An analysis on the slangs used in Bad Boys

ABSTRACT

Language is one of essential things in human’s life. We need language to communicate each other and express our ideas. There are two kinds of language; formal language and informal language. Slang language is one of popular informal language. Slang can be described as informal, nonstandard words or phrases. Slang is not only popular in informal daily conversations but also in songs and movies. Slang is widely used because media such as television, radio, magazine, and newspaper have popularized the use of slang words in daily conversation.

Nowadays, slang becomes very popular and spread all over the world vastly. All people in the world know slang terms and expressions from television, radio, mass media, newspaper, internet 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 and to create informal situation. 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 Bad Boys. This film contains several slang terms and expressions because it is a story about two black police officers who are work in narcotics division, who usually use slang in their conversation. The researcher used the descriptive qualitative method to analyze slang terms and expressions that are found in Bad Boys movie.

Study of slang may investigate its characteristics, types, and function. In this research, the researcher focuses on investigating characteristics of slang and its context. From this research, the researcher found that there are six linguistic processes in forming slang, they are: creativity, apocope, use of the existing word, acronym, metaphor, and metathesis. The context those researcher uses are situational context and linguistic context.