language behaviour

DISCUSSION

A. Description of Language Behavior
Sociolinguistics concerns with the relationship between language and society. It explains why every person speaks differently in different social contexts and identifies the social functions of language and the ways language is used to convey social meaning. We can know the way how a language works by examining the way people use language in different social contexts. In this essay, the writer is going to analyze the language behavior of each member who lives in her boarding house. There are four people who stay in one room. They are Aulia, Tya, Clorinda, and Eka. Each member speaks differently although some of them come from the same region. Therefore, we know what factors that influence their attitudes toward each language they use to communicate and the connections between their language behavior and their attitudes to the language.
The members who come from the same region, Madiun, are Aulia, Eka and Tya. Both Aulia and Tya speak Javanese language most of the time. They speak Bahasa when they talk to their friends who can’t speak Javanese or when they speak to their lecturers. Sometimes they speak by using Surabaya dialect when they communicate with their friends who come from Surabaya. Although Eka also comes from Madiun, but she can’t speak Javanese well since she was born and grew up in Balikpapan, East Borneo. In Balikpapan, Bahasa is used to communicate most of the time. She knows and speaks Javenese very little. She can understand when someone speaks Javanese, but she can’t reply it by using Javaness language. Therefore, she always speaks Indonesian although her parents are Javanese and always speak Javanese at home. In this case, she experiences language loss since she had moved to other place where Indonesian is used to communicate. The last member is Clorinda, she comes from Bangil. She also experiences language loss because since she was a child she spoke Bahasa at home. Although her parents are Javanese and stay in Bangil, they do not teach Clorinda to speak Javanese. Sometimes, she mixes the language with Bangil dialect, but she knows javanese very little. The language loss that is experienced by Clorinda is not due to moving to other place but due to the habitual in her house. The description of language behavior of each member is different, it means that the way they communicate is also different. Therefore, the writer will analyze the different language behavior of different members in the boarding house.

B. Analysis of Language Behavior
All the members in the boarding house have different languages to communicate each other and with other people around them. In the boarding house, they use both informal javanese and Bahasa each other. Aulia and Tya use formal javanese when they speak with the landlord and landlady, but Eka and Clorinda use Bahasa to communicate with them since they can’t speak formal javanese. Outside the boarding house,in the campus for example, Aulia and Tya use Surabaya dialect and Bahasa, Clorinda uses Bahasa and German since she learns German, and Eka uses Bahasa and sometimes English in the campus. Here are some conversations between the four members themselves in different places and situations with different participants.
CONVERSATION 1
Clorinda: aduh... Ya’ di kamar mandi ada siapa? Aku mau mandi nih, udah telat mau ke kampus.
Tya : wah gak tau clor. Tapi udah 15 menit gak keluar-keluar dari kamar mandi.
Clorinda: Yoh... mesti Babe nih yang di kamar mandi.
Tya : Hush.. jangan keras-keras kalo ngomong, ada ibuk kos tu.
Clorinda: Babahno... aku udah telat nih.
A language serves a range of functions, such as to ask for, give information, or express feelings. From the conversation 1, we know that language is used to express feelings. Clorinda’s way of speaking expresses anger feeling. Her utterance, ‘Yoh... mesti Babe nih yang di kamar mandi’ not only means her prediction about who is in the bathroom, but her choice of words shows that she is angry to the landlord. Her use of Babe reflects her anger feeling towards him. Compare her way of speaking with the conversation 2 below:
CONVERSATION 2
Clorinda: Ibu, saya mau pamit pulang dulu.
Bu kos : sudah libur ya mbak Clor?
Clorinda: Iya Bu. Oiya, Kunci kamar saya titipkan ke bapak tadi.
Bu kos : Iya mbak. Hati-hati di jalan ya..
Clorinda: Iya, Bu...
Her use of bapak refers to the same person, her landlord. She doesn’t use the word Babe when she talks to her landlady. In this case, Clorinda uses different words in calling her landlord depends on whom she speaks with. Her choice of bapak reflects her respect feeling to her landlady.
CONVERSATION 3
(Clorinda has just arrived in her boarding house and she calls her mother.)
Clorinda : assalamu’alaikum.... Bund, aku udah nyampek kost.
Bunda : Wa’alaikumsalam... Iya, trus di kost sama siapa?
Clorinda : Arek-arek bund.
Bunda : iya. Rindu cepat istirahat.
Clorinda : Iya bund. Udah ya bund. Assalamu’alaikum..
Bunda : Ya wes. Wa’alaikumsalam.
(Aulia datang menghampiri Clorinda)
Aulia : hei Clor, mana jajannya yang baru pulang kampung?hehe..
Clorinda : Jajannya Capek Ul, mau ta?
Aulia : Whoo... Dasar!
(tiba-tiba teman kuliahnya Clorinda lewat di depan kos)
Lia : Hai.. Orin... sudah datang ya?
Clorinda : Iya Li’. Mau kemana?
Lia : Mau beli maem. Duluan ya Orin... Daaa....
Language provides a variety of ways of saying the same thing such as a person who has more than one names which are called by people. In the conversation 3, Clorinda is called by different names. Parents often call their children by a variety of names depending on how they feel. Clorinda is called Rindu by her mother in most circumstances. The word Rindu reflects the mother’s affectionate feeling towards her. Her roommates call her Clor most of the time. However, outside the boarding house, especially in the campus, her friends call her Orin. Those explain why people say the same thing in different ways.
CONVERSATION 4
Clorinda : Maaf, Frau Prita.. saya mengganggu sebentar.
Frau Prita : Ja, sitzen sie bitte (Iya, silahkan duduk.)
Clorinda : Frau Prita, tugas semantik dikumpulkan sebelum UAS atau sesudahnya?
Frau Prita : Iya saya hampir lupa. Silahkan anda kumpulkan sebelum UAS Semantik. Tolong beritahu teman-teman yang lain.
Clorinda : Danke für deine Informationen. (Terima kasih untuk informasinya.)
Frau Prita : Das macht nicht. Ich vergesse mich. (Tidak apa-apa. Karena saya yang lupa)
In this example, social dimensions influence the linguistic choice. The status scale points to the relevance of relative status in some linguistic choice. The choice of Frau which means Mrs in English signals that the lecturer has a higher status and entitles to a respect term. Some parts of the conversation between Clorinda and Frau Prita uses German. There is code mixing in the conversation because Clorinda wants to accustomize herself to speak German language with the lecturers in the campus.
CONVERSATION 3
( Aulia’s mother is calling her. This conversation happens in the phone.)
Aulia : Assalamu’alaikum... Bu, mbenjeng ajeng ujian.
Ibu : wa’alaikumsalam.. iyo nduk, sinau sing sregep.
Aulia : Inggih buk... Niki kalian bayar SPP.
Ibu : piro SPP ne?
Aulia : 506.500 buk
Ibu : Iyo nduk, sesuk isuk karo ibuk neng pasar tak kirimi
Aulia : Inggih buk, matur suwun.
Ibu : Iyo nduk. Engki nek wes tekan, ibu dikabari. Lan sing ati-ati, sinau sing sregep.
Aulia : Inggih buk, Assalamu’alaikum
Ibu : Wa’alaikumsalam...
CONVERSATION 4
Pritha : Au, ntar ngerjain tugas ya?
Aulia : Gak bisa mbak!
Pritha : Lha kenapa loh?
Aulia : Ntar mau diajakin Tya keluar
Pritha : Oh gitu. Yaudah deh, besok aja ya!
Aulia : Ok, sorry ya!



CONVERSATION 5
(this conversation happens in the phone between Aulia and her friend, Pipik)
Pipik : Halo Li’, koen lapo kok gak mlebu kuliah?
Aulia : Aku tangi kawanen Pik, lha wong jam 7 ket tangi. Trus arek-arek sms wes onok dosene. Yowes, males aku.
Pipik : aku yo ora mlebu kok Li’.
Aulia : Lha lapo lho?
Pipik : Kenek macet.
Aulia : Oalah podo ae yo gak mlebu. Hahahahaha
Pipik : hahahaha... Eh wes Li’, ayo diterusne tugase.
Aulia : oh iyo Pik, jange lali...
The components which influence people’s language choice are the participants, the setting, the topic and the function. Those explain why people don’t all speak the same way and don’t speak in the same way all the time. Aulia is a javanese girl who speaks informal javanese language most of the time. Sometimes, she uses formal javanese when she talks to older people, especially her parents. Like in conversation 3 above, Aulia speaks javenese to communicate with her mother by phone, not only when she is at home. Besides, she speaks Bahasa with her friends in the campus because most of her friends can’t speak Javanese. However, conversation 5 shows that Aulia also speak Surabaya dialect to her friends who come from Surabaya. From conversation 3,4 and 5, we know that Aulia is called by different names. Her mother calls Aulia as nduk,her friends in the campus calls her Au, some of them call her Lia and she is called Aul in the boarding house.
CONVERSATION 8
Tya : Ka’... kamu punya plester luka gak? Lututku berdarah waktu sepak bola tadi, piye iki?
Eka : Ada Ya’, ku ambilin di kamar, sek yo?
People sometimes switch code within a domain or social situation. A code switch may be related to a particular participant or addressee. A speaker may similarly switch to another language as a signal of group membership and shared ethnicity with an addressee. For example, both Tya and Eka switch the language from Indonesian to Javanese. Tya uses ‘piye iki’ and Eka also says ‘sek yo’ because they want to share ethnicity as a signal of the same Javanese people. The switches are very short so that it is called emblematic switching or tag switching.
CONVERSATION 9
Tya: Ka, tolong koreksiin tugas Bahasa Inggrisku donk!
Eka: Mana ku liatnya dulu, eh... kalimatnya yang ini gak salah ta? Kata sweep harusnya ada ‘s’nya. Jadi inget pesannya dosenku Ya’. Kata beliau, ‘Don’t corrupt S!’
Tya: oiya to? Aku kan gak terlalu ngerti Bahasa Inggris, hehehe...
Another example of code swiching is when a speaker switches code to quote a person. In the conversation above, Eka switches the language from Indonesian to English since she wants to quote her lecturer’s statement, it is ‘Don’t corrupt S!’.
CONVERSATION 10
Penjual: Monggo-monggo mbak, sampean mlebet.
Eka : Iya ibu, terima kasih.
Penjual: ada yang bisa saya bantu mbak?
Eka : Saya mau beli sepatu pantovel hitam ukuran 4o, ada Bu?
Penjual: Ada mbak. Ini sepatunya. Harganya 100 ribu.
Eka : Iya Bu, saya ambil yang ini.
Eka who speaks Bahasa most of the time, can not use javanese although she understand what the seller means. When the seller knows that the customer can’t speak Javanese, the seller switches between Javanese and Indonesian to make a transaction between seller and customer. The topic of this code switch is ‘shoes trade’. The seller switches code so that the customer understand what she said and the trade process can be successful. Discussing a particular topic can be one of the factors why people switch code.
From all of the conversations, we can conclude that Languages provide a variety of ways so that people can say the same thing in different ways. People usually switch or mix code for certain purpose when they communicate with others. Therefore, all members who live in the same boarding house will speak differently depending on the social factors such as participants, settings, topic, and function.