POLITENESS STRATEGIES IN MANDAILING WEDDING CEREMONY

The aim of this study was to find out the politeness strategies of Mandailing language in makkobar wedding ceremony. The Subjects were taken from the participants of the makkobar wedding ceremony. There are four participants involved in the party, namely mora, anak boru, kahanggi, and suhut. The techniques of collecting data were observing and recording the speeches of the participants in the makkobar then interviewing “ketua adat mandailing”. The research observed the subject closely and interviewed them to certify the trusworthness of this research. This study investigated the politeness strategies in Mandailing language, such as the using of kinship terms, pronoun, indirect speech and greeting. Then, the types of politeness strategies found in that party are Generosity Maxim, Approbation Maxim, Modesty Maxim, Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim. Compare to Generosity Maxim, Approbation Maxim, Agreement Maxim and Sympathy Maxim, Modesty Maxim is dominantly used by the speakers. The reason for applying this dominant type of politeness is caused by the speakers who are involved in that party tried to save the hearer’s face by getting closer to the hearer. As there is pantang or the prohibition to talk directly, the speaker tries to avoid the recklessness in the party. Thus, it minimizes the distance between speaker and hearer by getting closer each other.