Directive Speech Act Politeness in a Pediksaan Ritual: A Sociopragmatic Study

Abstract

This study focused on the concern about the decrease in the use of language politeness among young people both in everyday communication and sacred Hindu rituals such as in a pediksaan ritual, in which not only the place is made sacred but also things related to the inauguration of a sulinggih (high priest) that is, performed in a Geria, home of a brahmana, who is still holding high the high cultural norms. This study analyzed the type of directive speech act politeness, the forms of language politeness, and the application of directive speech act politeness in the pediksaan ritual. The stages of a descriptive qualitative method were employed to achieve those objectives. The population of the study was the people involved in the activity of a pediksaan ritual. Since this event is rare, the population was directly used as the study's sample. The data were collected by observing the pediksaan ritual using a recording technique. The data collected were analyzed with a qualitative descriptive method. The study shows that the types of directive speech act politeness in this study are differentiated into linguistic politeness and pragmatic politeness; the forms of directive speech act politeness consist of (a) agreement maxim of suggesting; (b) sympathizing maxim of order and the politeness principles that consist of (a) the politeness principle that applies tact maxim; (b) the politeness principle that applies approbation maxim; and (c) the politeness maxim that applies sympathy maxim.