Instuments and Data Gathering Technique

76 The writer had some justification for choosing The Inbetweeners as the data source. First, the major of the conversations in it were done by adolescent characters especially male. Once, Coleman 2012 suggests that male teenagers have more tendencies to use slang to impress the girl. Besides, Anderson and Trudgill 1990 and Allen 1998 suggest that males often employ slang to covert prestige because using slang is regarded by having manly and strong qualities as cited in Matiello, 2008. Second, almost all situations in it happen in informal spoken environment and it is in line with that Mattiello 2008 who that slang occurs in unofficial situation.

C. Instuments and Data Gathering Technique

In this research, the researcher was the main instrument to gather the data. As stated by Cresswell 2005, the researcher functioned as the primary instrument to collect the data in the qualitative study. This is in line with Merriam ‟s 2002 statement that the researcher is the key for the data elicitation because the researcher is the one who collect the data in the qualitative inquiry. The writer gathered the data from the existed transcription of the first season of The Inbetweeners television series. The data source has been generated in Springfield website http:www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk . The writer downloaded the existed transcript in the website because of the practicality and accessibility. Thus, the writer did not need to transcribe the conversation laid in The Inbetweeners. The writer found it was impractical and inefficient if all episodes in the first season had to be watched and transcribed one by one by. In 77 addition, it is the most accessible source, which is complete and inexpensive. However, to keep the transcript reliability, the writer checked their accuracy by reading the transcript and re-watching the TV series. This study used protocols to support the human instruments in the data gathering process. The writer also applied coding technique to complete the table. According to Miles and Huberman 1994, coding is a process of giving tags or labels about the information of the data during the study. Thus, the writer applied process codes in this study to mark the process of word-formation and slang characteristics. The writer created the codes for twenty four word-formation types. They are created based on the word-formation theories that are purposed by Akmadjian, Demers, Farmer, and Harnish 2010 and O‟Grady, Archibald, Aronoff, and Rees- Miller 2010. For example, the writer put a label CW to a slang word which was coined. In addition, the writer created five codes to mark the slang characteristics. The codes were made in accordance with Dumas and Lighter 1978. For instance, a slang word was labeled as 3 and 4a if the slang is a tabooed term in ordinary discourse with persons of higher social status or greater responsibility and if it is a slang word which was used to place of the well-known conventional synonym to protect the user from the discomfort caused by the conventional item. By designing protocol, the writer believed that it could help to arrange the data into manageable segment. Thus, the research was more applicable. Moreover, 78 the writer suggested that coding made the data grouping process easier. In the following part, the writer provides table 3.1. It is the blueprint of table for research instrument employed in this study. Table 3.1: Blueprint of Research Instrument Table Title: No Sentences Slang Characteristics Word-Formation Processes Meaning Code for morphological process: CW : Coined Word A : Acronyms AA :Alphabetical Abbreviation C : Clipping B : Blending GW : Generified Word PN : Proper Noun Brw : Borrowing IC : Internal Change Spl : Suppletions R : Reduplication TP : Tone Placement Inf : Inflection Clt : Cliticization BF : Back-Formation O : Onomatopoeia CPS : Change in the Part of Speech ME : Metaphorical Extension Brd : Broadening N : Narrowing SD : Semantic Drift RV : Reversal Cmp : Compounding Aff : Affixation Code for slang criterion: 1: Its presence will markedly lower the dignity of formal or serious speech or writing. 2: to imply the users special familiarity either with the referent or with that less statusful or less responsible class of people who have such special familiarity and use the term. 3: Tabooed term in ordinary discourse with persons of higher social status or greater responsibility 4a: to place of the well-known conventional synonym to protect the user from the discomfort caused by the conventional item 4b: to place of the well-known conventional synonym to protect the user from the discomfort or annoyance of further elaboration. 79 Another table was also provided by the researcher to record the distribution of word formation in slang words. The writer made a table with twenty four types of word formation process that were mentioned in the theoretical description parts. By employing this table, the writer could see the most and the least frequent word-formation processes in slang used in The Inbetweeners TV series. In addition, the table had a function to help the writer to see the types of word-formation processes that were not found in The Inbetweeners television series. In the following part, the writer provides table 3.2, which is the blueprint to record the word-formation distribution. Table 3.2: The Blueprint Record of Slang Word-Formation Distribution Word-Formation Processes Occurrences Word-Formation Processes Occurrences Coined Word Tone Placement Acronyms Cliticization Alphabetical Abbreviation Back-Formation Clipping Onomatopoeia Blending Change in the Part of Speech Generified Word Metaphorical Extension Proper Noun Broadening Borrowing Narrowing Inflection Semantic Drift Internal Change Reversal Suppletions Compounding Reduplication Affixation 80 After the writer examined the data and grouped the slang words based on the type of word-formation process by using table 3.1, the writer recorded the distribution word-formation process in table 3.2. The number of occurrences of those word-formation processes that were found in The Inbetweeners television series could be seen clearly in the table 3.2.

D. Data Analysis Technique