Bad language words in three twentieth century American novels: a sociolinguistic study - USD Repository
BAD LANGUAGE WORDS IN THREE TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN NOVELS: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
HARUM AJENG KINASIH
Student Number: 084214096
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2012
BAD LANGUAGE WORDS IN THREE TWENTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN NOVELS: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By
HARUM AJENG KINASIH
Student Number: 084214096
ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2012
A A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
BAD LANGUAGE WORDS IN THREE BAD
E TWENTIE TIETH CENTURY AMERICAN NOV OVELS: A SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY A
By
HARUM AJENG KINASIH
Student Number: 084214096 Approved by
th
Dr. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A M.Pd., M.A. August ugust 15 , 2012 Advisor
th
Anna Fitriati, S.Pd., M.H
d., M.Hum. August ugust 15 , 2012 Co. Advisor
A
BAD LANGUAGE WORDS IN THREE
TIETH CENTURY AMERICAN NOVA SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY
E OVELS: ature
BAD TWENTIE A
By
A Sarjana Sastra Undergraduate Thesis
HARUM AJENG KINASIH
Chairperson : F.X. S Secretary : Dra. A Member 1 : Adve Member 2 : Dr. Fr Member 3 : Anna
Student Number: 084214096 Defended before the Board of Examiners
On August 31, 2012 and Declared Acceptable
Name
. Siswadi, M.A., Ph.D.
a. A.B. Sri Mulyani, M.A., Ph.D. dventina Putranti, S.S., M.Hum.
. Fr. B. Alip, M.Pd., M.A. nna Fitriati, S.Pd., M.Hum.
Yogyakarta, Au Faculty of
Sanata Dharm De
D
, August 31, 2012 y of Letters harma University
Dean
BOARD OF EXAMINERS
Signatu
LEMBAR PERNYA YATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KAR ARYA ILMIAH
UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS U Yang bertanda tangan d an di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sana nata Dharma: Nama : Harum Ajeng Kinasih : H Nomor Mahasiswa : 084214096 : 084214096Demi pengembangan an ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepad pada Perpustakaan
Universitas Sanata Dha harma karya ilmiah yang berjudul:
BA BAD LANGUAGE WORDS IN THREE
TWENT NTIETH CENTURY AMERICAN NOVEL LS:
A SOCIOLINGUISTIC STUDY
Beserta perangkat yang ang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian sa n saya memberikan
kepada Perpustakaan n Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan, meng engalihkan dalam
bentuk media lain, m n, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalan data, m , mendistribusikan
secara terbatas, dan dan mempublikasikannya di internet atau me media lain untuk
kepentingan akademis is tanpa perlu meminta ijin dari saya maupun me memberikan royalti
kepada saya selama tet tetap mencantumkan nama saya sebagai penulis. is.Demikian pernyataan i n ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya. Dibuat di Yogyakarta rta
Pada tanggal : 10 Sept eptember 2012 Yang Menyatakan n
(Harum Ajeng Kinasih nasih)
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY
I declare that the thesi hesis I have written does not contain any works or ks or parts of the works of other people ople, except those cited in the quotations as any a y academic paper should.
Yogyakarta, Sept eptember 10, 2012 Harum Aje jeng Kinasih
When bad things happen, don’t give up.
The day will come when you look back and laugh at them.
(Noriko in Fushigi Yuugi by Watase Yuu)
For my family in which the life to live lively begins and ends.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I thank the Lord who arts in heaven, who gives me life and seizes my days with so many blessings and gifts. Even if I turn my face from Him with so many sinful deeds, He never lets me lose my faith to keep struggle and face everything. With Him, I know that I will never walk alone.
I would like to express my greatest gratitude to my advisor, Dr. Fr. B. Alip M.Pd., M.A., for his patience, readiness, and willingness to guide me work on this thesis. Without him, my thesis would be nothing but unfinished scratches. My gratitude also goes to my co. advisor, Ana Fitriati, S.Pd., M.Hum. for her willingness and thoroughness in reading my thesis. Her short advice completed this thesis and it gave me more confidence and faith that I could really do better.
I would like to thank my parents and two brothers for their unlimited understanding, support, and love. It is very assuring that I always have a place to come back while I am down. I also thank my big family who never let my little family drown in the hardship.
My special gratitude goes to Prayudi Wijaya, who is willing to be my mentor. His stubborn opinions on anything saved me over and over again. My thanks to my friends on the same road Topan Putra, Daniel Patty, and Niko Neka, who make my days become extraordinary fun and give me the reason not to be left behind. I also thank Mas Surya Dharma, a great overtime-mate, for being a silence partner that keeps me feel safe.
Last but not least, I would thank all special people who gave me any form of supports for finishing this thesis. Though I could not mention all the names, all of their contributions were highly appreciated.
Harum Ajeng Kinasih
TABLE OF CONTENTS TITLE PAGE ………………………………………………………… i
APPROVAL PAGE ………………………………………………….. ii
ACCEPTANCE PAGE ……………………………………………… iii
LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PUBLIKASI …………………………..iv
STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ………………………………… v
MOTTO PAGE ………………………………………………………. vi
DEDICATION PAGE ……………………………………………….. vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS …………………………………………. viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS …………………………………………….x
ABSTRACT ………………………………………………………….. xii
ABSTRAK ……………………………………………………………. xiii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ………………………………….
1 A. Background of the Study ………………………………………
1 B. Problem Formulation ………………………………………….
3 C. Objectives of the Study ……………………………………….
3 D. Definition of Terms ……………………………………………
4 CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW……………………......
5 A. Review of Related Studies …………………………………….
5 B. Review of Related Theories ……………………………………
7 C. Theoretical Framework …………………………………………
21 CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY …………………………………
23 A. Object of the Study ……………………………………………..
23 B. Approach of the Study ………………………………………….
25 C. Method of the Study ……………………………………………
26 CHAPTER IV: RESULTS …………………………………………..
29 A. The Usage of BLW in Three Twentieth Century American Novels ………………………………………………………….
29 1. The Usage of BLW based on their varieties of content …….
30
2. The Usage of BLW based on morphosyntax, parts of speech, and functional terms ……………………………….
42 B. The Characteristics of BLW Usage in Three Twentieth Century American Novels ………………………………………
47 C. The Purposes of BLW Usage in Three Twentieth Century American Novels ………………………………………
56 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION …………………………………….
63
APPENDICES ………………………………………………………….
67 Appendix 1: List of the Sentences Containing BLW.………………...
67 Appendix 2: Data Categorization…….……………………………......
81 Appendix 3: Data Distribution………………………………………..
96
.
ABSTRACT
HARUM AJENG KINASIH Bad Language Words in the Twentieth Century .
American Novels: A Sociolinguistic Study Yogyakarta: Department of English
Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2012.People in a society need to conform with certain culture to be accepted. However, there are also certain behavior that makes them not to be accepted in their community. Therefore, there are things considered as taboo as the prohibition or avoidance of behavior believed to be offensive to society. Bad Language Words (BLW) is a form of taboo language which are commoly used by people in the society. The use of BLW is interestingly a complex social phenomenon since they commonly appear in many texts and conversations, regardless their offensiveness. It can be seen from their frequent appearances in three twentieth century American novels: The Grapes of Wrath, To Kill A Mockingbird and The Catcher in the Rye.
There are three questions raised in this study. First is the use of BLW in the direct sentences appear in the data, second is the characteristics of BLW appear in the data, and the third is the purposes of the BLW stated in the data.
The study is started with the identification of direct sentences containing BLW and the categorization of those sentences. The categorization follows the insights from Geoffrey Hughes’s BLW classification based on their varieties of content (2006) and Tony McEnery’s BLW categorization based on morphosyntax, parts of speech, and functional term (2006). The characteristics of BLW in the data are inferred from the categorization for later they become the keys to determine the purposes of the BLW usages.
The study figures out that the sentences containing BLW in the data cover five categories of BLW proposed by Hughes and thirteen categories of BLW by McEnery. Six characteristics of BLW are inferred from the analysis of the study. They are offensive, emotive, exclamatory, exaggerative, idiomatic, and intimate. Four purposes of the BLW usage in the sentences are found too. They are to express emotion, to provoke the interlocutors’ attention, and to express and reinforce solidarity. These results will give people broader knowledge and understanding about how people should use the BLW and let people know how to identify the offence directed to them through the BLW.
ABSTRAK
HARUM AJENG KINASIH. Bad Language Words in the Twentieth Century
American Novels: A Sociolinguistic Study. Yogyakarta: Jurusan Sastra Inggris,
Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma, 2012.Manusia dalam masyarakat perlu menerapkan budaya tertentu untuk bias diterima.Akan tetapi, ada tingkah laku tertentu yang dapat membuat mereka tidak diterima dalam komunitas mereka. Karenanya, adahal-hal yang dianggap tabu, yaitu tingkah laku yang dilarang dan dihindari karena diyakini menyinggung orang lain dalam masyarakat. Bad Language Words (BLW) adalah suatu bentuk bahasa tabu yang umum digunakan dalam masyarakat. Menariknya, penggunaan
BLW merupakan fenomena sosial yang kompleks, karena meskipun bersifat
menyinggung, bahasa ini umumnya muncul dalam banyak teks maupun percakapan. Hal ini terlihat dari seringnya bahasa ini muncul pada tiga novel Amerika abad kedua-puluh: The Grapes, To Kill A Mockingbird danThe Catcher in the Rye.
Ada tiga pertanyaan dimunculkan dalam studi ini. Yang pertama adalah penggunaan BLW dalam kalimat langsung pada data, yang kedua adalah karakteristik BLW pada data, dan yang ketiga adalah tujuan penggunaan BLW pada data.
Studi ini dimulai dengan identifikasi kalimat langsung yang mengandung
BLW dan kategorisasi kalimat-kalimat tersebut. Kategorisasi ini mengikuti
klasifikasiBLW berdasarkan variasi isi yang pernah dilakukan oleh Geoffrey Hughes (2006) dan klasifikasi BLW berdasarkan morfosintaksis, kelas kata, dan istilah fungsional yang pernah dilakukan oleh Tony McEnery (2006).
Karakteristik BLW yang disimpulkan dari kategorisasi-kategorisasi BLW nantinya digunakan sebagai elemen penting dalam menentukan tujuan penggunaan BLW.
Studi ini menyimpulkan bahwa kalimat-kalimat yang menggunakan BLW di dalam data meliputi lima kategori BLW yang diajukan oleh Hughes dan tiga belas kategori BLW yang diajukan oleh McEnery. Ada enam karakteristik BLW yang dapat diambil dari penelitian ini. Karakteristik-karakteristik tersebut adalah bersifat menyerang, menunjukkan emosi, mengandung seruan, melebih-lebihkan, idiomatis, dan bersifat intim. Ada empat tujuan penggunaan BLW diperoleh dari penelitian ini. Tujuan-tujuan tersebut adalah untuk memperlihatkan emosi, untuk memprovokasi pendengar, untuk menarik perhatian pendengar, dan untuk menyatakan dan memperkuat solidaritas.
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study Language has a power to change the world. It can connect, destroy, or
build society. The bound between language and society’s culture are unavoidably existed for as old as the language itself. According to Goodenough in Wardaugh (2010) culture consists of whatever it is one has to know to operate in a manner acceptable to its members, and to do so in any role that they accept for any one of themselves (Wardaugh, 2010: 229).
People need to apply certain culture to be accepted. On the contrary, there will be certain behavior that makes them not to be accepted in their society.
This social law is also applied for language. There are some bad language words (hereafter abbreviated as BLW) that are considered as taboo in certain society.
Taboo is the prohibition or avoidance in any society of behavior believed to be harmful to its members in that it would cause them anxiety, embarrassment, or shame (Wardaugh, 2010: 249). English is a language that is developed from long history and the complex mixing from other languages, and the social meaning of English has lead some words to be offensive or obscene for people. As a taboo, BLW become an offensive matter that is hardly accepted by the other member of the society.
The language behavior develops from the very first time of the
2 censor their language, and so normally say whatever first enters their heads without considering the circumstances of utterance, are deemed mentally unstable (Allan and Burridge, 2006:39). Therefore, there is a certain rule that serves as the barrier between appropriate and inappropriate things to say.
People used to transfer their knowledge, including the knowledge about taboo, orally. However, the invention of writing around 3000 BC transformed oral tradition, transmitted through storytelling, epics, mythical re-enactments and performances, into textual tradition, handed down by scribes (Kramsch, 1998:53).
The development of arts in the form of literature later becomes the record of the social and society changes. Social analysis through the close examination of literary products then becomes a worth-to-do project.
Three novels are used as the objects of this study. Three of the novels are twentieth century American novels, written by three different authors. The novels are JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1964), John Steinback’s The Grapes of
Wrath (1976) and Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird (1990). All of these novels
share the same properties; they are all challenged due to the BLW usage inside them <http://www.ala.org/advocacy/banned/frequentlychallenged/challenged classics/ reasonsbanned> (24 April 2012). For example, The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger is challenged because it covers “excess vulgar language, sexual scenes, things concerning moral issues, excessive violence, and anything dealing with the occult.” Therefore, these novels are suitable to be the object of study related to the written BLW.
3 Based on the above, it is interesting to analyze the productivity and the creativity of the BLW in American novels by different authors. Gathering the data from the literary works, the purpose of saying BLW can also be revealed.
B. Problem Formulation
There are some questions used to map and focus the study. The questions are as follows:
1. How are bad language words (BLW) used in three twentieth century American novels?
2. What are the characteristics of the bad language words (BLW) found in the three novels?
3. What are the purposes of the bad language words (BLW) use in the three novels?
C. Objectives of the Study
There are three main objectives of this study. The first objective of this study is to describe the usage of BLW in three twentieth century American Novels. The term ‘usage’ follows Hughes’s insight about BLW’s classification based on the varieties of content and McEnery’s theory on BLW’s categorization based on the morphosyntax, part of speech, and functional term of usage. The result of the first objective will be useful to explain the second objective, which is to find the characteristics of the BLW found in the novels. Finally, the third
4 objective of this novel is to figure out the purpose or the motifs of statements contained BLW.
D. Definition of Terms
There are two main definitions that are used to limit the discussion. The terms are bad languages and sociolinguistic study.
Tony McEnery in his book Swearing in English: Bad language, Purity
and Power from 1586 to the Present defines bad language words as any word or
phrase which, when used in what one might call polite conversation, is likely to cause offence (McEnery, 2005:2). The related terms to bad languages are profane, swear word, cuss, dirty word, and oath.
Allan and Burridge add more specific definition for bad language as follows.
Both slang and profane swearing are found only in colloquial styles – which leads us to the discussion of styles as varieties of English. From swearing and cursing, we proceed to insults and maledictions. Except for style, all these topics have at some time been referred to as ‘bad’ language (Allan and Burridge, 2006:55) The next term is sociolinguistic study. In short, it is a study of language from the social context. Ronald Wardaugh in his book An Introduction to
Sociolinguistics explains that
sociolinguistics is concerned with investigating the relationship between language and society with the goal being a better understanding of the structure of language and how languages function in communication (Wardaugh, 2010:12).
CHAPTER II THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies The previous study that is related to this study is The Use of Slang in Daily Communication Among Youth in 1950’s New York as Seen in J.D. Salinger’s the Catcher in the Rye (Purna, 2005). It is an unpublished undergraduate thesis of Sanata Dharma University, Yogyakarta, written by Gregorius Purna. The Use of Slang in Daily Communication Among Youth in 1950’s New York as Seen in J.D. Salinger’s the Catcher in the Rye explores the meaning,
characteristics, and functions of the slang spoken by the youth. It employs some theories of slang by Eric Partridge (1978), Sechrist (1978), and I.L. Allen (1994).
Using the standard dictionary and dictionary of slang, Purna identifies the meaning and the purpose of the youth’s using slang as the daily terms in their communication behavior. To strengthen the validity of the research, Purna uses the theory of communication combined with supported theory about youth communication to limit the analysis on the “youth communication.”
Purna analyzes The Catcher in the Rye in the point of view of sociolinguistics. It is found from the quotation below “This is an interesting part for the discussion where the novel can be analyzed in the point of view of sociolinguistics. Using this base, the writer will use the analysis to draw the problems to be discussed later. Sociolinguistics deals with society and language in which the members of a particular society speak,” (Purna, 2005:3).
6 The study finds out five categories of slang expressions classified according to the meaning attached in the expressions. They are categorized as persons, actions, objects, swearing, and circumstances or conditions. It also finds six characteristics of slang spoken by youth. They show emotion, abbreviation, exclamatory, arbitrary, based on idioms, and often exaggerated. The purposes of the slang usage are found as to express emotion, to be secret, to be quick, to be brief or succinct, and to be playful in meaning. As for the functions, Purna finds slang functions as to speed up the communication process and to express emotion using emotive vocabularies (Purna, 2005: viii).
Other than the similarity of the use of the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, the present study uses nearly the same pattern as the Purna’s undergraduate thesis.
BLW, which is the main object of this study, is treated in the same position as slang in Purna’s undergraduate thesis. The study finds out also the characteristic and the purpose of a linguistic variation, in this case BLW. It takes also the same point of view of sociolinguistics, which underlines the relation between language and society.
In short, this study will take the same position as Purna’s undergraduate thesis. It takes the same literary work as one of the object of the study and it also employs the same point of view and pattern to conduct the analysis.
7
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Taboo, Bad Language Words (BLW), and Swearing
The English word taboo derives from the Tongan tabu, which came to notice towards the end of the eighteen century. Taboo in this study is related to taboo in language. In a broad sense, taboos arise out of social constraints on an individual’s behavior which can cause discomfort, harm or injury (Allan and Burridge, 2006: 1). Radcliffe-Brown in Allan and Burridge (2006: 2) states that
In the languages of Polynesia the word means simply ‘to forbid’, ‘forbidden’, and can be applied to any sort of prohibition. A rule of etiquette, an order issued by a chief, an injunction to children not to meddle with the possessions of their elders, may all be expressed by the use of the word tabu (Radcliffe-Brown, 1939: 5f ).
Allan and Burridge also categorizes taboo as follows bodies and their effluvia (sweat, snot, faeces, menstrual fluid, etc.); the organs and acts of sex, micturition and defecation; diseases, death and killing (including hunting and fishing); naming, addressing, touching and viewing persons and sacred beings, objects and places; food gathering, preparation and consumption (Allan and Burridge, 2006: 1). A sociolinguist, Wardaugh, states that taboo is prohibition or avoidance in any socitey of behavior believed to be harmful to its members in that it would cause them anxiety, embarrassment, or shame (Wardaugh, 2010: 239). It is an extremely strong politeness constraint. Consequently, as far as language is concerned, certain things are not to be said or certain objects can be referred to only in certain circumstances.
In a specific case of taboo language, Geoffrey Hughes (2006) claims that “taboo” itself also contains binary opposition, referring to human experiences,
8 (like the name of God od) or unspeakably vile (like incest) (Hughes, hes, 2006: xv). He initiates the figure of of Varieties of Swearing and Word Magic whic hich is designed to give a basic map of te territory.
Figure 1. Hughes’s V s’s Varieties of Swearing and Word Magic (Hughe ughes, 2006: xvi) The figure show shows the hierarchical separation between the bi he binary opposites of “sacred”, “profane ane”, and “taboo,” divided by the “line of ac acceptability” on which stands “oaths,” hs,” since they can be either sacred or profane. T . The categories of “obscenity,” “foul lang language” and “ethnic slurs” stand below the li line because they are purely secular and and have no sacred equivalent. As the entries es for these major categories show, seve several of the terms have complex historie ories and unstable meanings (Hughes, 2006 s, 2006: xvi).
As for McEne Enery, taboo language begins to gain its pow power through a process if stigmatizat zation. This process leads a society to point w nt where inferences about the users of bad bad language are commonplace (Mcenery, 2006: 2006: 1). He refers bad language as any ny word or phrase which, when used in what hat one might call polite conversation, i on, is likely to cause offence. The use of bad bad language is a
9 range of evidence in order to begin to explain both the source and the undoubted power of bad language and the processes whereby inferences are drawn about the speaker using it (Mcenery, 2006: 1).
Tony McEnery bases his study on the Lancaster Corpuse of Abuse. The LCA is a problem oriented corpus based on data extracted from the BNC spoken corpus (McEnery, 2006: 26). The corpus contains only those examples of BLW usage where the age, sex and social class of the speaker are known.
The BLWs covered by the LCA can broadly be grouped under the following main headings—swear words (e.g. FUCK, PISS, SHIT), animal terms of abuse (e.g. PIG, COW, BITCH), sexist terms of abuse (e.g. BITCH, WHORE, SLUT), intellect-based terms of abuse (e.g. IDIOT, PRAT, IMBECILE), racist terms of abuse (e.g. PAKI, NIGGER, CHINK) and homophobic terms of abuse (e.g. QUEER). Obviously, there is an interplay between these broad categories—for example, animal terms of abuse may also be sexist abuse forms (e.g. cow). However, for the purposes of describing the contents of the corpus, this broad classification will suffice (McEnery, 2006: 26).
Then, McEnery also designs a more specific classification for the BLW. The classification is based on some combined parameters such as morphosyntax, part of speech, and functional term of usage. The table of the categorization is shown in the next page.
10
Table 1. McEn Enery’s Categorization of BLW (McEnery, 2006: y, 2006: 27)
To determine ne the strength of the bad language offensive nsiveness, McEnery combines some survey veys commissioned by various media watchdog hdogs in the UK. He borrows the scale f from one of the sources that have cont ontributed to the constructions of the sur he survey, The British Board of Film Classificati ation. The table is presented in the next pa xt page.
Table
Swearing is one racist, and sexist lang most massive exampl and developed forms (Hughes: 2006, xv). H
In terms of mode
that something
somebody; and frustration. The classical terms, blasphemy, pr “exclamation” As in terms of communities, the ran poetic creativity, but xviii). There are some The resonators which below.
able 2. Scale of Offence of BLW (McEnery, 2006:
s one example of bad language, yet blasphemous, anguage may also cause offence (McEnery, 2006: ple of bad language, swearing now includes s that some broad distinctions need to be ma
. Hughes also differentiates modes and content of mode, we swear by some higher force or some hing is so; we swear to do something; we swear and we swear simply out of anger, disa
These different modes can be retermed by var ms, such as asseveration, invocation, imprecation, profanity, obscenity, and ejaculation (in it on”) (Hughes, 2006: xv). s of content, Hughes states that with the dive range of content is remarkable for its protea but also shocking in its ugliness and cruelty some resonators or things which become the trigg hich are drawn upon by swearing are expresse
11
y, 2006: 30)
ous, homophobic, , 2006: 2). As the udes so many varied made at the outset nt of swearing. somebody; we swear ar at something or disappointment, or various unfamiliar ation, malediction, n its old sense of diversity of speech otean diversity and ty (Hughes: 2006, igger of the BLW. essed in the table
12
Table 3. Contents of Swearing Resonators (Hughes, 2006: xviii)
Resonators Examples
The use of religious reinforcers and by God! , the devil take it!, by my sacred references father’s soul , on my mother’s grave Family origins son of a bitch, whoreson The attribution of various reprehensible traitor, turncoat, bum, layabout, whore, behaviors and violations of moral slut, liar, cheat, crook, swindler, codes, including: treachery, idleness, coward, chicken, toady, brownnose, promiscuity, dishonesty, theft, lack of , miser, filthy, scum
parsimonious
courage or martial commitment, sycophancy, meaness, and dirt. social stigmas, such as illegitimacy and bastard, whoreson, bugger, butt-fucker perversion social conditions, such as poverty poor, miserable insulting names, demeaning labels, and cow, pig, prick, tit, imbecile, unflattering comparisons, such as the ignoramus, turd , shit, whitey, yid, animal, the sexual, the intellectual, the fascist, nazi excretory, the racist, the political
BLW by its nature tends not to be used freely in written or printed form and in any kind of printed publishing. However, since the attitude toward the BLW itself changes from time to time, the acceptability of the words becomes somewhat inconstant in their modes, styles, and references. The degree of provocation is also influenced by culture, age, gender, and so on (Hughes, 2006: xix). Therefore, the study of BLW, including swearing, needs to be specific due to certain origin and period to get specific result too.
The use of bad language is a complex social phenomenon (McEnery, 2006: 1), so is the purpose behind the use of the BLW in the conversation. It is proved by McEnery that there was no difference in amount of swearing between males and females, although males tend to use the stronger forms of BLW, and
13 250). The other study of profanity in the workplace reported by University of East Anglia in 2007 reported two interesting findings related to the purpose of the use of profanity: that workers made regular use of profanity to express solidarity and to vent feelings of frustration and that the language was not used in close proximity to customers, being confined to staff-only areas (Wardaugh, 2010: 250).
In addition for the purpose of saying BLW, Wardaugh gives a statement that linguistic taboos may also be violated on occasion to draw attention to oneself, or to show contempt, or to be aggressive or provocative, or to mock authority – or, according to Freud, on occasion as a form of verbal seduction, e.g., ‘talking dirty.’ The penalty for breaking a linguistic taboo can be severe, for blasphemy and obscenity are still crimes in many jurisdictions, but it is hardly likely to cost you your life, as the violation of certain non-linguistic taboos, e.g., incest taboos, might in certain places in the world (Wardaugh, 2010: 250).
2. Sociolinguistics
Wardaugh, in his book An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (2010), differentiates between the sociolinguistics or micro-sociolinguistics and the sociology of language or macro-linguistics.
In this distinction, sociolinguistics is concerned with investigating the relationships between language and society with the goal being a better understanding of the structure of language and of how languages function in communication; the equivalent goal in the sociology of language is trying to discover how social structure can be better understood through the study of language, e.g., how certain linguistic features serve to characterize particular social arrangements (Wardaugh, 2010:10). In short, Hudson states that sociolinguistics is ‘the study of language in relation to society, whereas sociology of language is ‘the study of society in relation to language’ (Wardaugh, 2010:10).
14 This thesis will employ some theories of sociolinguistics, including the theory of words and culture, factors influencing language used in communication, and taboo in language. This study concerns on the use of language in societies. Like Coulmas (1997) in Wardaugh said, the micro-linguistics (or sociolinguistics) applications involve the further investigations on how the social structure influences the way people talk and how language varieties and patterns of use correlate with social attributes such as class, sex, and age. This study will spot the use of BLW in American society reflected in three twentieth century American novels written by different authors from different background.
a. Variables in Sociolinguistics
There are two types of variable involved in sociolinguistic research. The first is the social variable that determines a variation in language. The possible social factors are gender, geography, age, occupation, educational background, etc. The second variable is the linguistic variable, which is the feature of language that is investigated in the research (Stockwell, 2002). This research employs the BLW as the linguistic variable and relates the productivity and creativity of BLW in America based on the novels on which stories take place in America.
b. Language and Society
Before stating the relation between language and society, the clear definitions of both terms have to be stated first. According to Wardaugh, a society is any group of people who are drawn together for a certain purpose or purposes,
15 while a language is what the members of a particular society speak (Wardaugh, 2010: 1).
Language is used in a society to maintain communication (Trudgill in Wardaugh, 1983). The communication can happen among people who speak the same language. The process will happen inasmuch as a group of people share the same knowledge about the reference, code, and concept of things surround them.
Wardaugh gives four possible relationships between language and society. One is that social structure may either influence or determine linguistic structure and/or behavior. A second possible relationship is directly opposed to the first: linguistic structure and/or behavior may either influence or determine social structure. A third possible relationship is that the influence is bi-directional: language and society may influence each other. A fourth possibility is to assume that there is no relationship at all between linguistic structure and social structure and that each is independent of the other (Wardaugh, 2010).
In this study, this theory of possibilities is used to identify the influence of society background toward the use of BLW. What is believed by people in certain society may have certain impact toward the language. This is supported with Trudgill’s statement about the relation between language and society cited in Wardaugh (2010).
Thirdly, in addition to environment and social structure, the values of society can also have an effect on its language. The most interesting way in which this happens is through the phenomenon known as taboo. Taboo can be characterized as being concerned with behavior which is believed to be supernaturally forbidden, …. In language, taboo is associated with things which are not said, and in particular with words and expressions which are not used (Trudgill, 1974).
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c. Words and Culture
The culture in this section does not refer to the appreciation of the work of art; it has simpler sense of whatever a person must know in order to function in a particular society (Wardaugh, 2010). The relation between what is said by people and the influence of people’s way of life exists in rather invisible manner. Whorf simplify the relation by saying that the structure of a language determines the way in which speakers of that language view the world (Wardaugh, 2010).
The theory of relation between words and culture can explain how certain society, in this research American society, has certain treatment toward some words that are considered as bad languages.
d. Factors Influencing Language Used in Communication
This thesis takes the direct quotation in the novels as the object of analysis and it involves the components of speaking of the sentences. Hence, the Hymes’s proposal of ethnographic framework becomes the most relevant theory to support the study. Hymes uses the word SPEAKING as an acronym for the various factors that he deems to be relevant in understanding how particular communicative event achieves its objectives (Wardaugh, 2010: 259). SPEAKING stands for setting and
scene, participants, ends, act sequence, key, instrumentality, norms of interaction
and interpretation, and, genre.S or setting and scene refers to the physical circumstances in which speech takes place and the abstract psychological setting of the occasion. P or the
17 addressee, or sender-receiver which satisfies certain specified roles. E or ends refers to the conventionally recognized and expected outcomes of an exchange as well as to the personal goals that participants seek to accomplish on particular occasions, i.e., different personal goals own by participants in the court. A or act
sequence refers to the actual form and content of what is said; the precise words
used, how they are used, and the relationship of what is said to the actual topic at hand. Different speaking in different occasion will have different style of language and content. K or key refers to the tone in which a particular message is conveyed; whether it is delivered light-heartedly, seriously, sarcastically, and so on. I or instrumentalities deals with the choice of channel and the actual forms of speech employed, i.e., the choice of media to deliver the speaking and the register which is chosen. The combination of some media and registers are very possible. N or norms of interaction and interpretation refers to the specific behaviors and properties that attach to speaking and the way it is viewed by someone who does not share them. The last letter G or genre refers to the demarcated types of utterance; such as poems, sermons, lectures, and so on.
The consideration of Hymes’s proposal about the various factors that are involved in speaking strengthened Hughes’s statement that modes of swearing and societal taboos show quite different emphases at different stages and sectors of the same basic culture (Hughes, 2006: xix). An ethnography of a communicative event, that is proposed by Hymes, is a description of all the factors that are relevant in understanding how that particular communicative event achieves its
18 communicative event, whether it is positive of negative objective. In this thesis, it means that each speaking containing BLW considers those elements, so that participants involved in the communications own the same understanding about the content of the speaking.
3. Twentieth Century Americans and Twentieth Century American English
A sociolinguistic study takes an account of the social conditions in order to figure out the influence of those conditions to the language used in the society.
Since the background of the three novels used in this study are novels about and written in twentieth century, a review about the conditions of twentieth century Americans and twentieth century American English is necessary.
a. Twentieth Century American