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WORD FORMATION ANALYSIS FOUND IN 
ENGLISH SLANGS USED BY JUSTIN BIEBER ON 

INSTAGRAM 

Febi Gilang Pratama 
Wiyaka 

Entika Fani Prastikawati 

English Education Departement 
Universitas PGRI Semarang 

entikafani@upgris.ac.id  
 

Abstract 
This study aimed to find out the word-formations in English slang 
utilized on Instagram captions posted by Justin Bieber. This study 
applied a descriptive qualitative method to capture the process of 
word-formation in Justin Bieber‟s English slang. In this study, the 
writers used the theory of Yule about the word-formation process 
for analyzing the data of English slang. The writers obtained the 
data through reading, capturing, and understanding the captions 
posted during a year (June 2020 – June 2021). Based on the data 
analysis, seven out of ten types of word-formation processes in 
English slang were used by Justin Bieber in his Instagram caption. 
They are (1) Clipping, (2) Blending, (3) Acronym, (4) Borrowing, (5) 
Derivation, (6) Coinage, and (7) Multi Processes. The most frequent 
type of word formation process used by Justin Bieber on Instagram 
is clipping with the 47 data‟s frequency (54%). This study implies 
that Justin Bieber frequently used clipping to make short the words 
on every posted video or photo so his followers can easily 
understand his feeling.  

Keywords: English Slang, Word formation, Instagram 
 

INTRODUCTION 
Language is a communication device that is used by people to convey 

messages to others in written or spoken. According to Spolsky (1998), 
language is used to express meaning and maintain the relationship. 
According to Kaye & Downes (2000), language is representing the identity of 
the users of the language itself. When people speak to use the English 
language, they are using various English styles; one of the styles in the 
English language is the informal style.  

mailto:entikafani@upgris.ac.id


 

 

 

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Slang is the everyday language that is frequently used in informal 
situations (Analysis et al., 2018) states that slang is a habitual language that 
is used among teenagers in a particular community with a specific interest. 
According to Tinggi & Asing (2017), three communities regularly use slang 
words in their conversation such as musicians, drug users, and 
skateboarders. Slang language involves the developing of new words or 
dictions which never been existed before. In the process of creating slang 
words, there is a word-formation process that involves the existence of the 
words. For example, the word “woulda” included slanging word which 
means “would have”. The process of word-formation “woulda” is blending 
which means the combination of two separate words which actually can 
stand alone. There are 10 types of process of word formation such as 
coinage, clipping, blending, compounding, borrowing, acronym, 
backformation, conversion, derivation, and multiple processes.  

Currently, the massive spreading of social media also inflicts the spread 
of slang language; one of the social media platforms that have big numbers 
of active users is Instagram. According to Statista (2021), the news portal 
website that provides the statistic of the active users of Instagram, states that 
there are one billion active users use Instagram a month in June 2018. On 
Instagram when people post videos or photos, they can add captions. 
Mostly, they write caption use English slang word. 

Some studies have revealed the use of slang in a movie, song lyrics, and 
social media. The use of slang is sometimes intended to show strong 
emotions feeling in humor (Zhou & Fan, 2013). A study from Wulandari 
(2012) investigated the types of slang words found in the song lyrics. A 
descriptive method was used in this study. The finding shows that there are 
four types of the word-formation process of the slang words in the lyrics 
such as clipping (Uni, exam, and Sov), acronym (U.S), blending (wanna, kinda, 
ain’t, shoulda, and let’s), and backformation. They found 50 data of slang 
words. This findings implies that the most of slang words appears are 
denotative meanings which means it doesn‟t change the meaning; the focus 
of slang words that used in the song lyrics was making the good rhyme. 

Tinggi & Asing (2017) also used the qualitative descriptive method to find 
 the slang used in seven songs by Meghan Trainor. There are three types of 
 the word-formation process of the slang words in the lyrics such as clipping, 
 blending, and coinage. As a study from Wulandari (2012), the slang words 
 used in the song lyrics of this study were used for making the lyrics in a 
 good rhyme. 

 Hafiza & Rosa (2020) analyzed word-formation of English slang used in 
Straight Outta Compton Movie”. In this study, it was found six types of 
slang words based on Yule‟s theory (2006). The data was taken from the 
movie script that there are 65 data of the slang words. The most often types 



 

 

 

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of slang words that appeared in this study are blending with 29,24%, which 
is 19 words. Then followed by coinage with 26,16%, it is 17 words. After that 
followed by clipping with 24,66%, it is 16 words. Then compounding with 
13,84%, it is 9 words. And the last one is an acronym and multiple processes 
with 3,07%, it is 2 words. The study has revealed that most dirty words were 
used in the movie script as slang words. Most of the characters in the movie 
are showed that they are uneducated, lower caste, and criminals. This 
implies that the background of education, caste in society, and the 
community are influenced by the way they use the languages. 

Harared (2018) investigated how slang was created and used in the 
website 1cak.com. Using a sociolinguistics study, it was found that there are 
6 types of slang words, acronym, blending, borrowing, clipping, derivation, 
and initials. The data were taken from „trending‟ and „legend‟ posts on 
1cak.site. Many slang terms found in this study were tended to a comedic. 
Many of them are acronyms or initials of certain words that only can be 
understood by the community of the “memer”, or the people who are loving 
the meme (texts or images that contain humor-based slang). This can be 
implied that slang was created by a certain community with particular 
purposes as mentioned by Allan & Burridge (2006). 

Different from the previous studies, this study is trying to investigate the 
slang used by Justin Bieber in his Instagram. Investigating how a popular 
singer uses English slang in social media is crucial for the content of social 
media can influence the EFL learners in using their English in daily life 
communication (Tinggi & Asing, 2017). For that reason, this study fills the 
exciting gap by investigating the slang used by Justin Bieber as a famous 
singer. This study is limited to a research question: “How is the process of 
word-formations in English slangs used in Justin Bieber‟s caption?” 

Slangs 
According to Fromkin et al. (2003), the term “slang” has been defined as a 

thing that everyone can realize but none of a single person can define. Slang 
also has a process of forming words, as Yule (2006) says such as Coinage, 
Clipping, Compounding, Blending, Borrowing, Back Formation, Acronyms, 
Conversions, Multiple processes, Derivation (Prefix, Infix, Suffix).    
a) Coinage  

Coinage is a word-formation process by inventing trade names for 
commercial products and using them in general terms.  
b) Clipping  
Clipping is one of the word-formation processes by making a long word or 
more than one syllable into a short form.  
c) Compounding  
Compounding is a word-formation process by combining two separate 
words to produce a new single word.  



 

 

 

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d) Blending  
Blending is one of the processes which combining two words to create a new 
word. It‟s by taking only the beginning of a word, then joining it to the end 
of the other word.  
e) Borrowing  
Borrowing is the one of word formation process by taking over words from 
other languages.  
f)   Backformation is a process of word-formation by reducing one type of 
word (usually a noun) to form a word of another type (usually a verb).  
g) Conversions  
Conversion is a process of forming a word by changing the function of the 
word (usually a noun to a verb) without any reduction.  
h) Acronyms  
Acronyms are a new word formed from the initial of a letter of the set of 
other words. i) Derivation  
The derivation is a process of forming a word by adding a certain word 
(such as un-, mis-, -ish, -ism, and so, on). It could be at the beginning of the 
middle or in the last of the words.  
j) Multiple Processes  

Multiple processes refer to the process of forming a word that is more 
than one process.  

 
METHOD 

In this study, the writers used the descriptive qualitative method. The 
writers aimed to describe the types of slang words used by Justin Bieber 
based on Yule‟s theory of the word-formation process (2006). The data were 
collected using the observation method (Harared, 2018) that was applied 
during a year. In this case, the data was taken from Instagram the captions 
posted by Justin Beiber during June 2020 until June 2021. After collecting the 
data, the writers analyzed the data based on the theory of about three stages 
of analyzing the data such as data reduction, data display, and conclusion 
drawing/verification (Aldridge, 2002). 

 

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 
This section is trying to describe the finding that is related to the types of 

word-formation of slang words used by Justin Bieber on his Instagram‟s 
caption is presented in Table 1.  

Based on the analysis of slang words used by Justin Bieber on Instagram‟s 
caption posted during a year (June 2020 – June 2021) there are 87 pieces of 
data collected in this analysis. From the data, we can conclude that the most 
frequent type of word formation that used by Justin Bieber is Clipping; 



 

 

 

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which is 47 words or 54%. There is also Blending, 18 words or 20,7%. Then 
Derivation is 8 words or 9,2%. After that is Acronym, it is 6 words or 6,9%. 
Then, Borrowing and Coinage with the same numbers, it is 3 or 3,4%. And 
the last is Multiple Processes, it is 2 or 2,3%. 

Table 1 The Frequency of Word Formation Process on Justin Bieber 
Instagram’s Caption Posted. 

No Types of Word Formation 
Frequency 

 Number Percentage  
 

1 Clipping 47 54% 
 
 

 
 

2 Blending 18 20,7% 
 
 

 
 

3 Derivation 8 9,2% 
 
 

 
 

4 Acronym 6 6,9% 
 
 

 
 

5 Coinage 3 3,4% 
 
 

 
 

6 Borrowing 3 3,4% 
 
 

 
 

7 Multiple Processes 2 2,3% 
 
 

 
 

Total 87 100%  
 

  
a. Clipping 

Clipping is one of the word-formation types in English slang that is 
shortening the word or few letters. From the data, the writer was found 
some clipping process of word-formation on Justin Bieber Instagram 
posted caption. These are the examples of clipping word-formation 
process on the Instagram caption posted by Justin Bieber:  
Luv u sweet gurl 
Slang: Luv 

The word “luv” from the data above is a slang word that refers to love. It 
becomes a slang word because it‟s a new word that is created with a 
certain word formation process, the clipping process. The word luv is 



 

 

 

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clipping from the word love by deleting the word e and changing the 
word o to u. Another example is presented below: 
 
Birthday gift love em 
Slang: Em 
The word “em” from the data above is a slang word that refers to them. It 
becomes a slang word because it includes word formation‟s process, 
clipping. The word “em” is shortening from the word “them”. 
 
b. Blending 
Blending is another process of word-formation type which associated to 
the process of forming English slang word. Blending is a word-formation 
process by combining one word with another word to create a new word. 
For example: 
 
One of the most inspiring people I’ve ever been around 
Slang: I’ve 
 
The word “I’ve” is a slang word that refers to I have. It‟s two separate 
words combined into a new single word. They are “I” and “Have” and 
they can be classified into free morphemes because the two of them 
actually can stand alone. This word includes to slang word that classified 
into blending process of word formation; the word “I” + “Have”. 
Further, Justin Beiber also used the following Blending in his caption: 
 
Whole lotta... 
Slang: lotta 
 
The word “lotta” refers to a lot of or lots of. This word is included in 
slang, particularly, the word was formed within blending word-
formation‟s process.  
c. Acronym 

In the process of word formation‟s type that stated by Yule (2006), 
there is also an acronym, which refers to the process of forming a new 
word by using the initial letters. This type of slang word also appears on 
Justin Bieber Instagram caption posted. For example:  

Holding on is something [I] like do” who says that lol hope this makes you 
laugh. 

The word “lol” is included in a slang word that is classified into acronym 
process. The word “lol” actually is the initial letter from the word „laugh 
out loud‟ which means to express something funny or amusing.  



 

 

 

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Another is found in a caption below: 

lil picnic wif bae 

The word “bae” in the sentence above refers to the acronym of “Before 
Anyone Else”. It means a state of love feeling to someone such as 
sweetheart, baby, lovely, etc. 

d. Borrowing 
Borrowing is a process of word-formation type which refers to the 

process of creating a new single word by borrowing from other 
languages. This kind of slang word was also mentioned by Justin Bieber 
in his Instagram caption posted. This is found in a caption below: 
My fur babies Oscar and Esther 
 

The word “fur” is a slang word that is classified into the borrowing 
process. The word “fur” is borrowing from French which means “a 
sheath or cover”. In French, fur used to mention a sheath that encases or 
covers a knife or sword made from hairy of an animal (Merriam-Webster 
Dictionary). 
e. Coinage 

Coinage refers to a process of forming a new word by inventing trade 
names for commercial products and using them in general terms. There 
is 3 word that included to coinage appears in this study. For example: 

glizzy tucked 

The word “glizzy” here, is classified into coinage. It is taken from an 
American product which is the name of a gun. Later, it changed into the 
name of hotdog. In this case, Bieber tried to say that his braces were 
looked like a hotdog.  

f. Derivation 
Derivation is another process of forming slang words by adding a certain 
word (such as, un-, mis-, -ish, -ism, and so, on). It could be in the 
beginning or in the middle or in the last of the words. For example:  

When I’m tired, insecure, fearful, angry, sad… 

The word “insecure” means not confident. It is classified into derivation 
word-formation process, especially, suffixes. The word “secure” got 
prefix “in” 

 

 



 

 

 

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g. Multiple Processes 
The last word-formation process in this study is multiple processes. 

Multiple processes refer to the process of forming a word that is more 
than one process. For examples: 

When @djtayjames says put your hands up you put you mutha fuckin hands 
up    happy Bday… 

The word “mutha fuckin” here, is classified into multiple processes of 
word-formation process. First, it is blending from the word 
“motherfucker”. Then the second process is clipping from the word “mother 
fucking”. The word “mutha fuckin” here, means, remarkable or awesome. 

From the result of the research above, it can be seen that there are four 
types of the word-formation process of slang words. They are clipping, 
blending, borrowing, and acronyms. The most frequent type of slang word 
used by Justin Bieber on his Instagram caption is Clipping with a percentage 
of 57,9%.  

In this study, there are 19 data collected analysis of the slang words. The 
most often used by Justin Bieber on his Instagram‟s caption is Clipping, it is 
11 words. Then, Blending, it is 5 words. After that, there is Acronym, which 
is 2 words. And the last is Borrowing, it is 1 word. The data analysis 
indicated that the large numbers of the types of slang words are Clipping 
with 11 words then followed by Blending with 5 words. This indicated that 
Bieber as an influencer aimed to maintain the relationship with his fans. 
Bieber wanted to show his feeling through the captions posted on his videos 
or photos with a simple word. That is why Bieber used clipping in most of 
his captions posted and followed by blending. Bieber wanted to convey the 
messages with a simple shortened sentence, so that everyone, particularly 
his fans could understand the meaning. 

From the analysis, the writer compared the study with other similar 
studies but it has different subjects and sources of the data. This study had 
differences from the studies (Analysis et al., 2018; Moreau, 2018; Wulandari, 
2012; Tinggi & Asing, 2017). The most dominant of the data sources from 
those 3 studies were taken from song lyrics, while the data of this study 
were taken from social media, Instagram, particularly on the caption that 
was posted by Justin Bieber. Besides the differences, there are similarities 
between this study and those 3 previous studies. The study and those 3 
previous studies were found at least 2 similar types of slang words, they are 
clipping and blending.  

Then, this study was also compared with other studies. Hafiza & Rosa‟s 
study has differences from the author‟s study. The data of Hafiza and Rosa‟s 
study were taken from the movie script, while this is different from the 



 

 

 

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author‟s study which was taken from the captions of Justin Bieber on 
Instagram. In Hafiza and Rosa‟s study, the most dominant type of slang 
word is blending while in this study clipping is the most frequent type of 
slang word. 

The other study was done by Harared (2018). From Harared‟s study, it 
has similarities between this study. Both of the data of the study were taken 
from social media. The two studies also used the same theory while 
analyzing the slang words based on Yule‟s theory (2006). But there is a 
difference between the two studies. While the data sources of this study 
were specifically taken from Instagram‟s caption posted by Justin Bieber, an 
influencer. The data of Harared‟s study were particularly taken from the 
1cak.com site, the website that provided the entertainment using meme 
(images and text that created humor-based slang). 

CONCLUSION 
There are 10 types of slang words based on Yule‟s (2006) theory about the 

word-formation process. In this study, the writer found 87 data of the slang 
words. The first type of slang word that appeared in big numbers is clipping 
then the second number is blending. This can be indicated that Justin Bieber 
tended to convey the messages in a short sentence. Bieber wanted to make 
short the sentence on his Instagram caption so that everyone could be easy 
to understand the meaning.  

The researcher hopes that this study can be used as a reference to study 
slang words so that the next researcher can use different approaches, 
methods, and perspectives. 

 

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