English Journal Literacy Utama

Discourse Markers in Athlete-Hosted Podcasts: An Analysis of Types and Functions in Spontaneous Speech

2026-01-28T15:36:20+07:00

Discourse markers play a vital role in spoken communication by helping speakers manage conversational flow, express attitudes, and maintain coherence. This study examines their types and functions in athlete-hosted podcast conversations. Using a qualitative descriptive design with document analysis, transcribed podcast data were analyzed to identify discourse marker types and explore their functions within spontaneous speech. A total of 2,013 discourse markers were identified. Six types emerged, each serving distinct pragmatic functions. Discourse connectives (39.90%) such as and, but, also, and then maintained coherence by linking ideas. Markers of information and participation (40.58%) like you know, I think, I mean, yeah, like, and actually expressed stance, clarified utterances, and engaged listeners. Information management markers (1.69%) such as okay and well indicated topic shifts or cognitive processing. Cause-result markers (8.44%) such as because and so explained reasoning and outcomes. Response markers (5.81%) including yeah and woah conveyed agreement or emotional reaction. Temporal/modal adverbs (3.57%) such as now, tomorrow, and sometimes marked time, while probably and maybe expressed uncertainty. This analysis confirms that each type of discourse marker contributes uniquely to achieving communicative goals in spontaneous speech. These findings demonstrate that athlete- hosted podcasts provide authentic and pragmatically rich spoken data, making them valuable for discourse analysis and language teaching. Future researchers are recommended to examine discourse marker usage in different context such as interview, tv shows, and debate.

SOCIAL FACTORS AND SOCIAL DIMENSIONS IN MEAN GIRLS (2004) MOVIE: SOCIOLINGUISTICS STUDY

2026-03-09T11:00:17+07:00

This research entitled “Social Factors and Social Dimensions in Mean Girls (2004) Movie: Sociolinguistics Study” analyzes sociolinguistic aspects of the film Mean Girls (2004) directed by Mark Waters, focusing on social factors and social dimensions in character conversations. Using a descriptive qualitative method, and the study analyzes purposively selected dialogues based on Holmes’ (2001) theory, which includes participants, setting, topic, and function, as well as the social distance scale, status scale, formality scale, and two functional scale. From 31 data samples, the findings show that all social factors consistently appear, with dominant participants being the main characters; Cady, Regina, Janis, Gretchen, Karen, and Damian, while conversations mainly occur in school settings and revolve around friendship, gossip, romance, reputation, and teenage social hierarchy. Utterances function to build, negotiate, maintain, or damage relationships while expressing solidarity, power, and conflict. All four social dimensions were identified, with the social distance scale as the most dominant with 13 data (42%), followed by status scale with 3 data (10%), formality scale with 5 data (16%), and two functional scale with 10 data (32%). Overall, the study concludes that language in Mean Girls functions not only as communication but also as a representation of social relationships, closeness, and status structures in teenage social interactions.

EXPRESSIVE ILLOCUTIORY SPEECH ACTS THE MOVIE SALT (2010) BY PHILLIP NOYCE: A PRAGMATICS STUDY

2026-03-09T10:49:40+07:00

This study aims to find various types and roles of expressive illocutionary acts in the dialogue of the film Salt (2010) based on a pragmatic perspective by referring to the speech act theory proposed Searle, J (1969) The objects analyzed in this study are the utterances of the main characters and supporting characters who interact directly in the film. The technique applied in this study is a qualitative descriptive method, which aims to describe and analyze the data in detail according to the context of the utterances. The findings of the study indicate that the film Salt contains various types of expressive illocutionary acts, such as expressions of happiness, sadness, anger, apology, surprise, regret, support, gratitude, and hope. The role of these expressive illocutionary acts includes conveying the speaker's feelings, developing interpersonal relationships, encouraging empathy, representing identity, creating a certain atmosphere, and encouraging actions or responses from the interlocutor. Thus, expressive illocutionary acts in the film Salt have an important function in expressing the characters' emotions, forming interactions between characters, and strengthening the meaning of the dialogue in the film's narrative.

A CODE-MIXING FOUND IN BOY WILLIAM PODCAST: A SOCIOLINGUISTICS STUDY

2026-03-09T10:38:09+07:00

Code-mixing is a linguistic phenomenon frequently found in Indonesian communication, particularly in entertainment media. This study focuses on identifying the types of code-mixing and the reasons behind their use by celebrities. The aim of this research is to classify the forms of code-mixing and analyze the underlying factors. The analysis refers to Muysken’s (2000) typology of Insertion, Alternation, and Congruent Lexicalization, as well as Hoffman’s (1991) framework of code-mixing motivations. This study employs a descriptive qualitative method with the research object consisting of two podcast videos by Boy William on YouTube featuring Angie and Fuji. The findings reveal that out of 40 instances of code-mixing, insertion dominates with 32 occurrences (80%), followed by alternation with 7 occurrences (17%), and congruent lexicalization with only 1 occurrences (3%). These results indicate that insertion is more often chosen because it is simple, expressive, and suitable for casual conversations. Furthermore, code-mixing functions to clarify meaning, add emotional situation, and strengthen group identity, especially among young audiences. This study shows that code-mixing in entertainment media is not only a linguistic variation but also an effective communication strategy within socio-cultural contexts

Representation of Ideology and Power: Critical Discourse Analysis of Le Minerale and Aqua Advertisements

2026-01-29T14:03:59+07:00

This study aims to analyze and compare the use of language in the Le Minerale advertisement of dr. Reisa edition and Aqua advertisement of Raisa edition using Norman Fairclough's Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) approach. This study focuses on how language functions as a means of constructing meaning, ideology, and power in the communication practices of mineral water advertising in Indonesia. The research data in the form of verbal and visual utterances that appear in the two television advertisements were analyzed through Fairclough's three dimensions, they were (1) text analysis, (2) discourse practice analysis, and (3) social practice analysis. The results of the analysis showed that the Le Minerale advertisement of dr. Reisa edition used a rational, scientific, and educational language style with declarative sentence structures and health-oriented diction. In contrast, the Aqua advertisement of Raisa edition emphasized an emotional, narrative, and reflective language style with the use of metaphors and personal pronouns. From a linguistic perspective, differences in diction, sentence structure, and modality indicate that Le Minerale builds an ideology of rationality and scientificity, while Aqua builds an ideology of humanism and balance in life. Through a critical discourse approach, this study concludes that both advertisements not only promote mineral water products, but also construct a social reality that represents cultural values, gender identity, and economic power in the creative industry.

GRAMMATICAL METAPHOR AND THE UNIVERSAL LAW OF PARTICIPANT REALIGNMENT IN VERBAL PROCESSES

2026-03-06T11:29:12+07:00

Building upon a research trajectory established in previous studies on Material processes (Ismail, 2020) and Mental processes (Ismail & Dahlia, 2024), this paper identifies a "Universal Law" of participant realignment within the Symbolic World of Verbal processes. While previous literature has extensively mapped nominalization in other domains, systematic evidence concerning the realignment of Verbal participants during the "unpacking" of grammatical metaphors has remained insufficient. Utilizing a qualitative descriptive method, seventeen data points involving the delexicalized verbs make, give, and have were extracted from the Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) and subjected to transitivity analysis.

The findings reveal a consistent tripartite realignment pattern: the Range restores the Verbal Process, while its qualifiers and prepositional phrases realign as Circumstances and Receivers, respectively. This demonstrates a unique transactional complexity in Verbal metaphors that distinguishes them from the Material and Mental patterns previously identified. Ultimately, this study completes a decade-long mapping of the English transitivity system, proving that participant realignment is a stable, predictable, and cognitively grounded linguistic phenomenon across all major process types.

Keyword: Grammatical Metaphor; Participant Realignment; Systemic Functional Linguistics; Transitivity; Verbal Process; Nominalization.

LANGUAGE STYLES AND ILLOCUTIONARY ACTS OF PIERS MORGAN SHOW: A SOCIOPRAGMATIC STUDY

2026-03-09T11:02:01+07:00

The purpose of this study is to analyze the language styles and illocutionary speech acts used by Piers Morgan in the political talk show Piers Morgan Uncensored, particularly in episodes discussing the Israel–Palestine conflict. This research employs a descriptive qualitative method with data in the form of utterances produced by Piers Morgan during interviews in the program. The analysis applies Martin Joos’ theory of language styles and John R. Searle’s theory of illocutionary speech acts within a sociopragmatic framework to examine how language is used in a political talk show context. The findings reveal 35 utterances representing language style and illocutionary speech acts. The most dominant language style is consultative style with 20 data (57.14%), followed by casual style with 10 data (28.57%) and formal style with 5 data (14.29%), while frozen and intimate styles are not identified in the data. In terms of illocutionary speech acts, directive acts are the most dominant with 21 data (42.86%), followed by assertive acts with 19 data (38.78%), expressive acts with 7 data (14.29%), and commissive acts with 2 data (4.08%). These findings indicate that Piers Morgan predominantly employs consultative language style and directive speech acts to guide discussions, challenge interviewees, and express his viewpoints within the sociopragmatic context of a political talk show.

The Influence of Social Media Exposure on Adolescent Vocabulary Development: A Psycholinguistic Review

2026-01-28T15:39:58+07:00

Social media has become an important source of linguistic input for adolescents, influencing how they acquire and use vocabulary in daily communication. While previous studies have emphasized sociolinguistic variation, limited research has examined adolescents’ vocabulary development from a psycholinguistic perspective. This study aims to investigate the influence of social media exposure on adolescents’ vocabulary development through a qualitative approach. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, observation, and analysis of social media texts involving adolescents aged 13–18 years. The findings reveal that adolescents acquire new vocabulary through repeated exposure to social media content, particularly informal and digital-based expressions. Psycholinguistically, this process involves cognitive mechanisms such as attention, memory, and lexical retrieval. The study concludes that social media plays a significant role in shaping adolescents’ vocabulary development and functions as an informal language learning environment.