A SYSTEMIC FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS ON JAVANESE POLITENESS: TAKING SPEECH LEVEL INTO MOOD STRUCTURE

Abstract

Speech level is an important aspect in Javanese grammar. It is just like, among others, tenses in English. Thus, the involvement of speech level in any study of Javanese grammar is highly necessary. On the other hand, speech level must also be studied the grammatical point of view. So far, however, there are very limited numbers—if any does really exist—of grammatical study on Javanese speech level. Most major studies on Javanese speech level are of sociolinguistics, lexical taxonomy or grouping, and prescriptive analysis. It is probably due to the idea of speech level as merely a social phenomenon has been taken for granted. Therefore, taking the speech level system into a grammatical analysis seems hardly possible. It is assumed that the seemingly impossible attempt comes only to the formal approach of the grammar study tradition for it has neglected the social aspect. Hence, it is necessary to look for an alternative grammatical approach which is able to cope with the speech level both grammatically and socially. A particular approach of grammar which involves social context is systemic functional grammar (SFG). SFG proposes that language has three kinds of functional component. One of them is the interpersonal function. This function sees language as an interaction between addresser and addressee—language is used for enacting participants‘ roles and relation among them. The interpersonal function is expressed through a particular grammatical structure, namely mood structure. This article is going present a demonstration of systemic functional analysis on Javanese speech level by taking it into the mood structure analysis. In addition, this paper aims for two kinds of potential significance. First, it could be an adequate description of Javanese speech level grammaticalization. Second, it can be a typological supplement for SFG in dealing with languages which apply a speech level system.