The predicate as a locus of grammar and interaction in colloquial Indonesian
Descriptions of Indonesian usually take the clause as the starting point for analysing grammatical structure and
rely on the notion of ellipsis to account for the way speakers actually use language in everyday conversational interaction. This
study challenges the status of “clause” by investigating the structures actually used by Indonesian speakers in informal
conversation and it demonstrates that the predicate, rather than the clause, plays a central role in the grammar of Indonesian
conversation. The preponderance of predicates in the data that do not have explicit arguments suggests that this format is best
viewed as the default. When a predicate is produced without overt arguments, reconstructing what arguments may have been elided is
often ambiguous or indeterminate and seems to be irrelevant to speakers. An examination of turn-taking, overlap and incrementing
in conversation also shows that predicates, rather than full clauses, are the grammatical format participants regularly orient
to.
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.Predicate configurations in conversational Indonesian
- 2.1Verbal predicates
- 2.2Non-verbal predicates
- 2.3When there are no explicit arguments
- 3.Frequency and distribution of predicate configurations in conversation
- 4.Predicates in interaction
- 4.1Turn constructions and predicates
- 4.2Participant orientation and predicates
- 4.2.1Next turn onset
- 4.2.2Joint utterance completion
- 4.2.3Turn continuations
- 5.Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- Notes
- Glosses
-
References
References (54)
References
Auer, Peter. 1996. On the prosody and syntax of turn-continuations. In Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen & Margret Selting (eds.), Prosody in Conversation, 57–100. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Auer, Peter. 2005. Projection in interaction and projection in grammar. Text 25(1). 7–36. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Bickel, Balthasar. 2003. Referential density in discourse and syntactic typology. Language 79(4). 708–736. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Clayman, Steven E. 2012. Turn-constructional units and the transition relevance place. In Jack Sidnell & Tanya Stivers (eds.), The handbook of Conversation Analysis, 150–166. Malden MA: John Wiley & Sons. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cole, Peter, Gabriella Hermon & Yassir Tjung. 2006. Is There Pasif Semu in Jakarta Indonesian? Oceanic Linguistics 45(1). 64–90. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Comrie, Bernard. 1989. Language universals and linguistic typology, 2nd edn. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cumming, Susanna. 1991. Functional change: The case of Malay constituent order. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
De Heer, Gerrit Koenraad. 1975. Indonesian syntax. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University PhD thesis.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Djenar, Dwi Noverini. 2014.
Nih and tuh as spatial deixis in imagined interaction. In Anthony Jukes (ed.), Deixis and spatial expressions in languages of Indonesia. NUSA 561. 27–46.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Djenar, Dwi Noverini, Michael C. Ewing & Howard Manns. 2018. Style and intersubjectivity in youth interaction. Berlin: Mouton De Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Du Bois, John W. 1987. The discourse basis of ergativity. Language 63(4). 805–855. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Du Bois, John W. 2014. Towards a dialogic syntax. Cognitive Linguistics 25(3). 359–410. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Du Bois, John W. & Elise Kärkkäinen. 2012. Taking a stance on emotion: Affect, sequence, and intersubjectivity in dialogic interaction. Text and Talk 32(4). 433–51. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Du Bois, John W., Stephen Schuetze-Coburn, Danae Paolino & Susanna Cumming. 1993. Outline of discourse transcription. In Jane A. Edwards & Martin D. Lampert (eds.), Talking data: Transcription and coding methods for language research, 45–89. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Enfield, Nick. 2011. Sources of asymmetry in human interaction: Enchrony, status, knowledge and agency. In Tanya Stivers, Lorenza Mondada & Jacob Steensig (eds.), The morality of knowledge in conversation, 285–312. Cambridge: University of Cambridge Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ewing, Michael C. 2005a. Colloquial Indonesian. In Alexander Adelaar & Nikolaus P. Himmelmann (eds.), The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar, 227–258. London: Routledge.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ewing, Michael C. 2015a. Localising person reference among Indonesian youth. In Zane Goebel, Deborah Cole & Howard Manns (eds.), Margins, hubs, and peripheries in a decentralizing Indonesia. Tilburg Papers in Culture Studies Special Issue 1621: 26–41.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ewing, Michael C. 2015b. The kalau framing construction in Indonesian comics. In Dwi Noverini Djenar (ed.), Youth language in Indonesia and Malaysia. NUSA 581. 51–72![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ewing, Michael C. In press. Features of Indonesian in Bandung. NUSA.
Ewing, Michael C. & Susanna Cumming. 1998. Relative clauses in Indonesian discourse: Face to face and cyberspace interaction. In Shobhana L. Chelliah & Willem J. de Reuse (eds.), Papers from the fifth annual meeting of the Southeast Asian Linguistics Society, 79–96. Tempe, AZ: Arizona State University Program for Southeast Asian Studies.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ford, Cecilia E., Barbara A. Fox, & Sandra A. Thompson. 2002. Constituency and the grammar of turn increments. In Cecilia E. Ford, Barbara A. Fox, & Sandra A. Thompson (eds.), The language of turn and sequence, 14–38. Oxford: Oxford University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Fox, Barbara A. 1982. The focus systems in Old Javanese, Tagalog and Proto-Malayo-Polynesian. [Unpublished ms.].![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Gärtner, Hans-Martin, Paul Law & Joachim Sabel. 2006. Clause structure and adjuncts in Austronesian languages: A critical introductory survey. In Hans-Martin Gärtner, Paul Law & Joachim Sabel (eds.), Clause Structure and Adjuncts in Austronesian Languages, 1–42. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Givón, Talmy. 2001. Syntax: An introduction, Volume II1. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Goodwin, Charles. 1995. Sentence construction within interaction. In Uta M. Quasthoff (ed.), Aspects of oral communication, 198–219. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Himmelmann, Nikolaus P. 2005. The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar: typological perspectives. In Alexander Adelaar & Nikolaus P. Himmelmann (eds.), The Austronesian languages of Asia and Madagascar, 110–181. London: Routledge.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Jefferson, Gail. 1984. Notes on some orderlinesses of overlap onset. In V. D’Urso & P. Leonardi (eds.), Discourse analysis and natural rhetoric, 11–38. Padua: Cleup Editore.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lambrecht, Knud. 1994. Information structure and sentence form: Topic, focus, and the mental representations of discourse referents. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Lerner, Gene H. 1991. On the syntax of sentences in progress. Language in Society 20(3). 441–458. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Macdonald, R. Ross & Soenjono Darjowidjojo. 1967. A student’s reference grammar of modern formal Indonesian. Washington: Georgetown University Press.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Matić, Dejan. 2015. Information Structure in Linguistics. In James D. Wright (ed.), International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral Sciences, Volume 121, 2nd edn., 95–99. Elsevier: Amsterdam. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Ono, Tsuyoshi & Sandra A. Thompson. 1994. Unattached NPs in English conversation. Annual Meeting of the Berkeley Linguistics Society 201. 402–419. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sacks, Harvey, Emanuel A. Schegloff & Gail Jefferson. 1974. A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking in conversation. Language 50(4). 696–735. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sapir, Edward. 1921. Language: An introduction to the study of speech. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Schegloff, Emanuel A. 1996. Turn organization: One intersection of grammar and interaction. In Elinor Ochs, Emanuel A. Schegloff & Sandra A. Thompson (eds.), Interaction and grammar, 52–133. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Selting, Margret. 2015. Sentences and clauses – from the perspective of Interactional Linguistics. In Christa Dürscheid & Jan Georg Schneider (eds.), Handbuch Satz, Äußerung, Schema, 180–204. Berlin: De Gruyter. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sneddon, James N. 2006. Colloquial Jakartan Indonesian. Canberra: Pacific Linguistics.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Sneddon, James N., Alexander Adelaar, Dwi N. Djenar & Michael C. Ewing. 2010. Indonesian: A comprehensive grammar, 2nd edn. London: Routledge.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Stassen, Leon. 1997. Intransitive Predication. Clarendon Press, Oxford.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Thompson, Sandra A. & Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen. 2005. The clause as a locus of grammar and interaction. Discourse Studies 7(4–5). 481–505. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Thompson, Sandra A., Barbara A. Fox & Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen. 2015. Grammar in everyday talk: Building responsive actions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wolff, John U. 1986. Formal Indonesian, 2nd edn. Ithaca: Cornell University Southeast Asia Program. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wouk, Fay. 1984. Scalar transitivity and trigger choice in Toba Batak. In Paul Schachter (ed.), Studies in the structure of Toba Batak, 195–219. Los Angeles: UCLA Occasional Papers in Linguistics.![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Wouk, Fay. 1999. Dialect contact and koineization in Jakarta, Indonesia. Language Sciences 21(1). 61–86. ![DOI logo](https://benjamins.com/logos/doi-logo.svg)
![Google Scholar](https://benjamins.com/logos/google-scholar.svg)
Cited by (3)
Cited by three other publications
Ono, Tsuyoshi & Sandra A. Thompson
Mushin, Ilana & Simona Pekarek Doehler
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 18 july 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers.
Any errors therein should be reported to them.