AN ANALYSIS OF SLANG USED IN “AMERICAN OUTLAWS” MOVIE
THESIS
By:
RAHMAD SALEH
08360216
ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
This thesis written by Rahmad Saleh was approved on April, 2013
By
Advisor II Advisor I
This thesis was defended in front of the examiners of the Faculty of Teacher
Training and Education of University of Muhammadiyah Malang
and accepted as one of the requairements to achieve
Sarjana Degree in English Education
On April, 2013
Approved by:
Faculty of Teacher Training and Education
University of Muhammadiyah Malang
Dean,
Dr. M. Syaifuddin, M.M
Exeminers: Signatures:
1. Fardini Sabilah, M. Pd 1………
2. Rahmawati Khadijah Maro, S. Pd, M. PEd 2………
3. Santi Prastiyowati, S. Pd 3………
MOTTO AND DEDICATION
Manusia yang paling manusiawi dan menjalankan peran kemanusiaannya secara manusiawi adalah manusia sejati. (adz)
Bagaimana mungkin sebuah generasi akan menyeleweng kalau seandainya yang lbih tua berbuat lurus dan menyayangi generasi-generasinya.
َرَجتجٍ
جوْاالْعِِْم َ
ْو ْ
جاَْاِيعِجو
ْو كْماْ
ِْم مجْا
جاَْ
اِيعِ
ُ
جرْفجَ اِ
“Allah meninggikan orang-orang yang beriman diantara kamu dan orang-orang yang diberi ilmu pengetahuan beberapa derajat”
DEDICATION
I dedicated this thesis to:
My beloved mother and father
Brother and sister
My teachers and
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Alhamdulillah, the Almighty and the Merciful, all praise for Allah SWT, who
has given a chance and inspiration to finish this thesis. Shalawat and salam are
always for our prophet Muhammad SAW, who is the best leader to obey and also the
best apostle to convince.
The researcher would like to express his deep appreciation and gratitude to
Ms. Santi Prastiyowati, S. Pd. And Ms. Rina Wahyu, M. Ed for their patient,
willingness and guidance as well as suggestion for the completion of this thesis. The
researcher also wants to say thanks to the entire lecturers of English Department for
their contribution and suggestion.
His deepest gratitude are also addressed to the beloved parents Rahmatillah
and Tuhfatul Atfal who have been patient to pray, motivate and even give financial
supports. The researcher also thanks to my friends in PMII UMM, IMR (Ikatan Mahasiswa Ra’as) and STF Al-Farabi that was accompany in discussing and also
thanks to all my friends in English Department 2008.
Finally, the researcher hopes this thesis is useful to the readers for deeper
comprehension in of Sociolinguistics subject, I love you.
Malang, April 2013
The Researcher,
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Research Design………... 21
3.2 Research Object……… 22
3.3 Research Instrument………. 22
3.4 Data Collection………. 22
3.5 Data Analysis………... 23
CHAPTER IV: RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Research Findings……… 24
4.1.1 The Slang Used by Actor ………..……… 24
4.1.1.1 Slang in the Form of Words……… 24
4.1.2 Slang in the Form of Phrases………. 28
4.2 Discussion………. 30
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 5.1 Conclusions……….. 33
5.2 Suggestions……….. 34 REFERENCES
APPENDIX I
APPENDIX II
REFERENCES
Sanjaya, Dilip. 2010. An analysis of slangs in the movie the longest yard. Unpublhished Thesis: University of Muhammadiyah Malang.
Sabilah, Fardini. 2001. Sociolinguistics, Students Book. Faculty of Teacher Training and Education: University of Muhammadiyah Malang.
Ary, Donald, Lucy Cheser Jacobs and Chris Sorensen. 2010. Introduction to
Research in Education, Eighth Edition. Canada. Nelson Education, Ltd.
Creswell, John W. 2009. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed
Methods Approaches. California. SAGE Publication. Inc
Fromkin, Victoria; Robert Rodman and Nina Hyams. 2011. An Introduction to
Language, Ninth Edition. Boston: Thomson Corporation.
Jendra, Made Iwan Indrawan. 2010. The Study of Society’s Languages, First Edition. Yogyakarta. Graha Ilmu.
The American Heritage dictionary of the English Language: fourth edition. 2006.
New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Trask, R, L. 2007. Key Concepts in Language and Linguistics, Second Edition. New York: Routledge.
The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English. First
publishied 2008 by Routledge: London and New York
Spolsky, Bernard. Fourth impression, 2003. Sociolinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Quinn, Edward. 2006. A Dictionary of literary and Thematic Terms, Second Edition. Fact on File. New York.
Oxford, Dictionary. 2003. New York: Oxford University Press.
Yule, George. 2010. The Study of Language, Fourth Edition. Cambridge. Cambridge University Press.
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study
Language is really important in our life because it has many functions. One
of the functions is for communication. People in the world use their own language to
communicate with other. In communicating with others, people have to pay
attention for social rules of language used in speech community to avoid
misunderstanding. People also identify a social group by their language. Many
people express their ideas, feelings, and emotion by using language.
As human being, we know that if we have a lot of needs in our life. To fulfill
them, we must cooperate with other people. It means that we need to interact. By
using a language, we can interact and convey our opinions, ideas, suggestion and
make our communication easier. As a system, language is constructed in such a way
that it characterizes the knowledge of the language.
According to Yule (2010: 254), sociolingustic is used generally for the study
of the relationship between language and society. It is the study of the effect of any
and all aspects of society, including cultural norms, expectation and contexts, on the
way a language is used and the effect of a language used in society. Sociolinguistics
also studies how language varieties differ between groups separated by certain social
2
The study on sociolinguistic has been done by some researchers. They found
some sociolinguistics sub-themes, one of them is slang. Fromkin et. al(2011:473) say
that almost everyone uses slang on some occasions, but it is not easy to define the
word. Slang is unconventional words or phrases that are used to express either
something new or something old in a new way, if we learn a language in social life,
we will find many varieties of language.
Yule (2010: 239), defines variety of language as a set of linguistic items with
similar distribution, such as English, Spanish or Swahili as if there was a single
variety of each in everyday use. That is, we have largely ignored the fact that every
language has a lot of variation, especially in the way it is spoken. If we just look at
English, we find widespread variation in the way it is spoken in different countries
such as Australia, Britain and the USA. According to the definition, the particular
important variety is a specific set of ‘linguistic items’ or ‘human speech patterns’ like
sounds, words and grammatical features which we can associate with some external
factors, like a geographical area or a social group. So the point of variety language is
to identify such a unique set of items or patterns for each group. These language
varieties are not only as a sign of speech community differentiation but also as
indication of language situation and reflect purpose, topics, norms, and mode of
language. They include language and dialects, regional dialect, social dialects, styles
Slang is informal langungage. There is no good definition of slang available
in teliterature (in Sabilah 2001: 80). Slang expressions are usually introduced by the
members of a particular social group; they may remain the property of that group and
serve as a badge of group identity, or they may instead become much more widely
known and used.
According to Sanjaya (2010) in his research analyzing the Slangs in the
Movie The Longest Yard, most of slang words are used in the conversation between
actors in the informal situation, such as: inmate and inmate, inmate and warden. It
also happens between the guard and the warden, because slang is typical of informal
conversation and in the movie, we can find words or expressions of slang.
Film is not only a motion picture where we can enjoy the visualization of
written material into a complete moving image on screen, but also deals with several
concerns of art such as, plot, characters, setting, story, acting, and so on which
indicate how film exists in human life.
Nowadays, Slang is often used in western movie especially in Hollywood.
Slang is usually used by teenagers and adults. In American Outlaws movie, most of
the actors are teenagers and adults. The movie talks about the struggle of local people
to protect their land against Railroad Company that will buy their land with the cheap
price to make big railroad. The price of land only two dollars in acre, it is too cheap
4
In this study, the researcher is interested in analyzing the words and the
expressions of slang used by the actors in American Outlaws movie. In this movie,
the actors frequently use slang language to communicate with others. They often say: “Bout time you got here, buddy”, “Hellof a war” “Well, somebody better go tell the
damn Yankees!” and “Best damn plan I heard all war”.
1.2 Research Problems
1. What are the slang words and phrases found in “American Outlaws”movie?
2. What are the meaning of slang words and phrases found in “American Outlaws”movie?
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The objectives of the research are:
1. To find the slang words and phrases used in “American Outlaws”movie.
2. To know the meaning of slang words and phrases found in “American Outlaws” movie.
1.4 Significance of the Study
This study is expected to enrich the study of sociolinguistics, especially slang.
Besides, this research is expected to make a contribution to the next researchers who
are interested in the study on slang. For the teacher or lecturer, the result of this study
is expected to improve their knowledge about slang. While for the students, hope this
1.5 Scope and Limitation
This study is conducted in sociolinguistic study, which deals with slang.
There are many kinds of meaning in slang because every region has its own slang,
these differences happened because they have different experience such as regiolect,
sociolect, geographyolect and ethnolect. This study is limited on slang, particularly slang used in “American Outlaws” movie.
1.6 Definition of Key Terms
1. Slang
Slang is a language that almost everyone uses it on some occasions,
but it is not easy to define the word. Slang has been defined as one of those
things that everybody can recognize and nobody can define. Fromkin et. al
(2011:473).
2. Meaning
Meaning is the characteristic of a linguistic form which allows it to be
used to pick out some aspect of the non-linguistic world (Trask, 2007: 165).
3. American Outlaws
American Outlaws is the title of movie that comes from west, or it is
well known as Hollywood movie. Its talks about the struggle of the actors to
6
4. Movie
A combination of photographs projected onto a screen to create the
illusion of motion and continuity (the American Heritage Dictionary of the
