TABOO WORDS IN NICKI MINAJ SONGS
THESIS
Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
By :
DAVID BONARIS TUA HUTABARAT
Reg. No. 2112220004
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
LANGUAGE AND ART FACULTY
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
ABSTRACT
Hutabarat, David. NIM. 2112220004. Taboo Words In Nicki Minaj Songs. A Thesis. English Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan, 2015.
This study deals with types of taboo words in song lyrics of Nicki Minaj. The objectives of the study were to find out the types of taboo words used in song lyrics of Nicki Minaj, to determine the dominant type of taboo words used in song lyrics and to describe the uncategorizedof types of taboo words used in song lyrics. This research was conducted by using descriptive qualitative research. The source of data was derived from song lyrics of Nicki Minaj. The data were taken from the taboo words used in those song lyrics. There were 130 words in the children’s song lyrics of nursery rhymes. The result of the analysis showed that all types of taboo words used in song lyrics of Nicki Minaj; Sexual Activity 55 words (42.31%) followed by numeral on parts of body on taboo words 48 words(36.92%), Religion or Believe 17 words (13.08%) and the last was lavatory or excretion 10 words (7.69%). The dominant types of taboo words used in song lyrics of Nicki Minaj are sexual activity with 55 words. It means that in the song lyrics contain or told about activity, action or event that are happened or doing which happen outside the human beings.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The greatest thanks to the Almighty Father for all His blessing and
guidance, the writer gives the greatest thankfulness for everything that has been
given along her life, so the writer is able to complete this thesis. This thesis is
aimed to fulfill the requirements for S-1 Degree of Sarjana Sastra at English and
Literature Department Faculty of Languages and Arts.
The writer would like to express her gratitude to those who helped her in
completing this thesis, because without the suggestion, guidance, pray and support
it could be not fulfilled. In this occasion the writer would like to express her
special gratitude to:
Prof. Dr. H. Syawal Gultom, M.Pd., the Rector of State University of Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., the Dean of Faculty Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the Head of English Department. Dra. Meisuri, MA., the Secretary of English Department.
Syamsul Bahri, S.S., M.Hum., the Head of English Literature Department Academic
Drs. Lidiman Sahat Martua Sinaga M.Hum., his Thesis Advisor for his guidance, advice, suggestion and comment and the time to
supervising this thesis until complete in making this thesis better.
Dr. Siti Aisah Ginting, M.Pd., Prof. Dr. Berlin Sibarani, M.Pd., Dr. Rahmad Husein, M.Ed., his Examiner of this thesis who gave their
suggestion, comment and motivated to complete this thesis.
All Lectures and Staffs of English Department who helped and given contribution of knowledge, advice and guidance during her academic
His deepest love to his parents, R. Hutabarat and R. Siregar, for their prayers, love, spirit, motivation and financial support during the writer’s whole life.
His beloved sisters Ruth Hutabarat, Maria Hutabarat, Elisabeth Hutabarat, and Debora Hutabarat and his beloved Brother Stepanus
Hutabarat and all his family for their prayers, support and motivation
given to the writer as long as he did this thesis.
His friends in English Literature A 2011 Manguhal Hutagalung, Maria Hutabarat, Juli Yohana Zebua, Tesha Lidia Aritonang,
Yohana Sihombing, Lanayout Hutabalian, Martha Simanjuntak,
Laura Atika Sembiring, Septia Elisabeth Nainggolan, and all his friends in Elite A and Elite B’11 that could not be mentioned one by one, thanks for the support, help and prayers to the writer.
His friend in Filadelfia Choir State University of Medan Norita, Andoo, Wuri, Win, Desi, Dedi, Josua, Lusi and my beloved sisters
and brother and also for my best Mario Nadapdap for their spirit,
motivation and beautiful day spent together. Love you all.
The writer realizes that this thesis is still far from being perfect.
Therefore, critics, comment and suggestion for the improvement of this thesis will
be fully appreciated.
Medan, February 2016
The writer,
David Bonaris Tua Hutabarat
TABLE OF CONTENT
E. The Significance Of The Study ... 5
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE A.Theoritical Framework ... 6
3. Part Of Body And Bodily Functions ... 13
G. Types Of Taboo Words ... 13
1. Religion ... 14
2. Part Of Body ... 14
3. Sexual Activity ... 15
H. Text ... 16
I. Song ... 16
J. Lyrics ... 18
K. Music ... 19
L. Hip Hop ... 20
M. Linguistics Characteristic Of Song Text ... 22
N. Early Life Nicki Minaj ... 23
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD A.Research Design ... 25
B.Source Of Data ... 25
C.The Technique Of Data ... 26
D.The Technique Of Analyzing Data ... 26
CHAPTER IV DATA ANALYSIS, THE FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION A.Data Analysis ... 28
1. Types of Taboo Words Used in Nicki Minaj Song ... 29
a. Believe or Religion ... 29
b. Parts of Body ... 31
c. Sexual Activity ... 33
d. Lavatory or Excretion ... 35
2. The Dominant Type of Taboo Words on Nicki Minaj Song ... 36
B.The Findings ... 36
C.Discussion ... 37
CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS A.Conclusions ... 40
B.Sugesstions ... 40
LIST OF TABLE
Table 4.1 Percentage of Type of Taboo Words ... 29
Table 4.2 Number of Types of Believe or Religion ... 29
Table 4.3 Number of Types Parts of Body ... 31
Tabnle 4.4 Number of Type of Sexual Activity ... 33
LIST OF APPENDIX
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of Study
Nowadays people looking for something way to doing a comunication to
each other and making some relation with them as we know Communication is an
interactive process to negotiate the meaning by using the language. Language is a
network of relationship. As human being, people really need language to do
interaction and communication to each other. It means that language is very
important in life and is the power of expressing thought and feelings. To studying
the language, we need to knowledge about it, it is called linguistics has something
to do with language, it also implies that linguistics relevant to the learning of
language (Hartley, 1982). So, linguistics is scientific knowledge that can applied
to study many languages in this world.
There are so many ways of the people to express someone’s thought and
feeling by using language, such as by music, poems, short story, speech,
etc..discuss about music, many people just listening and playing music is one way
for us to enjoy our life. Listening or playing music we should not go to pub, Café,
music studio, and karaoke pub, because it needs much time and much money. Just
stay in our home, we can listen to the music and playing the music. The era
globalization we can get any information about music from the internet and
playing the music because music is simple and can we get in part of our time we
have. Almost all the people love music, especially for teenagers, they assume that
music is a part of their life. They spend their time to listening and playing the
music any time.
Music is the expression of someone’s soul. Machlis (1995) states that
music has been called as the language of emotion. It means that by music we can
know what the feeling inside someone’s heart is. We can know if someone is in
sadness or happiness by the music that they heard. Aristotle (www.Google.com)
stated that music has a troubled heart, has a recreational therapy and foster
patriotism. Music takes a big part of every moment in our life. Because of that,
music has the effect that could influence someone to act to do something. It can be
a good thing or a bad thing. Music which are composed become something that
has a musical value and art inside is called as song. Song is a composition for
voice performed by
Singing or alongside musical instruments and it contains vocal part that
are performed (sung) with human voice and feature word (lyrics) and commonly
accompanied by musical instrument. The writer analyzed song because that song
can be describes the feelings and thought of someone, so the writer interested to
analyzed them. There are some kinds of song such as song for adult and children
Music also can influence someone’s feeling to be happy or sad, of
When some feels sad, it can help them to be calmer. Music also is important thing
on many occasions, such as religious occasion, anniversary, and birthday party.
We know that every song has meaning and we get message from it know
what are talked about. But right now many songs are using taboo words or dirty
words. Taboo is one aspect of social structure that is reflect both language and
action. Taboo words are those that considered a bad taste and better to be avoided
because they mention realities that are stark or vulgar. And also taboo is
representing the experience of human being or what goes on around and inside
them, of course, it has a close relation with the culture of the people (listener)
Many taboo words or dirty words are used freely by singers. Some of them know
the meaning but do not care, and the others even do know the meaning, but they
sing it happily. So no wonder if right now the teenagers or even a primary school
student singing a song that contains taboo words. They do not know the meaning
of that taboo words it self but they do not care and sing it loudly. It can influence
the culture and the formal language, which has its own standard rules. The types
of taboo words it self is: “religion or believe”, “part of body”, “sexual activity”,
and “lavatory and excretion”.
Many taboo words have been used in song especially in RAP songs. Nicki
Minaj is one of the famous Rapper (rap singer) in this world that used taboo
words in her songs. Although Nicki Minaj write or sing her songs using taboo
including in Indonesia. Example of her song have a taboo words is “Anaconda”
this song relies in 2014, in this song many taboo word which used such us
“bitch”, “butt”, “fuck”. Most people sing her song because they like the singer
and the music, but actually they do not know that song contain dirty and taboo
words and sing them freely, but sounds bad to people who know the meaning.
B. The problem of study
The problem of this study are:
1. What types of taboo word are used in Nicki Minaj’s song?
2. What types of taboo words are dominantly found oin Nicki Minaj song?
C. The Objectives of The Study are:
1. To know the types of taboo words that used in Nicki Minaj songs.
2. To know the dominant type and uncategorized of taboo words used in
Nicki Minaj Song.
D. The Scope of Study
The scope of my study is from the album of NickiMinaj, Nicki Minaj have
eight album but in order to be more specific and precise, the scope and the
limitation of the study is The Pinkprint album Nicki Minaj which consist of
E. The Significance of The Study
This study is expected to be useful for:
1. The listeners of RAP song especially Nicki minaj songs to understand
about taboo words and the meaning
2. The student of English Department who are interesting in doing further study research related to study. Because discuss about taboo have relation
with the linguistics, or this is the sub field of brunch of linguistics such us
Pragmatics, Semantics, and Sociolinguistics. So, very interesting to discuss
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A.Conclusions
Having analyzed all the data of the types of taboo words in album the
Pinkprint song lyrics of Nicki Minaj, the conclusions are drawn as the following:
1. There are four types of taboo words that found in the song lyrics of Nicki
Minaj with the total number of taboo words were 130 words.
2. Types of taboo words and the percentage each of taboo words in the album
the pinkprint of Nicki Minajwith the dominant types of taboo words which
is used in the pinkprint album of Nicki Minaj is sexual activity with the
total number and percentage is 55 (42.31%), followed by numeral parts of
body 48 (36.92%),religion or believe 17 (13.08%), and lavatory or
excretion 10 (7.69%).The analyzed of taboo words in the pinkprint album
of Nicki Minaj not found the uncategorized of the taboo words using in
song lyrics, and the analyzing the data, all the words in the song lyrics in
the pinkprint album of Nicki Minaj have the type of taboo words based on
the theory.
B. Suggestions
After analyzing all the data of the types of taboo words in the Nicki
1. In analyzing the taboo word, based on four (4) types: religion or believe,
parts of body, sexual activity and lavatory or excretion and found the
dominant type is sexual activity, it is suggested that the people should not
hear the song which is have a substance of types of taboo words, and
giving more attention on language which is used.
2. For the other song composer to make the song without put the taboo word
or dirty word and may to choose the words choice in the song lyrics, so
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