Cup, Cup, Jangan Nangis! Language Socialization Study of Parents' Responses to Children's Cries

Abstract

Various things are socialized by parents through their actions and speech, even when responding to their child's cries, as the opinion of Burdelski (2012) and Santrock (2011). This paper intends to investigate the actions and speech of parents when responding to their child's crying and the socialization contained therein. To get an explanation, this qualitative research was conducted by distributing questionnaires via the Google form which were distributed by snowball sampling through WhatsApp groups and Twitter resulting in 98 answers, then followed by interviews with 24 families, and observations in two families. It was found that parents' responses were conveyed through one, two, or more speech acts that include assertive in the forms of an affirmation; directives in the forms of prohibition, advice, encouragement, asking (general question, assurance, investigation, rhetorical); expressive in the forms of an expression of getting surprised, teasing, showing caring expression, calming down, and blaming; and commissive in the forms of promising. Meanwhile, there are various socialization functions contained in these speech acts, such as affective socialization (in the form of caring or concern and reassurance), self-knowledge socialization (in the form of self-confidence, prudence), socialization of gender identity (maturity and gender), religiosity, shame, causal logic or the consequences, and even logical fallacy for blaming something that has nothing to do with the cause of the child falling.