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).