1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of study
Every human uses language to communicate each other. Language has an important role in human life as it is used by human to express and show their feelings, thoughts, and ideas. It can be in spoken or written form. Language is a way of communicating of human to have a contact and deliver messages. It also influences in human life significantly as it is one of the tools of communication.
Many linguists talk and define what language is. Brown (2002:5) states that “Language is a system of arbitrary conventionalized vocal, written, or gestural symbols that enable members of a given community to communicate intelligibly with one another.” From the quotation above, it is known that language is used in some forms which make people can interact to each other easily.
Human can use language to do their importance in their life. Many aspects of human life need language as an important part of them, such as business, technology, education sector, etc. So, language takes so many roles in our daily life. Language helps human to interact and make them work and do many things easily.
Bloomfield in Partana (2002:18) states that “Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used by society to interact and communicate each other”. From what Bloomfield said about language, it is known that language is a part of society itself. So, it takes a vital role in communication in the society.
2 concerned with investigating the relationships between language and society with the goal being a better understanding of the structure of language and of how languages function in communication.” Based on the quotation above, we know that sociolinguistics is related to society as an object of the study. It is a field that analyzes language as a part of social property.
Jendra (2010: 9) says that “The study explores the functions and the varieties of language, the contacts between different languages, attitudes of people towards language use and users, changes of language, as well as plans on language.” Based on the quotation above, it is known that there are many parts of language in sociolinguistics which can be explored and investigated.
Language is not only used by society in the real life to do their importance, but also to have some entertainment. Language is applied in many forms, such as drama, poetry, novel, movie, article, etc. In this study, movie is chosen as the object of the research as there are many uses of language found in it. Occasionally, we can see the relationship of language and society in the movie which reflects the real life condition.
The I Am Sam movie is choosen as the object of this study by analyzing the five language styles found in it based on Joos’ (1967:153-155) theory which includes frozen, formal, consultative, casual, and intimate styles.
I Am Sam is an American drama movie written and directed by Jessie Nelson,
3 works. Sam also gets some help from an entourage of friends. Everything goes well until Lucy has a birthday of seven. Sam has to be separated from his daughter due to his disability to take care of the little girl whose cleverness is more than him. Her daughter begins to surpass Sam intellectually. When Family Protective Services try to take Lucy away, Sam gets intense lawyer Rita Harrison (Michelle Pfeiffer) to help him to take Lucy back. And Rita learns from Sam to take time to play with her own son. In this movie, we can see and learn from the sincerity of a mental retardation man as a father who keeps trying to take care to her own daughter eventhough he has a disability. He also has a help from his four friends who has same disability as him. Two of his friends, Brad and Joe, are roled by the real men with disability, they are Joseph Rosenberg which has mental retardation and Brad Allan Silverman which is Down Sindrom. Eventhough Sam has a mental retardation, he has a best feeling to be a good father for his own daughter.
In this study, the writer tries to know what language styles are used in this movie in Sam’s utterance in his conversationas a leading character. The writer wants to search what language styles are used in the movie by Sam which has mental retardation and tries to develop the understanding about language styles to make people having a good influence in knowing about it.
The language styles according to Joos (1967:153-155) in his book entitled “Five Clocks” as cited from Lubis (2010: 12-17), they are frozen (oratorical style), formal (deliberative style), consultative, casual, and intimate style. Here is an example of the language style which is used in the movie “I Am Sam”.
Sam: I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Yeah, I’m sorry.
4 From the dialogue above, Sam’s utterance i.e. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Yeah, I’m sorry. is classified into formal and casual style because he uses the words ‘I’m sorry’
instead of ‘sorry’ that indicates the formality. But, he also uses the word ‘yeah’ that has the impression of informality. So, Sam’s utterance in this dialogue is classified into formal and casual styles.
1.2 Problems of the Study
There are two questions raised as the problems of this study:
1. What styles are used in Sam’s utterances in the conversationas a leading character?
2. Which type of the styles dominantly occured in Sam’s utterances?
1.3 Objectives of the Study
In accordance with the problem of the study, the objectives of the study are as follows:
1. To find out language styles used by Sam as a leading character
5 1.4 Scope of the Study
The focus of the study has been limited to the styles found in the movie “I Am Sam” of which the duration is about 116 minutes. The object of the analysis is the dialogue’s transciption ofI Am Sam Movie. But the textthat will be analyzed is only Sam’s utterances in the conversations with the other figures as a leading character. The focus of the analysis is fivelanguage styles based Martin Joos’ theory which discusses the five language styles namely frozen style (oratorical style), formal style (deliberative style), consultative style, casual style, intimate style which are found in all of Sam’s utterances.
1.5 Significance of the Study
The writer hopes that this study will be significant theoretically and practically. Theoretically, it is expected to enrich or add knowledge of the reader about the five language styles, especially those found in the movie and also to know or to understand what language styles used by mental retardation person.
