INNOVATIVE USE OF ENGLISH AMONG YOUNG PEOPLE IN MAKASSAR CITY

Abstract

This research is primarily aimed at analyzing and describing young people’s typical ways in using words, phrases and sentences to convey something. The data were obtained by making observation on some places and things, watching TV or movies, and reading magazines, newspapers, handouts, diaries and other sources found anywhere. The findings show that words or sentences used by young people in Makassar city cover homophone, reduplication, code-mixing, literal translation, acronym, numeric and other symbols. Concerning the whole data forms, young people’s good linguistic competence and linguistic performance become the main sources. That means such phenomena most firstly occurred were created by those with sufficient knowledge of English before being imitated, then popularized or even developed by others. It is expected however that understanding such form of communication could be beneficial especially related to the teacing and learning of English outside the classroom.