Sula Malay's Hate Speech in the Sanana Jurisdiction: A Pragmatic Study

Abstract

Hate speech – harsh or menacing words or writing that propagate bigotry based on sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, or other comparable categories – is prevalent in nearly every language, including Indonesian. In fact, hate speech in Indonesian society is also spoken in its regional languages such as Sula Malay in North Maluku Province. This hate speech is of interest and should be studied because literal and metaphorical meanings, along with cultural context, are important for learning and understanding the vocabulary of a language. This study uses a qualitative descriptive approach to analyze hate speech in the Malay Sula language with data taken from the webpages of the Directory of Decisions of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Indonesia. The research population consisted of ten decisions, out of which five were selected as samples. Data analysis uses lexical-grammatical semantic theory, while pragmatic theory focuses on illocutionary speech acts, which is a tool of forensic linguistic analysis. Types of illocutionary speech include commissive speech in the form of threatening and insulting using curse words; directive speech in the form of commanding, which means to insult using curse words; and expressive speech in the form of regret that intends to inform by using insulting and cursing words. Another form of hate speech was found in the form of defamation.