The Using of Abrreviations In Twitter As A Social Media

THE USING OF ABBREVIATIONS IN TWITTER

AS A SOCIAL MEDIA

Proposed to fulfill the task on Sociolinguistics Subject

Compiled By:

Name  : Kartika Ramayani Rajagukguk

NIM    : 34101008

Department of English Education 1 Sixth Semester

State Institute for Islamic Studies

North Sumatra

Medan

2013

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A.    Background of Study

Language has a primary function as a communication tool. Through language, the message  who want to be given by a person to the other to be delivered  properly. Aside from being a tool of communication, language also has other functions. The function among others, as expressed by Jakobson in Cook (1997: 26), which is divided into seven language functions, among others: emotive function,  directive function, phatic function, poetic function, the function referential, metalinguistic function,  and contextual functions. Brown and Yule (1983: 2-3) split a function of language  two, namely transactional and interactional functions. More transactional functions emphasis on the message that using language as a medium conveys factual information and proportionate, while more emphasis interactional function  the establishment and maintenance of social relationships between fellow  humans. Looking at the relationship between interactional function and language function as the communication medium, Brown and Yule then asserts that everyday human interaction largely characterized by the use of language  the interpersonal use of language to establish and maintain social relationships rather than transactional. Interactional function in life  everyday people are then seen in an activity called with conversation.

Conversation is a basic form of language use. Conversation by Stubbs (1983: 33) has a characteristic spontaneous, unplanned, and informal (casual). While Taylor and Camerun in Marcellino (1993: 59) argues that the conversation has four characteristics, namely: ungrammatically, discontinuity, interactivity, and the dependency context (context dependency). Furthermore, other opinions expressed by Levinson (1983: 284) states that one feature of conversation is the number of participants who typically consists of two people or more, have an intimate relationship, have freedom in turn to speak, and generally occurs outside specific institutions such as religious services, the trial court, in the classroom teaching, and so on. Conversations can be done in a variety of places, whether it is in close proximity and long distance. Initially the exchange of information between human beings is done directly, in which the speaker and the listener is in the same place, but at this point the conversation can be done by several people simultaneously, where the participants are in a separate place among one another. it is suggests that humans started looking for a way to no longer make the distance and different times become barriers to long-distance communication.

Internet comes from the Latin "inter" means between. Randal and Latulipe in RJ (2007) mentions that the internet is defined as Interconnection Networking or network of interacting that has meaning a global network of computers network (a global network consisting of a computer network). So if taken literally, the internet can be defined as a liaison between the network or computer with other computers around the world.

Internet is no longer considered as a secondary requirement, but it has become one of a primary requirement. This is caused by the rapid flow of information distribution
and the need to know the latest news and events happening in other parts of the world. In addition, if the first communication done directly in real space and time, so at this point it can be done virtual or better known as the virtual world with only Internet use networked computer media.

Virtual conversations known as chat (Supreme, 2001; Hidalgo, 2001; Purwadi, 1997, Sianipar, 1997). Chatting can be defined as a form of activity that are made by individuals (one-to-one) 5 or discussion group (many-to-many) media through computers on the internet be direct (real time) using manipulation buttons on the computer keyboard. There are various media that provide conversation on the interne/t, among others, is the medium of the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) or chat, video conferencing, Yahoo Messenger (YM), AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), Microsoft Network Live Messenger (MSN), Skype, Me2Day, Wassup, Roleplay Text Based Forum, Heello, and Twitter. Furthermore, this research will focus on media Twitter.

Twitter was invented by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams in
March 2006 and introduced to the public in July 2006. Derived from the word tweet
which means chirp, Twitter is a service network and micro-blogging social that allows users to send status updates for them. Status can be the idea of ​​the state of the user (user) at a time given to the public, what is the user doing and feel, or the existence of
user at the time of the status update underway. Writing status is limited to 140
characters and can be posted through three ways, namely through websites, mobile telephone android-based, and special program called TweetDeck twitter. In addition to the form tweets or short messages on the user itself, Twitter is also used to have conversations with other users through mutual reply to short messages that are addressed directly to users twitter marked (mention) to be a conversation piece. Based on the explanation above the writer want to analyze “The Using of Abbreviations in Twitter as a Social Media”.

B.     The Reason of Study

From the explanation of background above, the researcher limitation of the research “How could people deliver their message to the other and the message understood by the reader in 140 characters”?

C.    The Aim of Study

To know how far the reader can understand the message that delivered by people.

CHAPTER II

THEORITICAL OF STUDY

A.    Abbreviation

Abbreviations, acronyms, initialism, clippings, reduced compounds, are all terms found in various studies and dictionaries in their attempt to classify the various types of shortened forms. These forms have many shapes which make their classification difficult. Scholars who attempted to classify these terms only added to the confusion. Kennedy (1935) views words such as Arco “American Radio Co;as blends, Bauer (1983) sees words as stagflation (from stagnation + inflation) as blends, but Arco, along with forms such as WASP, where the initial letters of every word in the base form a pronounced word, as acronyms; Gales’. Acronyms Dictionary classifies the blends motel, brunch and smog as acronyms; a search on the world World Wide Web reveals that all initialisms are listed as acronyms, even when the items are unpronouncable ; and today, abbreviation denotes all kinds of shortenings.

Classification is difficult even when definitions exist, because some of the definitions overlap, and because of the terms combine what are traditionally considered separate processes. Cannon’s attempt to distinguish between clippings and acronyms illustrates this point. “ An acronyms preserves only the initial part(s) of a a multiword source. According to this definition, sci-fi “science fiction is an acronyms, but Cogas “coal, oil, gas” is not, as gas is not reduced. However, border cases such as Autoland “automatic landing” raise the question of “how many letters/sound/syllables must be lost before an item can be closed as an acronyms.

      In this research, the writer could explain three types of abbreviations:

A 1. Blending

            Blending is a process of word formation in which parts of lexemes that are not themselves morphemes are combined to form a new lexeme. Familiar examples of blends (sometimes also called portmanteau words) are words like brunch, a combination of breakfast and lunch, or smog, a combination of smoke and fog. While not one of the major ways of forming new words, blending is used quite a bit in English in advertizing, product naming, and playful language.

Indeed, the sheer number of words of this sort that can be found in the Word Spy archives suggests the vitality of this process. Note that while most of the time the parts that are fused together to form blends are not themselves morphemes, sometimes a whole base or affix will be used; for example, Word Spy also lists the word celeblog (‘a blog written by a celebrity’) which is made up for the chunk celeb from celebrity and the word blog; the latter part has become a free morpheme in English in the last few years.

A 2. Clipping

            Clipping is means of creating new words by shortening already existing words. For example, we have info created from information, blog, created from web log, or fridge from refrigerator. Although clippings are often used in a colloquial rather than a formal register, some have attained more neutral status.

A 3. Acronyms

            Acronyms are formed by taking the initial letters of a string of words and combining them to form a new one. In the study of human language, speech must always be considered primary, and writing secondary, and the fact that acronyms formation depends on orthography and not pronunciation means that it is, in a sense, an artificial process, external to the general phenomenon of lexeme formation.

When the first letters of words that make up a name or a phrase are used to create a new word, the results are called acronyms or initialsms. In acronyms, the new word is pronounced as a word, rather than a series of letters. Initialisms are similar to acronyms in that they are composed from the first letters of phrase, but unlike acronyms, they are pronounced as a series of letters.

B.     Twitter

Twitter is an online service that allows you to share updates with other users by answering one simple question: "What are you doing?" In order to use Twitter, you must first sign up for a free account. Once you have created your account, you can post your own updates and view the updates others have posted. You can search for people to follow or you can let Twitter select random users. Once you have selected a number of users, their most recent posts, or "tweets," will show up on your Twitter home page. Likewise, your own latest tweets will show up on the home pages of people who have decided to follow you.

Twitter limits each tweet to 140 characters, which means there is no room for rambling. Of course, in this era of limited attention spans, 140 characters may be as much as other users want to read anyway. The character limit is also within the 160 character limit of SMS text messages. This is useful, since tweets can be sent to Twitter using mobile phones. To Twitter via your cell phone, you simply need to add your phone number in the "Devices" area of the Twitter Settings page.

Since most people have frequent access to a computer or cell phone, Twitter makes it possible to provide others with frequent updates about your life. Many people also use Twitter to blog about the news, politics, TV shows, or any other hot topic. Some people even use it to share their thoughts on lectures or sermons. So Twitter posts are certainly not limited to answering the question “What are you doing?”

C.    Methodology of research

Methodology is the way how the researcher getting the data. Here, the research try to use library research and field research to complete these data. This data will support with evidence of data.

                             

CHAPTER III

ANALYSIS OF DATA

A.    Abbreviations

1.      Bc = because

2.      Brb = Be Right Back

3.      Btw = By The Way

4.      DM = Direct Message

5.      Em = Email

6.      Fab = Fabulous

7.      FB = Facebook

8.      GWS = Get Well Soon

9.      F2F = Face to Face

10.  Be4 = before

11.  FYI = For Your Info

12.  Gr8 = Great

13.  GTG = Go To Go

14.  RT = Re- Tweet

15.  TL = Time Line

16.  Fav = Favourite

17.  Follback = Follow back

18.  Unfoll = Unfollow

19.  Sitcom = Situation Comedy

20.  Ic = I see

21.  Idk = I dont know

22.  Idc = I don’t care

23.  IM = Instant Message

24.  JK = Just Kidding

25.  L8 = Late

26.  LI = LinkedIn

27.  LMAO = Laughing My Ass Off

28.  LOL = Laughing Out Loud

29.  LMK = Let Me Know

30.  MT = Modified Tweet

31.  Urwell = Your Welcome

32.  WA = WhatsApp

33.  OMG = Oh My God

34.  Orly = Oh Really

35.  IG = Instagram

36.  ROFL = Rolling On The Floor

37.  Fanfic = Fanfiction

38.  SMH = Shaking My Head

39.  Thx = Thanks

40.  TMI = Too Much Information

41.  YT = Youtube

42.  Buff = Buffering

B.     Data

NO	Abbreviations	Clipping	Blending	Acronyms/ Initial	Unidentified
1	Bc			1
2	Brb			1
3	Btw			1
4	DM			1
5	EM			1
6	Fab	1
7	FB			1
8	GWS			1
9	F2F				1
10	Be4				1
11	FYI			1
12	Gr8				1
13	GTG			1
14	RT			1
15	TL			1
16	Fav	1
17	Follback		1
18	Unfoll		1
19	Sitcom	1
20	Ic			1
21	Idc			1
22	Idk			1
23	IM			1
24	JK			1
25	L8				1
26	LI			1
27	LMAO			1
28	LOL			1
29	LMK			1
30	MT			1
31	Urwell	1
32	WA			1
33	OMG			1
34	Orly		1
35	IG			1
36	ROFL			1
37	Fanfic	1
38	SMH			1
39	YT			1
40	Thx			1
41	TMI			1
42	Buff	1
		6	3	28	5
	Total				42

C.    Analysis Of Data

No	Abbreviations	Amount	%
1	Clipping	6	14
2	Blending	3	7
3	Acronyms/ Initialisms	28	67
4	Unidentified	5	12
	Total	42	100

            From the data above we can look that acronyms the most used in Twitter, because acronyms is easy understood than the other abbreviations. Most people use acronyms or initial in twitter because they have to deliver their message to the other in 140 characters that can guarantee their friends understand the purpose of the message (mention). As long as the abbreviations is can be guest it will not be difficult to understand. And when you don’t know what does meaning of the abbreviations, don’t be shy to ask someone, because sometimes what in interprate is not real the meaning of the abbreviations.

CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

            Twitter as a social media is needly in daily life. The message from twitter is faster than we sent SMS to someone, but we have realize that twitter give limitation to write something, above 140 characters, as a human of social media we have to know the terms or abbreviations in social media, because to made full meaning at twitter is spent the character. So that people used abbreviations when they mention their friend, and the message understood by the reader. 

REFERENCES

Bauer, Laurie,1988, English Word Formation, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Kennedy, Arthur.G,1935, Current English. Boston: Ginn

Bat- El Outi,1994, The Optimal Acronyms word in Hebrew. In P. Kokinen Proceedings of The Canadian Linguistic Association. Toronto: University of Toronto

Salmiah, Maryati & Herina Masbe,2012, Teaching Material For Morphology. Diktat