Silence and Politeness in Nias Island
Abstract
The research aims to know the benefits of silence and politeness in Nias Island connected to the value of language and communication. Silence is an attitude of someone in language conducted according to the situation of community. Politeness is a behavior conducted by someone in a community. Nias Island has cultural values still upheld in the modern era. Crystal (2003: 14) says that the fundamental value of a common language presents unprecedented possibilities for mutual understanding and thus enables people to find fresh opportunities for communication. From this it is seen that silence has become a part or an element of a language, commonly termed silent language. In social context, silence is associated with politeness. The ways of speaking, as a part of cultural integrity, show politeness; or in other words it is said that politeness is reflected through language used. A silent person is considered to be polite. Qualitative research method supported by phenomenological approach is applied in the whole study [6]. The findings show that silence and politeness are a part of regional culture in Nias Island and still found in the communities to uplift peace and environmental tranquility.
Keywords: culture, language, silence and politeness
References
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