Abstract:
This research deals with the arena of language variation that is specifically concerned
on investigating phatic utterances expressed by local people in Medan. It mainly
aimed to investigate on three issues as follows: firstly, to investigate the types of
phatic categories are expressed by local people of Medan, Secondly, to investigate the
functional varieties of phatic utterances expressed by local people in Medan, thirdly,
to reason the realization of phatic utterances. The research was applied descriptive
qualitative method.The data of this research is the local people utterances of Medan
that was collected through tape recording and take note. There are 50 utterances as
primary data which are taken randomly from various social classes in Medan such as
age, gender and occupation. The whole data were analyzed through applying Miles
and Hubarman theory in which data reduction, data display, and conclusion
drawing/verification are significantly implemented. The result of data analysis
showed that there are three types of phatic utterance categories expressed by local
people of Medan,The research found that there are four type of phatic categories
commonly expressed by local people of Medan, namely, Particles 16, Word 7,
Phrases 6. It also found that the functional varieties of phatic utterances that found
generally used by local people of Medan are emphasize a feeling of rejection or
indifference, emphasizing solicitation, emphasize coercion by persuading, and
emphasizes proof. The realization of phatic utterance is commonly expressed in
informal situation rather than formal situation. Finally, this research also showed that
phatic utterance is a very popular and very important for daily communication. The
data significantly showed that 50 % people sometimes use phatic, 21,1% often use it,
13,2% seldom use it, 13,2 % always use it and 2,6% never use it in daily
conversation.
