The Way of LAPOR! Site’s Users Communicate Complaints in 2015:
The Study of Systemic Functional Linguistics
Amanda Puspanditaning Sejati
1
and Deddy Suryana
2
1
Nursing Department, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Sumedang, Indonesia
2
English Education Department, Universitas Pendidikan Indonesia, Bandung, Indonesia
Keywords: Genre Analysis, Complaint Genre, Systemic Functional Linguistics.
Abstract: This study examines the use of language in the genre of the complaints in public messages on the LAPOR!
site in 2015. The main objectives of this study are to explore the generic structure and the linguistics
features used in the complaint messages using SFL approach, and to describe the achievement of social
function of the complaints messages that can be indicated from the generic structure and the linguistics
features used by the LAPOR! site’s users. This research used descriptive qualitative method because it aims
to illustrate the use of language with the natural data without any manipulation of the researcher. The data in
this study were 40 complaining messages that were given to the responsible authorities to make solutions.
Therefore, the complaining messages on this website were categorized as direct complaints. The results of
this study indicated that a complaint genre in LAPOR! site had 9 stages and had several lexicogrammatical
features. Focusing on the achievement of social function, the entire of complaint messages can be
understood as complaint activity, as reflected in its responses. The social function of complaint genre can be
achieved because the complaint messages were supported by the effective generic structure and relevant
linguistics features.
1 INTRODUCTION
The social problems that arise in society are an
example of dynamic social life. The dynamics
require people to be more sensitive to their social
environment. Efforts that can be made by the
community to show their concern for the
environment are by contributing ideas to solve the
problems occurred. Therefore, Indonesian
government facilitates the citizens to convey their
social problems to the institutions through LAPOR!
site, which can be accessed through
www.lapor.go.id. homepage.
In the linguistics term, the communicative
function is used to convey the problem is called a
direct complaint. Generally, communicative function
of complaints is to express a subjective view based
on observations and feelings of complainants on
their dissatisfaction of the factual object (Edwards,
2005: 6). Based on its nature, complaints can be
divided into two categories. Those are indirect
complaint that aimed for expressing dissatisfaction;
and direct complaint (instrumental complaint) that
aimed to construct changes or to change
circumstances (Daskal & Kampf, 2015:1228). Based
on its form, complaints can be expressed orally and
written form. In this case, a complaint message on
LAPOR! site is a written complaint form.
Direct complaints are more beneficial compare to
indirect complaints. This benefit i.e. improvement
response from the receiving party. In the direct
complaints the possibility of getting improvement
response tends to be higher because the problem is
conveyed to the party who has the authority to
provide the solution, whereas on indirect complaint
the problem is submitted to the party who has no
authority to provide solution. Therefore, the direct
complaint expression is more sensitive because there
is level of power difference between complainant
and the receiving party. Such sensitivity can be a
product of language used is influenced by cultural
context. The influence of culture can be reflected
through the existence of communication patterns
formed by customs in society (Yates and Orlikowski
in Cornut, Giroux, & Langley, 2012:22).
The pattern of communication can be formed by
the convention in the community of the same
cultural background (Widdowson, 2011:28).
14
Sejati, A. and Suryana, D.
The Way of LAPOR! Site’s Users Communicate Complaints in 2015: The Study of Systemic Functional Linguistics.
DOI: 10.5220/0007161200140018
In Proceedings of the Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference
on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education (CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017) - Literacy, Culture, and Technology in Language Pedagogy and Use, pages 14-18
ISBN: 978-989-758-332-2
Copyright © 2018 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reserved

Therefore, people tend to use these patterns to
increase the level of comprehension (Eggins,
2004:57). In language realm, this communication
pattern is called genre. In line with SFL (Systemic
Functional Linguistics) genre concept which states
that genre is a social activity because it involves
speakers and speech partners, and has a social
function manifested through patterned stages
(Martin & Rose in Wrigglesworth & McKeever,
2010:115). In this regard, the SFL sees genre as a
cultural context that influences the text in several
ways, including social functions or communicative
functions, stages to achieve the purpose of
communication, and the selection of linguistics units
used (Gerot & Wignell, 1995:17, Bache,
2010:2563). In addition, genre also refers to text
type that exist in the community (Joyce & Feez in
Emilia & Christie, 2013:1).
Study of the genre has been widely conducted in
both oral and written genres. Research that explores
verbal genres such as on telephone conversations
between customer service representatives and
customers in telecommunication companies in China
(Xu, Wang, Forey, & Li, 2010), and the pre-school
age conversation genre (Hoyte, Torr, & Degotardi,
2013). Some research on writing genre i.e. the
relational genres in readers letters rubric at
www.kompas (Muniroh, 2011), report genre of
scientific work sessions (Maingueneau, 2002), genre
on message complaints from students addressed to
the dean (Al-Momani, 2014), genre of wedding
invitation letter in Iran (Sharif & Yarmohammadi,
2013), genre of editorial letter in the electronic
newspaper The Washington Times (Ansary &
Babaii, 2005), genre of news text on the Mobi News
website (Erjavec & Kovacic, 2009) and genre of
conversations on Facebook. In addition, there are
also studies that explore the commercial genre on
trade letters (Yunxia, 2000), and genre in business
letters (Nguyen & Miller, 2012).
Based on literature observations, studies that
examine relational genres in the form of writing
have not been found, especially studies that examine
the structure of the direct complaint genre. In
addition, there are limited researches that examine
the pattern of socio-political communication
between the society and government in the context
of Indonesian culture by using Systemic Functional
Linguistics approach. Therefore, this study aims to
examine the written relational genre in the form of
direct complaints in Indonesian culture context by
using the SFL approach.
2 METHODS
This study is a qualitative research that aims to
describe the use of language to convey
communicative functions in the form of direct
complaints. In this context, complaints are classified
as social activities. In addition, qualitative research
occupied to describe and analyze things in the form
of phenomena, events, attitudes, perceptions, and
social activities (Sukmadinata, 2012:60;
Koentjaraningrat, 1977). Therefore, the use of
qualitative research methods by means of descriptive
approach is considered appropriate as an approach to
examine the phenomenon of the use of language that
occurs naturally (Denzin & Lincoln in Malik &
Hamied, 2016:172; Mariam in Creswell, 1994:57).
The data analyzed is natural, because it is
intended to express the actual communicative
function. The nature of the complaint message can
be an advantageous aspect because the genre study
is prioritizing data actuality (Bhatia, Biber, Conrad
in Cornut, Giroux, & Langley, 2012:26).
Based on the writer consideration, the complaint
messages sampling in this study were taken by using
purposive sampling technique, (Maxwell in
Alwasilah, 2009:147). The complaint messages that
were sampled in this study are 40 complaints
containing content in the form of complaints and
aspirations, as mostly those content generally
appears on the complaint message at LAPOR! site.
3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Generic Structures of Complaints
Genre at LAPOR! Site in 2015
Based on the analysis result, there are 9 stages to
make direct complaint genre at LAPOR! site. Those
nine stages have their own functions. In addition,
when it viewed from the occurrence frequency, the
stages can be divided into 2 types i.e. the stage that
always appears (obligatory) and the stage that can
appear (optional). In addition, the total occurrence
frequency of all stages in 40 direct complaints is
246. In Table 1., there is an explanation consisting
of the stages that appear on the direct complaint at
LAPOR! site and occurrence frequency, function of
each stage, and type of stage.
Based on the information in Table 1., the stage
that has a dominant appearance percentage is the
obligatory stage. The stage consists of the Complaint
Address stage and the Request stage. These two
The Way of LAPOR! Site’s Users Communicate Complaints in 2015: The Study of Systemic Functional Linguistics
15

stages become the dominating stage and the
obligatory stage that triggered by direct complaint at
the LAPOR! site intended to get improvement efforts
from complaint recipient. Therefore, the complaint
recipient needs to be explicitly clear in order to get
the right solution.
The result of the analysis shows that there are 27
variations of generic structure complaint pattern at
LAPOR! site. A number of such variations may arise
due to the optional stage. The appearance of
variations in generic structures is in line with the
opinion of Eggins (2004:65) "... the inclusion of
optional elements and more extended variations of
the genre". While the generic structure potential
(GSP) pattern used to describe the usual series of
stages used in expressing the direct complaint genre
at LAPOR! site as follows:
Complaint Address ^ (Complaint Opening) ^ *
(Orientation Issues) ^ * <Request> ^ *
<(Trigger Evidence)> ^ * <(Complaint)> ^ *
(Lecture) ^ (Complainant Address) ^ *
<(Thanking Expression) >
3.2 Linguistics Features of Complaints
Genre at LAPOR! Site in 2015
A complaint message is a product of language used
activity to achieve certain communicative purposes.
In realizing the communicative purpose, language
users create conventions that related to linguistics
features used. Table 1 contains the description of
linguistics features contained in complaints genre at
LAPOR! site.
3.3 The Communicative Function
Comprehension of Complaints
Genre at LAPOR! Site in 2015
Based on the analysis of communicative function
comprehension, all observed complaints can be
understood, although those are expressed in several
generic structures variations. That comprehension is
caused by the complaints expressed supported by
Potential Generic Structure (GSP). There are two
aspects that used as a standard to analyze the social
function comprehension of the complaints genre at
LAPOR! site. The standards are response from the
institution and LAPOR! site users; and the complaint
message status. The results of the analysis show that
the social function of the complaint message has
been achieved. In other words, the complaint activity
has been understood as a complaint, not as another
activity. The achievement of this social function is
indicated by the response to the 40 complaints
messages, either responses from related institutions
or from other LAPOR! site users. In LAPOR! site
there are features that serve to categorize the
complaint on the basis of whether the complaints are
followed-up or not by the institutions as the recipient
of the complaint. If the status changed it may
indicate that the complaint is comprehended by the
recipient.
Table 1: The Structure of Complaint Genre at LAPOR! Site in 2015.
CONAPLIN and ICOLLITE 2017 - Tenth Conference on Applied Linguistics and the Second English Language Teaching and Technology
Conference in collaboration with the First International Conference on Language, Literature, Culture, and Education
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4 CONCLUSIONS
Based on the above research findings it can be
drawn four further points. First, the use of linguistics
features and stages variations in the text of
complaint at LAPOR! site indicate that the text of the
complaint is a genre formed by a dynamic society.
This dynamics is caused by the variation of
Indonesian society in terms of ethnicity, mother
tongue, territory, and social status. Second, the
results of this study seem to confirm the basic
concepts in genre theory embedded by SFL theory.
In SFL there are two claims: each genre has a
different generic structure, and each stage has its
own linguistics features because it represents a
different purpose (Eggins, 2004: 66). In Indonesian
cultural context, there is no study that specifically
discusses the form of language used to declare a
direct complaint, then the results of this study are
expected to contribute the documentation of
language used that expressed direct complaint.
Third, the results of this study are expected to be a
reference for research that examines the genre,
especially for research that examines similar genres
embodied in different forms and media. Fourth, the
results of this study are expected to provide an
overview to the society, language teachers, and
learners of the Indonesian language on the use of
language for the purpose of complaints.
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