PARODY: A MEMORY MACHINE OF MODERNIZING PROVERBS

Proverbs are often nowadays materialiazed in parody so that proverb and parody are slightly difficult to separate to laymen. Eventhough they are distinctive in meanings, the close relation between the two terms deal with the one which links to past time dimension and the other renewals the olds to contemporary one. Proverbs are not simply words creativity of anonimous people where they live in certain community, but they are much better understood as social and cultural contruction reflected by a given society. Therefore, many wit and wisdom can be learned through single metaphor used by the proverbial constructions. Furthermore, proverbs offer people to understand life and the life brings the people to use the proverbs. In traditional way, proverbs are employed to assert a certain statement, give advise, remind and correct human behaviour, justify and identify people attitude and character. The historicity of the proverbs clearly characterizes human life experiences. Otherwise, the modernity of proverbial manipulation are contemporarily played by parody in role. Lessons in the proverbs are caught in second level comprehension. The first places in the function of what the parody brings about. Proverbs, in this context, are manipulated to give certain effects to people. Some words are usually taken into account, but frequently the pattern of the proverbial expression are in shape used. Proverbs become the medium to recreate another work. Such recreation is in this writing regarded as modernity of proverbs. The memory machine of the proverbs are called parody. The prime function of parody in this case give the first layer of reminding the existence of the proverbs. The parody helps people to draw its historicity into current life. People could not deny the service of proverbs in their life. Likewise, parody comes up to people in several missions. These missions are, as what we try to understand as the second layer of function of proverbial usage, among others, for humor, social critics, words-game, and struggle against the rule or power.

This paper attempts to elaborate the use of parody by means of proverbial expression, now and then coined “proverbial parody”, in the perspective of its missions. Even the parody missions stated above are not easily differenciated on to another in function, but this discussion endeavors to depict a tendency picture of each mission.

KETIDAKLAZIMAN PENERJEMAHAN KONSTRUKSI AKTIF BAHASA INDONESIA KE KONSTRUKSI PASIF BAHASA INGGRIS

Penerjemahan antarbahasa bukan sekadar persoalan tips atau kiat (Hoed, 2004), apalagi sekadar ‘menggantikan’ teks BSu ke dalam teks BSa (Machali, 2000: 14), melainkan lebih menyangkut proses pengalihan antarbahasa yang berbasis pada penerapan teori-teori linguistik. Karena terjemahan merupakan kegiatan yang melibatkan bahasa, Nida (1999: 90) bahkan mengklaim bahwa semua teori-teori terjemahan itu adalah linguistik.

Berdasarkan perkembangan teori linguistik mutakhir, sekurang-kurangnya ada tiga pendekatan cabang ilmu linguistik yang mendasari penerjemahan yaitu pendekatan struktural, pendekatan sosiolinguistik, dan pendekatan semantik-pragmatik (lih. Arimi, 2002; 2007). Arah dan tujuan ketiga tataran teoritis ini umumnya berkontribusi pada sasaran pengalihan makna yang sepadan (equivalent) antara teks sumber dan teks sasaran. Pendekatan struktural menyumbang konsepsi makna gramatikal berdasarkan pemahaman dan penerapan ciri tipologis (atau sintaksis) kedua bahasa (BSu-BSa) dan pola urutan (gramatika) dalam teks, sementara pendekatan sosiolinguistik menyumbang makna kontekstual berdasarkan pengertian hubungan antara teks dan unsur-unsur sosial budaya yang mempengaruhinya, sedangkan pendekatan semantik-pragmatik menyumbang maksud penutur/penulis (writer/speaker’s meanings) menurut situasi yang membangun kemunculan sebuah teks. Ketiga macam makna yang tergolong dalam ranah linguistik (makna pertama) dan ranah ekstralinguistik (makna dua terakhir) ini diasumsikan mengkonstruksi makna teks secara utuh.

Tulisan ini akan mendeskripsikan kesepadanan makna yang dibangun oleh konstruksi aktif dalam teks BInd ke dalam makna berkonstruksi pasif dalam teks BIng. Rentang makna gramatikal, kontekstual dan situasional (bergantung penutur/penulis) seperti disebutkan di atas akan terlibat dalam memecahkan pokok masalah aktif-pasif yang cenderung menyangkut sudut pandang atau perspektif dalam kedua bahasa ini. Dalam pada itu, ada dua masalah yang penting untuk dipecahkan, yaitu pertama, apa penyebab yang bersifat linguistik atau ekstralinguistik yang dapat mendasari pemindahan makna aktif ke pasif; dan kedua, kapan keputusan bentuk aktif (BInd) boleh atau harus diterjemahkan ke pasif (BIng).

Kajian penerjemahan konstruksi aktif versus pasif ini berangkat dari asumsi bahwa menerjemahkan bentuk pasif BInd ke dalam bentuk aktif BIng dipandang suatu yang lazim karena ciri BInd memang didominasi bentuk pasif dan ciri BIng didominasi bentuk aktif. Sejalan dengan asumsi ini, Dardjowidjojo (1983: 240) mengemukakan pendapatnya perihal jalan pikiran penutur BInd yang cenderung tidak eksplisit dan tidak langsung karena pemakaian bentuk pasif yang luar biasa banyaknya, meskipun ada padanan bentuk aktif yang dapat dipakai. Sebaliknya, dalam tulisan ini akan dilihat fenomena konstruksi BInd yang berbentuk aktif justru dialihkan ke dalam konstruksi BIng berbentuk pasif. Isu yang terkesan tidak lazim ini menarik dan cukup menantang untuk diamati. Pertanyaannya adalah mengapa BIng justru memasifkan konstruksi aktif BInd tersebut.

Hypotheses of International Proverb Similarity (IPS Hypotheses)

The study of proverbs internationally pervades in the goldmine of “Proverbium” journals1. During almost five decades of a long standing journal there had been so many never ending definitions submitted, and a great number of areas and disciplines approached. All came to find out and explain what, why, when, who, where and how the proverbs are useful to folk people. Among the range of studies, there is still a mystery to pose why a bundle of proverbs which rooted from different lands and cultures came into similar uses and meanings and had various variants to each other. In other words, the question may arise that why an indefinite number of people create different proverbs for similar equivalence of meaning. This question may also imply that why people create a different proverb for different people.

This concise paper attempts to argue three Hypotheses of why International Proverbs are similar to each other. The analysis is based on four European languages, i.e., Dutch, English, French, German, and three Asian languages, i.e., Chinese, Indonesian, and Japanese. The languages given in the analysis are listed alphabetically. The proverbs, except Indonesian, are primarily taken from Paczolay (1997), a dictionary of European Proverbs in 55 languages with Equivalents in Arabic, Persian, Sanskrit, Chinese and Japanese 2. A comparative method was highly employed during the sample taking and analysis. And the hypotheses were reconstructed by virtue of internal proverb analysis and external factors such as human cognition, culture and environments. Correlation between linguistic and non-linguistic viewpoints in such objective was particularly recommended.

KAJIAN BASA-BASI DALAM PERSPEKTIF SOSIOLINGUISTIK

ABSTRACT

In sociolinguistic viewpoints, basa-basi (phatic communication) is argued as a social and cultural phenomenon. Based on this viewpoint, basa-basi occurs in several variations such as elaborated code variation versus restricted code variation, and formal variation versus informal variation. Such variations build a strong corelation as follows (a) the more elaborated the form of utterances the more formal the basa-basi is, (b) the more restricted the form of utterances the more informal the basa-basi is, (c) the more intimate the relation between the participants the more informal the basa-basi is. This paper shows that the forms and styles of basa-basi as a symbol of verbal social acts for greetings, courtesy, politeness, and chit-chats or sweet nothings in order to create solidarity and harmony between the participants may not adequately be understood without taking extralinguistic features such as speech situation, and socio-cultural aspects into consideration.

(key words: basa-basi (phatic communication), forms and styles of basa-basi, styles,social phenomenon, and cultural phenomenon)

Catatan Etnografis Basa-Basi dalam Masyarakat Indonesia

This paper attempts to search for the ethnographic framework of basa-basi (b2), an original Indonesian term for phatic communion (Malinoswki, 1923), in the ethnography of contemporary Indonesian speaking use from sociolinguistic viewpoint. I offer that the norms of speaking b2 encounter four rules: (1) gap yes or no, and no overlap rule for b2 turn-taking, (2) face system, (3) normal distance, and (4) No mute duration, and without the absence of loudness system. The ethnograpic accounts of b2 phenomena in bahasa Indonesia (bInd) is proposed in preference to Hymes’s mnemonic device of speech components, that is SPEAKING. A close examination on the b2 functions suggests that its functions, as nearly the same as phatic communion, allow the participants to establish an immediate social bond, to keep the channel of communication open, and to maintain the social relationship between those participants. By the end of the analysis, the understanding of the Indonesian b2 is argued to as in comparison with the description of phatic communion posed by Malinowski (1923).

DANGDUT AS A MASCOT OF INDONESIAN CULTURE POPULARITY

Global phenomenology seems to bring reality to minimize complexity into simplicity. Simple marks the minimalism. Complex structuralism where the minimalism lives by tells people that they live among others in a pop culture that unites them in a miniature of Music. A universal musicsphere living in one of Indonesian trends functioning such culture the so-called dangdut, a used to be traditional folk music with gendang and suling bamboo instruments, seems to surface as a reply to alternatively relieve exhaustive and monotonous life of people. By magic and myth within its cengkok rhythmical song and dut music lead its enjoyers to shake their body for some like long-standing-drunk people, as if they forgot their routine’s life that always stepped for tomorrow. Rather, in view of dangdut as a universal entertainment package, it might echo globally and dance locally. Lyrics (to drunk) and music (to shake) in Dangdut music art correlate a set of symbols constructions which enable it to be accepted in today’s world of minimalism.

The effectively sophisticated audiovisual and audio technology have much helped bring this music to international music banks. MTV, specializes in music programs, has also unforgotten to have a big role in making up the dangdut successful. The acceptedness of the audience with such program was another evidence to always maintain and compete with dangdut package in televisions.

Popularity of dangdut may we view at television screens, but close to interactive between the music group and audience is coming into real atmosphere of dangdut music . This “popular” music does not have any significant promotion problem anymore just like one or more decades ago. Those who enjoy it do nowadays come from all social stratifications. A past presumption that regard dangduts only belong to lower class did hardly come into existence any longer. Indeed, involving in dangdut life music is such as shaking the enjoyers’ body as watching in TV. The hits of dangdut tool not only quake the stage but also shiver the audience. The problem why dangdut music could attract people to dance and be widely accepted in particular way are points of interesting questions to pose and discuss. This paper attempts to shed a behavior light upon this phenomenon particularly in the scope of live stage dangdut performance.

Uji Kasus Struktur Kognitif ke dalam Peribahasa Indonesia, Inggris, Belanda, dan Jepang

Berdasarkan kajian mutakhir terhadap struktur peribahasa Milner (1969), Abrahams (1972), dan Dundes (1975) yang masing-masing menggunakan kerangka formal, tematik formal, dan konten diketahui bahwa ketiga model struktur tersebut kurang memuaskan karena tidak dapat memayungi gramatika teks peribahasa yang lebih luas. Seringkali peribahasa Indonesia, dengan definisi yang sama, tidak dapat terpayungi karena sejumlah alasan. Penelitian Arimi (2004; 2006) berupaya mengajukan bukti-bukti bahwa basis formal, tematik formal, dan konten tidak tepat untuk membangun struktur peribahasa yang cenderung tidak literal. Oleh karena itu, bangunan struktur peribahasa hendaknya tidak mengacu pada konten, tema, apalagi bentuk semata. Arimi (2004; 2006) berpendapat bahwa struktur peribahasa harus berpegang pada konsep kognisi yang mempertimbangkan makna metafora yang bukan pada katanya itu sendiri, tetapi pada konsep yang dipetakannya. Dengan argumen ini, hubungan kata pada peribahasa adalah interaksi makna yang membentuk satu paket kognisi yang berkaitan dengan pikiran kearifan. Berpijak pada konsepsi ini, struktur kognitif peribahasa terdiri atas susunan kondisi-kondisi yang sistematis dalam hubungan sebab-akibat, pengandaian, dan pendefinisian.

Ketiga macam struktur kognitif di atas dalam tulisan ini akan diujicobakan ke dalam 4 peribahasa antarabangsa, dua bahasa Eropa (bahasa Inggris dan Belanda) dan dua bahasa Asia (Indonesia dan Jepang). Pendekatan pokok dalam kajian ini adalah pendekatan tafsir (construal) yang membedakannya dengan pendekatan semantik dalam ilmu linguistik sebelumnya. Makna harus dipandang sentral dengan cara dianalisis berdiri sendiri sebagai persepsi dan kognisi manusia (kendati kiasan seringkali menggunakan benda nonmanusia), dan karena itu makna dapat diobjektivikasi dan diformalkan secara verbal. Bentuk dan makna peribahasa merupakan paket sinergis yang berinteraksi dengan unsur-unsur di luarnya berupa aturan-aturan hukum alam, adat istiadat, norma atau nilai sosiokultural lainnya. Jika makna dilihat sebagai pusat maka makna mengendalikan pemetaan kognitif dalam kearifan peribahasa. Makna di satu sisi berinteraksi dengan bentuk dan di sisi lain berinteraksi dengan unsur-unsur nonbahasa. Berdasarkan observasi pada sumber-sumber Pamuntjak, et.al (2000), Cox, et.al (1992), Paczolay (1997), dan Akiyama (1935) dipilih sejumlah sampel peribahasa Indonesia, Inggris, Belanda dan Jepang untuk diujicobakan pada struktur kognitif yang diajukan tersebut. Artikel ini menjawab apakah data peribahasa (counter proverbs) yang berbeda bisa dilingkupi oleh struktur kognitif yang dimaksud.

THE ESSENCE OF INDONESIAN BASA-BASI (PHATIC COMMUNICATION)

Abstract

Phatic communication (PC), one of study objects of etnophraseology, is the sine qua non of any human language worldwide. Among Indonesian people, the phatic communication is called basa-basi. Based upon the theoretical and methodological analysis, this paper attempts to argue the following characteristics in regard to the nature of universality of phatic communication: PC is a mode of action rather than a mode of thought; PC is dialogic; oriented in bipartitness of interlocutors; PC tends to be a routine conversation; PC performs as greetings, verbal politeness (courtesy), and sweet-nothings; PC sets information to be insignificant; and PC is subject to solidarity and harmonization principle. The universal characterizations of PC argued in this paper are intended to revisit the debates of Zegarac dan Clark (1999), and Ward dan Horn (1999). The essential semantic analysis used in the research employed Wierzbicka’s explication approach.

THE ESSENCE OF INDONESIAN BASA-BASI (PHATIC COMMUNICATION)

Abstract

Phatic communication (PC), one of study objects of etnophraseology, is the sine qua non of any human language worldwide. Among Indonesian people, the phatic communication is called basa-basi. Based upon the theoretical and methodological analysis, this paper attempts to argue the following characteristics in regard to the nature of universality of phatic communication: PC is a mode of action rather than a mode of thought; PC is dialogic; oriented in bipartitness of interlocutors; PC tends to be a routine conversation; PC performs as greetings, verbal politeness (courtesy), and sweet-nothings; PC sets information to be insignificant; and PC is subject to solidarity and harmonization principle. The universal characterizations of PC argued in this paper are intended to revisit the debates of Zegarac dan Clark (1999), and Ward dan Horn (1999). The essential semantic analysis used in the research employed Wierzbicka’s explication approach.

PERGESERAN KEKUASAAN BANGSAWAN JAWA INDONESIA: SEBUAH ANALISIS WACANA KRITIS

Abstract

Adopting Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach, this paper offers a model of sociolinguistic study on identity of power in the case of Javanese local gentry (nobleman). The analysis strongly confirmed Soemardjan’s (1981) thesis that the Javanese local gentry did not any longer hold powers of economy and politics towards their people. Their power has shifted to the unpowerful area of culture. Such power shift has given an impact to breaking traditional structure of Javanese society. A conclusion drawn from the analysis undoubtedly proposes a critical thesis that the structure of Javanese society as argued by Koentowijoyo (2004) as consisting of the Sultanate, priyayi (local gentry), and kawula (the people) should have been reconsidered. In this paper, I propose that the modern structure of Javanese society should consist of only the Sultanate and the people. Until this time, the Sultan does still play his role as administration.

(Kata Kunci: Analisis Wacana Kritis, kekuasaan, bangsawan /priyayi, identitas)