THE INTERNAL ASPECTS OF CHANGE ON LANGUAGE USED BY DIGITAL NATIVE IN FACEBOOK STATUS UPDATE (LANGUAGE CHANGE)

THE INTERNAL ASPECTS OF CHANGE ON LANGUAGE USED
BY DIGITAL NATIVE IN FACEBOOK STATUS UPDATE
(LANGUAGE CHANGE)
THESIS

By:
RAMLI HASAN AFIF
09360260

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
OCTOBER 2013

THE INTERNAL ASPECTS OF CHANGE ON LANGUAGE USED
BY DIGITAL NATIVE IN FACEBOOK STATUS UPDATE
(LANGUAGE CHANGE)
THESIS

By:
RAMLI HASAN AFIF


ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG
OCTOBER 2013

THE INTERNAL ASPECTS OF CHANGE ON LANGUAGE USED
BY DIGITAL NATIVE IN FACEBOOK STATUS UPDATE
(LANGUAGE CHANGE)
THESIS
This thesis is submitted to meet one of the requirements to achieve
Sarjana Degree in English Education

By:
RAMLI HASAN AFIF
09360260

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF TEACHER TRAINING AND EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF MUHAMMADIYAH MALANG

OCTOBER 2013

ACKNOLEDGMENT
Alhamdullillah, All prices be to Allah the Merciful and Charitable. Because of his
guidance, blessing and affection the writer can finish his thesis.
The writer would like to express his deepest appreciation and gratitude for Mr.
Drs. Soeparto, M.Pd as the first advisor and Mr. Drs. Munash Fauzi, M.M as the
second advisor. Thank you for invaluable guidance, advice, willingness, criticism,
motivation, and patience during guidance period. Writer is very grateful to have them
as his thesis advisors.
His deepest gratitude is addressed to his beloved parents Hasybullah, SH and
Maknah who always pray for him every day and give him love, motivation, and
attention. He also thanks to meaningful Brothers and Sister Mirwan Hasan Aziz,
Muhammad Zaky Walin Arsy, and my little sweaty Rahayu Luluk Hasbiana,
Finally, a special thanks for all of the English department lectures which have
accompanied, guided, and teach writer for four years during study at University of
Muhammadiyah Malang and thanks also goes to close friends Uki, Benni, Asrar,
Doni, Sandi, Silvi, Nila, and Novita for love, care, experience, friendship and pray
until writer arrived in this point.
Malang, October 2013


Ramli Hasan Afif

MOTTO AND DEDICATION
Sesungguhnya beserta kesukaran ada kemudahan
(QS:Al-Insirakh:6)
Once you stop learning, you start dying
(Albert Einstein)
“Yang terpenting dari sebuah perubahan adalah bukan seberapa besar perubahan
tersebut, akan tetapi keputusan untuk segera berubah adalah keputusan terbaik”
(Ramli)
Setiap orang punya jatah gagal, habiskan jatah gagalmu saat muda
(Dahlan Iskan)

DEDICATION:
I dedicated this thesis to:
My beloved Father and Mother
My sister and Brothers
My Grandfathers and Grandmothers
My Friends

And my lovely Partner

TABLE OF CONTENTS
APPROVAL ..........................................................................................................i
LEGALIZATION ............................................................................................... .ii
MOTTO AND DEDICATION ........................................................................... iii
ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................... iv
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT .................................................................................. v
TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................... vi
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Background of the Study.....................................................................................1
1.2. Statement of the Problems ..................................................................................6
1.3. Purpose of the Study ...........................................................................................6
1.4. Significance of the Study ....................................................................................6
1.5. Scope and Limitation ..........................................................................................7
1.6. Definitions of Key Terms....................................................................................7
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1. Internet ................................................................................................................9

2.2. Social Media........................................................................................................10
2.2.1. Facebook ...................................................................................................11
2.2.2. Twitter .......................................................................................................11
2.2.3. LinkedIn ....................................................................................................12
2.3. Digital Native .....................................................................................................12
2.3.1. Norm of Digital Native .............................................................................14
2.3.2. Criteria of Digital Native ..........................................................................14

2.3.3. The Characteristics of Digital Natives ......................................................14
2.4. Facebook ............................................................................................................15
2.4.1. Comment ...................................................................................................17
2.4.2. Friend ........................................................................................................17
2.4.3. Group ........................................................................................................18
2.4.4. Like ...........................................................................................................19
2.4.5. News Feed .................................................................................................19
2.4.6. Page ...........................................................................................................20
2.4.7. Status Update ............................................................................................21
2.4.8. Timeline ....................................................................................................21
2.5. Language Change ..............................................................................................22
2.5.1. Internal Aspects of Change on Language .................................................23

2.5.1. a. Lexical Change ............................................................................23
2.5.1. b. Spelling .......................................................................................25
2.5.1. c. Punctuation ..................................................................................25
2.5.1. d. Grammar .....................................................................................26
2.5.1. e. Meaning and Etymology .............................................................26
2.5.1. f. Pronunciation ...............................................................................27
2.5.2. Causes of Language Change ....................................................................27
CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1. Research Design ..................................................................................................29
3.2. Research Object ..................................................................................................29
3.3. Data Collection....................................................................................................30
3.3.1. Research Instrument ..................................................................................30
3.3.2. Procedure of Data Collection ....................................................................31

3.4. Data Analysis ......................................................................................................32
CHAPTER IV
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1. Research Findings .............................................................................................33
4.1.1. Language Change ......................................................................................33

4.1.2. Internal Aspects of Change .......................................................................34
4.1.2. a. Lexical and Spelling Change .......................................................34
4.1.2. b. Punctuation Change ....................................................................36
4.1.2. c. Grammar Change ........................................................................36
4.1.2. d. Meaning and Etymology Change ................................................39
4.1.2. e. Pronunciation Change .................................................................39
4.2. Discussion ...........................................................................................................40
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION
5.1. Conclusion ..........................................................................................................44
5.2. Suggestion ...........................................................................................................45
BIBLIOGRAPHY
APPENDIX

BIBLIOGRAPHY
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p.m.).

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
Chapter I of this research analysis discusses background of the study, statement of
problem, purpose of the study, significant of study, scope and limitation, and
definition of key terms. Each section presented as follows.
1.1. Background of Study
Today’s world, technology has become more familiar in every day’s society. Our
need and dependence on technology is unavoidable and it has become almost
unbearable to live without it. Most people tend to view technology as something that
enhances every day’s life and increases knowledge.
Today’s students (Prensky identified and called them as digital native) are
definitely different from the students in the past; students now have grown up in a
digital era. Almost their whole time were surrounded by digital devises. Prensky
(2001) stated students now have spent their entire lives surrounded by and using new
technology such as Computers, Videogames, Digital Music Players, Video Cams,
Cell Phones, Internet and all the other toys of the digital age. They enjoy and develop
with technology and gadgets interact on facebook all day, many of them tweeting, and
all of them are online in some capacities like YouTube, Game Online, TV shows,
Movies Online, Facebook, or just surfing in internet. It shows us how students now
have become almost unbearable with technology. On his study Lenhart (2007), has
found that 64% of online teens ages 12-17 have participated in one or more among a
wide range of content-creating activities on the internet, up from 57% of online teens
in a similar survey at the end of 2004.

 Thirty-nine percent of online teens share their own artistic creations online,
such as artwork, photos, stories, or videos, up from 33% in 2004.
 Thirty-three percent of teens create or work on webpages or blogs for others,
including those for groups they belong to, friends, or school assignments,
basically unchanged from 2004 (32%).
 Twenty-eight percent of teens have created their own online journal or blog,
up from 19% in 2004.
 Twenty-seven percent of teens maintain their own personal webpage, up from
22% in 2004.
 Twenty-six percent of teens remix content they find online into their own
creations, up from 19% in 2004.
The percentage of those ages 12-17 who said “yes” to at least one of those five
content-creation activities is 64% of online teens, or 59% of all teens. In addition to
those core elements of content creation, 55% of online teens ages 12-17 have created
a profile on a social networking site such as Facebook or MySpace; 47% of online
teens have uploaded photos where others can see them, though many restrict access to
the photos in some way; and 14% of online teens have posted videos online. It can be
concluded that students now were very active on using technology especially when
they want to know something new such as; new technology, daily life information,
health, news,

language translation, looking for some information, or finding

something they want to know, the first thing they do is opening the internet. As the
result, it is intended to accelerate the change of users in some aspects. One of them is
language.

The faster the growing of technology, the faster the digital native adapts and grows
in this digital era. It changes everything about them including language as the main
tool of the human communication. Prensky (2001) stated today’s students have not
just changed incrementally from those of the past, nor simply changed their slang,
clothes, body adornments, or styles, as has happened between generations previously.
It means that the era of technology have big influences on human daily life changes,
including language.
Language is one of the functional communication tools that has directly grown
and changed as the result of technology development. A fundamental fact about
language is that it is always changing in time, the standard language experiences
many changes, both its grammar and vocabulary, so, it sounds like a new language.
Technology has influenced our students to produce this new language. Crystal
(2001:7) stated to change an important element in any situations is to motivate a
change in the language people use there. It means technologies also take part on the
process of change of language as the result of technology development. One of the
new technologies that are classified as social media and is familiar among students
(digital native) daily life is Facebook.
Facebook is one of the new popular social media that is used by digital native to
communicate at this present, Facebook allows people to interact and share life events.
Wilkie (2012) has stated that Facebook allowed people to share ideas and thoughts,
but allow people to think, learn, and socialize differently than through a textbook or
in person. According to Anne (2012:2), Facebook is a social networking site used by
more than 800 million active users in every country on the planet, so far in 70

languages. Facebook services come with all of the types of interesting features that
were very complete. All of things could be on Facebook beginning from making a
status updates, links, blogging, and many other interesting things. Facebook also
provides with the invitation features, group, quiz etc.
Developed in 2004 by the Harvard University student, Mark Zuckerberg now
facebook becomes the most popular social networking site, Anne (2012:2). As the
new technology that has provided new ways of communication, Facebook has
recorded many changes on language like changes from the internal aspects such as;
lexical, grammatical, punctuation, pronunciation, or even change in meaning and
linguistics. This can be categorized as language change. The language like “Cius
miapah” which has used in Facebook status update by digital native and it means
“Serius demi apa” has changed from the original language. Omar and Miah (2012)
explained, one of the most dramatic changes that this digital revolution has prompted
is a transformation in how students write and communicate (language). They use this
new foam of language in their daily life as one of the lifestyle to communicate to
another, like what have happened on social media communication.
The above description is theoretical consideration about digital native, language
change, the internal aspects of change in language and Facebook. The following
discussion will be about some previous studies in the area of linguistic context, which
have studied on social media conducted by some researchers.
Haryanti (2012) in her thesis about an analysis of “lebay” words in status update
of Facebookers found from the status updates of Facebookers found 89 (eighty nine)
“Lebay” words in Facebook status updates during 15th until 28th of July 2012. The

first week the researchers found about 33 Lebay words used by Facebookers in
Facebook status updates around 15th – 21st of July 2012.
Based on the result of the data analysis in her thesis Asrifah (2012), was found that
the total number of jargons used by the teenagers in Facebook started from June 16
up to June 23, 2012 were 72 (seventy two) which consisted of English and Indonesian
jargon.
Dewi (2011) in her study about “Jargon used by students and alumni of University
of Muhammadiyah Malang in Facebook” Found that the total number of the jargon
were fifty seven (57). There were 9 words in coinage category including, 10 words in
borrowing category, 1 word in compounding category, 11 words in blending
category, 2 words in backformation category, 18 words in acronym category, 1 word
in derivation category, 5 words in abbreviation category.
Based on explanation and support by some previous studies above, it is clear that
there are some significant effects of digital media related to language. Internet,
especially social media and other tools of digital media, have influenced digital native
to produce new languages. They do not realize or notice that they constantly use new
forms of language because of their new interaction and communication using these
digital medias. Facebook is one of the digital media, which is very popular among of
digital native by now and have recorded this kind of new language. Unfortunately, no
research has been carried out on this phenomenon of the language transformation,
which is categorized as language change on linguistics that is used by digital native in
Facebook status update. Based on the reasons above, it is important for the researcher
to investigate and show what are language changes used in Facebook status update

and analyzing the internal aspects of change used by digital native in the Facebook
status update.
1.2. Statement of the Problems
From the explanation in the background of the study above, the reseacher arranges
the statement of the problems as follows:
1. What are languages changes found in facebook status update?
2. What are the internal aspects of change on language used by digital native in
Facebook status update?
1.3. Purpose of Study
The purpose of this study are to analyze and show what are languages changes
found in facebook and to analyze the internal aspect of change on language, which is
used by digital native in Facebook status update.
1.4. Significant of the Study
This research aimed on giving knowledge and a clear description to the learners
and readers about change on language in context of internal aspects of change that are
used among digital natives in Facebook status update. Theoretically, researcher hopes
the findings can give contribution in intended to be references to others related to
language change in context of internal aspects of change. The findings will provide a
useful documentation of internal aspects of change in the major languages used in
internet communication. This record will allow educational useful insights into how a
language evolves and will contribute substantially to a growing literature on language
change. Moreover; practically the readers could understand and get knowledge about

language change especially in context of internal aspects of change of digital natives’
language.
1.5. Scope and Limitation
In this study, the researcher focuses on finding language change and analyzing the
internal aspects of change of language used by digital native in Facebook status
update.
1.6. Definition of Key Terms
In order to avoid misinterpretation among the readers of this research, the
researcher explains the definition of the key terms below according to their meanings
and contexts.
1. Digital Native is a person who was born during or after the general introduction
of digital technology, and through interacting with digital technology from an
early age has a greater understanding of its concepts. Prensky (2001).
2. Facebook is a popular free social networking website that allows registered
users to enjoy activities such as creating unique profiles, uploading photos and
video, send messages and staying in touch with circles of friends, family and
colleagues.
3. Status Update is the way people express their feeling or something to talk in
social media and share it to others.
4. Language change is a change on language related to the changes on word,
pronunciation, grammatical foam and structure, and meaning. Trask (1999) the
fundamental facts about living language is that they always changing. New

words, new pronunciation, new grammatical foam and structure, and new
meaning.
5. The internal aspect of change is changes in language related to the change from
lexical, spelling, punctuation, grammar, meaning and etymology, and
pronunciation. Beard (2006).