An Analysis Of The Five Language Styles Found In Sam’s Utterances In The “I Am Sam” Movie
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
1
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 Lucy's 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
2
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.
3
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
There are two questions raised as the problems of this study:
1. What styles are used in Sam’s utterances in the conversationas a leading
character?
2. Which type of the styles dominantly occured in Sam’s utterances?
1.3
Objectives of the Study
In accordance with the problem of the study, the objectives of the study are
as follows:
1. To find out language styles used by Sam as a leading character
2. To find out which language style dominantly occurs in the movie
4
1.4
Scope of the Study
The focus of the study has been limited to the styles found in the movie “I
Am Sam” of which the duration is about 116 minutes. The object of the analysis is
the dialogue’s transciption ofI Am Sam Movie. But the textthat will be analyzed is
only Sam’s utterances in the conversations with the other figures as a leading
character. The focus of the analysis is fivelanguage styles based Martin Joos’ theory
which discusses the five language styles namely frozen style (oratorical style),
formal style (deliberative style), consultative style, casual style, intimate style which
are found in all of Sam’s utterances.
1.5
Significance of the Study
The writer hopes that this study will be significant theoretically and practically.
Theoretically, it is expected to enrich or add knowledge of the reader about the five
language styles, especially those found in the movie and also to know or to
understand what language styles used by mental retardation person.
Practically, this thesis can be adventageous and useful to the readers, especially
to the students of English department who are interested in sociolinguistics and its
aspect.
5
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
1
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 Lucy's 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
2
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.
3
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
There are two questions raised as the problems of this study:
1. What styles are used in Sam’s utterances in the conversationas a leading
character?
2. Which type of the styles dominantly occured in Sam’s utterances?
1.3
Objectives of the Study
In accordance with the problem of the study, the objectives of the study are
as follows:
1. To find out language styles used by Sam as a leading character
2. To find out which language style dominantly occurs in the movie
4
1.4
Scope of the Study
The focus of the study has been limited to the styles found in the movie “I
Am Sam” of which the duration is about 116 minutes. The object of the analysis is
the dialogue’s transciption ofI Am Sam Movie. But the textthat will be analyzed is
only Sam’s utterances in the conversations with the other figures as a leading
character. The focus of the analysis is fivelanguage styles based Martin Joos’ theory
which discusses the five language styles namely frozen style (oratorical style),
formal style (deliberative style), consultative style, casual style, intimate style which
are found in all of Sam’s utterances.
1.5
Significance of the Study
The writer hopes that this study will be significant theoretically and practically.
Theoretically, it is expected to enrich or add knowledge of the reader about the five
language styles, especially those found in the movie and also to know or to
understand what language styles used by mental retardation person.
Practically, this thesis can be adventageous and useful to the readers, especially
to the students of English department who are interested in sociolinguistics and its
aspect.
5