OUTLINE OF RESEARCH

An Analysis of Word-Formation Processes on Slang Words

in the “Malibu’s Most Wanted” Movie

It is submitted to get permitting doing proposal and thesis

Arranged by :

WESTRY SETIANA

G1A006014

NATIONAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SCIENCE

CULTURAL DEPARTMENT

ENGLISH LITERATURE STUDY PROGRAM

JENDERAL SOEDIRMAN UNIVERSITY

PURWOKERTO

2010
Title of the Research
Title of this research is An Analysis of Word-Formation Processes on Slang Words in the
“Malibu’s Most Wanted” Movie
Question Research
In this study, the writer wants to investigate slangs and what are related to the
processes of the formation of slangs by the characters in the film “Malibu’s Most
Wanted”. Therefore, to cope with the problem, the writer formulates the questions
below:

1. What slangs are used in the film Malibu’s Most Wanted and what are their meanings?

2. What word-formation processes have those slangs undergone?

3. Which word-formation process is most often used?

Purpose of the Study

By conducting this study, the writer wants to find out all the slangs used by the
characters of “Malibu’s Most Wanted “movie. Besides that, the writer is also interested
in knowing the meanings of the slangs, types of word-formation processes that are
involved, and also the most frequently used process in forming the slangs in the
“Malibu’s Most Wanted “movie . Though this study, the writer gets more understanding
about the meaning of some slangs, and the processes that form those slangs. By knowing
more slang, the writer can reduce the difficulties she gets while finding slangs in songs,
televisions, films, and internet. The writer also hopes that someday she can use this
knowledge of slang for doing advanced research about the same topic from the other
perspectives
Significance of the Study
The writer hopes that this study will enlarge people’s knowledge and
understanding, especially young people, about the slangs formation. Thus, young people
do not only use the slangs and know the meanings but also get the knowledge about
processes of the formation itself. Furthermore, the slangs can be the new comers in
Indonesian vocabulary, especially in informal circumstances in which teenagers and
 young people tend to use it to communicate one another. Besides that, this study can be
useful for other students who are interested in investigating more about slang.

Scope and Limitation

This study is done at the morphological level, specifically Word-Formation
Processes, on slangs used by the characters in the “Malibu’s Most Wanted” movie.
Besides that the writer also makes use of sociolinguistic concepts to back-up the theory
on slang itself. The writer will analyze the slangs that are spoken by all characters in
Malibu’s Most Wanted” movie. The source of data is taken from the script of “Malibu’s
Most Wanted” movie that can be downloaded from internet through
http://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/malibusmost wnted.pdf.

Theories
The main theory that the writer uses will be about Morphology, which focuses on
word-formation processes. One of the theories that the writer uses is the theory of
English word- formation processes found in “The Study of Language” of George Yule
(1985). This theory will be used to analyze the data in order to find the word-formation
processes which the slangs in the film “Malibu’s Most Wanted” have undergone.
Besides that the writer also uses another theory of slang by some sources.

• Theory of Word-Formation Processes by George

Yule
According to George Yule in The Study of Language (1985, pp.51), word
formation processes are the processes or evolution of new terms and new uses of old
terms. For example the word ASAP is derived from As Soon As Possible after
undergoing the process of acronyms, in which a word is formed by the initial of some
words. Yule told that word-formation processes consist of coinage, borrowing,
compounding, blending, clipping, back-formation, conversion, acronyms, prefix and
suffix, and multiple processes.
The explanation about those processes is written below:
1. Coinage
 Coinage is the invention of totally new terms or words which can possibly
come from the old to the new uses. The most typical sources are the invented
trade names for one company’s product which become general terms.
For instance, the terms Teflon, Xerox, and Kleenex.
2. Borrowing
Borrowing is the taking over of the words from other language.
Historically, English has adopted a vast number of loan-words from other
languages, for example the word alcohol (Arabic), croissant (French),
piano(Italian) and yogurt (Turkish). For Indonesian language, there are also some
words that come from other language like guru (India), means teacher; and
trotoar (French), means side-walk.
3. Compounding
Compounding is joining two separate words to produce a single form. For
example, the word bookcase, fingerprint, sunburn, wallpaper, doorknob, textbook,
wastebasket and waterbed. In Indonesian, we also have the compounding process
on words like papan tulis (blackboard), lalu lintas (traffic), and kereta api (train).
4. Blending
Blending is a process of combining two separate forms to produce a single
new term. However, blending is typically accomplished by taking only the
beginning of one word and joining it to the end of other word. Some examples
that we can find in everyday talk are the terms smog (smoke + fog), gasohol
(gasoline + alcohol), motel (motor + hotel) and brunch (breakfast + lunch). In
Indonesian, we can find this process in curhat (curahan hati), that means share
one’s problem; and kades (kepala desa), means village chief.
5. Clipping
The element of reduction which is noticeable in blending is even more
apparent in the process described as Clipping. This occurs when a word of more
than one syllable is reduced to a shorter form. For instance the words like fax
(facsimile), gas (gasoline), flu (influenza), lab, bus, cab and prof.
6. Back-formation
 A very specialized type of reduction process is known as Backformation.
Typically, a word of one type (usually a noun) is reduced to form another word of
a different type (usually a verb). Some examples of words created by this process
are: donate (from ‘donation’), televise (from‘television’), babysit (from
‘babysitter’) and emote (from ‘emotion’).
7. Conversion
Conversion is a change in the function of a word, for example, when a
noun comes to be used as verb (without any reduction). Other labels for this very
common process are ‘category change’ or ‘functional shift’. A number of nouns,
like paper, butter, can, bottle, vacation, through the conversion process, come to
be used as verbs, as in the following examples: He’s papering the bedroom walls;
Have you buttered the toast? They’re vacationing in France; We bottled the
home-brew last night. This conversion process can involve verbs and phrasal
verbs becoming nouns, with guess, must, and to print out as the sources of a
guess, a must, and a printout. Besides that, adjectives, such as dirty, empty, and
crazy, can become the verbs to dirty, to empty, or the noun to crazy.
8. Acronyms
The acronyms process is forming the new words form the initial letters of
a set of other words. These new words can remain essentially ‘alphabetisms’ such
as CD (compact disc) where the pronunciation consists of the set of letters. More
typically, acronyms are pronounced as single words, as in NATO or ASAP, but
there are many acronyms lose their capitals to become everyday terms such as
laser (light amplification by stimulate emission of radiation), zip (zone
improvement plan) code, and scuba (self contained underwater breathing
apparatus).

9. Multiple processes
Although we have concentrated on each of these word-formation
processes in isolation, it is possible to trace the operation of more than one
process at work in the creation of a particular word. For example, the term deli,
 which is common in American English expression via a process of first
‘borrowing’ delicatessen (from German) and then ‘clipping’ that borrowed form.
10. Derivation
This process is the most common word-formation process to be found in
production of new English words. Derivation is accomplished by means of a large
number of a small ‘bits’ of the English language which are not usually given
separate listing in dictionaries. These small ‘bits’ are called affixes, for instance
un-, mis-, pre-, -ful, -less, ish, -ism, and –ness which appear in the words like
unhappy, misrepresent, prejudge, joyful, careless, boyish, terrorism, and sadness.
Prefixes and Suffixes In the preceding group of words, it should be obvious that
some affixes have to be added to the beginning of a word (e.g. un-). These are
called prefixes. The other affix forms are added to the end of the word (e.g. –ish),
are called suffixes. All English words mostly are formed by these derivational
processes, such as mislead has a prefix, disrespectful has both prefix and suffix,
and foolishness has two suffixes.
11. Infix
Infix is an affix which is incorporated inside another word. This process is
not normally to be found in English, but fairly common in some other language. It
is possible to see the general principle in work in certain expressions, occasionally
used in fortuitous or aggravating circumstances by emotionally aroused English
speakers: Hallebloodylujah! And Absogoddamlutely!
• Theory of Slang
According to Hornby, slangs are words or phrases which are commonly used
in talk among friends but not suitable for good writing or formal occasion. The use of
language in communication can be influenced by the social factors such as age.
People speak differently at different ages too. Slang itself is mostly used by teenagers.
As Potter states that slang increases intimacy because it allows the speaker to drop
into a lower key, to create a good atmosphere in communication (Potter, 1956: 133).
They also have another purpose in using slang. Usually teenagers make a group and
they create their own slang words in order to conceal message so that people from
other groups cannot get the meaning of the slang words.
 As discussed in Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia, slang can be described as
informal, nonstandard words or phrases (lexical innovations) which tend to originate
in subcultures within a society. Slang often suggests that the person utilizing the
words or phrases is familiar with the hearer's group or subgroup--it can be considered
a distinguishing factor of in-group identity. Microsoft Encarta states: "slang
expressions often embody attitudes and values of group members." In order for an
expression to become slang, it must be widely accepted and adopted by members of
the subculture or group. Slang has no societal boundaries or limitations as it can exist
in all cultures and classes of society as well as in all languages. Slang expressions are
created in basically the same way as standard speech. As stated in Microsoft Encarta,
"expressions may take form as metaphors, similes, and other figures of speech." In
addition, it is noted that the words used as slang may be new coinages, existing words
may acquire new meanings, narrow meanings of words may become generalized,
words may be abbreviated, etc. However, in order for the expression to survive, it
must be widely adopted by the group who uses it. Slang is a way in which languages
change and are renewed.

The Encyclopedia Britannica (1959: 766) mentioned that slang is the

employment of usual words in usual sense. For example:
Conversation
JOHN : Jesus, what did you eat?
STIFLER : Just a cake, buddy.
KEVIN : Stifler, how's the man chowder?!
STIFLER : Well, he’s still in the bathroom looking for his shoes.
In this conversation, the word ‘buddy’ is a nickname for close companion,
and the word ‘chowder’ doesn’t mean soup, but it is slang for a stupid person. In this
thesis, the writer chooses to observe an American slang because American slang is
the most popular slang. The writer also chooses to focuses on teenagers’ slang
because we can find so many slang in teenagers’ daily conversations. The writer uses
the help of American Slang Dictionary in order to interpret the meaning of each slang
 words and phrases. By using this Dictionary, the writer is able to explain the slang
words and phrases accurately one by one.

Book References

Britanicia Encyclopedia Vol.20.(1959). USA. William Benton.

Hornby, A. S.1995. Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. Oxford: Oxford

Johnson, Sherley. What is Slang, Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia. From

(http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/1914-/language/slang.htm)

Potter, Simeon.1950. Our Language. Baltimore: Penguin Books

Yule, George. 1985. The Study of Language. New York: Cambridge University Press