Functional Varieties of Phatic Utterances in Medan

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.