Syntactic and Pragmatic Function of Text Messages Sent by Denpasar Deaf People in WhatsApp Conversation: Study Case

ABSTRACT : Instant messenger application is a popular way of communication in the present day. WhatsAppis one of them. The user of WhatsApp varied, and the Deaf community is no exception. The language used in anonline instant messenger, such as WhatsApp, categorized as oralized written text. Meaning, the languageresembles both written and oral language. The ―spoken‖ language for the Deaf community is Sign language, thelanguage used in WhatsApp presumably would have a reflection of Sign language structure. The present articleis a study case with one Deaf participant. From the analysis conducted, it was found that the participant tends touse two verbs in a row, use a verb to function as an adverb, and the ellipsis of syntactic function and syntaxcategories such as subject and conjunction occurred. Furthermore, the participant tends to convey directly to thepoint of what he wants to say in the conversation. The result suggested that the Sign language structureinfluences the language used in WhatsApp conversation. Other than the Sign language structure that might haveinfluenced the most, the situation of language acquisition of Deaf children could not be denied. Besides that,WhatsApp’s characteristic as an instant messenger application might also have some influence.

Keywords: Sign language, Denpasar Sign Language, WhatsApp, Instant messaging