THE LANGUAGE USAGE BY THE SUFFERER OF BIPOLAR DISORDER IN “SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK” MOVIE.

THE LANGUAGE USAGE BY THE SUFFERER OF BIPOLAR
DISORDER IN “SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK” MOVIE
THESIS

Submitted as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Sarjana Degree
of English Department
Faculty of Arts and Humanities
State Islamic University of Sunan Ampel Surabaya

By:
Cholilatus Sa’diyah
Reg. Number: A03212033

ENGLISH DEPARTMENT
FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF SUNAN AMPEL
SURABAYA
2016

ABSTRACT
Sa’diyah, Cholilatus. 2016. The Language Usage by the Sufferer of Bipolar

Disorder in “Silver Linings Playbook” Movie. Thesis. English Department.
Faculty of Letters and Humanities. The State Islamic University of Sunan
Ampel Surabaya.
The Advisor : Raudlotul Jannah, M. App. Ling.
Key words
: Language usage, Language disorder, Bipolar disorder, Silver Linings
Playbook movie.

This study examines the language usage by the sufferer of bipolar disorder
in “Silver Linings Playbook” movie. This study is conducted to answer the
following problem: How is the language usage by the the sufferer of bipolar
disorder in “Silver Linings Playbook” movie that include in language disorder?
The answer to this question can lead to the questions; (1) What are the kinds of
language disorder that happened on the language usage by the sufferer of bipolar
disorder in “Silver Linings Playbook” movie? (2) How does the differences of the
language usage by the sufferer of bipolar disorder when non-bipolar and bipolar?
This study based on Language disorder or language impairment. Then, the
methodology of this study is applying qualitative research method which the data
is collected from the script of the movie that download in google and the
researcher divided into some scenes. The last one is data analysis; it is analyzed

based on the two kinds of language impairment: (1) Receptive language
impairment, (2) Expressive language impairment.
The findings of this study show that the language usage by the sufferer of
bipolar disorder in “Silver Linings Playbook” movie often meet with expressive
language impairment (show all of the words or ideas in the sufferer of bipolar
disorder’s mind). But do not rule out the possibility that receptive language
impairment also occur on the sufferer of bipolar disorder. Finally, the writer hopes
this study can give a contribution for the next writers who are interested in
language usage the sufferer of the bipolar disorder that include in the language
disorder.

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INTISARI
Sa’diyah, Cholilatus. 2016. The Language Usage by the Sufferer of Bipolar
Disorder in “Silver Linings Playbook” Movie. Thesis. English Department.
Faculty of Letters and Humanities. The State Islamic University of Sunan
Ampel Surabaya.

Pembimbing : Raudlotul Jannah, M. App. Ling.
Kata kunci
: Language usage, Language disorder, Bipolar disorder, Silver Linings
Playbook movie.

Studi ini meneliti tentang penggunaan bahasa oleh penderita gangguan
bipolar difilm "Silver Linings Playbook". Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk
menjawab masalah berikut: Bagaimana penggunaan bahasa oleh penderita
gangguan bipolar dalam film "Silver Linings Playbook" yang termasuk dalam
gangguan bahasa? Jawaban atas pertanyaan ini dapat mengarah pada pertanyaan;
(1) Apa macam-macam gangguan bahasa yang terjadi pada penderita bipolar
dalam penggunaan bahasanya difilm "Silver Linings Playbook"? (2) Bagaimana
perbedaan bahasanya penderita bipolar ketika bipolar dan non-bipolar?
Penelitian ini didasarkan pada gangguan bahasa. Kemudian, metodologi
penelitian ini menerapkan metode penelitian kualitatif yang datanya dikumpulkan
dari naskah film yang didownload di google dan peneliti membaginya menjadi
beberapa adegan. Yang terakhir adalah analisis data; dianalisis berdasarkan dua
jenis gangguan bahasa: (1) penurunan nilai bahasa reseptif, (2) penurunan bahasa
ekspresif.
Hasil dari penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa penggunaan bahasa oleh

penderita gangguan bipolar difilm "Silver Linings Playbook" yang sering muncul
ialah gangguan bahasa ekspresif (menampilkan semua kata-kata atau ide-ide
dalam pikiran penderita gangguan bipolar). Tapi tidak mengesampingkan
kemungkinan bahwa gangguan bahasa reseptif juga terjadi pada penderita
gangguan bipolar. Akhirnya, penulis berharap penelitian ini dapat memberikan
kontribusi bagi penulis selanjutnya yang tertarik dalam penggunaan bahasa oleh
penderita gangguan bipolar yang termasuk dalam gangguan bahasa.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Inside Cover ........................................................................................................ i
Inside Title............................................................................................................ii
Declaration .......................................................................................................... iii
Dedication ........................................................................................................... iv
Motto ................................................................................................................... v
Thesis’s Advisor’s Approval Page ...................................................................... vi

Thesis’s Examiner’s Approval Page.................................................................... vii
Acknowledgments ............................................................................................... viii
Table of Contents ................................................................................................ ix
Abstract ............................................................................................................... xii
Intisari..................................................................................................................xiii

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
1.1.

Background of the Study .......................................................................... 1

1.2.

Statements of Problem .............................................................................. 7

1.3.

Objectives of Study .................................................................................. 7

1.4.


Significance of Study................................................................................ 8

1.5.

Scope and Limitation ................................................................................ 8

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1.6.


Definition of Key Terms ........................................................................... 9

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1.

Psycholinguistics and Language Impairment
in Children and Adults .............................................................................. 10

2.2

Language Disorder (Language Impairment)..............................................14
2.2.1. Receptive Language Impairment ................................................... 16
2.2.1.1. Impairment in Language Form ........................................ 19
2.2.1.2. Impairment in Language Content .................................... 19
2.2.1.3 Impairment in Language Use............................................20
2.2.2. Expressive Language Impairment .................................................. 21
2.2.2.1. Impairment in Language Form ........................................ 22
2.2.2.2. Impairment in Language Content .................................... 23
2.2.2.3. Impairment in Language Use ........................................... 23


2.3.

Silver Linings Playbook Movie ................................................................ 25

CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHOD
3.1.

Research Design ....................................................................................... 27

3.2.

Data and Data Sources .............................................................................. 27

3.3

Research Instrument..................................................................................28

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3.4

Technique of Data Collections..................................................................28

3.5

Technique of Data Analysis......................................................................29

CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
4.1.

Findings....................................................................................................30


4.1.1. Kinds of Language Disorder (Language Impairment).............................31
4.1.1.1. Receptive Language Impairment................................................31
4.1.1.2. Expressive Language Impairment..............................................37
4.1.2. The Differences of The Language Usage by The Sufferer of Bipolar
Disorder when Bipolar and Non-Bipolar.................................................42
4.1.2.1. Bipolar Condition.......................................................................43
4.1.2.2. Non-Bipolar Condition...............................................................45
4.2.

Discussion................................................................................................46

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION
5.1.

Conclusion...............................................................................................49

5.2.

Suggestion...............................................................................................51


REFERENCES................................................................................................53
APPENDIX......................................................................................................55

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

This chapter presents the background of the study, statement of the problems,
objectives of the study, scope and limitation of the study and the definition of the
key terms. Each of the section will be discussed as follows:

1.1 Background of The Study
Every human being wants to be perfect by doing the best for whatever they
do. In fact we have limitations as human being. There are some humans who
suffer from diseases. The diseases can be physical or psychological. Physical
disease is a disease that suffers physic of people and makes their body weak, such
as asthma, migraine, diabetes, vertigo, lungs, and so on. In addition, the
emergence of other physical diseases are often due to psychological disorders.
And psychological disease is a disease that suffers psychological of people and
makes them have a mental disorder, such as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (a
mental disorder that makes the sufferer feels the urge to repeat over and over
cause anxiety), Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (a mental disorder that makes the
sufferer remembers experienced a shocking, scary, or dangerous event that ever
occur in their life), Social Anxiety Disorder (a mental disorder that makes the
sufferer unreasonable fear of social situation), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (a
mental disorder that makes the sufferer difficult to control worry and no apparent
reason for concern), Specific Phobia (It means some people who experience these
seemingly excessive and unreasonable fears in the presence of or in anticipation

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of a specific object, place, or situation), Bipolar Disorder (a mental disorder that
influenced by two poles and makes the sufferer known as maniac episodes or
depressive episodes), and so on. All of the psychological diseases may affect the
language usage of human, including bipolar disorder. If human suffers from
physical diseases, they most likely do not affect the use of language. They can
keep communication with others. However, if human is suffering from
psychological diseases associated with them, it will more or less inevitably affect
their communication with others.
Bipolar disorder can be cathegorized as a mental disorder disease. Bipolar
disorder can be called as maniac depression disorder. It means a disorder that
attack the function of brain bringing on mood swing and the process of thinking.
This is called bipolar, because this disease has two dominant poles; maniac
condition and depression condition (Israr, 2009). In maniac condition, the sufferer
will experience mood range from period of extremely “up”. It means energized
behavior and high enthusiasm that cannot be controlled. Meanwhile, depression
condition is the sufferer will experience mood range from period extremely
“down”. It means to be sad or hopeless. Mood swings that come with bipolar
disorder can be severe, ranging from extremes in energy to deep despair. The
severity of the mood swings and the way they disrupt normal activities distinguish
bipolar mood episodes from ordinary mood changes. Because of that, the sufferer
of bipolar disorder have a mood situation and the process of thinking that different
from normal person when their disease relapses.

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Bipolar disorder often happened to adolescent, under 25 ages. However,
some people can feel a symptom of bipolar disorder since a child. Bipolar disorder
can happen to everyone, both men and women. They can be the sufferer of bipolar
disorder. Almost all of the sufferer of bipolar disorder think to kill themself and
30% of them try to do it with any manner (Sipayung, 2010:51). Bipolar disorder
affects more than two million adult Americans. Like depression and other serious
illnesses, bipolar disorder can also adversely affect spouses, family members,
friends and people in the work place. It usually begins in late adolescence (often
appearing as depression during teen years) although it can start in early childhood
or as late as the 40s and 50s. An equal number of men and women develop illness
and it is found among all ages, races, ethnic groups and social classes. The illness
tends to run in families and is inherited in many case. The sufferer of bipolar
disorder can kill themself because of pressure their feeling. And also the impact of
their disease on their language usage. One problem that often occurs, they will
have pressure speech. Thus, when their disease relapses, they will speak over
fluent.
In general, grandiositas (a phenomenon where a person feels very confident)
influence the language usage by the sufferer of bipolar disorder. It can be said to
be highly exaggerated. In this episode, the sufferer was very sure of herself that
everything can be solved, all the plans will go well, and they felt a great strength
to face all the problems of life. In certain portions, confidence is very good
indeed. Whereas, if the excess portion will give a bad effect. For example, the

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sufferer of bipolar disorder will speak with run-on sentence to deliver their
thoughts and it will be the lack of judgment when making decisions.
Normal people have their own abilities to do something or give some ideas
about something and also the sufferer of bipolar disorder. They can do something
like every human being do. Nevertheless, they can comport rather strange only
when their disease relapses. When their disease relapse, all of us as the social
creature that need each other can stay with them and try to help them for
controlling their disease. It is life, every person will have some drawbacks.
Although normal people with no have disease with their psychological, they still
have drawbacks.
This research is “The Language Usage by the Sufferer of Bipolar Disorder in
“Silver Linings Playbook” Movie”. It is focused on the analysis of language usage
by the sufferer of bipolar disorder in Silver Linings Playbook’s movie. This movie
from the United States that explains about a person who has problems with their
psychological or it can means to be abnormal. The researcher does this research
because she wants to know more about the language disorder that occurs on the
sufferer of bipolar disorder. In the previous studies, there is no one who has
discussed language usage by the sufferer of bipolar disorder. Therefore, the
researcher wants to find a language disorder that occurs on the language usage by
the sufferer of bipolar disorder.
Silver Linings Playbook is a romantic drama-comedy wrote and directed by
David O. Russel. This movie was adapted from novel by Matthew Quick with
same title. This movie release on 16 November 2012. David O. Russel give

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positive effect from this movie, although this movie is a romantic drama-comedy.
However, David O. Russel gives some suggestion and the way to attention and
help the sufferer of bipolar disorder to control or cure their disease. This movie
also increases our knowledge about how we can help the sufferer of bipolar
disorder to repair their language usages when their disease relapse. Silver linings
playbook not only give an amusement, but also describe how we can receive and
help some people who suffer bipolar disorder when we meet them on the real
world. In addition, it also understands of how people around them are very
important to help their healing.
Thus, to analyze a movie, the researcher used theory of language disorder. It
is because bipolar disorder include on the language disorder and it can make clear
what the researcher means. In language disorder, the use of language refers to the
reasons why individuals speak and the ways they construct conversations
depending upon what they know about the listener and the context (Bloom, 1988).
It means when every person makes a conversations, it will be influenced by
someone who will be invited to speak and what will be discussed. So, it is related
with language usage by the sufferer of bipolar disorder in “Silver Linings
Playbook” movie when the sufferer of bipolar disorder make conversations with
people around them.
The researcher is interested in discussing about it, because she wants to
increase more about language usages by the sufferer of bipolar disorder. On the
previous studies that also discuss about the same case, the researcher found fourth
previous studies related with her research. The first is Nafiah (2008) who studied

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expressive language disorder of the autistic child in Mercury Rising film. She
tried to analyze some kinds of speech and language disorder. In her research, she
found phonological disorder, articulation disorder, voice disorder and also
language disabilities as an autistic child on the character of Simon Lynch in
Mercury Rising film. The thing that distinguishes the research of Nafiah and this
research is that the researcher tries to find out not only expressive language
disorder, but also receptive language disorder. The second is Sri Lestari (2015)
who studied dyslexia of Ishaan on Taare Zameen Par movie. Sri discussed about
language disorder – aphasia that focused on the main character Ishaan. She found
some kinds of dyslexia that occur on Ishaan. From the research of Sri, the
researcher can study about language disorder, but her study focused on aphasia –
dyslexia. In addition, the researcher focused on language disorder – receptive and
expressive. The third is Ade K. Kaloeti (2015) who discussed speech act on the
sufferer of bipolar disorder Michelle. She found speech act representative,
cohesion and coherence, and also person deixis. The differences between Ade’s
research and this research is the linguistics field. Based on the research of Ade,
the researcher can discuss something new and increase her knowledge about the
language usage by the sufferer of bipolar disorder as the title of her research. The
fourth is Tiara P. Fracelia (2016) who discussed about the communication of
people that suffer bipolar disorder. The result of her research was when the mood
of the sufferer stabil, the communication can be running well. The obstacles of
their communication when the sufferer in depression. From the research of Tiara,

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the researcher can know more how the communication of people that suffers
bipolar disorder.
Furthermore, the researcher chooses a literary work “Silver Linings
Playbook” directed by David O. Russel to understand how to understand some
people that have disease with their psychological. In this research, the researcher
will analyze the language usage by the sufferer of bipolar disorder that happened
in “Silver Linings Playbook” movie.
1.2 Statement of The Problems
Based on the background of the study above, this study is conducted to
find out the answer of some problems in relation with the discussion above, as
follows:
1. What are the kinds of language disorder that happened on the language
usage by the sufferer of bipolar disorder in “Silver Linings Playbook”
movie?
2. How does the differences of the language usage by the sufferer of
bipolar disorder when bipolar and non-bipolar?

1.3 Objectives of The Study
The objectives of the research on the language usage by the sufferer
bipolar disorder in “Silver Linings Playbook” are:
1. To explain how the language usage by the sufferer of bipolar disorder
in “Silver Linings Playbook” movie.

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2. To find out the differences of the language usage by the sufferer of
bipolar disorder when bipolar and non-bipolar in “Silver Linings
Playbook” movie.
1.4 Significance of The Study
The researcher hopes the result of this study will be useful for all of people
both theoritical and practical. Theoritically, the result of this research can improve
people’s knowledge about the analysis of linguistics study that related with the
analysis of language usage by the sufferer of bipolar disorder in this movie with
title “Silver Linings Playbook” by David O. Russel. The researcher hope this
research will give some new knowledge and comprehension about the language
usage by the sufferer of bipolar disorder, especially in “Silver Linings Playbook”
movie.
Practically, the researcher hopes this research can give some new
information for learning process and the next researcher. And then the result of
this research can give easy to analyze the language usage by the sufferer of
bipolar disorder and can be used as reference for the readers who interested
researching in this area, especially English Department in Arts and Humanities
faculty.

1.5 Scope and Limitation of The Study
The scope of the research is focused on the language usage that applies in
“Silver Linings Playbook” of Pat Jr as the main character of the movie. The
researcher chose this movie because this movie is unique and very interesting to

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discuss and the result will be useful. The limitation of the research is only discuss
about the problem of language usage that happens on the main character as the
sufferer biporal disorder.

1.6 The Definition of The Key Terms
Some items of terminology are defined in order to avoid misinterpretation:
- Language usage: The manner in which written and spoken language is
used. Language usage can mean the way people actually use language or
prescriptively the way one group feels that people ought to use it.
- Language Disorder: When a person has trouble understanding others
(receptive language), or sharing thoughts, ideas and feelings completely
(expressive language).
- Bipolar Disorder: A mental disorder that attacks a person's psychological
condition characterized by mood swings are very extreme form of maniac
and depression, because it is the medical term previously referred to as
maniac depressive.
- Silver Linings Playbook: A film that written and directed by David O.
Russel and premiered at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival on
September 8, 2012, and was released in the United States on November
16, 2012.

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CHAPTER II
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter reviews several theories related with the research and can
support the analysis. Psycholinguistics and language impairment in children and
adults. Those are language disorder; Receptive or Expressive. And also review
Silver Linings Playbook movie.
The rather disparate observations in the preceding section illustrate just a
few of the areas of interest in Psycholinguistics. Psycholinguistics is concerned
with the processes by which language is understood and produced. It seeks to
identify the nature of the representations which are processed in going from sound
to meaning and from meaning to sound, and the mechanisms by which those
representations are recognised, stored and retrieved. From a psycholinguistic point
of view, language impairment is viewed as a breakdown at some point in these
processes. Psycholinguistics can be defined as the study of the mental
representations and processes in language use, including the production,
comprehension and storage of spoken and written language (Warren 2013:4).
2.1 Psycholinguistics and Language Impairment in Children and Adults
The impact of psycholinguistic theory and methodology on assessment and
then therapy in acquired aphasia was not matched in the developmental field. In
the case of language-impaired children, language focused work involved linguistic
description of their language output and input, largely for comparison with normal
language development (one exception, perhaps, being early psycholinguistic work

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on phonological disorder in children). This focuses on linguistic description and
comparison pre-empted investigation into the processes which lay behind the
child‟s comprehension and production of language. Language-focused therapy
was then driven by developmental norms rather than by the child‟s processing.
Another major shift giving rise to this book has been the recent surge of
interest in extending psycholinguistic thinking to language-impaired children.
This has in part been driven by psycholinguistically-based therapies with adults
which strike a chord with „child‟ therapists. The original impetus, however, is the
recognition that if psycholinguistic questions are not posed in relation to children,
this is not for want of such questions. If children have specific dilliculties with
language, those difficulties must arise at some point in their processing of the
connections between sound and meaning.
Psycholinguistic questions about the point of breakdown in input/output
processing are as pertinent to developmental as acquired disorders. However, they
have appeared to be impossibly complicated by what we might term the
„developmental dimension‟.
In the case of language-impaired adults, it is assumed that they had full
representations of the words and structures of their language prior to their stroke,
and that these representations have become damaged or inaccessible following the
stroke. Language-impaired children, on the other hand, are in the process of
acquiring the representations of their language. We can still pose questions about
which aspects of those representations they have and which they do not have, but

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we cannot automatically attribute any limitation we observe to their processing
impairment, as we can with adults.Why not?
First, a limitation in a child‟s representation may be due to their stage of
development rather than their impairment. Children who are developing normally
do not acquire adult representations instantaneously. Their acquisition of word
and sentence structure is gradual, following patterns which are themselves the
focus of psycholinguistic research. If a language-impaired child lacks certain
information about words or sentences, this could be normal for their stage of
language development or even for their age. If we are investigating their
processing impairment, the aim is to identify constraints over and above those
which occur in the course of normal development.
The second complicating factor with language-impaired children is that
difficulties in processing some aspect of linguistic representations may result in
difficulties further down the processing line. The most obvious illustration of this
possibility is provided by deaf children acquiring spoken language. Here, the
obstacle is known to occur at the earliest stage of input processing, but will affect
all subsequent stages of input/output processing to some degree. This will limit
the child‟s access to all aspects of spoken language representations. A similar
situation may arise for children who have difficulties at later stages of
input/output processing. A child who has difficulties in processing phonology in
input and in establishing the phonological representations of words is likely to
have difficulties with connecting phonological representations to meanings.
Hence, a problem with word semantics could arise from a prior problem with

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word phonology. Difficulties with semantics may, in turn, give rise to difficulties
in connecting meanings to phonological representations in output. Hence, a
problem in phonological output could arise from a prior problem with semantics.
These examples illustrate how processing difficulties may disrupt the child‟s
development and organisation of full adult representations. But if the child‟s
representations are different or are organised differently from the adult‟s, would
we not expect them to break down differently? For example, if the child has a
difficulty in speech processing, this might be expected to disrupt the development
of phonological representations. In contrast, the adult who has already established
phonological representations may preserve these in the face of speech processing
difficulties.
On the other hand, the adult‟s established phonological General introduction
5 representations - or semantic representations for that matter - might be open to
impairments which could not occur in a child who had not established such
representations in the first place. This may mean that some patterns of impairment
observed in an adult‟s representations may fail to turn up in observations of
children. For example, we may encounter adults who process concrete words
more effectively than abstract words, or vice versa. But we are unlikely to
discover such differences in young children since their exposure to abstract
vocabulary would anyway be limited. A flip side of the developmental dimension,
then, is the possibility that adults may show processing impairments for which
children will not be eligible.

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The impact of one level on another, whether in children or adults, is
increasingly the focus of therapy with both. One level may have negative
repercussions on another, but the converse may also be true. A strength at one
level may be exploited to strengthen another level or provide indirect access to it.
For example, strength in a child‟s semantics might be actively used to consolidate
weak phonological representations associated with semantics. An adult‟s strength
in orthographic representations might be exploited to access or bolster
phonological representations. Thus, the sort of interactions highlighted in the
developmental field play an important role not only in theories about language
processing and its impairment, but in generating and pursuing hypotheses about
intervention. Because the researcher discussed about the language usage by the
sufferer of bipolar disorder, the researcher choose language disorder to help her
analysis.
2.2 Language Disorder (Language impairment)
Language disorder can be developmental (present from early childhood) or
they can be acquired as the result of surgery, a stroke, an accident or old age
(Field, 2003:53). In certain cases, this had a marked effect upon their ability to
communicate in speech or writing. American Speeech and Hearing Association
(1982) states that language disorder is an ability to communicate because having
some problems in communication. Such as in the “Silver Linings Playbook”
movie, the main character as the sufferer of bipolar disorder have some problems
when he use language to communicate with other people.

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American Speech – Language – Hearing Association (ASHA) states a
language disorder is impaired comprehension and/or use of spoken, written and/or
other symbol systems. The disorder may involve (1) the form of language
(phonology, morphology, syntax), (2) the content of language (semantics), and/or
(3) the function of language in communication (pragmatics) in any combination.
1.

Form of Language
a. Phonology is the sound system of a language and the rules that govern the
sound combinations. When people have a language disorder, they will
speak fluent or maybe stutter.
b. Morphology is the system that governs the structure of words and the
construction of word forms. When people have a problem with morphem,
they often speak untidy or deliver their speak with any repetition.
c. Syntax is the system governing the order and combination of words to
form sentences, and the relationships among the elements within a
sentence. When people have a language impairment, they can not speak
focused on one topic.

2.

Content of Language
a. Semantics is the system that governs the meanings of words and
sentences. When they have a problem with semantics, they can not deliver
their speak well. Because when they tells some stories, they just speak
without pay attention with the meaning of their sentences.

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3.

Function of Language
a. Pragmatics is the system that combines the above language components
in functional and socially appropriate communication. When they make
communication with other people, they did not pay attention with people
around them. So, sometimes their utterances can not understand by other
people.
Language impairment results from the delayed or disordered development

of the content, form, or use of spoken language. The content of language refers to
what individuals talk about or understand. The form of language refers to the
shape and sound of the units of language and their combinations such as word
endings, the words, or sentence structure. The use of language refers to the
reasons why individuals speak and the ways they construct conversations
depending upon what they know about the listener and the context (Bloom, 1988).
So, language disorder can means people who have trouble with their shape of
language, their sound when they talk or make conversation with the others and the
way to deliver their construct to the listener because of diseases.
Language disorder in children may be caused by; autism spectrum
disorder, brain injury, damage to the spinal cord, hearing loss, learning
disabilities. And language disorder in adult may develope due to stroke, traumatic
of something that record in their brain, traumatic brain injury, or brain tumor.
Language disorders that occur in children or adult are categorized as either
receptive or expressive.

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2.2.1 Receptive Language Impairment
A receptive language impairment is the difficulty in listening to and/or
understanding

language.

The

difficulty

may

be

in

the

word

level

(vocabulary/word knowledge) and/or the sentence level (syntax/morphology)
(Harris, 1994). A person with receptive language disorder has difficulty
understanding language. Receptive language disorder affect a person‟s ability to
understand what they hears.
The following characteristics may indicate some people that have difficulty in
understanding language:
1. An inadequate attention span, particularly during conversation. It means
when a person have receptive language impairment, she or he does not really
attention what you are saying to them.
2. Poor listening skills. It means she or he does not become a good listener when
you are telling them about something.
3. Difficulty following directions. When you give some directions to them, they
can not follow your directions well.
4. Poor memory for information presented verbally. If you tell them some
information, they cannot save your information and sometimes they only can
receive a half from your information.
5. Difficulty retaining concepts from one day to the next. When they have a
planning or some concepts to do in the next day or tomorrow and when
tomorrow comes she or he will do something that does not planned before.

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6. Limited receptive vocabulary. She or he when telling you about something or
story about something, they usually use same vocabulary. And when he or she
get a new vocabulary, they need a long time to really understand and use it.
7. Difficulty understanding words with multiple meanings. It happens because
someone who have receptive language impairment, he or she only think and
focus of one word one meaning. It related with limited receptive vocabulary.
8. Difficulty categorizing related words or concepts. She or he difficult
following directions. Because of that, she or he difficult to categorized the
related words or concepts.
9. Difficulty understanding figurative language. Because she or he does not
understand words with multiple meaning. It make them difficult to understand
figurative laguange. So, if make conversation with people that have receptive
language impairment, you should be to the point.
10. Difficulty with concepts of space, time and quantity. She or he does not
really know and understand about concepts of space, time and quantity around
them.
Example of Receptive Language Impairment:
Susi: “I like red apple. Don‟t you?”
Putri: “Yeah.. I like red.”
(Putri have receptive language impairment. When susi said “red apple”, she only
pay attention on the word “red”. It means Putri have poor listening and inadequate
attention).

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2.2.1.1 Impairment in Language Form
Difficulty comprehending simple sentences. It means that the sufferer of
receptive language impairment, they will difficult to understand a simple
sentence.
e.g. Can the child point to pictures or perform an action from a spoken t
arget sentence?
e.g. Do they understand Cat vs. Cats?
Both of examples are the simple sentences that difficult to understand by the
sufferer of receptive language impairment. Because they can not differ singular
word or plural word.
2.2.1.2 Impairment in Language Content
Difficulty understanding vocabulary used in the grade level curriculum.
The sufferer of receptive language impairment have a limited vocabulary.
e.g. If the theme is The Sea, do they comprehend words in this category?
They can not understand what the purpose of “The Sea”, except they accept some
explanation about it.
Difficulty pointing to a picture or performing an action based on a given
target to display comprehension. Because the sufferer of receptive language
impairment can not focused on one point.
e.g. Point to the picture that shows “the whale is in the water”.
They did not understand how the way to pointing the picture.

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2.2.1.3 Impairment in Language Use
The sufferer of receptive language impairment have a difficulty
comprehending social language and react age appropriately, difficulty using
appropriate eye contact, difficulty using turn taking appropriately and difficulty
displaying comprehension of social greetings.
Based on explanation about receptive language impairment, understanding
spoken language is a complicated process. The child or adult may have problems
with one or more of:
1. Hearing – a hearing loss can be the cause of language problems. A hearing
loss is not a receptive language problem itself, but means that the child has less
exposure to language than hearing children.
2. Vision – understanding language involves visual cues, such as facial
expression and gestures. A child with vision loss won‟t have these additional
cues, and may experience language problems.
3. Attention – the child‟s ability to pay attention and concentrate on what‟s being
said may be impaired.
4. Speech sounds – there may be problems distinguishing between similar speech
sounds.
5. Verbal memory – the brain has to remember all the words in a sentence in
order to make sense of what has been said. The child may have difficulties with
remembering the string of sounds that make up a sentence.
6. Word and grammar knowledge – the child may not understand the meaning
of words or sentence structure.

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2.2.2 Expressive Language Impairment
An expressive language impairment is difficulty with the production of
language that adequately represents the child‟s / youth‟s intended message and
may include problems with word retrieval, word use, sentence formulation, and/or
conversational skills (Harris, 1994). A person with expressive language disorder
has difficulty using language. Expressive language disorder affect a person‟s
ability to express themself with words.
The following characteristics may indicate some people that difficulty in
producing language:
1. Speaks in words, phrases, incomplete or inaccurate sentences. It means
when people have expressive language impairment, when she or he make
conversation their sentences often incomplete.
2. Relies upon gesture to supplement or substitute for oral language. When
she or he tell you about something, they often changeable.
3. Uses pronouns, plurals, and possessives incorrectly. When he or she do
conversation the placement of uses pronouns or plurals not match.
4. If they have expressive language impairment, she or he has difficulty with the
agreement of subjects and verbs, telling a story or describing an event or
procedure in a logical sequence. So, if they wanna tell some stories, they just
say it without regard to subjects, verbs or logical sequence.
5. Uses run-on sentences. When a person who have expressive language make a
conversation or telling story, she or he often uses run-on sentences. If the other

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people did not really understand with the conditions, they can not follow and
the main point or the topic of the story.
6. People who have expressive language impairment, she or he has limited
expressive vocabulary and also difficult to find the appropriate word (s) to
express meaning overuses filler words such as “ah” or “um”.
7. Avoids speaking in class. It means they avoid speaking in front of a lot of
people or some grups. Because, they has difficulty interacting with peers or
adults.
Example of Expressive Language:
Hana: “What do you think about this party?”.
Hanum: “Nice. This party nice. Luxurious. This party luxurious. This
party rousing”.
(Hana only ask what Hanum think about the party, but Hanum have expressive
language. She answer the question with putting some words and sentences
together to express thoughts).
2.2.2.1 Impairment in Language Form
English grammatical morphemes (e.g. Plural -s. Past –ed) develop in a
more or less predictable sequence. Present progressive usually develops first and
third person irregularis one of the last to develop. The reason for this sequence of
development lies in the linguistic complexity of the morpheme. An impairment in
language form may show a child developing these morphemes in an unusual order
or an inability to use grammatical morphemes appropriately.

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2.2.2.2 Impairment in Language Content
Children who have expressive language disorders / delays in language
content often give grammatically correct responses that do not make sense. They
correctly use all the grammatical morphemes but give inappropriate responses
(Lahey, 1988).
These children are sometimes described as hyperverbal. They have
appropriate articulation, intonation and stress patterns but are weak in content.
(Lahey, 1988). They may be the hardest to identify with the specific problem as
they sound like everyone else except they lack appropriate vocabulary in their
communication.
2.2.2.3 Impairment in Language Use
Children who have expressive language use delays / disorders have
learned how to use language to code ideas but have not learned to use it to
communicate. (Lahey, 1988). Ask whether the child: - Responds appropriately to
social greetings? - Maintains the topic of conversation? - Initiates conversation
with peers. - Uses non-verbal communication appropriately?
Based on the explanation about expressive language impairment, when
you see difficulties with expressive language (using words and language), you
might also see difficulties with:
1. Behaviour – the actions of a person, usually in relation to their environment
(e.g. frustration due not being understood by others).
2. Receptive language (understanding) – comprehension of language.

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3. Participation – participating in group or class discussions.
4. Social skills – determined by the ability to engage in reciprocal interaction
with others (either verbally or non-verbally), to compromise with others, and
be able to recognize and follow social norms.
5. Literacy – reading and writing.
6. Fluency – the smoothness or flow with which sounds, syllables, words and
phrases are produced when talking.
7. Planning and

sequencing

– the sequential multi-step task/activity

performance to achieve a well-defined result.
8. Executive functioning - higher order reasoning and thinking skills.
9. Sensory processing – accurate registration, interpretation and response to
sensory stimulation in the environment and one's own body.
For both types of language disorder, the main problem may be with form
(grammar or word order), content (that is words and their meanings) or use (the
ability to understand and use language appropriately). And the causes of language
disorders may include hearing loss, cognitive disability, emotional disturbance, a
lack of exposure to language in the environment, or brain injury. Often, the cause
of a language problem in a particular people is unknown.
Although the cause of language disorder is unknown. There are, however,
some conditions that are commonly associated with language disorder.

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