Analysis of Language Play in 'The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh' Movie.
ABSTRACT
Dalam tugas akhir ini saya membahas pendekatan linguistik pada permainan kata yang terdapat dalam film kartun anak-anak berjudul The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh.
Permainan kata adalah bermain dengan kata-kata dengan melanggar aturan yang ada dengan tujuan untuk kesenangan baik diri sendiri maupun orang lain. Permainan kata dapat menyangkut empat area linguistik yaitu morfologi, fonologi, variasi grafologi dan semantik.
Dalam tugas akhir ini saya menganalisis kata-kata yang mengandung permainan kata dalam film The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Permainan kata yang paling sering dipakai dalam film ini adalah aspek linguistik fonologi (asonansi). Asonansi adalah pengulangan bunyi vokal dalam kata-kata. Sedangkan permainan kata yang paling jarang dipakai dalam film ini adalah aspek liguistik fonologi, onomatopea. Onomatopea adalah pembentukan kata yang meniru suara.
Film kartun anak-anak The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh ini dibuat hanya untuk kesenangan semata jadi tidak bertujuan untuk pendidikan. Hal itu dibuktikan dari efek-efek yang dihasilkan oleh penggunaan permainan kata dalam film ini sebagian besar adalah untuk menciptakan humor dan kesenangan.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . . . i
TABLE OF CONTENTS . . . ii
ABSTRACT. . . iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study . . . 1
1.2 Statement of the Problem . . . 4
1.3 Purpose of the Study . . . 4
1.4 Methods of Research. . . 5
1.5 Organization of the Thesis . . . 5
CHAPTER TWO: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK . . . 6
2.1 Linguistics Theory . . . 6
2.1.1 Morphology . . . 6
2.1.2 Phonology. . . 7
2.1.3 Graphological Variation . . . 9
2.1.4 Semantics . . . 9
2.2 Children’s Language Acquisition. . . 1 0 CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF LANGUAGE PLAY IN THE MANY ADVENTURES OF WINNIE THE POOH MOVIE . . . 13
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION . . . 29
BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . 33
APPENDICES: List of Symbols . . . 36
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1Background of the Study
There are many kinds of movies, depending on whom they are for. There are movies for adults, teenagers, and children. Movies for adults and teenagers are usually about romance, politics, and daily life. Meanwhile, movies for children are usually of educational content. This is because children are still in the learning phase.
There are many ways for children to learn. One of the ways is through watching cartoon movies. Children are easily bored in doing something, for example, in learning new words. If they feel bored, they will refuse to learn. That is why the makers of children’s movies should be able to make the movies as interesting as possible. As a result, children will not feel bored and still they will get the moral lesson as well as the educational messages by watching movies.
Many children like to watch cartoon movies because those movies are funny and interesting. The funny and interesting things are reflected in the characters, their voices, the music, and the pictures. One of the cartoon movies for children which are funny and interesting is Winnie the Pooh movie. Mark Baker
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from Santa Clarita, CA, the United States gives a comment that Winnie the Pooh is good for small children. The film is also good for pre-readers to early readers. Small children and pre-readers to early readers will get a chance to follow the words and the pictures through the characters, voices, and music in the movie. (http://www.superkids.com/aweb/pages/reviews/1st_look/wtp/kids.shtml)
Besides the characters, their voices, and the music; language play can make the movie funny and interesting, as David Elkind says:
. . . play provides a best defense against stress because it allows for the flexibility a child needs while working out of his or her questions about the perceived world. Play allows children to assimilate and accommodate at a rate that is personally satisfying. If a child has found learning to read to be stressful in any way, play is a way to help restore cognitive flexibility as well as a positive attitude. These characteristics contribute to complex nature of play and reveal the qualities that makes language play capable of serving “use of mind”, as well as language and literacy development.
(http://www.enc.adu/org/theachered/literacy/languageplayactivities.htm) As Elkind says, language play helps children’s brains to improve in their language, without their realizing it especially vocabulary or even their ability to read and write.
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh is one of the Winnie the Pooh movies which are very popular among children. This movie contains the three earlier short movies: “Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree”, “Winnie the Pooh
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and the Blustery Day”, and “Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, Too.” By watching it, children can learn new words. In the movie, Pooh creates songs and ditties about the situations that he finds himself in and enjoyments in rhyming words. For example, Pooh says to Christopher Robin, "aim me at the bees please" when he is hanging from a balloon looking for honey. Similar to Pooh, children can also learn to be creative by formulating their own words. (http://www.superkids.com/aweb/pages/reviews/1st_look/wtp/kids.shtml)
I choose The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh as the source of my data because this is one of the funniest and most interesting cartoon movies. The funny and interesting things are shown through the characters, voices, music, and pictures. Moreover, it contains language play.
According to David Crystal, language play is ‘an action of manipulating the language by blending and breaking the rules’ (Crystal 1). Language play has hidden purposes through bending and breaking the rules, for instance enjoyment and relaxation (Cook 227). Crystal also says ‘When people tell each other jokes, make puns, recite limericks, or put on silly voices, they are doing far more than communicating ideas. They are enjoying the way in which the rules of language can be manipulated for humor or entertainment’ (Crystal 464).
There are four aspects of linguistics which I will use in analyzing language play. They are Morphology, Phonology, Graphology, and Semantics. Morphology is ‘the study which focuses on the structure of words and word formations’ (Crane, Yeager, and Whitman 96). Phonology is ‘the study of how the speech sounds are organized and how they function in language’ (Crane, Yeager, and Whitman 72). Graphology is ‘a relatively minor and superficial part of style;
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concerning such matters as spelling, capitalization, hyphenation, italicization, and paragraphing’ (Leech and Short 131). Semantics is ‘the study of
word meaning’ (Crane, Yeager, and Whitman 129).
Language play in this movie helps children to learn new words. ‘It will encourage them to do like Pooh does, for instance, think up words that rhyme with one another. Rhymes are the building blocks to poetry and children can have a great time thinking up simple rhyming words such as 'dog', 'log', 'fog' etc’. (http://www.femail.com.au/learningthroughdisney.htm)
The significance of this analysis is to find out what kinds of effects are produced on children as the movie watchers due to the use of language play in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh movie. As a result, children will be aware not only of the story in this movie but also of the utterances which are used. The utterances are an important means through which language play can be found.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
1. Which words in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh movie contain language play?
2. What kinds of language play are they classified into? 3. What is the effect of the use of language play on children?
1.3 Purpose of the Study
Based on the statement of the problem, the purpose of the study is:
1. To list the words in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh movie which contain language play.
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2. To identify the kinds of language play.
3. To explain the effect of the use of language play on children.
1.4 Method of Research
For the process in gathering the data, I follow a number of steps. First, I watch the movie while collecting the data which are appropriate for the analysis. In addition to taking data from the movie, I take the data from the movie script on the Internet. Second, I select the data based on the kinds of language play. Third, I analyze the data which have been classified according to the statement of the problem. Finally, I write the result of the analysis as a research report.
1.5 Organization of the Thesis
This thesis consists of four chapters. Chapter I, the Introduction, contains Background of the Study, Statement of Problem, Purpose of the Study, Method of Research, and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter II, Theoretical Background, presents the linguistic theories used to analyze the language play in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh movie. Chapter III contains the analysis. Chapter IV, the Conclusion, contains my personal opinion and comments on the discussion. This thesis ends with the Bibliography and Appendices. The Bibliography presents the list of the references I use in writing this thesis. The Appendices present the tables of data.
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CHAPTER IV
CONCLUSION
In this chapter, I would like to present some conclusions based on my findings after analyzing the linguistic aspects and their effects related to the language play in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh movie. For my analysis, I use twenty-one data from The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh movie. Some data involve more than one linguistic aspect.
In The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh movie there are four linguistic areas and twelve kinds of language play that are used. First, in Phonology, there are thirteen (13) data of language play used. They are rhyming pairs, minimal pairs, rhyming slang, onomatopoeia, alliteration, and assonance. Second, in Morphology, there are nine (9) data of language play used. They are suffixation, infixation, and alphabetism. Third, in Graphology, there are two (2) data of language play used. Fourth, in Semantics, there are two (2) data of language play used. They are mimes and antonym.
From the explanation above, we can see that the mostly-used linguistic aspect in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh movie is Phonology. There are four (4) data of assonance; for example, in data 7, the vowel sound [aʊ] in the
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alliteration; for example, in data 8, the consonant sound [θ] in the word think [θɪŋk] is repeated in the word things [θɪŋz]. Two (2) data rhyming slang, for example in data 4, Winnie the Pooh says the word suspect by spelling it S-U-S-P-E-C-T. Furthermore, three (3) data rhyming pairs; for example, in data 2, the words hefty [hæftɪ] and happy [hæpɪ] have the same final sound [ɪ]. The last is one (1) data onomatopoeia; for example, in data 6, the words Dum Da Dum Pa Rum Pa Rum imitates the sound of a drum.
There are nine kinds of effects on children which are caused by those twelve kinds of language play as I have mentioned above. The first effect is to create humor. I can find eight data that give these humorous effects. The second effect is for enjoyment. There are five data that I find producing enjoyment effects. To create humor and enjoyment has one main goal that is just for fun, so that the children do not feel bored in watching this movie. These effects are mostly felt by using rhyming slang and alliteration.
The third effect is to create a pleasant sound. I can find six data that give this kind of effect. There are some purposes of this effect, namely to help children to increase their new vocabulary, help them to memorize the new words easily, and help them to learn new words. Besides, a pleasant sound can also make children not feel bored in watching this movie. The pleasant sound is usually found in the songs sung by the characters. This effect is mostly produced by using rhyming pairs and assonance.
The fourth effect of the use of language play in this movie is to give a clearer description. I can find only one data that give this effect. The kind of
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language play that gives this effect is mimes. Meanwhile, the fifth effect is to help children to spell the words. There are two data which produce this effect by means of rhyming slang.
The sixth effect of language play in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh movie is to help children to pronounce words. Two data create this kind of effect. Graphological variation is a kind of language play that produces this effect. Then, the seventh effect is to help children be more confident in writing. I can find two data that give this effect. The kind of language play that gives this effect is graphological variation.
The last effect is to encourage children to learn pronunciation by showing them that they are not the only ones who have difficulty in saying words which consist of more than two syllables. Two data give this kind of effect by using infixation.
After analyzing the twenty-one data I use to analyze the language play in The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh movie, which involves twelve kinds of language play, I can conclude that children between the ages of three and eight who are in the process of learning new words through reading, listening, speaking, and writing. Therefore, in my opinion, this Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh movie gives the positive and negative effects.
This movie gives positive effects because through the songs which involve kinds of language play such as; alliteration, assonance, and rhyming pairs, children can learn new words and increase their vocabulary. This movie also helps them become more confident in writing. At their age, children usually make a lot of spelling mistakes.
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Besides positives effects, this movie gives the negative effects. I think it is acceptable that children can learn about new words and increase their vocabulary through the kinds of language play. However, the most significant effect of the use of language play in this movie is to create humor. That is why, many words in this movie are incorrectly spelled. In my opinion, The Many Adventure of Winnie the Pooh movie is not classified into an educative movie. This movie is only made for enjoyment.
There are still many kinds of language play that can be found in this movie. I believe cartoon movies have a function not only for enjoyment but also for education. Through cartoon movies, children will not feel bored in learning because they do it while enjoying it. Therefore, do not underestimate cartoon movies. Third, in my opinion, analyzing kinds of language play is very interesting. The reason is that through language play I can apply the knowledge that I have got from the previous semesters to analyze it. As a result, I can understand better about the functions of the knowledge in language play which have significant effects on children.
To end my thesis, I intend to give suggestion to other students who wish to write about the same topic. Cartoon movies are usually dedicated to children. That is why, we can find many language plays in them. In other words, it is easier for those students to write about the same topic analyzing language play in cartoon movies.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
References:
Bauer, Laurie. English Word-Formation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Cook, G. Language Play, Language Learning. ELT Journal, 227, 1997.
Crane, L. Ben, Edward Yeager, and Randal L. Whitman. An Introduction to Linguistics. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Inc., 1981.
Crystal, David. How Language Works. England: Penguin Books, 2005. ---, Language Play. London: Penguin Group, 1998.
---, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Australia: Cambridge University
Press, 1987.
Hornby, A.S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Huck, Charlotte S., et al. Children’s Literature in the Elementary School. Florida: Harcourt Brace Javanovich, Inc., 1989.
Leech, Geoffrey N., and Michael H. Short. Style in Fiction. London and New York: Longman Group, Inc., 1994.
Longman Essential Activator. England: Addison Wesley Longman Limited, 1999. Nash, Walter. The Language of Humour. New York: Longman Group, Inc., 1994.
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O’Grady, William, Michael Dobrovolsky, and Francis Katamba. Contemporary Linguistics An Introduction. United Kingdom: Copp. Clark Pitman Ltd., 1996.
O’Grady, William, et al. Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993
Perrine, Laurence. Literature Structure, Sound, and Sense. New York: Harcourt Brace Javanovich, Inc.,1978.
Widdowson, H.G. Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Website:
http://Topher’sCastle.org/movie-transcipt/ManyAdvofWinnieThePooh.html http://www.superkids.com/aweb/pages/reviews/1st_look/wtp/kids.shtml http://www.enc.adu/org/theachered/literacy/languageplayactivities.htm http://www.femail.com.au/learningthroughdisney.htm
http://www.nobleworld.biz/images/Ogunsiji.pdf
http://www.newi.ac.uk/englishresources/workunits/alevel/lang/langatplay.html http://ecrp.uiuc.adu/v5n2/johnson.html
http://education.umn.edu/ceed/publications/earlyreport/fall90.htm http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/stories/2007/1813887.htm http://iteslj.org/Articles/McGlothlin-ChildLearn.html
http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/literacy/ReferenceMaterials/GlossaryOfLiteracyTer ms/WhatIsInventiveSpelling.htm
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Primary source:
DVD The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Secondary source:
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alliteration; for example, in data 8, the consonant sound [θ] in the word think [θɪŋk] is repeated in the word things [θɪŋz]. Two (2) data rhyming slang, for example in data 4, Winnie the Pooh says the word suspect by spelling it S-U-S-P-E-C-T. Furthermore, three (3) data rhyming pairs; for example, in data 2, the words hefty [hæftɪ] and happy [hæpɪ] have the same final sound [ɪ]. The last is
one (1) data onomatopoeia; for example, in data 6, the words Dum Da Dum Pa Rum Pa Rum imitates the sound of a drum.
There are nine kinds of effects on children which are caused by those twelve kinds of language play as I have mentioned above. The first effect is to create humor. I can find eight data that give these humorous effects. The second effect is for enjoyment. There are five data that I find producing enjoyment effects. To create humor and enjoyment has one main goal that is just for fun, so that the children do not feel bored in watching this movie. These effects are mostly felt by using rhyming slang and alliteration.
The third effect is to create a pleasant sound. I can find six data that give this kind of effect. There are some purposes of this effect, namely to help children to increase their new vocabulary, help them to memorize the new words easily, and help them to learn new words. Besides, a pleasant sound can also make children not feel bored in watching this movie. The pleasant sound is usually found in the songs sung by the characters. This effect is mostly produced by using rhyming pairs and assonance.
The fourth effect of the use of language play in this movie is to give a clearer description. I can find only one data that give this effect. The kind of
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language play that gives this effect is mimes. Meanwhile, the fifth effect is to help children to spell the words. There are two data which produce this effect by means of rhyming slang.
The sixth effect of language play in The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh movie is to help children to pronounce words. Two data create this kind of effect. Graphological variation is a kind of language play that produces this effect. Then, the seventh effect is to help children be more confident in writing. I can find two data that give this effect. The kind of language play that gives this effect is graphological variation.
The last effect is to encourage children to learn pronunciation by showing them that they are not the only ones who have difficulty in saying words which consist of more than two syllables. Two data give this kind of effect by using infixation.
After analyzing the twenty-one data I use to analyze the language play in The Many Adventures of Winnie The Pooh movie, which involves twelve kinds of language play, I can conclude that children between the ages of three and eight who are in the process of learning new words through reading, listening, speaking, and writing. Therefore, in my opinion, this Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh movie gives the positive and negative effects.
This movie gives positive effects because through the songs which involve kinds of language play such as; alliteration, assonance, and rhyming pairs, children can learn new words and increase their vocabulary. This movie also helps them become more confident in writing. At their age, children usually make a lot
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Besides positives effects, this movie gives the negative effects. I think it is acceptable that children can learn about new words and increase their vocabulary through the kinds of language play. However, the most significant effect of the use of language play in this movie is to create humor. That is why, many words in this movie are incorrectly spelled. In my opinion, The Many Adventure of Winnie the Pooh movie is not classified into an educative movie. This movie is only made for enjoyment.
There are still many kinds of language play that can be found in this movie. I believe cartoon movies have a function not only for enjoyment but also for education. Through cartoon movies, children will not feel bored in learning because they do it while enjoying it. Therefore, do not underestimate cartoon movies. Third, in my opinion, analyzing kinds of language play is very interesting. The reason is that through language play I can apply the knowledge that I have got from the previous semesters to analyze it. As a result, I can understand better about the functions of the knowledge in language play which have significant effects on children.
To end my thesis, I intend to give suggestion to other students who wish to write about the same topic. Cartoon movies are usually dedicated to children. That is why, we can find many language plays in them. In other words, it is easier for those students to write about the same topic analyzing language play in cartoon movies.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
References:
Bauer, Laurie. English Word-Formation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987.
Cook, G. Language Play, Language Learning. ELT Journal, 227, 1997.
Crane, L. Ben, Edward Yeager, and Randal L. Whitman. An Introduction to Linguistics. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Inc., 1981.
Crystal, David. How Language Works. England: Penguin Books, 2005. ---, Language Play. London: Penguin Group, 1998.
---, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language. Australia: Cambridge University
Press, 1987.
Hornby, A.S. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Huck, Charlotte S., et al. Children’s Literature in the Elementary School. Florida: Harcourt Brace Javanovich, Inc., 1989.
Leech, Geoffrey N., and Michael H. Short. Style in Fiction. London and New York: Longman Group, Inc., 1994.
Longman Essential Activator. England: Addison Wesley Longman Limited, 1999. Nash, Walter. The Language of Humour. New York: Longman Group, Inc., 1994.
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O’Grady, William, Michael Dobrovolsky, and Francis Katamba. Contemporary Linguistics An Introduction. United Kingdom: Copp. Clark Pitman Ltd., 1996.
O’Grady, William, et al. Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1993
Perrine, Laurence. Literature Structure, Sound, and Sense. New York: Harcourt Brace Javanovich, Inc.,1978.
Widdowson, H.G. Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.
Website:
http://Topher’sCastle.org/movie-transcipt/ManyAdvofWinnieThePooh.html http://www.superkids.com/aweb/pages/reviews/1st_look/wtp/kids.shtml http://www.enc.adu/org/theachered/literacy/languageplayactivities.htm http://www.femail.com.au/learningthroughdisney.htm
http://www.nobleworld.biz/images/Ogunsiji.pdf
http://www.newi.ac.uk/englishresources/workunits/alevel/lang/langatplay.html http://ecrp.uiuc.adu/v5n2/johnson.html
http://education.umn.edu/ceed/publications/earlyreport/fall90.htm http://www.abc.net.au/rn/linguafranca/stories/2007/1813887.htm http://iteslj.org/Articles/McGlothlin-ChildLearn.html
http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/literacy/ReferenceMaterials/GlossaryOfLiteracyTer ms/WhatIsInventiveSpelling.htm
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Primary source:
DVD The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh
Secondary source: