Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under aCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License eISSN 2721-5016 | pISSN 2721-5024 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.33474/j-reall.v2i1.7497 Volume 2 | Number 1 | p. 8-15 Published on January 15th, 2021 8 Page | 8 “Yo, dude! This chick is whack”: English exclamations in romantic films Herlianto A Linguistics, Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia herlyzalembu@yahoo.com *) correspondence: herlyzalembu@yahoo.com ABSTRACT This research investigates the forms and functions of English exclamations. By applaying qualitative and quantitative research methods, this research takes romantic films as the subjects. The result showed that in those films the exclamations functioned in the most frequent intensities are to show wonder, anger, surprise and pleasure. While the most frequent forms used are declarative, interjection + declarative, interjection, directive, and interrogative, respectively. These indicate that romantic films tend to express exclamations by declarative rather than other forms in which the context plays an important role for determining what is an expression as exclamation or not rather than the form itself. Keywords: form; function; exclamation INTRODUCTION An exclamations, so far, formally is distinguished from three other types of sentences: declarative (statement), imperative (command), and interrogative (question), but in daily communication practices the three types can be used as exclamations as well based on the context or with certain intonations. So eventhough they have different forms, all three can express the same thing. For example: 1. Susan: I drank five bottles of cooking oil 2. John: You drank cooking oil! 3. Erna: Did you drink cooking oil! Formally, sentence 1 has the same form as sentence 2, which is a declarative, but they have different function. The first expressed a statement, while the second showed an exclamation with a certain intonation or with the presence of an exclamation mark (!). Sentence 3 is an interrogative in forms, but in that context of surprise it functions as an exclamation. In this case, functionally, the declarative and interrogative cannot be separated through their form. Speakers or English learners, in daily communication practices, are used to making exclamations. When something or behavior touches their emotions and feelings, a spontaneous eject is called out. The question is what is a standard form to mark the exclamation utterance in English so that it can be distinguished from statements, commands and questions? And what is the function of the exclamation form, can it reverselly function as a statement, question, and command? To answer some of these problems, there are several articles that have been written conceptually. Some researchers theoretically examined the abstract form of the appeal. They stated that exclamation is a pragmatic expression, so that a context of it had important role while its form can vary (Michaelis & Lambrecht, 1996; Beijer, 2002). Jovanovic (2004) investigated the difference between exlamation and interjection utterance, more detail, explained the positions, forms, and meanings of interjection. Miro (2008) distinguished between “exclamatives” and exlamation. That the exclamation is pragmatic while the “exclamative” is the syntax issue which is associated with the form of exclamation as so far discussed in English lessons. Rett (2011) continued the discussion of the conceptual form of exclamation, he related it to speech acts issue. That the exlamation is one of the speech acts which is occur because there are speakers’ expectations that have been violated. http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user http://dx.doi.org/10.33474/j-reall.v2i1.7497 mailto:herlyzalembu@yahoo.com The forms and functions of English exclamation in romantic films 9 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License All that conceptual discussions motivated this research to investigate how exclamation used in real communication. So, this is an empirical and not conceptual research. The same research had been conducted by Waseleski (2006). He examined the tendency of man and women to use exclamations in a computer-mediated communication. The results showed that women expressed exclamation more often than men. Based on conceptual dan empirical study of exclamtion before, this article proposes to investigate exclamations in English romantic film communcations. The investigation differs from Waseleski’s which focus on exclamation as expression marker between man and woman. It will focus on two things, namely the form or structure and function of exclamations. METHODS This study upplied a qualitative method by interpreting the data in the form of words, phrases, and sentences. Data sources are short romantic films taken from YouTube. There are five short films: Can We Do the Distance, Text Me, The Translator, Forever, and Career Vs Love. TABLE 1. Lists of Romantic Film Tittle YouTube Channel Produced By Year Can We Do The Distance LeendaDProduction JUO Prductions 2018 Text Me Dream Team Directort Dolce Films 2013 The Translator BlueDog Productions BlueDog Film 2015 Forever Omeleto Omeleto 2018 Career Vs Love BuzzFeedVideo BuzzFeed Motion Picture’s 2017 The five short films were taken based on several criteria, including: the duration of the film between 5 to 15 minutes. This duration assumed that it is enough time to provide the context for an expression spoken to assess whether an expression funtioned as exlamation or not. The short film provides at least four exclamations, it is to find out the different utterance spoken in different circumstances. The data analysis started by watching and observing the five films for two to three times each tittle to obtain a comprehensive understanding. After the data collected, the researcher identified the context and the characteristics of each exclamation function and its form. Two kind context of the film, general and special, will be explained as well. General context is related to the general storyline of the film, while the specific context related to the situation, intonation, facial expression and utterances that precede the exlcamation. Tabulating the exclamations obtained based on the genre of each film. Then, identify the the utterances in the form of words, phrases, sentences or other expressions. Finally, determining what functions and forms are the most widely used in that English romantic genre films. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION There are 40 exclamations found in the films which expressed in different forms and functions. The researcher will discuss them starting from the form and then the function. Five forms of exclamation are found, they are declarative, interjection + declarative, interjection, imperative and interrogative. TABLE 2. The Forms of Exclamations No Forms Number of Sentence Total 1 Declarative 2, 4, 7, 8, 9, 12, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 36 18 2 Interjection+declarartive 3, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 18, 26, 35, 38 10 3 Interjection 5, 6, 16, 17, 19, 30, 33, 34, 35 9 4 Imperartive 1, 39 2 5 Interrogative 33 1 The Total of Exlamations 40 http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user Herlianto A 10 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License This table explains that exlamations in the form of declarative are most often used in romantic films, followed by interjection + declarative, interjection, and imperative. This data also states that the exclamations more likely are as a pragmatic than syntactic or grammatical phenomena. While the forms of exclamation in English lesson formulated in what + a / an + noun and how + adjective + S + V are not found at all. This indicates that the form is too formal and rarely used in communication. These data finding showed a corroboration to the research of Beijer (2002), Mitchaelis & Lambrecht (1996), Rett (2011), and Unger (2016) that context is the influential factor in determining an utterance functioned as exclamation or not than in the form itself. So, exclamation is a matter of language function does not form of language. Researcher also classifies the function of exclamations below. TABLE 3. Functions of Exlamations No Functions Nomber of Sentence Total 1 Wonder 7, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 34 9 2 Anger 14, 25, 26, 33, 35, 38, 39 7 3 Pleasure 6, 12, 18, 33, 36 5 4 Surprise 8, 11, 30, 35 4 5 Disgust 10, 13 2 6 Disappoinment 2 1 7 Symphaty 3 1 8 Shame 5 1 9 Love 9 1 10 Prise 21 1 11 Delight 15 1 12 Hopeless 27 1 13 Respect 28 1 14 Pretend 31 1 15 Contempt 31 1 16 Madness 1 1 17 Annoyance 4 1 18 Enjoyment 29 1 The Total of Exclamations 40 This table explaines that the function of exclamation in romantic movies are varies, but the most often uttered is to express wonder, anger, pleasure and surprise. While other functions are very rare and quite complementary. This fact can be accepted because in romance filled with admiration, especially for the couple they love. Love and admiration are emotions which usually expressed in the form of certain exclamations. However, the interesting function of the exclamation is to express anger, it was the most often uttered. It is showed, frankly, that in the romance of relationships there is not only admiration but also quarrels and misunderstanding. Whatever the reason, two people combined into one will still produce the slightest difference, which is usually expressed in angry outbursts. While other functions of the exclamation are only as color only in various conversations in the flow of the romantic short film. From the result above, the researcher would like to discuss more detail of each exclamation including its context. It is important thing to know why an utterance could be an exlamation and has a certain function. The following will be presented an analysis of each film starting from Can We Do the Distance, Text Me, The Translator, Forever, and Career Vs Love, respectively. http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user The forms and functions of English exclamation in romantic films 11 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License Can We Do the Distance There are nine utterances in this film. TABLE 4. Exlamations in Can We Do the Distance Exclamations Functions Forms 1. Call me crazy 2. It was the only job 3. Wowowo.. you do it something! 4. Are you crazy? 5. Owh.. shit 6. Yes.owowhhh 7. It’s beautiful 8. It’s crazy 9. She’s really the perfect girl for me madness dissapoinment sympathy annoyance shame pleasure wonder surprise love imperative declarative interjection+declarative interrogative interjection interjection declarative declarative declarative The general context of this film is about two lovers, Sophi and Peter. They stayed far apart, Sophia was in Singapore while Peter was in Voncouver. Each had a busy schedule with their daily activities at work. However, they tried to establish good communication to maintain the relationship well, but distance always breeds misunderstanding and jealousy. Both are influenced by the people around each other that their relationship is neglected. How love overcame the distance is the main storyline of this film. The specific contexts of each the film’s exclamation namely exclamation 1 is spoken when Sophi, the main character, realized that establishing long-distance relationships is not easy. According to her this long-distance relationship is something crazy and even delusional to do, love requires closeness. He said call me crazy to express what was done. Exclamation 2 was said when she was not accepted to work in a company. Her friend asked about the results of the interview, she answered it was the only job, a statement of disappointment. Previously Sophi arrived late at the interview so was rejected. Exclamation 3 is a response to Sophi’s disappointment from her friend who tried to appreciate her efforts by saying wowowo. you do it something, a sympathy expression. Exclamation 4 was uttered by Peter’s friend, when invited to eat together by a woman and wanted to be promoted at her workplace. Peter refused and his friend stated are you crazy, as annoyance. Exclamation 5 was said when Sophi and her friend talked about a boy in front of them in a cafe. Apparently, the boy heard the conversation of them and turned his head. They both felt ashamed and looked down while saying: owh ... shit. Exclamation 6 was stated by Sophi’s friend when invited to go for a walk, she felt very happy and said yes... owowhhh with very cheerful intonation. Exclamation 7 uttered when Sophi was talking with her friend at a café, suddenly a man asked for a picture of a building. The man was amazed and expressed it’s beautiful. In addition, the man also expressed another admiration it’s crazy. Exclamation 9 was uttered by Peter while his friend tried to tease about a long-distance relationship with Sophi that was considered difficult and impossible. But Peter convinced him that everything could be overcome. He then revealed she’s relly the prfect girl for me. Text Me Nine exclamations are found TABLE 5. Exlamations in Text Me Exclamations Function Forms 10. OMG. he is the secum of the earth!! 11. Yo dude! This chick is whack 12. She got nice chichi tho 13. OMG. is he taking pix of my breasts! 14. WTF!! He totally is!! 15. Wow!! That’s good 16. It’s sweet 17. Really beautiful 18. Noah, It was cool meeting you disgust surprise pleasure disgust anger delight wonder wonder pleasure interjection+declarative interjection+declarative declarative interjection+declarative interjection+declarative interjection+declarative interjection interjection interjection+declarative http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user Herlianto A 12 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License The general context is the meeting of two teenagers who started from chatting on social media. They are Noah and Jamie. From chatting, they decided to meet at an Italian restaurant. The meeting ensued. During the conversation there were several chats that enter to their smartphone respectively. The messages asked about the impression at their first meeting. Even though they felt a little bit uncomfortable, but after finishing it, they decided to continue their relationship by watching movie together. The specific context of the exclamation 10 and 11 were revealed by Jamie when Britany Bennett, her friend, asked via SMS on her phone about how Noah was. She felt Noah was rather rude, then replied to the chat OMG. he is the secum of the earth !!, that really disgust. At the same time Noah got an SMS either from Zac Pearlman, his friend, who inquired about his first impression of meeting Jamie. Noah was very amazed by Jamie’s sexiness, he said yo dude! This chick is whack. Jamie’s style is also considered admirable, he then stated the 12 exlamation she got nice chichi tho. Jamie then preached with a disgusting expression to Bennet that dishonorable act with the exclamation of 13 OMG. is he taking pix of my breasts! She also expressed his anger at Bennett with the exalamation 14 WTF!! He totally is!! Then Noah ordered food, exclamation 15 was said by him when the spaghetti ordered was delivered by the waiter Wow!! That's good. Exclamations 16 and 17 were uttered by Jamie, when she listened to the song showed by Noah. The 18 exclamation was made by Jamie, after she returned home. She felt that it was also fun meeting, then invited to watch and send an SMS Noah, it was cool meeting you. The Translator There are ten exclamations found TABLE 6. Exlamations in The Translator Exclamations Functions Forms 19. Haaaahh.. beautiful 20. She is so hot 21. You’re the best 22. He is cute 23. She is really pretty 24. She has really beautiful eyes 25. The stupid American swine 26. The dirthy, pathetic 27. I am such an ideot 28. Sweetheart wonder wonder praise wonder wonder wonder anger anger hopeless respect interjection declarative declarative declarative declarative declarative declarative interjection declarative declarative The general context is the meeting of Ben and Richo in a library. Ben asked Richo to become a French translator of him, he wanted to communicate with Clara, a French student, in that library. Unfortunately, Richo was not a good translator, what Ben stated deliberately translated otherwise to that girl. This was done because she liked hem, while Ben liked Clara, so Richo sabotaged Clara in that translatering communication. In the end, Richo realized that her action is bad and betrayed her own friend. Finally, Richo went to Clara to apologize and admit all her mistakes. But apparently, Clara was also good at English, only pretending she couldn’t, so she knew everything what Ben had said but was translated instead by Richo. The special context of exclamation 19 is while Ben was talking to Richo suddenly there was Claras, a beatiful girl behind her. He spontaneously exclaimed haaaahh ... beautiful! an admiration utterance for beauty. Exclamation 20 expressed by Ben while looking Clara turned her head. He wondered and stated she is so hot. Ben then needed a help of Richo who is fluent in French. She gladly accepted the request. He then praised her with the exclamation 21 you’re the best. Exclamation 22 was stated by Clara who was also amazed by Ben’s good looks, she said he is cute. Exclamation 23 is as admiration for Ben’s reply to Clara she is pretty. He then uttered exclamation 24 to praise Clara due to her American accent. He was excited and exclaimed she has really beautiful eyes. Exclamation 25 was stated by Clara because of Richo’s translation which was not true. She was insulted by the translation stated the stupid American swine. The anger continued with the exclamatin 26 http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user The forms and functions of English exclamation in romantic films 13 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License the dirthy pathetic. Ben felt hopeless, because her anger was so high and slapped him. He sat wearily regretfully and declared the exclamation 27 I am such an ideot. After that, Richo went to Clara to apologize and to tell the truth that she had sabotaged the translation. Clara replied to her magnanimity and paid her respects by declaring the exlamation 28 sweetheart. Forever There are four exclamations found TABLE 7. Exclamations in Forever Exclamations Functions Forms 29. It’s delicious 30. Owh… Oh... my god 31. It’s such pleasure to meet you 32. Your hand is so soft enjoyment surprise pretend contempt declarative interjections declarative declarative The general context is about a couple of love, Beau and Monica. They are different race; Beau is white while Monica is black. They were on vacation on a beach. The place and time setting of this film was America in the 1940s where black people were still considered inferior. Therefore, the relationship between them was insecure and tends to be clandestine. Unfortunately, Beau’s ex, Sarah, came to see them. Monica decided to run in to the forest not far from the beach. Unfortunately, she was attacked by a stray dog. Beau, who was chasing the slowest, found Monica hanging on a tree branch. Special context, the exclamation 29 was stated by Sarah while tasting the apple then exclaimed it’s delicoius. Exclamation 30 uttered by Beau who was looking for shells and opening them with a knife in front of Monica and Sarah. The knife tucked into the clam slippe made Sarah surprised and said Owh ... oh my god. Monica was jealous and went away from Beau. He tried to get Monica, but Sarah chased after and persuaded him by saying exclamations 31 it’s such pleasure to meet you. Seeing that Sarah insulting an exlamation your hand is so soft. Monica felt offended and slaped Sarah. Career vs. Love There are eight exclamations TABLE 8. Exlamations in Career Vs Love Exlamations Functions Forms 33. Why are you throwing like this? 34. Ahh. fuck 35. Bulshit 36. It’s puki 37. Hai dear beautiful 38. Okey that’s fine 39. Get out 40. Aih.ss. what the fuck are you doing pleasure anger anger pleasure wonder anger anger surprise Interrogative interjection interjection declarative interjection interjection+declarative imperative interjection+interrogative The general context told the story of a tough choice for a young woman, Ann, who choose between a partner or a career. On the one hand she had to work for the future of her career, but at the same time did not have any time to be with her boyfriend. The dilemma became stronger when her boy asked Ann to make time for him. In this complicated atmosphere Ann tried to divide time for her love and time for work. The special context of exclamation 33 while Ann and her boy sat on a couch, the boy holds the food while joking and ate the food by throwing it in Ann’s mouth. This warmth made Ann happy and said why are you throwing like this. Exclamation 34 expressed by the boy while he was cooking in the kitchen alone. The food scoop was used for stirring the bounced vegetables on his boy’s hand and was shocked then said Ahh... fuck. Exclamation 35 uttered by the boy, he felt disappointed with Ann promises to go home soon but returned late. He could not believe the explanation of Ann and said bulshit. In the office Ann saw a gaping dog head sculpture, she declared the 36 exclamation it’s puki. Finally, she and her boyfriend http://riset.unisma.ac.id/index.php/JREALL/user Herlianto A 14 Journal of Research on English and Language Learning is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License take the time to celebrate Halloween, the boy shopped something to the store while Ann waited in the car. After returning to the car he called Ann lovingly by 37 exclamation hai dear beautiful. Exclamation 38 occurred when the two were busy celebrating Halloween, Ann went out to steal time to open the laptop to send email because of office work. The boy looked everywhere; Ann was found in a corner of the room. Then the laptop was compared, both had a heated argument. Ann finally was angry and assumed the boy had not any understanding. She stopped the debate with a loud tone okay that’s fine. Ann asked him to go outside with a burst of emotion of excalamtion 39 get out. Exclamation 40 stated when Ann was in the room doing office work, suddenly two people came in, and they said ouch ... Ass... what the fuck are you doing. CONCLUSION Result and discussussion confirmed that exlamation is a pragmatig rather than syntactic phenomenon. It is corresponding with conceptual research conducted by Michaelis & Lambrecht (1996), Beijer (2002). This is clarified by identifying the form and function of the English exclamations in a romantic short film. Found as many as five forms used to express an exclamation namely declarartive, interrogative, interjection, imperative, and interjection + sdeclarartive. That reinforced that any form could be an exclamation based on the context. While the function was found as many as eighteen ranging from to express wonder, anger, pleasure, surprise, disgust, disappoinment, symphaty, shame, love, praise, prize, delight, hopeless, respect, pretend, contempt, madness, madness, annoyance, annoyance, and enjoyment. That the functions also correspond to conceptual research conducted by Jovanovic (2004) and Miro (2008). Another identification revealed in this study is that declarative is the form of exclamation most often used in romantic films. While to express wonder, anger, and pleasure are the function most often stated. It cannot be separated from the fact that in romanticism tends to admire his or her love. Furthermore, this study only takes romantic genre films, further research can be applied to several other film genres, such as comedy, humor, motivation, etc. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Big thanks for LPDP (Lembaga Pengelola Dana Pendidikan) of Financial Ministry of Indonesia which gave the researcher financial support through scholarship for linguistics study in Gadjah Mada University. So, I can finish this article well. REFERENCES Beijer, F. (2002). The Syntax and Pragmatics of Exlamations and Other Expressive/Emotional Utterances. Lund: Lund University. Retrieved from https://lucris.lub.lu.se/ws/files/5340344/-624533.pdf Jovanovic, V. Z. (2004). The Form, Position and Meaning of Interjections in English. Linguistics and Literature Journal. 3 (1), 7-28. Retrieved from http://facta.junis.ni.ac.rs/lal/lal2004/lal2004- 02.pdf Michaelis, L.A & Lambrecht, Knud. (1996). The Exclamation Sentence Type in English. In Conceptual Structure, Discourse and Language. Edited: Adele E. Goldberg. Colorado: CSLI. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/200052658_The_exclamative_sentence_- type_in_English Miro, E. C. (2008). Deconstructing Exclamation. Catalan Journal of Linguistics. (7), 41-90. https://doi.org/10.5565/rev/catjl.132 Rett, J. (2011). Exclamatives, Degrees and Speech Acts. Linguis and Philos, (34), 411-442. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-011-9103-8 Siemund, P. (2015). Exclamative Clauses in English and Their Relevance for Theories of Clause Type. Studies in Language. 39 (3), 697-727. 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