CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the background of the
study, the problems of the study,
objectives of the study, significance of the study, and definition of key terms.
1.1. Background of the Study English can be divided into two categories,
standard and non Standard English.
Widarso (1989: 47) states that Standard English
is used by many educated people
to communicate in speech or writing. It is the type of language employed by leaders of our society, those who
command respect and high regard, such as
important journalists, statesmen, political figures, scientist and business and professional people. And also it is used
by most college education people because
it is the language of the influential classes, its use is socially prestigious for the individual. Nonstandard English is a
language which is rarely or never used
by members of the influential classes,but it is used by large section of non middle class and often heard to be uncultured,
it is not suitable to be used in formal
condition.
Widarso (1989: 47) remarks that
Standard English has two variants, namely
formal and informal English. Formal English is usually used for formal condition and serious writing such as
research, business, application letters, papers, thesis, and so on. Informal English is
used in many books, magazines, and other
writing intended for the general public which the words are more familiar, often lively and colorful; the sentence
somewhat shorter with fewer clauses. On the
other hand, informal English is called by Colloquialism because it is often used in daily communication, when
colloquialism becomes extremely informal; it shades over slang the peculiar language for
particular group.
The researcher focuses his study
on slang because there are many phenomena
of slang to be investigated; Chaer (1993: 105) says that slang only used in informal condition and
unseriousdiscussion. Commonly, slang is used in talk among friends or collogues, but not
suitable for good writing or formal occasions.
Slang describes words used in informal language in speech or writing, which may be associated with particular
region, age, groups, historical times or social classes.
Besides, Salim (1991: 1828) says
that slang is a unique word, because only
a group of people understands about it. It is confusing for other people because it is used in non standard discussion
and only used by certain people. A person
to communicate with his peer group or to be intimate uses it. Sometimes it is also used for secret communication in order
that the hearer will not understand what
they are talking about.
The use of slang varies from
region to region and from generation to generation
not only the criminal groups, but also the teenagers from various social background and education use it. They use it
for communication to each other or to
make friendship. They may hear slang from their friends and movies conversation.
Based on the phenomena above,
slang may cause misinterpretation, misunderstanding
and ambiguity between the speaker and listener. Consequently, studying slang is very useful for social life.
Slang is used by a group of
people because of many functions and reasons, to make easier in this thesis arrangement, the
researcher focuses on Kawira’s ideas.
Kawira (1990: 16) remarks that the functions of slang are as a symbol of intimate group, a secret language, euphemism,
irony, paradox, and metaphor and make
communication more relax, etc.
In this study, I take three
Americanpopular movies to be my object of research; they are Final Destination,
Charlie’s Angle and Romeo and Juliet. Each movie has known by many people and very
popular, which has different settings in
which the slang occurred, for instance, inthe office, in the court, even in
public place like restaurant and in the
beach.
These movies revealed the
American daily life and their cultural richness through their language especially in slang.
Showing the reason above, I want to make
known the culture richness, which existsin those movies especially in slang to enlarge our knowledge and increase our
social sensitivity.
There are some previous studies
which have similar discussion with the present
study. One of them is the study conducted by Setyowati (2004). She focused her study on the use of slang in the
rap song. Other preceding researcher similar
to this study was also conducted by Arif Rahman (2003) focused his study on the slang used in Eminem’s song lyrics.
1.2. Problems of the Study As mentioned in the background of the study
above this study is intended to observe
the use of slang in American popular movies. There are several problems needed to be answered and formulated
as follows: 1. What types of slang which
are common in American popular movies? 2.
What functions of slang which are common in American popular movies? 1.3. Objective of the Study Related to the problems above thisstudy has
objectives as follows: 1. To identify
the types of slang which are common used by American popular movies.
2. To describe the functions of
slang which are common used by American popular
movies.
1.4 . Significance of the Study The findings of this study were supposed to
give both theoretical and practical
contributions on the area of sociolinguistics, particularly, on analyzing the use of slang.
Theoretically, the finding ofthis
study is expected to give contribution to develop sociolingistic study, particularly, in
increasing and enriching the study of slang.
Practically, It was expected that
this study would be useful for the students
to know the types of slang and its functions. It was also expected to be useful for the readers. Inaddition, this study
providedcontribution and important thing
for others who are interested in doing further research this area.
Finally, this study is expected
to be able to provide more information for other researchers who are interestedin
studying slang and to improve communication
fluidly, and make the reader familiar with the words that are used in American daily conversation.
1.5. Definition of the Key Terms 1.
Slang is words or meaning of words, commonly used in a conversation among friend or collogues, but not suitable
for good writing or formal occasions,
especially the kind used by any typical of only one class of persons.
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