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 Holmes (1992: 183) claims that this language variation is a pattern of youth
speech, we can find slang words in teenagers’ conversation from all around the world.
It is true that slang words are often created by the teenagers. They often bring many
new terms that are considered as slang. The development of slang is also being
influenced by the situation. There are informal situations which do not need formal
language. Moreover, teenagers often experience informal conversation with their
friends that allow them to use slang. As part of language, slang develops from time to
time. It shows that slang changes through time going. Today, slang terms enrich the
vocabulary of language more and more.
Slang in itself is neither good nor bad; it is a part of the natural growth of
language (Henshaw and Montaque, 1961: 766). The users of slang words are usually
teenagers, students of junior or high schools. They usually use slang words in order to
show intimacy and solidarity between them. 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.
Based on www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/~rosemary/55-fall2003-
slanglecture.pdf , There are normal processes of word-formation are seen in slang :
 Neologisms (rare)

• geek

Mutations:

• British slang oday < dough

• Great Britain “backslang” yob 'boy', kool toul

'look out'

• chack (an attractive girl <chick?); ho <

whore---what phonological processes are
involved here?

• campenile; having an ear-gasm (meaning to

flip out because someone is playing the
music too loud)

• fabú ‘fabulous’

Shortenings (clipping)

• hiddy (<hideous)

• def (really cool, < definitely)

• spoke ("Heck, Kristie's a spoke", short fr spoken for)

• to dis someone

• sitch for ‘situation’

• deets for ‘details’

• bringit for ‘bring it on’

• 24/7
Blends

• dimbo < dumb/dim bimbo

• gork < geek + dork

Compounds

goofball, airhead, sleezebag, hobag, dorkmonger

Affixation:

• suffixes

• -ski Let's go have a brewski

• -ie hottie

• -o wacko, wierdo

• -rama, -o-rama ‘very, totally’

The food at my dorm is grossorama

That guy is a babeorama

• prefixes

mega- ‘lots’

He's got megabucks

I'm mega-tired.

Mc- from McDonalds: ‘something cheap, mass

produced, inferior quality’ -- as in McPaper

Stanford students call Cal Mc-University

• infix
 English expletive insertion: fan-fuckin-tastic, kanga-bloody-roo, Phila-friggin
delphia, kinder-goddamn-garten

Acronyms:

• SNAG 'nice guy (like someone on 'thirtysomething' who is able to cry and takes his
dates to trendy restaurants) , Sensitive New-Age

• Guy MOS 'member of opposite sex'

• SNAFU---Situation Normal All Fucked Up

Borrowing

• haole 'white person' < Hawai’ian

• nark/narc 'police informer' <Romany nak 'nose'

• mush 'face' < Romany moosh 'man'

• putz around < Yiddish 'penis'

• schmuck < Yiddish 'penis'

• bob < Spanish baboso meaning ‘stupid or dumb’

What a Bob.

• a-da-li stupid He sat on a chair that had just been

painted. What an a-da-li person. "Used by Chinese
people less than 50 years old. This is a direct
phonetic translation. In chinese, this phrase is
represented by threee characters. There is no other
meaning for this phrase in Chinese, not even
character by character; therefore, it has to be
translated by how it is pronounced." n Chinese

Euphemisms & metaphors

 • clapping for credit (name of easy class)

• worshipping the porcelin goddess (vomit)

• take happy Sam camping (said of a man, to have sex)

• horizontal tango

• Metaphorically relaxation is cool and drunkenness is warm or involving cooking.

Consider terms like chill out, heated, fried, cool down

Sound symbolism

• gak (Lemonjuice and water drink the Cal band

drinks during break)

• zerbert (to blow on one's stomach with the lips to

make a funny noise)

Using old words in new ways

Semantic changes (new meaning):

• fresh ‘novel, good’

• bad = ‘good,’ badass, kickass = ‘very good’

(opposites)

• thick ‘curvy’

Changing part of speech:

• He's so adonis!

• He's a burn out (from burned out)

• grub (on) v. < n. (I was grubbin on some pizza)

Puns:

• Babylon (or [beybilan]) – ‘place where babes (pretty

women) come from’

• brewhaha ‘can of beer’ (short forms = brewha, haha,

ha) < brouhaha, 'uproar'

Allusions, e.g. to movie/comic strip characters:

• Magoo -- person driving car slowly

• McFly -- person with no intelligence

 Book References

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language. Fourth Edition. May 16, 2001.
21 September 2002: http://www.dictionary.com/

Henning, Jeffrey. 1995. Model Languages. Retrieved May 2, 2003 from the

World Wide Web: http://www.langmaker.com/ml0104.hrm

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

www.linguistics.berkeley.edu/~rosemary/55-fall2003 slanglecture.pdf