SPEECH ACTS IN “PEPONGOTEN” AT GAYO
WEDDING CEREMONY
A THESIS
Presented to English Applied Linguistic Program at Graduated Program of UNIMED in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the
Degree of Magister Humaniora
By :
SALMAN R
REGISTER NUMBER 082188330066
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful whom he
would like to express his sincere gratitude, Allah the almighty who has given him
blessing health, strength and patience in the process of completing this thesis on
the title Speech acts in “Pepongoten” at Gayo wedding ceremony as a partial
fulfillment of the requirement for the Degree of Magister Humaniora at the
Postgraduate of English Applied Linguistic State University of Medan.
He would like to express his special deep appreciation and gratitude to the
following persons:
Firstly, the writer would like to express his gratitude to his advisors Prof.
Dr. Lince Sihombing, M. Pd and Dr. Eddy Setia, M. Ed TESP for their generous
assistance, guidance, advice, and precious time they spent on supervising the draft
on this thesis.
Secondly, the writer also would like to express his gratitude to the head of
English Applied Lingusitic Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M. Pd and his secretary Dr.
Anni Holila Pulungan, M. Hum and Farid who have assisted him in processing the
administration requirement during the process of his study in the postgraduate
program. All the lectures of the English Applied given their valuable knowledge
to him in their lectures.
His beloved parents M. Rusli. S and Siti Murliah and also his
Rahmatdi Sastra Dinata and all his family. They have given their full appreciation
for him during the finishing touch of last but not least the writer also thank to all
of his friends: Marudut Sitanggang, Sukirno. Safaruddin Marpaung, Sardon,
Ilham, Mandra Saragih, Sri Ningsih Brutu, Juniar, Datu Lina Ginting, Tuti, Anim
that have given their support and shared their friendship.
Medan, Mei 2012
The writer,
ABSTRACT
Salman R. Speech Acts in “Pepongoten” at Gayo Wedding Ceremony. A Thesis: English Applied Linguistic Post Graduate Program State University of Medan. 2012.
This study deals with speech acts in “Pepongoten” at Gayo wedding ceremony. The data was taken from informants and video recorded of the Gayo wedding which was taken directly from Sebuku Inen mayak and Sebuku Ine in Pepongoten. Besides, some books of Gayo wedding ceremony were used to complete the data. The method of the research is qualitative descriptive. It gives description about the speech acts used in Pepongoten at Gayo wedding ceremony. The analysis of this research was data collection, data reduction, data display and at last data verification. The findings show that there were four types of speech acts used in
Pepongoten. The types are indicated as expressive, directive, representative and
ABSTRAK
Salman R. Speech Acts in “Pepongoten” at Gayo Wedding Ceremony. A Thesis: English Applied Linguistic Post Graduate Program State University of Medan. 2012.
Penelitian ini berjudul Tindak tutur dalam “Pepongoten” pada acara perkawinan Gayo. Data dalam penelitian ini diperoleh secara langsung dari para informan dan rekaman video tentang Sebuku Inen mayak dan Sebuku Ine dalam Pepongoten pada perkawinan Gayo. Selain sumber data di atas, peneliti juga memakai beberapa buku tentang perkawinan Gayo untuk melengkapi data yang diperlukan dalam penelitian ini. Metode yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah qualitative descriptive. Dengan pendekatan penelitian qualitative descriptive, penelitian ini mendeskripsikan bagaimana Pepongoten digunakan dalam perkawinan Gayo. Untuk menganalisa data yang telah terkumpul digunakan tahapan reduksi data, penyajian data dan verifikasi data. Hasil temuan dalam penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa ada empat tipe dari tindak tutur yang digunakan dalam Pepongoten. Ke empat tipe dari tindak tutur tersebut adalah
expressive, directive, representative and tipe tindak tutur declarative. Sedangkan
fungsi dari tindak tutur yang digunakan dalam Pepongoten adalah convival,
competitive and fungsi tindak tutur collaborative. Cara pengungkapan tindak
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ... 1
1.1 The Background of The Study ... 1
1.2 The Problems of Study………6
1.3 The Objectives of Study………..6
1.4 The Scope of the Study ... 6
1.5 The Significance of The Study ... 7
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Speech acts……….8
2.2 Types of Speech acts………..18
2.3 Function of speech acts………...21
2.3 The way of Performing Speech acts………..22
2.4.1 Direct Speech Acts………..22
2.4.2 Indirect Speech Acts………...23
2.4.3 Literal Speech Acts……….24
2.4.2 Non-Literal Speech acts………..24
2.5 Marriage in Gayonese………25
2.5.1 Gayonese wedding steps……….26
2.5.2 Gayonese cultural Values………31
2.5.3 Pepongoten in Gayonese wedding ceremony……….33
CHAPTER III METHOD OF RESERACH
3.1 The Research Design……….39
3.2 Data and Data Source……….40
3.2 Technique of collecting data………..40
3.3 The instrument of study……….40
3.4 Technique of analyzing data………..41
3.5 Technique for establishing trustworthiness of the data………….42
CHAPTER 1V DATA ANALYSIS 4.1 The Data and Data Analysis………..45
4.2 Findings……….61
4.3 Discussion……….63
CHAPTER V CONCLUSSION AND SUGGESTIONS 5.1 Conclusion………67
5.2 Suggestions………68
REFERENCES ………70
LIST OF TABLE
Table 4.1 Moves of Type of Speech Acts in Pepongoten………59
Table 4.2 Moves of Functions of Speech Acts in Pepongoten………60
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix 1. The Realization of Types of Illocutionary Acts in Sebuku Inen Mayak…….73
Appendix 2. The Realization of Types of Illocutionary Acts in Sebuku Ine………..76
Appendix 3. The Realization of Functions of Speech Acts in Sebuku ni Inen Mayak…...80
Appendix 4. The Realization of Functions of Speech Acts in Sebuku Ine………..84
Appendix 5. The Realization of Way of Performing Acts in Sebuku Inen Mayak……….89
Appendix 6. The Realization of Way of Performing Acts in Sebuku Ine………..93
Appendix 7. The Transcription of Pepongoten Inen Mayak ………..97
Appendix 8. The Transcription of Pepongoten Ine……….98
Appendix 9. The Transcription of Sebuku Munenes Inen Mayak………..99
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1The Background of the study
Gayo is an ethnic (minority ethnic) live in Aceh. The terms of Gayo has
three meaning, they are urang Gayo (Gayonese), the land where they live is
known Gayo or tanoh Gayo, and basa Gayo (language that they use). In
spreading,this ethnic spread to some areas in Aceh. This spreading influences for
the naming of this ethnic later, such as Gayo Lut, Gayonese who live in Central
Aceh and Bener Meriah regency. Gayo Deret; live in Isaq (one of Islam Kingdom
in Aceh), which is part of Central Aceh regency. Gayo Lokop or Gayo Serbejadi,
live in Serbejadi Subdistrict, East Aceh. Gayo Kalul, in Pulo Tige, Aceh Tamiang
regency. Gayo Belang, live in Belang Kejeren, Gayo Lues regency. Gayo Alas
live in Aceh Tenggara regency. And, Gayonese who live in Betung, Nagan Raya
regency, and in Aceh Barat Daya regency.
Thus, this ethnic spreading to eight regencies in Aceh. They also leave
their home area to live in some areas in Aceh, to outside of Aceh, and abroad. The
amount of Gayonese less of 500.000 peoples.
Gayo residents of homeland villages and towns employ three criteria to
identify someone as a Gayo person (urang Gayo): birth to Gayo parents,
language, and religion. Anyone born of two Gayo parents is said to be Gayo.A
person with one Gayo as his or her first language also is unambigiously Gayo.
Language choice thus selects for ethnic identity when parential identity is mixed.
(usually Javanese, Acehnese, or Chinese), even if they speak fluent Gayo, are not
considered to be Gayo. Finally, Islam is a necessary feature for inclusion in the
category of Gayo person.
Gayo defines the life-cycle in terms of four debts that parents owe their
children. The four debts begin, not with birth (which goes without public
recognation), but on the seventh day after birth, when the baby is brought down to
riverside to be introduced into the natural and cultural words and is named. The
second debt is education, which once meant instruction in Qur’anic recitation but
has come to be interpreted more broadly to include schooling in the Indonesian
system. The third debt is circumcision of a boy at about age five or subincision of
a girl at one or two. These rituals mark the child’s entry into the status of being a
full Muslim and are often reffered to locally as Islamization. The fourth and final
Gayonese life-cycle is to prepare their son or daughter to get married.
In this life-cycle, particularly at wedding ceremony, the Gayonese using
ritual speaking as they called basa edet. The ritual speaking at Gayonese wedding
ceremony classified into three kinds; Pepongoten (ritual wailing), Melengkan
(ritual speaking), and didong pengerjen (sung poetry).
In wedding ceremony, Gayonese speaks of the norm that governing social
life as their culture “edet”,” Gayo edet” or Adat in Malay, a word that means
variously apropriate, norms, or traditions. In this speech everythings or what they
want to say is always expressed in poetic words and it is done indirectly. It has
deep structure and deep meaning. Poetic here means the structuring quality of
how poems involved simultaneous patterning on the planes of sound, sense, and
syntax. The performance involves the strategic use of intonation, pauses, and
sometime turn-taking between performers and interchanges with listeners. The
features of songs, speeches, or stories contribute to their overall messages.
In real communication, there are levels of speech that is usually done by
people. The levels of speech used depends on how and in what situation where the
interaction happen. Indeed, level of speech used by Gayonese at wedding
ceremony as formal situation will be different from the level of speech used by
Gayonese in informal situation.
There are three levels of speech context, from the biggest to the smallest;
they are speech situation, speech event, and speech acts. Speech acts in this
situation is a part of speech event, and speech event is a part of speech situation.
Speech situation is as “a situation related to speech”. Speech situation is “ a
situation related to or not action” (Yuyun:2005). For instance; Ceremony,
Warring, Eating, Making love.
Speech situation itself is not study of speech role, but it can refer to
speech role as context. Speech event is as communicative, and it is related to the
role of usage act. While speech act is part of speech event, and speech event is
part of speech situation. There for, speech acts is a set of the smallest level, but
it is very interesting to be analyzed because speech acts may have a form as long
sentence, short sentence, or just as a morpheme but has the deep meaning. For
In this way, the pragmatic competence as the ability to perform speech
acts should be mastered in different types of speech acts, such as representative,
directives, commisives, expressives, verdictive and declaratives. Further more
Illocutionary act has social function such as competitive, convival, collaborative
and conflictive.
Speech acts as one of pragmatics is mainly concerned with a theory, which
analyzes the role of utterances in relation to the behaviour of speakers and hearers
in interpersonal communication. It is not ‘an act of speech’ in the sense of Parole,
but a communicative activity (Ilocutionary act) defined with references to the
intention of speakers while speaking; the illocutionary force of their utterance, and
the effects they achieve on listeners (Perlocutionary effect of their utterances).
Furthermore, the way people communicate is different. It depends on its
own culture. Each culture influences the way its people talking. Brown (1999:165)
describes these : ‘A language is a part of a culture and a culture is a part of
language. In other words, culture and language are inseparable. Related to
Gayonese culture, they have a unique way performing utterances particularly at
wedding ceremony. It is called Pepongoten and in Pepongoten they utter the
utterances in poetic words and has deep meaning. The way of performing the
utterance in Pepongoten performed by indirect and non-literal way of performing
act. It based on Gayonese cultural values in making communication, should be in
polite in speaking and respect to the elder in communication.
Pepongoten (ritual wailing) is a Gayonese edet in wedding ceremony.
name for contain of utterance. Pepongoten means meratap in Malay. In
Pepongoten all of utterances are used in poetic words and has deep meaning.
Mother and her daughter speak while they crying. Pepongoten as a medium to
expresses thanking, apologizing, agreeing, asserting, asking, demanding and
permitting between a mother and a daughter before the daughter get married.
Today, Pepongoten is rarely found in Gayonese wedding ceremony. It
caused by many of them don’t know how to perform it. So, the effect of it for the
Gayonese youngsters, they don’t know the Gayonese role in communication in
formal in informal event.
There are some reasons for choosing the Gayonese speech acts as the
object of the study. First, this speech community is renowned for indirections in
their linguistic behaviour in wedding ceremony. Second, Gayonese is a minority
ethnic in Aceh. And the third, the Gayonese has different ways in speech acts
between daily utterances and at wedding ceremony.
Studies focus on speech acts in Gayonese Pepongoten only at wedding
ceremony. Pepongoten is one of cultural values in Gayo wedding ceremony. To
make Gayo culture exists, the researcher feels important to conduct the study on
the use of speech acts at Pepongoten in Gayo wedding ceremony, because by this
research common people and new generation will understand the meaning of
1.2The problems of the study
How the utterance of speech acts used by Gayonese in Pepongoten at
wedding ceremony. In this case, will be shown how the speech acts performed by
Gayonese in Pepongoten at wedding ceremony :
1. What type of speech acts are used in Pepongoten at Gayonese wedding
ceremony?
2. What are the functions of speech acts used in Pepongoten at Gayonese
wedding ceremony?
3. How do the Gayonese use speech acts in Pepongoten at Gayonese
wedding ceremony?
1.3 The objective of the study
In relation to the problems, the objectives of the study are find out:
1. types of speech act used in Pepongoten at wedding ceremony.
2. function of speech act used in Pepongoten
3. the way of speech act used in Pepongoten by Gayonese at wedding
ceremony.
1.4The Scope of the Study
In Gayo wedding ceremony there are several steps and one of them is
Beguru. In Beguru exists Pepongoten as a medium to communicate between
mother and daughter before she gets married. The utterances are used in
uttered in poetic words and has deep meaning as advice of how to conduct her life
after she gets married. In this case the study is limited on speech acts particularly,
focuse on types of speech act and function of speech acts that are used at Beguru
step of Pepongoten at Gayonese wedding ceremony.
1.5 The Significance of the study
Findings of the study are expected to be significantly relevant
theoritically and practically. Theoritically, the researcher assumes that the
research finding will be useful for :
1. Lectures in teaching sociolinguistics, they can use this research result to
enlarge their knowledge about the kinds of speech acts that is used in
Gayonese wedding ceremony especially in Pepongoten.
2. Youngsters of Gayonese to have a better understanding about speech acts
in Pepongoten due to the position Gayo as a minority in Aceh.
Practically, this research will be useful for :
1. other researchers who will conduct the relevance study, this will be very a
useful aid.
2. those who are interested in using Gayonese wedding ceremony to be
applied to their own marriage.
3. Gayonese to maintain Gayo’s culture from the extinction by practicing the
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions
After analyzing the data and describing all the types of speech acts used in
Pepongoten at Gayonese wedding ceremony there are some conclusions drawn
such following:
1. The type of speech act used in Pepongoten at Gayonese wedding ceremony
are indicated as directive, representative, expressive and declarative.
Pepongoten used as a medium in communication between mother and
daughter in Gayonese wedding ceremony. The utterances in Pepongoten
express thanking, questioning, requesting, permitting, declaring, affirming,
describing, and explaning performing act.
2. The functions of speech acts used in Pepongoten are indicated to competitive,
convival, collaborative functions. The three functions above used by the
mother and the daughter to express thanking, questioning, requesting,
permitting, declaring, affirming, describing, and explaning performing act.
3. The way of performing acts used in Pepongoten at Gayonese wedding
ceremony indicated indirect way performing act and non-literal way
performing act. Those way of performing act related to Gayonese cultural
value. The value is politeness value that reflected on representatives and
expressives. This is suitable with Gayo term called as jema si be tutur jeroh,
berarti jema mu agama, mu edet, dan mu peraturen. (one who speaks in
person knows about the rule of communication and interpersonal relationship.
By using a good language and in the right context, social relationship will be
harmonious. Another of Gayonese cultural value are Friendly, respect the
older/respect each other value was reflected on directives.
4. The unique finding, Pepongoten is done by the daughter and the mother only.
father just be listener and he doesn’t talk to his daughter. The father just keep
silent and listen of what the daughter and the mother utterance. It is related to
Gayonese cultural value that children must be closer with their mother
because a woman obligation is to take care of and educate their children and
father’s obligation to fulfil what they need in daily life. In Gayonese known si
kuet ken penemah, si bijak ken perawah (who is strong be a leader, who is
fluent be a spokesman)
5.2 Suggestions
It is suggested to those who concern with Gayonese culture to learn about
the use of speech acts used in Pepongoten at Gayo wedding ceremony since the
strength of culture should be maintained as the very characteristic of a tobe Gayo.
in this case The suggestions are as the following:
1. to parents who has daughter, they should understand how to perform
Pepongoten because it is a part of Gayonese culture and has moral value.
2. to young generation of Gayo they ought to continue this tradition in
wedding ceremony some day in order to keep the Gayonese culture from
3. to the other researchers it is suggested to do more research about Gayo
wedding ceremony from different emphasis so more information about the
use of speech act on Pepongoten at Gayo wedding ceremony in order not
only Gayonese can understand the meaning of speech act that is used in
Pepongoten at Gayo wedding ceremony but also the other people of non
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