A study on the jargons used by transsexual people in Malang

ABSTRACT

It is strongly impossible for us as human beings to avoid making conversation with other people every day, because conversation consists of language, which is principally a means of communication. In communication, people use language to perform their feelings, ideas, thoughts, and purposes. On the other hand, the speaker does not only do something for himself, but also requires something from the listener (Chaika 1982: 70).

Then, the study here is on jargons and includes sociolinguistics. Sociolinguistics study is the study of patterns and variations in language within a society or community. This research dealt with the kinds of jargons used by transsexual people in Malang who are members of the I WAMA community and how they use those jargons. The writer chose this area because jargons are very interesting to investigate, as not all people know the meanings of these jargons except for transsexual people. The second reason was that they have their own stressing, intonation, and gestures.

The descriptive qualitative research design is used in this study. The data were in the form of words and sentences describing transsexual people of the IWAMA community, with the data collected from their natural conversation. It is descriptive because it describes the kinds of jargons and how and why the transsexual people use them.

Based on research findings and discussion, the jargons found were fifty-three words. In addition, there were three kinds of word formation found in the jargons spoken by transsexual people. They were creating, clipping, and borrowing. Furthermore, the transsexual people used jargon whenever and wherever they wanted to speak, and it was spoken only within their community. They can promote themselves with their ways of communication, meaning that they hope it will be more interesting for other people.

Finally, the writer hoped that the study would be a new additional source of information for increasing the knowledge of sociolinguistics, especially concerning the jargons used by transsexual people in Malang. Therefore, the writer suggested that further researchers criticize the theory of jargons which may be not relevant to this area and creatively correlate this study to other cross-linguistic disciplines, for example, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, etc.