Epistemics of Discourse Marker Nah in Food Reviews in Colloquial Indonesian

Authors: Rika Mutiara (Esa Unggul University, Indonesia)
Speakers: Rika Mutiara
Strand: Text, Context and Entextualization
Session Type: General Session

Abstract

The present study aims at examining actions the speakers do in using discourse marker nah and how the reviewers as the more knowledgeable party constructed the discourse in sharing their knowledge. The data were taken from the YouTube food review videos spoken in colloquial Jakartan Indonesian. There are 41 utterances with nah. Two of them are interrogatives and the others are declaratives. The data were analyzed by scrutinizing the hearers’ responses. In interrogatives, the reviewer asks information to the other reviewer. The questions lead the interlocutor to focus on another issue. Thus, a new point of discussion is raised. In declaratives, some actions occur in giving the knowledge. The first action is introducing and pinpointing the important objects that is considered as the focus of the review. This action is conducted before the reviewers assess the objects. It is given in initial part of the review.
The second action is mentioning their activities that were not recorded. It is conducted to create a background knowledge. In the last action, the reviewer asks the audience to take an action based on the knowledge they share. The reviewers share more knowledge by using nah. Nah is also used to refer to the prior discussion in interrogatives and declaratives.

Keywords: Discourse marker, Indonesian, Information flow.