THE ANALYSIS OF REFUSAL EXPRESSIONS IN BARGAINING BETWEEN JAVANESE SELLERS AND BUYERS IN BUNDER MARKET SRAGEN (A SOCIO-PRAGMATIC APPROACH)

THE ANALYSIS OF REFUSAL EXPRESSIONS IN BARGAINING BETWEEN JAVANESE SELLERS AND BUYERS IN BUNDER MARKET SRAGEN

(A SOCIO-PRAGMATIC APPROACH)

Yudhi Marwanto

Refusal is a speech act performed when a speaker does not intend to accept an action. A speaker may express it explicitly or implicitly. As a response to another, a refusal carries a high risk of insulting the interlocutor. Refusal may have a potential negative impact on the future interaction; therefore, great care is taken following implicit rules of appropriate behavior that shows respect for each person’s role in interaction.

The directness or indirectness in saying no is also influenced by the norms of the society. Different cultural system in different language communities results in different refusal expression. In American culture, it is a common to say no to refuse something directly. While in Indonesia, it is considered rude to say no without elaborating the reason (Kartomihardjo in Amerien, 1985:98). People commonly avoid to use a clear refusal, and prefer to use fictitious reason when they refuse something, mentioning a third parts as reason, giving a suggestion, choice, etc. All of the reasons concern with the politeness and the proper conduct based on the norms in their society.

A refusal expression may be accepted as a polite expression in one speech community, but, in other speech community, it is probably regarded as an impolite one. Therefore, when analyzing refusal expression in one speech community; we should consider the proper strategy based on the cultural system used in the community. In this research, the researcher will analyze the refusal expression employed by Javanese sellers and buyers in Bunder Market. Hence, in order to evade misinterpretation, the researcher uses Suseno Kartomihardjo’s research of refusal in Malang. Kartomihardjo (1993:153-158) divides the refusal expression of Javanese speaking people in Malang into seven types as follows:

1. Refusal which uses “ora” (no) or other similar words.

2. Refusal which uses reason.

3. Refusal which uses concession and condition.

4. Refusal which uses suggestion or choice.

5. Refusal which uses “thanking expression”

6. Refusal which uses comment.

7. Refusal which uses non-verbal expression, such as gesture, mimics, body movement.

To clarify the research background, the example is included as follows:

Setting: Bunder Market

Participants: Seller (S) and Buyer (B)

B: Niki pinten?

“How much is this?”

S: Tigang ewu

“Three thousands”

B: Setunggalewu mawon, wong alit-alit ngeten

“What about one thousand that’s very small”

S: Mbak mbak, di nggo kulak wae isih tombok.

Yen ngenyang ojo banget-banget mbak.

“Mbakmbak, it’s not enough to cover my cost,

“Don’t bargain to low, mbak?”

In the example above, the participants are the seller and the buyer, the seller is a late thirty years old mother wear a long kebaya and the buyer is a young girl, twenty years old, wearing a shirt and a jeans. The conversation took place in fruit stall. The buyer was interested in buying orange. Then, she asked the seller to know the price. Then it was responded by the seller by stating three thousands for one kilogram of orange. The buyer thought that the price was very expensive. She refused it by saying, “setunggaleweu mawon, wong alit-alit ngeten”(What about one thousand that’s very small) as the comment. This refusal is classified in sixth type of refusal by Suseno Kartomihardjo. The price the buyer bargained points out that the buyer did not have any knowledge on what usually Javanese used of interaction between buyer and seller. It is said like this because the buyer has to bargain half of the price first before going through the lowest price. That is what usually Javanese use in bargaining something. Because of the absence of norm in bargaining, the seller was in anger. It was seen when she said the response in ngoko, high pitch on mbak! mbak!, offended facial expression in Yen ngenyang ojo banget-banget mbak (Don’t bargain to low, mbak?)

In this conversation, the buyer is refused to the offer price from the seller by using Javanese language (krama). She used krama language to show his respect to the seller that is older than her. The buyer refused indirectly by saying the refusal as politely as possible in order not to insult the seller’s feeling in case his bargain was to low. The krama languages was used since they did not have a close relationship. The use of its keeps the distance between the seller and the buyer in order to show politeness. But, the seller’s un competency in bargaining made the seller’s angry. The proper strategy in bargaining should be employed by the buyer in order not to hurt the seller’s feeling.

Moreover, the use of refusal by Javanese people seems to be influenced by social dimension such as the relationship between the speaker, status, power, situation, and norms. This research is expected to describe the various refusal performed by Javanese sellers and buyers in Bunder market in selling buying transaction.