Code-mixing made by Airline Officers

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3. THE ANALYSIS

3.1 Code-mixing made by Airline Officers

One of the most striking phenomena in a bilingual‟s linguistic performance is the occurrence of the seemingly random mixing of two languages, both within and between utterances, during a conversational exchange. This linguistic behavior not only attracts scholarly attention but also raises questions about the various features which characterize language-mixing. In fact, some earlier studies have focused on factors which govern the occurrences of language mixing at various linguistic levels as well. There are a lot of airline officers in Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Most of their airline‟s passengers are Malaysian people. One of reputable airline in Kuala Lumpur Internation al Airport is AirAsia. AirAsia‟s officers have some different sections of their occupations such as flight attendant cabin crew, check in counter staff, boarding gate staff, ground handling staff and customer service staff. As we know, Malaysia has Malay language as its first official language and English language as its second official language. Then, when passengers would like to go out of Kuala Lumpur by plane, they must be going to Kuala Lumpur International Airport and doing some interacts to the airline officers in Kuala Lumpur International Airport. For example, there is a Malaysian passenger who wants to go to Medan from Kuala Lumpur, then she should be in queue of check in counter and must do the check in, she is taken care by a Chinese check in counter staff who is able to speak in Malay language and English language and he greets the passenger by using English language as “Hello, can I have your 12 ticket?”, then the Malaysian passenger gives her ticket to the check in counter staff while answering the question of the check in counter staff as “Of course. Ini ticket saya, you boleh ambil .” Of course. This is my ticket, you may take it.. That is one simple example of their conversation by using code-mixing between Malay language and English language, because the check in counter staff listened that the passenger was speaking by using code-mixing, so that he also does code- mixing when he is speaking to the Malaysian passenger as “Apa you punya luggage?” Do you have any luggage? and the Malaysian passenger answers as “No lah. I nak bawa luggage kecil to cabin kapal terbang tu.” No, I don‟t. I want to bring small luggage to the aircraft cabin. then the counter check in staff replies as “Well, ini your boarding pass, you harus tunggu boarding di boarding room secepatnya .” Well, this is your boarding pass, you must be waiting in the boarding room as soon as possible. and finally the Malaysian passenger answers as “Terima kasih, I nak running ke boarding room tu secepatnya.” Thank you, I would be running to the boarding room as soon as possible.. By looking at the example above, we know that some of code-mixing factors are the ethnicity difference and habit. Malaysian people understand the meaning of code-mixed sentence because the habit and they are able to speak more than one language in this case between Malay language and English language. Another example is when a flight attendant is taking care of her airline‟s passenger on board, the passenger would buy a hot coffee and order it to the flight attendant as “Permisi, miss. Can I have secangkir kopi panas?” Excuse me, miss. Can I have a cup of hot coffee? then the flight attendant answers as “Of course 13 boleh lah. The price is only RM 7 and you will get sandwich dengan percuma. ” Of course you can. The price is only RM 7 and you will get free sandwich.. Another factor of code- mixing usage is by taking a look to the interlocutor‟s ethnicity of hisher body, for example when your interlocutor is a caucasian from Australia then automatically you will be speaking to him by using English language, and if a Malaysian meets an Indonesian, the Malaysian probably thinks that the Indonesian is a Malaysian then the Malaysian speaks in Malay language to the Indonesian while the Indonesian speaks in English then they do code- mixing among Malay language, Indonesian language and English language. Other examples of code-mixing in sentences which are used by the airline officers to their workmates or their airline‟s passengers such as: 1 “Have you makan untuk lunch break ni?” Have you taken a lunch on this lunch break? 2 “Saya suka makan di restaurant tu because menunya sangat interesting.” I like having a lunch at that restaurant because the menu is very interesting. 3 “Where are you working and kerja apa di sana?” Where are you working and what is your occupation there? 4 “Can you temankan I untuk hantarkan luggage-luggage ini to Lost and Found counter?” Can you accompany me to bring these luggages to Lost and Found counter? 5 “Dia missed her connecting flight, so dia tak boleh check in.” She missed her connecting flight, so she can not doing check in. 14 There are many reasons why the airline‟s officers at Kuala Lumpur International Airport do code-mixing, such as: 1 It is part of their habit nowadays of mixing more than one language in single sentence. 2 They learn and communicate with people by using different languages. 3 They do code-mixing in their daily life. 4 They used to mix more than one language while speaking to people. 5 They understand two languages Malay language and English language so that they used to use two languages while speaking to people. There is an answer why they understand the code-mixing used in their daily life between Malay language and English language. They understand two languages Malay language and English language as the official language of Malaysia. A sociolinguistic study of language mixing behavior in bi- or multilingual community can by itself, contribute to a greater understanding of why people choose one particular variety of code or mix it with the other in certain social contexts. In a less stable bilingualism, where both social and linguistics factors are still undergoing a rapid transition, role relationships and domains of language behavior, such as home or public settings, may, in varying degrees, encourage members, of the speech community to use the „mother-tongue‟ or the „second language‟ in different relationship. Home settings may encourage the use of mother tongue more strongly than public settings. This is presumably so because 15 home settings or other private domains have a much greater influence in maintaining the in-group socio-cultural heritages of which norms of language behavior become a part. Ohiowutum 1997 classifies five functions of code-mixing, they are: 1 Identity Marking A speaker may use a particular code to signal a specific types of identity, for example moderning, sophisticated, or authority. The speaker wants to show their proficiency in using many languages; they use code-mixing as a prestige language. 2 A Strategy of Neutrality Code-mixing can be employed as a strategy of neutrality when the used of any language in the repertoire might suggest the wrong message to somebody. In this case, the using of code-mixing can make something that speaker said clearly and easier to understand. 3 Stylistic Function Code-mixing is also used for stylistic function. In this case, stylistic function is related to the beautiful of language. It can be as a language style to make utterance or sentence more interesting. It can be in song or poetry, etc. 4 Expression of Personality Code-mixing signal important socio culture and textual functions as an expression of certain types of complex personalities and communities. By using code-mixing, someone maybe want to show his personality and his knowledge . 16 5 Intentions for Clarifying Intention of clarifying the speech content for interlocutor. It means to make the content of a speech run smoothly and can be understood by the listener.

3.2 Code-mixing made by Information Center Desk Officers