Michael C. Ewing

Grammar and inference in conversation : identifying clause structure in spoken Javanese

This study analyzes how morphosyntactic structures and information flow characteristics are used by interlocutors in producing and understanding clauses in conversational Javanese, focusing on the Cirebon variety of the language. While some clauses display grammatical mechanisms used to code their structure explicitly and redundantly, many other clauses include few if any of these grammatical resources. These extremes mark a cline between the morphosyntactic and paratactic expression of clauses. The situation is thrown into relief by the frequency of unexpressed referents and conversationalists’ heavy reliance on shared experience and cultural knowledge. In all cases, pragmatic inference grounded in the interactional context is essential for establishing not only the discourse functions, but indeed also the very structure of clauses in conversational Javanese. This study contributes to our understanding of transitivity, emergent constituency, prosodic organization and the co-construction of meaning and structure by conversational interlocutors.

Reference and Recovery in Cirebon Javanese

This paper discusses referential forms in Cirebon Javanese conversation, including full lexical nominals and their information flow marking, personal and demonstrative pronouns, and unexpressed arguments. Less explicit forms are generally used for more accessible referents, as expected from crosslinguistic studies. Unlike Standard Central Javanese and other Western Austronesian languages, Cirebon Javanese has a fairly attenuated and generalized system of bound pronominal forms. Referents can be introduced and tracked with unexpressed arguments; these are the most common means of tracking referents through conversational interaction. Information flow pragmatics are important in the process of recovering the referents of unexpressed arguments: highly accessible referents are the ones that are most commonly unexpressed, creating chains which link items into discourse units. Overt syntactic linking through chains of unexpressed subjects is not found and information beyond the pragmatic and grammatical is needed for referent recovery, including semantic, interpersonal and cultural knowledge.

Language varieties and youthful involvement in Indonesian fiction

This article explores new functions served by language varieties in fiction. Focusing our analysis on two types of texts in Indonesian – teen fiction and comics – we examine the interplay between standard and colloquial varieties to show how they are used together with non-verbal elements to promote youthful involvement. We identify three ways in which involvement is created in the texts: through free indirect discourse, non-verbal cues, and the gradual building of empathy indicated by shifting perspectives. We show that shifts from narrator’s to character’s perspective are shifts in alignment. By shifting to colloquial language, the narrator aligns their perspective with that of both the character and the reader, thus blurring the divisions between them. Non-verbal cues can also signal a shift in narrator roles, from a teller to a keen commentator and interlocutor who directly addresses the reader and invites them to share story-world experience. The frequent shifts between varieties represent a new style of writing which gives salience to the role of narrator as agent with a double persona: an anonymous agent who tells the reader about the characters in relation to the unfolding events, and an agent-participant who makes their presence known to the reader through direct address and evaluative commentary.

Style and Intersubjectivity in Youth Interaction

© 2018 Walter de Gruyter Inc., Boston/Berlin. All Rights Reserved. This book examines how style and intersubjective meanings emerge through language use. It is innovative in theoretical scope and empirical focus. It brings together insights from discourse-functional linguistics, stylistics, and conversation analysis to understand how language resources are used to enact stances in intersubjective space. While there are numerous studies devoted to youth language, the focus has been mainly on face-to-face interaction. Other types of youth interaction, particularly in mediated forms, have received little attention. This book draws on data from four different text types - conversation, e-forums, comics, and teen fiction - to highlight the multidirectional nature of style construction. Indonesia provides a rich context for the study of style and intersubjectivity among youth. In constructing style, Indonesian urban youth have been moving away from conventions which emphasized hierarchy and uniformity toward new ways of connecting in intersubjective space. This book analyzes how these new ways are realized in different text types. This book makes a valuable addition to sociolinguistic literature on youth and language and an essential reading for those interested in Austronesian sociolinguistics.