An Analysis of Condolences Speech Act by Indonesian Adolescents

DOI

10.2991/assehr.k.200406.008How to use a DOI?

Keywords

condolences strategy, face-threatening act, politeness, power and distance, speech act

Abstract

This study aims to identify strategies in condolence expressions and explain the effect of power and distance on the choice of condolences strategies used by 20 Indonesian adolescents at the age of 11 to 19 years old. The study was employed by using a qualitative descriptive method. In the form of discourse completion task (DCT), the data were analyzed using Elwood’s (2004) classification of condolences strategies and Brown and Levinson’s (1987) theory of politeness. Based on 20 condolence expressions for each given situation, the findings reveal first, seeking absolution from God and expression of sympathy appears as the dominant strategy used by the respondents with 27.3% and 26.9% occurrences respectively, followed by future-oriented remarks (18.1%), an offer of assistance (12.3%), expression of concern (7.5%), related question (6.6%), and acknowledgment of the death (1.3%). Moreover, the finding also shows that variation in strategies of condolence expression appears to be motivated by the factors of the relationship. In more distant relationships, the respondents use lower risk strategies, while those who involve in a closer relationship would choose strategies of higher risk. The findings of the study indicate that the collectivistic norms and religious background of respondents can strongly affect their strategies choices in expressing condolences.

Copyright

© 2020, the Authors. Published by Atlantis Press.

Open Access

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/).

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Diah Nurlianingsih
AU  - Ernie D. Ayu Imperiani
PY  - 2020
DA  - 2020/04/09
TI  - An Analysis of Condolences Speech Act by Indonesian Adolescents
BT  - Proceedings of the Twelfth Conference on Applied Linguistics (CONAPLIN 2019)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 34
EP  - 38
SN  - 2352-5398
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/assehr.k.200406.008
DO  - 10.2991/assehr.k.200406.008
ID  - Nurlianingsih2020
ER  -