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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of study
Every human uses language to communicate each other. Language has an important role in human life as it is used by human to express and show their
feelings, thoughts, and ideas. It can be in spoken or written form. Language is a way of communicating of human to have a contact and deliver messages. It also
influences in human life significantly as it is one of the tools of communication. Many linguists talk and define what language is. Brown 2002:5 states that
“Language is a system of arbitrary conventionalized vocal, written, or gestural symbols that enable members of a given community to communicate intelligibly with
one another.” From the quotation above, it is known that language is used in some forms which make people can interact to each other easily.
Human can use language to do their importance in their life. Many aspects of human life need language as an important part of them, such as business, technology,
education sector, etc. So, language takes so many roles in our daily life. Language helps human to interact and make them work and do many things easily.
Bloomfield in Partana 2002:18 states that “Language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols used by society to interact and communicate each other”. From what
Bloomfield said about language, it is known that language is a part of society itself. So, it takes a vital role in communication in the society.
Language has a relation with society. The study of language which is related to the society is sociolinguistics. Wardhaugh 2006:13 states that “Sociolinguistics is
2 concerned with investigating the relationships between language and society with the
goal being a better understanding of the structure of language and of how languages function in communication.” Based on the quotation above, we know that
sociolinguistics is related to society as an object of the study. It is a field that analyzes language as a part of social property.
Jendra 2010: 9 says that “The study explores the functions and the varieties of language, the contacts between different languages, attitudes of people towards
language use and users, changes of language, as well as plans on language.” Based on the quotation above, it is known that there are many parts of language in
sociolinguistics which can be explored and investigated. Language is not only used by society in the real life to do their importance, but
also to have some entertainment. Language is applied in many forms, such as drama, poetry, novel, movie, article, etc. In this study, movie is chosen as the object of the
research as there are many uses of language found in it. Occasionally, we can see the relationship of language and society in the movie which reflects the real life
condition. The I Am Sam movie is choosen as the object of this study by analyzing the five
language styles found in it based on Joos’ 1967:153-155 theory which includes frozen, formal, consultative, casual, and intimate styles.
I Am Sam is an American drama movie written and directed by Jessie Nelson, and starring Sean Penn as a father with a developmental disability. Sam, a tables
wiper at Starbucks whose the intelligence is as seven years old kid, decides to fight for custody of his daughter, Lucy Dakota Fanning. Although Lucys mother, a
homeless woman, leaves right after Lucy is born, Sam does everything well, with the help from an agoraphobic neighbor Dianne Wiest who keeps her daughter when he
3 works. Sam also gets some help from an entourage of friends. Everything goes well
until Lucy has a birthday of seven. Sam has to be separated from his daughter due to his disability to take care of the little girl whose cleverness is more than him. Her
daughter begins to surpass Sam intellectually. When Family Protective Services try to take Lucy away, Sam gets intense lawyer Rita Harrison Michelle Pfeiffer to help
him to take Lucy back. And Rita learns from Sam to take time to play with her own son. In this movie, we can see and learn from the sincerity of a mental retardation
man as a father who keeps trying to take care to her own daughter eventhough he has a disability. He also has a help from his four friends who has same disability as him.
Two of his friends, Brad and Joe, are roled by the real men with disability, they are Joseph Rosenberg which has mental retardation and Brad Allan Silverman which is
Down Sindrom. Eventhough Sam has a mental retardation, he has a best feeling to be a good father for his own daughter.
In this study, the writer tries to know what language styles are used in this movie in Sam’s utterance in his conversationas a leading character. The writer wants
to search what language styles are used in the movie by Sam which has mental retardation and tries to develop the understanding about language styles to make
people having a good influence in knowing about it. The language styles according to Joos 1967:153-155 in his book entitled “Five
Clocks” as cited from Lubis 2010: 12-17, they are frozen oratorical style, formal deliberative style, consultative, casual, and intimate style. Here is an example of the
language style which is used in the movie “I Am Sam”. Sam:
I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Yeah, I’m sorry. Lucy:
It’s Ok, Daddy. Don’t be sorry. I’m lucky. Nobody else’s daddy ever comes to the park.
4 From the dialogue above, Sam’s utterance i.e. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Yeah, I’m
sorry. is classified into formal and casual style because he uses the words ‘I’m sorry’ instead of ‘sorry’ that indicates the formality. But, he also uses the word ‘yeah’ that
has the impression of informality. So, Sam’s utterance in this dialogue is classified into formal and casual styles.
1.2 Problems of the Study
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