Language Style Used by Young People

Asia-Pacific Linguistics
Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (JSEALS)

Website: http://jseals.org | ISSN: 1836-6821
Editor-In-Chief Dr Mark J. Alves | Managing Editors Dr Peter Jenks and Dr Paul Sidwell
LANGUAGE STYLE USED BY YOUNG PEOPLE

TO OLD PEOPLE IN A PUBLIC DEBATE
Annisa Ayu Elfhariyanti
Universitas Negeri Surabaya
annisa.17020154028@mhs.unesa.ac.id
Abstract
Indonesia was demanding justice after the government released RKUHP which
make people mad about it because some of the rules were unacceptable to enforce in
Indonesia. In this chance, there was a public debate held by Mata Najwa on Trans 7
between government officials and Mahasiswa (University Student) so Mahasiswa can
say what they are demand as they called 7 Tuntutan Mahasiswa. The purpose of this
study is to reveal the language style used by Mahasiswa while delivering their opinion
about the new regulation. This study will use Language style, language function, and
the effect. The result showed that Mahasiswa mostly used casual style and with the
additional formal style based on the function and the condition why did they use the
language. It happened because they wanted to make people understand since it was in
the public debate so they can encourage people to believe their opinion. On the other
hand, they talked to older people so they needed a good manner to deliver their
opinion. So that people can clearly understand their purposes.
Keywords: language; function; language style; formal and informal
ISO
1. Introduction
Sociolinguistic is a study of language in this society and how the language works and see the presence
of societal norms, policies, and law (Aitchison & Wardaugh, 1987) .Communication is a way of
transferring your idea to the world and it includes spoken, written, and signed modes of
communication (Fromkin et al., n.d.). According to Fromkin people will try to use different styles
when they talk to their friends and when it comes to a job interview or talk to their parents (Fromkin
et al., n.d.). Basically, people will use a different style of language on different occasions and depend
on who they are talking to.
On September 24 there was protesting in front of a government office building for canceling
the RKUHP. It was between Mahasiswa versus Government. Not only by protesting they also joining
public debate hosted by Najwa Shihab with Mata Najwa Program. The video was uploaded on
Youtube with the title Ujian Reformasi. The video was divided into 7 parts and the guests from
opposite are Atiatul Muqtadir (Fatur) from UGM, Royyan Abdullah (Royyan) from ITB, Haris Azhar,
and Asfinawati. From the government, there were Moeldoko, Fahri Hamzah, Bang Arsul Sani, and
Professor Edward. This study only focused on Mahasiswa’s argument in that public debate. It was a
hot topic in Indonesia because the regulation slightly could be interpreted into different meanings so
everyone can be a suspect such as women should not be in the street after 10 pm, the KPK things, and
so on. Those new authorities made a lot of people questioning the government attitude for the nation.
On the other hand, government officials thought that the new authority is an advantage for them to
make a better country and no corruption. It will help people to live peacefully in this nation. So, the
new authority will make a better nation and people should not be worried because of it.
There are several previous studies on this topic. The first previous study is from Siti Zulaekho
from Diponegoro University (Zulaekho, 2011). It is about language style used by muluk in Alangkah
Lucunta Negeri Ini Movie, the writer used the kind of styles, the functions, and the factors why they
used that language style. The second previous study is from John W. Wright with the title Language
Style and Sex Bias in the Courtroom: The Effect of Male and Female Use of Hedges and Intensifiers

on Impression Information (Ii & Hosman, n.d.), this study talk about the language used with seeing
the gender as the important aspect to decide what kind of language they used in a courtroom. The
third previous study is from James J Bradach, Michael R. Hemphill, and Charles H Tardy with the
title Language Style on Trial: Effects of “Powerful” and “Powerless” Speech Upon Judgements of
Victims and Villains. This study is about the language style used by seeing the power they hold
(Bradac et al., 2009). Forth and the last is from Naoki Kameda with title The Implication of Language
Style in Business Communication: Focus on English Versus Japanese (Kameda, 2001). This study is
about the comparison between English and Japanese in Business Communication.
From those previous studies, this study will analyze the language used by Mahasiswa when
delivering their argument in a public debate. The most important thing to see in this case is the age
gap between college students and government officials. This study only focused on college students
so the data given will be their argument that delivers to the government official. This study will
analyze language style in the term of Frozen Style, Formal Style, Consultative Style, Casual Style,
and Intimate Style. This study also will analyze the reason for those language styles in a term of
participant, setting and topic and the last one is the function of the language in the term of the
utterance.
The following session will be all of the explanation needed for this study
A. Style
Language is the way to express something to other people. In a particular case, people will talk
differently such as talk to friends and parents will different or when talking in the job interview and
with children and it is called style (Fromkin et al., n.d.). People will speak formally or informally
depending on the circumstances (Holmes, 2013)
1. Dear Paul
Thanks for your last letter and the subsequent postcards from exotic resorts. We were all green with
envy over your trip to Rio with all expenses paid! How do you get to be so lucky!
Thanks also for the great T-shirt you sent for Rob’s birthday. He has vowed to write to you to express
his gratitude personally – but don’t hold your breath! He is particularly embroiled in some new
complex computer games at present which is absorbing every spare moment.
2. Dear Michael
Thank you very much for the letter you sent me. It was beautifully written and I enjoyed reading it. I
liked the postcards you sent me from your holidays too. What a lovely time you had swimming and
surfing. I wished I was there too. Robbie liked the T-shirt you chose for him very much. He has been
wearing it a lot. He has promised to write to you soon to say thank you but he is very busy playing
with his computer at the moment. So, you may have to wait a little while for his letter.
The letter for the child is grammatically simple and short also the longer one’s sentence consist of
simple sentence but the letter for adults is more complex, longer and the vocabularies is complex
(Holmes, 2013)
B. The type of Language Style
According to Joos in Chaer and Agustina (1995) language style is divided into five styles, it is
of Frozen Style, Formal Style, Consultative Style, Casual Style and Intimate Style (Chaer & Agustina,
2004).
1. Frozen Style
Frozen style is higher than formal style so it is more formal than formal style. It is used in a formal
situation and has a symbolic value such as ceremony and court. For this style, there is no reader’s
participation so they cannot argue the writer.
2. Formal Style

According to Richard, Formal Style is when people use language carefully and think about the
pronunciation, word choice, and structure (Richard, 2004). Formal style is well structured, the
sequence is logic, and used for the serious situation (Schäffner, 2002). The formal speech in Indonesia
Language has several criteria such as using standard words, using phonemes unaffected, and using
effective structure.
3.Consultative Style
Consultative style is the neutral style. Consultative style is for the semi-formal situation in the
transaction, information exchange, and operational process.
4. Casual Style
The style that is used in informal and relaxed situation casual style has four characteristics such as
using non-affix word forms, using non-prefix of word forms, using non-standard words, and using
phoneme /?/ instead of the phoneme /a/.
5.Intimate Style
This is the most casual style, it has appeared in family members, couples, and intimate friends. The
characteristic of this style is using private codes, using signaling intimate words, rapid pronunciation,
using non-verbal communication, and using non-standard language.
C. The factor of Chosen Style
There are several factors involving why the agent chooses to use those styles. There are four factors
which influence people to choose different style and switch. It is setting, participant, topic, and
function (Holmes, 2013).
1. Setting
The first one is the setting. The setting is used to emphasize the place and time. By altering those
features, perhaps they will create shock reaction in a society, changing the situation into a new one
situation or entering a situation lacking strong normative attributes and allowing maximal variation
(Ervin-tripp, 1962)
2. Participant
a. Social distance
Intimate Distant
High Solidarity Low Solidarity
The scale is used to know how well known the speaker and the hearer relationship and the relevancy
of the linguistic factor (Holmes, 2013). The more intimate the higher solidarity for the participant and
vice versa.
b. Social Status
Superior High Status
Subordinate Low Status
The scale is very useful for seeing the influence of social status in a linguistic choice (Holmes, 2013)
3Topic
Simply, Topic is what participants talk about (Holmes, 2013)The topic is the main discussion of the
speaker and the hearer, perhaps they have a different perspective of something but they still have the
same topic to talk about.
D. The function of Language Style
Five different functions influence the language style (Holmes, 2013). First is the Expressive utterance,
this utterance expresses the speaker feels. Second is, Directive utterance, this utterance is to ask
someone to do something. The third is Referential utterance, this utterance provides information.
Fourth is Poetic utterance, this utterance focuses on the poetic word in a sentence and it is for the
aesthetic purpose. The fifth is Phatic Utterance, this utterance is used to show solidarity and empathy.
2. FINDING AND DISCUSSION

A. Language Style
1. Addressing People and Their selves
(1) Kepada para dewan yang terhormat disini kepada pemerintah juga, bahwasannya
gerakan mahasiswa ini lahir dari keresahan yang organic dan dari kajian kajian akademik.
(For the honorary government official and the university student action is born from the
organic restlessness and from the academic study) (Fatur Speech)
(2) Membuat sebuah surat kesepakatan untuk dari Bapak Yang terhormat, Insinyur Indra
Iskandar menjamin akan disampaikannya tuntutan kami dan dijamin diadakannya
pertemuan sebelum tanggal 24 september (Make an agreement letter from Honorary Mister
Indra Iskandar guarantee that our demand will be delivered and there will be a meeting
before 24 September 2019) (Royyan Speech)
Fatur and Royyan used terhormat for addressing the DPR official. Terhormat is derivational word
from hormat and ter- is affix in this word. Ter- is expression for making the word is the most one
which means the word have the highest level. In Indonesia yang terhormat is used for speech in
formal way and it is also categorized in Frozen Style.
(3) Mungkin saya akan sangat terganggu ketika gerakan ini dikatakan gerakan ini
ditunggangi lah, gerakan ini ingin menjatuhkan dan sebagainya. (Perhaps I will be very
annoyed if this action is told that this action is supported by particular group or this action
is for bad purpose etc.) (Fatur Speech)
(4) Baik, disini saya sebetulnya ingin bertanya kepada bang Fahri. (Okay, here I want to
ask to Bang Fahri) (Royyan Speech)
Fatur and Royyan addressed their selves as saya. Saya is formal way to say “I am” or “me”.
According to KBBI (Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia) Saya is pronoun for the first person
who is talking or writing in term of formal. In this case Fatur did not use aku which has the
same meaning as saya because aku is for intimate term for addressing himself to talk to
other people.
(5) Saya tegaskan bahwa bahwasannya gerakan ini adalah berawal dari keresahan kita kpk
yang dilemahkan dan juga kemunduran dalam pemberantasan korupsi. (I emphasize once
more that this action was born because of our restlessness for weakening KPK.) (Fatur
Speech)
(6) Kita sampaikan aspirasi kita dan salah satu cara terakhir kita. (We said our voice and it
is the last way) (Royyan Speech)
(7) Dari situ keresahan kami lahir. Kenapa kami sebut “Kembali Reformasi” karena
salah satu semangat reformasi itu adalah memberantas korupsi. (From that our retlesttness
was born. Why we call our action as “back to Reformation. Because one of the
reformation’s purpose is erasing corruption) (Fatur Speech)
(8) Kami dari mahasiswa dan segenap masyaraka Indonesia tentu sangat menanti sekali
kapan kita bisa berbicara langsung dengan perwakilan rakyat kita baik di DPR maupun dari
pak Presiden sendiri. (We are from University Student and all of the Indonesian obviously
really want to meet and talk directly with the DPR or President) (Royyan Speech)
In (5) Fatur used kita for addressing himself and all of the university student outside who is
protesting against the new government policy of modifying RUU KPK and RUU KUHP but
according to KBBI kita is used for addressing first person and the person addressed. We can see
in (01) the speech is addressed for DPR official which they disagreed with the university student,
but Fatur changed the word from kita to kami in (7) because in that case Fatur knew if DPR
official did not agree with their demand so Fatur stopped using kita. The same thing happened
with Royyan. Both of them make mistake when addressing their selves by

saying kita because kita involved the hearer and the speaker meanwhile in (5) and (6), it should
not involve the hearer because the hearer do not agree with that opinion
The way they are addressing to the hearer, we can see that the speaker which is the university student
are using Formal Style.
2. The Way of Saying No
(9) Kenapa gak datang dari siang. Kenapa gak dateng ketika kita panggil. (Why not
come since afternoon. Why not come when we call?) (Fatur Speech)
In (9) Fatur used kenapa gak dateng which is non-standard language. Kenapa is a non-standard
language for mengapa, gak is a non-standard language for tidak, and dateng is non-standard
language datang. The use of non-standard is one of the characteristics of Casual style but also in that
sentence, Fatur uses dateng instead of datang it is also the indication of casual style because of the
use of phoneme /?/ instead of the phoneme /a/.
(10) Sepertinya kami gak didengar.. sulit sekali untuk berkomunikasi. (It seems like we
never are heard, it is so hard to communicate) (Royyan Speech)
In (10) Royyan used gak when he wanted to say no. Gak is a non-standard language for tidak. This is
a casual style, as well as Fatur said before.
(11) Oh, Enggak, jadi sebetulnya begini dari kami sebetulnya sudah menyampaikan (Oh,
no, the truth is we already said it) (Royyan Speech)
In (11) Royyan also wanted to say no but he chooses to use enggak. Based on KBBI enggak is the
non-standard word in Indonesia. The using of the non-standard word is one of the characteristics of
Casual Style
The way they are expressing “no” word is Casual Style.
3. The Way of Saying Yes.
(12) Oke demo bukan haram. (Okay, protesting is not haram) (Fatur Speech)
(13) Oke jam setengah 4 ini kita lakukan konferensi pers (Okay, we are going to do
conferencing at 3.30 PM)
Oke is from the English language ‘okay’ it is borrowed from the English language. According to
KBBI oke is a word to represent an agreement and it is qualified as p cak (cakapan) and it is part of
non-standard language. In this sentence, Fatur showed Casual Style.
(14) Yap, dan juga kita lihat lagi. (Yes, we will see later) (Fatur Speech)
Yap is the slang word in Indonesia for saying iya or ‘yes’ in English. The use of slang words is the
criteria of Casual Style.
4. Express the question
(15) Kok sekarang teman teman kita lagi ditahan sih di kepolisian? (So, why our friend is
jailed by the police?) (Fatur Speech)
(16) Kok ditangkapin sih? (why chase them?) (Fatur Speech)
(17) kok saya belum ketemu ya pak? (Why we haven’t met sir?) (Royyan)
Fatur and Royyan used kok to make his sentence as an interrogative sentence. It is suitable for the
sentence because of the purpose of the kok word. According to KBBI, the purpose of the Kok word is
the replacement of mengapa or why in English. Kok is a non-standard language for mengapa. In this
sentence, he used casual style because of the use of standard language.
The way they are expressing their question is using Casual Style.
From the findings above we can know that the dominant language used by the youth generation to
older people is Casual Style. They do not use the Casual Style when they are addressing the target
because of the age gap that limits their freedom to say whatever they want. Many cultures have
certain rules of social behavior, such as in Indo-European language there is a distinction between

“you” (familiar) and” you (polite) (Fromkin et al., n.d.). That is why the youth generation still use the
formal style of addressing the older generation in a public debate
Also, they dominantly use the Informal styles, such as they shortened the question (Fromkin et
al., n.d.) with the use of “Kok”. Kok is a non-standard language. The use of non-standard language is
one of the criteria of the casual style. Also, they are using oke as the way of saying yes. Oke is
borrowed from the English word “Okay” but in Indonesia, the use of oke is for the informal situation
because it is part of the non-standard word. By seeing the findings in the video on youtube. The
dominant style they used when they were in a public debate is Casual style.
B. The Reason of the chosen style
1. Setting
The setting in this situation is that the university student is angry with the government authority
because they make a new authority which is very unnecessary. Also, the government thought that the
new authority is necessary because it will strengthen the government especially KPK which is the
opposite of the university student that they thought that the new authority is weakening KPK. In this
situation, we can see that they are angry with the government official because of those authorities
Feeling anger can change our brain to see the risk view such as it can make us more impulsive
and make us underestimate the chances of bad outcomes (Devlin, 2019). It makes them use non-
standard language which is for the informal situation. Because informal styles permitting abbreviation
(Fromkin et al., n.d.) and Fatur and Royyan used that term when they were delivering some
information.
2. Participant
a. Social Distance
Because of the conflict that happened back then between university student and government official it
makes a distance between them such as in
(4) Baik, disini saya sebetulnya ingin bertanya kepada bang Fahri. (Oke, here I want to
ask to Bang Fahri)
In here Royyan called Fahri Hamzah as Bang. According to KBBI bang is the shorten word
of abang. Abang is the way people call their brother, and they also older than them. Here they showed
an intimate part of them by calling the government official as bang, because it is used for a very close
person with another person.
(18) Jangan jangan ini bukan DPR tapi dewan perwakilan fahri hamzah bukan dewan
perwakilan Rakyat Indonesia. (Perhaps it is not DPR but it is Dewan Perwakilan Fahri
Hamzah not Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Indonesia) (Royyan)
The using of Jangan-jangan is the way of expressing uncertain about something in Indonesia. The
uncertain thing is attacking the government official that makes the viewers clearly know that they are
not in a good term which is there is a distance between them by using those words.
In this part there are two different sides, first, they called the government official as bang which is
very intimate but second, they still doubted the government official by seeing (18). The
word bang appeared because Fahri Hamzah thought he was part of them, the university student, so he
knew about them, and he respects them. Also, the university student is okay to addressing him as
“Bang”.
b. Status Scale
The choice of using the formal style is there when they are debating such as we can see in (1). They
are using saya instead of aku because government officials have high status. Even though there were a
lot of casual styles involved in the speech but in order to address their speaker they used formal style.
3. Topic

This public debate only one topic, it was about RUU KUHP and RUU KPK. The university student
insists that the new authorities are unnecessary while the government official insists that they need
some change in this country to be a better country. In the end, they still have the same topic and all the
diction is all about the law, the government, and academic things which should make their argument
strong and believable. To add more they since it is talked about politics which people will get bored
easily so, the use of a simple word to express their anger to the government official.
C. The Function
1. Expressive Utterances
(7) Dari situ keresahan kami lahir (From that our restlessness was born.)
The speaker which is Fatur said that to express that he has a gut inside their selves as a university
student so by saying that it will deliver information to the audience that the university students felt
that. The restlessness that they have is the feeling inside his and a lot of people heart so by saying that
word perhaps the government official will understand their feeling and understand why is the situation
happen.
2. Directive Utterance
(19) Tolong dong Pak Bambang Susatyo diajak keluar untuk kemudian, kalau memang
jadi ditunda, ya umumkan. (So please ask Mr. Bambang Susatyo to go out meeting us
and if it is cancelled just announce it.)
In this utterance the speaker wants the hearer to ask Mr. Bambang Susatyo to come out and have a
talk with them. So, their purpose to do this action will be safely worked. This utterance is used for the
government official to not cancel their meeting again and again it will make the situation more and
more chaotic than before so they use the utterance to ask them nicely to go out in a meeting.
3. Referential Utterance
(20) Yang terhormat, Insinyur Indra Iskandar menjamin akan disampaikannya tuntutan
kami dan dijamin diadakannya pertemuan sebelum tanggal 24 september (Make an
agreement letter from Honorary Mister Indra Iskandar guarantee that our demand will be
delivered and there will be a meeting before 24 September 2019)
The information that will be delivered by the speaker in this utterance is that Mr. Indra Iskandar will
be guarantee and deliver their demand to do a meeting on 24 September 2019. That information is one
of the important information regarding their situation that the government official always cancels their
meeting before actually doing the meeting.
4. Poetic Utterance
(18) Jangan jangan ini bukan DPR tapi dewan perwakilan fahri hamzah bukan dewan
perwakilan Rakyat Indonesia. (Perhaps it is not DPR but it is Dewan Perwakilan Fahri
Hamzah, not Dewan Perwakilan Rakyat Indonesia) (Royyan)
In this sentence Royyan tried to make a poetic word for Fahri Hamzah. The purpose of the sentence is
to make some sarcasm because of what Fahri Hamzah said before Royyan said this utterance. The
word is poetic because the target of this language said: “kalo yang itu boleh juga” (I like that). Which
is the word utterance is success to make people say that it is a good and beautiful word.
5. Phatic Utterance
(15) Kok sekarang teman teman kita lagi ditahan sih di kepolisian? (So, why our friend is
jailed by the police?) (Fatur Speech)
(16) Kok ditangkapin sih? (why chase them?) (Fatur Speech)
By saying those two utterances Fatur implied that their friend is chased by police and he felt guilty
because of that so that is why he was asking the government official about that situation. Also, they
thought it was not a good situation to face because it is so unfair for them.

All of the functions there are having their purpose to express what is inside their mind to
deliver to the hearer. By seeing the functions of the utterances, the speaker wants some understanding
about what are they saying. If people understand their situation perhaps people will help them to make
it better.
3. CONCLUSION
The styles they used to deliver their opinion in public debate is mostly a casual style. Even though the
age gap between the listener and the speaker but the speaker still using a formal way of addressing
themselves selves to the listener. Also, they are using a formal way to addressing the listener but they
have a nickname to address the listener such as bang which is a very intimate way of addressing
someone. The rest of their style us using Casual style because by seeing the way they say no and yes
we can see the casualty in their language. The dominant language they used in their speech in that
public debate is a casual style. They are using those style because of the setting and the situation
outside and they also were a representative for Indonesian people, also the formal style is used
because of the participant which is older than them so they are using that and the casual style is
making them easier to make the audience know about the condition
The function of the languages are for many things, such as they can express their feeling by
saying the words to the government official, they can deliver the information needed for the debate,
they want the government to do something related with their demand, they can make a good sentence
for the government official as a touch of sarcasm because sarcasm is a part of the poetic function and
the last is they show solidarity for their friend that chased by police yet they did not do any violence
in the street.
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Aitchison, J., & Wardaugh, R. (1987). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. In The British Journal of
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Chaer, A., & Agustina, L. (2004). Sociolinguistik: Perkenalan Awal. PT Rineka Cipta.
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Asia-Pacific Linguistics

Journal of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society (JSEALS)