The forms and functions of Western loanwords in selected Indonesian print media

This study analyzes and compares the use of Western loanwords in three examples of Indonesian mass media--one magazine and two newspapers--from their earliest dates of publication to the present. This analysis will reveal not only the roles of various sectors of Indonesian society in determining language usage, but will also argue that policies implemented by language planners have yet to fulfill their expectations.; The fundamental hypotheses of this study are that: (a) the use of Western loanwords in Indonesian mass media substantially varies depending on register, (b) individual writing styles influence the frequency and distribution patterns of Western loanwords in mass media, (c) some loanwords alter their original meanings when adopted into Indonesian, and (d) many nativized Western loanwords violate Indonesian morphological and phonological systems.; The analysis of this study is textual, based on written data only. Two methods are used: one identifies loanwords, and the other measures their frequency of occurrence. Synchronic and diachronic analyses are also employed in order to determine the flux of Western loanwords in the analyzed media.; The results of this study include examples and explanations of the use of Western loanwords in Indonesian from linguistic, sociolinguistic, and psycholinguistic standpoints. Linguistically, Western loanwords adopted into Indonesian result from the following factors: (a) lexical gaps, (b) insufficiency in a semantic field, and (c) the receptivity of the Indonesian linguistic system towards Western loanwords.; Sociolinguistically, lexical borrowings from Western languages enter Indonesian due to the symbolic association with the donor language. This symbolic association is related to social attitudes of the borrowing language community. In this respect, Indonesians have positive attitudes towards the borrowed Western languages, since these languages are considered prestiguous.; Psycholinguistically, the "psychological attitudes" of Indonesian society towards the donor languages play a major role in language borrowing. In relation to this, Weinreich's (1986) claims of the bilinguals' tolerance/intolerance to mixed languages, and their proficiency and facility of verbal expression in learned languages are relevant to this study.; Finally, this research is discussed with respect to its implications for several critical issues in linguistic theory and its applications in language planning and language teaching.