THE SLANG WORDS IN JAY-
Z’S SONG LYRICS
A THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra
By:
JUNITA RAHMAWATI
Registration Number 2112220008
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTEMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
DECLARATION
I have familiarized myself with the University’s Policy on Academic
integrity. Except where appropriately acknowledged, this thesis is my own work, has
been expressed in my own words, and has not been previously been submitted for
assessment.
I understand that this paper may be screened electronically or otherwise for
plagiarism.
Medan, september 2015
i
ABSTRACT
Rahmawati, Junita. 2015. The Slang Words in Jay-Z’s Song Lyrics. A Thesis, English and Literature Department, Faculty of Languages and Arts, State University of Medan.
The study deals with the Slang Words that consist of various slang, abbreviate words, slang that is used in American television program, and the particular phrase and idom. The objectives of this research were to find out the types of slang words that is used in Jay-Z’s song lyrics and to describe the dominant one type of slang words. This research was conducted by using descriptive qualitative method. The sources of the data were taken fom Jay-Z’s album Unfinished Business. and the data were 7 lyrics of Jay-Z’s song lyrics. After analyzing, it was found that there were 107 slang words in Jay-Z’s song lyrics. The findings of this research were found that various slang 4 (3.74%), abbreviate words 73 (68.22%), slang that is used in American television program 27 (25.23%) and the particular phrase and idiom 3 (2.81%). Abbreviate words 73 (68.22%) becomes the dominant type of slang words in Jay-z’s song lyrics.
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11. Cliticization ... 14
12. Morpheme Internal Changes ... 15
13. Suppletion ... 15
CHAPTER III.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 28
A. The Research Design ... 28
B. The Data and Data Source ... 28
C. The Techniques of Collecting Data ... 29
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CHAPTER IV.DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS ... 30
A. Data…... 30
B. Data Analysis ... 30
1. The types of Slangs... 30
a. Various slang………... 30
b. Abbreviate words………... 32
c. Slang that is used in American TV program... 34
d. The particular phrase and idiom…………... 35
2. The dominant type of slang words………... 36
C. Research Findings ... 37
D. Discussion ... 37
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ... 39
A. Conclusion ... 39
B. Suggestion ... 39
REFERENCES ... 41
vii
LIST OF TABLES
Pages
viii
LIST OF APPENDICES
Pages
Appendix I. The song lyrics of Jay-Z’s Unfinished Album ... 43
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. The Background of the Study
Sociolinguistics is concerned with investing the relationships between
language and society with the goal of a better understanding of the structure of
language and how language functions in communications, the equivalent goal in
the sociology of language is trying to discover how social structure can be better
understood through the study of language. Wardhaugh (1986:12). So that, people
need to learn sociolinguistics because people always communicate with others in
their society. When people interacted with others in society they must used a
context, language could be used in formal and informal situations. No people or
no society without a language.
There were so many aspects could be used as a research in
Sociolinguistics.The one of the aspectswasslang. Recently, slang was used by
people in communication to each other. People usually used slang in informal
situation. Actually slang was not too good if it was used too often. Because
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it could reflect their good attitude. Slang was one of the informal styles.
According to Keraf (1994:108) Slang is used with highly informal words that are
not considered standard in the speaker’s dialect or language and is used in spoken
form. The implication of slang word isto enrich the language vocabularies for
example by communicating the old words with the new meaning. Mudrikah
(2012:1) states that the beginning of using slang is only the special vocabulary
that is used by criminals. The criminals used the slang words to made the other
people do not understand about what they were talking about. Mudrikah (2012:2)
also states that generally slang is used by particular group of people which is
created arbitrarily and it is difficult to explain the reason. According to Longman
dictionary, slang is a language that is used especially by people who belong to a
particular group, such as young people or criminals. It was the reason slang had
the meaning as the language of the inferiors that did not have education. So
actually slang word is not good to used because people will look uneducated when
used the slang word. And sometimes when people used the slang word it can
make the other get confused because slang word used by particular group.
According to Pei and Gaynor (1954 :199) Slang is a style of language in common
use that is produced by popular adaptation and extention of the meaning of
existing words and by coining new words with disregard for scholastic standards
and linguistic principles of the formation of words generally peculiar to certain
classes and social or age groups.
According to O’Grady et al (1993:555), slang is a label which is used
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Slang was the use of informal words and expressions that did not considered
standardin the speaker's language. The advantage of using slang was the
communication would be fluently done because it was used by particular group of
community. Usually, slang was only used by a particular group who know or
understand about language variation which they would use.Slang could be found
on radio, television, newspapers, magazines, lyrics of music, books, etc.
In this research, the writer would like to analyze slang word in Jay-Z’s
song lyrics. There were some types of song. One of the types was rapping song.
Jay-z’s song was included to the rapping song. the writer choosed the rapping
song because usually there were so many slang words that could be found in
rapping song.
The writer would like to present an example lyrics from Jay-z as the data
for this research. This was a piece of Jay-z’s lyric song with title The Return
Halt! Who goes there?
It is I sire Tone from Brooklyn.
Well, speak up man what is it?
News from the East sire!
From the example above we could see that the slang language was used in
the song lyric. There were two types of slang word that were found. First was the
word Halt!. in this case, halt! as slang word meant Stop. These pieces of lyric told
about there was someone who came for bring a news. but the speaker didnt know
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there? This slang was included to slang that is used in American Television
Program type (exclamation used in cartoon and comics books). Second was the
word Sire. In this case, the word Sire was pointing to the name of human. Sire
tone in the second line meat as Sir Tone. It was included to Various slang.
B. The Problems of the Study
Based on the background presented above, the problems of the study deal
are as follow:
1. What were the types of the slangs found in the lyrics according to David
Burke?
2. Which type of slang that was used in the lyrics most dominantly?
C. The Objectives of the Study
The objectives of this study are:
1. To classified the slang words according to David burke’s types.
2. To found out the dominant usage of type of slang words in jaz-z’s song
lyrics
D. The Scope of the Study
The scope of this studywas limited to the usage of slang words in the lyrics
of songs. The lyrics of songs were from the selected songs of Jay-z’s album
Unfinished Business, released in 2004 which were browsed in the internet website
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E. The Significances of the Study
The writer expected that the result of this study could give contribution for
academic field and practical field.
1. Theoretically ; the finding of this research to be useful for those who
concerns to study further about Slang.especially through the lyric of songs.
2. Practically ; this research hopefully has some benefits for all student
especially at English Department Student. And the students are able to
apply their knowladge and comprehend the slang language in the
appropriate daily conversation, especially in informal situation. And also
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions
Slang was interesting to be studied and to be analyzed especially in the
lyrics of songs. Slang has been part of daily conversation to help convey message
especially by young people and students. After presented the analyzing of slang
words used in Jay-Z’s song lyrics the writer got the answers of two problems in
the first chapter.
1. This study done to describe the type of slang words and classified them
into four parts, they are various slang, abbreviate words, slang that is used
in American Television program and the particular phrase and idiom. It
was followed by describing the meaning of slang in these songs.
2. The most dominant type of Slang was abbreviate words with 73 words
(68,22%) which was showed in Jay-z’s song lyrics Unfinished album that
published in 2004.
B. Suggestions
There are some reasons why people use slang, such as slang can represent
the certain sub social’s group identity, because it is cool, it seems like fashion
when everybody likes it, and it will be often used by people.So, the writer would
like to suggest to:
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1. Thestudents are suggested to comprehend sociolinguistics especially
knowledge about slang language so that they can use slang language in
the appropriate condition
2. The other researcher that want to analyze the slang is suggested to find
the other literary works such as novel, poem, drama, film, etc
3. People are suggested to better don’t use slang word. And just use the
