AN ANALYSIS OF TARZAN’ LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN THE MOVIE TARZAN OF THE APES (1999).

(1)

AN ANALYSIS OF TARZAN’ LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN THE

MOVIE TARZAN OF THE APES₍₁₉₉₉₎

A THESIS

Submitted as Partial Fulffillment of the Requirements for the Sarjana Dergree of English Department Faculty of Letters and Humanities UIN Sunan Ampel

Surabaya.

BY

ZAHRATUL AWWALIYYAH Reg. Number: A83211205

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LETTERS AND HUMANITIES

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

INTISARI

Judul : An Analysis of Tarzan’ Language Acquisition in the Movie Tarzan of

the Apes (1999)

Kata kunci: language acquisition, Tarzan of the Apes.

Penelitian ini fokus kepada analisa pemerolehan bahasa di film Tarzan of

the Apes (1999).Penelitian ini fokus kepada karakter Tarzan, bagaimana

bahasanya dan bagaimana dia melewati proses pemerolehan bahasa. Penulis

berharap penelitian ini bermanfaat bagi pembaca khususnya mahasiswa program

studi sastra Inggris, untuk membuat mereka menyadari akan hal yang setiap

manusia lewati, pemerolehan bahasa.

Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah kualitatif deskriptif, karena

penelitian menjelaskan proses pemerolehan bahasa di film Tarzan of the Apes.

Data yang dibutuhkan dalam penelitian ini diambil dari skrip dan cerita yang telah

dibagi menjadi 48 scene, tetapi hanya 12 scene yang dapat menjadi data. Penulis

menggunakan beberapa teori tentang pemerolehan bahasa dari Noam Chomsky,

B. F. Skinner dan beberapa teori pendukung untuk menyelesaikan penelitian ini.

Dengan penelitian ini, penulis menemukan bahwasannya Tarzan tidak

mempunyai bahasa sampai dia bertemu dengan manusia yang lain karena dia

tidak mempunyai lingkungan pendukung untuk memperoleh bahasa. Dia mampu

berkomunikasi dengan hewan dan mempunyai suara yang khas. Tarzan memulai

proses pemerolehan bahasa setelah dia bertemu dengan manusia yang lainnya, dia

(6)

ABSTRACT

Title : An Analysis of Tarzan’ Language Acquisition in the Movie Tarzan of the Apes (1999)

Key words: language acquisition, Tarzan of the Apes.

This study concerns to the analysis of language acquisition in the movie Tarzan of Apes (1999). The study focuses on the character of Tarzan, how his own language is and how he passes his process of language acquisition. Hopefully, this study will be useful for the readers especially for students of English Department, to make them being realize to the process which every human passes, language acquisition.

The method of the study is descriptive qualitative because this study is to describe the process of language acquisition in the movie of Tarzan of the Apes. The data is taken from the script and the story of the movie which is divided into 48 scenes, but only 10 scenes that can be the data. The writer uses some theories about language acquisition from Noam Chomsky, B.F. Skinner and some other supporting theories to conduct this study.

(7)

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This introduction chapter presents the background of the study, statement

of the problems, the purpose of the study, limitation of the study, significance of

the study, and definition of key terms.

1.1Background of the Study

Al Qur’an has mentioned in the surah of At-tin (4) that God creates

human as a perfect and the best creature in the world. Humans are created with

a sense of grace that is not possessed by other creatures. Like what have been

explained in Tafsir Al-Jalalayn, book of exclamation of passages of Qur’an by

supplying additional information (verse 17:70), humans as the children of

Adam have honoured and preferred since God has given them knowledge,

speech and a creation which has the best proportion among other things.

Humans have a mind that it differentiates them from other creatures and it is

the tool for being talented and make a manner then they can reach the highest

levels possible for a creature. Here, one thing that is pointed by the writer is

that God has given to humans the ability to speak and special organs to

support it.

When we talk about human’s ability to speak, it cannot be separated

with the language itself. Language plays important roles in human’s life; the

(10)

2

instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of

a system of voluntary produces symbols (Sapir, 1921:18). When we use

communication as the main term of language, language not only belongs to

human being, but it also belongs to animal. All animals communicate, there

appears to be as many system of communication as there are species. Animals

are attracting to a spouse and so on.

Of course, the term of language between human being and animal

itself is different. It is quite common to spell out the difference between

animal and human communication in terms of how information conveyed. The

general idea is that humans use symbols, while animals are signalling (Brinck,

1998: 3). Several different things are intended by the term signal. For one

example, signals are not thought to have syntactic properties. It means that

signals do not belong to grammatical categories and are not systematic and

compositional. It may be like comparing two things as different as the Chinese

language and a set of traffic lights (Aitchison, 2007: 26). Language is

developing continually, that’s one of the reasons why the writer wants to focus

in this topic.

Humans are created with special organ, it is brain. Brain is the central

of all the activities which are done by humans including speaking a language.

Noam Chomsky believes that humans are genetically imprinted with

knowledge about language is often referred to as ‘the innate hypothesis’

(Aitchison, 2007:21). On the other hands, a Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner

(11)

3

According to him, no complicated innate or metal mechanisms are needed

(Aitchison, 2007:8). These two different arguments appear the nature-nurture

controversy, the question whether language is partly due to nature or wholly

due to learning or nurture. It controversy has been discussed for century, even

now.

Noam Chomsky argued that children are born with a hard wired

language acquisition device (abbreviated as LAD) in their brains. He later

expanded this idea into that of Universal Grammar, a set of innate principles

and adjustable parameters that are common to all human language. The study

of universal grammar, so understood, is a study of the nature of human

intellectual capacities (Chomsky, 2005: 24). The Innate theory itself means

that every human being has capability to learn language. The processes

through which humans acquire language are called as language acquisition

where it refers to first language acquisition. It is the study of infants’

acquisition of their native language. The writer is interested to focus on this

topic since the language acquisition had been around all humans being in the

world. All humans speak their language, that’s why every human passes the

process of language acquisition. Language is being a topic which is interesting

and never lasting.

Even children are born with LAD, it is not the only reason why

children are able to learn or acquire language. There is another factor which

can support humans to develop their ability to talk. The factor itself is

(12)

4

Foundation of Language, says that the surrounding environment must be

sufficiently rich for the ability to talk to develop adequately. Children who are

born in normal environment will have the good progress in their language

acquisition. On the contrary, children who are born in abnormal environment

may have difficulty in their language acquisition. As what have been found in

famous cases of Victor, Isabelle, Genie, Chelsea, and Hellen Keller, their

language acquisitions are delayed because of their abnormal and inhuman

environments or language deprivation.

Here, the writer finds the similar case of Isabelle, Genie and Chelsea

in the character of Tarzan in the movie Tarzan of the Apes (1999). Even

though it does not happen in the real life because it is only a movie, the writer

considers it movie as the object of this research. The reason is that a movie

can be a representation of a real life and this world is full of possibility.

Tarzan of the Apes is a 1999 American animated adventure musical film

produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney

Pictures. It movie is based on the story which has the same title “Tarzan of the

Apes” by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

The movie “Tarzan of the Apes” has the time setting in the 19th

century, the story begins when an English couple and their infant son escape

from a burning ship, they end up on land near uncharted rainforest off the

coast of Africa. The couple craft themselves a tree house from their ship’s

wreckage, but they are killed by Sabor, a leopard, and the infant son is leaved

(13)

5

cries of the orphaned human infant and finds him in the ruined tree house. In

spite Kala is attacked by Sabor, she can save the infant son. Kala brings the

infant son to meet Kerchak, her mate, to raise the baby as her own. Even

Kerchak disapproves the baby at the first, Kala can convince him. Then Kala

gives the baby name Tarzan.

In short, Tarzan grows up among the gorilla families until he becomes

a mature man. He has a female young gorilla, Terk, and a paranoid male

elephant, Tantor. Tarzan finds himself unable to keep up with the gorillas, so

he takes great efforts to improve himself to be the same with them. As a young

man, Tarzan is able to kill Sabor with his crude spear and protects the troop,

but Kerchak still does not believe him. Tarzan cannot speak human language

until he meets with Jane, her father Professor Porter and her guide Clypton.

They come to the jungle to have an observation about gorillas. Then, Tarzan

realizes that there are others who are the same with him. Here, he tries to

imitate all what they do as a humans and utter some words. Look likes it is the

first time he acquires human language.

In the movie Tarzan of the Apes, Tarzan look likes understanding

animal language. He understands the signal which is passed by many kinds of

animal. Indeed, Tarzan can imitate some of its animal languages such as the

voice of gorillas, leopards, etc. This scene is being the reason why the writer

focuses on this movie as the object of the data. The writer tries to consider that

Tarzan’s first language acquisition is animal language rather than humans’

(14)

6

number of reported cases of children raised by wolves, pigs, sheep, and other

animals. Linneaeus, the famous Swedish scientist who gave our system of

classifying animals into genus and species, discovered nine reports of children

found in the wild and raised by animals (Steinberg, 2001:126). One thing

which is similar to the story of Tarzan in the movie Tarzan of the Apes, he

was raised by a mother gorilla.

The story of Tarzan of the Apes also reflects the language acquisition

that must be passed by every human being. Here, Tarzan experiences the

delays language acquisition. He does not hear the sounds of human language

until he meets Jane. Indeed, he seems understanding animal language and has

his own signal. The explanations above are the reasons why the writer decides

to take this movie as the object of the research. She will try to analyze the

language acquisition of the character of Tarzan and the application of the

nature-nurture controversy in this case.

In making this thesis proposal, the writer is inspired by the famous

cases of Isabelle, Genie and Chelsea. The case of Isabelle was found by Marie

Mason in 1942. Isabelle (a pseudonym), because of her confinement with a

mute mother, she did not begin to learn language until she gained her freedom

at 61/2 years of age (Steinberg, 2001:135). Genie (a pseudonym) was

discovered in the early 1970s in the Los Angeles are of the USA. She was 13

years old and had been locked in a small room in her house by her father for

preceding 12 years. During her 12 years life, she heard no human voices

(15)

7

girl, Chelsea (a pseudonym), who only began to learn language at the age 32.

When she was born, Chelsea’s family thought that she was deaf. Initially

misdiagnosed as retarded, and because she lived in a rural area in the north of

California, she did not receive any language training on instruction of any

kind (Steinberg, 2001:137).

The writer also finds some works which are in the psycholinguistics

field especially language acquisition. One of its thesis works is Vivaldi’s

thesis (2013) “The Acquisition of English Interrogative of A Six-Year-Old

Chinese Indonesian Boy”. He states the boy as the object of data was in the

stage of the development of question form. Another thesis which is focus on

language acquisition is Zahradnikova’s thesis (2011) “First Language

Acquisition and Socialization”. She argues that social context plays an

important role in acquisition of first language. It suggested that the amount of

attention given to children in early development has an eminent impact on

language acquisition.

Therefore, the writer come out with two things that she is interested to

find out, about what language which is considered as first and second

language acquisition of Tarzan or shortly, about what Tarzan language like is

and how Tarzan passes the process of language acquisition.

1.2Statements of the Problems

In accordance with the background of the study, the writer formulates

(16)

8

1. What is Tarzan’s language like?

2. How does Tarzan acquire human language based on the movie Tarzan of

the Apes?

1.3Objective of the Study

Depending on the statements of the problems; the purpose of the study

can be formulated as below:

1. To describe Tarzan’s own language.

2. To describe the process of language acquisition of Tarzan based of the

movie Tarzan of the Apes.

1.4Significance of the Study

The significance of this study is for enrich people’s knowledge of

language acquisition, a process which they do not realize that they experience

it. By reading the result of this study, the writer hopes the reader can be open

minded to a thing that they really do, acquire language. The writer also hopes

this study can give enlightenment and a lot of benefits to the readers about

language acquisition, especially students of English Department. The writer

hopes after reading this research, readers realize that God has created them as

(17)

9

1.5Scope and Limitation

In order to keep the study concerning to the topic, the writer will make

some limitations. This study is going to focus on the character of Tarzan in the

movie “Tarzan of the Apes”, how Tarzan passes the language acquisition. The

writer will concern to the differentiate of Tarzan’s language acquisition before

and after meeting Jane, Professor Porter and Clayton, other humans being that

Tarzan meets for the first time after many years he lives in the jungle. Here,

the writer will apply the innate hypothesis by Chomsky to analyze Tarzan’s

language acquisition and some others theories to analyze Tarzan’s own

language and how he acquires human language.

1.6Definition of Key Terms

1.6.1 Language Acquisition

Language acquisition is the study of the processes through

which learners acquire language. By itself, language acquisition refers

to first language acquisition, which studies infants’ acquisition of their

native language, whereas second language acquisition deals with

acquisition of additional languages in both children and adults.

1.6.2 Innateness Hypothesis

Innateness hypothesis is the argument of Noam Chomsky; he

believes that humans are genetically imprinted with knowledge about

language. It means that every human being has capability to learn

(18)

10

1.6.3 First Language

First language is often called as mother tongue; it refers to the

native language which is acquired by infants because it is spoken in

(19)

CHAPTER II

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter consists of many important aspects in finishing this thesis.

They are nature and nurture controversy, language acquisition, process of

language acquisition, golden age / critical period of language acquisition, humans’

language and animals’ communication and some previous studies which are

similar to the research.

2.1 Theoretical Framework

2.1.1 Nature and Nurture Controversy

Language is an interesting topic to be discussed until now, and one

of the topics is about nature and nurture controversy. Instead of language

as natural behaviour or language needs a learning process. When we talk

about its controversy, it cannot be separated with two big psychologists,

Noam Chomsky and B.F Skinner. Noam Chomsky belongs to the theory

of language as nature and B.F Skinner is the opposite, he belongs to the

theory of language as nurture or verbal behaviour.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990), well known as B.F.

Skinner, is among widely cited and influential 20th century psychologists

in American history (Smith, 2004: 121). Skinner begins as a psychologist

who takes focus on the field of psycholinguistics since he writes a book

entitled Verbal Behaviour (1957). As the pioneer of language as verbal

(20)

12

heads as far as language is concerned. His claim to understand language is

based on his work with rats and pigeons.

According Skinner, no complicated innate or mental mechanisms

are needed to acquire language. Skinner argues that verbal language has

some controlling variables which will enable people to predict specific

utterances. All stimuli which control particular verbal responses are of this

sort. A special feature of the mind is that its form is not controlled by any

stimulus acting prior to the emission. The response is functionally related

to a drive, and we control it through any operation which will change the

drive (Skinner, 1957: 37). They are not eliciting stimuli, either conditioned

or unconditioned. The close temporal and intensive relation between

stimulus and response which obtains in elicited behaviour is lacking. A

stimulus simply makes a verbal response more likely to occur (Skinner,

1957: 43).

Avram Noam Chomsky, well known as Noam Chomsky, was born

in 1928; he is one of the great American linguists and philosophers until

present. Chomsky is famous with his innateness hypothesis; he believes

that humans are genetically imprinted with knowledge about language. His

hypothesis looks like the opposite of Skinner’ s theory. Chomsky writes a

devastating and witty review of Skinner’ s book Verbal Behaviour in 1959.

He underlines Skinner argument about controlling variables. If Skinner

argues that verbal behaviour has controlling variables which will enable

(21)

13

controlling variables; people have to wait until they hear the utterances

before they know what controls it (Aitchison, 2007:10).

Controlling variable itself is also known as stimulus. A part of the

environment and a part of behaviour are called stimulus (eliciting,

discriminated, or reinforcing) and response, respectively, only if they are

lawfully related; that is, if the dynamic laws relating them show smooth

and reproducible curves. Evidently, stimuli and responses, so defined,

have not been shown to figure vary widely in ordinary human behaviour

(Chomsky, 1959: 52). We cannot predict verbal behaviour in terms of the

stimuli in the speaker’ s environment, since we do not know what the

current stimuli are until he responds. Furthermore, since we cannot control

the property of a physical object to which an individual will respond,

except in highly artificial cases, Skinner’ s claim that his system, as

opposed to the traditional one, permit the practical control of verbal

behaviour is quite false (Chomsky, 1959: 52). It is not clear how the

frequency of a response can be attributable to anything but the frequency

of occurrence of its controlling variables if we accept Skinner’ s view that

the behaviour occurring in a given situation is “ fully determined” by the

relevant controlling variables (Chomsky, 1959: 54).

2.1.2 Language Acquisition

Literature often claims that children just ‘pick up’ their language or

(22)

14

statements, if devoid of a serious effort at some learning-theoretic account

of how this is achieved, reveal irresponsibility rather than ignorance

(Lenneberg, 1967: 5). Children must pass some process to acquire their

language. Chomsky says that language acquisition is the process in which

the learner forms an internalized knowledge (in his mind), and I-language.

In general, Language acquisition is the study of the processes through

which learners acquire language. By itself, language acquisition refers to

first language acquisition, which studies infants’ acquisition of their native

language, whereas second language acquisition deals with acquisition of

additional languages in both children and adults.

There are two general theories about language acquisition, they are

learning theory and nativism theory. The first theory is learning theory

(behaviourism theory), its theory belongs to the behaviourist B.F Skinner.

According to this theory, language is learned from experience alone.

Children acquire language based of general learning mechanisms that are

also involved in learning many other phenomena. These general learning

mechanisms are crucially driven by the input. The input itself refers to the

controlling variables which have been mentioned before. No innate

tendency to read has been seriously proposed but the parallel between

textual and echoic behaviour is quite close. Both the auditory and visual

stimuli have the same kind of controlling effect over the form of response.

(23)

15

to the stimulus involves two relatively unimportant points, so far as the

nature of the relation is concerned (Skinner, 1957: 45).

The second theory is nativism theory (Innateness theory), it

belongs to the American linguist Noam Chomsky. Specifically, the

proponents of this approach argue that children do not receive enough

information in the input to learn the intricate rules of grammar. Children

are only able to acquire grammar because of innate grammatical

knowledge. A person who knows English has attained a certain mental

state, different from that of someone who knows Japanese. Abstracting

from possible individual differences, there is some innate mental state

common to the species that provides the basis for acquisition of

knowledge of grammar, a characteristic that distinguishes humans from

birds or apes (Chomsky, 1981: 3). Chomsky argues that language

acquisition holds that at least some linguistic knowledge exist in humans

at birth and humans have automatic grammatizator or humans use

grammar innately.

Language acquisition cannot be separated with the theory of

Chomsky about Universal Grammar (UG) and Language Acquisition

Device (LAD). Chomsky, in various places, has described the theory of

language as one which consists of a set of principles (UG) that underlie

language; what we expect to find, then, is a highly structured theory of UG

based on a number of fundamental principles that sharply restrict the class

(24)

16

parameters that have to be fixed by experience (Chomsky, 1981: 4). A

central aspect of the theory of UG is that it views the human language

faculty as comprising a priori knowledge about the structure of language.

Importantly, knowledge of language is understood as being internal to the

human mind/brain, and the object of linguistic theory is therefore the

mental grammar or competence of individual which Chomsky refers to as

I-language, an internal entity of the individual, as opposed to E-language,

‘ E’ suggesting ‘ external’ , that is, the overt products in language use

(Meisel, 2011: 15).

While LAD, Language Acquisition Device, the nature of the

language capacity common to all humans. Based on Chomsky, LAD

makes humans have possibility to learn language, especially first language

acquisition. The idea according to which UG as the theory of the human

language faculty not only defines the initial state of first language

development, but also determines essential properties of developing

grammars at every moment of the acquisition process. In this sense, UG is

a crucial part of the Language Acquisition Device. In fact, as becomes

obvious from the above quote from Chomsky, UG is frequently equated

with LAD (Meisel, 2011: 15).

When we talk about language acquisition, it cannot be separated

with the discussion about child itself. The theory of acquisition will have

two distinct components. One will be the set of principles that lead to the

(25)

17

linguistics competence. These principles will deal with how the child

constructs a rule of grammar and changes it over time. The focus is on the

nature of the child’ s rule system; it is concerned with competence factors.

The second component looks at the psychological processes the child uses

in learning the language. These are what we shall call performance factors.

Performance factors enter into the child’ s comprehension and production

language. In comprehension, performance factors deal with how the child

establishes meaning in the language input, as well as with the cognitive

restrictions that temporarily retard development. In production, these

factors describe the reasons why the child’ s spoken language may not

reflect its linguistics competence (Ingram, 1999: 65).

2.1.3 Process of Language Acquisition

All children seem to pass through a series of similar ‘ stages’ as

they acquire language. The age at which different children reach stage or

‘ milestone’ varies considerably, but the relative chronology remains the

same (Aitchison, 2007: 79). The milestones are normally reached in the

same order, though they may be nearer together for some children and

father apart for others. Children differ, for the example, in how much time

they need in order to advance from one milestone to the next and also in

the overall length of time they take to proceed through the entire sequence

of acquisition events (Meisel, 2011: 24). Generally, language development

(26)

18

The stages overlap, and the ages given are only a very rough guide, but it

does give some idea of a child’ s likely progress.

Language Stage Beginning age

Crying Birth

Cooing 6 weeks

Babbling 6 months

Intonation 8 months

One-word utterances 1 year

Two-word utterances 18 months

Word inflections 2 years

Questions, negatives 2 1/4 years

Rare or complex constructions 5 years

Mature Speech 10 years

The course of first language development is thus laid out as a

sequence of linguistics milestones (Meisel, 2011: 23). Similar milestones

are observed in infants’ early productions. During their first four months

they produce a range of vowel-like sounds (approximately 80% of their

productions) and a limited set of consonants-like ones, with the vowels

changing rapidly. After approximately six months, ‘ babbling’ begins, that

is, children use what look like units with ‘ syllable structures’ , which,

however, do not yet express meaning. Consonant-vowel combinations

(CV) are preferred, reduplications are frequent, and one can detect

(27)

19

what is encountered in their linguistics environment. This development

begins probably already before the age of six months, but certainly soon

afterwards, and at around twelve months they typically produce their first

words (Meisel, 2011: 26).

By the end of the second month, infants begin to do a lot of cooing.

Coos are acoustically more varied than cries, as infants exercise some

control over their articulatory organs to produce a greater variety of

sounds. Coos tend to be made in the back of the mouth and are similar to

back vowels and velar consonants. A little later, by about 6 to 7 months,

babbling begins. Infants’ first use reduplicated babbling, in which they

repeat a consonant-vowel sequence, such as babababa. By 11 to 12

months, infants use variegated babbling, in which syllable strings consist

of varying consonants and vowels, such as bigodabu (Carrol, 1998: 259).

The consonants were often made with lips, or the teeth, so that the

sequences sounded like MAMA, DIDIDI, PAPAPA. On hearing these

sounds, parents confidently but wrongly assumed that infants were

addressing them (Aitchison, 2007: 82).

Children usually utter their first words at around 12 months of age,

and for the next few months most of their utterances consist of single

words produced in isolation (Carrol, 1998: 262). At this period, several

developments begin to the shape at once. Children come to master certain

words as labels for regular features of their environment, such as common

(28)

20

begins to acquire the lexicon of the language. The number of single words

acquired at around this time varies from child to child. Some have only

four or five, others have around fifty (Aitchison, 2007: 84).

Children begin to speak in word combinations by about 2 years of

age, and over the course of the next few years they make impressive

advances in grasping the grammar or their native language (Carrol, 1998:

269). Researchers have developed two measures of syntactic development.

The best known and most widely used is to measure the mean length of

utterances in morphemes (MLU). The method, as discussed by Brown

(1973), consists of taking 100 of the child’ s spontaneous utterances and

counting the number of morphemes (meaningful units) per utterances. The

MLU is a conservative index of the child’ s ability to combine morphemes

in a productive manner. Brown has indicated that these MLU-defined

stage provide a global view of what aspects of language the child is

currently mastering. Children at stage I are putting word together. At stage

II, they are learning to modulate the meaning of their utterances by the use

of grammatical morphemes. Stage III and IV are devoted to learning more

complex constructions, such as questions and negatives.

By the age of 3 ½, most children were able to form most

grammatical constructions, and their speech was reasonably intelligible to

strangers. By the age of 5, children gave the superficial impression of

having acquired language more or less perfectly. But this was an illusion.

(29)

21

age of about 11, children exhibited a command of the structure of their

language comparable to that of adult. At the age of puberty, their language

development was essentially complete, apart from vocabulary. They would

continue to accumulate lexical items throughout their life (Aitchison,

2007: 89).

2.1.4 Golden Age / Critical Period of Language Acquisition

Lenneberg argued that humans have a narrow ‘ critical period’ set

aside by nature for the acquisition of language. Between the ages of two

and three years language is an interaction in maturation and

self-programmed learning. Between the ages of three and the early teens the

possibility for primary language acquisition continues to be good. After

puberty, the ability for self-organization and adjustment to the

physiological demands of verbal behaviour quickly declines. The brain

behaves as if it had become set in its ways and primary, basic skills not

acquired by that time usually remain deficient for life (Lenneberg, 1967:

158). At one time, Lenneberg’ s views were widely accepted. Children

clearly start talking at about the age of 2 and it seemed plausible that

language ability ceased at around 13 (Aitchison, 2007: 90).

The case of four socially isolated children, Victor, Isabelle, Genie

and Chelsea, provide superficial support for the view that language come

to a shuddering halt around adolescence. They are consistent with the

(30)

22

properly, but we do not know how early this experience must be. Studies

by Newport (1990) indicate that the age at which children acquire certain

aspects of language is correlated with the level of acquisition: the earlier

the acquisition, the higher the level of learning (Carrol, 1998: 314).

2.1.5 Humans Language and Animal Communication

Human beings are in many ways unusual animals, with some very

peculiar adaptations. In most respects, however, the difference between us

and other animals is a matter of degree only (Johansson, 2001: 3). Humans

may be the most intelligent animal on this planet, but chimps and dolphins

are not totally devoid of intelligence either. Many definitions that are

found in textbooks are too wide. For example: ‘A language is a system of

arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates’

(Bloch and Trager, 1942: 5). This definition maybe too wide and cannot be

a consideration instead of human language and animal communication.

Language is a form of communication, and it is probable that it

involved for the purpose of communication. But it is no means the only

form of communication used in either the animal or the human world, and

language is certainly not synonymous with communication. Every social

animal has some form or another of communication, forming a highly

diverse assemblage of communication methods, but few, if any, of these

(31)

23

capabilities, on top of its basic communicative purpose (Johansson, 2001:

5).

When people talk about this problem, the main consideration is the

term of humans’ language and animal communication itself. A

superficially promising approach was that suggested by the linguist

Charles Hockett in his book under the title A Note on Design Features

(1960s). In series of articles stretching over ten years he attempted to

itemize the various ‘design features’ which characterize language. These

are the number of design features mentioned by Hockett: use of the

vocal-auditory channel, arbitrariness, semanticity, culture transmission,

spontaneous usage, turn-taking, duality, displacement,

structure-dependence, creativity, ability to read intentions. Some of these features

are fairly general and occur widely in the animal world (Aitchison,

2007:27). The normal use is, in this sense, a creative activity. This

creative aspect of normal language use is one fundamental factor that

distinguishes human language from any known system of animal

communication (Chomsky, 2005: 88)

2.2 Related Studies

2.2.1 The Acquisition of English Interrogative of A Six-Year-Old Chinese

Indonesian Boy (2013)

This thesis was written by James Vivaldi, a student from Petra

(32)

24

Chinese Indonesian boy. The writer was curious to know the stage of

acquisition of English interrogative form. By this research, the writer

stated the boy as the object of data was in the stage of the development of

question form.

In doing his research, the writer used the behaviourism theory by

Chomsky, that language is inherited and human can acquire it through

language acquisition device. For other theories, he used the second

language acquisition theories by Long and Collin Baker.

The writer of this study concluded that children have special stage

of interrogative in their second language acquisition. Despite the boy who

became the object of the data found some difficulties in this acquisition

process.

The similarity of between these two studies is that its studies take

focus on language acquisition. Even the data was taken from different

sources. If this study takes the data from real human, the data of the writer

will take the data from the character of Tarzan in the movie “Tarzan of the

Apes”.

2.2.2 First Language Acquisition and Socialization (2011)

This was a thesis written by Martina Zahradnikova, she was a

student from Masaryk University. In this study, she was focus on the first

language acquisition and how the social or environment gives the

(33)

25

Between these two studies are going to through have the similarity

of the using some theories, such as behaviourism by Skinner and Nativism

by Chomsky. Both these studies is the same, its take focus on first

langauge acquisition. The other theories that were used in this study are

social cognition theory and social interaction theory. The writer was

focused on one-word stage (12-18 months babies), two-words stage (18-28

months babies) and three-words stage (28-42 months babies).

This study concluded a fact that there is a strong correlation

between successful language acquisition and a stimulating social

environment provided by caregiver. The writer got this fact as the result of

her research to language stages which should be passed by children,

especially the stages which were analysed.

2.2.3 Echa: Kisah Pemerolehan Bahasa Anak Indonesia (2000)

This study was written by Soenjono Darjowidjojo in his book

which was published in 2000. The study tried to find out the acquisition of

a first language of Indonesian child. The writer realized that there had been

no longitudinal study about Indonesian acquisition especially as long as

five years. Thus, he was interested in conducting study about first

language acquisition of his grandchild, named Echa.

In doing his research, the writer used the behaviourism theory by

Noam Chomsky, that language is inherited and human can acquire it

(34)

26

coming from Berko Gleason, Borer, Eve Clark, Herbert Clark, Fikkert and

etc.

The finding is quite interesting, some universal theories are

matched with Echa, about phonology acquisition and it sequence of

acquisition also syntax acquisition. However, Echa’s lexicon acquisition is

different from universal tendency. It is clear that in terms of vocabulary

acquisition, the surroundings or inputs are the biggest factor in expanding

her lexicon.

Thus, this study contributes that the acquisition process of a child

may differ with other child, especially with lexicon acquisition. However,

the one thing that can be generalized and convinced by the conclusion of

the writer of the book is the sequence of phonology acquisition of Echa is

(35)

CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHOD

In this chapter, the following subtopics are going to be discussed: (1)

research design (2) data and sources (3) technique of data collection (4)

instrument (5) technique of data analysis and (6) triangulation.

3.1Research Design

This study was a descriptive qualitative study. The writer applied the

qualitative research in this study because it was focused the data which was

taken from a movie. Denzin and Lincoln, in their book The Sage Handbook of

Qualitative Research (2005), say that qualitative research belongs to a

situated activity that locates the observer in the world. It consists of a set of

interpretive, material practices that makes the world visible. These practices

transform the world. They turn the world into a series of representations,

including field notes, interviews, conversations, photographs, recordings, and

memos to the self. At this level, qualitative research involves an interpretive,

naturalistic approach to the world. This means that qualitative researchers

study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or to

interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.

A qualitative case study examines a phenomenon within its real-life

context. Data are collected on or about a single individual, group, or event. In

some cases, several cases or events may be studied (Yin, 2008: 17). This

(36)

28

which the data was taken from a kind of video or it was called movie. The

movie itself was Tarzan of the Apes. Here, the writer analyzed several cases

that were unique with respected to the research topic. The cases were selected

based on the unique quality or often rarely observed. In this opportunity, the

writer took focus on the case of Tarzan’s language acquisition. From the

movie, the writer made such a narrative to describe the important parts which

built the research questions.

The writer also used library research to complete and made this study

perfect. Academic libraries have for centuries played critically-important roles

in supporting research in all subjects and disciplines within their host

universities and colleges (Brown, 2007: 5). The writer used some literatures to

answer the research questions, supported and applied the theories that were

used in this study.

3.2Data and Source

The data was collected from some scenes of the movie entitled Tarzan

of the Apes, the writer got this movie by downloading from the

site www.youtube.com. The writer decided to choose it movie because the

character of Tarzan reflected language acquisition which was passed by all

humans. As a result, the writer was interested in analyzing language

acquisition further as her study.

The writer got the data from the scenes, transcription and notes. In

(37)

29

scenes by herself. Not all scenes in the movie were used as the main data,

there were criteria to make the scenes became the main data, such as: the

scene should reflect the language acquisition process and could answer the

reasearch questions. Hence, the combination of the scene, transcription and

notes would be the main data of this study.

3.3Technique of Data Collection

To collect the data which was needed for this research, the writer did

some steps such as:

1. The writer watched the movie for many times to find important parts

which supported the cases that were being the thread of the research

questions.

2. The writer looked for the script of the movie and compared it to the

movie for making the research easier. The movie was also devided into

some scenes because the writer found the only one script of the movie

and there was nothing scene deviding in it. She has devided the movie

into 48 scenes, and 10 scenes became the data of the research.

3. The writer gave a sign to the scene which was important to be the data.

The sign was put on the script of the movie and compared to the scene

that had been devided by the writer. The part would be supposed to be

important part of it part occurred the cases appear. The example was,

when Tarzan uttered the word of humans’ language for the first time

(38)

30

4. The writer made such a narrative or a point which was the chronology of

the movie especially Tarzan’s development to make the data analysis

easier.

3.4Instrument

The instruments of this study were the writer, some notes, laptop,

some previous studies that talked about language acquisition and some

literary books as the reference to find the appropriate theories relate to the

topic.

3.5Technique of Data Analysis

After collecting the data, the writer did many steps to analyze its data.

Firstly, after finding the important part and the cases which appear and

brought to the research question, the writer analyzed its cases / research

question by using the appropriate theories. To analyze the data, the writer

applied the theories to the cases or research questions and made the

discussion. Finally, the writer concluded what the results of the study using

the collected references.

3.6Triangulation

Triangulation refers to the central methodological concept comes high

(39)

31

ways to concept their triangulations. There is more than one type of

triangulation (Litosseliti, 2010: 34), such as:

• Data triangulation (The application of more than one sampling method for data collection)

• Investigator triangulation (The involvement of more than one researcher) • Theoretical triangulation (The use of more than one theoretical stance) • Methodological triangulation (the use of more than one methodology)

Triangulation is often one of the key reasons for undertaking mixed

methods research, and it also will be done by the writer. Here, the writer used

investigator triangulation. For doing this research, the writer was helped by a

lecturer who became the advisor and guided her to finish the research

perfectly. Besides that, the writer also used theoretical triangulation since

there were many theories which were used to analyze the main point of the

(40)

CHAPTER IV

FINDING AND DISCUSSION

The focus of the study is the character of Tarzan in the movie “Tarzan of

the Apes”, how his own language and how he passes the process of language

acquisition after he meets other humans for the first time. The main purpose of

this chapter is to answer the statement of the problems which are presented in the

chapter I.

In this discussion, the data were collected from the script that has been

divided into some scenes by the writer. She divided the movie into 48 scenes, but

not all scenes can be the data. The scenes which were being the data must be

correlated to the research questions. The writer made a description for each scene

of the data to make it easier to understand. Here are the data:

4.1 Finding

4.1.1 Tarzan’s own language

Tarzan is an orphan child since his parents are killed by a cheetah. After

that he was found by a mother gorilla that takes take of him until he becomes

adult. This study analysed Tarzan’s own language before and after he met other

human beings. Tarzan had no language at all before he met Jane, but he did

(41)

33

Data 1

Scenes 03 (minutes 02.51 – 06.10)

Kala, a mother of gorilla, was listening to a strange voice when her fold

wanted to move their nest; she came to the voice source. She found a tree house

and a baby inside it.

(Baby Crying)

[Baby Tarzan] (Crying) (Gorilla Sniffing) (Wind Howling) (Gasping )

[Baby Tarzan] (Coughing) | (Cooing) | (Laughing) | (Cooing) [Kala] (Sniffing)

[Kala] Agh ! | (Grunts) [Baby Tarzan] (Cooing)

[Kala] (Sniffing) | (Snarls, Growls) | (Snarling, Growling) [Baby Tarzan] (Cooing) | (Gasps)

[Kala] (Snarls) [Baby Tarzan] (Cooing)

[Kala] (Snarling) [Baby Tarzan) (Laughs)

In this scene, Tarzan is still a baby. Like other babies, he does only two

things, crying and cooing. If we are going to use the theory of Lenneberg about

the milestone or stages of language acquisition, the writer estimates that in this

scene Tarzan is more than two months and less than six months old, since he is

only able crying and cooing. Crying and cooing are not included into phase of

language acquisition. However, strictly speaking, it is perhaps inaccurate to speak

(42)

34

communication and may be more like an animal call system than a true language

(Aitchison, 2007: 81).

In this scene, like other babies, Tarzan only does two things, crying and

cooing. Coos are acoustically more varied than cries, as infants exercise some

control over their articulatory organs to produce a greater variety of sounds

(Carrol, 1998: 259). Infants are able cooing at least in their end of the second

months old. After cooing stage, by about six to seven months, babbling begins. It

means, Tarzan is at least two months old and not more than six months old when

Kala finds him. It reflects that Tarzan’s articulatory organs develop well since he

is able cooing.

Normally, the next stage that Tarzan will pass are bubbling, intonation

patterns, one-word utterances, two-word utterances, and so on. There is nothing in

the movie how Tarzan’s growth until he is five years old. And the writer considers

that Tarzan’s language acquisition stops since he is leaved by his parents and then

found by Kala, a mother of gorilla. He is being the only one human in the jungle

where he lives.

Data 2

Scene 05 (minutes 08.01 – 09.10)

After finding and saving Tarzan from a cheetah, Kala brought him to the

gorillas fold. She decided to take care of Tarzan as her own son even thought at

first Kerchak, her couple, could not receive Tarzan.

(43)

35

[A gorilla] Are you all right, dear?

[Kala] I'm fine | No, really, honestly. | It's just that I got a little bit... sidetracked.

(All Gasping)

[Terk] Well, isn't that, uh-- | Well, so-- | Well, it's just so, so-- | That's freaky-lookin', okay? That's what it is.

[Terk’s Mother] Terkina!

[Terk] Well, it is! | I mean, what the heck is it anyway? [Kala] He's a baby.

[Terk] Ow ! I can't-- [Baby Tarzan] (Cooing, Laughing) [Terk] So, where's his mama?

[Kala] Well, I'm going to be his mother now. (Baby Cooing)

[Terk] You know, he´s not so bad | Once you get used to him. | Kala's gonna be its mother now.

In this scene, the writer point to the case of Tarzan is raised by Kala, a

mother gorilla. This case is not only happened in the movie, but also in the real

life. Over the past centuries there have been a number of reported cases of

children raised by wolves, pigs, sheep, and other animals.

Data 3

Scene 08 (minutes 12.31 – 14.10)

Tarzan was growing up under Kala’s nurseling. By the visualization of

Tarzan in this scene, the writer estimated that Tarzan was five years old. In this

scene, he had some conversation with Kala and Terk, a young gorilla that was

being his best friend.

[Kala] Mmm | (Gasps) | Tarzan ? | Tarzan ?

[Tarzan] (Trumpets Like An Elephant) I sure scared you, Mom. Whoa. [Kala] You sure did! Can't you imitate any quieter animals?

[Tarzan] Oh, Mom, they're no fun. Wanna see me be a leopard? | (Snarling )

(44)

36

[Tarzan] Mmm. (Yelling Sounds) [Baby gorillas] (Imitating Yelling Sounds) [Mother gorillas] Kala !

[Tarzan] (Yelling ) | Oops. [Kerchack] (Quiet Growls) [Tarzan] Hee-hee.

[Terk] Tarzan, thank goodness, you're all right! Kala and I have been so worried! | Thank you. Thank you so much for finding him, Kerchak. You are such a wise and caring leader. | Run. [Tarzan] Ooh! | Um--

[Terk] Hello! Are you thick in the head? [Tarzan] What?

[Terk] How many times do I have to tell ya? If you want Kerchak to like you, stay away from him!

[Another young gorilla] Come on, Terk! Step on it! | Last one there's a dung beetle!

[Terk] Yeah ! And the first ones gotta eat it! [Tarzan] Terk, can I come?

[Terk] Well, yeah, you could if you could keep up, but... you can't really keep up. | Wait up, guys. |Wait up! Right behind ya.

There are two points which are pointed in this scene. First, Tarzan has

some conversations with the gorillas, Kala and Terk. Second, Tarzan imitates the

sounds of some animals and he has his own sound, the sound hears

‘auoo..uooo..auoo..uooo’.

In this scene, the writer estimates that Tarzan is five years old. He does

not speak language at all. It is normally happens to Tarzan if he does not speak

language. If Tarzan is normal, he would have given the superficial impression of

having acquired language more or less perfectly. Whereas, he is not normal, he is

a wild and isolated child, so that he does not get language acquisition at the exact

time.

On the other hand, Tarzan looks like talking to the gorillas and other

(45)

37

means of communication, many of which appear to share at least some, if not all,

of the properties of language. The traditional view, among biologist as well as

linguist, has been that they have only affective meaning, expressing only the

emotions of the “speaker”, without symbolic referents. But numerous studies in

recent decades have demonstrated that many animals use alarm call and/or food

calls, which for all practical purposes function as if they carried symbolic

referential meaning (Johansson, 2001: 9). Therefore, language only belongs to

humans, whereas animals have their own signal to be used for communication

with their species.

Like what have explained before, animals do not speak, but they do

signalling to communicate each other. Animal communication is not word by

word, but what they are signalling have the full meaning of context. Some studies

about animal communication concern predator alarm calls, and food calls, where

it is experimentally feasible to demonstrate functional referentiality (Johansson,

2001: 11). But it is hard to establish the meaning or intend of each calls or signals

which are vocalized by the animals.

In the story of the movie, Tarzan looks like having his own signal. The

writer thinks that it is normally happened to him. Until he meets Jane, he does not

realize that he is a human being. Tarzan thinks that he belongs to the gorillas or

another species of animal. In this scene, there is conversation between Tarzan and

Kala:

(46)

38

The sound is audible “auoo..uoooo..uoo”, the writer analyze that it sound has a

special function through all it sound appears in the movie. Tarzan utters his own

sound when he wants to show up his self, such as a sign that he comes. He has no

language at all; on the contrary, he has his own signal. It is one of Tarzan’s ways

adapting to the jungle and his environment which it does not take a short time to

pass it process.

Data 4

Scene 16 (minutes 24.01 – 25.20)

Tarzan was bent on being a best ape, and then he learned anything in the

jungle where he lived. He trained hanging on a tree, avoiding some wild animals

such as snake and crocodile, using a sharp stone for the head of spear and etc. The

way he walked was similar to the ape; his feet and hands touch the ground. This

scene shows the development of Tarzan, since he was a child until he was being

an adult. In this scene, there was nothing conversation between the characters,

there was only visualisation of Tarzan’s struggling to be the best ape as he wanted

and back song which reflected the scenes.

One of the characteristics of creatures is the capability of adaption and it

(47)

39

animals including gorillas do not do that. However, Tarzan is human being,

though he lives with the gorillas fold, it does not break his identity as a human.

Humans’ intelligence is the highest than all creatures in the world. Even though

gorillas’ intelligence is close to humans’, gorillas are still gorillas.

Here, the writer thinks that Tarzan has the high intelligence. He can

adapt to the environment which actually does not belong to him. It is shown by

the part when Tarzan makes a weapon which is made by sharp stone which

animals will not do that. But his intelligence does not make him being able to

speak instantly. It reflects the fact that, even though the nature of language

capacity commons to all humans, without learning supporting environment, the

process of language acquisition will not run well, yet it can be stopped at all. Like

what happens to Tarzan and some feral and isolated children that are discovered.

What happen to Tarzan belongs to the theory of B.F. Skinner, behaviorism theory.

From this theory, children acquire language by the learning process and the

experienced that they got from the environment. Whereas, Tarzan’s environment

does not give him any chances to acquire humans’ language. His environment

only teaches him how to save his life in the jungle. Indeed, he looks like able to

communicate with the gorillas fold and other animals.

Data 5

Scene 17 (minutes 25.21 – 26.25)

In this scene, Tarzan has been an adult. He had some conversation with

(48)

40

as his best friends. Until this scene, he did not realize that he was a human, not a

kind of animal.

[Kala] Don't even think about it. [Tarzan] How'd you know it was me ?

[Kala] I'm your mother. I know everything. | Where have you been ? [Tarzan] I thought you knew everything.

[Terk] Hey, Auntie "K." You're looking remarkably groomed today. [Kala] Hello, Terk.

[ Terk ] Not the neck. Not the neck there, "T." [Tarzan] (Grunting)

[Tantor] Whoa ! Okay. It's all fun and games till someone loses an eye. Please stop. Somebody´s gonna get hurt.

[Terk] And it's always me. Please.

[ Terk ] Cramp in the calf ! |Okay, you win ! Ow, ow ! Okay ! You win. Hello ? Yo, yo, let go !

[Tarzan] Oh, sorry, Terk.

[Terk] What kind of animal are you ?

[Tantor] I've been thinking lately that maybe Tarzan could be some subspecies of elephant.

[Terk] What, are you crazy ?An elephant ?

[Tantor] Listen to me. Think about it. He enjoys a peanut. | I enjoy a peanut.

[Terk] He looks nothing like you !

In this scene, the writer takes focus on the sound which is vocalized by

Tarzan. The writer finds one kind of sounds, it is grunting. The sound of grunting

is audibly “eergh.. eergh..”. Tarzan uses this sound for having conversation with

his friend, in this scene, he talks to Terk. If we see from the perspective that

Animal do not speak, but they do signalling and it signal refers to predator alarm

call or food call. The writer thinks that it sound does not refer to one of signal

(49)

41

Data 6

Scene 18 (minutes 26.26 – 29.10)

Sabor, a cheetah, hide behind a tree, fortunetaly Tarzan saw it. Tarzan

and Kerchak were getting fight with Sabor. Kerchack was almost lose, but Tarzan

helped him. After that, Tarzan got fight with Sabor only by himself.

[Tarzan] (Growling) [Sabor] (Roars) [Tarzan] (Snarling)

[Sabor] (Roaring) (Roaring) [Kerchak] (Growling)

[Sabor] (Quiet Growling) [Kerchak] (Sighs) | (Growling) [Tarzan] (Yells)

[Sabor] (Shrieking) [Tarzan] (Growling) [Sabor] (Growls) [Other Gorillas] (Cheering) [Tarzan] (Growls) [Sabor] (Growls)

[Tarzan] (Growling) | (Growling Continues) [Sabor] (Rustling)

[Other Gorillas] (Chittering Nervously) [Tarzan] (Grunts) | (Panting) [Other Gorillas] (Cheering)

[Tarzan] (Yells) [Other Gorillas] (Cheering) [Tantor] (Trumpets)

There are two kinds of sounds which are vocalized by Tarzan in this

scene. The first sound is growling, it is audibly “aarrgghh.. aarrgghh..”. The writer

considers that it sound is close to the sound of roar which is vocalized by some

kinds of wild animals, like lion, tiger, panther and cheetah. Based on the movie,

the purpose of this sound is such a predator alarm call. Tarzan vocalizes this

(50)

42

The second sound is yelling, it is audibly “auooo..uoooo..uuooo”. It

sound becomes Tarzan’s own signal. He vocalizes it sound many times in many

scenes. From the movie, yelling becomes Tarzan’s own signal which other

animals do not vocalize it. The writer considers that it sound has two purposes.

The first purpose is to be a signal that Tarzan comes to an area. And the second

purpose is to show up his self to the environment of the jungle especially to the

gorillas fold like what happens in the last part of this scene, when he is success to

beat down Sabor.

4.1.2 Process of language acquisition of Tarzan

Tarzan is a wild and isolated child, and his language acquisition stops until

he becomes adult. He begins his late language acquisition when he meets other

humans for the first time along his lifetime. His process of language acquisition

reflects both of the theories of Chomsky and Skinner. Tarzan’s looks easy to learn

human language though his language acquisition is very late.

Data 7

Scene 25 (minutes 37.01 – 39-10)

Tarzan realized that there were other creatures like him. He met Jane and

helped her from a baboon troops. For the first time, he was very close to human, a

same creature like him, Jane. Tarzan looked like analyzing Jane, he touched some

parts of Jane body and compared with his.

(51)

43

[Tarzan] (Tarzan comes closer to Jane)

[Jane] Stay back. No, don't. Don't come any closer. Please, don't. What are-- What are you doing? | (Laughing)

[Tarzan] (Touch Jane’s foot)

[Jane] Please don't. That tickles. No, get off, get off-- Get off! It serves you right. | Stay away from me like a very good wild man. You, stay. | I'm warning you. | My father won't take kindly to you— | No. That's—

[Tarzan] (Came closer to listen to Jane’s heartbeat) [Jane] Now, that's close enough. | How dare you?

[Tarzan] (Pulled Jane’s head asking her to listen his heartbeat) [Jane] (Gasps) Wha-- | Ohh !

Humans are special creatures which always have curiosity, moreover for

something that they see for the first time. It also happens to Tarzan, along he lives

in jungle, and he saw a human, a species like him for the first time. Based on the

movie, Tarzan is not respect for personal boundaries. He meets Jane for the first

time, and of course, they do not know each other. Tarzan comes too close to Jane,

indeed, he touches some part of her body. He does it because Tarzan is very

curious to Jane. Between humans and animals really have different world,

moreover wild animals. And for many years, Tarzan lives in the jungle; he is

isolated from human life.

Every child in the world needs their parents as their role model and

caregiver. Because what parents do will be examples for their children. The

environment also has the big influence of children’s developments. Tarzan has no

parents as his role model and caregiver, the one who takes care of him is a mother

gorilla. Therefore, if Tarzan is not respect to personal boundaries, it is normal for

(52)

44

The explanation above belongs to the theory of B.F. Skinner, learning

theory. Parents teach their children by reinforcement in each verbal behaviour. By

their parents or people around their environment, children learn to give the name

of objects, so they know and understand the meaning of the words that they

everyday are saved in their memory, and then they do observation in their

environment. From this theory, children acquire language by the learning process

and the experience that they get from the environment. Tarzan does not pass it

process; he does not have parents or caregiver and environment that are able to

teach him language. Therefore, he does not speak and has no language at all until

he meets other humans. Tarzan begins his language acquisition after he meets

Jane, the one who teaches him language and humans’ habit.

Data 8

Scene 26 (minutes 39.11 – 40.50)

Jane realized that he was with a wild man. Tarzan and Jane introduced

themselves each other. Tarzan imitated every word that Jane spoke to him. For the

first, Jane thought that Jane could speak, but she understood that Tarzan could not

speak human language then.

[Tarzan] It's very nice.

(53)

45

[Jane] Oh, I see ! [Tarzan] Oh, I see !

[Tarzan] Tarzan (pointed to himself) | Oh, I see (pointed to Jane) [Jane] No, no, no. | No. | (Clears Throat) | I'm Jane.

[Tarzan] No, no, no. | No. | (Clears Throat) | I'm Jane.

[Jane] No, no.

[Jane] Jane (pointed to herself) | Tarzan (pointed to Tarzan) | Jane (pointed to herself)

[Tarzan] Jane.

[Jane] Exactly | (voice of Rifle Shot) [Jane] Clayton! | (voice of Rifle Shot] [Tarzan] Clayton!

[Jane] Extraordinary! Um, please, can you take me to my camp? [Tarzan] (Makes Rifle Shot Sound)

[Jane] Yes! Clayton! | Wonderful! | Um, could we-- Um, can't we walk?

[Tarzan] Can't we walk?

Jane realized that Tarzan did not speak, he had no language. He only

imitates what Jane talks to him, without understanding what Jane’s purpose. The

writer thinks that it normally happens to Tarzan. It this scene, Tarzan speaks in

English for the first time though he does not understand what it means. It indicates

that Tarzan’s articulatory organs are in normal function, even though its organs

are not used for speaking at all before.

Humans have some articulatory organs which support their ability to

speech, some organs which differentiate them with other creatures. That is, the

human brain and vocal tract have a number of slightly unusual features. By

themselves, these features are not sufficient to indicate that people can talk. But if

we first assume that all humans speak a language, then a number of puzzling

biological facts fall into place. They can be viewed as partial adaptations of the

body to the produc

AN ANALYSIS OF TARZAN’ LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN THE MOVIE TARZAN OF THE APES (1999).