A Comparative Study on Wedding Invitation Card in Indonesian and American Contexts: A Genre Analysis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31849/jv8q3f70Keywords:
a comparative study ,, Wedding invitations Cards, , Genre Analysis, qualitative researchAbstract
Wedding invitation cards are cultural artifacts that reflect societal values and communication practices. This study compares wedding invitation cards from Indonesia and the United States to examine how cultural differences shape their textual and structural characteristics. The research addresses two questions: (1) What typical textual and structural features can be identified in Indonesian and American wedding invitation cards? (2) What differences exist in linguistic features related to agency, formality, and religious elements between these two cultural contexts? Using genre analysis based on Swales' (1990) framework, this study collected ten wedding invitations from each country through maximum variation sampling. One representative sample from each country was then selected through typical case sampling for detailed analysis. The invitations were analyzed by converting visual data into analytical tables that identified genre moves and textual components without interpreting symbolic elements. Results show that Indonesian invitations consistently include seven moves: religious openings with Islamic expressions, spiritually-framed headings with Quranic verses, hierarchical presentation of family names, detailed ceremony information separating Akad Nikah from reception events, venue descriptions with honorific language, additional guest information, and prayer-based closings. These features reflect collectivist values and high-context communication rooted in Islamic traditions, with agency distributed among God, family, and the couple. American invitations typically contain five to six moves: host identification, formal invitation statement, couple's names, ceremony details, reception information, and optional RSVP requests. These invitations demonstrate individualistic values and low-context communication that emphasizes efficiency and guest convenience, with agency primarily attributed to parents or the couple. The structural differences between Indonesian and American wedding invitations demonstrate how genre conventions communicate cultural expectations about marriage, family relationships, and religious beliefs.
References
Al-Ali. (2006). Britain as a container: Immigration metaphors in the 2005 election campaign. Discourse & Society, 17(5), 563–581. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926506066345
Al-Zubaidi, N. A. G. (2017). Wedding Invitation Genre: Communicating Sociocultural Identities of Iraqi Society. Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literature, 41(1), 129. https://doi.org/10.17951/lsmll.2017.41.1.129
Amjad, N., & Riaz, F. (2020). Genre Analysis: A Study of Pakistani Wedding Invitation Cards. Global Economics Review, V(I), 155–162. https://doi.org/10.31703/gpr.2020(V-I).18
Bhatia, V. K. (1993). Analysing genre: Language use in professional settings. Longman.
Brown, P., & Levinson, S. C. (1987). Politeness: Some universals in language usage. Cambridge University Press.
Brown, P., Levinson, S. C., & Gumperz, J. J. (1987). Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813085
Eslami, Z. R., Ribeiro, A., Snow, M., & Wharton, A. (2016). Exploring discourse practices in American wedding invitations. Lodz Papers in Pragmatics, 12(2). https://doi.org/10.1515/lpp-2016-0009
Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. Routledge.
Hall, E. T. (1989). Beyond culture (Anchor Books ed). Anchor Books.
Hofstede, G. H. (2001). Culture’s consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations (2nd ed). Sage Publications.
Isaacs, E. A., & Clark, H. H. (1990). Ostensible invitations. Language in Society, 19(4), 493–509. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0047404500014780
Jismulatif, J., & Putri, S. A. (2023). The Culture Gap: An Analysis of Source, Target, and Global Culture Representation in Indonesian English Teaching Textbooks. REiLA : Journal of Research and Innovation in Language, 5(1), 89–98. https://doi.org/10.31849/reila.v5i1.11211
Kasriyati, D., Rafiah, S., Herdi, & Abbas, M. F. F. (2019). Lexical errors found in subtitling projects of EFL learners of University of Lancang Kuning. Lectura: Jurnal Pendidikan, 10(2), 155–166.
Kashef, S. H., Khorasani, R., & Zahabi, A. (2014). Investigating the Effect of a Learning-centered Instruction on Non-english Major Students’ Attitudes toward English Course. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 98, 859–863. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.492
Kristina, D., & Saptaningsih, N. (2019a). Evolution in Visual Communication of the Javanese Printed Wedding Invitations. Jurnal Humaniora, 31(3), 315. https://doi.org/10.22146/jh.38222
Kristina, D., & Saptaningsih, N. (2019b). Evolution in Visual Communication of the Javanese Printed Wedding Invitations. Jurnal Humaniora, 31(3), 315. https://doi.org/10.22146/jh.38222
Lincoln, Y. S., & Guba, E. G. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Sage Publications.
Nilep. (2010). Introduction: Performing Disputes. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 20(1), 63–71. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1548-1395.2010.01048.x
Noviarini, T. (2025). Role of Theme-Rheme Analysis in Developing Academic Literacy Skills in Senior High School Students in Pringsewu. https://doi.org/10.31849/elt-lectura.v12i1.20305
Patton, M. Q. (2015). Qualitative research & evaluation methods: Integrating theory and practice (Fourth edition). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Sri Dewi Mulyani, Delfi, S., & Jismulatif, J. (2024). Beyond English and Bahasa: Exploring the Pedagogical Functions of Code-Switching in Multilingual EFL Contexts. REiLA : Journal of Research and Innovation in Language, 6(3), 305–315. https://doi.org/10.31849/reila.v6i3.23316
Swales, J. M. (1996). Contrastive Rhetoric: Cross-Cultural Aspects of Second Language Writing (1st ed.). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139524599
Yasmin, M., Naseem, F., & Sohail, A. (2019). Religious and Socio-cultural Influences on the Pakistani Wedding Invitation. Open Linguistics, 5(1), 354–368. https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2019-0019
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Idris Syahfitrah, Jismulatif , Supriusman
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
1. License
Use of articles will be governed by the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike license as currently displayed on Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike 4.0 International License (CC BY-SA)
The author warrants that the article is original, written by stated author(s), has not been published before, contains no unlawful statements, does not infringe the rights of others, is subject to copyright that is vested exclusively in the author and free of any third party rights, and that any necessary written permissions to quote from other sources have been obtained by the author(s).
ELT-Lectura Studies and Perspective in English Language Teaching's spirit is to disseminate articles published are as free as possible. Under the Creative Commons license, Halaman Olahraga Nusantara permits users to copy, distribute, display, and perform the work. Users will also need to attribute authors and ELT-Lectura Studies and Perspective in English Language Teaching on distributing works in the journal and other media of publications.
4. Rights of Authors
Authors retain all their rights to the published works, such as (but not limited to) the following rights;
1. Copyright and other proprietary rights relating to the article, such as patent rights,
2. The right to use the substance of the article in own future works, including lectures and books,
3. The right to reproduce the article for own purposes,
4. The right to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the article's published version (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal ELT-Lectura Studies and Perspective in English Language Teaching.
5. Co-Authorship
If the article was jointly prepared by more than one author, any authors submitting the manuscript warrants that he/she has been authorized by all co-authors to be agreed on this copyright and license notice (agreement) on their behalf, and agrees to inform his/her co-authors of the terms of this policy. ELT-Lectura Studies and Perspective in English Language Teaching will not be held liable for anything that may arise due to the author(s) internal dispute. ELT-Lectura Studies and Perspective in English Language Teaching will only communicate with the corresponding author.
6. Royalties
Being an open accessed journal and disseminating articles for free under the Creative Commons license term mentioned, author(s) aware that ELT-Lectura Studies and Perspective in English Language Teaching entitles the author(s) to no royalties or other fees.
