T1__Full text Institutional Repository | Satya Wacana Christian University: A WordFormation Analysis of Slang Expressions in Pitch Perfect Movie Script T1 Full text

A WORD-FORMATION ANALYSIS OF SLANG EXPRESSIONS
IN PITCH PERFECT MOVIE SCRIPT

THESIS
Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Sarjana Pendidikan

Debora Primaningtyas
112015708

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION PROGRAM
FACULTY OF LANGUANGE AND ARTS
UNIVERSITAS KRISTEN SATYA WACANA
SALATIGA
2016

PTi B LIC., \T IC) N

AGREEN,IENT DECLA RATION

As a member o1'UKSW academic community, I verify that:

Name
: Debora Primanrngtyas
Student I) Number : I1201-5708
: English Language Education Program
Studi, Prt gram
: I-anguage and Arts
Faculty'
' Undergraduate Thesrs
KinC cf .,, ork
In developlng m), krorr ledge- [ agree to provide Satya Wacana Christian Universitr
rvith non-exclusive ro1,a ty free right tor rny rntellectual property and the contents there
in entitieci
A WORD-FORMATION ANALYSIS OF SLANG EXPRESSTONS
I'.1 PITCH PERFECT

}IO\.IE SCRIPT

With this non-exch sive rovaltv free right, Satva Wacana Chrrstian Universttv

maintains the rightto coo.v-, reproduce, print, publish. post. displa_v". incorporate, store in

or scan into a retriev rl system or database. transmit, broadcast, barter. or sell mv
intellectual propert'y', in vhole or in part vi'ithout mir c-1p..rn r.lrittcn perrnission, as [ong
a

i tnv name is still included

as

the \*'rlter.

Thrs declaration is made according to the best of ml,knott-ledge
f\4^,1^
lrl
iriuuw i^

Qolofi,,o
J4r4rr5q.

Date

: Jaruar-,,,,

Verified

b-v.-

20'l'2Al7

signee,

Debora Primaningtyas

Superi,'isor

Examiner

7

A WORD.FORMATION AIIALYSIS OF SLANG EXPRESSIONS

IN PITCH PERFECZMOVIE SCRIPT
THESIS
Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

r

f the Requirements for the Degree of
SarjanaPendidikan

DEBORA PRIMANINGTYAS

1

12015708

Approved by:

Supervisor

Examiner

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT

This thesis contains no such material as has been submitted for examination in any
course or accepted for the fulfillment of any degree or diploma in any university. To the
best of my knowledge and belief, this contains no material previously published or
written by any other person except where due reference is made in the text.

Copyright @2016: Debora Primaningtyas and Rindang Widiningrum, M.Hum.

All rights reserved. No part of this thesis may be reproduced by any means without the
prior written permission of at least one of the copyright owners or the English Language
Education Program of SatyaWacana Christian University, Salatiga.

Debora Primaningtyas :

iii

PUBLICATION AGREEMENT DECLARATION
As a member of the (UKSW) Universitas Kristen Satya Wacana academic
community, I verify that:
Name
Student ID Number
Study Program
Faculty
Kind of Work

: Debora Primaningtyas
: 112015708
: English Language Education
: Language and Arts
: Undergraduate Thesis

In developing my knowledge, I agree to provide UKSW with a non-exclusive royalty
free right for my intellectual property and the contents there in entitled:
A Word-formation Analysis of Slang Expressions in Pitch Perfect Movie Script
With this non-exclusive royalty free right, UKSW maintains the right to copy,
reproduce, print, publish, post, display, incorporate, store in or scan into a retrieval

system or database, transmit, broadcast, barter or sell my intellectual property, in whole
or in part without my express written permission, as long as my name is still included as
the writer.
This declaration is made according to the best of my knowledge.
Made in : Salatiga
Date
:
Verified by signee,
Debora Primaningtyas
Approved by

Rindang Widiningrum, M. Hum
Supervisor

Dr. Elisabet Titik Murtisari, M.TransStud
Examiner

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

COVER PAGE………………………………………………………..

i

APPROVAL PAGE……………………………………………………

ii

COPYRIGHT STATEMENT………………………………………….

iii

PUBLICATION AGREEMENT………………………………………

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………

v

ABSTRACT……………………………………………………………

1

INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………….

1

LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………………….

3

A. Definition of Slang …………………………..……………….

3

B. Word Formation ………………………………………………

4

THE STUDY…………………….……………………………………

10

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION……………………………………

13

CONCLUSION………………………………………………………..

25

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT……………………………………………..

27

REFERENCES…………………………………………………..........

28

APPENDIX .………………………………………………………….

30

v

A WORD-FORMATION ANALYSIS OF SLANG EXPRESSIONS
IN PITCH PERFECT MOVIE SCRIPT

ABSTRACT
Movie is a source of entertainment which attends slang words in
the characters‟ dialogue. Pitch Perfect is a musical-drama movie
address for young people. This study is aimed to find the
syntactic forms of slang expressions found in Pitch Perfect
movie script and to clarify the meaning of that expressions based
on the context they are uttered. This study is a descriptive
qualitative research which used the script of the movie as the
data and Yule‟s word-formation processes theory to analyze it.
The writer, as the intrument of the research, found 38 slang
words in the movie script which contains 5 coinage, 11
compounding, 11 blending, 10 clipping, and 1 multiple process.
The most word categories spoken frequently in the movie are
compounding and blending. The writer also found that slang
words existed in the movie mostly have figurative meaning with
the intention of making the utterances secret, unique and
exclusive because it refers to a certain group, the acapella group.
Keyword: Slang, word-formation processes

INTRODUCTION
Movies are a type of entertainment which is very popular for teenagers and
adults, which attend slang words in the actor‟s conversations. It is one of big factors
where the slangism is spreading worldwide. Due to the slang words are spoken oftenly
by the characters through the conversations along the movie, it will be an easy thing for
the writer to find the words.
Learning English through movies really works. English learners will get to
learn real English not textbook English. The interesting thing of watching movie is the

1

learners would learn English words in context, which will never be done in classroom or
textbook. By watching movies, we can understand the nuances of the utterance.
Because of the reason above, the writer, as an English Department student,
tries to do the research in such kind of scope because this research is perfectly match
with the background; it is a movie which has school setting. It talks about school life,
love story, teenagers‟ things. This research is a replication work of previous studies.
First is An Analysis on Slang in the Script of 8-Mile Film: Sociolinguistics Approach by
Cahyo Anjar Widyanto (2013). He found 3 syntactic forms in the movie and the reasons
why slang words are used are to exuberance the spirit, to escape from clichés-an
intention, and to intimate ones is belong to certain community. The second research by
Rahmi Marzita (2013) entitled An Analysis of Word Formation Process of English
Slang in Teenager Movie Scripts. The result of this research is there are 7 word

formations of slang found in Camp Rock movie script and 5 word formations in Juno
movie script.
The scope of the study is slang expressions in Pitch Perfect movie. The
problem formulations arranged by the writer are “What are the syntactic forms and
the meaning of slang expressions in the script of Pitch Perfect movie?” This study is
aimed to find the syntactic forms of slang expressions found in Pitch Perfect movie
script and to clarify the meaning of those expressions based on the context they are
uttered. The result of this study hopefully gives contribution on the development of
sociolinguistics field, especially on slang expressions. First, for lecturers it may be
useful for giving additional references or examples of slang expressions in teaching
sociolinguistics and build students‟ awareness of new words used in english-spoken
community. Second, for movie translators or subtitles, this study help them found better
2

understanding in overcoming the difficulties of finding exact equivalence for particular
words in movies by considering the context because slang contains specific terms.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Definition of Slang
Machan (1992, p. 481) stated that slang is expressions that not belong to
Standard English, which is in line with Trudgill (2001) and Crimmon cited in Abadi
(2009, p. 2). Slang word is non-formal, casual spoken English which is created and used
by people in certain community (Windarso, 1989, p. 58). Slang is categorized as
informal English colloquialism because it is often used in daily communication. It is not
used in the formal spoken or written language because it is humorous, vulgar, or
shocking, mostly used by young people. Supporting the definition, Hudson (1980, p. 11)
states that slang can be characterized as an informal language variety with new and nonpolite words and meaning. Slang is usually used in social media, song lyrics, teen
magazine, and many others.
According to Holmes (1997, p. 11), slang is a changing set of colloquial words
that speakers use to establish or reinforce social identity or cohesiveness within a group
or make a trend. Using slang in daily communication make the speaker enjoy their
conversation because the language they use is simpler and they feel close each other.
One of the reasons slang is around, is people believe that by using slang they will be
able to set themselves apart from others and be unique (Chaer & Agustina, 1995, p. 86).

3

An informal style of speech often sees the frequent usage of slang, which may
be in form of single word, a phrase or a sentence. It is a part of a language that is usually
not belong to conventional or standard usage and that may consist of both newly coined
words or phrases and of new or extended meanings attached to set terms (Linhua, 2006,
p. 260). Although many experts consider slang is low acceptable in society, the trend of
slang expressions usage is more tangible in the media such as movies, television,
newspapers, and magazines is noticeably increasing. From the phenomena, slang is
becoming more and more widely used and plays an increasingly influential role in
everyday discourse. As time goes by, the developing society enlarges the resources of
slang and enriches its contexts. The slang terms from some certain groups are adopted
by common people, and become common people's vocabulary.
Word Formation
As mentioned in the introductory chapter, this study will discuss wordformation process in relation of slang expressions in the Pitch Perfect movie.
Words formation refers to the creation of new words or phrases. It means that
words formation is one of the main mechanisms for the development of the vocabulary
because words formation addresses the process for creating new words in a language.
Most of word formations in English are occurred through some processes: affixation,
compounding, reduplication, acronym, blending, back formation, clipping, borrowing,
conversation, and derivation.
According to Hatch and Brown (1995), Francis Katamba (1993), and O‟Grady
(1996), there are several of word formation processes that may occur in a sentence.

4

Word formation is the linguistics processes of creating new words or terms. According
to Yule (2006, p. 52-59), there are some ways to create a new word:
1.

Coinage
Coinage is the process of creating a new word by adopting trademark
names to be used as a new daily language. Yule (2006) said that the most
typical sources are invented trade names for commercial products that
become general terms or common words (usually without capital letters)
for any version of that product (pp. 53). O‟Grady and Guzman (1996, p.
160) state that „coinage‟ or „manufacture‟ is a new word created from
names. It is common in cases where industry needs a name for a product.
Such brand names as Kodak for camera, Aspirin for headache medicine,
Kleenex for tissue, Levis for jeans, were made up without reference to any

other word.
2.

Borrowing
Borrowing is one of the most common sources of new words, in
which a word from a specific language is borrowed directly into another
language. Bill Bryson in Yule (2006) mentions that borrowing is the taking
over of words from other languages. Technically, it is more than just
borrowing because English does not give them back (p. 54). This process
exposes that the slang word is taken from another language because the
creation of slang is not limited with the speaker‟s or writer‟s own language
to accompany new ideas, inventions, products and so on. For example, the
word yogurt derived from Turkish, croissant derived from French, pizza
from Italia (Yule 2006, p. 54-55). In other cases, word that is borrowed

5

may change in its writing or pronunciation, as seen in the word democracy,
which derives from Greek, demos and cratos.
3.

Compounding
Compounding or composition is the use of two words or more to form
a new word. O‟grady and Guzman (1996, p. 151) state that compounding
is the combination of lexical categories (noun, verb, adjective or
preposition) that creates a new word that has different meaning. There are
three categories of compounding words, they are:
a) Noun + Noun
The example is “couch potato” (“Girl, you are such a couch potato!”)
which is means ´lazy person´.
b) Noun + Noun derived from verb by suffix –er.
The example is “mountain climber ” (“That man is a mountain
climber”) which is means a person high induced by drugs.
c) Verb + Noun
The example is “breakneck” (“It is a breakneck situation that makes
me so frightened!”) which is means ´rapid and dangerous´.
d) Adjective + Noun
The example is “big mouth” (“She is a big mouth! I told her my secret
but she told it to everyone in our classroom”) which is means ´person
who talks too much´.

4.

Blending
A blend is the result from specific type of compounding; it is a
combination of the parts of two words, where several words used into one
6

in order to generate a new word. However, blending is typically
accomplished by taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to
the end of another word. The example is the word “brunch” is the blending
of “breakfast + lunch”. In a few blends, we also combined the beginnings
of both words, as in terms from information technology, such as “ modem”
from “modulator + demodulator” (Yule 2006, pp. 55-56).
5.

Clipping
Clipping is a process that shortens a polysyllabic word by deleting one
or more syllables (O‟ Grady and Guzman, 1996, p. 157). In other words as
stated by Yule (2006), clipping occurs when a word has more than one
syllable and then that word clipped into a shorter form in the same
meaning. For example the word “Lil” is the clipping of the word “little”,
“website” becomes “web”, “fabulous” becomes “fab” and “gasoline”
becomes “gas” (pp. 56). People usually use the longer term if the situation
is more formal and the shorter term if the situation is more informal.
However, the new term may entirely replace the longer original word but it
does not change the word class and the meaning of the word itself. There
are two kinds of clipping, they are Backlipped words and Foreclipped
words. The example of backclipped words are “examination” becomes
“exam” and “laboratory” becomes “lab”. On the other hand, the example
of foreclipped words are “airplane” becomes “plane” and “telephone”
becomes “phone”.

6.

Derivation

7

Derivation is also known as affixation, it is achieved by adding
affixes. It is the word formation process in which a derivational affix
attaches to the base form of a word to create new word. Affixes are bound
morphemes that cannot stand alone but must attach to another morpheme
such as a word. According to Yule (2006, p. 59) There are three kinds of
affixes which can be attached to the word:
a. The affixes, which are put in the initial of the word, are called prefixes.
For examples: un-, mis-, pre-, which appear in the words like unhappy,
misrepresent, prejudge.

b. The affixes, which are put in the end of the word, are called suffixes.
For examples: -ness, -ful, -less, -ism, -ish which appear in the words
like sadness, joyful, careless, and boyish.
c. The affixes which are put inside the word are called infixes. This type is
not normally used in English, but found in some other languages.
For example: Hallebloodylujah!
7.

Back formation
Back formation is a process that creates new word by removing a real
or supposed affix from another word in language (O‟Grady and Guzman,
1996, p. 158), especially suffix; it can be known from the name “back
formation”. It is a form of slang where words are reversed. If derivation or
affixation means forming a word by adding an affix, then back formation
is essentially this process in reverse: it adapts an existing word by
removing its suffix. For examples:
a. Regulation (noun) becomes regulate (verb)

8

b. Demonstration (noun) becomes demonstrate (verb)
c. Entertainment (noun) becomes entertain (verb)
From the examples above we may conclude that backformation
process changes the word class and the meaning of the word itself.
8.

Conversion
Conversion is the process of changing the grammatical function of a
word without changing its form, for example is when a noun comes to be
used as a verb in a conversation. It is a process that assigns an already
existing word to a new syntactic category. Even though it does not add an
affix, conversion resembles derivation because of the change in category
and the meaning that it brings about. For the reason, it is sometimes called
zero derivation (O‟Grady and Guzman, 1997, p. 157). There are several
types of conversions:
a. Verb that comes from Noun, example; “Nail the door shut!”, “Someone
has to chair the meeting ”

b. Verb that comes from Adjective, example; “Dry the clothes!‟”
c. Verb that comes from Preposition, example; to out gay bishops.
d. Noun that comes from Verb, example; a permit, a report.
Those examples change its grammatical functions without changes its
form.
9.

Acronym
Acronym is another reduction process where each letter on the word is
pronounced (Hatch and Brown, 1995, p. 210). Supporting this statement,
Yule (2006, p. 58) proposed that acronyms are new words formed from the

9

initial letters of a set of other words, where the pronounciation consists of
saying each separate letters. In this process, new words are formed by
taking the initial letters of some or all of the words in a phrase and
pronounced them as a new single word. The examples are ASAP for as
soon as possible, BFF for bestfriend forever, LOL for laughing out loud,
OMG for Oh my God. Meanwhile, acronym is a word made up

abbreviation, too, but the result is pronounced as a word, not as list of
letters (Hatch and Brown, 1995, p. 210), for examples ILO (International
Labor Organization), CIFOR (The Center for International Forestry
Research).
10. Multiple Processes
Multiple processes happen when some new words made through more
than one word formation process. One of the example taken from Yule‟s
(2006), the term deli seems to have become a common American English
expression via two word formations processes, first is borrowing because
the term deli is the borrowing word from German (Delicatessen) and then
clipping that borrowed form into deli. As a result, the term deli is called as
multiple processes.

THE STUDY
This chapter present the methodology which is used by the writer to analyze
the data. Method is defined as a way or technique done in research (Sudaryanto, 1993,
p. 9). One of the factors that will make a research success is appropriate methodology

10

applied in it. Below is brief information about the research methodology used in this
work.
Research Question
The problem formulations arranged by the writer are “What are the syntactic
forms and the type meaning of slang expressions in the script of Pitch Perfect

movie?” This study is aimed to find the syntactic forms of slang expressions found in
Pitch Perfect movie script and to clarify the meaning of those expressions based on the

context it is uttered.
Context of the Study
This research used descriptive qualitative method in analyzing slang expressions
found in Pitch Perfect movie script using Yule‟s word-formation processes theory.
Sampling
The writer focuses on slangs, which are the data of the study produced by the
characters‟ dialogues in the movie. The source of data is the movie itself and its script.
Data Collection Procedure
In collecting the data, the researcher watched the movie for comprehending and
finding any important details that supported this research and looking for all of
utterances, reading and observing the dialogue from the manuscript, and highlighting
the words which may be classified as slang. After that, the researcher identified the
sentences of the dialogue which have slang words and out the marked data in notetaking papers. The data then was categorized and tabulated based on the types of word

11

formation process. The researcher analyzed the data based on the relevant theory and
finally showed what types tend to used. Firstly, the writer identifies the slang words in
the movie and decides what word formation processes that those slangs have undergone.
Then, the writer identified the meaning of those slang words and classifies them in a
table in order to know the most dominant word formation processes of the slang words
have emerged in the movie.
To help analyzing the data, the writer used Table 1 to see the frequent types of
word formation slangs emerged.
m / n x 100%
m = the total number of slang words in each word formation process types.
n = the total number of all slang words occurred in the movie.

TOTAL
Total number in percentage
m / n x 100%

12

Processes

Multiple

Derivation

Conversion

Acronym

formation

Back-

Clipping

Blending

Meaning

Compounding

Slangs

Borrowing

No.

Coinage

Table 1. Data Analysis of Slang Word Formation

DISCUSSION
Here are the table of analysis where the slang words found in the movie are
categorized according to the word-formation process theory.

1.

Baloney

Bullshit

2.

Totes

Totally

3.

Aca-scuse me

Excuse me

4.

Close-knit

Close relationship

5.

Mashup

Music combination

6.

Freshman

Newcomer

*

7.

Sidekick

Partner

*

8.

Aca-people

People

*

9.

Be-caw

Getting atention

*

10.

Panty dropper

Good quality of a man

11.

Treble-boned

12.

Dixie-chicks

Very serious

13.

Prepped

Preparation

14.

Kick-ass

Cool, great

15.

Callin‟

Finish

16.

Aca-bitches

Bitches

17.

Toner

Aguilerian

20.

Nodes

Nodules

21.

Sound-tracked

Hits

Multiple Processes

*
*

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

someone‟s music talent

19

Derivation

*

Musical boner, sexually

Aca-awesome

Conversion

*

Treblemakers member

18.

Acronym

*

Having sex with

attracted because of

Back-formation

Clipping

Blending

in context

Compounding

Meaning

Slangs

Borrowing

No.

Coinage

Table 2. Data Analysis of Slang Word Formation

Awesome

*

Christina Aguilera

*

followers

*
*

13

22.

Movication

Movie education

*

23.

Riff-off

24.

Collab‟

Collaboration

*

25.

Em

Them

*

26.

Eargasm

Ear orgasm

27.

Rag-tag group

Weird people

28.

Dummy

Stupid

*

29.

Sums

Summarizes

*

30.

Alt girl

Alternative girl

*

31.

Mad Lib

Improvisation

*

32.

Crystal

Understand, clear

*

33.

The Kraken

34.

Bella-meeting

Bardenbella‟s meeting

35.

Aca-gods

Oh my God

36.

C‟mon

Come on

37.

Horse-shit

Suck

38.

Aca-ballers

The singers

Borrow a line; music

*

improvisation

Badass, people who
ruin everything

TOTAL
Total number in percentage
m / n x 100%

*
*

*
*
*
*
*
*

5

11

11

10

1

13

29

29

26

3

The writer identified 38 slang words from the dialog in the movie script. Those
words are analyzed into the kind of slang expressions according to the word-formation
processes and also the meaning. The finding of that slang expressions presents on the
Table 2 completely with the example of the utterances with the context. There are 6
types of word-formation process used in the slang words; which are coinage (13%),
compounding (29%), blending (29%), clipping (26%), and multiple process (2,5%).
The writer will also divide them into two categories of meaning, which are
literal and figurative meaning. Literal language delivers thoughts and ideas in a specific

14

manner, mostly like what we see in real objects. It can be said as the basic meaning we
find in dictionary, whereas figurative language uses words or expressions with a
meaning that is different from literal interpretation. It involves depiction of a meaning
other than the most basic meaning with the use of figure of speech. It is commonly used
in literature works. Below is the further discussion about the finding.
1. Coinage
Coinage is the act of creating a new word or phrase that other people
begin to use by adopting trademark names becomes “everyday words of
language”. This type of word-formation is found five times in the dialogue of the
movie; “baloney”, “toner ”, “Mad Lib”, “Crystal”, and “The Kraken”. Those are
categorized as coinage because the words or phrase have recently been invented.
They are differentiated from standard neologisms, namely eponyms, means
words that are “based on the name of a person or a place or product” (Yule
2006, p. 53)
Extract 1.
JOE
: “Yes! Now hit me with the trophy!”
“Use the sharp part!”
Jesse stands there, speechless. Fat Amy, unable to help herself, CHARGES at
JOE and grabs the trophy. Beca goes after her.
FAT AMY : “The Kraken has been unleashed!”
She goes to hit JOE with the trophy. Beca lunges for her, grabbing part of the
trophy.
One of coinage word is “The Kraken”. It is spoken when a riot happens
after Treblemaker win a competition. In the lobby of Performing Arts Center,
Tone Hanger, one of ex-acapella group who has been grown old, entertained the
visitors by singing “Bootywork”, then suddenly The Treble bursting. They are

15

loud and celebratory and ultimately interrupted the Tone Hanger‟s performance.
There is a big argument among them. They are mocking each others.
Bardenbella came out from the main hall and saw the riot. Fat Amy cannot help
herself to not join the noise. She said “The Kraken” to refer a giant legendary
sea monster who likes to destroy anything. She implies that she is the one who
can ruin everything in that time. So, in this word contains figurative meaning. It
is not really the monster but a person associated with it. This word used to
replace the same characteristics of the giant creature, and accidentally Fat Amy
also had a big body. So we can say that they are similar.

Extract 2
CHLOE

: “Hey, Barb! Gonna audition this year? We have openings.”

Chloe tries to hand her a flier but Barb won‟t take it.
BARB

: “Oh, now that you‟ve puked your way to the bottom, you might
actually consider me? I‟ve auditioned three times and never got in
because you said my boobs look like baloney.”

Barb puts her hands on her hips. Her cardigan is pulled back, revealing two
huge, baloney-like areolas beneath her t-shirt.
Another example of coinage word from the movie is the word
“baloney”. It is said by Barb when Chloe offered her to join the Bardenbella
audition, but Barb refused it. Barb said that she has been tried to join the
audition three times before it but she was always rejected because Chloe (and all
of the Bardenbella‟s members) always mocked at her that she has boobs like
baloney. Now after the embarrassing incident that Chloe puked at the previous
acapella competition when Bardenbella was performing and make this group
being underestimated, she offered recruitment to her. The word “baloney” refers

16

to a large smoked sausage of beef, veal, and pork; also a sausage made from
turkey to resemble bologna. In the context, the word came to mean “nonsense”
or “bullshit” to refer the fake big boobs of Barb. So, it has figurative meaning
that carries a large or big meat imagery referring to boobs.
Extract 3.
AUBREY : “You will be singing “Turn the Beat Around” and that‟s the last I
want to hear of this.”
BECA

: “That song‟s tired. We won‟t win with that song. Look, if we
pulled samples from different genres.”

AUBREY : “Let me explain this to you because you still don‟t seem to
understand. Our goal is to get back to the finals. These songs will
get us there. So excuse me if I don‟t take advice from some alt
girl with her Mad Lib beats when she‟s never even been in a
competition. Have I made myself clear?”
“Mad Lib” is the last example of coinage word the writer took. “Mad
Lib” is a fun word game. Pretty much made for teaching third graders what

nouns, adjectives, adverbs, etc are. So it is such an improvisation game. In the
context of the movie, the word “Mad Lib” occurred when Aubrey describe
Beca‟s characteristic as a girl who like to do improvisation because her hobby is
mixing songs like a DJ.
Aubrey wants that Bardenbella will bring “Turn the Beat Around” song
to be singing in the next acapella contest as the group accustomed to, but the rest
of the member reject it because the song was so boring. Beca suggests bringing
song from another genre but Audrey as usual is stubborn and refuses the
suggestion and even scolds at her. She said that she does not take advice from
the girl with her “Mad Lib” beats, means mashed up songs, improvised songs.
So, it has figurative meaning to portray the girl with a lot of improvisation.

17

2. Compounding
Compounding is the process of word formation by combining two or
more lexical categories. The meaning of the compound may be similar to or
different from the meaning of its components in isolation. There are 29 words
found in this category; “close-knit”, “freshman”, “sidekick”, “panty dropper ”,
“treble-boned”, “kick-ass”, “riff-off”, etc.
Extract 4.
Audition day. In the hallway outside the auditorium, a long line of CO-ED‟s
warm up their voices. TOMMY MARTIN and his sidekick JUSTIN, acapella
super-fans address the group.
TOMMY : “…Sixteen bars of Kelly Clarkson‟s “Since U Been Gone.” If a
group likes you, they‟ll contact you directly. My tone deaf sidekick Justin will
collect your info.”
According to its process, it is a compound of two nouns “ side ” and
“kick” becomes new word as another noun. It is found when Tommy and Justin
are hosting the acapella audition, being uttered when Tommy introduce Justin.
Tommy and Justin are mates in conducting campus acapella audition. Tommy
said to the participants that if one of acapella groups attracted by the
participant‟s performance, they will contact them. So that Tommy asked Justin
to collect their information. So, we can jump to conclusion that “ sidekick” here
refers to Justin, has figurative meaning, means “partner”.
Extract 5.
Fat Amy walks up.
Fat Amy
Bumper
Fat Amy

: “What are you turds talking about?”
: “You are the single grossest being I‟ve ever laid eyes on.”
: “You‟re no panty-dropper yourself, chief.”

Another compounding word is “Panty dropper”. It does not mean that
someone who take off your pants. It has figurative meaning. It is a compound of

18

adjective “panty” and noun “dropper” makes new noun which means a guy with
good quality. In this case a good looking male with good talent; music. It is
uttered by Fat Amy, a member of Bardenbella, when being mock by Bumper,
the leader of the Treblemaker. She said that he is not panty-dropper. It implies
that although he is mocking her and being so arrogant with his capabilities in
singing, for Fat Amy, Bumper is just an ordinary guy with no significant special
abilities. Yes he can sing, but he cannot rely on that ability to entice girls. They
need more than that, especially good attitude. He can‟t make a girl, especially
Fat Amy, dropping her panties or even winning her heart if he is such an
annoying person. According to Urban Dictionary, there is also a term like this
for girls; boxer dropper. It means that a girl with a good quality. She has good
impression, classy, smart, rich, etc that can attract males.

3. Blending
Blending is a combination of two or more words to create a new one,
usually by taking the beginning of the first word and the end of the other one. It
is found 29 words of blending from the movie; “mashup”, “aguilerian”,
“movication”, “eargasm”, “aca-scusme”, etc as stated in the table 2.
Extract 6.
A direct challenge to Aubrey. The girls shift, uneasy.
Aubrey
Chloe
Aubrey

Beca

: “That‟s not how we do things here.”
: “Aubrey, maybe Beca‟s right. Maybe we should try something
new.”
: “Aca-what?!”
( to Beca )
“You will be singing Turn the Beat Around and that‟s the last I
want to hear of this.”
: “That song‟s tired. We won‟t win with that song. Look, if we

19

pulled samples from different genres..”
There are some “aca-things” found in the script. It is called “aca-things”
because there are some words using prefix “aca” to show that they are in a
certain community, which is an acapella group. It shows their identity, makes
they are different with others, makes them unique and special. It speaks volumes
of Pitch Perfect‟s warm aura and adorable characters that it can get away with
layering its script with the likes of “aca-scusme”, “aca-awesome ”, “acabelieve” and so on be so popular. Although adding “aca-” in front of words do

not changing the main meaning of the words. Mostly, it has literal meaning, the
same concept as the words are delivered. For example when the girls, the
Bardenbella members suggested to bring new song then Aubrey rejected, she
said “Aca-what?!” the meaning is “what?! ” She didn‟t agree with them because
she has different opinion.
Extract 7.
The Trebelemaker sing Let It Whip!
Beca watch as The Trebles bow to applause.
Beca reacts
Beca
Chloe
Beca

: “O...kay.”
: “So are you interested?” (hopeful)
: “I don‟t know. Seems pretty lame.”

Hearing this, Aubrey steps up to Beca.
Aubrey

: “Aca-scuse me? Synchronized lady dancing to a Mariah Careychart topper is not a lame.”
This is another example of blending using prefix “aca-“ which not

change the meaning of the main word. “aca-scuse me” is a blending of the
words “acapella” and “excuse me”. The different with the other “aca-things”,

20

like “aca-what”, is the initial part of the main word fades and blends with the
prefix “aca-“. It is spoken when Beca are invited by Chloe to join their acapella
group, The Bardenbella, but Beca thought that acapella is not a thing, it is a
lame. Hearing that Aubrey say the word “ aca-scusme ” to interrupt and explain
that acapella is a good activity and it is not a lame. So here, “aca-scusme”
means “exscuse me”, it has literal meaning.
Extract 8.
Jesse
: “Right. You just happened to guess the biggest reveal in
cinematic history.
Beca
: “Vader in German means father. His name is Darth Father.”
Jesse put his DVD‟s back into his duffle.
Jesse

: “Huh, you know German. Well, now I see why you don‟t like fun
things.”

Beca smiles, preety pleased with herself.
Jesse
Beca

: “You need a movication.”
: “I‟d have to schedule it around Bellas rehearsals which are
always.”
Another example of blending word is provided by extract 6. The word

“movication” is a blending from “movie” and “education”. It also has literal
meaning as movie education. It is said when Jesse showed Beca his favorite
movie “The Breakfast Club”. She just jumped to conclusion about the ending
not by watching the movie but by guessing from the character‟s name. So, she
didn‟t get the message of the movie. This is why Jesse said that Beca needs a
movie education.
There are some sociolinguistics aspects which influences the forming of
slang expressions in the movie such as participants and function. Because of the
participants are all the member of acapella group, so they are talking much about

21

singing techniques, songs, vocal organ, etc. It is the reason blending is quite
often emerged in the movie because they like adding “aca-“ in front of the words
they are saying. While function is the reason why they are using this kind of
slang is to induce friendliness or intimacy, to show that one belongs to a certain
group or community as stated by Dalzell (2007). Whereas in “movication”, the
reason of saying this is to make the conversation simpler.

4. Clipping
Clipping is a kind of word-formation process by omitting or deleting the
back part of a word. Students like to shorten words to make their conversation
simpler. That is why there are many clipping words in the data, because the
participants or the characters of the movie are mostly students. There are 10
clipping words in the movie; “totes”, “prepped”, “callin’”, “nodes”, “sums”,
“c’mon”, and so on as stated in the table 2.
Extract 9.
Aubrey
: “Anybody have anything to confess?”
Mary Elise crumbles under the pressure and nods.
Mary Elise : “Yes.”
Aubrey
: “Turn in your scarf and go.”
Mary Elise : “But...it was an accident. It landed in my hand.”
Aubrey doesn‟t waver. Mary Elise stands up to leave, very slowly. Every few
steps, she looks back, desperately wanting to be stopped. She grabs a chair and
drags it across the floor. She finally leaves, crying loudly through the hall.
Beca
Aubrey

: “Was that necessary?”
: “This is a war Beca. It‟s my job to make sure my soldiers are
prepped at go time with three kick ass songs sung and
choreographed to perfection.”

22

The word “prepped” is a slang word from “prepared” by omitting back
syllable. So, according to the word-formation process it is clipping category.
According to the context it has no figurative meaning as “ prepped” is
“prepared”. When Aubrey, the senior member of Bardenbella eliminated Mary
Elise from the group because she confessed that she slept with the Treblemaker
member and Beca asking that is it necessary or not to do that, she explained that
as the leader of the group Aubrey should prepare the member well to compete in
the next acapella championship, especially with The Trebelemaker. It is
concluded that “prepped” refers to “prepared”
Extract 10.
Jesse playfully puts a couple of his fingers on Beca‟s mouth.
Jesse

: “Ssssshhhhh.”
( then )
“The Breakfast Club. 1985.”
“Greatest ending to any movie ever.”

Jesse cues it to the end where Simple Minds‟s “Don‟t You (Forget About Me)”
plays.
Jesse

: “This song launched Simple Minds in the U.S. It could have been
Billy Idol song but he turned it down. Dummy. Perfectly sums
up the movie – equally beautiful and sad.”
Another example from the movie script is the word “ sums”. When Jesse,

a member of Treblemaker, showed Beca a movie entitled “The Breakfast Club”
then explained her about the story, he jumped out to the end of the movie and
summarize the lesson he got. It is why he used the word “ sums” to replace the
word “summarize s” by omitting the back part of the word.

5. Multiple processes

23

Multiple processes is happened when creating new words experienced
two or more word-formation processes. It is only found a word from the movie;
Dixie chicks.

Extract 11.
The Bellas are assembled in a classroom/rehearsal space. Fat Amy and Cynthia
Rose peruse the framed photos of past Bellas groups hanging on a wall.
Aubrey writes the words “NEW BELLAS” on the whiteboard. Beca casually
strolls into the room. Aubrey still facing the board, freezes, and then writes
Beca‟s name on the board with tally mark next to it. Beca rolls her eyes.
Aubrey
Beca
Aubrey

: “As you see, Kori is not here. Last night, she was Treble-boned.
She‟s been dis-invited from the Bellas.”
: “The oath was serious?”
: “Dixie Chicks-serious. You can fool around with anyone you
want just not a Treble.”
There is a word considered as slang with multiple process category.

From the word-formation process it experienced two processes which are
compounding by combining the word “Dixie ” and “chick”, and borrowing the
word “Dixie ” which has meaning South, oftenly associated as South America,
and “chick” means girl. It can be considered as coinage also because it is a
name of a country-music group who is boycotted in Bush era.
According to its context, the character of Aubrey tried to make it clear
that the oath was serious as the Dixie Chicks‟ case. This might be a reference to
the controversial 2003 comment the band made at a concert in London regarding
then President George W. Bush and the Iraq War. Despite being a comment
uttered in the heat of the moment and in a casual and non-political way, the band
received backlash and hatred from certain media outlets and fans. As such, they
became target of a political controversy that made them a national debate on the
serious issue of freedom of speech.

24

CONCLUSION

Pitch Perfect is a musical movie for teenager and adult which has setting in a
college and school-life plot, where there are romance, friendship, and mostly about
singing competition. By knowing that information, the movie provides a lot of slang
expressions uttered by the characters that can be analyzed. The aim of this study is to
find the syntactic forms (word-formation process) and clarify the contextual meaning of
the slang words found in the movie.
Having analyzed the data as stated in the previous chapter of this study, the
writer makes some conclusions based on the findings and the discussions as follows. I
found 38 slang words in the Pitch Perfect movie script which contains 5 coinage, 11
compounding, 11 blending, 10 clipping, and 1 multiple process. The most frequently
spoken word category in the movie are compounding and blending.
The words being uttered delivers certain meaning according to the situation and
context. Some of slang words found in the movie do not bring figurative meaning. They
just do clipping or blending that left the words with original message.
The writer also found that slang existed in the movie has literal and figurative
meaning. But mostly in figurative meaning because it refers to something special from a
certain group of people, the acapella group, so they use figurative meaning to make the
message secret. The explanation of the contextual meaning is discussed in the previous
chapter.
Young people tend to use compounding and blending in their daily conversation
to make the words they say simpler. As we know that compounding and blending have a

25

quite similar process which is joining words to simplify utterances. In compounding we
combine two or more lexical categories while in blending we combine two or more
words to make another new word by fading some syllables off. They also try to conceal
their conversation from others by choosing or making new words that have figurative
meaning. It makes their language unique and exclusive. It makes them able to set
themselves apart from others.
Hopefully this research might be useful for giving additional references or
examples of slang expressions in teaching sociolinguistics and build awareness towards
students of new vocabularies used in english-spoken community. The writer also hopes
by this study, movie translator or subtitles found better understanding in overcoming the
difficulties of finding exact equivalence for particular words in movies by considering
the context because slang contains specific terms. This work could be one of the
references in further studying of slang, eventhough it is only an analysis of a movie
genre. Pitch Perfect is a musical, drama movie addresses for young people. Other areas
needed to be further explored are kind of literature works such as poem, novel, songs or
short stories. It is suggested to other researchers who are interested in similar topic to
digest deeper about slang not only from the syntactic theory but also from
sociolinguistics; the culture, the reason, the effect of using slang in certain community.

26

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First and above all, I praise Jesus Christ, the almighty for providing me this
opportunity and granting me the capability to proceed succesfully. This thesis appears in
its current form due to the assistance and guidance of several people. I would therefore
like to offer my sincere thanks to all of them.
I am grateful to Ibu Rindang Widiningrum, M.Hum, my supervisor. I am
extremely thankful and indebted to her for sharing expertise, and sincere and valuable
guidance and encouragement extended to me. I would also extend my gratitude to my
second reader, Dr. Elisabet Titik Murtisari, M.TransStud, who spent time to read and
correct my thesis. I would like to dedicate this thesis to my beloved parents, Bapak Heri
Susanto and Ibu Gati Purwaningsih, for their unconditional-love, prayers, and supports.
Also, to my sister, Gloriana Dwi Karananingtyas, for sharing and doing crazy things
together. My gratefulness also goes to Daniel Dian Permana Putra, my praying partner,
my husband, my bestfriend, for being the one who loves me, supports me as always and
the one who keep saying, ”do your thesis!”. This work is highly dedicated to my
beautiful baby, Davina Mercy Eleanor. May God‟s mercy truly be upon us. Special
thanks also goes to my best team-mates in Tabernacle Youth Ministry, for the supports
and time we shared together, especially to my pastor for his wisdom encourages me to
finish this work and unstoppable prayer for me which really means a lot.

27

REFERENCES
Andersson, Lars G, & Trudgill, Peter. (1990). Bad Language. Oxford: Basil Blackwell
Ltd.
Anggrisia, Nur Fitria. (2011). An Analysis of Slang Used in Jay-Z‟s Songs. Universitas
Islam Negeri Malik Maulana Ibrahim Malang.
Battistella, Edwin L. (2005). Bad Language: Are Some Words Better than Others?
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Chen, Linhua. (2006). An Introduction to Linguistics. Jilin: Jilin University Press.
Dai, Weidong & He, Zhaoxiong. (2010). A New Concise Course in Linguistics for
Students of English (2nd edn.). Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Language Education
Press.
Dalzell, Tom & Victor, Terry. (2008). The Concise New Partridge Dictionary of Slang
and Unconventional English . New York: Routledge.
Dalzell, Tom. (1999). The Slang of Sin. Springfield,MA: Merriam-Webster.
Hatch, E & C. Brown. (1995). Vocabulary Semantics and Language Education.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Holmes, Janet. (2001). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics . (2nd Ed). New York:
Longman.
Hornby, A.S. (1995). Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English. USA:
Oxford University Press.
Hu, Zhuanglin. (2006). Linguistics: A Course Book. (3rd Ed). Beijing: Beijing
University Press.
Katamba, Francis. (1993). Morphology: Modern Linguistics Series. New Jersey:
Prentice Hall Inc.
Machan, Tim Wiliiam, & Scott, Charles T. (1992). English in Its Social Contexts:
Essays in Historical Sociolinguistics . New York: Oxford University Press.
Marzita, Rahmi. (2013). An Analysis of Word Formation Process of English Slang in
Teenager Movie Script. Universitas Negeri Padang.
Ningrum, Nur AR. (2009). An Analysis of Slang Expressions Translation in “Mean
Girl” Movie. Universitas Sebelas Maret.
NoSlang.com. (2010). Internet Slang Dictionary & Translator . Retrieved from
http://www.noslang.com/dictionary/.
O‟Grady & Guzman. (1996). “Morphology: The Analysis of Word Structure”, in
Contemporary Linguistics : An Introduction . William Kingdom: Longman.

28

Widyanto, Cahyo A. (2013). An Analysis on Slang in The Script of 8-Mile Film: A
Sociolinguistics Approach . Universitas Muhammadiyah Surakarta.
Yule, George. (2006). The Study of Language. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Zhou. Y. & Fan. Y. (2013). A Sociolinguistic Study of American Slang. Theory and
Practice
in
Language
Studies, 3(12),
2209-2213.
Retrieved
from
http://www.academypublication.com/issues/past/tpls/vol03/12/08.pdf

29

APPENDIX

PITCH PERFECT MOVIE SYNOPSIS
The movie opens with the Barden Bellas about to perform at the ICCA
championships. One of them, Chloe (Brittany Snow) is running late to the start of the
performance. When she arrives she is reprimanded by the older Bellas. As they are
about to perform, Aubrey (Anna Camp) tries to assure them she'll do a good job, but is
shot down. The group sings 'The Sign' and all is going well, until the very end when
Aubrey has a solo and projectile vomits all over the stage and front rows of the
audience.
Cut to the start of a new year at Barden University, and freshman Beca (Anna
Kendrick) is arriving by taxi. At the Activities fair, we are introduced to the Trebles one of the Campus singing groups, all male, who are talented and have a high opinion of
themselves, especially Bumper (Adam Devine) the lead singer.
Across the campus, the Bellas are now down to just 2 members - Aubrey and
Chloe, who are trying to recruit new ones. Due to their disastrous performance at the
last Championships, they are not having much luck. They are then approached by Fat
Amy (Rebel Wilson), an out