The Indonesian interjection in popular literary works in the beginning of the 20th century and in the early years of the 21st century

Dimas Zhafran Afdhal, Untung Yuwono

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Interjection is a part of speech that serves to express speakers' feelings. As one of the spoken language identifier, allegedly the use of interjection is dynamic and changing from time to time. In the context of the use of Indonesian language interjection development, the use of interjections have been recorded in the Hikayat Amir Hamzah that is expected to be issued under the year 1388, for example wah and aduh. This paper shows how the use of interjections in two distinct periods, in the early of the 20th century and early of the 21st century. Two popular literary works are used as data, namely Bunga Roos dari Tjikembang/BRTj (1927) representing the early of the 20th century and Manusia Setengah Salmon/MSS (2011) representing the early of the 21st century. By using the qualitative descriptive method based on the theoretical framework of Indonesian conjunction by Harimurti Kridalaksana (1998), Hasan Alwi (2000), and Abdul Chaer (2008), this study examines the form and function of interjection that occur in the popular literary works. The results showed some differences concerning the use of form and function of interjection. The forms of interjection of surprise, astonishment, and pain used in the two different centuries are different. For example, for the type of interjection of surprise, in the early period of the 20th century, astaga was used without any variations. Meanwhile, at the beginning of the 21st century the interjections hah, buset, anjrit, to oh my god were used to express the same function of golly. It is seen that in the early period of the 21st century, the use of interjections is much richer and more flexible. On the other side, the function of interjection also shows a very important difference in the two periods. Once it is clear how the expansion of the functions occurs in the form ah, and, especially, aduh. Aduh is found in the early period of the 20th century just as an expression of pain, whereas in the early years of the 21st century, it functions to express panic feeling and sadness. On the contrary, the word oh experiences the function narrowing in the early period of the 21st century. This function narrowing depends on the intentional aspect of the novelist to enable a form of interjection. The research results open up further discussions on the theoretical aspects of Indonesian interjection, especially in determining the characteristics of interjection in Indonesian.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationOn Language, Education, Politics, and Identity
Subtitle of host publicationA Cross-Linguistics Perspective
PublisherNova Science Publishers, Inc.
Pages51-63
Number of pages13
ISBN (Print)9781536193374
Publication statusPublished - 19 Mar 2021

Keywords

  • Form
  • Function
  • Indonesian language
  • Interjection
  • Popular literary works

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