated text is modified by the social forces in its
particular context. Various frameworks in sociolinguistics have linked language use to context and
culture. The context of this study is Javanesse tradition that still often apply in their daily life, for
example ‘Ngangkataken Ulem’ in my village Dusun Kretek, region of the West of Ungaran. It is the first
thing which has to be held before the wedding event. Then culture is another important aspect which
affects language and plays a significant role in a community. Those aspects are embedded in situation
is that they carry out some communicative purpose - which is the key concept in the genre.
Literature Review
Monologue text
Hutchby and Wooffitt (2008) characterization of monologue as "long uninterrupted stretches
of talk" is implicit in their analysis of monologue passages. They suggest that self-repair and insertions
are indicative of audience design or anticipation of potential criticism by the interlocutor, and can be
used analytically instead of another interlocutor's reaction. Addition, Mindt (2008), offers an
alternative definition of monologue as a form of discourse situated at one extreme of a continuum,
with dialogue representing the opposite extreme. This approach enables the identification of
distinctive features of monologue by leveraging a model proposed by Koch and Oesterreicher (1985),
Sociolinguistic Aspects in Javanese Monologue Speech: A Case
Study of ‘Ngangkataken Ulem at Dusun Kretek, Ungaran’
Veny Nur Aini
Poltekkes Kemenkes Semarang, Indonesia
Email: [email protected].id
Correspondence: [email protected]
*
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who differentiate between speech of closeness and speech of distance (‘Sprache der Nähe’, ‘Sprache
der Distanz’ [translation Mindt 2008]), where the former comprises “dialogue, turn-taking, the people
talking to each other know each other well, face-to-face interaction, free choice of topic, private and
spontaneous communication, strong involvement of discourse participants” (Mindt, 2008, p. 1509),
and the latter “monologue, no turn-taking, people talking to each other do not know each other,
communication partners are not present, a set topic, public and planned communication, low
involvement of discourse participants” (Mindt, 2008, p. 1510). Mindt thus adopts this speech of
distance as a marker of monologicity. This section has given a brief overview of research on
monologue Javanese speech which to find out the movement of the monologue genres.
Discourse and Genre
As Badger (2003) observes, the most salient aspect of the manner in which texts are embedded
in a given context is that they serve a communicative purpose, which is the fundamental concept
underpinning genre. This communicative purpose is derived from the context in which the text is
utilized. Consequently, genre can be defined as a discernible communicative event, distinguished by
a set of communicative purposes shared among its constituents.
These generic forms have been selected and developed over centuries by participants in a
particular community to codify their repeated social practices, as these practices are closely related
to their culture. This has led Devitt et al. cited in Badger, (2003, p. 257), to assert that genre and
situation are so linked as to be inseparable; genre determines situation in the same way as situation
determines genre.
Contemporary discourse regarding the term "genre" in the field of sociolinguistics suggests that
its usage pertains to a sociolinguistic activity in which participants are able to achieve particular
objectives (Henry & Roseberry, 2001). Vergaro (2004, pp. 187–188) asserts that, from a social
perspective, the defining characteristic of genre is its communicative purpose. She elucidates that the
recognition of genre as a social action by its users is paramount. She asserts that the meaning of a text
is not inherent in the signs it contains, but rather, it is constructed by individuals through cognitive
processes (Keegan et al., 2023). Consequently, there are cognitive factors that motivate users of a
language to recognize communicative events as instances of specific genres and to assign particular
terms, or labels, to these events.
To understand how the invitation genre organizes and articulates the communicative purpose
of the social occasion, a genre analyst needs to take into account the social practices and constraints
that give rise to each individual genre.
In discourse of genre, there is a term Homely discourse. It is a term which refers to a genre of
socially constructed text of discourse, such as 'thank-you notes', 'congratulations', 'obituaries', and
'invitations'. And this monologue Javanese text which would like be analysed is belong to invitation
constructed text.
Sociolinguistic aspects
Culture constitutes an additional pivotal element that exerts an influence on language and plays
a substantial role in homely discourse. As previously mentioned, homely discourse pertains to
everyday language, which exhibits variation across different cultures. While there are recurring
elements that are transmitted from text to text in "homely" discourse and other genres, each situated
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text is nevertheless modified by social forces within its specific context. Various frameworks in
sociolinguistics have established a correlation between language use and context and culture.
Choosing the language used
Based on the sociolinguistic study, there are two factors that influence in choosing the language
used. They are social factors and social dimensions (Holmes & Wilson, 2022). Firstly, social factors have
been relevant in accounting for the particular variety used. Some relate to the users of language. The
setting or social context (e.g. home, work, school). The aim or purpose of the interaction (informative,
social) is important in affecting linguistic choice. And there are more components which influence the
linguistic choice (Kurt, 2022): (1) The participants: who is speaking and who are they speaking to;
(2) The setting or social context of the interaction, where they are speaking; (3) The topic: what is
being talk about; (4) The function: why they are speaking. Secondly, social dimensions which consist
of components are useful to take account of our different dimensions for analysis which relate to the
factors above and which have been only implicit in the discussion. The components are: (1) A social
distance scale focus with participant relationships; (2) A status scale focus with participant
relationships; (3) A formality scale relating to the setting or type of interaction; (4) Two functional
scales relating to the purposes or topic of interaction.
Javanese culture
Javanese language itself becomes centre of the local cultural concept of Javanese people. The
concepts of greeting, jobs, or art system. Javanese language is the mother tongue of Javanese people
who live over there. Especially in Central Java, DI Yogyakarta, and East Java Province. Like other
language, Javanese has its geografic dialect varieties, such as Banyumas, Tegal, Yogya-Solo, Surabaya,
Samin. There is always its own norms in every speech community. What a speaker needs to know to
communicate appropriately within a particular language community (Saville-Troike & Barto, 2016).
In Javanese for example, there is a term that is called speech levels, that is, code to convey
politeness which contain of certain vocabularies, certain syntax, certain morphology and also certain
phonology. Speech levels in Javanese are ngoko, krama madya, krama. Every level has its vocabularies.
Therefore, in Javanese there are vocabularies for ngoko speech, krama madya speech, and krama
inggil speech.
Soepomo Pudjosoedarmo (1979) give additional statement that vocabularies in Javanese is not
only the three of them, but also involves krama inggil, krama andap, and krama desa. The words choice
in ngoko represents impoliteness, krama madya represents politeness (respect) but in a middle level,
krama inggil and krama andap represents the highest respect, and for krama desa represents respect
but it is not in a standard form.
According to Geert, one of etiquette of Javanese is andap asor, that is, take humble action and it
must be practice to others who have higher age or status because of politeness. They usually use
krama for communication. They do not use ngoko. They use krama are to take the humble action and
respect to others in a same time. The respect direct to people who have higher status or older or
newcomers, or asking for request to someone which is like contained in invitation text such in
‘Ngangkataken Ulem’ speech.
Ngangkataken Ulem
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‘Ngankataken Ulem’ is the first thing which has to be held by the bride’s parents before the
wedding event. It is a spoken invitation that has monologue speech structural text. The function of
this text is to announce the wedding event and to invite closer neighbors before the holder of the
event spread the wedding cards to others who live far from neighborhood. This phenomena still
happen in my village, that is, in Dusun Kretek, sub-district of West Ungaran.
Objectives
Based on the background to the study and research context I explained before, this study
proposed the following questions: First, what is the communicative purpose of the speech? Second,
what is the linguistic repertoire in the speech? Therefore, this study is interested in analysis the
generic components of the speech to determine the communicative purpose and to know the
linguistic repertoire in use of the speech.
The novelty of this study lies in its detailed exploration of 'Ngangkataken Ulem' within the
sociocultural context of Java, specifically its role in preserving politeness strategies through linguistic
choices like krama inggil. Unlike prior research that has broadly categorized sociolinguistic
phenomena, this study provides a focused analysis of how specific cultural traditions influence
language use and social interaction. By doing so, it contributes to the literature on genre analysis and
sociolinguistics, particularly in understanding the interplay between language, culture, and social
norms.
Furthermore, this research contributes to the broader discourse on preserving linguistic
diversity and cultural heritage. It provides a framework for analyzing other culturally specific speech
genres, highlighting their potential to inform both linguistic theory and practical applications. For
example, the findings underscore the importance of context-sensitive communication strategies that
can be applied in education, intercultural communication, and sociolinguistic research. This study not
only enriches the theoretical understanding of genre and discourse but also serves as a call to
preserve and adapt traditional linguistic practices in contemporary settings.
Research Methods
This research is descriptive research with a qualitative approach, Which is intended to provide
an overview and explanation of the social life of street children. The research informants were street
children around Bawakaraeng Street, Jalam Veteran, and Independence Pioneer Street, which were
taken by Accidental Sampling: observation methods, unstructured interviews, and documents carried
out data collection. Researchers are the main instruments in conducting research, which is assisted
by observation guidelines, interview guidelines, and documents. The techniques used in data analysis
are data collection, data reduction, data presentation, and conclusion drawing.
Results and Discussion
The generic structure and Communicative purpose of Ngangataken Ulem text
This was as the result of analyzing the move structure of the text. And from those move
structure, it could be also analysed the pragmatic function which its communicative purpose was
achieved as follow:
Table 1. Communicative purpose
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Move order (generic
structure)
Communicative
purpose
Utterances
Greeting
Salam Pambuka
Greeting
Assalamualaikum
Sugeng ndalu...
sugeng rawuh...
Bapak-bapak saha pinisepuh
Opening
Purwaka
Apology
Thanks to God
Nyuwun pangapunten...
Ngaturaken puji syukur...
Content
Isi
Announcement
Invitation
Badhe ngemah-ngemahaken... Dinten Sabtu, 27
Agustus 2018 wonten dalemipun Bp.Bambang.
Panjenengan sedaya kula aturi angrawuhi...
Closing
Wusana
Apology
Greeting
Bilih wonten atur inkang mranani, mugi
panjenengan sedaya paring gunging samodra
pangaksami.
Wassalamualaikum.
Sociolinguistic aspects affect the linguistic choice
This section described how the sociolinguistic aspects influence the language choice in the
speech. It had been analysed into aspects as below:
Firstly, the social factors. These were the elements with each information that give illustration
of the situation of ‘Ngangkataken Ulem’ happened.
Table 2. The elements with each information that give illustration of the situation of
‘Ngangkataken Ulem’ happened
Information
The speaker was the father (or can be
representative person) of the bride.
The addressee were adult close neighbors (bapak-
bapak se RT).
The interaction took place at home of the holder
event in the evening. The speaker spoke among
adult people who had to be respected.
Wedding invitation
To announce and to invite the addressee or the
hearers who came at home and the others who
were still live in a close area.
Secondly, the social dimensions. There were four scales in social dimension: a social distance, a
status scale, a formality scale, and two functional scale actually (Holmes & Wilson, 2022). But since
this research only wanted to find out the level of politeness of the speech, so it only analysed the
formality scale as follow:
Table 3. Criteria
level
Criteria
examples
High formality
Using Krama Inggil
Panjenengan, Inggih punika, dalem
Formal
Using Krama inggil and
Krama madya
Panjenengan, Inggih menika, panggen
Informal
Using Krama madya
Sampeyan, ingkang menika, griya
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Low formality
Using Ngoko
Kowe, Sing iki, omah
Table 4. Findings
Language choice
Frequency
Precentage
Krama Inggil
112
94 %
Krama madya
8
6 %
Ngoko
0
0 %
120
100 %
Based on the criteria and findings, the scale of formality in ‘Ngangkataken Ulem’ speech could
be illustrated as follow:
Figure 1. the scale of formality in ‘Ngangkataken Ulem’ speech could be illustrated
Thus, by looking at the findings above, it could be concluded that ‘Ngangkataken Ulem’ speech
used Krama Inggil that was the highest level of politeness in Javanese language as its linguistic choice.
The aim was to respect and to persuade the addressee, hopefully they were able to fulfil the invitation.
Conclusion
The present study examined how sociolinguistic aspects influence the generic structure, the
communicative purpose and the linguistic repertoire in use of the ‘Ngangkataken Ulem’ speech. The
developed framework was able to describe this Javanese monologue speech in social factors and
social dimensions.
From the description above, it could be concluded that the communicative purpose of this
speech was to respect and to persuade the addressee, hopefully they were able to fulfil the invitation.
Then, the speaker here used krama inggil as the language choice or language use in speech because
of the formality and politeness as the reflection of the culture in Java.
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Hopefully, this research is able to increase the awareness of the readers of our culture especially
krama inggil. Since it is as our heritage in doing politeness strategy. Thus, our next generation must
still have krama inggil in their linguistic repertoire.
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