A SOCIO-SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF SLANG IN BLACK
EYED PEAS’ THE BEGINNING
ALBUM
A THESIS
Submitted to the English Department of UNIMED Medan In Partial as Fulfillment of the Requirements for
The Degree of Sarjana Sastra
By:
Kristellia Rasmiyati Sirait
2103220022
ENGLISH AND LITERATURE DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF LANGUAGES AND ARTS
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Syalom. First of all, the writer would like to say thank to Jesus Christ for the
blessing, guarding, guidance, and everything that have been given along his life
until the writer accomplish this thesis.
This thesis is aimed to fulfill one of the requirements to obtain the S1 degree
of Sarjana Sastra at English Department in Faculty of Languages and Arts, State
University of Medan.
In completing this thesis, the writer has received a lot of assistance and
academic support from some people. Therefore, the writer would like to express
her sincere gratitude, love and special thanks to:
Prof. Dr. Ibnu Hajar Damanik, M.Si., as the Rector of State University
of Medan.
Dr. Isda Pramuniati, M.Hum., as the Dean of Faculty of Languages and
Arts.
Prof. Dr. Hj. Sumarsih, M.Pd., as the Head of English Department, Rika
S.Pd, M.Hum., as Secretary of English Department, Dra. Meisuri, M.A.,
as the Head of English Literature Department, and Dra. Masitowarni,
M.Ed., as the Head of English Education Department.
Drs. Lidiman Sahat Martua Sinaga, M.Hum., as her Thesis Advisor, for
the advice, guidance, constructive comment, valuable knowledge, and
precious time she spent in correcting and supervising the draft of writing
during the completion of this thesis, and also thanks to all beloved
lecturers in English and Literature Department who advised and
guided the writer during academic years.
Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd., as her Academic Advisor who has
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Dr. Zainuddin, DIP. TEFL, M.Hum., and Dra. Sorta Silitonga, M.Pd.,
as her Examiners.
All the Lecturers throughout her academic years at State University of Medan that could not be mentioned one by one.
Maam Euis, for helping the writer in preparing the files for the purposes
of this thesis.
especially Gelora Septrina Girsang, Novita Shara Capriaty Naibaho,
Marito Portune Tambun, Jaka Sampoerna, and others that cannot be
mentioned all. Thank you for the support, information, encouragement,
and beautiful day spent together.
All her beloved best friends of Cewsa especially Yosefine Allysa
Mendrofa, who always accompany her doing this thesis at KFC Coffee.
Without their deep and sympathetic understanding, this thesis could not
complete. Over all, the writer hopes this thesis can give a bit contribution to the
Applied Linguistics. Therefore, comments, critics, suggestions, and advices are
expected from the readers.
Medan, April 2014 The writer,
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ABSTRACT
Sirait, Kristellia R. 2014. A Socio-semantic Analysis of Slang in Black Eyed Peas’ The Beginning Album. A Thesis. Faculty of Languages and Arts. State University of Medan.
The study deals with the types of slang used in Black Eyed Peas’ The Beginning album. The objectives of this study are to : (1) analyze the socio-semantic meanings of slang used in Black Eyed Peas’ The Beginning album, (2) find out the implication of socio-semantic meaning in Black Eyed Peas’ The Beginning album, and (3) find out the dominant type of slang used in Black Eyed Peas’ The Beginning album. This research applied descriptive qualitative method. One album of Black Eyed Peas is taken randomly from internet. Based on the analysis, all types of slang were used in Black Eyed Peas’ The Beginning album. There were 398 slang, and the percentages of data were 49.4% of abbreviate words, 30.6% of slang that is used in American television program, 18.5% of various slang, 1.2% of the particular phrase and idiom. The dominant type of slang found was abbreviate words. The socio-semantic meanings of slang used in Black Eyed Peas’ The Beginning album is about excitement, affection, girl, insult, sex, criminal, and surprise. The implication of socio-semantic meaning in Black Eyed Peas’ The Beginning album is about love.
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3. Slang that is used in American television program ... 15
4. The particular phrase and idiom ... 15
E. Slang in Song ... 16
D. Technique for Analyzing Data ... 24
CHAPTER IV: DATA AND DATA ANALYSIS A.Data… ... 25
G.The Dominant Type of Slang Used in Black Eyed Peas’ The Beginning album … ... 41
v
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions… ... 43
B. Suggestions ... 43
REFERENCES ... 45
vi
LIST OF TABLES
TABLE 4.1 List of “rock” in Black Eyed Peas’ song lyrics … ... 26
TABLE 4.2 List of “honey” in Black Eyed Peas’ song lyrics …... 28
TABLE 4.3 List of “wanna” in Black Eyed Peas’ song lyrics … ... 31
TABLE 4.4 List of “cause” in Black Eyed Peas’ song lyrics … ... 32
TABLE 4.5 List of “ain’t” in Black Eyed Peas’ song lyrics … ... 33
TABLE 4.6 List of “gotta” in Black Eyed Peas’ song lyrics … ... 34
TABLE 4.7 List of “XOXOXO” in Black Eyed Peas’ song lyrics … ... 34
TABLE 4.8 List of “baby” in Black Eyed Peas’ song lyrics …... 36
TABLE 4.9 List of “freaky” in Black Eyed Peas’ song lyrics … ... 37
TABLE 4.10 List of “damn” in Black Eyed Peas’ song lyrics … ... 38
TABLE 4.11 List of “shit” in Black Eyed Peas’ song lyrics …... 38
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LIST OF APPENDICES
1
Language is linked with culture and social system of certain communities
who use the language. This case may allow the differentiation of expression
between one with another. Besides, the complex community, the different areas,
social status, level of education, and the different types of social interaction will
produce variations of language. One of those variations is slang.
In social life, there are always certain groups of people who have a
specific language. It is a symbol of their group which is marked by their creativity
toward language. It will make them different from others. This characteristic is
only understood by their groups. One of those groups is teenager. A teenager is a
creative and productive human being in producing new vocabularies in
communication and interaction. Slang, therefore, has something to do with
teenagers’ creativity.
In daily communication, the teenagers often use the slang language rather
than the standard language because the function of slang is not only used as a
mark of identity of the teenagers, but also to show the solidarity, humor, fun and
intimacy. Another motive is to simplify the word so it easy to be delivered. This
case happens because the young generation wants to be different and have
creativity even though it carries a negative connotation.
Akmajian et al (2001) state that the speakers show big creativity in their
2
development of slang language itself always changes from time to time. It makes
people especially the old ones get confused when they hear the slang words
uttered by the teenagers.
Liaw et al (2013) concluded that when older slang words have become
overused and lose their power, new vivid ones are introduced in their place. Social
needs can cause a more widespread change than the simple addition of new
vocabulary items.
It is certainly true that slang items are short-lived, but this does not mean
that their creation and renewal is random. Otherwise, their formation patterns are
not really different from how standard words are formed. The patterns enable the
possibility to spot the sensitive parts of the linguistic system that is renewed again
and again by slang users.
Today’s slang originates from hip-hop music. Hip-hop music or
African-American music, in many ways, has played an important role in this development
of music. Through the years, many of the words and phrases from hip-hop music
became combined and used by outside communities who had figured out the
context and definitions of these rappers’ words. This adaptation process happened
in many of the ethnic communities and areas within America and their language
containing much from this language.
The Black Eyed Peas is an American hip hop group. The group mainly
includes rappers with the names of “Will.i.am, Apl.de.ap, Taboo, and singer
3
Rap artists often use new words such as maggot means a worthless person,
juvies means a teenager under age eighteen, dizzy means stupid. They also often
creating new words by shortening parts of long word or few words such as LOL
means Laugh Out Loud, wanna means want to, XOXOXO means hugs and kisses.
By looking at some slang words above, some people who use English as a
second or a foreign language may get confused in comprehending the theme and
the meanings of song lyrics when hearing hip-hop music, because slang words
have the specific meanings and misunderstandings about the origins of a word can
cause changes in meaning.
There are some reasons why people use slang such as slang can represent
the certain sub-social group’s identity and it is cool. It seems like a fashion when
everybody likes it, and it will be often used by people.
Slang is subset of language used by particular group in informal situation
that consists word and expression which could not be found in dictionary because
its changed and it created new terms.
There is so many new slang words that we could find in daily conversation
especially when hearing Hip-Hop songs. Sometimes native speakers and
non-native speakers get confused with that new slang words, because they did not
know the meaning of that words, especially nowadays there is so many media that
occurs that new slang words spread quickly.
Departing from the phenomenon above the writer is interested in
conducting a research concerning the use of slang words in Hip-hop music. The
4
besides national language and local language regarded as a typical language of a
particular group.
B. Problems of the study
The problems of study are formulated as follows:
1. What are the socio-semantic meanings of slang used in Black Eyed Peas’
The Beginning album?
2. What is the implication of socio-semantic meaning in Black Eyed Peas’
The Beginning album?
3. What is the dominant type of slang used in Black Eyed Peas’ The
Beginning album?
C. Objectives of the Study
In relation to the problems, the objectives of the study are devoted to:
1. analyze the socio-semantic meanings of slang used in Black Eyed Peas’
The Beginning album
2. find out the implication of socio-semantic meaning in Black Eyed Peas’
The Beginning album
3. find out the dominant type of slang used in Black Eyed Peas’ The
5
D. Scope of the study
To avoid overlapping and misleading understanding in analyzing a certain
problem, it is important to limit the study itself to find out slang words used in
Black Eyed Peas’ The Beginning album.
E. Significances of the Study
The results of this research will be usefulfor:
1. For English Department students, the writer is expected that the students
have better understanding about slang especially used in hip-hop songs as
in Black Eyed Peas’ The Beginning album
2. For the listeners, it will give benefits to them who are interested in this
field to obtain deeper understanding in slang language
3. For other researchers, this thesis can be used as reference when they
43 CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. Conclusions
After analyzing the types of the slang language used in Black Eyed Peas’
The Beginning album, the conclusions can be drawn as follows:
1. The socio-semantic meanings of slang used in Black Eyed Peas’ The
Beginning album is about excitement, affection, girl, insult, sex, criminal,
and surprise.
2. The implication of socio-semantic meaning in Black Eyed Peas’ The
Beginning album is about love. As the singer they did not want to show
their feelings obviously. Black Eyed Peas try to create a mysterious lyric
but has a deep meaning.
3. The dominant slang was used in Black Eyed Peas’ The Beginning album is
abbreviate words with percentage 49.4%, followed by slang that is used in
American television program with percentage 30.6%, various slang with
percentage 18.5%, and the particular phrase and idiom with percentage
1.2%
B. Suggestions
Related to the conclusions, it is well to suggest:
1. For English Department students, the writer suggests the students to have
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2. information of a message conveyed by a speaker and add their vocabulary
of new meaning.
3. For the listeners, it is better to understand slang language that is used in
Black Eyed Peas’ The Beginning album so they will know the real
meaning of the slang words and implication of the songs.
4. For other researchers, this thesis can be used as reference when they
45
REFERENCES
Akmajian, A., Richard A. Demers., Ann K. Farmer and Robert M. Harnish. 2001. Linguistics: An introduction to Language and Communication. Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Burke, David. 2001. Bahasa Gaul Remaja Amerika. Diterjemahkan oleh Pertiwi Ambarningrum. Jakarta: Lingkaran Pustaka
Coleman, Julie. 2012. The Life of Slang. New York: Oxford University.
Holmes, Janet. 2001. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. 2nd Edition. England: Pearson Education Limited.
Hornby, A.S. 2002. Oxford Advance Learner’s Dictionary. New York: Oxford University.
Kreidler, Charles W. 1998. Introducing English Semantics. London: Routledge.
Liaw, Dani, and Johari. 2013. Language Usage of Jargon and Slang in Strategic Studies. Australian Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences, 7(4): 661-666.
Marchand, H.2003. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. 11thEdition. Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster.
Mattiello, Elisa. 2008. An Introduction to English Slang. A Description of its Morphology, Semantics and Sociology. Italy: Polimetrica International Scientific.
Shaw, H. 1984. The Joy of Words: Building a Better Vocabulary. New York: Barnes and Noble.
Spears, Richard A. 2000. NTC’s Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions. 3rd Edition. United states of America: The McGraw-Hill.
Wentworth, Harold and Flexner, Stuart Berg. 2010. Dictionary of American Slang. 4th Edition. New York: Harper Collins.
Yeager, Robin L. 2007. “Dynamic English.” eJournal USA, 12(8): 1-31.
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/types-of-songs.html 24 Januari 2014/ 02:00
http://www.blackeyedpeas.com/home/bio 5 Februari 2014/ 11:28
