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Understanding Person References in Workplace Gossip Among a Group of Malay Professionals

Table 2: Variations of person referent used by the participants

Types of person reference Range
i a person’s specific name Including the person’s short name, e.g. Halimah binti Abu (Halimah) Absolute /specific
acronym of name Halimah binti Abu (HA)
ii The use of possessive
kin terms Your sisterkakak you (your sister)Lily’s sister adik hang (your younger brother/sister) adik angkat Lily (Liliy’s adopted younger brother/ sister)mak tiri (stepmother)
someone close your best friendyour friend kawan hang (your friend)
iii post Pengarah program (program director)KJ (Ketua Jabatan/ Head of Department)KK (Ketua Kursus/ Head of Program)SU (setiausaha/ secretary) Big bossBoss kecil (little boss)your multitasking vice director
vi gender Jantan (male/man)perempuan (female/woman) Relative/ general
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