Women’s Language in “Bring It On” Movie
on
DOI: 10.24843/JH.2018.v22.i03.p40 ISSN: 2302-920X
Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud
Vol 22.3 Agustus 2018: 836-841
Women’s Language in “Bring It On” Movie
Valeria Made Dwi Susanti1*, I Gusti Agung Istri Aryani2
[12]English Department – Faculty of Arts – Udayana University 1[valeriasusanti95@gmail.com]
*Corresponding Author
Abstract
The title of this study is Women’s Language in the Movie “Bring It On”. This study aims at identifying and analyzing type of women’s linguistic features and functionsapplied by women characters in the movie. This movie entitled Bring It Ondirected by Peyton Reed and written by Jessica Bendinger was chosen as the data source of this study. The data of this study was obtained by watching and listening to the movie to find the women’s linguistic features used by the women characters in the movie. The collected data were analyzed qualitatively in order to give clear description. There were nine features found in the conversation of women characters of the movie, such as: lexical hedges or filler (e.g. such as well, you know, I think, I mean), tag question, rising intonation on declarative, “empty” adjective, intensifier (e.g. just, so), hypercorrect grammar, “superpolite” forms (e.g. thank you), precise color, and avoidance of strong swear word. In addition, the function found in this study as of: lexical hedges that showed women uncertain about what they are saying or cannot vouch of the accuracy of their statement; using tag question to make small talk or trying to elicit conversation from the addressee because the speaker needs confirmation from the addressee; using rising intonation is to seek for confirmation; using empty adjective is to show the speaker’s approbation or admiration for something; using precise color term is related to women’s specific interest and to show that they are good in their field; using intensifier is to emphasize and strengthen the statement; using hypercorrect grammar is to show politeness to the addressee; using super polite form is to show their gratitude to the addressee; using avoiding strong swear word is to show how strongly women show their feeling about something.
Keywords: women’s language, features, function.
Abstrak
Penelitian ini berjudul “Women Language in Bring It On Movie”. Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengidentifikasi dan menganalisis fitur bahasa dan fungsinya yang digunakan oleh perempuan di film tersebut. Film ini berjudul Bring It On diarahkan oleh Peyton Reed and ditulis oleh Jessica Bendinger dan telah terpilih sebagai sumber data dari penelitian. Data dari penelitian ini diperoleh dari menonton dan mendengarkan film tersebut untuk menemukan fitur bahasa wanita yang digunakan oleh pemeran wanita di film tersebut. Data yang dikumpulkan, dianalisis secara deskripsi untuk memberikan penjelasan yang jelas. Terdapat Sembilan fitur yang ditemukan di percakapan wanita di movie tersebut. yaitu, : lexical hedges (well, you know, I think, I mean), tag question, rising intonation on declarative, “empty” adjective, intensifier (just, so), hypercorrect grammar, “superpolite” forms ( thank you), precise color, and avoidance of strong swear word. Sebagai tambahan, fungsi
yang ditemukan dalam penilitian ini adalah sebagai berikut: Fungsi dari lexical hedges adalah untuk menunjukan ketidakyakinan wanita dengan apa yang diucapkanya atau tidak bisa menjamin perkataaanya. Penggunakan tag question adalah untuk membuat percakapan kecil atau mencoba untuk mendapatkan konfirmasi dari orang yang dituju. Penggunaan dari rising intonation adalah untuk mencari konfirmasi dari orang yang dituju. Penggunaan dari empty adjective adalah untuk menujukan kekaguman atau memuji sesuatu. Penggunaan dari precise colour term adalah untuk menujukan bahwa mereka sangat baik dalam mengistilahkan warna. Penggunaan dari intensifier adalah untuk mempertegas dan memperkuat pernyataan. Penggunaan dari hypercorrect grammar adalah untuk menjukan kesopanan kepada orang yang dituju.Penggunaan dari superpolite form adalah untuk menunjukan rasa terimakasih kepada seseorang yang dituju. Penggunaan dari avoidance of swear strong word adalah untuk menunjukan betapa kuatnya perasaan wanita akan sesuatu.
Kata kunci: bahasa perempuan, fitur dan fungsinya.
Language is a way for humans to communicate and connect with each other. It is used by people to communicate with each other in order to maintain good relationship in social life.People cannot live without language because life needs language to keep their existence.There has developed an approach to linguistic research which focuses on language use within the speechcommunitycalled sociolinguistics.Coates (1986:4) defines that sociolinguistics is the study of language in social context.It covers the knowledge of how people speak differently in different social contexts. The social context can make a stylistic variation, where an individual talks in different ways in different social contexts.
People interact in society through language conversation. The participant can be a man or a woman. Man and womanhave different ways to talk to other people even they speak the same language and share the same culture. Wardhough(1986) states that men focus to talk about sports, politics, and aggression when talking with their friends. However, Women have their
own way of speaking. They will talk about parenting, personal relationship and opinions, feelings, and affiliations with their friends.
The phenomenon of women’s language is very interesting to be studied as it is related to the variation of gender, which is the main parameter in the language use. However, in this study women’s language are analyzed by their linguistic features and their functions as represented by the main character in the moiveBring It On based on the theory of Women’s Language proposed by Lakoff (1975).
Based on the background of the study above, there are two problems that can be formulated as follows:
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a. What kinds of women language
features are used by the women character in the movie Bring It On ?
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b. What are the functions of
women’s language featuresthat are used by the women character in the moiveBring It On ?
The purposes of this study can be divided into two parts as follows: a. To identify kinds of women linguistic features in the movie Bring It On.
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b. To find out functions of women language in the movie BringIt On.
In this study, the research method deals with four parts namely: Data Source, Method and Technique of Collecting Data, Method and Technique of Analyzing Data and Method and Technique of Presenting Data.
The data source that was used in this study is an English movie entitled Bring It On. It is an American comedy moviedirected by Peyton Reed and written by Jessica Bendinger.
The method of collecting data in this study used documentation method.First step was watching and listening to the character’s conversation, second step was taking note for the data which was considered as women’s linguistic features from the subtitle on the screen of the movie and then taking screenshot of the scene and putting it in chapter III.
The collected data were analyzed qualitatively in order to give a clear description through the theory of Women Language proposed by Lakoff (1975) which is relevant with this study.Analyzing the women’s linguistic features spoken by the main women’s character that found in the conversation of the movie and then identifying the
function of women’s linguistic features that found inBring It On movie based on the theory of Women Language proposed by Lakoff (1975).
In the method of presenting data, the descriptive method wasapplied.The result of the analysis in this study was described in the form of description in order to make a clear explanation. The technique of presenting data was by elaborating the women’s linguistic features and the function found in the the movie Bring It On’sconversation used by the main women characters of the movie.
The language features found in this movie were lexical hedges, the use of tag question, the use of rising intonation, the use of empty adjective, the use of precise color term, the use of intensifier, the use of hypercorrect grammar, the use of super polite form, and the use of avoidance strong swear words.
Torrance: I want you on the
squad.You're the best. They know it. They justreject the unfamiliar.
Missy :Thanks, but no, thanks. I mean, I plead temporary insanity. See, I'm ahard core gymnast. No way jumping up and down screaming, "go, team, go!" is gonna satisfy me.
Torrance::Look, we're gymnasts, too, except no beam, no bars, no vault.
Missy: Sorry. Not interested.
Missy used lexical hedges or fillers in her utterance. She used the phrase “I mean” that was categorized as hedge. She used to make correction and it shows that she is uncertain about what
she is saying, or cannot vouch for the accuracy of her statement.
Missy :We just so almost got our ass kicked back there! I mean, I knew I'd seen those routines before. We used to play East Compton all the time. You really had no idea, did you?
Torrance:Do you know what this means? My entire cheerleading career has been a lie.
Missy used tag question “did you” in her utterance. She used tag question to make sure that Torrance really had no idea or not. However, it seemed that she was uncertain about what she said and neededconfirmation. Tag questionwas used when speaker is stating claim but lacks full confidence in the truth of the claim. The function of tag question in the conversation above was to make small talk or try to elicit conversation from the addressee, because the speaker (Messy) needs confirmation from the addressee (Torrance). Women usually exploit tag question in order to keep the conversation going.
Whitney : Oh, Aaron, come to one
last practice?
Courtney : You know, you're still
our favorite cheerleader.
Whitney : Please?
Aaron : I'm sorry, guys. I gotta
run.
Torrance : You're not staying for
the vote?
Aaron : Hey, I really got to beat
traffic. I can't be late for orientate
In the movie, Torrance raised her voice because how shocked she was after her boyfriend Aaron had said. The reason why she raised her voice was that she needed confirmation from Aaron stating if he could come to the voting day or not.
The rising or question intonations was used when the speaker was seeking for confirmation.
Torrance :I want you on the squad.You're the best. They know it. They justreject the unfamiliar.
Missy :Thanks, but no, thanks. I mean, I plead temporary insanity. See, I'm ahard core gymnast. No way jumping up and down screaming, "go, team, go!" is gonna satisfy me.
Torrance::Look, we're gymnasts, too, except no beam, no bars, no vault. Missy:Sorry. Not interested.
Torrance used the word “best” in her utterance when she tried to convince Missy to join her cheerleader team. Missy knows how to jump perfectly because she is a hard core gymnast and Torrance as the leader needs her to join the squad.
Isis : I think we can handle it. Stay in bounds. If any of you step outside that ugly blue carpet, you are dead.
Torrance: Yes.
Isis used the precise color term “blue” to describe a specific thing to the addressee in this case a carpet. Lakoff (1975) stated that women make far more precise discrimination in naming colors than men do. Women used precise color term feature related to their specific interest. They use more words for things like colors.
Mrs. Shipman: Well, this blistering academic schedule shouldn't get in your way. You should be happy about that.
Torrance: Why can't you accept the fact that I'm not a genius? It just kills you that I'm not an honor student.
Mrs. Shipman: No. It kills me that you barely make time to study.If you studied half as much as you cheer, you'd be in great shape. Your priorities are--Torrance: No. Those are your priorities. Mine are just fine.
Mrs. Shipman: Look. I'm just saying that college might be less of a shock if you take an extra lab or language course or...something. What do you think?
Torrance: Will advanced can get you off my back?
Mrs. Shipman: Not completely, but it'll help.
Torrance: You know, Mothers have
killed to get their daughters on squads.
Mrs. Shipman: That mother didn't kill anyone. She hired a hitman.
The feature found in the conversation above is intensifier “just”. It can be seen that there are two intensifiers “just” in the conversation above. The function of intensifier “just” above is to emphasize and strengthen her utterance.
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5.7 Hypercorrect Grammar Torrance:Hey, may I please speak to Aaron? It's Torrance.
Aaron's Roommate ( male) :He's not here. He's-- uh, he's not here. Bye
Torrance used the modal word “may” to ask for permission in formal way. Hypercorrect grammar feature is related to politeness in utterance. One uses the grammar to show hypercorrect politeness and at the same time creates a distance between the addressees. If the utterance “may I please speak to Aaron?” turned into the non-polite or casual form, so it can be changed into Can I speak to Aaron?
Jenelope:Pauletta, you my girl! You look pow, baby!
LaFred :Ooh, pauletta, girl, we love you so much! We wanna say you don't have to lose a pound! Girl, we love you just the way you are!
Isis:Pauletta, we're gonna make you an honorary clover for life! Thank you so much!
There isone women language features used by Isis. The feature called superpolite form and intensifier. In her utterance, she stated “thank you”. Women are supposed to be particularly careful to say “thank you” and to uphold the other social conventions. Women know the right things to say to other people. In the case above, Isis says “Thank you so much” in her utterance to show her gratitude to Pauletta who help them to join the national cheerleader competition for the first time.
athletes, thanks in large part to me. And I know that your new captain will keep. That tradition alive, leading you to the record Sixth national cheerleading championship you know is yours. So, let's meet your new leader...Torrance
shipman.
Torrance : Oh, my god!
In the conversation above it was found that the main women character of the movie named Torrance used one of the features of women’s language. She used avoidance of strong swears word feature. “Oh my God” is the example of avoidance of strong swear word that is usually spoken by women and it is categorized as the weak expletive because it is swear word that was softened. In the context of the conversation above, Torrance used Oh My God in her utterance since she was really shocked and surprised to know that she was the new leader of Toros squad.
The topic of discussion in this study is women’s language including the linguistic features with its functions. The discussion focused on those two things which were used by women characters in the “Bring It On” movie. Based on the foregoing analysis and discussion, there are some points that can be presented as conclusions of the study.Based on the previous discussion, there are nine linguistic features found in 12 conversations from the movie used by women character in the movie, as identified by Lakoff (1975). They are lexical hedges or filler (e.g. such as well, you know, I think, I mean), tag question, rising intonation on declarative, “empty” adjective, intensifier (e.g. just, so), hypercorrect grammar, “superpolite” forms (e.g. thank you), precise color, and avoidance of strong swear word.
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Lakoff, Robin. 1975. Language and Women’s Place. New York: Harper & Row
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