A Morphological Study in Group Online Communication: Word-Formation Processes among College Students in a WhatsApp Group

The emergence of group online communication provides various patterns in using language, especially in written text. In the process, teenagers and adult learners who frequently use online communication produce new vocabularies, spelling modifications, symbols, and emoticons in their online written communication. This study focusses on the word-formation processes used in written online communication especially during usage of a WhatsApp Group (WAG). The study aims at finding types of wordformation processes that emerged in WAG. Collected data was examined empirically to understand the characteristics of WAG users and their patterns in forming words. A descriptive method and data collected from 30 chats were gathered from WAG consisting of students attending Mahasaraswati University in Bali. The study analyzed 336 words and classified them into the appropriate word-formation processes (Yule, 2010). The study found three predominant types of processes used by WAG users: borrowing, multiple processes, clipping, and three other processes included acronym, blending, and miscellaneous (not stipulated in his theoretical backing (see table 6)), which were used less by WAG users. Changing words into shorter or simpler forms and borrowing words from other languages were some strategies used by the users of WAG to accelerate the production of text or chat. These appear to be the reasons why users mainly generated these three most types of word-formation processes in WAG. The investigation has presented a diversity of word-formation processes used in WAG. In turn, this diversity may cast light on the creativity of online group communication language usage.


INTRODUCTION
The use of a WhatsApp Group (WAG) as online communication has been rapidly increasing in recent times. This statement is also in line with Bouhnik & Deshen (2014) who stated that WhatsApp is a smartphone application used for instant messaging which has gained popularity. One of the features of the application is its ability to enhance communication within a group setting which is called a WhatsApp Group (WAG). WAG as an integral part of social media enables access and share information faster and more freely (Giyatmi, Wijayava, & Arumi (2017). It also enables people to communicate in a group chat which can be managed to support any form of organizational communication needs with this online communicative platform, e.g., friends, neighborhoods, schools, colleges, governmental institutions, etc. (Baruah, 2012).
In line with the above-mentioned statement, Montag et al. (2015) also state that WhatsApp represents one of the most important features within the usage of a smartphone, as it enables easy communication via text or voice messaging between two or more people. Bouhnik & Deshen (2014), also explain that there are other benefits through the usage of WAG. These are evident through low cost of the application combined with the ability to send an unlimited number of messages; the desire to feel a part of a trend since acquaintances have already adopted the application; the capacity to conduct an on-going conversation with many f riends simultaneously; the knitting together of a community of friends or family, and a sense of privacy relative to other social networks. Thus, users conduct messages or chats quickly to engage in multiple communication with others during a group chat simultaneously and as a result, there are many expressions or words which emerged on WAG with unique forms, including new vocabularies which are inconspicuous and hard to be understood by others outside of the group.
Subsequently, the occurrence of these unique forms and new vocabularies are explained in the study of word-formation processes. According to Yule (2010), word-formation processes are practices that have applied to the language used in daily life. He states that at one time, usage was considered 'barbaric' misuse of the language. The term "barbaric misuses of the language (Yule, 2010, p. 53)" indicates that it is difficult to understand every new expression that appears in our daily conversation. Yule (2010) classifies the word-formation processes into 9 processes; coinage, borrowing, compounding, blending, clipping, back-formation, conversion, acronyms, and derivation. Additionally, Akmajian, et.al (2017) stated that new words can be created by the invention of new sound sequences and pairing this/these with meaning, by changing the meaning of an existing word without changing the pronunciation, or by modifying or augmenting the sound sequence of an existing word. To sum-up the above mentioned, the use of word-formation processes in our daily life affected by our intention creates new words or expressions by modifying the words themselves to produce a new way of expressing ideas or feelings. David (2000) in Mustafa, Kandasamy & Yasin (2015) states that young adult users may use different word formation processes when communicating in online communication. The differences in the language used may lead to misinterpretation and confusion among users from different age groups who are not familiar with such language con taining new vocabularies, spelling modifications, symbols, and emoticons. It may also create a communication gap and some complications such as miscommunication and/or communication breakdown.
Prior studies that are related to this present study have shown only functional differences in the data collected and the type of word formation taken from the context of that prior investigation. Research conducted by Mustafa, Kandasamy & Yasin (2015) illustrates one of these instances. Their study showed that abbreviation was found to be the most common word formation process among the three features with 73% representing the result of the above mentioned. There are several reasons for this occurrence identified through an online interview of the participants. Almost all the participants provided similar reasons for employing these f eatures. Mainly, the participants intended to save time, fill the communication gap or barrier among the users, and/or indicate group membership. Also, an eagerness was shown, exemplified throu gh emotions and feelings while communicating during Facebook usage.
Furthermore, the study conducted by Luthfiyati, Kholiq & Zahroh (2017) focussed on the most common type of derivation of words that were used in the headlines of ten educational articles in the "Jakarta Post" website from October 2015 to April 2016. The result showed that the most common derivation words that were used in these articles were noun derivations.
Other word-formation processes' studies in different media sectors show data collection from Blackberry Messenger, Oxford Online Dictionary, Ghost Fleet Novel, outdoor billboard advertisements, and slang words used by transsexuals. These were also contributing f actors in the implementation of this study (Rahayu, 2014;Ratih & Gusdian, 2018;Setiawan, Deliani, & Dewi, 2019;Anggraeni, 2011;Sheryllia, 2019). These studies showed that affixation, compounding, and coinage to be the predominant type of word-formation processes which frequently emerged in the process of forming words.
Thus, this present study focusses on how the use of online group communication-especially during WAG usage conventionalized their written communication with all the challenges that occurred in using this application. The characteristics of the users are related to the patterns of the word's formations and the existence of online communication that can be interrelated and produce a novelty to be shown in this morphological study. The practice of utilizing WAG remains applicable usage by many educators to share ideas and provide fast communication between teachers or lecturers and their students to prompt an impact on the language used. These phenomena attracted the researcher to conduct a study of word-formation processes in WAG as an online group communication system currently used by many people.
Moreover, the present study attempts to analyze different types of word-formation processes that are often used during WAG and evaluate the characteristics of the students related to the word-formation processes used by them. On the other hand, by doing this research, there is a willingness to show that WAG is often used during online group communication, and is shown to contribute to the creating of new words or expressions which are related to the development of morphological study correlated to the technology used.

METHODS
This research was designed in the descriptive method. Gall, Gall, & Borg (2007) state that descriptive research studies are designed to obtain information concerning the current status of facts. This research investigated the nature of creating new expressions, in this case, the specific situation which dealt with new expressions written in a WhatsApp group. Consequently, th is study aims to analyze the varying types of word-formation processes used in this so-called online community group. This research is not testing whether word-formation processes are used during WhatsApp group communication, but it would rather analyze, classify, and describe the expressions into types of word-formation processes being used on it. For this process, the expressions were gathered from WAG user students in the English Education Department (EED) at Mahasaraswati University, Indonesia.
The data was taken from chats written by students who continually studied English up to and including the seventh semester at Mahasaraswati University. The number of students totaled 30 and the data source consisted of thirty chats, via mobile phones taken randomly , which were chosen by considering the highest number of new expressions that appeared in one chat. This was done during the period from September 2019 to January 2020. The researcher who actively collected the data and conducted the research was also a participant-observer. As stated by Kawulich (2005), participant observation is the process enabling researchers to learn about the activities of the people involved in their study under a natural setting. This, by observing and participating in set activities. In addition, the researcher was a member of the students' WAG which enabled him to observe and participate in the above mentioned undertakings.
The data must be new expressions that cannot be found in the Indonesian dictionary, such as sdh (clipped from sudah) translated meaning 'already'. The expression of sdh cannot be found in the Indonesian dictionary because the word sudah 'already' or the auxiliary verb 'has/have' is written sudah in the Indonesian dictionary, not in the expression form sdh . Additionally, the expression sdh in the WhatsApp group became data material. First, the chats were printed out, and then the new expressions were collected and those expressions that occurred as the data were read, highlighted, and numbered. The data which had the same expression was not included as data for a second time because there was only one new expression considered as data represented in one chat. There were data classifications and data analysis based on the theory used to analyzed the expressions. All collected new expressions were taken f rom the thirty chats and were analyzed to identify the types of word-formation processes.
To reiterate, the classification is based on George Yule's theory of word-formation processes that consist of compounding, derivation, conversion, coinage, borrowing, clipping, acronym, blending, and back-formation (Yule, 2010). Based on that theory, data was analyzed and further classified based on the process of how it was produced, then the process/ processes of each expression were described concisely to show how it was formed. In the analysis, the w ords which had two or more types of word-formation processes were identified and named as multiple processes. Moreover, there was also a process that was not included in George Yule's model concerning the type of word-formation processes. Here it is identified as a 'miscellaneous' type. To recap, 'miscellaneous' is considered a special process in which certain numbers, symbols, and letters are used to show forms of new expressions.
The tables below were made to make the analysis easier to assess. To d ecide which was the most distinctive word-formation process frequently used, based on George Yule's theory, proportional measurements were applied. The frequency of word-formation processes was calculated by formulating ratios mentioned above (see Yule, 2010), then the perc entage was calculated to know the word-formation processes which were mainly used in the WhatsApp group (See table 1).
In the following sections, results and discussions were presented related to the word-formation processes used in WAG. Based on comprehensive careful analysis, the research question was answered. It is assumed that clipping and borrowing types of word-formation processes would show larger numbers of expressions in the data. This hypothesis was assumed based on user inclination to use shorter and simpler expressions or words in WAG, resulting in user tendency to clip words into shorter and simpler forms. Furthermore, the participants in this study, who are predominantly Balinese students of EED at Mahasaraswati University reflect another reason why users tend to primarily borrow expressions/words from the Balinese language or English words considered as EFL secondary language skills. From this point of view, the researcher predicted these two types would show the prevalent varieties of word-formation processes.

RESULTS
The predominant used word-formation processes (borrowing, multiple processes & clipping) and other processes as mentioned above (acronyms, blending & miscellaneous) have been found and these classifications of word-formation processes are shown in Table 1.  Based on the table above, the principal type used by the users is borrowing. Here, proportionally represented by the highest percentage point. We can see borrowing has 34.92 % of all types of word-formation processes. In second place we find multiple processes. And here, we see this as 33.63% of WAG expressions. In third place, clipping took 27.08% of the representative type during word-formation processing. Acronym and blending appear in f ourth and f ifth place consecutively, here representing 2.08 % of the entire word-formation processing. The last type is miscellaneous and it took the minimal proportion, represented here by 1.19 %.

Type of word-formation processes
To discuss the findings above, the group was divided into 6 sections. These six types of wordformation processes that appear in the thirty WAG chats are discussed below(borrowing, blending, clipping, acronyms, derivation, miscellaneous and multiple processes).

Borrowing
Borrowing is the appropriation and usage of loan-words from other languages without translation from the donor language (Yule, 2010). Throughout its history, the English language has adopted a vast number of loan-words from other languages, for example; alcohol (Arabic), dope (Dutch), and many more. Loan-translation or calque (Tahaineh, 2012), is a particular type of borrowing related to word or phrase borrowed from other languages through word-for-word translation. In this process, there is a direct translation of the elements into the borrowed language.

Example of words in Data
Lexical meaning  One hundred and fourteen expressions of borrowing were found, 85 are borrowed from English, 23 are borrowed from the Balinese language, 4 are borrowed from colloquial Jakarta dialect, and 2 are borrowed from the Javanese language. The users of WAG mainly borrowed English words in their written communication because as students they have been studying English and ultimately will attain the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) examination to prove their level of skill. The use of the Balinese language in WAG also dominates the users in using written communication. The fact that most users mainly come from Bali may affect their oral and written language skills. Based on observation, students often use the Balinese language to strengthen solidarity amongst themselves and associate this affiliation with each other to af fect written communication. Furthermore, as seen in the data, users also borrowed several words from the colloquial Jakarta dialect and Javanese language. These language varieties were used in WAG because some students come from Java and Jakarta. Even though these students remain or stay in Bali, the use of their original dialect was exposed while they communicated through WAG and they could not avoid usage of this vernacular. Cumulatively, such issues have a direct effect on WAG.

Blending
Blending is a combination of two or more separate parts from other words. The o ccurrence could also happen at the morpheme level, used to form or produce a single new word or term. In short, blending is accomplished by taking only the beginning of one word and joining it to the end of another word or by combining two or more letters into a single letter. This is in line with Giyatmi, Wijayava, & Arumi (2017), who state that blending is one way to create a new lexeme involving the process of mixing or blending of two shortened forms.  There are 7 expressions found which can be classified into a blending process. The users blend the words to produce the simpler or the shorter form of expression to communicate with other members in the WhatsApp group. This characteristic drove users to simplify the use of more words thereby reducing the number of words used in WAG by executing the blending process.

Intended Expressions Meaning in English
Let us consider the process of blending that occurred with some of the above expressions. The words ulang tahun (birthday) are blended into the word ultah. The process of blending is shown here through the first part of the word ulang being blended with the first part of the word tahun to form Ultah. Another example would be, the word kita 'we' being blended into the word qta. The process of blending occurs when the letters 'k' 'i' to form 'q' of qta, which would be pronounced as kita = /qta/. In this process, we can see that the users use this word -formation type to reduce the usage of keying words or letters in WAG.

Clipping
The notion of Clipping is theorized as a word consisting of one or more syllables which are reduced to a shortened form, often in casual speech (Yule, 2010). The clipping process encompasses various forms to establish new expressions. Below, one can see an explanation of the most frequent forms of clipping generally encountered. These types are exemplified here: premier, middle, and final. Some expressions are clipped only at the end syllable, as shown in the word kuliah = study (English translation) which is used specifically at a higher educational level. Here, for instance, kul is clipped. Clipping of konsul from konsultasi 'consultation' is also another example. For clarity, one can also see clipping in the following. We see that clipping occurs with the first syllable. Here ma is taken from sama 'with' and bis from habis translated as 'finish' or 'after' to show a clear example of the premier clipping process. Additionally, middle clipping which is not as frequent as the other types of word-formation is seen to involve the omission of the middle part of expressions. In the table below, we encounter the six types of clipping theorized by Yule.

Example of words in Data
Intended Meaning  The most popular type of clipping shown in the table above is the omission of the vowel shown in number 6. Here, it occurred in 34 expressions during the WhatsApp group discourse . The second type took 32 examples from all clipping expressions which occurred through middle clipping omission. To follow in the order of frequency, we see that the third type of clipping is a clipping of the first syllable or syllables. At this point, we see representation through 11 expressions in total. There were two types of clipping, which took 6 expressions for each type. As stated above, clipping off the end syllable/s and omission of the middle syllable and vowel of the word represented are projected. The last type of clipping was clipping the f irst and the end syllable/s. The type of clipping in omitting the vowels of the words became the most typically used by subjects in forming expressions. This can be seen through user effort to minimize typing input of words by focussing only on the consonants. And could explain why users tend to avoid the use of vowels in making words simpler or shorter. Similarly, the user also tended to use the type of clipping, omitting the middle part of the words and omitting the first syllable of the words, as mentioned above. This trend showed a tendency for users to express these alterations fluently as a part of normal speech. To emphasize, users tried to shorten and simplify the words by omitting the existing vowels or tried to omit the first, last, and both first and last syllable of the words. Key to note is user preference to form new expressions that could be pronounced authentically as if already part of original or first language practice. This process of clipping would be the leading choice for users in producing new expressions in online written communication.

Acronym
The acronym is the process in which new words are formed from the initial letters or components from a set of other words. Izura & Playfoot (2011) state that acronyms represent a significant and idiosyncratic part of our everyday vocabulary. The demands of a hi ghly technical society have dramatically increased the proportion of acronyms encountered in everyday language.  As suggested earlier, users often make words simpler, suggesting that users of online communication frequently abbreviate some words which are already known by the receiver. At this juncture, we see in the table above that there are 7 expressions identified as the type acronym. Thangaraj & Maniam (2015) explain that one of the characteristics of young learners in using written communication is using colloquial abbreviations and trendy acronyms. Based on this statement, trendy acronyms imply that students tend to use this type of word f ormation to show their level of prestige in using language. Moreover, students regularly used the acronym to shorten the form of words in their processing and writing of simpler and faster versions. They also developed an efficient way of having multiple chats with others through this process. This is in line with Ross (2006) in Mustafa, Kandasamy & Yasin (2015), who states that people are becoming more obsessed with the value of time. Also, students' tendency to use trendy acronym and an obsession regarding time as an invaluable short-coming during communication, became the main reasons for creating and using an acronym in their written communication during WAG usage.

Miscellaneous
According to George Yule's theory in his book Study of Language (2010), another process of new word-formation besides the above-mentioned processes is f orming new expressions by using certain numbers, symbols, and letters to represent words, which are pronounced respectively.  A miscellaneous type is another representation of word-formation found in WAG or other online social-media communication applications. To make the expressions simpler, the user of WAG creates and uses a new way of forming new text expressions. It is by using certain numbers and letters to exemplify expressions that sound similar that users detail their intended meaning. The data here shows four expressions that are included in this type. As stated previously, it is customary for students while writing in WAG communication to shorten the form of the words and use some symbols to express words into their simplest forms. This is the reason for using miscellaneous in this present study. Students tended to use symbols and letters to represent words that they were replacing.

Intended Expressions Meaning in English
As shown here, the use of 'X' to represent sekali 'once' and the (+) symbol to represent tambah 'addition' or 'extra' in the Indonesian language are examples of this miscellaneous type. This reveals students' intention to use the shortest form to represent their intended expression or proposed meaning.

Multiple Processes
George Yule (2010), justifies the possibility of tracing the operation of more than one process at work in the creation of a particular word to be a form of word-formation processing. From the table above, 11 multiple processes occurred in WAG. Seven multiple processes combined 2 types of word-formation processes and 4 multiple processes combined with 3 types of word-formation processes. This shows the significant character of users when forming words in written communication practice. Theorized by Ross, 2006 as cited in Mustafa, Kandasamy & Yasin, 2015, we see that because of our hectic and obsessive nature due to time/lifestyle restraints, we are more likely to involve shortened forms in a reduction of spelling. WAG users follow this directive and show no difference in this approach. This is why we see the domination of the clipping and borrowing form in the 11 multiple processes which occur in WAG.

Number of Expressions in Data
In line with that, the frequency of multiple processes that occurred the most was the combination of borrowing and clipping. The expressions met, gen, and ur were the result of the combination between borrowing and clipping. To make this clear, the first process in forming these expressions was borrowing from other languages or dialects. Examples of this are selamet , translated as 'safe' (borrowed from Javanese), dogen 'only' (borrowed from Balinese), and your (borrowed from English) which are further clipped by omitting some letters of the words to finally produce three new words met, gen, and ur. Additionally, we also see three combinations of word-formation processes, through the usage of expressions like GBU (God Bless You), TQ (Thank you), XP (experience), and C (see-as in 'I see you). These expressions formed by the process of borrowing happen utilizing the acronym and were influenced by the process of miscellaneous, becoming GBU, TQ, XP, and C. The impact of miscellaneous on this process created new expressions that were similar to encryptions or codings. In conclusion, multiple processes that occur in WAG are the result of the creativity and a tendency f or users to f orm newer and shorter forms of words. Moreover, the users used online communication as a reservoir to generate more words or expressions which could later lead to coded language. The researcher feels that this is an ultimate generational adaptation found amongst students and is directly linked to technology improvement, especially in this digital communication platform.

DISCUSSION
After analyzing the word-formation processes in WAG, generally, it was found that the predominant type of word-formation method used was borrowing. These results showed a contrary result to previous studies. The use of this type of word -formation process used by students was due to the impact of their daily communication and the course major that they study. Moreover, the students who are predominantly from Bali and several students from Java tended to alter how they used online written communication, as mentioned above. It is the view of the researcher that this is due to mother-tongue or first language (L1) influence in their daily communication. Supplementary to this, their course study in English Education also played some role in them borrowing words from English, which in turn was used in their written communication. In line with this, Karũrũ (2013) states that prestige and foreign social media greatly influence students to use English in their daily communication, especially during their written communication.
Multiple processes were the second predominant type of word-formation processes that were used by users of this application. The impact of technology and also the result of their creativity drove them to use modifications in writing. This means that participants tried to create The next types of word-formation processes that occurred in the thirty chats were an acronym, blending, and miscellaneous types. The use of these three categories in word-formation processes was less used than the other three predominant types of word-formation processes , which were discussed earlier. If combined Acronym, blending and miscellaneous only attributed 5.35% of occurrence from the total 100%. Even though these three types only accounted for a small number of expressions, the fact that the users used these types need s to be taken into account. This reflects in students also showing an eagerness to abbreviate words into new expressions to make new words shorter and simpler forms. The same occurred when the students formed words by using blending and miscellaneous. They executed blending because the existence of longer words is transcribed into a single word or expression, for example, Ulang Tahun meaning 'birthday' becomes Ultah. Students also used certain numbers, symbols, and letters to represent words, which are phonologically pronounced alike comparable to the original. The reasons for this phenomenon type is categorized above as miscellaneous.
To emphasize, the characteristics of the students who wanted to use shorter forms to accelerate the production of words or expressions in online communication (Mustafa, Kandasamy & Yasin, 2015) was the main reason why students used these three types of word-formation processes.

CONCLUSION
The result of this study reflects how technology, especially during online-based messaging could affect language usage in written online communication. New forms of words or expressions emerged as a result of this practice during WAG sharing. This study also showed that online group communication affected particular sets of user-friendly characteristics to produce words or expressions in chats.
The analysis of 336 words or expressions in thirty chats appeared during WAG, resulted in three predominant types of word-formation processes: borrowing, multiple processes, and clipping. Out of 336 words, 318 words or expressions, representing 94.64 % of all data collected is an indication of the word-formation process. There was a general tendency to combine two and three types of word formation in producing new expressions or words. In turn, this general tendency produced a new type of word formation process termed multiple processes.
Acronym, blending, and miscellaneous word-formation types were found to be less commonly used. These three word-formation types only contributed to a negligible amount of expressions, representing only a combined percentage of 5.35% from the total number of word-formation processes identified in this study. This interpretation of the material means that students in this study also showed an eagerness to abbreviate (some) words into new expressions by shortening and/or simplifying them. This also happened when students formed words through blending and miscellaneous word-formation. Students used blending to make longer words convert to single words or expressions to meet their needs. An example of this is Ulang tahun which became Ultah. Students also used certain numbers, symbols, and letters to represent words, which are phonetically pronounced similar to the original corresponding to miscellaneous types. The above results indicated the general tendency for the students to use simpler, shorter, and more unique forms of words or expressions in their WAG conversations.
This study is expected to be used as a reference for subsequent studies in word-formation processing, especially the word-formation processes that are used during WAG or other online group communication formats. It invites discourse of analysis from other researchers and can be used as a comparative study among word-formation processes that emerged in other f ields , additionally to further broaden the field. The expectation is that this study can be contin ued by other researchers and more deeply developed.