xxxii simple and familiar words to express their idea or feeling in their daily
communication.
E. Reasons of Using Slang
Slang is used easily in daily communication from the last five decades until present day and most of users are young people and lowest grade of society such as
gang-banger, thieves, gambler, etc. Hotten said “slang is the lowest word only which are used by the dangerous classes and the lowest grade of society.”
20
But it can not be denied that today sometimes these foreign words popular and become part of
Standard English. However, there are many reasons why people use slang in their informal
conversation. But the main reason is because most people are individuals who desire uniqueness. For some groups who have a lack of political power, they think that slang
is simply a safe and effective way to rebel against the establishment. However, slang appears in the present and exists even in complacent times. It is created by individuals
and perpetuated based upon its usefulness and applicability. According Columbia Encyclopedia slang is often well developed in the speaking vocabularies of cultured,
sophisticated, linguistically rich languages. Whereas slang was once considered as the lowest form of communication, many now consider slang as an intelligent and
insightful variation to the blandness of the standard language.
20
Eric Partridge, Slang Today and Yesterday, London: Routlegde Kegan paul, 1950, p. 3
xxxiii According to the British lexicographer, Eric Partridge 1894-1979, people
use slang for any of at least 15 reasons:
1. In sheer high spirits, by the young in heart as well as by the young in years; just
for the fun of the thing; in playfulness or waggishness. 2.
As an exercise either in wit and ingenuity or in humour. The motive behind this is usually self-display or snobbishness, emulation or responsiveness, delight in
virtuosity.
3. To be different, to be novel.
4. To be picturesque either positively or - as in the wish to avoid insipidity -
negatively. 5.
To be unmistakably arresting, even startling. 6.
To escape from clichés, or to be brief and concise. Actuated by impatience with existing terms.
7. To enrich the language. This deliberateness is rare save among the well-
educated, Cockneys forming the most notable exception; it is literary rather than spontaneous.
8. To lend an air of solidity, concreteness, to the abstract; of earthiness to the
idealistic; of immediacy and appositeness to the remote. In the cultured the effort is usually premeditated, while in the uncultured it is almost always
unconscious when it is not rather subconscious.
9. a. To lesson the sting of, or on the other hand to give additional point to, a
refusal, a rejection, a recantation. b. To reduce, perhaps also to disperse the solemnity, the pomposity, the
excessive seriousness of a conversation. c. To soften the tragedy, to lighten or to prettify the inevitability of death or
madness, or to mask the ugliness or the pity of profound turpitude e.g. treachery, ingratitude; andor thus to enable the speaker or his auditor or both
to endure, to carry on.
10. To speak or write down to an inferior, or to amuse a superior public; or merely to be on a colloquial level with either ones audience or ones subject matter.
11. For ease of social intercourse. Not to be confused or merged with the preceding.
12. To induce either friendliness or intimacy of a deep or a durable kind. Same remark.
13. To show that one belongs to a certain school, trade, or profession, artistic or intellectual set, or social class; in brief, to be in the swim or to establish contact.
14. Hence, to show or prove that someone is not in the swim.
xxxiv 15. To be secret - not understood by those around one. Children, students, lovers,
members of political secret societies, and criminals in or out of prison, innocent persons in prison, are the chief exponents.
21
However, condemns of slang, believing that it undermines the standard language and reflects poorly upon its users. Even some linguists said that slang is the
grunt of human hog and the special vocabulary used by any set of persons of a low or disreputable character; language of a low and vulgar type. But, whatever the reasons,
slang here to stay, and its longevity demands attention and explication.
21
Eric Partridge, Slang Today and Yesterday, London: Routlegde Kegan paul, 1950, p. 5
xxxv
CHAPTER III RESEARCH FINDING
A. Description of the Data
In this chapter, the writer will discuss the description of the data which is about the slang used in the Malibu’s Most Wanted movie. Then, the writer tries to
tabulate the collected data through the following a.
The examples of utilized slang b.
The meaning of slang language used in movie mentioned c.
The types of slang language used in Malibu’s Most Wanted movie d.
The reason of using slang language in the Malibu’s Most Wanted movie In the research finding, the writer will limit the discussion only in three types
of slang language used in Malibu’s Most Wanted movie, they are public house slang, workmen’s slang and society slang. To make easier to analyze, then the writer
tabulated the data of slang language which is taken from Malibu’s Most Wanted movie script. Besides, the writer finds the meaning of slang language from some
slang dictionaries, such as Dictionary of American Slang: 3
rd
Edition, Random House Historical
Dictionary of
American Slang,
and also
website http:www.slangsite.comslang language. The data description will be tabulated in
the next page.