11 English is usually used in the printed media newspapers and books, associated
with education, and used in the broadcasting world and other public contexts. Instead of the spoken language, it is more easily described in terms of the written
language vocabulary, spelling and grammar. In the other hand, non-standard English is related to people who have low statuses in society. Therefore, it is
usually labeled as “bad” or “vulgar” language while standard English is often labeled as “good” English.
Hatim and Mason 1990 explain that there are two dimensions recognized which contribute to language variation. Those are user-related varieties and use-
related varieties. The earlier deals with the user in a particular language event: who the speaker is. It differs from person to person primarily in the phonic
medium. The latter is related to the use to which a user puts language. Use-related varieties differ from each other primarily in language form e.g. grammar and
lexis. Since it has relation with an individual’s background, author can employ l
anguage variation to assert the characters in his novel through their speeches.
c. Level of Formality in Speech
Languages have different speech styles or standards to synchronize word choice with the given formality Jay, 2003. Different situations and people call
for different level of formality. Both Joos 1967 and Nida 1975, p. 175 have classified level of formality into five levels which are frozen, formal, consultative,
casual, and intimate style. Frozen style is the most formal style and it can be found in biblical verse, prayers, and law. Formal style according to Nida 1975 is
used between persons who are unknown to each other in a formal setting such as
12 public auditorium. It is used for most academic and scientific publishing. Whereas
consultative style according to Joos 1967 is a standard form of communication. Nida 1975 adds that consultative style occurs between people who do not know
each other and talk about something neutral. It can be found in conversation between strangers or doctor and patient. Another style is casual style in which it is
used by people who know each other such as peers and friends. In this style, it is normal to find slang, vulgarities, and colloquialisms. The last style proposed by
Joos 1967 and Nida 1975 is intimate style. It is used by people who are well acquainted and who have shared many linguistic experiences so they may have
private vocabularies which are unintelligible for outsiders Nida, 1975. Related to level of formality in speech, Newmark 1988, p. 31 has further
detail. He describes that levels of formality in speech range from officialese, official, formal, informal, colloquial, slang, to taboo. Newmark provides examples
for each level as shown in Table 2.1.
Table 2.1. Level of Formality in Speech According to Newmark
Officialese The consumption of any nutriments whatsoever is categorically
prohibited in this establishment. Official
The consumption of nutriments is prohibited. Formal
You are requested no to consume food in this establishment. Neutral
Eating is not allowed here. Informal
Please don’t eat here. Colloquial
You can’t feed your face here. Slang
Lay off the nosh. Taboo
Lay off the fucking nosh.
It can be seen from examples in Table 2.1 that they talk about the same idea which is prohibiting one to eat in that place. However the degrees of formality
range and it can be seen from the choice of vocabulary. Take examples from
13 officialese style and slang style. Officialese style employs scientific terms such as
nutriments referring to food while slang style employs nosh, a slang term for food. From the Table 2.1, it can also be seen that both slang and taboo style have
similiar pattern but the addition of word fucking in the sentence makes slang style changes into taboo style as fucking is offensive and categorized as taboo word.
d. Dirty Words
Terminology dirty word is quite tricky since there are many different labels proposed by scholars and experts. Expert such as Jay 1992, p. 1 uses the term
cursing in his Cursing in America to refer to “all sorts of dirty word usage”
though he knows that it might be “somewhat inexact.” Then later in his other studies, he refers what he calls previously as cursing as offensive words see Do
Offensive Words Harm People, 2009 and taboo words see The Utility and Ubiquity of Taboo Words, 2009. While another expert such as McEnery see
Swearing in English, 2006 proposes the terms bad language and swearing to refer the same notion. Other experts may use swear words or forbidden words as
well see Fägersten, 2012; Allan and Burridge, 2006. Noted by Fägersten 2012, p. 1 the term that she calls swear words have many alias such as bad words, curse
words, cuss words, dirty words, four-letter words, expletives, epithets, obscenities, profanity, blasphemy, bawdy language, foul language, rude language, vulgar
language, or taboo language. Kaye and Sapolsky 2009, p. 431, as cited by Fägersten 2012, p. 5, admit that the use of variety of broad terms
interchangeably is “to avoid repetition” and seemingly no other reason than that.
