A CONVERSATION ANALYSIS OF DISPREFERRED SOCIAL ACTS IN JUMPING THE BROOM MOVIE

Abstract

This research aims to (1) describe the types of dispreferred social acts, (2) identify the ways of performing dispreferred social acts, and (3) analyze the functions of dispreferred social acts performed by the characters in Jumping the Broom movie. This research employed descriptive-qualitative approach. The data were in the form of utterances spoken by the characters in  Jumping the Broom movie. The context of the data was in the form of dialogues taken from the transcript of the movie. The primary instrument of the research was the researcher herself helped by the movie transcript and data sheet. The researcher employed note-taking technique to collect the data. In analyzing the data, the researcher employed content analysis technique. The trustworthiness of the data was conducted through triangulation by referring to relevant theories and asking to two supervisors and three linguistics students as triangulators and peer reviewers. The result of the research can be stated as follows. First, there are six types of dispreferred social acts performed by the  characters in  Jumping the Broom movie, namely (1) request-refusal, (2) offer-rejection, (3) assessment-disagreement (4) question-no or unexpected answer, (5) blame-admission and (6) command-rejection. From those six types of dispreferred social acts, the dispreferred social acts of request and question are the main types of dispreferred social acts which are regularly performed by the characters in this movie. The relationship among the characters which is not fairly good is being the main reason why some characters prefer to perform the dispreferred response rather than the preferred one. Second, there are twelve realizations of dispreferred social acts performed by the characters in  Jumping the Broom movie. Those realizations are occurred in marked (mitigated) and un-marked (unmitigated) forms. Yet, the marked (mitigated) form is the best realization of the dispreferred social acts since it is regarded as a politeness strategy to minimize the face threatening act. On the other hand, the un-marked (unmitigated) form is considered less polite than the marked one. Referring to the findings, giving an account and using token yes are considered as the best realizations which are normally used by the characters in this movie as strategies to show their appreciation to the first speaker’s utterances. Third, there are twelve functions of dispreferred social acts found in  Jumping the Broom movie. All those functions are categorized based on the situational context in which the conversations are produced. Among the twelve functions that have been presented in the findings, it can be seen that the characters usually perform the dispreferred response to show the speaker’s unwillingness or inability to perform a preferred action and criticize the first speaker’s utterance which is considered as an impolite or a rude utterance. Those functions appear as a result of the speaker’s personal reason and also the first speaker’s impoliteness in the first pair part.

Kata Kunci
Conversation Analysis, Dispreferred Social Acts, Jumping the Broom