AN ANALYSIS OF SWEARING WORDS USED BY TED IN THE MOVIE Â“TED IS COMINGÂ”

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1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents background of the study, statements of the problem, purpose of the study, significance of the study, scope and limitation, and definition of key terms.

1.1 Background of the Study

Human being cannot live without making any communication with others, thus, communication has an important role in society. People need media called language to share their ideas and feelings in order to have a good communication among society. Furthermore, based on the function, language can be categorized into two conditions, formal and informal. The example of language in formal condition is in a classroom, in a meeting, seminar, and other formal conditions. While in informal condition such as daily talking, people use informal language in their communication.

One of the languages functions is as a tool to show one’s expression or feeling of anger, happiness, sadness, and loneliness. In expressing them, people have many ways of using language and one of them is by producing swearing words. People always associate swear words with nasty words, which are not allowed to be used in a conversation or talk.

Swearing is like using the horn on your car, which can be used to signify a number of emotion (e.g., anger, frustration, joy, surprise) as Jay (2009) noted. Swear words can also be used in a more positive manner such as in the form of jokes and humor, sex talk, storytelling, self-deprecation or even social

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commentary. A particular set of words commonly cited in swearing research includes hell, damn, fuck, shit and ass.

Most people are swearing when they are upset, stress, angry, and hurt. Commonly swearing is to express people emotions; this could be happened not only to the teenagers, but also children and old people. Swearing is actually human and natural behavior. In case of the English swearing, it is commonly found and used in the daily life and daily communication.

Swearing is used by many people in this world to express their emotion

pressures, and it is clearly human’s behavior, that can not be separated from our verbal communication. Swearing words are a natural part of our language, and they are undoubtedly one of the most efficient ways to say our frustration or anger in difficult situations. This is supported by Hughes (1991), who said that people swear by, people swear to (do something), people swear at (somebody or something) and sometimes people swear simply out of exasperation. It has even been suggested that swear words may be a factor in reducing stress (Crystal, in Karjalainen, 2002). This means that because swear words are still kind of our language, it is used by the participants intentionally or unintentionally. It can be influenced by the feeling of the participants themselves. People know what nasty words are. Although they know the words but they keep using it in communication.

Since swearing becomes familiar day by day, as a result there are many educated people also use it to express their feelings such as anger, upset, stress, and hurt. This is the same as what Ted tells in the movie “ Ted is Coming’. This movie tells about a little lonely child namely John Bennett who really wants a new

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Christmas gift, a large teddy bear named Ted to come to life to be his friend. That wish coincides with a falling star and Ted becomes alive. Finally they live together as a friend forever while Ted becomes a celebrity because it is an alive doll.

There are many swearings expressed by the main character in some scenes in this movie. Accordingly, “Ted is Coming” movie was choosen to be analyzed by the researcher. The researcher feels interested to analyze swearings that are expressed in a movie rather than the other object such as a short story, a novel or a play since a movie can be watched for many times. In addition, through movie, the researcher is also able to look directly at the swearing expression shown by the main character. These all make the researcher is easier to investigate about swearing and know the context when the swearing is spoken.

Alfinawati (2009), as one of the researchers who did the same research about swearing, found the type and the characteristic of the swearing expressed in

“The Velvet Rope Diaries” novel by Daniella Brodsky based on Steven Pinker’s

theory. They were: 1) the characters in the novel swore by blurting taboo words and phrases related to gods or religion, sexuality, and disease; 2) the characters in the novel swore for some purposes, some of them spoke rudely, descriptively, idiomatically, abusively, emphatically, and cathartically.

In this research, the researcher chooses Ted as the specific object of his research because of two reasons. First, Ted is the main character of this movie, therefore, it is the most dominant actor who leads in every single scene. Second, Ted is a doll which is used to be funny toy for the kids and cannot speak,

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however, here, it becomes an alive doll with dirty minds. And the last is Ted used several swearing word in his daily conversation with others.

From the phenomena, the researcher was interested in conducting the analysis of “ Ted is Coming” movie under the title The Swearing Words Used by Ted in The Movie “ Ted is Coming”.

1.2 Statement of the Problems

The problems which are going to be investigated in this study are formulated as follows:

1. What are the swearings expressed by Ted in “Ted is Coming” movie?

2. What are the types of the swearings expressed by Ted in “Ted is Coming” movie?

3. What is the most dominant swearing words used by Ted in the “Ted is

Coming” movie?

1.3 Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the study is to find out the answer of the problems that have been stated in the statement of problems. The purpose are:

1. To know the swearings expressed by Ted in “Ted is Coming” movie.

2. To know the types of the swearings expressed by Ted in “Ted is Coming” movie.

3. To know the most dominant swearing words used by Ted in “Ted is Coming” movie.

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1.4 Significance of the Study

Theoretically, the result of this research can give more knowledge about swearing for the researcher himself and also becomes a reference to the student who are interested in the study of sociolinguistic, especially in language variation, more specially in swearing. Practically, it is hoped that the result of this research makes people have a thought that swearing is also a phenomenon of sociolinguistics which should not be avoided but should be understood. This is because it is used not only by low class or uneducated people but also by high class or educated people. To the next researcher, this research can become a point of view for their observation.

1.5 Scope and Limitation of the Study

In this study, the researcher analyzes the swearing words in the movie

“Ted is Coming” as the scope. In addition, the researcher limits his analysis to swearing, the types, and the most dominant swearing words used by Ted in the

movie “Ted is Coming”.

1.6 Definition of Key Terms

To avoid some misunderstandings and misinterpretation of the key terms used, the researcher defines some terms, they are:

1. Swearing is an exclusively verbal practices, blasphemy, profanity, and obscenity cover a wide variety of modes, including violations of taboos through insulting sign or outrageous actions in Hughes (2006: 16).

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2. Ted is an alive doll who has dirty minds and becomes the main character of the

movie “Ted is Coming”.

3. Ted is Coming is the movie of a doll which comes alive in the night of the Christmas as a wish of little lonely kid named John Bennett, and it becomes his friend forever.

4. Movie is a story or series of events recorded by camera and shown as moving picture on a screen in theatre or a television.

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AN ANALYSIS OF SWEARING WORDS USED BY TED

IN THE MOVIE “TED IS COMING”

THESIS

CANDRA DANI PRADANA

201010100311302

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG

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AN ANALYSIS OF SWEARING WORDS USED BY TED IN

THE MOVIE “TED IS COMING”

THESIS

This thesis is submitted to achieve Sarjana Degree in English Education

CANDRA DANI PRADANA

201010100311302

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION

UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG

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MOTTO AND DEDICATION

NEVER STOP WHEN YOU’RE TIRED, STOP WHEN YOU’RE

DONE!

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I dedicated this thesis to:

My beloved parents and my big family

My beloved wife

And all my great friends

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Alhamdulillah, praise be to Allah, the Merciful and Charitable. Because of the guidance, blessing and affection, the writer finally can finish this thesis

entitled “An Analysis of Swearing Words Used by Ted in the Movie “Ted is Coming” completely as well as possible. Also may shalawat and salam always be

given to the last messenger Rasulullah Muhammad SAW who had guiding us from the darkness into the lightness.

The writer would like to express his deepest gratitude to Dra. Erly Wahyuni, M.Si as his first advisor and Nurakhfini Septiany, M.A, M.Ed as his second advisor for their suggestions, invaluable guidances and advices during the consultation period, and their comments and corrections during the completion of his thesis.

His deepest and sincerest thanks addressed to his parents, Sukamto and Umi Lutfiah, parents in law (Hajar Aswad and Hostifawati), wife (Hasti Retno Dewi), brother (Dandi Imam Novanto), sister (Angeli Bunga Febriana) for their encouragement, love, and care, so that he can finish his thesis. They always teach the writer how to be a good person and never stop guiding him to be a real man.

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(Amrozi, Johan, Tio, Nafik, Dani, Barry, Wawa, Syukron, Burhan, Ardi etc) )and all of his friends for their supports, loves, cares, and prays so that he can finish this thesis.

He knows that this thesis has not been perfect yet. Therefore, he always expects the criticisms and suggestions from the readers. Finally he hopes that this thesis will be beneficial for the readers.

The writer,

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viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

APPROVAL ………. i

LEGALIZATION ……… ii

ORIGINALITY DECLARATION ……….. iii

MOTTO AND DEDICATION ……… iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… v

ABSTRACT ……….. vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ……… viii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of Study ……….. 1

1.2 Statement of Problems ……… 4

1.3 Purpose of Study ………. 4

1.4 Significance of Study ………. 5

1.5 Scope and Limitation of Study ……… 5

1.6 Definition of Key Terms ……….. 5

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 Language ……… 7

2.2 Sociolinguistics ……… 7

2.3 Language and Society ………. 8

2.4 Language Varieties ………. 9

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2.4.2 Dialects ……….. 10

2.4.3 Style ……….. 12

2.4.4 Bad Language ……… 13

2.4.4.1 Swearing……….. 13

2.4.4.2 Historical State of Swearing…..……….. 13

2.4.4.3 Types of Swearing….……….. 13

2.5 Movie ………. 15

2.5.1 Movie Genre ……….. 15

2.5.2 Elements of Movie ………. 17

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD 3.1 Research Design ……….. 19

3.2. Object of Study ……… 20

3.3 Research Instrument ……… 20

3.4 Data Collections ………. 20

3.5 Data Analysis ……….. 21

CHAPTER IV FINDING AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Findings ……….. 22

4.1.1 The Swearing Words Expressed by Ted in the Movie “Ted is Coming” ……… 22

4.1.2 Types of Swearing ………. 24

4.1.3 The Most Dominant Swearing Words Expressed by Ted in the Movie “Ted is Coming”………. 30

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4.2 Discussion ……….. 30 CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS

5.1 Conclusions ……… 33 5.2 Suggestions ………. 34

BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDIX I APPENDIX II APPENDIX III

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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Xing, C. 2005. Culture and Language Teaching Through Movies. A Case Study. Journal of Chikushi Jogakuen University, 9. Retrieved: April, 2015 from http://www.eric.ed.gov/PDFS/ED405731.pdf

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(Amrozi, Johan, Tio, Nafik, Dani, Barry, Wawa, Syukron, Burhan, Ardi etc) ) and all of his friends for their supports, loves, cares, and prays so that he can finish this thesis.