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Code Mixing Used in Facebook

By Dewi Ambarwulan
Postgraduate Program of English Education, Fakultas Keguruan dan Ilmu
Pendidikan, Universitas lampung
dambarwulan@gmail.com

Abstract

Facebook is one of the the examples of social media that connects people with
others around them or far away from them. The aim of this tudy is to find out the
forms and the meaning of code mixing used by users to update status on
Facebook. The research design which was used in this study was descriptive
qualitative research. The subject of the study was code mixing used by users to
update status on Facebook. The users were selected as the subjects of the study
because they often used code mixing to update status. The research instrument of
this research is the writer her self. To collect the data, the researcher was helped
observation and documentation. The data was the update status of users. The
finding of this study was the forms of code mixing used by users to update status
on Facebook. They were code mixing by words, code mixing by phrase, and code
mixing by baster. In conclusion, code mixing was used by some of the users in
their status update. Almost all of the the type of code mixing was used when they
wrote an update status. The purpose was that they wanted to show their feelings
and thoughts to others.

Keywords: Code mixing, facebook.

1. Introduction

Language use by people to communicate and to interact with one another. Living
with people that are bilingual or multilingual enables us to speak at least two
different languages. Developing communicative competence in two or more
languages gives individuals opportunities to express their feelings and thoughts
and shape their identity. It also helps them satisfy their individual and social
needs in the different contexts of the languages used . For instance, the one who is
Lampungnese uses Lampungnese language as the first language and uses
Indonesian language as the second language. In use, the people usually mix two
languages accidentally. We can name the phenomenon with code mixing. A code
is a system that is used by people to communicate with each other. When people
want to talk each other, they have to choose a particular code to express their
feeling.
Beside in the real world, the people also can communicate each other in the unreal
world or social media. One of social media which is very popular today is
facebook. Code mixing phenomenon is occurs in Facebook social media
especially in Indonesia. In facebook status, we often find some users use code
mixing to communicate each other. Code mixing that happens usually is not
realized by users. Therefore, the writer of this research is interested in writing
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about code mixing use in facebook account. Research Questions of this research
are:
1. What is code mixing?
2. How many forms of mixing code?
3. How many forms of code mixing which are used by facebook users in their
communication?

2. Literature Review

A code is a system that is used by people to communicate with each other. When
people want to talk each other, they have to choose a particular code to express
their feeling. According to Stockwell (2002: 8-9), a code is “a symbol of
nationalism that is used by people to speak or communicate in a particular
language, or dialect, or register, or accent, or style on different occasions and for
different purposes.” From this opinion of the code, we can make conclusion that a
code can be said as a language. The code is a form of the language variation that
is used by a society to make communication with other people.
Code mixing is the change of one language to another within the same utterance
or in the same oral/written text. It is a common phenomenon in societies in which
two or more languages are used, usually without a change of topic. Some
researcher such as Thelander in Chaer and Agustina (2004:115) explained that if in
the single utterance the clauses and the phrases used are hybrid clause or hybrid
phrases and each clause or phrase does not support the function of clause and
phrase, it is called code mixing. The special character of code mixing is that, code
mixing is used in informal situation. In the formal situation it may have no exact
meaning in Indonesian language. In the written language code mixing is indicated
by italic writing or underline form (Nababan, 1984: 32).
Maschler (1998: 125) defines code mixing or a mixed code as “using two
languages such that a third, new code emerges, in which elements from the two
languages are incorporated into a structurally definable pattern”. In other words,
the code mixing hypothesis states that when two code switched languages
constitute the appearance of a third code it has structural characteristics special to
that new code. Based on the language or variant elements inserted in other
language, code mixing can be classified into two kinds.
1. Inner code mixing
That is originated from the native language with its all variations, for instance
Jawa Ngoko mixed with Jawa Krama- Inggil,”wah baksone pun telas mas, pados
liyane mawon."In this sentence, the speaker mixes jawa ngoko, liyane, with jawa
karma inggil, pun, telas, mawon.
2. Outer code mixing
It mixes a foreign language with native language such as English language mixed
with Indonesian language. Saya sedang tidak bisa berpikir, otakku blank. In this
sentence, the speaker mixes English language, blank, with Indonesian language
saya, sedang, tidak, bisa, berpikir, otakku.
According to Suwito (1985: 63), Based on language element, there are several
forms of code mixing. They are in the word form, phrase form, clause form, idiom
form, and so on. In this case, there are some explanations about those terms
below:
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1. Words
E.g : Sorry aku lupa bawa bukumu. (Maaf aku lupa bawa bukumu).
2. Phrase
Phrase is a group of words that forms a part of sentence.
E.g : Saya pulang duluan ya, see you. (Saya pulang duluan ya, sampai jumpa).
3. Clause
Clause is a component of sentence, which has a subject and predicate but, it has
no end-mark.
E.g : Mama seharusnya tahu kalau health is important. (Kamu seharusnya tahu
kalau kesehatan itu penting).
4. Idiom
Idiom is a phrase or clause which the meaning could not be identified directly.
E.g : Saya sangat lelah fucked up. (Saya sangat lelah kacau)
5. Baster
Baster is language use which is not original.
E.g : Sudah waktunya kita se-gank nonton bareng.
6. Word repetition
E.g : Saya bisa berbahasa Padang little-little. ( Saya bisa berbahasa Sunda sedikit-
sedikit)
Facebook is one of the the examples of social media. Facebook is created on
February, 2004. Facebook is social networking site (SNS) that connects people
with friends and others who work, study and live around them or far away from
them. It is one of social networking that could help people to communicate
efficiently with their friends. The firm developed technology facilitating much
information through social graphic, society, and so on. Therefore, someone can
enroll for facebook and interact with the people they know.

3. Method

The method that I use in this research is descriptive method. Descriptive method
is the method that describes or interprets object appropriate with what it is (Best
1982: 119). This method also is called non-experiment method. It does not do
control and research variable manipulation. The purpose of this research method
generally is to describe facts systematically and characteristics of the subject and
object researched appropriately.
The Subject of this research is one friend of the writer’s facebook, the account
user name is Sari lovyra. The researcher collected the data from Sari Lovyra’s
facebook acount. Researcher collected the data about two weeks from December,
6th 2016 until December, 16th 2016 to find code mixing used in Facebook social
media.

4. Results and Discussions

After about 2 weeks obsereved Sari Lovyra’s facebook acount, there are some
forms of code mixing that researcher found on Sari Lovyra’s facebook acount,
those are code mixing by words, code mixing by phrase, and code mixing by
baster.
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Picture 1

Picture 2

Picture 3
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Picture 4

Picture 5
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4.1. Code mixing by words

This is the first data that I have collected from the first day of my research on Sari
Lovyra’s facebook acount that is on December, 6th 2016. Based on the picture I
could analyze that the status above are the example of code mixing by word. In
the picture 1, the facebook user, Sari Lovyra, mixes English word “chaos” with
Indonesian words “amat.. penuh ketakutan”.
Still on December, 6th 2016 researcher found another code mixing on Sari
Lovyra’s facebook comment. Based on the picture 2, I could analyze that Juli
Komaria’s comment mixes English word “Loading” with Indonesian words “nya
ga udah2 kah?” that comment above are the example of code mixing by word.
Based on the picture 3, I could analyze that Rizki SherinDani Qiqi’s comment on
Sary Lovyra’s facebook status as code mixing word, because Rizki mixes English
word “share” with Indonesian words “jg ya bu cantik..”.
Researcher also found another code mixing in Sari lovyra’s facebook account. In
picture 4, Nilam Saputri on his comment to Sari’s status mixes English word
“quote” with Indonesian words “Padahal yang ngejek juga gak bantuin
mamangnya sama sekali”.
Based on Picture 5 researcher found many examples of code mixing by words.
Sari Lovyra, mixes English word “little” with Indonesian words “nuri besok
buibu”, English word “spot” with Indonesian words “udah”, and English word
“weekend” with Indonesian words “seru buibu pakbapak and anak2nya ya..”.

4.2. Code mixing by phrase

After analyzing the picture 2, the researcher found code mixing by phrase. The
facebook user, Sari Lovyra, mixes phrase “Free Diapers” and the words “yang
unyu2..”.
In the picture 4, the researcher found code mixing by phrase. The facebook user,
Sari Lovyra, mixes phrase “Early christmas gift” and the words “tanpa
mengucapkan selamat natal”.

4.3. Code mixing by baster

After analyzing the comment above, the researcher concludes that there is code
mixing by baster in the picture 4. The facebook user, Galuh Destyanty, uses the
word “nge-judge” to complete her sentence. The baster form in the sentence is
compound of two elements, namely Indonesian language and English language.
The word “nge” is affix which contains active meaning. It is called baster because
the word “nge-judge” is not original anymore, both in Indonesian language and in
English language.
After analyzing the status above, the researcher found that there is code mixing
by baster in the picture 5. The facebook user, Sari Lovyra, uses the word “di-
finalize” to complete her sentence. The word “di” is affix which contains passive
meaning. It is called baster because the word “di-finalize” is not original anymore,
both in Indonesian language and in English language.
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5. Conclusion
There are many code mixing found in Sari Lovyra’s facebook account. There are
three forms of code mixing that researcher found in Sari Lovyra’s facebook
account, those are code mixing by words, code mixing by phrase, and code
mixing by baster.

Code mixing is a lingual phenomenon which frequently happens in society, such

as in bilingual, multilingual and monolingual society. It insufficiently gets
attention at people circle that insufficiently notices or less centralized in lingual or
culture. In this era, almost multilingualism society is so difficult to avoid code
mixing. Some people use code mixing without awareness. In other opinion, using
code mixing is regarded as cool. However, the most believable reason is because
of a habit. Because we know that there is no certain purpose why people use code
mixing.
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References

Best. 1982. Descriptive Research. London: Harper Collins Publisher.

Chaer, Abdul, dan Agustina, Leonie. Juni 2004. Sosiolinguistik: Perkenalan Awal.
Jakarta: Rineka Cipta.
Maschler, Y. 1998. On the transition from code-switching to a mixed code.
London: Routledge.
Nababan, P. W. J. 1984. Sosiolinguistik: Suatu Pengantar. Jakarta: P.T.
Gramedia.
Stockwell, P. (2002). Sociolinguistics: A resource book for students. London:
Routledge.
Suwito. 1985. Pengantar Awal Sosiolinguistik. Surakarta: Henary Offset Solo