Radja LinguistiK

THE PHENOMENON OF ‘SELAMAT PAGI’
By: R. Yohanes Radjaban


I. Introduction
When an English husband meets his wife at the first time in the morning, he is very likely to say “good morning”. He keeps saying “good morning” to her even though he meets her everyday, and the morning is not really good. He will do the same thing to his children, neighbours on a street, friends at the office, or to strangers in a hotel. He addresses the greeting to either people he knows or to complete strangers.
If Austin (1962) and Searle (1969) are correct in that every sentence is designed to serve a particular function, and every time speakers utter a sentence, they are attempting something with the words, the greeting “good morning” serves a specific function. It seems to be interesting to study why he says “good morning”, and why Indonesians do not say “selamat pagi” in the similar situation.
This paper is aimed at finding the reasons why native speakers of English say “good morning” and why Indonesians do not say “selamat pagi”. To be more specific, this paper is going to find out the answers of the following questions:
1. Why do people greet?
2. Why do greetings differ among different languages?
3. Why don’t Indonesians say ‘Selamat pagi?’
To answer the questions, this paper will rely on actual data analyzed based on related theories. The answer of the first question is based on theories on language functions and speech acts. The answer of the second question is based on theories on varieties of talk, and the last question will be based on the actual data analyzed based on the theories applied to answer the previous questions.
1. ‘Greeting’ as one of language functions
‘In the beginning was the word’. The ‘word’ seems to be the origin of all things. It underwrites the full presence of the world. Everything is the effect of this one cause. With the ‘Word’, people talk for a purpose ––to assert beliefs, request help, promise actions, express feelings, or ask for information. (Clark & Clark. 1970: 40)
The word brings magic to people. When someone asserts George owns a car, he conveys his belief that the proposition that George owns a car is true. When someone suggests, hypothesizes, swears, flatly states, or hints that George owns a car, he is also uttering a representative but at the same time conveying the strength of his belief in the truth of the proposition. The hearers therefore get a notion about the truth ––that George owns a car—in their mind.
With the word, a speaker could attempt to get the listener to do something. By ordering, commanding, requesting, begging, or pleading, the speaker is trying to get the listener to carry out some action. The listener therefore will carry out some action, as the speaker wants him to do.
In another case, a speaker could commit himself to some future course of action. A prime example is the promise, but the category also includes vows, pledges, contracts, guarantees, and other types of commitments. The magic thing happening to the listeners is that this makes them feel safe, secure, calm, relax, or even happy.
When a speaker wishes to express his psychological state about something, he also utters this in words. When he apologizes, thanks, congratulates, welcomes, or deplores, he is expressing how good or bad he feels about some event; and everyone can feel the magic of this.
Obviously, when a speaker utters a declaration his very words bring about a new state of affairs. When he says You’re fired, I resign, I hereby sentence you to five years in prison, or I christen this ship the Dewa Ruci, he is declaring, and thereby causing your job to be terminated, his job to be terminated, you to spend five years in prison, or this ship to be named Dewa Ruci. (Clark & Clark. 1970: 25-28)
Each of these five categories brings different magic to the listeners. The first requires them to take note of the speaker’s belief. The second requires them to determine some course of action and carry it out. The third requires them to take note of new information: namely, the speaker’s intended course of action, his feelings about some fact, or the change in formal status of some object.
Based on the above theories, greeting is one of language functions, which people often utter. When people hear a greeting addressed to them, they will react accordingly. They will identify the speech act—it is a greeting, and then determine some course of action—replying with appropriate response to the greeting.
2. Greetings differ according to the Varieties of Talks
Speech is used in different ways among different groups of people. Each group has its own norms of linguistic behaviour. A society that encourages a wide variety of kinds of talk is likely to be rather different in many non-linguistic ways from one in which speakers are expected neither to waste words nor to use words lightly.
It is instructive to look at some of the ways in which various people in the world use talk, or sometimes the absence of talk, i.e., silence, to communicate. For example, Marshall (1961) has indicated how the !Kung, a bush-dwelling people of South Africa, have certain customs, which help them either to avoid or to reduce friction and hostility within bands and between bands.
The !kung are talkative people. Talk keeps communication open among them; it offers an emotional release; and it can also be used to alert individuals that they are stepping out of the bounds, so heading off potentially dangerous conflicts between individuals.
It is in contrast with the !Kung that the Western Apache of east-central Arizona choose to be silent when there is a strong possibility that such uncertainty exists. They are silent on ‘meeting strangers’, whether these are fellow Western Apache or complete outsiders; and strangers are expected to be silent.
In contrast, other people talk for the sheer pleasure of talking. The Roti, the residents of the southwestern tip of the island of Timor in eastern Indonesia, consider talk one of the great pleasure of life—not just idle chatter, but disputing, arguing, showing off verbal skills, and, in general indulging in verbal activity. Silence is interpreted as a sign of some kind of distress, possibly confusion or dejection.
From the above examples of varieties of talk, it is obvious that the norms of the linguistic behaviours are conventional, and therefore, non-arguable. Members of the society arbitrarily join the norms. It is a convention that the !Kung and the Roti should be talkative. They should talk more otherwise they will be considered unconventional. Both the !Kung and the Roti know well how to behave accordingly to the norms of their linguistic behaviours, and so do the Western Apache of east-central Arizona.

3. English vs. Indonesian Greetings

Both English and Indonesian need to maintain their communication with greetings and some other sorts of phatic expressions. Since English and Indonesian belong to different groups of people with different linguistic behaviours, both of them have different greetings.
In terms of meaning, English greetings seem to deal with non-personal issues and be lack of meaningful information-exchange. Take ‘Good morning’, for example. Semantically, it means about one time of day, which is good. What does it really mean? It is ambiguous. It can semantically mean bright, sunny, not raining, and many others.
In terms of grammatical structure, the greeting is also ambiguous. Based on the expected response, it can be a kind of question, ‘How is your morning? Is it a good morning?’ or it can be a wish, ‘I wish you a good morning.’ Among this type of greetings in English are:
1. Good afternoon, Good evening, Good night, Good bye,
2. Hi!, Hello!,
3. How do you do?
From the examples above, it is worth noting that the greetings are semantically lack of information-exchange and about non-personal issues. It is different from the type of Indonesian greetings. The main characters of Indonesian greetings are true information-exchange and about personal issues. Take a Javanese greeting, ‘Mruput, Mas?’, for example. In terms of meaning, it means semantically ‘Do you start working very early today?’ It is a real question and means to exchange information. Since it concerns with someone’s activity, it concerns with personal issues.
In terms of grammatical structure, it is obvious that it is a question. Based on the expected answers, it is a real question of which the answers can be ‘Inggih’, which means ‘Yes’, ‘Mboten’, which means ‘No’, or ‘Biasa’, which means ‘Not really’. Almost all of Javanese greetings are in the forms of questions and are semantically meaningful. Among the greetings in Javanese are:
1. ‘Tindak-tindak, Pak?’, meaning ‘Are you taking a walk, Sir?’ This greeting is usually addressed to a respected person, who is familiar to the addressor, who is walking around the area close to the house in non-formal clothes.
2. ‘Namung piyambak nopo niki?, meaning ‘Are you coming by yourself (without any companion)?’ This greeting is addressed to a fairly respected person, who is familiar to the addressor, coming to a certain place later than the addressor. It can be for formal or nor-formal occasions.
3. ‘Nglembur to ceritane?’, meaning ‘Are you working extra?’ This greeting is commonly addressed to a fairly familiar person at the same or lower social level with the addressor, who is still working at the afternoon up to the evening.
Almost all Javanese greetings are in the forms of interrogatives (Yes/ No Questions) with meaningful information-exchange. Therefore, the typical responses are ‘Yes’, ‘No’, ‘Not really’. Javanese greetings tend to be about personal business. Since the greetings tend to be about personal business, times of day do not have greater influence to the greetings. Javanese greetings, which are influenced by the times of day are those dealing with people’s working time, like ‘Mruput?’, ‘Nglembur?’, ‘Dereng tindak?’ which means ‘You haven’t left for work, have you?’, ‘Sampun kundur?’ which means ‘You have been home quite early, haven’t you?’.
Indonesian greetings have the same structures and characteristics as the Javanese do. It is because Javanese language has great influence of Indonesian language. It is worth noted that Indonesian nation is composed of at least 60 percent Javanese and 40 percent others. Based on Whorfian’s theories, Javanese culture shapes the Indonesian culture. It means that the Javanese culture on greetings also shapes the Indonesian culture on greetings.


4. Why don’t Indonesians say ‘Selamat pagi.’?
The question becomes the writer’s curiosity since Indonesian people tend to avoid or fail to give appropriate responses to the greeting. From the data the writer recorded, only well-educated groups of people in formal occasions say ‘Selamat pagi.’ (Good morning) as the appropriate response to the greeting ‘Selamat pagi.’ (Good morning).
To get the detail explanation, the following dialogues between the writer and some people from different social and educational backgrounds are worth noting to help understand the reasons why Indonesians do not say ‘Selamat pagi’. It should be noted that ‘Selamat pagi.’ is not typical to the Indonesian greeting.
(1) The following dialogue is between the writer and the security of LPUSD. It is carried out early in the morning at about 07:00 a.m. The relationship between the writer and the security is not quite close. The writer does not know the name of the security and vice versa. This situation happens at their relatively first meetings.
The writer : ‘Selamat pagi, mas.’ (smile)
Security1 : (Smile very politely, without saying anything)
(2) This dialogue is still between the same persons in the same situation except that the writer and the security have been quite familiar. To the writer’s opinion, the security respects him much. The security thinks that the writer is one of lecturers in USD. This happens after a quite intensive meetings.
The writer : ‘Selamat pagi.’
Security1 : ‘Ngasto jam pertama nopo pak?’ (You teach at the first period, don’t you?)
(3) After the relationship between them gets closer and they have quite intensive non-formal chats several times, the dialogue becomes different.
The writer : ‘Selamat pagi.’
Security1 : ‘Mruput, Mas?’ (You start working very early today, don’t you?)
(4) This greeting happens in the same setting but with different people. This happens between the writer and the other security, who is not familiar with the writer yet, in the same place at about the same time of day.
The writer : ‘Selamat pagi.’
Security2 : (Smiles very politely without saying anything)
Security1 : ‘Maklum, Pak. Niki nek enjang dereng iso muni.’ (Sorry, Sir. This guy seems to be dumb in the morning.’)
(5) This greeting is between the writer and his friend (not very close friend, a relatively new lecturer at ABAYO; his name is Nuriadi). It is conducted in the lecturer room in the working hours.
The writer : ‘Selamat pagi.’
Nuriadi : ‘Selamat pagi.’
(6) This greeting is between the writer and his other friend who is very close (they have been working in the same place, ABAYO, for a quite long time; they are about the same age; his name is Eko). This is conducted in the lecturer room in the working hours.
The writer : ‘Selamat pagi.’
Eko : (Looking very surprised) ‘Piye, Ono opo?’ (What’s up?)
The writer : ‘Ra popo.’ (Nothing)
From the above data, it can be generalized that the greeting ‘Good morning’ has different responses. Since ‘Selamat pagi.’ is not typical to Indonesians, who are Javanese, less educated people get difficulty to give the response as is seen in (1) and (4). These two people (Security1 in (1) and Security2 in (4)) are confused because they do not know the real meaning of the greeting. A greeting for them is a question and, as a question, it must be semantically and therefore pragmatically meaningful. Since they are less educated people, they are not well trained to give appropriate response for that type of greeting.
It turns out to be a different matter when the social relationship gets closer. Even though the same greeting is addressed to the same person in a fairly similar setting, the person is able to give response because the social relationship between the addressor and addressee has got closer as is seen in (2) and (3). The interesting thing, however, is that the person give improper responses. It is obvious that the expected response for ‘Selamat pagi’ is ‘Selamat pagi.’, but in (2) and (3), the person gives responses typical to those in Javanese greetings in that the person tries to give responses, which tend to be a meaningful information-exchange and about personal issues.
It turns to be true that the level of intimacy influences the type of responses. It can be seen in (4), (5), and (6). In (4), Security2 cannot give a proper response to the greeting ‘Selamat pagi’ since he has not been familiar yet with the writer. It is different from Security1. He has been relatively quite familiar with the writer therefore he can easily give response to the greeting. In this case the level of education and age does not give much influence on the type of responses to the greeting.
In (5) and (6), the level of intimacy causes different type of responses. In (5), Nuriadi is not quite familiar yet with the writer, therefore formality (the level of formal situation) influences his response. Since he is well educated he knows well the proper response to the greeting. In (6), Eko gives different response to the greeting, because Eko has very close relationship to the writer. Because of this level of intimacy, formality seems to play great role. The greeting ‘Selamat pagi’ for Eko is too formal. It is, therefore, very strange for Eko to be addressed a greeting like ‘Selamat pagi’, which is (for Eko and many other Indonesian educated people) appropriate in very formal occasions. Since it is considered unusual, Eko tends to give improper response, which seems to be typical to Javanese response. In these two cases, the level of education background, intimacy, and formality seem to be very influential to the types of responses given to the greeting ‘Selamat pagi.

III. Conclusion
From the above discussion, some issues on the reasons why Indonesian do not say ‘Selamat pagi’ can be generalized. Based on the theories of speech act, greeting is a sort of phatic function of language. It is to maintain conversations. It is therefore common for people in the world have greetings in their own languages.
Greetings are different according to the different varieties of talks. Since greeting is a sort of phatic function of language, it is very much determined by the linguistic behaviours of the native speakers of the language. Since the structures of the linguistic behaviours among the native speakers of languages are different, the structures and characteristics of the greetings are therefore different.
Indonesian people do not say ‘Selamat pagi’ because the greeting is not typical to Indonesian greeting of which the main characters are interrogative, and true information exchange. Since it is not typical to Indonesian greeting, only educated people are trained to give proper responses, and the greeting has high sense of formality. Because of its sense of formality, proper responses among educated people are given in the formal occasions.




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