A STUDY OF THE USE OF BLACK ENGLISH IN AFRO-AMERICAN MOVIES
ENTITLED BAD BOYS I AND II, AND RUSH HOUR 1 AND II
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By Leonna Hertanu Student Number: 06 1214 035
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
i
A STUDY OF THE USE OF BLACK ENGLISH IN AFRO-AMERICAN MOVIES
ENTITLED BAD BOYS I AND II, AND RUSH HOUR 1 AND II
A THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements
to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By Leonna Hertanu Student Number: 06 1214 035
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
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STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY
I honestly declare that this thesis, which I have written, does not contain the work or parts of the work of other people, except those cited in the quotations and references as a scientific paper should.
Yogyakarta, February 22, 2011
The Writer
v ABSTRACT
Hertanu, Leonna. 2011. A Study of the Use of Black English in Afro- American
Movies Entitled Bad Boys I and II, and Rush Hour I and II. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Department of Language and Arts Education, Faculty of Teachers Training and Education, Sanata Dharma University.
This research discusses about Black English which is used in Afro-American movies. The movies used are Bad Boys I and II, and Rush Hour I and II which are chosen because they portray social environment needed by the researcher. The researcher has two reasons why she is interested on the topic. First, she considers that Black English has its own history made it as a unique language based on its historical background as the survived language which exists and develops. Besides that, it also arouses many controversies during its time and it is amazing to find that when it is widely used by people around the world, some of people disagree with its existence.
The problems to answer in this research are: 1) What are the expressions of Black English used in the movies? 2) What are the linguistics features of the Black English used in the movies? And 3) How is the Black English used by the speakers in the movies influenced by its social factors?
This research is a qualitative research which provides insight into complex models of human thought and language use and it looks directly at communication via texts and transcripts so, it is considered as a content analysis research. It uses
Afro-American movies entitled Rush Hour I, Rush Hour II, Bad Boys I, and Bad
Boys II as its subjects that are analyzed by using two instruments; human instrument and document.
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assimilation and deletion. There are two results gained from the data for assimilation, the first one is the process of assimilation which changes the sound [ŋ] into sound [n] such as kickin’, playin’, runnin’, doin’, nothin’, and trippin’. The phonological process of it is called progressive assimilation. The second one is the process of assimilation which changes the last syllable into nearby sound in the
beginning of the second phrase such as lemme and gimme. The examples of
deletion can be seen as happens in see’em, put’em, and c’mon. But not only that,
another linguistics feature of Black English is the interfaces between morphology and syntax which happens because some words in Black English experience
morphological phenomena such as ain’t, gotta, gonna, wanna, and outta and those
words trigger a problem in the sentence they belong to and distract the structure of the sentences. The third one is pure morphology which is marked by the occurrence of clipping and cliticization such as happens in the word roaches and y’all. The fourth is pure syntax which is marked by the omission of auxiliaries such as to be (is, am, are), do, does, did, have, has in order to make the sentence simpler. The last is pure semantics which is marked by the use of slang and swear words. When the results are analyzed from its sociolinguistics aspect, it is found that most men in the sample movies always use swear words when they talk to the same gender; especially when they are angry or dislike about something (as an expression of grumble) but sometimes they also use swear words but in less frequency and by condition of close relationship between the male speaker with their opposite gender addressee. It is also found that male speakers often use slang words when they talk to the same gender than the opposite gender although sometimes they do. But in some cases, male speakers talk more polite (in terms of the use of swear words) to opposite gender. Overall it can be concluded that the power relations of Black English speakers are influenced by many social factors such as gender, age, identity, and other factors can result differently because in a context it can be high but in another context, it can be low or even the same position as the addressee.
It is suggested that future researchers conduct studies in analyzing Black English from the phonology point of view as the language is pronounced by the speakers.
vii ABSTRAK
Hertanu, Leonna. 2011. A Study of the Use of Black English in Afro- American Movies Entitled Bad Boys I and II, and Rush Hour I and II. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa dan Seni, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu Pendidikan, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Penelitian ini membahas tentang Black English yang digunakan dalam film Afrika-Amerika. Film yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini berjudul Bad Boys I dan II, dan Rush Hour I dan II yang dipilih karena film-film tersebut mampu menggambarkan gambaran lingkungan social yang dibutuhkan oleh peneliti. Peneliti memiliki dua alasan mengapa dia tertarik dengan topik ini. Alasan yang pertama adalah peneliti menganggap bahwa Black English memiliki sejarah sendiri yang membuat bahasa tersebut menjadi suatu bahasa yang unik jika didasarkan pada latar belakang sejarahnya sebagai bahasa yang tetap ada dan terus berkembang. Di samping itu, bahasa ini juga menimbulkan banyak kontroversi pada jamannya dan sangatlah luar biasa menemukan bahwa pada saat bahasa ini digunakan oleh banyak orang di seluruh dunia, ada beberapa orang yang masih tidak setuju dengan keberadaannya.
Dalam penelitian ini, terdapat tiga masalah untuk dijawab,yaitu: 1) “Apa saja ungkapan-ungkapan Black English yang digunakan di dalam film- film tersebut?” 2) “Apa saja ciri-ciri linguistik dari Black English yang digunakan di dalam film-film tersebut?” 3)”Bagaimana Black English yang digunakan oleh si pembicara di dalam film dipengaruhi oleh faktor-faktor sosialnya?”
Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kualitatif yang memberikan pengertian tentang buah pikiran manusia yang complex and penggunaan bahasa dan juga melihat secara langsung pada bentuk komunikasi melalui teks dan transkrip jadi penelitian ini menggunakan content analysis sebagai metode penelitiannya. Penelitian ini menggunakan film-film Afrika-Amerika yang berjudul Rush Hour I, Rush Hour II, Bad Boys I, dan Bad Boys IIsebagai subyek penelitian yang akan dianalisa dengan menggunakan dua macam instrumen ,
yaitu manusia dan dokumen
.
viii
dalam bentuk ekspresi menyapa,berterimakasih , dan memberi pujian dan kemampuan berbicara transaksional dalam bentuk menawarkan sesuatu. Namun tidak hanya menunjukkan kecendrungan-kecendrungan tersebut, tapi ekspresi-ekspresi tersebut juga memiliki beberapa karakter linguistik. Pertama, hubungan antara fonologi dan morfologi yang ditandai dengan terjadinya asimilasi dan penghilangan. Ada dua hasil data untuk asimilasi, yang pertama adalah proses asimilasi yang mengubah bunyi [ŋ] menjadi bunyi [n] misalnya yang terjadi pada kata kickin’,playin’ doin’, nothin’, dan trippin’. Proses fonologi dari proses tersebut disebut asimilasi progresif. Asimilasi yang kedua adalah proses asimilasi yang mengubah suku kata terakhir dalam suatu kata menjadi bunyi terdekat yang mengawali frase kedua seperti pada kata lemme dan gimme. Contoh untuk penghilangan dapat dilihat seperti yang terjadi pada kata see’em, put’em dan c’mon. Namun bukan hanya itu, karakter linguistik lain dari Black English adalah hubungan antara morfologi dan sintaksis yang terjadi karena ada beberapa kata-kata dalam Black English mengalami peristiwa morfologi seperti yang terjadi pada kata ain’t, gotta, gonna, wanna, dan outta dan peristiwa tersebut menyebabkan masalah dalam kalimat dan mengganggu struktur dari kalimat tersebut. Yang ketiga adalah morfologi murni yang ditandai dengan terjadinya pemotongan dan persingkatan kata yang tidak bertekanan seperti yang terjadi pada kata roaches dan y’all. Yang keempat adalah sintaksis murni yang ditandai dengan terjadinya penghilangan kata pelengkap misalnya to be (is, am, are), do, does, did, have, has yang bertujuan untukmembuat kalimat menjadi lebih sederhana. Yang terakhir adalah semantis murni yang ditandai dengan adanya kata-kata ucapan popular dan umpatan. Jika hasil dari analisis penelitian ini dilihat dari segi ilmu bahasa sosialnya, hasil yang ditemukan adalah bahwa kebanyakan tokoh pria di dalam film-film contoh tersebut selalu menggunakan kata-kata umpatan saat mereka berbicara pada orang yang memiliki jenis kelamin yang sama dengan si pembicara; khususnya saat mereka marah atau tidak suka tehadap suatu hal (sebagai ekspresi bersungut-sungut) tapi kadang kala mereka juga menggunakan kata-kata umpatan dengan frekuensi yang lebih sedikit pada lawan jenis jika hubungan mereka dekat. Hasil lain juga ditemukan bahwa pembicara pria lebih sering menggunakan kata-kata popular terhadap sesama jenis mereka daripada lawan jenis mereka. Namun dalam beberapa hal, pembicara pria berbicara lebih sopan terhadap lawan jenisnya (dalam konteks penggunaan kata-kata umpatan). Secara keseluruhan dapat disimpulkan bahwa penggunaan bahasa yang berbeda dipengaruhi oleh banyak faktor sosial seperti jenis kelamin, umur, identitas, dan banyak faktor lain dapat menghasilkan hasil yang berbeda karena mungkin saja dalam satu konteks sosial faktornya bisa dianggaptinggi namun dalam konteks lainnya sosial faktor tersebut bisa saja dianggap rendah atau mungkin sama dengan orang yang diajak bicara.
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LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN
PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS
Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma : Nama : Leonna Hertanu
Nomor Mahasiswa : 06 1214 035
Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul:
A Study of the Use of Black English in Afro-American Movies Entitled Bad Boys I and II, and Rush Hour I and II
Beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikan kepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di Internet atau media lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis.
Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta
Pada tanggal: 1 April 2011
Yang menyatakan
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Firstly, I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Jesus Christ for His blessings so that I still have time to finish my thesis successfully and proudly to present it for all of my beloved lecturers, family, and friends. I like to address my deepest thanks to my dearest lecturer, my thesis advisor, and my sponsor Carla Sih Prabandari, S. Pd., M. Hum. I really appreciate her guidance, advice, corrections, time, and patience during the process of writing this thesis. I would like to extend my sincere thanks go to all PBI lecturers, who have guided me during my study, especially Bu Ndari, Bu Frida, Bu Lanny, Pak Ouda, Pak Punto, Pak Heru, Pak Prast, Pak Nunung, Pak Hanandyo, Bu Marni, Bu Yuseva, Bu Mita, Pak Chosa, Pak Bambang, Bu Tri, Pak Gunawan, Pak Purba, Pak Prayitno, Pak Markus, Bu Indriani, and Bu Henny. I really appreciate their teachings, helps, attention, love and care to me as their student. I also thank PBI administration staffs (Mbak Tari and Mbak Dani) for their kind services during my study.
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My special appreciation goes to all my classmates in PBI, especially Theresia Tika Kusumasari, Niken Hapsari, Exnasia Retno Handayani, Yurista Pratiwi and many others that I can not mention one by one here. They are really nice friends and it has been a great experience knowing them all. Once again, I thank all of my friends that support me and give me encouragement. I really appreciate it.
I also would like to give my special thanks to my dearest boyfriend Evan Surya Wijaya for his love, encouragement, attention, and care. I thank him for being a good counselor whenever I have problems.
Finally, yet important, I want to thank those who have helped me during the process of writing this thesis whose names I can not mention here one by one.
Yogyakarta, February 22, 2011
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE... i
PAGES OF APPROVAL... ii
STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY... iv
ABSTRACT... v
ABSTRAK...vii
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI... ix
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...x
TABLE OF CONTENTS... xii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION... 1
A.Research Background...1
B.Problem Limitation... 3
C.Problem Formulation... 4
D.Research Objectives... 4
E.Research Benefits... 5
F.Definition of Terms...5
CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...7
A.Theoretical Descriptions... 7
1. Black English...7
a. The Definition of Black English ...7
b. The History of Black English...8
c. The Characteristics of Black English ...9
2. Standard English ...15
3. Creole...16
4. Theory of Language in Use... 17
B. Theoretical Framework... 18
CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY ...20
A.Research Methods ...20
B.Research Subject ...21
C.Research Instruments ...24
D.Data Gathering Technique ...25
E.Data Analysis Technique... 25
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CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION... 28
A.The Expressions of Black English Used in the Movies...28
1. Expressive Utterances ...28
2. Directive Utterances ...30
3. Referential Utterances ...31
4. Phatic Utterances………...31
B.The Characteristics of Black English Used in the Movies...33
1. The Interfaces between Phonology and Morphology ...33
a. Assimilation ...33
b. Deletion ...36
2. The Interfaces between Morphology and Syntax...37
3. Pure Morphology ...40
4. Pure Syntax ...40
5. Pure Semantics ...43
C.Social Factors Influencing the Use of Black English in the Movies...46
1. Gender ...46
a. Male to Male Relationship... 47
b. Male to Female Relationship... 49
2. Power Relation ...50
a. Same or Equal Power Relation between Main Characters... 50
b. High Power Relationship of the Speaker... 51
c. Low Power Relationship of the Speaker... 51
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS ...53
A.Conclusions... 53
B.Suggestions ...56
REFERENCES ...57
APPENDICES... 58
Appendix 1: The Intepretation of Black English in Standard English ...67
Appendix 2: The Expressions of Black English And Its Speech Functions... 91
Appendix 3: Expressions of Black English and Its Characteristics...123
1
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the introduction for the research. It is divided into six
subtopics. The first is research background which presents the reasons why the
researcher is interested on the topic. The second is problem limitation which
confines the topic so that it is discussed specifically. The third is problem
formulation which contains the problems to be discussed in the research. The
fourth is the objectives of the research. The fifth is the research benefits. The last
is the definition of terms which is aimed to give clear definition about Black
English and Afro-American movies.
A. Research Background
Black English has several famous names in its usage in society. Some
people usually named it as African American English; Black Vernacular; Black
English Vernacular (BEV); or Black Vernacular English (BVE), which is an
African American variety (dialect, ethnolect and sociolect) of American English.
Non-linguists usually called it as Ebonics (Patrick, 1996). Its pronunciation, in
some respects, is common to Southern American English, which is spoken by
many African Americans and many non-African Americans in the United States.
There are two reasons why the researcher is interested in this topic. The
language. The researcher considered it as the survived language in terms of its
unique background of struggle until its condition in the eyes of world’s
perspective now. Years earlier the language was used only for slaves at the era of
slavery and the slave trade in 1916 in order to communicate with their masters
(Smitherman, 1986: 5). Since that era, this language has experienced many
improvements in terms of the users and the people’s perception. Finally, the
language survive and now many users use it. It does not considered as the
language for slave anymore because many people use it especially young people
who are in their age of finding themselves. In the researcher’s opinion, this
language is now considered as stylistic language (definition: language that
pertains with style) so that many people use it as a life style, they use the language
whenever it is appropriate to use. A good example for that is Agnes Monica’s
album entitled “Whaddup A..?!” which shows that Black English is not only used
by people in English speaking countries, but also people throughout the world.
Contrary to its fame as a stylistic language, Black English also arouses
many controversies during its time. Some Creolists, such as John Dillard, William
Stewart, and John Rickford, argue that Black English shares so many
characteristics with Creole dialects spoken by black people in most parts of the
world. They state that Black English itself is a Creole, while others maintain that
there are no significant parallels. The problem happens because Black English
also shares several characteristics with Creole English language-forms spoken by
people throughout most parts of the world. It has pronunciation, grammatical
3
in fact, there is no significant clarification from both Creolists and other linguists
(Smith and Crozier; 1998:113-114). It is amazing to find that this language
arouses many controversies when it is also widely used by people around the
world. In other words, people admit the language by using it and also judge that
the language as not suitable to be used as media of communication in their
society.
B. Problem Limitation
The fact that English is an International language make some people aware
that they need to understand more about the language. Those people do some
researches and find out that there are many kinds of English such as; American
English (Am E), British English (Br E), Singapore English (Sing E), Black
English (BEV), and others. Inside the language itself, there is different language
features and accents which supports the fact that each language has its own unique
and characteristics especially the language of Black English that is usually used
by Afro-American (African-American) people.
Surely, there are many points to analyze all of the factors involved in
Black English. In this thesis, the research only focus on the usage of Black
English used by the characters in American movies which are
Afro-American or other nationalities in social environment and its linguistics features
appeared when it is used. Specifically, it discusses the use of Black English as it is
portrayed in four Afro-American movies entitled Rush Hour I, Rush Hour II, Bad
for showing the condition of social environment and social factors needed so that,
the researcher concludes that not all Afro-American movies can be used for this
research.
C. Problem Formulation
This research is formulated into three research questions covering the
aspects that the researcher is curious about.
1. What are the expressions of Black English used in the movies?
2. What are the linguistics features of the Black English used in the movies?
3. How is the Black English used by the speaker in the movies influenced by its
social factors?
D. Research Objectives
This research discusses the expressions of Black English and also the way
it is used by the speakers in the sample movies (Rush Hour I, Rush Hour II, Bad
Boys I, and Bad Boys II). This paper is intended to:
1. Identify the expressions of Black English used in the samples movies.
2. Identify the linguistics features of the expressions of the Black English used
in the movies.
5
E. Research Benefits
This research gives benefits in linguistic aspect. This research aims at
finding the language input of Black English in some examples of Afro-American
movies. It is aimed to enrich the language input in Black English as the researcher
assume that many people does not know a lot about the expressions of Black
English.
It is also purposed to give some samples of the situation and the condition
of Black English occurs in the movies and gives the readers the understanding of
it as portrayed in the movies.
F. Definition of Terms
1. Black English
Black English here has two definitions. The first is this term has the same
meaning with Ebonics that was originally intended and sometimes used for the
language of all people of African ancestry; since 1996 it has been largely used to
refer to African American Vernacular English (distinctively non-standard Black
United States English), asserting the independence of the Standard English. The
term became widely known in the U.S. in 1996 due to a controversy over its use
by the Oakland School Board. According to Robert William, as cited in Baugh,
Black English or Ebonics may be defined as "the linguistic and paralinguistic
features which on a concentric continuum represent the communicative
competence of the West African, Caribbean, and United States slave descendant
social dialects of black people" especially those who have adapted to colonial
circumstances (Williams; 1975 as cited by Baugh, 2000). The second definition is
for Black North American people.
2. Afro-American Movies
The word Afro-American is a term used to refer to Black Americans or
African-Americans. It means that they are citizens or residents of the United
States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. So, the term
Afro-American movies mean movies that most of the actors and actresses are
Afro-American or portraying the life of Afro-American people.
In this research, the researcher uses Bad Boys I and II and Rush Hour I and II, as
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter elaborates the theory of the research done by the researcher. It is divided into two parts. The first is the theoretical description of the research and the second is the theoretical framework of the research covering all the theories in the first part which are summarized into one main idea that is clear and coherent.
A. Theoretical Descriptions
This part is divided into four topics. The first topic is Black English which covers the definition of Black English, its history, and its characteristics. The second topic is Standard English. The third topic is Creole. The last topic is the theory of language use in society.
1. Black English
a. The Definition of Black English
Oakland School Board. According to Robert William, Black English or Ebonics may be defined as "the linguistic and paralinguistic features which on a concentric continuum represent the communicative competence of the West African, Caribbean, and United States slave descendant of African origin. It includes the various idioms, patois, argots, idiolects, and social dialects of black people" especially those who have adapted to colonial circumstances (Williams; 1975 as cited by Baugh, 2000).
b. The History of Black English
The beginning of Black English’s history was the development of Black English back to the time of slavery and slave trade. So, the history of Black English must date back to about 1619 when a Dutch vessel landed in Jamestown with a cargo of twenty Africans. (Smitherman, 1986) During the slave trade, ships collected slaves from several different nations rather than just trading with one nation. The basis that justified this action was that; Africans from different nations spoke different languages and could not communicate with each other, and thus were incapable to unite and overthrow the ships’ crew.
9
their masters in some way. Thus, all slaves had to learn at least some degree of English vocabulary. This established English as a common language among slaves and the only one language that all slaves had in common. Linguists suggest that Africans developed a pidgin language with the English language providing the vocabulary.
c. The Characteristics of Black English
William Labov (Labov, 1969) stated that there are several special features of Black English Vernacular that can be seen by these four subtitles in his journal of Ann Harbour School District Board; Martin Luther King Junior Elementary School.
1) The Tense and Aspect System of Black English Vernacular
The most prominent and the most frequent of the BEV aspect is habitual be, as in She be sick. This habitual be is very important because it does not exist in any other American dialect.
The tense-aspect system in BEV is built on three words with long vowels: be, do, and go. In BEV, some consonants /l, s, z, r, d, v/ are more often missing than present, but final /n/ does not disappear entirely. If it is not heard as a consonant, it is heard as a nasal quality of the preceding vowels. The basic aspect system is made up of six words, namely:
Be Do Go
Been Done Gon’
The three root words carry the same basic meanings as other dialects of English. Be refers to existence, do to action, and go to movement. But in the auxiliary they become specialized: be indicates a special kind of habitual or repeated state, do has lost its content, and is used to emphasize other actions or carry the negative particle n’t, and go indicates a sense of movement towards confrontation, as in standard English go and.
In short, the special features of the BEV tense and aspect system can be mean as following:
Be “habitual,” applied to events that are generally so
Been “remote present perfect,” conditions that were so a long time ago, and are still so
Done “perfective,” events that are completely and/or really so Be done “future perfective,” events in the future that are completely,
really so
Been done “past perfective,” events in the past that are accomplished and really so
11
Gon’ “future and less really so”
2) English Inflections in Black English Vernacular
BEV is often described as a series of absences. It looks like an over-simplified language “without grammar” for most people. It is said that BEV has no plural, no past tense, and no possessive.
Some English inflections are present more often in BEV than in other dialects. One of these is the plural. While Standard English has no plural inflection in words like deer, sheep, and fish the corresponding Black English Vernacular plurals are regular deers, sheeps, and fishes.
Another problem is the parallelism of the case auxiliary and verb to be. The finite forms is and are are sometimes present in their full-form, sometimes in contracted form, and sometimes entirely missing.
In short, the portrait of BEV inflections can be drawn of three distinct situations: features entirely absent from the underlying grammar of BEV, features present in the grammar but variably deleted to a point hard to retrieve, and features that are generalized beyond the point of the standard language:
3) Loss of Information at the Ends of Words
The Black English Vernacular loses information at the ends of words in a more extreme way than other dialects. It tends to delete final /r/, /l/, /t/, /d/, /v/, and other consonants. The following list contains some of the words that can be pronounced the same way. Each word stands for a member of a class of words: all the words that rhyme with it.
ABSENT VARIABLE GENERALIZED
Subject-verb agreement:
3rd singular [s] Regular tense [ed] Regular plural [s]
Possessive[s]: noun adjuncts
Contracted copula [s] & [r]
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• The deletion of final /t/ or /d/ can give:
In simple words:
Cold= coal Must= muss Tent= ten
Field= feel Paste= pace Pant= pan
In the regular past tense:
Rolled= roll Missed= miss Fanned= fan
Healed= heal Faced= face Penned= pen
In the past tense of irregular verbs:
Told= toll Lost= loss Went= when
Held= hell Bent= ben Meant= men
With the general merger of /i/ and /e/ before /n/:
Penned= pinned= pen= pin
Send= sinned= sin
• The deletion of lñngnp1057 and r can give:
With the Southern deletion of the glide after back vowels:
Sold= soll= sore= so
With the more common Northern pronunciation:
Sore= Saul= saw
Cord= called= cawed
4) Ambiguities of Tense and Aspect
The inconsistency results in multiple ambiguity, shown in this input-output diagram:
Teacher’s production Heard as Intepreted as They will be there
→They’ll be there They would be there
→They’d be there
They be there
Future Habitual be Conditional They have been there
→They’ve been there They had been there
→They’d been there
They been there
Present perfect
Remote present perfect Past perfect
The two situations where the grammatical information of classroom English may be neutralized and open three-way interpretation by the listener. When a teacher uses Standard English said they will be there,it is heard as they be there by BEV users which can be intepreted in three-way intepretation: future, habitual be, and conditional.
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(a) Long nasal e:
They haven’t = They ain’t= They ‘e’
They aren’t= They ain’t= They ‘e’
They didn’t= They ain’t= They ‘e’
(b)Long nasal o:
They are going to= They gon’= They ‘o’
They do not= They don’= They ‘o’
They will not= They won’= They ‘o’
From the example above, it concludes two future forms and one present tense form, all expressed in the same vowel in BEV.
2. Standard English
highest degree of power, wealth and prestige. Subsequent developments have reinforced its social character, the fact that it has been employed as the dialect of an education to which pupils, especially in earlier centuries, have had differential access depending on their social class background. (Trudgil; 1999: 117-128 as published in Tony Bex & Richard J. Watts; 1999)
3. Creole
17
4. Theory of Language in Use
According to Hymes (1964), language varies according to its uses as well as it users. It depends on where and to whom it is used, as well as who is using it. The addressees and the context affect our choice of code or variety. There are some features influenced the speech style in a range of context which vary in formality, looking at the interaction of the formality and status dimensions. The first is the relationship between the addressee and the addresser. The better you know someone, the more casual and relaxed the speech style you will use to them. People use considerably more standard forms to those they don’t know well and more vernacular forms to their friends. So, the speaker’s relationship to the addressee is crucial in determining the appropriate style of speaking and how well you know someone or how close you feel to them. Relative social distance/ solidarity is one important dimension of social relationship. The degree of social status or solidarity between people is decided by relative age, gender, social roles, whether people work together, or are part of the same family.
Second is the age of addressee. People usually talk differently to children and to adults although some adjust their speech style or ‘accomodate’ more than others.
B.Theoretical Framework
Black English, which is in some way known as Creole, is not a Creole in other way because it is a developing language as people can see from its history. Based on its history, it is known as pidgin that had been developed by the need of American to develop a new language to communicate with their African slaves (Stoller, 1975). In a real sense, this new language was a mixture of West African languages (such as Ibo, Yoruba, and Hausa) and English (Smitherman, 1986). That is why Black English and Standard English in some way are the same but in some others are also different in their characteristics and usage. As in Labov’s statement (Labov, 1969), there are several special features of Black English Vernacular that can be seen when the language is used. It can be seen, by the tense and the aspect system, the inflections which are used in the language, loss information at the ends of Black English words, and the ambiguity of the tense and aspect of Black English. Based on the characteristics of Black English stated by Labov, some samples of the Black English are needed to be found in order to adjust with the use of Standard English and to translate into Standard English.
19
20
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter is divided into six subtopics. The first subtopic is the method
that was used in doing the research. The second is the subject of the research and
the background why the researcher chose them as the subject of the research, the
third is the instrument used in gathering the data and also in analyzing the data.
The fourth is the result of the data gathered by the researcher. The fifth is the
analysis of the data. Finally, the sixth is research procedure which elaborates the
procedure in doing the research.
A. Research Methods
This research is a qualitative research because this research focused on
understanding social phenomena from the perspective of the human participants in
the study. The data were collected in natural setting, the same thing showed in
Afro-American movies as the subject of this research.
The research is also considered as content analysis because it provides
insight into complex models of human thought and language use and it looks
directly at communication via texts and transcripts (Berelson; 1952). The material
21
B. Research Subject
The research subjects in this research were four African-American movies
entitled Rush Hour I, Rush Hour II, Bad Boys I, and Bad Boys II. The researcher
chose those four movies because they have several criteria that the researcher
needs in doing her research, such as the existence of social interaction between
Afro-American and other nationalities such as: American, Mexican, French,
Cuban, Jamaican, Russian, Chinese, and Puerto Rican) and the supporting social
environment between Afro-American and those nationalities so that the real
condition of social interaction can be achieved.
The first movie was Rush Hour I. The movie was directed by Brett Ratner
and Adam Greenberg, produced by Arthur M. Sarkissian, Jonathan Glickman, and
Roger Nirbaum. The leading roles of this movie were Chris Tucker, Jackie Chan,
Tom Wilkinson, Chris Penn, and Elizabeth Pena. It was a one-hour and thirty-
seven-minute length movie. This movie first released in September 18th 1998 by
New Line Cinema.
This movie was about two different cops who team up to recover a
kidnapped. As the FBI scrambles to save the life of the kidnapped daughter of the
Chinese Consul, the diplomat hires a trusted Hong Kong police, Ddetective Lee,
to find the girl. Unwilling to have their investigation invaded by a Chinese
outsider, the FBI assigns a rogue LAPD detective to keep Detective Lee away
from the case at any cost. Carter, the detective, covertly embarks on a one-man
he has greatly underestimated his Hong Kong counterpart, who has seen through
his ruse. Giving Carter the slip, Detective Lee landed in the middle of the FBI's
investigation. Both cops which had been excluded by the FBI must join forces to
save the young girl.
The second movie was Rush Hour 2. It was directed by Brett Ratner,
produced by Arthur M. Sarkissian, Jonathan Glickman, and Roger Nirbaum. The
main actors were still the same, they were Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan and
some new actors and actress: John Lone, Zhang Ziyi, Roselyn Sanchez, Harris
Yulin, Alan King, Kenneth Tsang. It was a ninety-minute length movie. It first
released in August 3rd 2001 by New Line Cinema.
The story was about Chief Inspector Lee of the Royal Hong Kong Police,
who travels back to China with his American colleague, Los Angeles detective;
James Carter. The men intend to take some vacation time but are quickly pulled
into the case of two murdered U.S. customs agents, who were investigating an
illegal counterfeiting scam involving Ricky Tan, one of the most powerful Triad
gangsters in Asia and an old enemy of Lee. Lee and Carter are soon involved in a
dangerous mystery that also involves a sexy secret-service agent, a billionaire
hotel owner, a dangerous femme fatale and a finale set in a luxurious Las Vegas
casino.
The third movie was Bad Boys I. It was a movie directed by Michael Bay.
The leading roles of this movie were Will Smith, Martin Lawrence, Téa Leoni,
23
Imperioli. It was a hundred-eighteen-minute length movie. It first released in 1995
by Columbia Pictures.
The story was about two Miami cops, Mike Lowrey (Will Smith) and
Marcus Burnett (Martin Lawrence), guard 100 million dollars in the form of
heroin. It is the biggest drug confiscation of their careers. Unfortunately, the
heroin is stolen out of the basement of police headquarters. This puts them get
closer to a French drug lord Fouchet (Tchéky Karyo), who leaves a trail of bodies
in his awakening and there is only one witness, Julie Mott (Téa Leoni), who
quickly teams up with our heroes. The funny things happen when the plot
complications force Mike to impersonate the married Marcus to the point of
moving in with his wife and children, while Marcus takes over Mike's bachelor
lifestyle.
The last movie was Bad Boys 2. It was directed by Michael Bay and
produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. The leading roles were Martin Lawrence, Will
Smith, Jordi Mollà, Gabrielle Union, Peter Stormare, Theresa Randle, and Joe
Pantoliano. This movie was released in July 18th 2003.
The story was about the two narcotics detectives Mike Lowrey (Smith)
and Marcus Burnett (Lawrence) have been assigned to a high-tech force
investigating the flow of designer ecstasy into Miami. Their inquiries
inadvertently lead them to a major conspiracy involving a vicious kingpin (Jordi
Mollà) whose ambitions to take over the city’s drug trade have ignited a bloody
when Mike begins to develop feelings for Marcus’ sister Syd (Gabrielle Union), A
DEA agent. Without telling her family and friends, she disguises as a money
cleaner for the vicious kingpin which means that her life is in danger.
Unless the narcotics cops can separate the personal from the professional,
the bad boys are in danger of blowing the case and endangering Syd’s life in the
process.
C. Research Instruments
There were two instruments used in this research. The first was human
instrument which was the main instrument of the research used because the
researcher was the key person in obtaining data from respondents here, the
respondents were the characters found in the movies (Poggenpoel & Myburgh;
2003). It was obtained in order to fulfill the second and the third research
questions presented through library study because those research questions had
something to do with the theories of Black English, linguistics, and
sociolinguistics. The data found for the second research question presented in
observation checklists covered six major subjects represented the expressions and
the linguistics features of the Black English (phonology, morphology, syntax, and
semantics) used in the movies.
The second instrument was document. In order to accomplish the first
research question, the researcher made an observation. It means that the data
25
interpretation in Standard English and were categorized based on its speech
functions.
Answering the third research question, the researcher used table of lists.
The table of lists covered three major subjects represented the expressions used by
the speakers in the conversation, the relationship between the addresser and the
addressee, and the major social factors involved in the conversation (e.g. gender,
age, power relation, and identity). All the subjects could cover the data needed by
the researcher in doing the research.
D. Data Gathering Technique
In gathering the data needed for the research, the researcher watched the
Afro-American movies. She watched ten times for each movie in order to
accurately analyze the data needed for accomplishing the research questions. She
watched one by one the movies during her free time on week end. While
watching, she listed the expressions found in the movies then matched the
expressions with the movies transcripts, interpreted it into Standard English and
categorized it based on its speech functions.
E. Data Analysis Technique
There were three techniques used for analyzing the data gathered. The first
was listing. So, the data that had been gathered means that the expressions found
in the movies were written according to the movies they belonged to by listing,
then they were translated into Standard English and were categorized based on its
the second research question was by analyzing the expressions found the movies
and found the linguistics features of the expressions by matching them with the
theory of Black English and linguistics. The third technique which was done in
order to accomplish the third research question was by analyzing the social factors
of the expressions.
F. Research Procedures
There were several steps in doing the research:
1. It was started with finding data which was the Afro-American movies entitled
Rush Hour 1, Rush Hour 2, Bad Boys 1, and Bad Boys 2.
2. Then, the researcher collected the data by watching those movies
3. She wrote the expressions found in the table (see the attachment) which had
been divided into four columns representing expressions of Black English,
the speakers of the expressions, the situation of the conversation, and the
topic of the conversation.
4. The next step was those expressions of Black English were analyzed,
translated into Standard English in order to understand the real form of it, and
categorized based on its speech functions.
5. Then, the researcher processed it for answering the second research question
by filling the observation checklist; write every detail of the linguistics
27
6. The researcher did a library study to answer the second research question.
7. After that, she also did library study for answering the third research question
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CHAPTER IV
RESEARCH FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
This chapter presents the discussion of the research that had been done by
the researcher covering the research questions that had been mentioned in chapter
one. So, the explanations in this chapter are divided into three parts categorized
according to the three research questions which later on, are explained in two
parts based on the findings and the discussions.
A. The Expressions of Black English Used in the Movies
Answering the first research question, the sample movies had already been
analyzed based on its speech functions (Expressive, directive, referential,
metalinguistic, poetic, and phatic utterances). Although there are six speech
functions to analyze a language, unfortunately there are only four speech
functions out of six which can be used in analyzing the data found in this research.
They are expressive, directive, referential, and phatic utterances while the two
speech functions which cannot be used because of lack of the expressions of
Black English as samples are metalinguistic and poetic utterances.
1. Expressive Utterance
Expressive utterance is a speech function which expresses the speakers’
feeling. By analyzing the expressions of Black English from the sample movies, it
29
hundred and ninety six expressions showing expressive utterances from the data
and mostly those expressions of Black English show expressive utterances which
mean boast, mockery, anger, and grumble.
a. Boast
There are some samples of Black English expressions showing the
expressive utterances from the data which mean boast. Here are the samples:
Marcus, “You see what happens when you go off without me?” (Bad Boys I, minute 45, second 21)
Mike, “I ain’t say I was scared.” (Bad Boys II, minute 19, second 31)
Carter, “I been looking everything for this shit.” (Rush Hour 1, minute 6 second 49)
Carter, “I’m gonna working a big, big case for the FBI! (Rush Hour I, minute 16, second 17)
Carter, “My daddy’ll kick your daddy’s ass all the way from here to China or Japan or whatever you from...”
(Rush Hour I, minute 14, second 26)
b. Mockery
There are some samples of Black English expressions showing the
expressive utterances from the data which mean mockery. Here are the samples:
Carter, “And you ain’t black!” (Rush Hour II, minute 23, second 12)
Carter, ”Why don’t y’all take that badge and shove it up your ass?” (Rush Hour I, minute 47, second 15)
Mike, ”Nigga, you a big, tall, Ludacris-looking motherfucker, ain’t you?” (Bad Boys II, minute 24, second 13)
c. Anger
There are some samples of Black English expressions showing the
expressive utterances from the data which mean anger. Here are the samples:
Theresa, “You ain’t screwing nothing!” (Bad Boys I, minute 31, second 12)
Noah, “He knows it ain’t a chemistry set, asshole.” (Bad Boys 1, minute 50 second 28)
Marcus, “You the fucking man tonight!” (Bad Boys I, minute 08, second 08) Mike, “I think I done just got mad.” (Bad Boys II, minute 35, second 35)
Haitian, “I’m gonna kill you motherfucker!” (Bad Boys II, minute 50, second 39)
d. Grumble
There are some samples of Black English expressions showing the
expressive utterances from the data which mean grumble. Here are the samples:
Marcus, “Please, man, I’m not getting my sex at home.” (Bad Boys 1, minute 1 second 13)
Marcus, “I don’t like the way we been treated.” (Bad Boys I, minute 02, second 32)
Marcus, “$ 80,000 for this car, and you ain’t got no cup holder?” (Bad Boys I, minute 01, second 37)
Carter, “I think I done broke my shit.” (Rush Hour I, minute 04, second 36) Marcus, “Got me climbing like a chimp.” (Bad Boys I, minute 17, second 48)
2. Directive Utterances
Directive utterance is a speech function which attempts to get someone to
do something. It can be in the forms of inviting, asking, or ordering somebody to
31
hundred and forty five out of five hundred and ninety six expressions of Black
English. Here are the samples:
Marcus, “Want daddy to wipe your mouth?” (Bad Boys I, minute 11, second 42)
Julie, “I’m not letting you in until you do!” (Bad Boys I, minute 34, second 54)
Theresa, “Putitback in.”
(Bad Boys I, minute 16, second 25)
Mike, “you got 10 seconds to drop your gun.” (Bad Boys II, minute 08, second 21)
Carter, “Don’t mess with the brothas!” (Rush Hour II, hour 1, minute 06, second 02) 3. Referential Utterances
Referential utterance is a speech function which provides information
about everything. It was found that most of the expressions of Black English in
the data are considered as referential utterances since there are two hundred and
sixty seven expressions which tend to show platitude and information as their
referential utterances. Here are the samples:
Carter, “I got a friend in this town that will bite off your ears.” (Rush Hour II, minute 56, second 32)
Carter, “I just got an idea how someone could launder a hundred million dollars in cash.”
(Rush Hour II, minute 44, second 24) Carter, “Me and him got the same mama.” (Rush Hour I, minute 19, second 19)
Marcus, “It’s the best I can do for all of youse! (Bad Boys II, minute 8, second 16)
Marcus, “If you go to his place ain’t nothing but pictures of me.” (Bad Boys I, minute 51, second 57)
4. Phatic Utterances
Phatic utterance is a speech function which expresses solidarity and
empathy with others. It counts only few expressions of Black English considered
directive utterances. In order to make it easier to understand, this speech function
is divided into interactional speech and transactional speech.
a. Interactional Speech
There are thirty seven expressions of Black English which are considered
as interactional speech. Those expressions cover the expressions of greeting
others, thanking, and complimenting. Here are the examples:
Marcus, “I want to thank y’all from the bottom of my heart.” (Bad Boys II, minute 47, second 17)
Carter, “ Hey, how you doin’?” (Rush Hour I, minute 17, second 39)
Carter, “Need a little hot sauce, but it’s kinda good, though.” (Rush Hour I, minute 43, second 59)
Ricky Tan, “Enjoying your visit?” (Rush Hour II, minute 17, second 50) Mike, “You’re on the mike with Mike.” (Bad Boys I, minute 11, second 41)
b. Transactional Speech
There are only three expressions of Black English which are considered as
transactional speech. Those three expressions cover the expressions of offering
something to others. Here are the examples:
Mike, “Y’all want something?” (Bad Boys I, minute 50, second 09) Marcus, “Baby, you want a coke?” (Bad Boys I, minute 50, second 13) Marcus, “Want some?”
B. The Linguistics Features of the Black English Used in the Movies
Answering the second research question, the data of the expressions of Black English had been analyzed and processed. The first of all, the data are analyzed based on interfaces that happen between phonology and morphology, between morphology and syntax. The second of all, the data are also analyzed based on the pure branches of linguistics which are found in the results. They are pure morphology, syntax and semantics. Those interfaces and pure branches of linguistics are considered as the prominent factors that appear obviously in Black English and help the researcher in categorizing the characteristics appear in the expressions. But not only that, the researcher also uses William Labov’s article (Labov; 1969) as a reference in order to make the result more valid.
The four branches of linguistics are closely related in Black English in terms of how the sounds in the expressions of Black English patterned with the word formation, while the word formation itself influenced the sentence structure and finally influenced the meaning of the sentence. The condition when different components of a grammar related each other are called interfaces (Dobrovolsky, O’ Grady & Katamba; 1997).
1. The Interfaces between Phonology and Morphology
a. Assimilation
The first analysis in this research is about the interface between phonology and morphology. The case of Black English which is happened is called
segment and results from a sound becoming more likely another nearby sound in terms (Dobrovolsky & Katamba; 1997). There are several examples showing assimilation in Black English words, they are:
1) The process of assimilation which changes the sound [ŋ] into sound [n]
This process of assimilation is called progressive assimilation. Progressive assimilation is the process when nasality moves forward from the nasal consonants onto the vowel (Dobrovolsky & Katamba; 1997; p.53). In Figure
Kicking Kicking Kickin’
Doing Doing Doin’
Nothing Nothing Nothin’
Running Running Runnin’
Playing Playing Playin’
Tripping Tripping Trippin’
Figure 4. 1. The process of Progressive Assimilation and Clipping nasal
Figure 4. 2. The process of assimilation happened in Running, Tripping, Kicking, Nothing, Doing, and Playing
‐ Back + back ‐back
Influenced by I [–] back]
‐back
4.1., it is shown that there are six examples found in the data to represent the process of progressive assimilation, they are: doin’, playin’, kickin’, nothin’, runnin’, and trippin’. Those words have nasal sound [ŋ] as their ending sound and sound [Ι] which is put previous the [ŋ] sound. Since [Ι] is [– back] and [ŋ] is [+ back], the sound [Ι] influence the [ŋ] sound so that both sounds become [– back]. After the process of progressive assimilation, those words experience clipping as their morphological process. When it is applied in written form based on their way in pronouncing those words after experienced clipping shows the morphological process.
2) The process of assimilation which changes the last syllable into nearby sound in the beginning of the second phrase
Let me → Let me → Lemme
Give me → Give me →Gimme
Bilabial Blends
Figure 4. 3. The process of the Interfaces between Phonology and Morphology
Let me → t m → m m
Give me → v m → m m
There are two examples found to represent this process of assimilation. They are lemme and gimme. These two words derive from ‘let me’ and ‘give me’. Since m in ‘let me’ and ‘give me’ is a bilabial sound (refers to Figure 4.3). It makes the sound before m adjust the sound of m in ‘let me’ and ‘give me’ and when it is spoken in fast, it hears as lemme and gimme (Refers to Figure 4.4).So that, those words experience blends at once they are pronounced. When it is applied in written form based on their way in pronouncing those words after experienced blends, it shows the morphological process.
b. Deletion
Besides assimilation, there is another phonological process happened in the data. It is called deletion which is defined as a process that removes a segment from a certain phonetic contexts and usually occurs in everyday rapid speech in many languages (Dobrovolsky & Katamba; 1997; p. 55)
There are three examples of the process of deletion and cliticization. They are see’em, put’em, and c’mon. These three words derive from ‘see them’, ‘put them’, and ‘come on’. They experience deletion as their phonological process because when people speak in rapid speed, they tend to delete a segment from its
See them /si: ðəm/ → See them /si: ðəm/ → See em →See’em
Put them /put ðəm/ → Put them /put ðəm/ → Put em →Put’em
Come on /k∆m ŏn/ → Come on /k∆m ŏn/ → Cm on →C’mon deleted
deleted
deleted
cliticized
cliticized
cliticized
phonetic context. Then, the words experience cliticization as they are applied in written form based on the way they are pronounced.
2. The Interfaces between Morphology and Syntax
The second analysis is the interface between morphology and syntax. Michael Dobrovolsky, William O’Graddy and Francis Katamba in their book; Contemporary Linguistics, stated that the two branches influence each other since many linguistic phenomena reflect the interaction of the morphological and syntactic components of the grammar (Dobrovolsky, O’ Grady & Katamba; 1997). As result in this research of Black English, most of the expressions found in the movies proof the statement of O’Grady and friends.
It is found that when a word in Black English has a problem with its morphology or experience morphological phenomena, the word triggers a problem in the whole sentence or in other words it distracts the structure of the sentence. To be clear, here are the examples:
Table 4. 1
Ain’t [a] If that ain’t enough, I’ll run you in for exortion. [b] We ain’t the Cosbys.
[c] That ain’t me.
Gotta [d] You gotta do it quick. [e] You always gotta go racial. [f] I gotta survive.
Gonna [g] We were gonna do that. [h] I’m gonna kick your ass. [i] You ain’t gonna be.
Wanna [j] I wanna show you something first. [k] I wanna holler at you.
From table 4.1. example [a], [b] and [c], readers can see that in Black English the word ain’t experience two morphological phenomena. First, the word ain’t means be + not so, the process of blends is happened between to be and not which results ain’t. Ain’t can be meant am not, is not, are not, was not, or were not. Second, the word ain’t experiences cliticization considering the word ain’t is originally from be + not and it is shortened to become ain’t. The standard form of ain’t which is be + not shows the process of syntax.
As an additional information, ain’t is used generally to show expression which is negative in the form of auxiliary + not. As the examples below:
[o] You ain’t got no cup holder? [p] I ain’t had no quality time
The word ain’t + past participle verb means auxiliary + not + present verb.
Referring to figure 4.4., in example [d], [e], and [f], the word gotta experiences two morphological phenomena. First, the word gotta which means necessity has the real form as have/ has got to. This means that gotta experiences clipping because it removes have/ has. Second, it experiences blends because it combines got and to become gotta. The standard form of gotta which is have/has got to shows the process of syntax.
Outta [m] Bad-ass dude outta Hong Kong buying up every goddamn thing.
Similar to gotta, gonna which is shown in example [g], [h], and [i] experiences clipping and blends as its morphological phenomena and as its syntactical process, gonna shows future or less really so (Labov; 1983) which is shown by the word be + going to (a planning in the future) or will.
Different from the previous examples gotta and gonna, the word wanna which is shown in example [j], [k]. and [l] only has one morphological phenomena. The word wanna which means wants experiences blends as its morphological process while want + to shows its syntactical process.
The last example of Morpho-syntax interface in the data is outta which is shown in example [m] and [n]. The word outta derives from the phrase out of and experiences blends. The standard form of outta shows its syntactical process.
Has/ have got to → has/ have got to → got to → Gotta
Be + going to → be + going to → going to → Gonna
Want to → want to → Wanna
Out of → out of → Outta
omitted
blends
Figure 4. 4.The process of word formation omitted
blends blends
3. Pure Morphology
In the data, not all morphological problems which are happened in the research can be included as interface since there are some words which only have morphological problem such as roaches and y’all. The word ‘roaches’ is in origin of ‘cockroaches’. It experiences clipping on the word cock- so that it becomes the word ‘roaches’. While the word ‘y’all’ experiences different morphological phenomena. It experiences cliticization which means the process of reducing the form of free morpheme so it becomes bound morpheme (Dobrovolsky, O’ Grady & Katamba; 1997).
4. Pure Syntax
The fourth is analyzing the data based on its syntactical process. Since Black English is known because the structure of its sentences is different from Standard English which most people use, the researcher finds these results. The first, most of Black English expressions tend to omit auxiliaries such as to be (is, am, are), do, does, did, have, has in order to make the sentence simpler. The
Figure 4. 5. The process of the pure morphological process of word formation
Cockroaches → cock roaches = roaches
You all → you all = y’all
clipped
omission of the auxiliaries can be done when the auxiliaries is placed at the beginning or in the middle.
a. Omission of auxiliary ‘to be’ in Black English expression found in sample movies:
[q] What the f*ck you doing? [r] You the man!
[s] We beating him down!
b. Omission of auxiliary ‘do’ or ‘does’ in Black English expression found in sample movies:
[t] You want something bad enough? [u] He look familiar?
[v] See this?
c. Omission of auxiliary ‘did’ in Black English expression found in sample movies:
[w] You threw her out? [x] What we got?
[y] How the hell they slip away?
d. Omission of auxiliary ‘have’ in Black English expression found in sample movies:
The examples above, shows that the omission of auxiliary to be, do, does, did, have, and has result in ambiguity toward the meaning of the expressions since readers do not know what the real meaning is.
The second, Black English also tends to use improper tense for its expressions. When an expression should use Simple Present tense since it refers to an actual activity, it uses Present Continuous tense when it is not an activity which is in progress such as the examples below:
[cc] Please, man, I’m not getting my sex at home. [dd] I’m not letting you in until you do!
[ee] I told you I am not going into protective custody. [ff] I’m going.
[gg] I know you can handle it, but I’m worrying about me.
But the use of improper tense is not only restricted when the speaker use Present Continuous as the substitution of Simple Present. It also occurs when the speaker uses Simple Past as the substitution of Simple Present or vice versa and also in showing possession of something as the examples below:
[hh] He do surveillance. [ii] I came to take out Megan. [jj] We kicked y’all ass.
5. Pure Semantics
Although the relationship between sentence structure and sentence meaning are very close, still there are some things that can be separated between them especially when the expressions of Black English are analyzed based on the language used which most of them are slang words.
Since this research analyzes Black English used in Afro-American movies, it can be assured that the existence of slang words becomes one of its unique characteristics. As found in the sample movies, here are some words detected as slang words (The definitions of the words are taken from Collins English and Oxford Advanced Learners Dictionaries and translated based on the context in the movies):
Table 4. 2.
Screw To have sexual intercourse with (someone) [mm]You ain’t screwing nothing! (Bad Boys I) Putitback To return to its former place
[nn] Putitback in. (Bad Boys I) Chimp (informal term) chimpanzee
[oo] Got me climbing like a chimp. (Bad Boys I) Hump To have sexual intercourse with (someone)
[pp] So this look like we having one big orgy here, and ain’t nobody humping. (Bad Boys I)
Busted To arrest, to raid, to search (police term)
[qq] The only reason why I ain’t busted your ass.. (Rush Hour I) Tripping Detect someone in a mistake or inconsistency, experience
hallucinations induced by taking a psychedelic drug, especially LSD.
[rr] Why you tripping, man? (Bad Boys II) Chilly Unfriendly, without warmth
[ss] I’m chilly a what? (Rush Hour I) Punk A worthless person, criminal
