Morphology I

An Analysis of Opi M Adiwijaya’s Morfologi Bahasa

Prokem

Ahmad Shadiqi
0810732046

English Department
Faculty of Letters
Andalas University
Padang
2010
Ahmad Shadiqi [0810732046]

An Analysis of Opi M Adiwijaya’s Morfologi Bahasa Prokem

Introduction

“Bahasa Prokem” or in English “Slang Word” is normally found in

many languages. Some agree that slang words are the variation of a
language. However, some other experts conclude that slang words are kinds
of error and should not be used in society. Then again, the use of slang
words cannot be disregarded. No one would be able to deny the existence of
slang word.

It is a realization of the unlimited creative expressions of a

community through the limited amounts of informal words in a language.
There are no evidences which prove that slang word is a cultural product of
customs although it appears in several communities. The appearance of
slang words is a change of the way to communicate. A set of slang words is
only understood among certain community and it also has the influence of
regional language so that it varies greatly in number even in diminutive
area.

A paper discussing about morphology of slang words in Bahasa,

originally titled Morfologi Bahasa Prokem concerns a lot in the kinds of slang
word used in Bahasa Indonesia. The author, Opi M Adiwijaya, classifies the
morphological units of slang words in Bahasa into three main points. This
review paper will find the weaknesses and strengths in Adiwijaya’s paper. It
will also talk about the author’s finding in his research.

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An Analysis of Opi M Adiwijaya’s Morfologi Bahasa Prokem

Description and Analysis

1. Description

The background, limitation, formulation, and purpose of Adiwijaya’s

research paper

Adiwiwijaya finds that experts, especially educators, often complain

about the practice of slang words among the teenagers. He discovers that
teenagers tend to invent their own language as the symbol of certain group
to represent the customs of the group. It is possible to understand the words
but the structure is so complicated and looks meaningless. The spreading is
so wide in Indonesia that an assumption concerning about the term
appears. It is said that slang words is not a language trying “to dispute” the
prescribed language but it tries “to dispute” the dominant tension and
establishment among the communities.

The paper Morfologi Bahasa Prokem is limited in the main

constructive structure of the slang words. The author divides his theory into
three main points that relate the usage of slang words in the middle of
society. Opi M Adiwijawa formulates his paper through descriptive
explanation. The giving of examples from many sources put together the
author’s intention in showing the popular slang words among society. The
author intents to show that slang words is not a discovery of new languages,
it is just the intensification of vocabularies in a language.

Short Description of the Paper Morfologi Bahasa Prokem

Slang words are words which have different structure from the
original language where they appear. Some experts believe that a slang
word is a discovery within a language. Some agree that it is an oversight
inside a language. It seems like slang word tries “to attack” the primary
language with its unusual structure. The fact is that slang words only try “to
dispute” the dominant tension and establishment among the communities.
Slang words spread out largely and vary in number in many different areas.
They are kinds of quotation from unlimited sources. The teenagers who
habitually use the words cite them from every source possible; it can be
from the regional languages such as Javanese, Sundanese, Minangnese etc.
or even from foreign languages such as Arabic, English, Japanese etc. For
example, “pra one two land” is a slang from [perawan tulen] ‘real virgin’. It

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An Analysis of Opi M Adiwijaya’s Morfologi Bahasa Prokem

aplies the words from English and is used in informal situation. There are
three schemes of slang words applied in Bahasa;

1) The common words which posses new meaning,

The words come from the common words and they are given new
meaning such as [meledak], which is originally means ‘to explode’,
the meaning is changed into ‘to succeed doing robbery’

2) The transformation of common words

A word undergoes the changing in position of its independent

morphemes or some infrequent morphemes are added into common
words without changing the meaning. The word [payah] ‘hard’ is
transformed into [yapah]. The word [bapak] ‘father’ or ‘sir’ is changed
into [bokap] the process is addition of the morpheme [-ok-] and the
deletion of [-ap]

3) The new-discovered words

Some words come into sight without any data of where they come
from. The examples are [ogut] ‘I’ and [doi] ‘lover’. There are no
evidences or data explaining the origin of the word. Some of these
words are so popular.

Normally, slang words are not new language discovery. They are just
new vocabularies appear in a language. They only have morphological
schemes and no syntactical schemes. Teenagers, who use them largely,
should be taught more about their original language. Nowadays, they know
about slang words more than their knowledge about their original language,
Bahasa Indonesia.

The Way the Author’s Research Project Collects and Analyzes the
Data

The author explains clearly his research through a descriptive

explanation. He concludes that there are three main morphological schemes
occurred in the slang words. The research is a combination of practical
research and theoretical research. The author seems like having much
experience in listening and using the slang words in his environment.

Theoretical frameworks

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Ahmad Shadiqi [0810732046]

An Analysis of Opi M Adiwijaya’s Morfologi Bahasa Prokem

The author doesn’t support much his paper with any experts’
theories. He serves us with practical examples of slang words that he found.
Adiwijaya only takes the quotation from expert just for example. He doesn’t
concern much about theory of morphology although his paper’s title is
Morfologi Bahasa Prokem which means ‘The Morphology of Slang Words’.

The research findings

The paper concerns a lot in the making and the usage of slang words
among the community especially teenagers. It makes clear that there are no
syntactical methods occur in the making of slang words. It is possible to
understand the words but the structure is so complicated and looks
meaningless. The methods happened are morphological schemes in
Indonesian’s slang words. The author cares about the process in making the
slang words. He found that there are three kinds of slang words among the
community which are 1) The common words which posse new meaning, 2)
The transformation of common words, and 3) The new-discovered words. In
some ways, people think that slang words are the Indonesian language
destructors. On the other hands, slang words enhance the vocabularies in
Bahasa Indonesia whether they are admitted formally or not. Slang words
are the variants usage of Bahasa.

2. Analysis

Using descriptive method makes the paper looks clear. Moreover,

through the examples, it is seen clearly that the usage of slang words in
Bahasa Indonesia spreads largely in number. There are also variations of the
way people produce slang words. Adiwajaya’s explanations are good in
some ways because the idea development is clear that the readers can
easily follows the topic.

Nevertheless, the paper tends to be biased when he approaches the

idea by providing some “negative denotation words” as example. This term
gets the reader to assume that slang words are the adverse kinds of
language that spread out among the community. The author also doesn’t
explain much about which teenagers who commonly use slang words in
their live that, again, makes the reader presume a negative view of the
users of slang words.

The paper is also lack of morphological theory. The bibliography itself

only contains of the sources of the example and some experts’ opinions.
The author should include more basic theories/sub-theories in explaining his
ideas then he can apply those theories in describing his invention of slang

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Ahmad Shadiqi [0810732046]

An Analysis of Opi M Adiwijaya’s Morfologi Bahasa Prokem

words. Dressler settled three basic sub-theories in natural morphology. The

first sub-theory of universal markedness, or system-independent
morphological naturalness is a preference theory (Dressler, 1999). It
establishes deductively the degrees of universal preferences on a restricted
number of naturalness parameters. Here naturalness does not refer to any
global or overall preference, but to what is universally preferred on one
given parameter.

The second sub-theory of typological adequacy has reinterpreted

these ideal constructs as sets of consistent responses to naturalness
conflicts (Dressler, 1985). The third sub-theory of system-dependent
naturalness, or language-specific system adequacy (Wurzel, 1984),
accounts for what is normal within the morphology of a language, although
it may contradict some universal morphological preference (of the first sub-
theory) (Wurzel, 1984).

Those are theories that can be applied in studying the slang words.
According to the title, the author should concerns a lot in theory. Moreover,
the reader would be more convinced if a paper is supported by definite
theories from experts.

Conclusion

The spreading usage of slang words among the community has been
lately a serious issue if we correlate it with the theory morphologically.
Actually, slang words a total fluency in a language, in this case Bahasa
Indonesia. A new learner of Bahasa will find serious difficulties in using and
understanding the slang words.

The usage of slang words itself is only some kinds of trend that
sometimes will disappear on the community. It’s almost the same with the
genre of music, it’s a seasonal thing that appears and disappears
continuously on condition that people communicate. The concerns should be
more about the error in using language because teenagers nowadays are
predisposed to use “a mixed language” or “whatsoever language among
them without caring about the essence of their original language. Overall,
the paper Morfologi Bahasa Prokem by Opi M Adiwijawa is a good paper
reminding us about our language, its deviations and variations.

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Ahmad Shadiqi [0810732046]

An Analysis of Opi M Adiwijaya’s Morfologi Bahasa Prokem

References

Dressler W U (1985). Morphonology. Ann Arbor: Karoma Publ.

Dressler W U (1999). ‘On a semiotic theory of preferenc in language.’ The

Peirce Semiotic Papers 4, 389–415.

Wurzel W U (1984). Flexionsmorphologie und Natu ¨ rlich-keit. Berlin:

Akademie-Verlag. [English transl.(1989).Inflectional morphology and
naturalness. Dordrecht:Kluwer.]

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