The Expressive Speech Act of Javanese Expletive Utterance Endhasmu in President Prabowo’s Political Speech in the Aniversary of Gerindra Party

Abstract

This pragamatic research aims to comprehend the meaning of the Javanese expletive utterance endhasmu ‘your head’ within the context of President Prabowo's political speech in the anniversary of Gerindra party 2025.  In the frame of  speech act theory, which postulates that language is fundamentally a type of action, this research scrutinizes how speech acts function and mean. Utilizing a descriptive qualitative method with a psycho-pragmatic  approach, this study analyzes critically the function and  meaning of the expressive speech act of expletive utterance  endhasmu ‘your head’. The findings indicated that the Javanese expletive utterance Endhasmu in President Prabowo's political speech functions as an expression of displeasure, anger and  or annoyance, the utterance is identical to swear word and vulgarism. The meaning behind this utterance  is not merely an emotional expression, but it also demonstrates an attitude and action to respond powerfully or verbally strike political opponents who criticized the  government policy. This expletive utterance is interpreted as an attempt to affirm a stance while simultaneously dismissing or counter-attacking arguments deemed to undermine the credibility or policies being promoted. Furthermore, the expletive utterance Endhasmu in this context means as a rhetorical strategy to silence opposition and strenghten President Prabowo's leadership image and social-politic position.

Keywords: pragmatics, expressive speech act, expletive utterance, president, political

DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/110-04

Publication date: March 31^st 2026