LANGUAGE VARIETIES MAINTAINED IN SEVERAL SOCIAL CONTEXTS IN SEMARANG CITY

Abstract

Language varies not only according to the social characteristics of the speaker ( such as his social class, ethnic group, age ,and sex ) but also according to the social context in which he finds himself. The same speaker uses different linguistic varieties in different situations and for different purposes. This study is aimed at describing the language varieties maintained in several social contexts in Semarang city such as market, police office, university, etc. The data were collected by using observation and note taking on some conversations occurred on those contexts, then, they were analyzed based on the theories of language varieties proposed by Trudgill (1984). The result showed that the social contexts or social situations that can come into play in controlling language varieties in Semarang city are : relationship between participants such as the degree of intimacy, the degree of social status, and power and solidarity; occupational situation, and degree of formality. In the degree of intimacy and the degree of social status, the lower the degree the higher style the language used. Power is a relationship between at least two persons, and it is non- reciprocal in the sense that both cannot have power in the same area of behaviour. Occupational situation was usually characterized solely by vocabulary differences and was simply a rather special case of a particular kind of language being produced by social situation. Degree of formality was usually characterized by the situation in which the conversation took place.