CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the researcher presents background of the study, statement of

the problems, purposes of the study, significance of the study, scope and

limitation, and the definition of key terms. All of them are explained as follows.

1.1 Background of Study

Language is an important tool to communicate and express feeling and

thought among people in a society. Jaworsky and Coupland (1992:323) mention

that language is one of the most important forms of human symbolic behavior and

is key component of many groups of social identity. Furthermore, language is the

most important thing in human social life. They use language to interact and

communicate each other. By using language people can say anything to express

their command, ask or explaining something in their speech community by using

their own words.

There are many studies of language, one of them is sociolinguistics. Trask

(1999:262), states that sociolinguistics is the branch of linguistics that studies

about language and the society. It can be concluded that sociolinguistics learns the

correlation between language and society. Sociolinguistics also discusses about

language variation, for instance jargon, slang, style, colloquial, register, etc.

There are many social groups which create their own language to express

or say something when they are communicating in certain situation. One of the

language variations usually used is jargon. Aslinda and Syafahya (2007) state that

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jargon is a language variation used by certain group of community, it is not

known by other groups. This language is used by the members of social group or

community to communicate each other.

Jargon has special characteristic in communication. Many social groups use

this kind of language variation, so it is interesting to be observed because all of

the meaning behind jargon spoken by AMOBA can be revealed. This research

conducted because it can give new nuance in sociolinguistics. The jargon used by

AMOBA is selected by the researcher as research object with consideration that

most bikers in the organization intensively use it.

AMOBA, stands for Asosiasi Motor Boys Sidoarjo, is a group of motorcycle

modification. The members come from different age and status, many of them are

workers and students. It has twenty five members which come from different age

and social status, and around sixty percent of the members are workers. There are

many activities of AMOBA, such as modifying motorbikes, touring, blood donor

and others, but the main activities are meeting and gathering, also giving

contribution in social activities. The members meet and gather every Saturday

night at Sidoarjo Town Square. To communicate they create their own way that

only known by the members of AMOBA. The language style used by the

members of AMOBA is casual style, so it seems friendly when they communicate

by using their jargon.

When they are communicating with the members usually they use jargon as a

friendly language. For instance, when there is a member who wants to go home or

leaves the place they said “gowes”, in Indonesian it seems like activity to ride

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bicycle. The other example is when the members ride motorcycle by two people,

they call “homo. So, if there is someone in the community saying “I am homo” it

does not meant if they have sexual disorder, but it refers to that they have a friend

to ride the motorcycle. That is the example that makes the jargon used by

AMOBA is unique and different from other communities.

There are two previous researches that have been done related to this

investigation. The first was conducted by Sparkly (2008) entitled “A Study on

Jargon Used by Transexual in Beauty Salon Kediri”. She stated that the use of

jargon in the beauty salon was unique and different from the other speech

community. She found many jargons used by transsexual in beauty salon, for

instance akika/I, jelong/ugly, etc. Other people who do not belong to transsexual

could not understand their conversation. The second was conducted by

Endiarningsih (2007) entitled “A Study on Jargon Used in Ikatan Gaya Arema

(IGAMA) East Java”. She mentioned that people will feel different from others

and they feel confidents in their speech community. When people communicate

each other in the society, they have a different style to express what they want, but

by using jargon they will have the same style to say something to make their

groups different from the others. Some examples of their jargon are

rempong/busy, rumpi/complicated, mayang/play, etc.

Based on the explanation above, the researcher conducts this research because

it is important to describe the jargons uses in AMOBA, and to analyze the

meanings of the jargon. People need to know the jargon also the meaning to make

easy when they communicate with the members of AMOBA, so it will make an

effective communication if they understand the jargon itself.

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1.2 Statement of Problems

Based on the background of the study above, the problems are formulated as

follows:

1. How Many Jargons are found in AMOBA?

2. What are the meanings jargons found in AMOBA?

1.3 The Purpose of the Study

Based on the problems above, the purposes of the study are formulated as

follows:

1. To know the numbers of jargons used in AMOBA.

2. To describe the meaning jargons found in AMOBA.

1.4 Significance of the Study

The researcher hopes that this research can give beneficial to the development

of sociolinguistics.

For the lecturer of sociolinguistics, it is hoped that by knowing the study, they

will know more insight about the jargon by many communities in many area.

For the students, by understanding the meaning of the jargon, they will know

the varieties of languages, especially jargon in different communities.

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1.5 Scope and Limitation

The researcher focuses his study on the jargon used by AMOBA in their

informal communication and is limited to the discussion of their conversation

when they meet in their community.

1.6 Definition of Key Terms

To avoid mistakes or misunderstanding in terms and contens of the topics in

this study, it is necessary for the researcher to define the key terms used in this

study.

1. Jargon is a language variation used ny certain group or community, it

is not known by the other groups (Aslinda and Syafahya, 2007)

2. AMOBA, stands for Asosiasi Motor Boys Sidoarjo, is a group of

motorcycle modification whose members come from different age and

status.