A Study of Slang Used in Save The Last Dance Film

ABSTRACT

To make a conversation easier, teenager make a new language, which is simple and ungrammatical. The new language they made is known by slang. It is unconventional words or phrases express either something new or something old in a new way. Slang firstly used by criminal classes and Black communities in London. Criminal classes used slang as a secret language whereas Black communities used slang as to protest the White community who became the majority.

Nowadays, slang terms and expressions become very popular and spread all over the world. All people in the world know slang terms and expressions from television, mass media, newspaper, and magazine. The reason for using slang is not only to create a secret language or to against the majority, but also to show someone’s identity, to be popular, to be familiar or relax in making conversation, or to show someone’s group or community. Although slang has commonly used, it is considered as a nonstandard language, which is inappropriate to be used in formal situation.

Slang is considered as nonstandard language that refers to a variety of language, which is more familiar, lively, colorful, and sometimes the sentences are shorter. One of movies, which contain several slang expressions, is Save the Last Dance. This film contains several slang terms and expressions because it is a story about Black community, a place where slang comes from. The researcher used the descriptive qualitative method to analyze slang terms and expressions that are found in Save the Last Dance film.

Study of slang may investigate its characteristics, its kinds, and its linguistic processes of forming slang. In this research, the researcher focused on investigating slang terms and expressions and its linguistic processes. From this research, the researcher found that there are seven linguistic processes in forming slang, they are: compounding, blending, clipping, use of the existing word, acronym, creating new words, and repeating the word.