AN ANALYSIS OF TARZAN’ LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN THE MOVIE TARZAN OF THE APES (1999).

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AN ANALYSIS OF TARZAN’ LANGUAGE ACQUISITION IN THE

MOVIE TARZAN OF THE APES₍₁₉₉₉₎

A THESIS

Submitted as Partial Fulffillment of the Requirements for the Sarjana Dergree of English Department Faculty of Letters and Humanities UIN Sunan Ampel

Surabaya.

ZAHRATUL AWWALIYYAH Reg. Number: A83211205

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT

FACULTY OF LETTERS AND HUMANITIES UIN SUNAN AMPEL SURABAYA

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INTISARI

Judul : An Analysis of Tarzan’ Language Acquisition in the Movie Tarzan of the Apes (1999)

Kata kunci: language acquisition, Tarzan of the Apes.

Penelitian ini fokus kepada analisa pemerolehan bahasa di film Tarzan of the Apes (1999).Penelitian ini fokus kepada karakter Tarzan, bagaimana bahasanya dan bagaimana dia melewati proses pemerolehan bahasa. Penulis berharap penelitian ini bermanfaat bagi pembaca khususnya mahasiswa program studi sastra Inggris, untuk membuat mereka menyadari akan hal yang setiap manusia lewati, pemerolehan bahasa.

Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah kualitatif deskriptif, karena penelitian menjelaskan proses pemerolehan bahasa di film Tarzan of the Apes. Data yang dibutuhkan dalam penelitian ini diambil dari skrip dan cerita yang telah dibagi menjadi 48 scene, tetapi hanya 12 scene yang dapat menjadi data. Penulis menggunakan beberapa teori tentang pemerolehan bahasa dari Noam Chomsky, B. F. Skinner dan beberapa teori pendukung untuk menyelesaikan penelitian ini.

Dengan penelitian ini, penulis menemukan bahwasannya Tarzan tidak mempunyai bahasa sampai dia bertemu dengan manusia yang lain karena dia tidak mempunyai lingkungan pendukung untuk memperoleh bahasa. Dia mampu berkomunikasi dengan hewan dan mempunyai suara yang khas. Tarzan memulai proses pemerolehan bahasa setelah dia bertemu dengan manusia yang lainnya, dia memperoleh bahasa dengan proses belajar.

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ABSTRACT

Title : An Analysis of Tarzan’ Language Acquisition in the Movie Tarzan of the Apes (1999)

Key words: language acquisition, Tarzan of the Apes.

This study concerns to the analysis of language acquisition in the movie Tarzan of Apes (1999). The study focuses on the character of Tarzan, how his own language is and how he passes his process of language acquisition. Hopefully, this study will be useful for the readers especially for students of English Department, to make them being realize to the process which every human passes, language acquisition.

The method of the study is descriptive qualitative because this study is to describe the process of language acquisition in the movie of Tarzan of the Apes. The data is taken from the script and the story of the movie which is divided into 48 scenes, but only 10 scenes that can be the data. The writer uses some theories about language acquisition from Noam Chomsky, B.F. Skinner and some other supporting theories to conduct this study.

By this study, the writer finds that Tarzan has no language until he meets with other humans because he does not has supporting environment to get language acquisition. He is able to communicate with animals and vocalizes some sounds. Tarzan begins his language acquisition after he meets other humans; he acquires language by learning process. Finally, the writer hopes that this study can open the readers’ mind to a thing that they really do, acquire language.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Inside Cover ... i

Declaration ... ii

Dedication ... iii

Motto ... iv

Thesis’s Advisor’s Approval... v

Thesis Examiner’s Approval ... vi

Acknowledments ... vii

Table of Contents ... ix

Abstract ... xi

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study ... 1

1.2 Statements of the Problems ... 7

1.3 Objective of the Study ... 8

1.4 Significance of the Study ... 8

1.5 Scope and Limitation ... 9

1.6 Definition of Key Terms ... 9

CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE RIVIEW 2.1 Theoritical Framework ... 11

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CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHOD

3.1 Research Design ... 27

3.2 Data and Source ... 28

3.3 Technique of Data Collection ... 29

3.4 Instrument ... 30

3.5 Technique of Data Analysis ... 30

3.6 Triangulation ... 30

CHAPTER 4 FINDING AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Finding ... 32

4.2 Discussion ... 56

CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION ... 64

BIBLIOGRAPHY ... 67

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This introduction chapter presents the background of the study, statement of the problems, the purpose of the study, limitation of the study, significance of the study, and definition of key terms.

1.1Background of the Study

Al Qur’an has mentioned in the surah of At-tin (4) that God creates human as a perfect and the best creature in the world. Humans are created with a sense of grace that is not possessed by other creatures. Like what have been explained in Tafsir Al-Jalalayn, book of exclamation of passages of Qur’an by supplying additional information (verse 17:70), humans as the children of Adam have honoured and preferred since God has given them knowledge, speech and a creation which has the best proportion among other things. Humans have a mind that it differentiates them from other creatures and it is the tool for being talented and make a manner then they can reach the highest levels possible for a creature. Here, one thing that is pointed by the writer is that God has given to humans the ability to speak and special organs to support it.

When we talk about human’s ability to speak, it cannot be separated with the language itself. Language plays important roles in human’s life; the most important term is for communication. Language is a purely human

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instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntary produces symbols (Sapir, 1921:18). When we use communication as the main term of language, language not only belongs to human being, but it also belongs to animal. All animals communicate, there appears to be as many system of communication as there are species. Animals are attracting to a spouse and so on.

Of course, the term of language between human being and animal itself is different. It is quite common to spell out the difference between animal and human communication in terms of how information conveyed. The general idea is that humans use symbols, while animals are signalling (Brinck, 1998: 3). Several different things are intended by the term signal. For one example, signals are not thought to have syntactic properties. It means that signals do not belong to grammatical categories and are not systematic and compositional. It may be like comparing two things as different as the Chinese language and a set of traffic lights (Aitchison, 2007: 26). Language is developing continually, that’s one of the reasons why the writer wants to focus in this topic.

Humans are created with special organ, it is brain. Brain is the central of all the activities which are done by humans including speaking a language. Noam Chomsky believes that humans are genetically imprinted with knowledge about language is often referred to as ‘the innate hypothesis’ (Aitchison, 2007:21). On the other hands, a Harvard psychologist B.F. Skinner claims to explain language as a set of habits gradually built up over the years.

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According to him, no complicated innate or metal mechanisms are needed (Aitchison, 2007:8). These two different arguments appear the nature-nurture controversy, the question whether language is partly due to nature or wholly due to learning or nurture. It controversy has been discussed for century, even now.

Noam Chomsky argued that children are born with a hard wired language acquisition device (abbreviated as LAD) in their brains. He later expanded this idea into that of Universal Grammar, a set of innate principles and adjustable parameters that are common to all human language. The study of universal grammar, so understood, is a study of the nature of human intellectual capacities (Chomsky, 2005: 24). The Innate theory itself means that every human being has capability to learn language. The processes through which humans acquire language are called as language acquisition where it refers to first language acquisition. It is the study of infants’ acquisition of their native language. The writer is interested to focus on this topic since the language acquisition had been around all humans being in the world. All humans speak their language, that’s why every human passes the process of language acquisition. Language is being a topic which is interesting and never lasting.

Even children are born with LAD, it is not the only reason why children are able to learn or acquire language. There is another factor which can support humans to develop their ability to talk. The factor itself is environment. Eric Lenneberg (1967), in his book entitle The Biological

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Foundation of Language, says that the surrounding environment must be sufficiently rich for the ability to talk to develop adequately. Children who are born in normal environment will have the good progress in their language acquisition. On the contrary, children who are born in abnormal environment may have difficulty in their language acquisition. As what have been found in famous cases of Victor, Isabelle, Genie, Chelsea, and Hellen Keller, their language acquisitions are delayed because of their abnormal and inhuman environments or language deprivation.

Here, the writer finds the similar case of Isabelle, Genie and Chelsea in the character of Tarzan in the movie Tarzan of the Apes (1999). Even though it does not happen in the real life because it is only a movie, the writer considers it movie as the object of this research. The reason is that a movie can be a representation of a real life and this world is full of possibility. Tarzan of the Apes is a 1999 American animated adventure musical film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures. It movie is based on the story which has the same title “Tarzan of the Apes” by Edgar Rice Burroughs.

The movie “Tarzan of the Apes” has the time setting in the 19th century, the story begins when an English couple and their infant son escape from a burning ship, they end up on land near uncharted rainforest off the coast of Africa. The couple craft themselves a tree house from their ship’s wreckage, but they are killed by Sabor, a leopard, and the infant son is leaved alone. Kala, a mother gorilla who recently lost her son to Sabor, hears the

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cries of the orphaned human infant and finds him in the ruined tree house. In spite Kala is attacked by Sabor, she can save the infant son. Kala brings the infant son to meet Kerchak, her mate, to raise the baby as her own. Even Kerchak disapproves the baby at the first, Kala can convince him. Then Kala gives the baby name Tarzan.

In short, Tarzan grows up among the gorilla families until he becomes a mature man. He has a female young gorilla, Terk, and a paranoid male elephant, Tantor. Tarzan finds himself unable to keep up with the gorillas, so he takes great efforts to improve himself to be the same with them. As a young man, Tarzan is able to kill Sabor with his crude spear and protects the troop, but Kerchak still does not believe him. Tarzan cannot speak human language until he meets with Jane, her father Professor Porter and her guide Clypton. They come to the jungle to have an observation about gorillas. Then, Tarzan realizes that there are others who are the same with him. Here, he tries to imitate all what they do as a humans and utter some words. Look likes it is the first time he acquires human language.

In the movie Tarzan of the Apes, Tarzan look likes understanding animal language. He understands the signal which is passed by many kinds of animal. Indeed, Tarzan can imitate some of its animal languages such as the voice of gorillas, leopards, etc. This scene is being the reason why the writer focuses on this movie as the object of the data. The writer tries to consider that Tarzan’s first language acquisition is animal language rather than humans’ language. Another reason is that over the past few centuries there have been a

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number of reported cases of children raised by wolves, pigs, sheep, and other animals. Linneaeus, the famous Swedish scientist who gave our system of classifying animals into genus and species, discovered nine reports of children found in the wild and raised by animals (Steinberg, 2001:126). One thing which is similar to the story of Tarzan in the movie Tarzan of the Apes, he was raised by a mother gorilla.

The story of Tarzan of the Apes also reflects the language acquisition that must be passed by every human being. Here, Tarzan experiences the delays language acquisition. He does not hear the sounds of human language until he meets Jane. Indeed, he seems understanding animal language and has his own signal. The explanations above are the reasons why the writer decides to take this movie as the object of the research. She will try to analyze the language acquisition of the character of Tarzan and the application of the nature-nurture controversy in this case.

In making this thesis proposal, the writer is inspired by the famous cases of Isabelle, Genie and Chelsea. The case of Isabelle was found by Marie Mason in 1942. Isabelle (a pseudonym), because of her confinement with a mute mother, she did not begin to learn language until she gained her freedom at 61/2 years of age (Steinberg, 2001:135). Genie (a pseudonym) was discovered in the early 1970s in the Los Angeles are of the USA. She was 13 years old and had been locked in a small room in her house by her father for preceding 12 years. During her 12 years life, she heard no human voices (Steinberg, 2001:131). Another case in an entirely different context is that of a

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girl, Chelsea (a pseudonym), who only began to learn language at the age 32. When she was born, Chelsea’s family thought that she was deaf. Initially misdiagnosed as retarded, and because she lived in a rural area in the north of California, she did not receive any language training on instruction of any kind (Steinberg, 2001:137).

The writer also finds some works which are in the psycholinguistics field especially language acquisition. One of its thesis works is Vivaldi’s thesis (2013) “The Acquisition of English Interrogative of A Six-Year-Old Chinese Indonesian Boy”. He states the boy as the object of data was in the stage of the development of question form. Another thesis which is focus on language acquisition is Zahradnikova’s thesis (2011) “First Language Acquisition and Socialization”. She argues that social context plays an important role in acquisition of first language. It suggested that the amount of attention given to children in early development has an eminent impact on language acquisition.

Therefore, the writer come out with two things that she is interested to find out, about what language which is considered as first and second language acquisition of Tarzan or shortly, about what Tarzan language like is and how Tarzan passes the process of language acquisition.

1.2Statements of the Problems

In accordance with the background of the study, the writer formulates main problems to be to be answered as stated in following research question:

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1. What is Tarzan’s language like?

2. How does Tarzan acquire human language based on the movie Tarzan of the Apes?

1.3Objective of the Study

Depending on the statements of the problems; the purpose of the study can be formulated as below:

1. To describe Tarzan’s own language.

2. To describe the process of language acquisition of Tarzan based of the movie Tarzan of the Apes.

1.4Significance of the Study

The significance of this study is for enrich people’s knowledge of language acquisition, a process which they do not realize that they experience it. By reading the result of this study, the writer hopes the reader can be open minded to a thing that they really do, acquire language. The writer also hopes this study can give enlightenment and a lot of benefits to the readers about language acquisition, especially students of English Department. The writer hopes after reading this research, readers realize that God has created them as the best creature in the world with perfect anatomy.

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1.5Scope and Limitation

In order to keep the study concerning to the topic, the writer will make some limitations. This study is going to focus on the character of Tarzan in the movie “Tarzan of the Apes”, how Tarzan passes the language acquisition. The writer will concern to the differentiate of Tarzan’s language acquisition before and after meeting Jane, Professor Porter and Clayton, other humans being that Tarzan meets for the first time after many years he lives in the jungle. Here, the writer will apply the innate hypothesis by Chomsky to analyze Tarzan’s language acquisition and some others theories to analyze Tarzan’s own language and how he acquires human language.

1.6Definition of Key Terms

1.6.1 Language Acquisition

Language acquisition is the study of the processes through which learners acquire language. By itself, language acquisition refers to first language acquisition, which studies infants’ acquisition of their native language, whereas second language acquisition deals with acquisition of additional languages in both children and adults.

1.6.2 Innateness Hypothesis

Innateness hypothesis is the argument of Noam Chomsky; he believes that humans are genetically imprinted with knowledge about language. It means that every human being has capability to learn language.

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1.6.3 First Language

First language is often called as mother tongue; it refers to the native language which is acquired by infants because it is spoken in the family or the region where infants live.

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CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter consists of many important aspects in finishing this thesis. They are nature and nurture controversy, language acquisition, process of language acquisition, golden age / critical period of language acquisition, humans’ language and animals’ communication and some previous studies which are similar to the research.

2.1 Theoretical Framework

2.1.1 Nature and Nurture Controversy

Language is an interesting topic to be discussed until now, and one of the topics is about nature and nurture controversy. Instead of language as natural behaviour or language needs a learning process. When we talk about its controversy, it cannot be separated with two big psychologists, Noam Chomsky and B.F Skinner. Noam Chomsky belongs to the theory of language as nature and B.F Skinner is the opposite, he belongs to the theory of language as nurture or verbal behaviour.

Burrhus Frederic Skinner (1904-1990), well known as B.F. Skinner, is among widely cited and influential 20th century psychologists in American history (Smith, 2004: 121). Skinner begins as a psychologist who takes focus on the field of psycholinguistics since he writes a book entitled Verbal Behaviour (1957). As the pioneer of language as verbal behaviour, Skinner claims that children are born with blank sheets in their

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heads as far as language is concerned. His claim to understand language is based on his work with rats and pigeons.

According Skinner, no complicated innate or mental mechanisms are needed to acquire language. Skinner argues that verbal language has some controlling variables which will enable people to predict specific utterances. All stimuli which control particular verbal responses are of this sort. A special feature of the mind is that its form is not controlled by any stimulus acting prior to the emission. The response is functionally related to a drive, and we control it through any operation which will change the drive (Skinner, 1957: 37). They are not eliciting stimuli, either conditioned or unconditioned. The close temporal and intensive relation between stimulus and response which obtains in elicited behaviour is lacking. A stimulus simply makes a verbal response more likely to occur (Skinner, 1957: 43).

Avram Noam Chomsky, well known as Noam Chomsky, was born in 1928; he is one of the great American linguists and philosophers until present. Chomsky is famous with his innateness hypothesis; he believes that humans are genetically imprinted with knowledge about language. His hypothesis looks like the opposite of Skinner’ s theory. Chomsky writes a devastating and witty review of Skinner’ s book Verbal Behaviour in 1959. He underlines Skinner argument about controlling variables. If Skinner argues that verbal behaviour has controlling variables which will enable people to predict specific utterances, Chomsky argues that there are no

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controlling variables; people have to wait until they hear the utterances before they know what controls it (Aitchison, 2007:10).

Controlling variable itself is also known as stimulus. A part of the environment and a part of behaviour are called stimulus (eliciting, discriminated, or reinforcing) and response, respectively, only if they are lawfully related; that is, if the dynamic laws relating them show smooth and reproducible curves. Evidently, stimuli and responses, so defined, have not been shown to figure vary widely in ordinary human behaviour (Chomsky, 1959: 52). We cannot predict verbal behaviour in terms of the stimuli in the speaker’ s environment, since we do not know what the current stimuli are until he responds. Furthermore, since we cannot control the property of a physical object to which an individual will respond, except in highly artificial cases, Skinner’ s claim that his system, as opposed to the traditional one, permit the practical control of verbal behaviour is quite false (Chomsky, 1959: 52). It is not clear how the frequency of a response can be attributable to anything but the frequency of occurrence of its controlling variables if we accept Skinner’ s view that the behaviour occurring in a given situation is “ fully determined” by the relevant controlling variables (Chomsky, 1959: 54).

2.1.2 Language Acquisition

Literature often claims that children just ‘pick up’ their language or that children’s linguistic competence is identical to adults. Such

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statements, if devoid of a serious effort at some learning-theoretic account of how this is achieved, reveal irresponsibility rather than ignorance (Lenneberg, 1967: 5). Children must pass some process to acquire their language. Chomsky says that language acquisition is the process in which the learner forms an internalized knowledge (in his mind), and I-language. In general, Language acquisition is the study of the processes through which learners acquire language. By itself, language acquisition refers to first language acquisition, which studies infants’ acquisition of their native language, whereas second language acquisition deals with acquisition of additional languages in both children and adults.

There are two general theories about language acquisition, they are learning theory and nativism theory. The first theory is learning theory (behaviourism theory), its theory belongs to the behaviourist B.F Skinner. According to this theory, language is learned from experience alone. Children acquire language based of general learning mechanisms that are also involved in learning many other phenomena. These general learning mechanisms are crucially driven by the input. The input itself refers to the controlling variables which have been mentioned before. No innate tendency to read has been seriously proposed but the parallel between textual and echoic behaviour is quite close. Both the auditory and visual stimuli have the same kind of controlling effect over the form of response. The difference which arises because echoic behaviour is formally similar

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to the stimulus involves two relatively unimportant points, so far as the nature of the relation is concerned (Skinner, 1957: 45).

The second theory is nativism theory (Innateness theory), it belongs to the American linguist Noam Chomsky. Specifically, the proponents of this approach argue that children do not receive enough information in the input to learn the intricate rules of grammar. Children are only able to acquire grammar because of innate grammatical knowledge. A person who knows English has attained a certain mental state, different from that of someone who knows Japanese. Abstracting from possible individual differences, there is some innate mental state common to the species that provides the basis for acquisition of knowledge of grammar, a characteristic that distinguishes humans from birds or apes (Chomsky, 1981: 3). Chomsky argues that language acquisition holds that at least some linguistic knowledge exist in humans at birth and humans have automatic grammatizator or humans use grammar innately.

Language acquisition cannot be separated with the theory of Chomsky about Universal Grammar (UG) and Language Acquisition Device (LAD). Chomsky, in various places, has described the theory of language as one which consists of a set of principles (UG) that underlie language; what we expect to find, then, is a highly structured theory of UG based on a number of fundamental principles that sharply restrict the class of attainable grammars and narrowly constrain their form, but with

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parameters that have to be fixed by experience (Chomsky, 1981: 4). A central aspect of the theory of UG is that it views the human language faculty as comprising a priori knowledge about the structure of language. Importantly, knowledge of language is understood as being internal to the human mind/brain, and the object of linguistic theory is therefore the mental grammar or competence of individual which Chomsky refers to as I-language, an internal entity of the individual, as opposed to E-language, ‘ E’ suggesting ‘ external’ , that is, the overt products in language use (Meisel, 2011: 15).

While LAD, Language Acquisition Device, the nature of the language capacity common to all humans. Based on Chomsky, LAD makes humans have possibility to learn language, especially first language acquisition. The idea according to which UG as the theory of the human language faculty not only defines the initial state of first language development, but also determines essential properties of developing grammars at every moment of the acquisition process. In this sense, UG is a crucial part of the Language Acquisition Device. In fact, as becomes obvious from the above quote from Chomsky, UG is frequently equated with LAD (Meisel, 2011: 15).

When we talk about language acquisition, it cannot be separated with the discussion about child itself. The theory of acquisition will have two distinct components. One will be the set of principles that lead to the construction of the grammar, i.e. those that concern the child’ s grammar or

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linguistics competence. These principles will deal with how the child constructs a rule of grammar and changes it over time. The focus is on the nature of the child’ s rule system; it is concerned with competence factors. The second component looks at the psychological processes the child uses in learning the language. These are what we shall call performance factors. Performance factors enter into the child’ s comprehension and production language. In comprehension, performance factors deal with how the child establishes meaning in the language input, as well as with the cognitive restrictions that temporarily retard development. In production, these factors describe the reasons why the child’ s spoken language may not reflect its linguistics competence (Ingram, 1999: 65).

2.1.3 Process of Language Acquisition

All children seem to pass through a series of similar ‘ stages’ as they acquire language. The age at which different children reach stage or ‘ milestone’ varies considerably, but the relative chronology remains the same (Aitchison, 2007: 79). The milestones are normally reached in the same order, though they may be nearer together for some children and father apart for others. Children differ, for the example, in how much time they need in order to advance from one milestone to the next and also in the overall length of time they take to proceed through the entire sequence of acquisition events (Meisel, 2011: 24). Generally, language development can be divided into a number of approximate phases or language stage.

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The stages overlap, and the ages given are only a very rough guide, but it does give some idea of a child’ s likely progress.

Language Stage Beginning age

Crying Birth

Cooing 6 weeks

Babbling 6 months

Intonation 8 months

One-word utterances 1 year

Two-word utterances 18 months

Word inflections 2 years

Questions, negatives 2 1/4 years Rare or complex constructions 5 years

Mature Speech 10 years

The course of first language development is thus laid out as a sequence of linguistics milestones (Meisel, 2011: 23). Similar milestones are observed in infants’ early productions. During their first four months they produce a range of vowel-like sounds (approximately 80% of their productions) and a limited set of consonants-like ones, with the vowels changing rapidly. After approximately six months, ‘ babbling’ begins, that is, children use what look like units with ‘ syllable structures’ , which, however, do not yet express meaning. Consonant-vowel combinations (CV) are preferred, reduplications are frequent, and one can detect sentence intonation patterns in these early productions. Progressively,

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what is encountered in their linguistics environment. This development begins probably already before the age of six months, but certainly soon afterwards, and at around twelve months they typically produce their first words (Meisel, 2011: 26).

By the end of the second month, infants begin to do a lot of cooing. Coos are acoustically more varied than cries, as infants exercise some control over their articulatory organs to produce a greater variety of sounds. Coos tend to be made in the back of the mouth and are similar to back vowels and velar consonants. A little later, by about 6 to 7 months, babbling begins. Infants’ first use reduplicated babbling, in which they repeat a consonant-vowel sequence, such as babababa. By 11 to 12 months, infants use variegated babbling, in which syllable strings consist of varying consonants and vowels, such as bigodabu (Carrol, 1998: 259). The consonants were often made with lips, or the teeth, so that the sequences sounded like MAMA, DIDIDI, PAPAPA. On hearing these sounds, parents confidently but wrongly assumed that infants were addressing them (Aitchison, 2007: 82).

Children usually utter their first words at around 12 months of age, and for the next few months most of their utterances consist of single words produced in isolation (Carrol, 1998: 262). At this period, several developments begin to the shape at once. Children come to master certain words as labels for regular features of their environment, such as common toys, members of the family, and favourite events. In short, the child

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begins to acquire the lexicon of the language. The number of single words acquired at around this time varies from child to child. Some have only four or five, others have around fifty (Aitchison, 2007: 84).

Children begin to speak in word combinations by about 2 years of age, and over the course of the next few years they make impressive advances in grasping the grammar or their native language (Carrol, 1998: 269). Researchers have developed two measures of syntactic development. The best known and most widely used is to measure the mean length of utterances in morphemes (MLU). The method, as discussed by Brown (1973), consists of taking 100 of the child’ s spontaneous utterances and counting the number of morphemes (meaningful units) per utterances. The MLU is a conservative index of the child’ s ability to combine morphemes in a productive manner. Brown has indicated that these MLU-defined stage provide a global view of what aspects of language the child is currently mastering. Children at stage I are putting word together. At stage II, they are learning to modulate the meaning of their utterances by the use of grammatical morphemes. Stage III and IV are devoted to learning more complex constructions, such as questions and negatives.

By the age of 3 ½, most children were able to form most grammatical constructions, and their speech was reasonably intelligible to strangers. By the age of 5, children gave the superficial impression of having acquired language more or less perfectly. But this was an illusion. Language acquisition was still continuing, through more slowly. By the

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age of about 11, children exhibited a command of the structure of their language comparable to that of adult. At the age of puberty, their language development was essentially complete, apart from vocabulary. They would continue to accumulate lexical items throughout their life (Aitchison, 2007: 89).

2.1.4 Golden Age / Critical Period of Language Acquisition

Lenneberg argued that humans have a narrow ‘ critical period’ set aside by nature for the acquisition of language. Between the ages of two and three years language is an interaction in maturation and self-programmed learning. Between the ages of three and the early teens the possibility for primary language acquisition continues to be good. After puberty, the ability for self-organization and adjustment to the physiological demands of verbal behaviour quickly declines. The brain behaves as if it had become set in its ways and primary, basic skills not acquired by that time usually remain deficient for life (Lenneberg, 1967: 158). At one time, Lenneberg’ s views were widely accepted. Children clearly start talking at about the age of 2 and it seemed plausible that language ability ceased at around 13 (Aitchison, 2007: 90).

The case of four socially isolated children, Victor, Isabelle, Genie and Chelsea, provide superficial support for the view that language come to a shuddering halt around adolescence. They are consistent with the notion that children must be exposed to language early in life to develop

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properly, but we do not know how early this experience must be. Studies by Newport (1990) indicate that the age at which children acquire certain aspects of language is correlated with the level of acquisition: the earlier the acquisition, the higher the level of learning (Carrol, 1998: 314).

2.1.5 Humans Language and Animal Communication

Human beings are in many ways unusual animals, with some very peculiar adaptations. In most respects, however, the difference between us and other animals is a matter of degree only (Johansson, 2001: 3). Humans may be the most intelligent animal on this planet, but chimps and dolphins are not totally devoid of intelligence either. Many definitions that are found in textbooks are too wide. For example: ‘A language is a system of arbitrary vocal symbols by means of which a social group cooperates’ (Bloch and Trager, 1942: 5). This definition maybe too wide and cannot be a consideration instead of human language and animal communication.

Language is a form of communication, and it is probable that it involved for the purpose of communication. But it is no means the only form of communication used in either the animal or the human world, and language is certainly not synonymous with communication. Every social animal has some form or another of communication, forming a highly diverse assemblage of communication methods, but few, if any, of these can be regarded as language. And language also possesses additional

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capabilities, on top of its basic communicative purpose (Johansson, 2001: 5).

When people talk about this problem, the main consideration is the term of humans’ language and animal communication itself. A superficially promising approach was that suggested by the linguist Charles Hockett in his book under the title A Note on Design Features (1960s). In series of articles stretching over ten years he attempted to itemize the various ‘design features’ which characterize language. These are the number of design features mentioned by Hockett: use of the vocal-auditory channel, arbitrariness, semanticity, culture transmission, spontaneous usage, turn-taking, duality, displacement, structure-dependence, creativity, ability to read intentions. Some of these features are fairly general and occur widely in the animal world (Aitchison, 2007:27). The normal use is, in this sense, a creative activity. This creative aspect of normal language use is one fundamental factor that distinguishes human language from any known system of animal communication (Chomsky, 2005: 88)

2.2 Related Studies

2.2.1 The Acquisition of English Interrogative of A Six-Year-Old Chinese Indonesian Boy (2013)

This thesis was written by James Vivaldi, a student from Petra Christian University, he tried to find out the language acquisition of a

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Chinese Indonesian boy. The writer was curious to know the stage of acquisition of English interrogative form. By this research, the writer stated the boy as the object of data was in the stage of the development of question form.

In doing his research, the writer used the behaviourism theory by Chomsky, that language is inherited and human can acquire it through language acquisition device. For other theories, he used the second language acquisition theories by Long and Collin Baker.

The writer of this study concluded that children have special stage of interrogative in their second language acquisition. Despite the boy who became the object of the data found some difficulties in this acquisition process.

The similarity of between these two studies is that its studies take focus on language acquisition. Even the data was taken from different sources. If this study takes the data from real human, the data of the writer will take the data from the character of Tarzan in the movie “Tarzan of the Apes”.

2.2.2 First Language Acquisition and Socialization (2011)

This was a thesis written by Martina Zahradnikova, she was a student from Masaryk University. In this study, she was focus on the first language acquisition and how the social or environment gives the influences.

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Between these two studies are going to through have the similarity of the using some theories, such as behaviourism by Skinner and Nativism by Chomsky. Both these studies is the same, its take focus on first langauge acquisition. The other theories that were used in this study are social cognition theory and social interaction theory. The writer was focused on one-word stage (12-18 months babies), two-words stage (18-28 months babies) and three-words stage (28-42 months babies).

This study concluded a fact that there is a strong correlation between successful language acquisition and a stimulating social environment provided by caregiver. The writer got this fact as the result of her research to language stages which should be passed by children, especially the stages which were analysed.

2.2.3 Echa: Kisah Pemerolehan Bahasa Anak Indonesia (2000)

This study was written by Soenjono Darjowidjojo in his book which was published in 2000. The study tried to find out the acquisition of a first language of Indonesian child. The writer realized that there had been no longitudinal study about Indonesian acquisition especially as long as five years. Thus, he was interested in conducting study about first language acquisition of his grandchild, named Echa.

In doing his research, the writer used the behaviourism theory by Noam Chomsky, that language is inherited and human can acquire it through language acquisition device. Other theories that he used were

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coming from Berko Gleason, Borer, Eve Clark, Herbert Clark, Fikkert and etc.

The finding is quite interesting, some universal theories are matched with Echa, about phonology acquisition and it sequence of acquisition also syntax acquisition. However, Echa’s lexicon acquisition is different from universal tendency. It is clear that in terms of vocabulary acquisition, the surroundings or inputs are the biggest factor in expanding her lexicon.

Thus, this study contributes that the acquisition process of a child may differ with other child, especially with lexicon acquisition. However, the one thing that can be generalized and convinced by the conclusion of the writer of the book is the sequence of phonology acquisition of Echa is approximately the same with other children in Indonesia.

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CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD

In this chapter, the following subtopics are going to be discussed: (1) research design (2) data and sources (3) technique of data collection (4) instrument (5) technique of data analysis and (6) triangulation.

3.1Research Design

This study was a descriptive qualitative study. The writer applied the qualitative research in this study because it was focused the data which was taken from a movie. Denzin and Lincoln, in their book The Sage Handbook of Qualitative Research (2005), say that qualitative research belongs to a situated activity that locates the observer in the world. It consists of a set of interpretive, material practices that makes the world visible. These practices transform the world. They turn the world into a series of representations, including field notes, interviews, conversations, photographs, recordings, and memos to the self. At this level, qualitative research involves an interpretive, naturalistic approach to the world. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, attempting to make sense of, or to interpret, phenomena in terms of the meanings people bring to them.

A qualitative case study examines a phenomenon within its real-life context. Data are collected on or about a single individual, group, or event. In some cases, several cases or events may be studied (Yin, 2008: 17). This study was included into case study since some cases appear from the data,

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which the data was taken from a kind of video or it was called movie. The movie itself was Tarzan of the Apes. Here, the writer analyzed several cases that were unique with respected to the research topic. The cases were selected based on the unique quality or often rarely observed. In this opportunity, the writer took focus on the case of Tarzan’s language acquisition. From the movie, the writer made such a narrative to describe the important parts which built the research questions.

The writer also used library research to complete and made this study perfect. Academic libraries have for centuries played critically-important roles in supporting research in all subjects and disciplines within their host universities and colleges (Brown, 2007: 5). The writer used some literatures to answer the research questions, supported and applied the theories that were used in this study.

3.2Data and Source

The data was collected from some scenes of the movie entitled Tarzan of the Apes, the writer got this movie by downloading from the site www.youtube.com. The writer decided to choose it movie because the character of Tarzan reflected language acquisition which was passed by all humans. As a result, the writer was interested in analyzing language acquisition further as her study.

The writer got the data from the scenes, transcription and notes. In addiction, the writer got the script of the movie from internet and dividing the

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scenes by herself. Not all scenes in the movie were used as the main data, there were criteria to make the scenes became the main data, such as: the scene should reflect the language acquisition process and could answer the reasearch questions. Hence, the combination of the scene, transcription and notes would be the main data of this study.

3.3Technique of Data Collection

To collect the data which was needed for this research, the writer did some steps such as:

1. The writer watched the movie for many times to find important parts which supported the cases that were being the thread of the research questions.

2. The writer looked for the script of the movie and compared it to the movie for making the research easier. The movie was also devided into some scenes because the writer found the only one script of the movie and there was nothing scene deviding in it. She has devided the movie into 48 scenes, and 10 scenes became the data of the research.

3. The writer gave a sign to the scene which was important to be the data. The sign was put on the script of the movie and compared to the scene that had been devided by the writer. The part would be supposed to be important part of it part occurred the cases appear. The example was, when Tarzan uttered the word of humans’ language for the first time happened at the minute of 39.26.

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4. The writer made such a narrative or a point which was the chronology of the movie especially Tarzan’s development to make the data analysis easier.

3.4Instrument

The instruments of this study were the writer, some notes, laptop, some previous studies that talked about language acquisition and some literary books as the reference to find the appropriate theories relate to the topic.

3.5Technique of Data Analysis

After collecting the data, the writer did many steps to analyze its data. Firstly, after finding the important part and the cases which appear and brought to the research question, the writer analyzed its cases / research question by using the appropriate theories. To analyze the data, the writer applied the theories to the cases or research questions and made the discussion. Finally, the writer concluded what the results of the study using the collected references.

3.6Triangulation

Triangulation refers to the central methodological concept comes high on the list of key features of good research design. Researchers have many

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ways to concept their triangulations. There is more than one type of triangulation (Litosseliti, 2010: 34), such as:

• Data triangulation (The application of more than one sampling method for data collection)

• Investigator triangulation (The involvement of more than one researcher) • Theoretical triangulation (The use of more than one theoretical stance) • Methodological triangulation (the use of more than one methodology)

Triangulation is often one of the key reasons for undertaking mixed methods research, and it also will be done by the writer. Here, the writer used investigator triangulation. For doing this research, the writer was helped by a lecturer who became the advisor and guided her to finish the research perfectly. Besides that, the writer also used theoretical triangulation since there were many theories which were used to analyze the main point of the research.

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CHAPTER IV

FINDING AND DISCUSSION

The focus of the study is the character of Tarzan in the movie “Tarzan of the Apes”, how his own language and how he passes the process of language acquisition after he meets other humans for the first time. The main purpose of this chapter is to answer the statement of the problems which are presented in the chapter I.

In this discussion, the data were collected from the script that has been divided into some scenes by the writer. She divided the movie into 48 scenes, but not all scenes can be the data. The scenes which were being the data must be correlated to the research questions. The writer made a description for each scene of the data to make it easier to understand. Here are the data:

4.1 Finding

4.1.1 Tarzan’s own language

Tarzan is an orphan child since his parents are killed by a cheetah. After that he was found by a mother gorilla that takes take of him until he becomes adult. This study analysed Tarzan’s own language before and after he met other human beings. Tarzan had no language at all before he met Jane, but he did signalling, like animals.

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Data 1

Scenes 03 (minutes 02.51 – 06.10)

Kala, a mother of gorilla, was listening to a strange voice when her fold wanted to move their nest; she came to the voice source. She found a tree house and a baby inside it.

(Baby Crying)

[Baby Tarzan] (Crying) (Gorilla Sniffing) (Wind Howling) (Gasping )

[Baby Tarzan] (Coughing) | (Cooing) | (Laughing) | (Cooing) [Kala] (Sniffing)

[Kala] Agh ! | (Grunts) [Baby Tarzan] (Cooing)

[Kala] (Sniffing) | (Snarls, Growls) | (Snarling, Growling) [Baby Tarzan] (Cooing) | (Gasps)

[Kala] (Snarls) [Baby Tarzan] (Cooing)

[Kala] (Snarling) [Baby Tarzan) (Laughs)

In this scene, Tarzan is still a baby. Like other babies, he does only two things, crying and cooing. If we are going to use the theory of Lenneberg about the milestone or stages of language acquisition, the writer estimates that in this scene Tarzan is more than two months and less than six months old, since he is only able crying and cooing. Crying and cooing are not included into phase of language acquisition. However, strictly speaking, it is perhaps inaccurate to speak of crying as a ‘language phase’, because crying seems to be instinctive

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communication and may be more like an animal call system than a true language (Aitchison, 2007: 81).

In this scene, like other babies, Tarzan only does two things, crying and cooing. Coos are acoustically more varied than cries, as infants exercise some control over their articulatory organs to produce a greater variety of sounds (Carrol, 1998: 259). Infants are able cooing at least in their end of the second months old. After cooing stage, by about six to seven months, babbling begins. It means, Tarzan is at least two months old and not more than six months old when Kala finds him. It reflects that Tarzan’s articulatory organs develop well since he is able cooing.

Normally, the next stage that Tarzan will pass are bubbling, intonation patterns, one-word utterances, two-word utterances, and so on. There is nothing in the movie how Tarzan’s growth until he is five years old. And the writer considers that Tarzan’s language acquisition stops since he is leaved by his parents and then found by Kala, a mother of gorilla. He is being the only one human in the jungle where he lives.

Data 2

Scene 05 (minutes 08.01 – 09.10)

After finding and saving Tarzan from a cheetah, Kala brought him to the gorillas fold. She decided to take care of Tarzan as her own son even thought at first Kerchak, her couple, could not receive Tarzan.

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[A gorilla] Are you all right, dear?

[Kala] I'm fine | No, really, honestly. | It's just that I got a little bit... sidetracked.

(All Gasping)

[Terk] Well, isn't that, uh-- | Well, so-- | Well, it's just so, so-- | That's freaky-lookin', okay? That's what it is.

[Terk’s Mother] Terkina!

[Terk] Well, it is! | I mean, what the heck is it anyway? [Kala] He's a baby.

[Terk] Ow ! I can't-- [Baby Tarzan] (Cooing, Laughing) [Terk] So, where's his mama?

[Kala] Well, I'm going to be his mother now. (Baby Cooing)

[Terk] You know, he´s not so bad | Once you get used to him. | Kala's gonna be its mother now.

In this scene, the writer point to the case of Tarzan is raised by Kala, a mother gorilla. This case is not only happened in the movie, but also in the real life. Over the past centuries there have been a number of reported cases of children raised by wolves, pigs, sheep, and other animals.

Data 3

Scene 08 (minutes 12.31 – 14.10)

Tarzan was growing up under Kala’s nurseling. By the visualization of Tarzan in this scene, the writer estimated that Tarzan was five years old. In this scene, he had some conversation with Kala and Terk, a young gorilla that was being his best friend.

[Kala] Mmm | (Gasps) | Tarzan ? | Tarzan ?

[Tarzan] (Trumpets Like An Elephant) I sure scared you, Mom. Whoa. [Kala] You sure did! Can't you imitate any quieter animals?

[Tarzan] Oh, Mom, they're no fun. Wanna see me be a leopard? | (Snarling )

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[Tarzan] Mmm. (Yelling Sounds) [Baby gorillas] (Imitating Yelling Sounds) [Mother gorillas] Kala !

[Tarzan] (Yelling ) | Oops. [Kerchack] (Quiet Growls) [Tarzan] Hee-hee.

[Terk] Tarzan, thank goodness, you're all right! Kala and I have been so worried! | Thank you. Thank you so much for finding him, Kerchak. You are such a wise and caring leader. | Run. [Tarzan] Ooh! | Um--

[Terk] Hello! Are you thick in the head? [Tarzan] What?

[Terk] How many times do I have to tell ya? If you want Kerchak to like you, stay away from him!

[Another young gorilla] Come on, Terk! Step on it! | Last one there's a dung beetle!

[Terk] Yeah ! And the first ones gotta eat it! [Tarzan] Terk, can I come?

[Terk] Well, yeah, you could if you could keep up, but... you can't really keep up. | Wait up, guys. |Wait up! Right behind ya. There are two points which are pointed in this scene. First, Tarzan has some conversations with the gorillas, Kala and Terk. Second, Tarzan imitates the sounds of some animals and he has his own sound, the sound hears ‘auoo..uooo..auoo..uooo’.

In this scene, the writer estimates that Tarzan is five years old. He does not speak language at all. It is normally happens to Tarzan if he does not speak language. If Tarzan is normal, he would have given the superficial impression of having acquired language more or less perfectly. Whereas, he is not normal, he is a wild and isolated child, so that he does not get language acquisition at the exact time.

On the other hand, Tarzan looks like talking to the gorillas and other animals. The question is that animals do speak language or not. While language in

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means of communication, many of which appear to share at least some, if not all, of the properties of language. The traditional view, among biologist as well as linguist, has been that they have only affective meaning, expressing only the emotions of the “speaker”, without symbolic referents. But numerous studies in recent decades have demonstrated that many animals use alarm call and/or food calls, which for all practical purposes function as if they carried symbolic referential meaning (Johansson, 2001: 9). Therefore, language only belongs to humans, whereas animals have their own signal to be used for communication with their species.

Like what have explained before, animals do not speak, but they do signalling to communicate each other. Animal communication is not word by word, but what they are signalling have the full meaning of context. Some studies about animal communication concern predator alarm calls, and food calls, where it is experimentally feasible to demonstrate functional referentiality (Johansson, 2001: 11). But it is hard to establish the meaning or intend of each calls or signals which are vocalized by the animals.

In the story of the movie, Tarzan looks like having his own signal. The writer thinks that it is normally happened to him. Until he meets Jane, he does not realize that he is a human being. Tarzan thinks that he belongs to the gorillas or another species of animal. In this scene, there is conversation between Tarzan and Kala:

[Kala] Why don't you just come up with your own sound? | (Screeching)

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The sound is audible “auoo..uoooo..uoo”, the writer analyze that it sound has a special function through all it sound appears in the movie. Tarzan utters his own sound when he wants to show up his self, such as a sign that he comes. He has no language at all; on the contrary, he has his own signal. It is one of Tarzan’s ways adapting to the jungle and his environment which it does not take a short time to pass it process.

Data 4

Scene 16 (minutes 24.01 – 25.20)

Tarzan was bent on being a best ape, and then he learned anything in the jungle where he lived. He trained hanging on a tree, avoiding some wild animals such as snake and crocodile, using a sharp stone for the head of spear and etc. The way he walked was similar to the ape; his feet and hands touch the ground. This scene shows the development of Tarzan, since he was a child until he was being an adult. In this scene, there was nothing conversation between the characters, there was only visualisation of Tarzan’s struggling to be the best ape as he wanted and back song which reflected the scenes.

One of the characteristics of creatures is the capability of adaption and it is what Tarzan does in this scene. Tarzan adapts to the environment that he lives

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animals including gorillas do not do that. However, Tarzan is human being, though he lives with the gorillas fold, it does not break his identity as a human. Humans’ intelligence is the highest than all creatures in the world. Even though gorillas’ intelligence is close to humans’, gorillas are still gorillas.

Here, the writer thinks that Tarzan has the high intelligence. He can adapt to the environment which actually does not belong to him. It is shown by the part when Tarzan makes a weapon which is made by sharp stone which animals will not do that. But his intelligence does not make him being able to speak instantly. It reflects the fact that, even though the nature of language capacity commons to all humans, without learning supporting environment, the process of language acquisition will not run well, yet it can be stopped at all. Like what happens to Tarzan and some feral and isolated children that are discovered. What happen to Tarzan belongs to the theory of B.F. Skinner, behaviorism theory. From this theory, children acquire language by the learning process and the experienced that they got from the environment. Whereas, Tarzan’s environment does not give him any chances to acquire humans’ language. His environment only teaches him how to save his life in the jungle. Indeed, he looks like able to communicate with the gorillas fold and other animals.

Data 5

Scene 17 (minutes 25.21 – 26.25)

In this scene, Tarzan has been an adult. He had some conversation with Kala as his mother. Tarzan played with Terk, a gorrilla, and Tantor, an elephant,

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as his best friends. Until this scene, he did not realize that he was a human, not a kind of animal.

[Kala] Don't even think about it. [Tarzan] How'd you know it was me ?

[Kala] I'm your mother. I know everything. | Where have you been ? [Tarzan] I thought you knew everything.

[Terk] Hey, Auntie "K." You're looking remarkably groomed today. [Kala] Hello, Terk.

[ Terk ] Not the neck. Not the neck there, "T." [Tarzan] (Grunting)

[Tantor] Whoa ! Okay. It's all fun and games till someone loses an eye. Please stop. Somebody´s gonna get hurt.

[Terk] And it's always me. Please.

[ Terk ] Cramp in the calf ! |Okay, you win ! Ow, ow ! Okay ! You win. Hello ? Yo, yo, let go !

[Tarzan] Oh, sorry, Terk.

[Terk] What kind of animal are you ?

[Tantor] I've been thinking lately that maybe Tarzan could be some subspecies of elephant.

[Terk] What, are you crazy ?An elephant ?

[Tantor] Listen to me. Think about it. He enjoys a peanut. | I enjoy a peanut.

[Terk] He looks nothing like you !

In this scene, the writer takes focus on the sound which is vocalized by Tarzan. The writer finds one kind of sounds, it is grunting. The sound of grunting is audibly “eergh.. eergh..”. Tarzan uses this sound for having conversation with his friend, in this scene, he talks to Terk. If we see from the perspective that Animal do not speak, but they do signalling and it signal refers to predator alarm call or food call. The writer thinks that it sound does not refer to one of signal purpose, but it only refer to animal interactions.

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Data 6

Scene 18 (minutes 26.26 – 29.10)

Sabor, a cheetah, hide behind a tree, fortunetaly Tarzan saw it. Tarzan and Kerchak were getting fight with Sabor. Kerchack was almost lose, but Tarzan helped him. After that, Tarzan got fight with Sabor only by himself.

[Tarzan] (Growling) [Sabor] (Roars) [Tarzan] (Snarling)

[Sabor] (Roaring) (Roaring) [Kerchak] (Growling)

[Sabor] (Quiet Growling) [Kerchak] (Sighs) | (Growling) [Tarzan] (Yells)

[Sabor] (Shrieking) [Tarzan] (Growling) [Sabor] (Growls) [Other Gorillas] (Cheering) [Tarzan] (Growls) [Sabor] (Growls)

[Tarzan] (Growling) | (Growling Continues) [Sabor] (Rustling)

[Other Gorillas] (Chittering Nervously) [Tarzan] (Grunts) | (Panting) [Other Gorillas] (Cheering)

[Tarzan] (Yells) [Other Gorillas] (Cheering) [Tantor] (Trumpets)

There are two kinds of sounds which are vocalized by Tarzan in this scene. The first sound is growling, it is audibly “aarrgghh.. aarrgghh..”. The writer considers that it sound is close to the sound of roar which is vocalized by some kinds of wild animals, like lion, tiger, panther and cheetah. Based on the movie, the purpose of this sound is such a predator alarm call. Tarzan vocalizes this sound to give a signal for his gorillas fold as warning and also for the predator to

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The second sound is yelling, it is audibly “auooo..uoooo..uuooo”. It sound becomes Tarzan’s own signal. He vocalizes it sound many times in many scenes. From the movie, yelling becomes Tarzan’s own signal which other animals do not vocalize it. The writer considers that it sound has two purposes. The first purpose is to be a signal that Tarzan comes to an area. And the second purpose is to show up his self to the environment of the jungle especially to the gorillas fold like what happens in the last part of this scene, when he is success to beat down Sabor.

4.1.2 Process of language acquisition of Tarzan

Tarzan is a wild and isolated child, and his language acquisition stops until he becomes adult. He begins his late language acquisition when he meets other humans for the first time along his lifetime. His process of language acquisition reflects both of the theories of Chomsky and Skinner. Tarzan’s looks easy to learn human language though his language acquisition is very late.

Data 7

Scene 25 (minutes 37.01 – 39-10)

Tarzan realized that there were other creatures like him. He met Jane and helped her from a baboon troops. For the first time, he was very close to human, a same creature like him, Jane. Tarzan looked like analyzing Jane, he touched some parts of Jane body and compared with his.

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[Tarzan] (Tarzan comes closer to Jane)

[Jane] Stay back. No, don't. Don't come any closer. Please, don't. What are-- What are you doing? | (Laughing)

[Tarzan] (Touch Jane’s foot)

[Jane] Please don't. That tickles. No, get off, get off-- Get off! It serves you right. | Stay away from me like a very good wild man. You, stay. | I'm warning you. | My father won't take kindly to you— | No. That's—

[Tarzan] (Came closer to listen to Jane’s heartbeat) [Jane] Now, that's close enough. | How dare you?

[Tarzan] (Pulled Jane’s head asking her to listen his heartbeat) [Jane] (Gasps) Wha-- | Ohh !

Humans are special creatures which always have curiosity, moreover for something that they see for the first time. It also happens to Tarzan, along he lives in jungle, and he saw a human, a species like him for the first time. Based on the movie, Tarzan is not respect for personal boundaries. He meets Jane for the first time, and of course, they do not know each other. Tarzan comes too close to Jane, indeed, he touches some part of her body. He does it because Tarzan is very curious to Jane. Between humans and animals really have different world, moreover wild animals. And for many years, Tarzan lives in the jungle; he is isolated from human life.

Every child in the world needs their parents as their role model and caregiver. Because what parents do will be examples for their children. The environment also has the big influence of children’s developments. Tarzan has no parents as his role model and caregiver, the one who takes care of him is a mother gorilla. Therefore, if Tarzan is not respect to personal boundaries, it is normal for him. He does not know and understand the social role of humans’ life.

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The explanation above belongs to the theory of B.F. Skinner, learning theory. Parents teach their children by reinforcement in each verbal behaviour. By their parents or people around their environment, children learn to give the name of objects, so they know and understand the meaning of the words that they everyday are saved in their memory, and then they do observation in their environment. From this theory, children acquire language by the learning process and the experience that they get from the environment. Tarzan does not pass it process; he does not have parents or caregiver and environment that are able to teach him language. Therefore, he does not speak and has no language at all until he meets other humans. Tarzan begins his language acquisition after he meets Jane, the one who teaches him language and humans’ habit.

Data 8

Scene 26 (minutes 39.11 – 40.50)

Jane realized that he was with a wild man. Tarzan and Jane introduced themselves each other. Tarzan imitated every word that Jane spoke to him. For the first, Jane thought that Jane could speak, but she understood that Tarzan could not speak human language then.

[Tarzan] It's very nice.

[Tarzan] Oh, thank you. I can't do a thing with it in this humidity though. It's-- | You-- You do speak. | And all this time I thought you were just a big, wild, quiet, silent person-thing. | Why didn't you tell me? I must say I'm rather curious as to who you are. I'd love--

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[Jane] Oh, I see ! [Tarzan] Oh, I see !

[Tarzan] Tarzan (pointed to himself) | Oh, I see (pointed to Jane) [Jane] No, no, no. | No. | (Clears Throat) | I'm Jane.

[Tarzan] No, no, no. | No. | (Clears Throat) | I'm Jane.

[Jane] No, no.

[Jane] Jane (pointed to herself) | Tarzan (pointed to Tarzan) | Jane (pointed to herself)

[Tarzan] Jane.

[Jane] Exactly | (voice of Rifle Shot) [Jane] Clayton! | (voice of Rifle Shot] [Tarzan] Clayton!

[Jane] Extraordinary! Um, please, can you take me to my camp? [Tarzan] (Makes Rifle Shot Sound)

[Jane] Yes! Clayton! | Wonderful! | Um, could we-- Um, can't we walk?

[Tarzan] Can't we walk?

Jane realized that Tarzan did not speak, he had no language. He only imitates what Jane talks to him, without understanding what Jane’s purpose. The writer thinks that it normally happens to Tarzan. It this scene, Tarzan speaks in English for the first time though he does not understand what it means. It indicates that Tarzan’s articulatory organs are in normal function, even though its organs are not used for speaking at all before.

Humans have some articulatory organs which support their ability to speech, some organs which differentiate them with other creatures. That is, the human brain and vocal tract have a number of slightly unusual features. By themselves, these features are not sufficient to indicate that people can talk. But if we first assume that all humans speak a language, then a number of puzzling biological facts fall into place. They can be viewed as partial adaptations of the body to the production of language (Aitchison, 2007: 50). Every human’s vocal tracts have special features that support their speaking capability. For example,

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human teeth are unusual compared with those of other animals. Another important difference between humans and monkeys concerns the larynx, which contains the ‘voice box’ or ‘vocal cords’. Strangely, it is simpler in structure than that of other primates. But this is an advantage. Air can move freely past and then out through the nose and mouth without being hindered by other appendages (Aitchison, 2007: 51). The explanation above indicates that language is nature to humans; the capability to speak is biologically triggered behaviour. This fact supports the theory of Chomsky’s innateness hypothesis, humans are predestined to speak. Humans have given by God the perfect organs structure to support the capability to speak.

Data 9

Scene 31 (minutes 47.21 – 48.50)

Jane told her father, Mr. Porter, about Tarzan. About Tarzan’s personal characteristic, how he walked, how he acted and others. They were very interested to Tarzan.

[Jane] Well, he didn't stand up right, he sort of crouched, like that. [Porter] Really?

[Jane] Supported his weight on his knuckles. [Porter] On the knuckles!

[Jane] See? | Exactly like a gorilla! [Porter] Extraordinary!

[Jane] Ah, it was amazing! | And he bends his elbows out like this, | And then he walks like this.

[Porter] Oh, I see ! | Like Aunt lsabel !

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[Jane] He was this close, Daddy! | Staring at me. He seemed confused at first, as if he's never seen another human before. | His eyes were intense and focused and-- I've never seen such eyes. [Porter] Oh, shall l, ahem, I leave you and the blackboard alone for a

moment

[Jane] Daddy, stop it. The point is, think of what we could learn from him. | We must find him.

[Clayton] Ooh! | Professor, you are here to find gorillas, not indulge some girlish fantasy.

[Jane] Fantasy? I didn't imagine him! | Tarzan is... | (Gasps) | real. In this scene, Jane figures about Tarzan to his father. She tells his father about how the way Tarzan walks by his both feet and hands. Jane tells his father the impression of her first meeting with Tarzan; she concludes that Tarzan does not speak because he has no language. Tarzan is really being a big discovery for Jane and his father. In this scene, the character of Mr. Porter mentions the name “Aunt Isabel”, perhaps it refers to Isabelle, one of famous cases of isolated and feral children.

Tarzan does not meet another human until he meets Jane and her father; therefore his experiences only belong to the jungle and what inside it. He only makes interaction with his gorillas fold and other animals. Tarzan uses his both feet and hands for walking like the way a gorilla walks and has no language. What happened to Tarzan is normal since he does not have other humans as his caregiver and role model. Human’s growth is influenced by their environment, that’s why what happens to Tarzan is normal.

With the birth of a child, mothers are more interested in establishing physical and affective contact than in thinking about the biological and cognitive programs that will guide the child’s development (Boysson-Bardies, 1999: 211).

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gorilla that took care of him. Of course, Tarzan makes Kala as his mother and other gorillas as his role model. At birth, though the human brain is prepared for spoken language, the baby’s subjective experiences and states of consciousness are still quite rudimentary. Consciousness is built out of experiences issuing from perception, memory, the formation of concept, and interactions with others, as well as from the relations among these experiences (Boysson-Bardies, 1999: 213). Since Tarzan does not have experience with humans, that’s why his style to walk is the same with the gorillas, and he has no language until he meets Jane and her father who teach him language then.

Data 10

Scene 33 (minutes 50.01 – 52.45)

There was nothing conversation between the characters in this scene, there was only the back song which was perhaps a reflection of Tarzan’s heart. In this scene, Tarzan began learning language, human habits and many things correlated with human life. He was taught by Jane and Mr. Porter. They taught Tarzan alphabet and how to read, they showed some pictures and some words. Tarzan was really learning about so many things that he never knew before he met Jane.

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In this movie, Tarzan meets Jane and Mr. Porter when he has been an adult. Tarzan can be included into wild, isolated and feral children. Even though the case of Tarzan only appears in the movie, the writer thinks that it case can be compared with some famous cases of isolated children such as Victor, Genie, Isabelle and Chelsea.

If we see from the age when Tarzan is found by Jane, the writer thinks that Tarzan’s case is close to the case of Chelsea. Both of Tarzan and Chelsea are found when they have been adult. The writer estimates that Tarzan meets Jane when he is about 20th-25th years old and Chelsea begins her language acquisition when she was 32th years old. Though Chelsea has developed rapidly in vocabulary and the use of language in a wide range of speech acts (complaints, requests) and social rituals (greetings), she is unable to form grammatically correct utterances and to remain on topic (Steinberg, 2001: 126). The inability to contribute to the progression of topics may be due to difficulties she still experiences with comprehension. And yet, when someone considers the age at which she began to learn language, Chelsea implicitly was success enough in her language acquisition. In this case, it is possible for Tarzan to get his late language acquisition and find difficulties or inability in his next process of language acquisition.

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The case which is the closest to Tarzan’s case may be the case of wild man, Victor. The boy appeared to be 11 or 12 years old, was naked except for what was left of a tattered shirt, and he made no sounds other than guttural animal-like noises (Steinberg, 2001: 126). His general appearance and behaviour were typical of the wild men of popular legend and he seemed to have survived on his own for years in the wild. Beside the age of Tarzan and Victor were found by other humans, their story was almost the same.

There was similarity between the way of Tarzan’s and Victor’s language acquisition. Victor’s education was taken over by an eager educator, Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard. Itard decided to abandon attempts to teach Victor language by speech imitation and moved on to another of his goals, to sharpen the boy’s perceptual abilities. He embarked on a programme of having Victor learn to match colours and shapes, and then match drawings with the objects they represented (Steinberg, 2001: 129). The way Itard taught language to Victor is similar to the way Jane to Tarzan. Jane and his father showed some words with the pictures as the objects, the pictures that were shown to Tarzan were related to normal human activities.

Both Tarzan and Victor have no speech when they were found; although their hearing was normal and they uttered some sounds. Other physicians thought that Victor was deaf and retarded, but Itard was optimistic that he could be trained to be socialized and to use language. Itard worked intensively with Victor for 5 years, using techniques of language training and behaviour modification similar to those used by modern researchers who belong to Skinner (Carrol, 1998: 311).

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Itard’s conclusion were couched within Skinner’s philosophical framework, offering Victor’s accomplishments as evidence that human beings are almost a ‘blank state’ to be written upon by our experiences in the environment and society (Steinberg, 2001: 131). However, what Jane did to teach Tarzan language belongs to the theory of Skinner, learning theory. According to this theory, children acquire language based of general learning mechanisms that are also involved in learning many other phenomena.

Data 11

Scene 34 (minutes 52.46 – 53.55)

By only about a week, Tarzan had been able speaking in language even though in the simple way. In this scene, Tarzan could answer Jane’s question and understand what Jane’s purpose.

[Clayton] We´ve wasted all this time on what he wants. | The boat could arrive any day. | Now ask him straight out.

[Jane] Tarzan? Will you take us to the gorillas? Do you understand?

[Tarzan] I understand.

[Porter] Ooh! Good work, Jane. [Clayton] Well?

[Tarzan] I can't. [Clayton] What? [Porter] What?

[Jane] Why not, Tarzan? [Tarzan] Kerchak.

[Jane] Wh-wh-- | (Sighs)

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organs are normal, as a human he has LAD and perhaps he has high intelligence.

Its do not make him being able to speak instantly, because he does not get what he

needs before beginning his language acquisition until he is being an adult and

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

The movie of Tarzan of the Apes reflects the process of language

acquisition which is passed by isolated humans. This study takes focus to Tarzan

as the main character, how his own language and how he passes his late language

acquisition. Tarzan is found by a mother of gorilla when he is still a baby, he is

only able crying and cooing. It indicates that when Tarzan is about more than two

months and less than six months old. It also reflects that Tarzan’s articulatory

organs develop well since he is able cooing. His language acquisition stops since

the day he is leaved by his parents, because he does not meet other humans in his

entire life until he meets Jane.

In the movie Tarzan of the Apes, there is nothing visualization how Tarzan

grows up until he is being five years old. He does not begin his language

acquisition until this time; it means that he has no language at all. Based on the

movie, Tarzan does not speak at all until he meets Jane and her father. Tarzan

does not realize that he is a human; he thinks that he belongs to the apes. He does

not speak, but he does signalling. There are about three sounds that are vocalized

by Tarzan through the movie. The first sound is grunting, it is audibly

“eergh..eergh. He vocalizes this sound by the low voice. The purpose of it sound

is only to have interaction with the gorillas fold and other animals. The second

sound is growling, it is audibly “aarrgghh.. aarrgghh”. The writer considers that

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the purpose of this sound is such a predator alarm call, to give a signal for his

gorillas fold and for the predator to go away. The third sound is yelling which

becomes Tarzan’s own signal, it is audibly “auoo..uooo..uooo..”. It sound appears

many times in the movie and has two purposes, the first purpose is to be a signal if

Tarzan comes to an area and the second purpose is to show up his existence.

It is possible if Tarzan talks to the gorillas, because he belongs to them

since he is a baby. Since when Tarzan is a baby, he catches all things around him,

not only about his gorillas fold but also about the jungle where he lives itself.

What Tarzan is listening to is all about the jungle, not the environment of human

beings. He does not get normal input like other infants get. So, it is possible for

Tarzan to understand the way of communication of gorillas and other animals.

Tarzan language acquisition begins when he meet other humans for the

first time, Jane and her father. When Tarzan meets Jane for the first time, he has

no language at all but he is able to imitate what Jane’s talking. It indicates that

Tarzan’s articulatory organs develop well even though its organs are not used

before. Tarzan gets his language acquisition by learning process, he is taught by

Jane and her father. Jane and his father show some words with the pictures as the

objects, the pictures that are shown to Tarzan are related to normal humans’

activities in the world. Even though Tarzan as a human has Language Acquisition

Device (LAD) with Universal Grammar (UG), it does not make him can speak

instantly. It is caused by his environment that does not support him to acquire

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In the story of the movie of Tarzan of the Apes, Tarzan looks like only

need a short time to have a big progression in his language acquisition process.

After a week passed since Jane and her father taught Tarzan human language

(English), Tarzan had given a good response for the question that were given by

Jane. A week is too short to have a good and big progression in language

acquisition for someone who is late to get it. Tarzan will continue to acquire

language throughout for the rest of his life because Jane decides to stay in jungle

with him and he cannot do it only by himself. Tarzan will find any difficulties in

his next language acquisition process. Because he is out of the age that including

into the critical period of language acquisition. But the point is, Tarzan is still able

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