TITLE:
Towards a Character Language: A Probability in Language Use
AUTHORS:
Jumanto
KEYWORDS:
Verbal Interaction, Politeness, Camaraderie, Social Distance, Object Language, Metalanguage, Character, Language Use, Probability, Rude Situation, Awkward Situation, Character Language
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Modern Linguistics,
Vol.4 No.2,
June
5,
2014
ABSTRACT: This opinion paper
is about a probability in language use, about how a competent speaker should be
aware of speaking for politeness or for camaraderie, and be capable of avoiding
impoliteness. The main aspects of pragmatics are briefly introduced and then
elaborated as building-blocks ofcharacter
language. The proposed building blocks are: 1) elaboration of meaning and
form strategies, 2) distant languageand
close language strategies, 3) politeness and camaraderie strategies, 4)
object language and metalanguage strategies. A view on character language in
Indonesian context is given, on how politeness, camaraderie, and impoliteness
are elaborated; and then, six phases ofcharacter
languagebuilding are proposed as a verbal social project: 1) interaction
phase, 2) teaching-and-learning process phase, 3) evaluation phase, 4)
re-evaluation phase, 5) verification phase, 6) selection phase. Upon the
completion of a character language building, a competent speaker is presumably
well-equipped for using language in a particular situation that may call.