ISSN: 2302-920X

Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud

2017: Vol 19.1 Mei 2017: 317-323

Taboo Expressions in Men in Black 2 and 3 Movie

Ni Wayan Devie Crisma Yanty1*, Ni Luh Nyoman Seri Malini2, Luh Putu Laksminy3

[123]English Department Faculty of Arts – Udayana University 1[email: [email protected]] 2[email: [email protected]] 3[email: [email protected]]

*Coressponding Author

Abstrak

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menemukan penggunaan ekspresi tabu yang terdapat di “Men in Black” film. Selain itu, penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui jenis ekspresi tabu yang digunakan oleh karakterdidalam film tersebut serta konteks ketika mereka mengungkapkan kata-kata tabu. Penelitian ini menggunakan metode dokumentasi. Data dikumpulkan dari penelitian ini adalah percakapan yang digunakan oleh karakter dalam film yang mengandung unsur tabu. Penelitian ini memiliki dua sumber data primer yang merupakan dialog film “Men in Black 2” dan “Men in Black 3”.

Data penelitian ini dianalisis berdasarkan jenis kata-kata tabu berdasarkan teori yang dikembangkan oleh Jay (1992) sebagai teori utama, teori dari Lakoff (2004) tentang teori bahasa wanita dan teori bahasa laki-laki dari Coates (2004) sebagai teori pendukung. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa kata ungkapan tabu yang digunakan dalam “Men in Black” film dikategorikan menjadi sembilan jenis menurut Jay (1992), yaitu; Cursing, Profanity, Taboo, Obscenity, Vulgarity, Slang, Epithets, Insult and slur, Scatology.

Kata kunci: Ungkapan Taboo, Bahasa laki-laki, Bahasa Perempuan

  • 1.    Background of Study

Taboo word is one study of Sociolinguistics that has relation with society and culture. 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. Study of taboo can vary widely: sex, death, illness, religious matters, and the supernatural. But quite often they extend to other aspects of social life (Wardhaugh 2000, p.234). It is usually used in some works such as novel, song or movie. The reason why a moviemaker used the taboo words in their movies is that a fiction story, because

it supports the role of the whole movies and necessary for the story. Some of Hollywood movies are also use some taboo expression in their dialog, like those in “Men in Black 2 and 3” Movie. These movie are chosen as a data source because there was found a lots of taboo expressions in dialogues that express of anger, humor, dissatisfaction, and shocked feelings something from one character to another.

  • 2.    Problems of the study

Based on the background above, there are two problems that can be formulated:

  • 1.    What types of taboo expressions are used in the dialogues of ‘Men in Black’ movie?

  • 2.    What are the difference of using taboo expressions in male and female characters in the dialogues of ‘Men in Black’ movie?

  • 3.    Aims of the study

Based on the research problems, the purposes of the study are:

  • 1.    To find out the kinds of taboo expressions occur in the dialogues of ‘Men in Black’ movie.

  • 2.    To explain the difference of using taboo expressions in male and female characters used in the dialogues of ‘Men in Black’ movie.

  • 4.    Research method

The primary data of taboo expression was taken from the Hollywood movie ‘Men in Black 2 and 3’. The method applied in this study was documentation method. The collecting data was done by watching the movie, taking some notes from the conversation that contains the taboo expressions to make a list of data to make easier for analyzing the types and meaning of taboo expression, the last one is browsing the movies script in order to recheck the data about the taboo expressions which found while watching the movies. The third step is conducted by analyzing the data usingproposed by Timothy Jay in his book entitled ‘Cursing in America’ as the main theory. The other two theories proposed by Elizabeth Coates in her book entitled ‘Language and Woman’s Place: Text and Commentaries’ as theory characteristics of men language and theory of featuresofwomen language were concluded by Robin Tolmach Lakoff in his book entitled ‘Language and Woman's Place’ in 1975 as the supporting theories.

  • 5.    Findings and discussions

In this chapter there are the identification of English taboo expression and the difference between male and female language used in the dialogue of ‘Men in Black’ movie.

Data 1 Obscenity – Dumb-Ass Man Vs Man

(00:56:17)Movie:Man In Black 3

Dialogue Warhol Jay here? Warhol Jay Warhol Jay Warhol Kay

: Who’s the dumb-ass?

: Whoa. Hey. How about a little professional courtesy

: What, dumb-ass?

: Say it again.

: Want me to.

: I dare you.

: Dumb-ass.

: Agent.

Analysis:

In this conversation, Kay and Jay came to a party to meet Mr. Warhol. However, Mr. Warhol refused to talk and give them the desired information. Jay and Kay were forced to drag Mr. Warhol into a clothing room. Dragged by force by Kay and Jay, Mr. Warhol angry with them. Moreover, they tried to dismantle the real identity of Mr. Warhol as a spy agent. Kay apologized and told that they have no intention to dismantle his identity and will definitely keep secret of Mr. Warhol identity being a spy agent.

Mr. Warhol are certainly still highly upset called Jay as a "Dumbass". Jay certainly not accept the words by Mr. Warhol and they started to have an argument. Kay tried to stop their argument and told Jay to wait in the outside. In this situation, Warhol said “Dumb-Ass” repeatedly. Word “Ass” refers to obscene part of taboo word. These Expression was addressed to Jay as Warhol did not like Jay who talks too much. In this context “Dumb-Ass” has the same meaning as a loser.

Data 2 Profanity – “Goddamn” Man vs Man

(00:57:36) Movie: Men In Black 3

Dialogue

Kay

: Take it easy agent W, your cover is perfectly safe.

Warhol

: Perfectly safe? Are you out of your goddamned mind? It's only a matter of time before they figure out I'm a total fraud.

Kay

: Cool your jets

Warhol

: I'm so out of ideas I'm painting bananas and soup cans for chrissakes. How long do you really think they're gonna keep buying this shit? I can't take it anymore. Talking to these nutjobs and all these goddamn hippies.

Analysis:

In the conversation above told that Kay almost take apart real identity of Mr. Warhol. However, Kay still says that all of his secrets are still within safe. Mr. Warhol felt his secrets would be revealed became angry and wanted to end it all. He expressed his annoyance by uttering the word "Goddamned" repeatedly.

Word “God” is often conceived as the Supreme Being and the main object of belief. God has also been considered as a personal being, being spiritual, and the source of all moral obligation. “Goddamn” and “God” are used to expressing upsetting feeling. In this case, “Goddamn” and “God” used to expressing when Warhol was very upset with act of agents Kay. He is not believe about plan that carried out by agent Kay on him. This expression is not to denigrate the god.

Data 3 Cursing – “Damn”

Man vsWomen

(00:29:31) Movie: Men In Black 3

Dialogue

Agent O

: How long have you been craving chocolatized dairy products?

Agent J

: Just today

Agent O

: Are you experiencing headaches? Loss of balance? MmmmAgitation? Depression?

Agent J

: Hell yeah

Agent O

: Two possibilities one is you’ve been bitten by a Hovartian brain tick and could die in horrible agony at any moment damn it. It’s not the tick.

Agent J

: ‘Damn it. It’s not the tick?’ It’s something worse than the tick?

Analysis:

In the third data tell that Jay looking for Kay and he meet agent O, she said Kay was died in 40 years ago. Jay insisted that Kay are not died, he remembered that last night he met with Kay. Then, someone give chocolate milk for Jay. Agent O feeling weird towards Jay and ask how long he began to consume dairy products like it. Agent O suspicious of Jay, she tells Jay that he may have been bitten by tick in his brain. Instantly agent O hitting Jay head and he screamed in pain. Agent O feels that endured by Jay is not due to a tick, but caused by something else.

Taboo expression generally more dominant using by men in their conversation. However, sometimes women using taboo expression and paste it in sentence that their when they spoke. This is occurs because they can feel upset over an incident that they experienced. This also can occur because not all women have a sense of humor like a man. It means that a few of women are not like men that loving joke. In this context, Agent O uses the phrase inadvertently, it is because she felt that his guess was incorrectly due to concern about Agent J is not caused by tick brain.

Data 4 Insult – “Idiot”

Woman vs Man

(00:16:40) Movie: Men In Black 2

Dialogue Serlena

: I’m running out of time. Where’s the Light?

Men

: I didn’t know what you mean.

Serlena

: Listen, Zarthan. You hid the Light, Zartha will be ours.

Men

: You're too late. Tomorrow at midnight the Light will leave the third planet and be back home. Sorry you made the trip for nothing.

The alien

: Now we don't know if it's on Earth or not.

Serlena

: He said third planet. It's here, you idiot.

Analysis:

On one night Serlena came with his men to to meet an alien who masquerading as a human named Zarthan and opened a pizza restaurant. Serlena come gripping the neck Zarthan and ask where the light of Zartha is. However, there was a sound of noise coming from the kitchen. Serlena provide a signal with a few words, but the alien but the aliens did not understand the intent of the code used Serlena to check of kitchen situation. The alien who go into the kitchen did not found anything suspicious in the kitchen and back to the previously place. Serlena still threatened the owner of the restaurant and finally Zartha turned into his true form as an alien and gave information that Serlena is too late, because tomorrow at midnight the light will leave the earth and you will not have time to find the location of the light. The alien answered the men by saying that we do not know the light is on Earth (this planet) or the third planet.

The word “idiot” is expressed by Serlena refers to taboo expression. The word “idiot” is expressed by Serlena refers to insult. In this case, she asked the men where the location of the light is. The men replied that she was too late because the light will leave the third planet tomorrow. The alien answered the men by saying that we do not know the light is on Earth (this planet) or the third

planet. Serlena said “idiot” to the alien because the third planet is the Earth, the planet where they live now.

  • 6.    Conclusion

Based on the analysis, the following concluding points are developed to be final stage of writing. There are nine types of Taboo Expression are found in the ‘Men in Black’ movie, such as: Cursing, Profanity, Taboo, Obscenity, Vulgarity, Slang, Epithets, Insult and slur, Scatology. There are found some taboo expression after analyzing ‘Men in Black’ movie, those are; Damn, Bitch, Son of Bitch, Goddamn, Stupid, Dog, Pee, Tick, Bastard, God’s Sake, Jesus, Ass, Dumb-ass, Ball, Dude, Fellas, Hell, Shit, .The context when the taboo expression are generally uttered in the movie are stated in informal conditions. Expression when words taboo warn, refused, emotional, and insulting.

Expression taboo are often shown in this movie tends to expressed by the male characters than women characters. Men typically use taboo words in this movie conversation. This due to the higher portion of the male character in the dialogue movie of their role as main character. In addition to their role as the main character, the use of the word taboo for men sounds masculine and tough when using those words.

  • 7.    Bibliography

Coates, Jenifer. 1986. Women, Men, Language. Harlow, Essex: Longman.

Coates, J. 2003. Men Talk: Stories in the Making of Masculinities. London: John Wiley & Sons.

Jay, Timothy. 1992. Cursing in America: A Psychological Study of Dirty Language in The Courts, in The Movies, in The Schoolyards and on The Street. Philadelphia: John Benjamin Publishing Co.

Lakoff, Robin. 1975. Language and Woman’s Place. New York: Harper & Row Publisher.

Wardhaugh, Ronald. (2000). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (Third edition). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers Ltd.

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