Voices, Identities, and Social Power in Contemporary Indonesian Cinema: A Discourse-Sociolinguistic Analysis of Selected Dialogue Excerpts

Abstract

This study investigates how selected dialogue excerpts from the Indonesian films Tilik (2018) and Ngeri-Ngeri Sedap (2022) construct social identities and distribute authority through everyday talk. Combining critical discourse analysis with interactional sociolinguistics, the article treats quotation as the primary evidence for interpreting gossip, directives, address terms, stance, evidentiality, cultural keywords, and English subtitle choices. The purposive corpus consists of ten brief excerpts reported in accessible scholarly discussions. Close reading shows that social power is enacted through the right to introduce topics, demand proof, evaluate absent persons, silence competing speakers, invoke adat, define acceptable marriage, and narrate unequal family obligations. In Tilik, questions such as "Who said that?" interrupt the circulation of rumour, whereas claims about a "charm" moralize female visibility and sexuality. In Ngeri-Ngeri Sedap, "Shut up! ... Listen to me!" performs paternal authority, while "Who thinks about you?" exposes the unequal distribution of care. English subtitles preserve basic propositions but may reduce the local indexical meanings of Javanese particles, political titles, Batak kinship terms, and cultural expressions. The findings demonstrate that a small number of short quotations can support detailed discourse-sociolinguistic analysis without reproducing copyrighted transcripts.