AN ANALYSIS OF TOPIC SHIFT IN A GIRLS COMMUNITY

Abstract

Abstract:  This study aims to find and classify categories of the topic shift in the girl conversations and to find the dominant type of topic shift that is found in the girl conversations. The approach of this study is qualitative method. The object that is researcher used to analyze topic shift is spoken texts. The notion of ‘text’ as the verbal record of a communicative act becomes a good deal more complex than we consider what is meant by spoken ‘text’. The simplest view to assume is that a tape-recording of a communicative act will preserve the ‘text’. The researcher recorded the conversations that occurred between the girl’s communities in Hazairin University of Bengkulu, then made written transcriptions based on the conversations that occurred. Although the dominant type of topic shift is the whole changing topic, which is the most common type of topic shift on the girl community in Unihaz,  we should realize that there still many topics will appear. Moreover, the context of each utterance depends on itself, based on the situation that is occurred at that time. The context when the girls said of both topic shift is the opening conversation, the distraction, and the closing conversation. After analyzing the topic shift in the girl conversation, the writer would like to conclude the use of object change are 3 (three) utterances and the whole changing topic are 4 (four) utterances.

Keywords: topic shift, girls, conversations, spoken