Intrusive Busybody or Benevolent Buddy: Phatic Communication among Javanese Women

Phatic communication is a discourse mechanism used primarily to establish and maintain social bonds. It operates differently across societies as well as genders within the same society. Thus, failure to understand such differences might result in misunderstanding and communication breakdowns. This paper discusses the phatic communication of the Javanese, the largest ethnic group in Indonesia. We focus primarily on the Javanese women who represent the majority of the Javanese population. Understanding the unique characteristics of their phatic communication would certainly play an important role in the cross-cultural network. The sociopragmatic approach is used for the analytical procedure to scrutinize the characteristics of Javanese women's phatic communication and the data are collected by taking field notes, conducting in-depth interviews, and distributing Discourse Completion Tasks (DCT) questionnaire. The findings show that Javanese women use phatic communication for initiating a conversation, intensifying camaraderie, pleasing others, expressing happiness, and consoling others. The main function is to sustain social rapport. Some phatic talk topics that may be regarded in certain cultures as intrusive and humiliating, such as those which concern one’s private life, are not considered so among Javanese women. To Javanese women, phatic communication is crucial in maintaining and promoting solidarity. Understanding phatic communication among Javanese women would contribute to successful cross-cultural communication in building social networks and business affairs, definitely.


INTRODUCTION
have not been married at a certain age, women who have no children and women who cannot cook, are often perceived as the ones who are not able to completely play their roles, and this often causes these women to be a target of critiques, humiliation and belittling comments (Yuarsi, Dzuhayatin, Ruhaini, & Sofiana, 2002). Hence, both unmarried and married women in Javanese society are bearing unfair psychological burden. Meanwhile, the fact that a previous study claimed to prove that gossiping is the custom of Javanese women (Lestari, Djatmika, Sumarlam, & Purnanto, 2019), has perpetuated the stereotype of women being busybodies. The gossip activity starts by opening the conversation with a question or statement before heading to the target person being discussed that directs others to get involved in the conversation (Lestari et al., 2019). Gossiping by Javanese women has a distinctive background, social culture, and tradition. Phatic communication among Javanese women might contain gossip that strengthens the stereotype. An explanation that reveals the genuine purpose of Javanese women in conducting phatic communication is needed. They might conduct phatic communication to interfere with people's personal life or just to make an effort at 'being nice' without any intention of interfering. This paper investigates both the purpose and characteristics. It is hoped that the result would contribute to the cross-cultural communicative strategy in dealing with Javanese women.

METHOD
The respondents for this research were 125 adult Javanese women aged between 18 and 45, living in Madiun, East Java. All respondents were native speakers of Javanese who were raised in a Javanese cultural environment. The data were obtained through three methods: (1) Non-participation-observation, (2) Semi-structured interviews, and (3) Discourse completion task (DCT) questionnaire.
The first step was conducting the non-participation-observation method to obtain conversational data that contained phatic utterances. It was conducted by passively observing and listening to the conversations of the respondents. Field notes and audio recordings of the conversations were taken with the permission of the respondents. These conversations took place in public places such as the university office, classroom, cafés, shopping malls as well as at social events such as reunion and birthday parties. The audio recording was later transcribed for textual analysis. The textual analysis of the primary data was complemented by the data obtained from both the semi-structured interview and the DCT questionnaire. After observation, the semi-structured interview was conducted on 10 selected respondents to elicit further information on their purpose of conducting phatic communication. The respondents were selected randomly since all respondents were of similar criteria. The last step was distributing the DCT questionnaire to 125 respondents to comprehend their perception of phatic communication in maintaining social rapport. The designed DCT consisted of 10 elicited settings to perform phatic talks for initiating a conversation, congratulating, complimenting, gossiping, advising, and the question about the importance of phatic talks.
The textual analysis was conducted within a sociopragmatic framework. The data were analyzed by adopting a means-end method and a heuristic method (Leech, 1983). The analytical procedure is illustrated in Figure 1 The means-ends analysis aims to gain a problem solving both from the speaker's point of view (incrementality) and the hearer's point of view (sequentiality). The problem solving from the speaker's point of view is a plan (illocutionary act) to get the most likely result (perlocutionary act) by producing certain utterances (locutionary act). The hearer's point of view refers to the problem solving of the interpretation in the hearer's mental state to comprehend the most likely reason for the speaker's saying certain utterances. The scale describes the length of the means-end chain connecting the speech act to its goal. In addition to the goal, the speaker might perform the act of preserving the politeness principles (G PP ) to maintain good social relations. The other optional potential goal is marked with G 1 . The process starts at number 1 and ends at number 2. However, the intermediate state that is marked by 1 1 might also occur before the final state at number 2. The perlocutionary act or the effect is analyzed based on the response of the hearer to the speaker's phatic utterances. Then, the politeness aspect in phatic communication among Javanese women was analyzed by employing Javanese philosophy of Grapyak (friendliness), Semanak (warmth), Guyub (Solidarity), Tepa Selira (Tolerance), Andhap Asor (humility) and adopting Leech's General Strategy of Politeness (GSP) maxims comprising M1 (generosity) 'give a high value to the hearer (O)'s wants', M2 (tact) 'give a low value to the speaker (S)'s wants', M3 (Approbation) 'give a high value to O's qualities', M4 (Modesty) 'give a low value to S's qualities, M5 (Obligation from speaker to hearer) 'give a high value to S's obligation to O', M6 (Obligation from hearer to speaker) 'give a low value to O's obligation to S, M7 (agreement) 'give a high value to O's opinions', M8 (opinion reticence) 'give a low value to S's opinions', M9 (sympathy) 'give a high value to O's feelings, and M10 (feeling reticence) 'give a low value to S's feelings'.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Phatic communication is a communicative strategy in Javanese women's everyday talk. The illocutions refer to particular functions that are performed by particular locutions. The main intended effect (perlocution) is sustaining social rapport. It is illustrated in Figure 2.   120 (96%) out of 125 respondents stated in the DCT questionnaire that phatic communication is very important to maintain social rapport. Only 5 (4%) respondents considered phatic communication as unimportant talks as they believed that being benevolent was more about doing actions such as giving something and helping people than just performing friendly talks. The illocutions of phatic communication are classified into five types.

INITIATING A CONVERSATION
Conversations among Javanese women are initiated by greetings or comments about the weather. The following conversation between two female clerks in their 20's at the mall is an example of how greetings are performed. The translation in English is provided for the convenience of the readers.

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He The speaker initiated the conversation by the conventional form of greetings in Javanese, Piye kabare? (How are you?). Then, the hearer responded to the greetings by stating Apik-apik ae (I'm good) and continued the greetings by asking Piye kabarmu? (How about you?) to the speaker. A similar answer Aku ya apik (I'm fine too) was given by the speaker to state that she was fine. In this context, the goal (G) to initiate a conversation as well as the goal to preserve the politeness principles (G PP ) was achieved. Likely, the G and the G PP were simultaneously achieved as the main G of phatic communication is achieving a social rapport. The description is as follows.
. The means-end chain of initiating a conversation G = initiating a conversation G PP = delivering greetings 1 = greetings is uttered a = uttering greetings b = responding greetings 2 = conversation is initiated The positive response of the greetings from both speakers which indicated that they were in good condition was the intended perlocutionary act to achieve the goal of initiating a conversation as well as preserving politeness principles. The hearer applied the GSP maxim M6 that demanded the hearer to respond to the greetings. Responding greetings is also the realization of Javanese politeness grapyak (friendliness). Previous research has proved that greetings are used to initiate gossiping among Javanese women to attract others to get involved (Lestari et al., 2019) and function to express the closeness in a personal relationship (Masykuroh & Widyastuti, 2019). When interviewed, the respondents stated that both the questions and responses in their exchange of greetings were intended to initiate a conversation without any goal to share a piece of information or to be intrusive. Hence, their responses to such questions were always positive regardless of the actual condition of each interactant. This supports Wierzbicka's argument (2003) that Pollyanna questions in greetings are expected to be answered positively. The following is an excerpt from the interview 1b : Interviewer: Jika Anda menyapa teman dengan menanyakan kabar apakah Anda benarbenar bermaksud ingin mengetahui kabar teman Anda? (If you greet your friend by asking about her life, do you really mean to know her real condition?).
(No, I don't. This is just a small talk. It is like a habit if somebody asks about your life so that you've got to tell them that you are fine).
Initiating a conversation is also conducted by commenting on the weather. This is illustrated in the following conversation between two female university staff during their lunch break. The speaker's illocution to initiate the conversation (G) was commenced by asking Isuk dhek mau udan ya? (It was raining this morning, wasn't it?) as the act to perform politeness (G PP ). The topic of weather in the initial state obtained the intended perlocutionary act in the final state when the hearer responded Iya udan deres kawit isuk mau sekitar jam limaan (Yes. It was raining hard this morning around five). The speaker stated something that had already been obvious for both sides. The locution did not contain any specific information as the illocution was to commence a conversation. The G and the G PP were achieved simultaneously when the conversation was initiated.
The agreement in the hearer's answer was the M7 strategy of GSP that demanded the hearer to show agreement on the speaker's statement. Uttering agreement reflects the Javanese philosophy of Guyub (solidarity). This confirms that Javanese women prefer less conflicts in social interaction than having to argue with others (Lestari et al., 2019). The elicited data from the DCT shows that the respondents consider uttering greetings an effective strategy to initiate a conversation. Furthermore, greeting people is an obligation as it reflects the warm personality of Javanese women (semanak).

INTENSIFYING CAMARADERIE
After a conversation is initiated, it might be extended to fulfill another function namely intensifying camaraderie. One of the topics of this function is marital status. The following conversation between two Javanese women in their 20s at the mall shows how the conversation was extended to intensify camaraderie.

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Kowe In the initial state, the speaker asked about the hearer's marital status. Then, the hearer responded to the question by stating her single status and asked about the speaker's status. Responding to the hearer, the speaker performed further action by stating the same single status. The phatic communication, therefore, achieved the main goal (G) as well as the goal of preserving the politeness (G PP ). The description is in The phatic ritual with a personal topic is peculiar to the informal context and the friendly atmosphere of the speaker and hearer with a similar gender. The findings show that marital status is a common topic for small talk. Although Yuarsi et al. (2002) has noted that Javanese women who have not been married at a certain age are a target of critiques, humiliation and belittling comments, both speakers in the previous dialogue are young women in their 20's, the topic of marital status in this phatic communication was therefore public and could be asked freely without the emerging of Face Threatening Act (FTA). Moreover, asking about marital status is a form of benevolence as Javanese women are expected to be considerate due to their role as a caregiver (Smith-Hefner, 1988). As both interlocutors were still single, the speaker responded to the hearer's answer by stating Lo kok padha ta (I am not either). This response that indicated similarity was a signal of solidarity. Phatic communication among Javanese women put similarities and agreements as a strategy to express solidarity as the application of the Javanese politeness philosophy of Guyub (solidarity). This was also the realization of Leech's GSP maxim M7 (agreement) that suggested the speaker gave the hearer's statement a high value. The speaker's goal to be benevolent by asking about the hearer's marital status resulted in the intended perlocutionary act in the final state when the hearer gave the required response of her marital status without being insulted. The personal topic occurred without any precedent topic that might initiate the topic of marriage since it merely aimed to build an intimate situation instead of digging for personal information. Therefore, the topic was not continued to a more detailed discussion. The respondent's answer to the in-depth interview supports this argument. Intensifying camaraderie could also be conducted by giving remarks related to bodysize. This is illustrated in the following conversation between two Javanese women at a reunion party.

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Mbak The initial state started by a remark Mbak, saiki kok malih lemu ta? (Mbak, you look fat now). Then, the hearer responded to the speaker's remarks by stating Alhamdulillah (Praise is to Allah) that implied gratitude. This response indicated the agreement on the speaker's remarks. Thus, the goal of the speaker to intensify camaraderie was achieved since the hearer accepted the remarks positively. The remarks were not a body-shaming insult but the expression to praise the hearer's fortune in life. In the final state, the goal (G) was achieved when the hearer gave a positive response to the remark. Meanwhile, the goal of preserving politeness (G PP ) was obtained since the hearer considered the remarks as a compliment instead of an insult.
Remarks on being overweight tend to be considered body-shaming in American and European contexts. However, such remarks are not an insult for Javanese women. An interview respondent claimed that the remark is a praise of a prosperous life since gaining weight is related to prosperity as opposed to losing weight that implies poverty or misery. The related interview is as follows. Thus, the speaker's remark did not have anything to do with body-shaming. Besides, it was followed by another remark Makmur ki ketoke (I believe you live a prosperous life.). Giving remarks is the realization of GSP maxim M3 to give a high value to somebody's qualities. In Javanese culture, praising others for their prosperity is an effort to show hospitality which is known as Grapyak (friendliness).
Intensifying camaraderie might also be conducted by gossiping. Although Lestari et al.'s (2019) study has shown that gossiping is a habit of Javanese women, it has also shown that gossiping is an effort to build a friendly atmosphere. Based on our interview, gossiping in phatic conversation is more of a playful conversation than a competitive gossip to reveal the weaknesses of a third party: Interviewer: Apa maksud Anda menggosip tentang penampilan teman Anda tadi?
(Why did you gossip about your friend's performance??) The following conversation between two female students about their friend's physical appearance serves as an example. The conversation took place in a classroom before a lecture started. In the initial state, the speaker started the gossip by commenting Eh, kowe mau ngerti Z gak? Isa nggawe rok (Do you notice what Z is wearing today? Why is she wearing a skirt like that?). The locution needed an agreement from the hearer. Then, the hearer stated the agreement Ndengaren. Malih feminim dheweke (It is unusual. She looks feminine) indicating that she noticed something unusual in their friend's appearance that day. In the intermediate state, the conversation was sequenced by the superstition that the weather could be influenced by somebody doing something out of the ordinary. This could be gathered from the speaker's statement Kesambet kuwi. Kayake mengko arep udan. Mergane Z nggawe rok (The devil has got into her. It might rain today because Z is wearing a skirt). The perlocutionary act in the final state resulted in a playful response of the hearer Gek kembang-kembang pisan (And she is wearing a skirt with flower motive) and the agreement from the speaker La iya (So, she is!). The process is illustrated in Figure 5. G PP 1 G a a 1 b FIGURE 5. The means-end chain of intensifying camaraderie by gossiping G = intensifying camaraderie G PP = creating playful talks 1 = comment on a friend's clothes a = speaker comments on her friend's clothes 1 1 = statement of the superstition a 1 = speaker states a superstition b = hearer utters playful response on the speaker's comment & superstition 2 = camaraderie is intensified The gossip became more interesting when the speaker commented on the third party's clothes. This is in line with previous research that found gossiping becomes interesting when participants bring up evidence related to the person being discussed (Lestari et al., 2019). In our case, the speaker needed an agreement from the hearer. The agreement from the hearer was the application of GSP maxim M7 that recommended one to give a high value to other's opinions. Yet, the gossip in the phatic conversation is not mere exposure to a third party's weakness since it is also an effort to intensify camaraderie through creating playful talks or jokes. Our DCT respondents echoed this argument as they stated that intensifying camaraderie is a social norm that must be preserved to reflect the friendly personality of Javanese women (Grapyak). Therefore, greetings are extended to sequential small talk to intensify camaraderie.

PLEASING OTHERS
The other function of phatic talk among Javanese women is pleasing others by giving compliments. These are not true compliments but are expressed to please the hearer. Our respondent stated in the interview that compliments are uttered as an effort of being benevolent or as a strategy to express happiness. The following excerpt describes the function of pleasing others. The example of complimenting to please the hearer in terms of physical appearance is seen in the following morning talk between female university staff in their office. The speaker gave a compliment to the hearer although she did not look unusual in her outfit.

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Klambimu kok apik men ta. The compliment occurred in the initial state when the speaker said Klambimu kok apik men ta (Your dress is so pretty). Then, the speaker asked a more detailed question Neng endi tukune? (Where did you get it?) to intensify the compliment. The question contained the assumption that the dress was expensive and only available in exclusive stores. After mentioning where she bought the dress, the hearer emphasized that she bought a cheap one by eISSN: 2550-2131 ISSN: 1675-8021 14 stating Murah-murah lo neng kana (Things are cheap there). In this context, the question and the answer were not aimed at exchanging information. The graph process is illustrated in Figure  6.
G a a 1 b FIGURE 6. The means-end chain of pleasing others G = pleasing others G PP = giving compliment 1 = compliment on a friend's clothes a = speaker gives a compliment on her friend's clothes 1 1 = question where the hearer get the clothes a 1 = speaker asks where the hearer gets the clothes b = hearer states where to get the clothes and add the information about the cheap price 2 = the hearer is pleased Giving a compliment is a politeness strategy suggested by GSP maxim M3 that recommends giving a high value to one's qualities. Compliments on physical appearance are often found in the opening phase of conversation among Javanese women (Masykuroh & Widyastuti, 2019). However, in phatic conversation, a compliment is not always given based on the felicitous conditions. In the example, the speaker gave an ostensible compliment since there was no evidence that the hearer was showing any quality deserving of a compliment. This suggests that the Javanese cultural norm of étok-étok (pretense) (Geertz, 1976;Wierzbicka, 2003) was used in the phatic function of pleasing others. When responding to the speaker's compliment, the hearer applied the GSP maxim M4 that suggests a self-devaluation to selfqualification by stating that her dress was cheap. The perlocutionary act in the final state of the compliment resulted in the hearer showing modesty as a reflection of Javanese politeness philosophy of Andhap Asor (humility) to avoid showing off, an unacceptable behavior in the Javanese community (Gunarwan, 2007). The positive response of the hearer indicated that she was grateful for the compliment. In this interaction, the G and the G PP were both attained. Therefore, asking a phatic question like Neng endi tukune? (Where did you get it?) was not such an intrusive act. The DCT data that was verified by the interview indicates that the respondents gave compliments to strengthen a social bond instead of to merely appreciate physical appearances. Hence, giving a compliment is an effort to please others and show benevolence.
Another conversation containing an ostensible compliment is illustrated in the following example. The conversation took place in a classroom after the class ended.

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La In the initial state, the speaker gave a compliment La nilaimu lo apik dhewe (You got the best marks) to the hearer. Next, in the intermediate state, the act of complimenting was continued by another goal (G 1 ) when the speaker requested a treat from the hearer to celebrate her success. In the final state, the hearer responded to the request by stating that she knew what the speaker wanted. It indicates that the hearer accepted the compliment but she did not intend to treat the speaker afterward. In this context, the G of the speaker to please the hearer was achieved. Meanwhile, G PP to share happiness by giving a compliment was also attained but the G 1 to get a treat was not. However, there was no FTA as both understood that the request for a treat did not necessarily have to be fulfilled. The graph is provided in Figure 7.
The means-end chain of pleasing others with G 1 G = pleasing others G PP = giving compliment G 1 = Request a treat 1 = compliment on a friend's good marks a = speaker gives a compliment on friend's marks 1 1 = request a treat a 1 = speaker requests a treat from the hearer b = hearer states that she knows what the hearer wants 2 = the hearer is pleased Giving a compliment is an effort to show politeness by applying the GSP maxim M3 that suggests a speaker gives a high value to the hearer's qualities. Javanese community tends to share everything with all members as a reflection of the philosophy of Guyub (Solidarity). The following interview shows that one's happiness or success is supposed to be celebrated by holding a feast or at least treating friends. So, the request of a treat that is preceded by complementing one's achievement is an expression of happiness. The respondent stated in the interview that requesting a treat is a strategy to show solidarity in terms of physical togetherness and psychological feelings. The interview is as follows: Interviewer: Apakah Anda memuji teman Anda yang dapat nilai baik untuk dapat traktiran?
(Did you give a compliment for your friend's good marks to get a treat from her?) Therefore, requesting a treat should not be considered as an intrusive act since the real intention is merely sharing happiness. The Javanese philosophy of Tepa Selira is the main reason for the DCT respondents to state that pleasing others is important in conducting social relations. Hence, Javanese women exert efforts to please others by giving compliments

EXPRESSING HAPPINESS
The act of expressing happiness also occurs during celebrations (e.g. birthday, graduation). An example is provided in the following conversation.

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Selamat The speaker started the initial state by giving birthday wishes (G PP ) Selamat ulang tahun ya, Ndes (Happy birthday, pal) to the hearer to express happiness (G). Then, the speaker conducted further action by requesting a treat (G 1 ) Aja lali, aja lali traktirane (Don't forget to treat me). Responding to the speaker's request, the hearer pretended to be confused by asking apa ta? (What is it all about?) while smiling. In the intermediate state, the speaker asked the hearer to celebrate her birthday. Finally, the speaker asked the hearer to go to the café or canteen to celebrate the hearer's birthday. However, they did not go anywhere afterward. The answers to the DCT questionnaire show that Javanese women express happiness to show solidarity (Guyub), an important aspect to sustain social rapport among them. This is in line with Masykuroh and Widyastuti's (2019) study which has shown that through congratulating, speakers can show a sense of joy over the good condition received by others. The process is illustrated in Figure 8.
The means-end chain of expressing happiness with G 1 G = expressing happiness G PP = giving birthday wishes G 1 = Request a treat 1 = birthday wishes are uttered a = speaker gives birthday wishes 1 1 = request a treat a 1 = speaker request a treat from the hearer b = hearer expresses confusion but she accepts the birthday wishes 2 = expression of happiness is uttered 2 1 1 G PP 1 G a a 1 b FIGURE 9. The means-end chain of consoling others G = consoling others G PP = giving advice 1 = remarks on the hearer's appearance a = speaker gives remarks on the hearer's appearance 1 1 = consolation on the hearer's problem a 1 = speaker gives advice to the hearer b = hearer accepts the advice 2 = the hearer is consoled The GSP maxim M9 contained suggestions for the speaker to give a high value to the hearer's feelings. The realization of M9 is seen when the speaker sympathized with the hearer's condition of being single for a long time. Then, the speaker consoled the hearer by giving her a bit of advice on how to get a lover. However, the advice did not contain any problem-solving, just a consolation. Hence, it was not counseling advice. Giving phatic advice is also an expression of empathy. It is a reflection of the role of Javanese women as a caregiver that demands them to be considerate in any condition (Smith-Hefner, 1988). The consolation was performed by the advising locution Wis pokoke ngono kuwi lo mbak. Nggodhane sing jos pokoke (Just do whatever you could. You've got to flirt more). Although the advice was more likely a consolation than a piece of advice, the hearer performed the intended perlocutionary act in the final state by accepting the advice by saying Oh, ngono (I see). Thus, the G and the G PP were attained. The DCT respondents stated that consoling others was an effort to be tolerant. It is the reflection of the Javanese philosophy of Tepa Selira. These findings support Aitchison's (1996) theory that phatic talk often supplies a minimum of information, but a maximum of the supportive chat.
In general, the five functions (illocutions) of phatic communication among Javanese women discussed above complemented one another in establishing an entire conversation. Initiating a conversation was followed by intensifying camaraderie to develop the conversation. Then, the phatic communication flowed into more specific functions such as pleasing others, expressing happiness, and consoling others. The functions served to build a social rapport.
Phatic communication among Javanese women employs politeness strategies in an attempt to establish social rapport. Our findings have established that the Javanese politeness maxims were completely employed supporting the idea that Javanese women's attitude is governed by tradition (Falah, 2009). The five functions of phatic communication among Javanese women are the realization of Javanese cultural norms of grapyak (friendliness), semanak (warmth), guyub (solidity), kurmat (respect), tepa selira (tolerance), andhap asor (humility), and empan papan (self-awareness) (Gunarwan, 2007). In terms of practical strategy, GSP maxims (Leech, 2014) were employed to a particular extent along with the Javanese politeness maxims.
Our findings have shown that the Javanese politeness was exerted in topic selection. Asking personal topics and marital status is common (Tannen, 1992). Hence, asking those topics in a phatic context is not considered as being intrusive. Meanwhile, the topic related to body-size refers to a quality of life and might be related to compliments for happiness in life 1 1 2 GEMA Online ® Journal of Language Studies Volume 20(2), May 2020 http: //doi.org/10.17576/gema-2020-2002-eISSN: 2550-2131 ISSN: 1675-8021 19 (e.g. fat) or sympathy for miserable life (e.g. thin). Hence, giving remarks on body-size is not a body-shaming act.
Phatic communication among Javanese women is, therefore, a reflection of moral values and an attempt to be benevolent rather than intrusive. The findings have indicated that phatic communication has a variety of functions across cultures and gender. Among Javanese women, phatic communication is not only a communicative strategy that serves to break the silence (Leech, 1983;Malinowski, 1923), to commence or close a conversation but it also enables or facilitates the entire communication as a reflection of moral value.

CONCLUSION
The social rapport among Javanese women is built by conducting phatic communication as part of their everyday talks. The five main illocutions of phatic communication are performed with particular locutions based on the philosophy of Javanese politeness. To this extent, Javanese women apply the Javanese politeness as a moral value. Performing phatic communication is the reflection of the philosophy of Grapyak (friendliness) and Semanak (warmth) as the required personality of Javanese women. The performance of phatic communication adopted the maxims of the General Strategy of Politeness (GSP). However, the GSP is adjusted to the Javanese politeness principles of Tepa Selira 'tolerance' (GSP M7 and M9), Andhap Asor 'humility' (GSP M4), and Guyub 'solidarity'(GSP M3).
The research offers insight into the various illocutions of phatic communication among Javanese women as the effort to give the perlocutionary effect of sustaining social rapport. What seems like an intrusive act is more about being benevolent in the Javanese women context.
The results, indeed, should be taken into consideration as a strategy to conduct a phatic communication with Javanese women. The main goal of a conversation and the goal of preserving politeness are supposed to be attained simultaneously. Meanwhile, the other potential goal is achieved by performing the precedent acts, namely pleasing others and expressing happiness. The strategy is likely suitable for commencing a business negotiation and any other persuasive talk with Javanese women. The proper phatic communication would contribute to better networking in various fields across cultures. Besides that, the functions and topics of phatic communication would be a contribution to the teaching material of Javanese culture for expatriates. We believe that phatic communication is the key to avoid communication breakdowns. It is even a crucial aspect in the context of communication across cultures.
The study puts forth that phatic communication is not only a communicative strategy but also a reflection of moral values. However, great care is needed in making broad generalizations about all the people in a particular culture since this study only discusses Javanese women in the western part of East Java. Contrastive studies on the characteristics of phatic communication across cultures would be an interesting topic for further research to give insights into the proper cross-cultural communicative strategies for networking.