Code Mixing and Code Switching in Contemporary Indonesia Dangdut Music: A Sociolinguistic Case of Nela Kharisma Song Lyrics

Abstract

Language was basically a medium for describing ideas as well as when singers singing their songs by using language. But listening to Nella Kharisma’s song lyrics were very interesting because the songs used many phrases that were translated into other languages and used code mixing in the lyrics of the songs. Language, in the view of sociolinguistics contained different variations. A sociolinguist explained the correlation between variations with social and situational factors. This situation affected the language used by musicians whom at any time incorporated linguistic elements outside of their native language. Due to the variety of language usage, what had come to be called bilingual users has emerged. Sociolinguistics as a branch of linguistics viewed or placed language position in relation to language using. The tendency in switching between languages using due to the changing of situations was called code switching.

The discussion of code switching was usually followed by code mixing, which was about the existence of a basic code that was used and had autonomous functions. A speaker who had mastered more than one language would have the opportunity to mix codes. But that did not mean that speakers who mastered more languages always mix more codes. A speaker who slipped a lot of other languages into the language he was using was called code mixing. The background of code mixing and code switching could be seen from the mixed language of a person/figure using more than one language. Specific characteristics of speakers would influence the code mixing.

This discussion became very interesting when looking at the lyrics of the songs sung by Nella Kharisma and looking at them from sociolinguistic parameters. This paper would talk about the problem of switching from one language to another, using sociolinguistic approaches method and linguistic analysis method. The results achieved were to find out how far the language was used by Nella Kharisma in the lyrics of the song she sang.

Keywords: song lyrics, code switching, code mixing, Indonesia dangdut

DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/54-09

Publication date:March 31^st 2019