ISSN: 2302-920X

Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud

Vol 16.1 Juli 2016: 238 – 243

Language Style Used By Fangirls In Japanese Idol Online Community

Nurul Muthiah Jawas1*, Ida Ayu Made Puspani2, I Wayan Mulyawan3

123English Department Faculty Of Arts, Udayana University

1[[email protected]] 2[[email protected]] 3[[email protected]]

*

Corresponding Author

Abstrak

Internet merupakan kebutuhan bagi orang yang tinggal di abad dua puluh satu. Internet digunakan untuk mencari apa yang orang butuhkan, seperti resep masakan, bisnis, dan unduhan. Untuk memenuhi kebutuhan sosialisasi, situs untuk komunitas online juga dibuat untuk membuat orang lebih mudah berkumpul dan berbagi informasi dengan orang-orang dengan minat yang sama. Karena itu, gaya bahasa baru terus berkembang sesuai dengan kebutuhan dan pokok bahasan komunitasnya, dalam hal ini adalah penggemar perempuan dalam komunitas online idola Jepang di www.livejournal.com. Penilitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui gaya bahasa yang digunakan oleh penggemar perempuan di komunitas tersebut dan jargon apa saja yang sering muncul dalam komunitas tersebut. Gaya bahasa dan jargon tersebut diidentifikasi dan diklasifikasikan dengan teori dari Holmes (1992), Lakoff (1975), Grosjean (1982) dan Yule(2004). Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa penggemar perempuan di komunitas idola Jepang tersebut memilik igaya bahasa yang kasual, menggunakan bahasa-bahasa perempuan, menggunakan Bahasa Inggris danJepang dalam satu kalimat, serta memiliki jargon yang hanya dimengerti oleh anggota dari komunita stersebut.

Kata kunci: Sosiolinguistik, gayabahasa, jargon

  • 1.    Background of Study

The rapid development of internet has created many online communities to be established to fulfill people’s need to gather and share information to the other who have same interest with them. In this case, www.livejournal.com as the largest website for online community tries to make people easier to find the right community, including fangirls in Japanese idol online community in hey_say and news_jpop.

Fangirls are girls who love Japanese idol and have internet forums to communicate each other to discuss and share latest news about their idol. Since, it is a global community, the first language to communicate is English, however, because they love Japanese idol, Japanese is also the language they use since the idols usually release their songs or movie in Japanese. It makesfangirls in Japanese idol community love to do code switching during their conversation in the forum. They mix English and Japanese

and sometimes, a new word appears and becomes a must to know word in that forum whether it is in English or Japanese.

  • 2.    Problems of Study

Based on the background above, the problems that can be analyzed in this study is as follows:

  • a)    What kind of written language style and its meaning usedby fangirls in Japanese idol community?

  • b)    What jargons are used by fangirls in Japanese idol community?

  • 3.    Aims of Study

The aims of this study are:

  • a)    To identify the written language style and its meaning that is used by fangirls in Japanese Idol online community.

  • b)    To present jargons used in Japanese idol online community.

  • 4.    Research Method

The data source of this study were taken from hey_say and news_jpop in www.livejournal.com. The two communities’ members are mostly girls from many parts of the world and use English as the main language. It is clearly stated in the community rule that they must use English because even not all of them speak English; however all of them understand English.

In composing this study, the methods applied in collecting data wereinternet and library research. The communities can be accessedthrough www.google.com or directly go to www.livejournal.com. The data was collected by signing in to the community and started to observe communities’ language style. The data was obtained by observing and the language style found in the communities are noted then classified into several categories such as code switching that occurred and some points of women’s language according to Lakoff (1975).

Qualitative method was applied in this study to give an actual explanation descriptively. The analysis was done by several steps. First, identified and classified the language and style also women’s language and code switching that were often occurred during the conversation of fangirls. The theory supporting this analysis would be the

women’s language theory from Lakoff (1975). Furthermore, Holmes’ varies language (Holmes, 2001:223) also used as the basic to analyze the kind of language and style, whether it was standard or vernacular style that is used by them. Considering code switching this study was also based on the theory proposed by Grosjean (1982). Code switching was related to the way they speak in a conversation using English and Japanese. Last is jargon in the community was analyzed by theory proposed by Yule (2004). The data was presented in narrative texts.

  • 5.     Result and Discussion

    • 5.1    Language Style Used By Fangirls

Holmes stated that language varies according to its uses as well as its user, according to who is using it. There are many factors influence speaker’s style such as group membership, addressee, social background, etc. Language style is divided into two: vernacular and standard language. (Holmes, 2001)

  • 5.1.1    Vernacular language

It generally refers to a language which has not been standardized or codified and which does not have official status (uncodified or standardized variety). Examples of words of vernacular style found in the data source were: thankies, kinda, yay, omg, coz, and guys.

  • 5.1.2    Standard Language

A standard variety is generally one which is written, and which has undergone some degree of regulation or codification (in a grammar and a dictionary).Nevertheless, no standard language was found in the data source since the main focus to be analyzed was vernacular language.

  • 5.2    Women’s Language

Lakoff (1975) states women tend to speak with reference to the rules of politeness, conversational implicature, and interpersonal exploration; men tend to speak with reference to the rules of conversation and straight factual communication. Lakoff (1975) summarizes women’s language in several categories:

  • 5.2.1    Hedging

Hedging provides a way out, should disagreement occur, qualifying statements with non-absolute language, such as ‘I guess’, ‘sort of’,’kinda’,and ‘you see’. Those are the words that show uncertainty about what she is talking about or cannot vouch for the accuracy of the statement.Examples of words with hedges found in the data source were: I guess, I wonder, well, and I thought.

  • 5.2.2    Politeness

Politeness is taken to more extreme forms, either putting the speaker in an inferior position or seeking to be thoughtful and non-threatening towards the other person.Examples of polite words found in the data source were: excuse me, sorry, could you, would you mind, and please.

  • 5.2.3    Intensifier

Intensifier is emphasizing on the words while speaking. It occurs mostly in women’s than men’s language. It is an attempt to hedge on one’s strong feeling by using ‘so’ and ‘just’ to say: I feel strongly about this but I dare not to make it clear how strong it is. There were several intensifier so and just found in the data source used by fangirlsto convey their feeling to other members or towards their idol.

  • 5.2.4    Empty adjective

There is a group of adjective which have, besides their specific literal meanings, also indicating the speaker’s approbation or admiration towards something. Some of those adjectives are neutral as to sex of the speaker, either men or women. However, there are several adjectives, in its figurative use, to be largely confined to women’s speech. Examples of empty adjectives found in the data source were: lovely, awesome, nice, precious, wonderful, and beloved.

  • 5.3    Code Switching

Grosjean (1982) defines code switching as the alternate use of two or more languages in the same utterance or conversation. He argues that code switching has become a norm in bilingualism communities. There are some reasons of code switching, according to Grosjean (1982) and it is summarized according to the online community characteristic:

  • 5.3.1    Fill a linguistic need for lexical item, set phrase, discourse markers, or sentence filter.

Bilinguals usually explain that the reason they do code switching is that because they lack facility in one language when talking about a particular topic. Sometimes, it becomes hard to find the proper word to express their idea in one language since it may decrease the sense of utterance that they want to say. Examples of code switching words to fill lexical terms found in the data source were: ichiban (the most favorite or number one), arigatou (thank you), otsukaresama (thank you for your hardwork), and sugoi (wow, great)

  • 5.3.2    Mark and emphasize group identity (solidarity).

A group identity can be signaled by switching to the other language.Every group, especially the bilingual ones have their own way to say what they want to say.Examples of code switching words as a mark of group identity found in the data source were: movie tittle AnsastsuKyoshitsu did not changed into English although it has official English tittle Assassination Classroom and movie tittle Kaasan, Ore waDaijyobu (Mother, I am Okay) was not translated into French even the whole movie was translated into French.

  • 5.4    Jargon

Yule (2006: 211) proposes jargon as specialized vocabulary used by those inside established social groups while slang is more typically used among those who are outside established higher-status groups. There are some motivations of creating jargon. First, it is used to exclude the people or novices, there who do not belong to. Another motivation of creating jargon is communicative efficiency. . Practically, the words are old but with new meaning and different meaning. Examples of jargons found in the data source were : J-pop ,Fanboy, Ichiban, Sub, Dorama, Scanlation, Fandom, Fanvid, Fancam, Fanaudio, Fanfic, Fanart, Member-ai, Raw, Siggy, Ikemen, Bash, F-locked, Bishonen, Seiyuu, Hentai.

  • 6.    Conclusion

It can be concluded that language style found in the data source was vernacular or informal language. Women’s language also appeared since most of the members are girls. Several categories of women’s language applied were hedges, politeness, the

usage of intensifier, and empty adjectives. As a bilingual community, code switching also appeared to fill a lexical terms and mark and emphasize of group identity. Furthermore, jargons plays important role in the community as a mark of community and to make the communication among members becomes practical and efficient.

  • 7.     Bibliography

Grosjean, F.(1982).Life with Two Languages. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Hey_say.Hey Say Jump Japanese Boyband    Community.    hey-

say.livejournal.com(accessed on November 10,2014 )

Holmes, J. (1992). An Introduction to Sociolinguistic.New York: Longman.

Lakoff, R. (1995).Language and Women’s Place. New York: Harper and Row Publishes.

News_jpop.News Japanese Boyband Fans Community.news-jpop.livejournal.com (accessed on November 10, 2014 )

Yule, G. (2004) The Study of Language Third Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

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