MEETING INTENSITIES AND SPEECH VARIETIES: REVISITING YASSI'S SYMMETRICITY THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
William Labov first introduced the concept of style in the context of sociolinguistics in 1966 and divided it into casual and careful speech. In speech varieties, speech style means the form of language that the speaker uses which is characterized by the degree of formality (Labov, 2006). In 1967, Martin Joos classified both spoken and written styles into five levels, including the frozen, formal, consultative, casual, and intimate styles of speech. Several recent studies about speech varieties and speech styles mostly used variables such as age, setting, social class, dynasty, occupation, speech purpose, and the occasion setting. Meanwhile, this study revisits Yassi's Symmetricity Theoretical Framework (KIMLI 2021) and uses the meeting intensities variable to find the different patterns of speech varieti es in Luwuk Banggai's daily used languages and in American culture. The meeting intensities variable is divided into Always, Usually, Sometimes, Rarely, and Never. This research used mixed methods research that combines quantitative and qualitative research methods. The data for speech variety patterns in Luwuk Banggai was obtained from surveys and interviews, while data for speech variety patterns in American culture was obtained from transcribed conversations in American reality shows and social experiments. This research concluded that the meeting intensities variable influenced the speech variety pattern in Luwuk Banggai's daily used languages, but not in American culture.
meeting intensities, speech varieties, Yassi's symmetricity theoretical framework, Luwuk Banggai's daily used languages, American culture