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THE DESCRIPTION BETWEEN BRISTISH - ENGLISH AND

AMERICAN - ENGLISH SLANGS IN THE JOHN GRISHAM’S NOVEL

“THE RACKETEER”

Sari Dewi Amini

Non - Regular Program of English Departement Faculty of Letters and Culture Udayana University

Abstrak

Penelitian ini berjudul ”The Description Between British - English And American – English Slangs In The John Grisham’s Novel ‘The Racketeer’”, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengidentifikasi jenis, arti dan pemakaian kalimat slangs atau dalam bahasa Indonesianya disebut sebagai bahasa gaul atau bahasa ‘prokem’, yang digunakan didalam novel John Grisham.

Metode data yang digunakan dibagi menjadi tiga bagian: pertama; sumber data diambil dari novel berjudul “The Racketeer”, kedua; metode dan teknik adalah kualitatif dan deskritif-dokumentatif, ketiga; konsep dan teori-teori digunakan untuk menganalisa dan untuk memaparkan tentang apakah slangs atau bahasa gaul itu berdasarkan pernyataan – pernyataan ahli bahasa, seperti dari: Mencken, Leech, Chapman dan Adams.

Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa penulis menggunakan bahasa gaul untuk menyampaikan secara nyata isi, pesan dan maksud dari cerita yang ditulisnya. Jenis slang atau bahasa gaul yang digunakan adalah primary dan secondary slang. Konsep pembentukan kata-kata dalam bahasanya adalah clipped word, compounding, borrowing, backward formation, abbreviation dan blending. Jenis pengartian dalam bahasa slang atau gaul yang digunakan oleh penulis adalah conceptual atau denotative atau cognitive meaning, connotative meaning, stylistic meaning, affected meaning, reflected meaning, collocative meaning, dan thematic meaning. Dari data dan penelitian menunjukkan bahwa fungsi bahasa gaul yang digunakan dalam penulisan membuat pembaca dengan mudah memahami situasi yang ingin digambarkan secara tematik dan secara sosiolinguistik.

Kata kunci : slang atau bahasa gaul Inggris - Amerika, pembentukan dan perbandingan.

Background

English as a standard of international language can not be seperated with a sociolinguistics use in societies all around the world. The influences of English – American slangs use in our daily life is unable to be avoided, mostly by the youth and teenagers. It can happen as a result of information development and technology such as: online networks and the domination of American products like; movies, musics, songs, media, books, et cetera. Slang words show the attitudes of the group or sub-cultures who uses them. The language is in a formal or informal, helping people to express their feeling such as upset, sad, happy, bored, or whatever they feel. Slang refers to new creative words or phrases begin and to be used in widespread ways.

This research topic is to analyze the types and the meaning American – English slangs’ and English – British slangs’ are used in the John Grisham’s novel “The Racketeer. It can be very interesting because the history of United States as a colony of England could develope their country and their American - English as the land language spreads wider, and commonly uses in the world triumps over of its mother language the British - English.

  • 1.    Problem of the Study

From the background above, there are several problems can be formulated and to analyze as follows:

  • 1)    What types of English - American slangs are used in a novel “The Racketeer”?

  • 2)    What are the meanings, word or phrase formation, and the history of American – English slangs?

Aims of Study

This present study was intended:

  • 1.    To identify and recognize the types of English American slangs used in a

novel “The Racketeer”.

  • 2.    To analyze the meaning, word or phrase formation, and the history of American – English slangs.

  • 4.    Research Method

The data sources researches based from a story in “The Racketeer” novel. It tells about Malcom Banister, 43 years old, Afro – American lawyer who arrested and dragged into The Federal Prison Camp near Frostburg city, Maryland, U.S.A just to please the public needs and to increase the record of United States attorney‘s crime quota.

The research methods used are a qualitative data collection and descriptive -documentative. This way is chosen in purpose to avoid generalization in the slang words use in “The Racketeer” novel. The observation method used in a processing of collecting data in this study is documentation method, read through the pages slowly and carefully, and then used the skimming technique to notice significant details in the language uses.

The analysis of this study used descriptive qualitative method. Data from various sources is gathering, reviewing, and then analyzing to form some sort of finding conclusion. The analysis persevered in order to find the types and the meaning of the English – American slangs and to compare the same type of slangs use generally in English – British society bases in correspondence research, interview methods and recognizing through free online dictionaries.

  • 5.    Analysis the Meaning of Slangs Use In The Novel “The Racketeer”

    The Analysis Meaning of Slang Words

Data 1:

All my appeals have run their course, and there in no produce, mechanism, obscure statute, technicality, loophole, or Hail Mary left in my thoroughly depleted arsenal.

Analysis:

Loophole word here means a forgotten condition in a law, agreement, et cetera, that allows one to interpret and, in conclusion, get around another condition. Also means an arrow slit in a wall. In Utah City, U.S.A. loophole means ‘anus’. The type of slang is a secondary slang. It is a noun phrase. This word uses in the law fields, by militaries, by criminals as such as suspects, or prisoners. This phrase has known mainly since First World War and since Second World War, used by British Navy and British Air Force RAF. In a formal way, it means the gap to enable firing their guns. During the First World War, this phrase spreads to America. The slang word formation is a compounding. The words compounds are ‘loop’ means ‘embrasure‘and ‘hole’. The type of meaning is a conceptual meaning.

A conceptual meaning is very important because it has a complex and sophisticated organization of kind which may compared with, and cross related to similar organizations on the syntactic and phonological level of language. In other words, the semantic level of natural languages has it owns constituent structure just as syntactic level has its own. Denotative meaning is the surface meaning of a words or expression (Leech, 1974; Langga, 2012).

The comparison in the same stage of meaning between in British and North America, loophole word has known since the sixteenth century in England, then the use spread to U.S.A from the result of the wars and immigrations. It has same meaning from both senses. ‘Loophole’ means a very narrow chance for doing something.

Data 2:

All my appeals have run their course, and there in no produce, mechanism, obscure statute, technicality, loophole, or Hail Mary left in my thoroughly depleted arsenal.

Analysis:

Hail Mary phrase here means a last ditch effort. The last-minute attempt to score game winning points in a game such as basketball or football. Also it can be meant about an act of a guy to the girl who pregnant by him and this guy does not want to marry her and be responsible to her baby until 18 years old. Then he tells the girl, that he loves her and it will not right moment for them to have a baby, and an abortion is the best way before he leaves her. His action has known that he did ‘a Hail Mary’. The type of slang is a primary slang. It is a noun phrase. This phrase has known since long time ago refers to Virgin Mary words in Roman Catholic prayers. Hail word itself is a noun, means a large number of things forcefully trough the air and the example in a phrase: a hail of bullet. The word formation of slang is a compounding. The words are borrowed from a Roman Catholic prayer. It formats from words ‘a hail’ and ‘Mary’. The origin of ‘hail’ word is from Old English in a Germanic era and the formatted from a noun word of hagol or, hoegl. And it is a verb word from ‘hagalian’. The type of meaning is an affective meaning. It means about doing a grant or very big things refers to the graceful and famous of Virgin Mary, and these words have the effect on something graceful or make a difference way for something.

The comparison in the same stage of meaning between British and American, ‘Hail Mary’ phrase more often heard in America than in British. Nowadays, British people will hail Jesus’ name more often since the Protestant Anglican church became the main national religion preference in England since fifteenth century when King Henry VIII separated British churches from the Roman Catholic Church’s in Rome. These words use both in America and British.

  • 6.    Conclusion

Slangs as a part of language and it could change due personal creativities, from technology development and by the times. A secondary slang can transform into a primary slang by the growth of online technology, by its users or by its speakers.

The meaning of slang defines into seven meanings are: conceptual or denotative or cognitive, connotative, stylistic, affected, reflected, collocative, thematic meaning. Slangs born based from creativities, witty characters, and specific social interactions.

The advantages of the slangs use: to be secretive, to feel close with a team or group members, to change boredoms.

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