THE ANALYSIS OF MALE AND FEMALE MAIN CHARACTERS’ LANGUAGE IN MOVIE “MUSIC AND LYRIC” BASED ON WOMEN’S LANGUAGE THEORIES
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THE ANALYSIS OF MALE AND FEMALE
MAIN CHARACTERS’ LANGUAGE IN MOVIE “MUSIC AND LYRIC”
BASED ON WOMEN’S LANGUAGE THEORIES
Ni Putu Kartina Wiprayanti
English Department, Faculty of Letters and Culture, Udayana University
Abstrak
Bahasa wanita sangat menarik untuk diteliti karena erat kaitannya dengan variasi gender yang merupakan tolak ukur dari penggunaan bahasa itu sendiri. Menurut Lakoff (1975) terdapat sepuluh bentuk bahasa yang biasa digunakan oleh wanita untuk menunjukkan keraguan.Walaupun banyak ahli berpendapat bahwa bentuk bahasa wanita adalah bentuk bahasa yang khusus digunakan oleh wanita, namun O’Barr dan Atkins (1980) menyatakan bahwa bentuk bahasa wanita juga dapat digunakan oleh pria jika mereka berada dalam status sosial yang lebih rendah. Artikel ini bertujuan untuk menganalisa bentuk bahasa wanita yang digunakan oleh tokoh utama wanita dan pria dalam flim ‘Music dan Lirik’ serta fungsinya. Dan juga membandingkan jumlah bentuk bahasa wanita yang digunakan oleh kedua tokoh utama untuk mengetahui siapa yang lebih banyak menggunakan bentuk bahasa wanita dalam flim ini. Selain itu faktor penggunaan bahasa wanita itu juga dianalisis menggunakan teori yang dicetuskan oleh Coates (1986). Data yang digunakan diambil dari percakapan antara tokoh utama pria dan wanita dalam flim ‘Musik dan Lirik’ dan dianalisis menggunakan metode deskriptif kuantitatif. Berdasarkan analisis, ditemukan bahwa ada Sembilan bentuk bahasa wanita yang digunakan oleh tokoh utama pria dan wanita yang mana kebanyakan dari bentuk bahasa wanita itu diucapkan bukan oleh pemeran utama wanita namun pemeran utama pria. Hal ini disebabkan oleh beberapa faktor pendukung yaitu: social status, subordinate groups, prestige and stigma, social network dan the acquisition of sex differential language.
Kata kunci: bentuk bahasa wanita, status sosial, bahasa formal
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1. Background of the Study
Coates (1986:4) states that, in different social context an individual will speak in different ways. Moreover, Linguists claimed that female are more linguistically polite than male and both of male and female emphasize different speech functions (holmes, 1992:33). It is found that male and female often use different linguistic forms and address terms in speaking English even in the same speech community. The use of the standard might be seen as yet another reflection of women’s powerless
in the public sphere. This interpretation accorded well with one of the assumptions made by early gender scholars such as Lakoff (1975), who saw women’s language as the “language of powerless” a reflection of their subordinate place in relation to men. However, O’Barr and Atkins’s (1980) finding that some of the features thought to be part of “women language” were also used by males when in the subordinate position.
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1. What are the features of language used by female and male main characters and the functions found in the “Music and Lyric” movie?
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2. How to compare the quantity of women’s language features spoken by the female main character and male main character in movie “Music and Lyric”?
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3. How to explain the factors of the phenomena found in the “Music and Lyric” movie by using Coates theory (1986)?
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1. To identify and analyze the features of language used by female and male main characters and the functions found in the “Music and Lyric” movie.
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2. To compare the quantity of women’s language features spoken by the female main character and male main character in movie “Music and Lyric.
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3. To explain the factors of phenomena found in the “Music and Lyric” movie by using Coates theory (1986).
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4. Research Method
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4.1 Data Source
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This study used ‘Music and Lyric’ movie as the data source. The data use taken from the conversations used in the dialogues in the movie “Music and Lyric” and also the original script of the movie published in the internet.
Firstly the movie and the original script were downloaded from the Internet. Secondly, listening to the conversation of the female and male main characters in the movie while also marking the conversation made by them in the movie. Thirdly, female and male main characters’ speech were identified and selected and them quantitatively compared. Moreover it also analyzed the function of women’s language features using theories by Lakoff and find out the factors of phenomena found in “Music and Lyric” movie by using theory by Coates.
The data use categorized by selecting conversations between male and female main characters in the movie and taking note of conversations. The woman and man main character’s utterances were grouped and analyzed to find its elements that refer to the woman’s language features using the theory proposed by Lakoff (1975 then they were analyzed further to find out the features of women’s language used by woman and man main character in that movie. After that, the reason why the woman and man main character used the women’s language features was analyzed. While grouping the data, the women’s language features used by woman and man main characters were counted. Then the total number of features spoken by the woman main character and man main character were found, compared and analyzed to find out the phenomena that happened in the movie “Music and Lyric”. Finally, the factors of phenomena found in the “Music and Lyric” movie were analyzed using theory proposed by Coates (1986).
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5. The Analysis of man and Woman Main Characters’ Language in Movie “Music and Lyric” based on Women’s Language Theories
There were six kinds of lexical hedges or fillers spoken by man and woman main characters in this movie. They are lexical hedges or filler ‘well’, ‘you know’, ‘sort of’, ‘I think’, ‘I though’ and ‘you see’. Lexical hedges or filler ‘well’, ‘you know’, ‘I think’, and ‘I though’ were spoken by both of woman and man main character because, they are lack self confidence and uncertain about themselves. In addition those kinds of filler were also used by them to strengthen their assertion. However filler ‘sort of’ was just used by woman main character to build her self confident and strengthen her assertion while the filler ‘you see’ was just used by man main character to get attention from the hearer.
The tag questions were spoken by both of main characters. It was aimed at giving the addressee leeway, not forcing him to go along with the speaker, to make a small talk; try to elicit conversation from the addressee, ask someone’s opinion in polite way in discussing personal feelings, and avoid asserting herself in strong way, thereby, to avoid coming in the conflict with the addressee.
Rising intonation on declaratives was used by both of main characters for seeking for confirmation, though at the same time the speaker may be the only one who has the requisite information.
The use of ‘empty’ adjectives are to show the speaker’s approbation or admiration to something. They were also used by both of the main characters. 5.1.5 Intensifier
There were three kind of intensifier spoken by the main characters in this movie. They were ‘just’, ‘so’, and ‘too’. Intensive adverb or boosting devices can be used to strengthen assertion. It is also used to hedge on one’s feelings and to show strong emotions.
Hypercorrect grammar was used by the main characters in this movie to show politeness in utterance and also to make a distance between the speaker and the addressee.
The main characters were also used ‘super polite form’ to show politeness in order to reduce friction in personal interaction. There were three kinds of ‘super polite form’ used, they were ‘sorry’, ‘thank you’ and ‘please’ 5.1.8 The avoidance of Strong Swear Words
The avoidance of strong swears words were spoken by man and woman main characters in ‘Music and lyric’ movie. The difference between using strong swear words lied in how forcefully one says how one’s feels-choice of particle was a function of how strongly one allows oneself to feel about something, so that the strength of the emotion conveyed in a sentence corresponded to the strength of the particle.
An empathic stress was another way to express uncertainty about what was asserted. It was also used by both of the main characters.
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5.2 Comparison in Quantity of Women’s Language Features that’s Spoken by the Woman and Man Main Character in Movie “Music and Lyric”
Not only the woman main character used women’s language features in this movie, but also the man main character. Instead he used them more often than the woman main character. The quantity of features spoken by the main characters is shown as follows:
|
Women Language’s Features |
Female Main Character Did |
Male Main Character Did |
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Lexical Hedges or Fillers |
47 |
44 |
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Tag Question |
1 |
3 |
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Rising Intonation on Declaratives |
18 |
44 |
|
Empty Adjectives |
4 |
7 |
|
Precise Color Terms |
0 |
0 |
|
Intensifiers |
56 |
69 |
|
Hypercorrect Grammar |
13 |
26 |
|
Super Polite Forms |
18 |
50 |
|
Avoidance of Strong Swear Words |
9 |
4 |
|
Emphatic Stress |
2 |
9 |
|
Total |
168 |
256 |
(Tabel 1)
Most of the features were more often spoken by the man main character rather than woman character. These interesting phenomena indicated that the man main character was more unconfident and powerless in the society rather than the woman main character and was in the subordinate position.
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5.3 Analyzing Factors of Phenomena Found in Movie “Music and Lyric” with Using Coates Theory (1986)
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5.3.1 Social Status
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Mr. Alex Fletcher in this movie is a singer that involved in the broadcasting area, so he have to manage his language and using standard language because his occupation asserted him to tough with high class people. While Miss Fisher, the woman main character is just a common person that did not have particular social status that forced her to use standard language.
Mr. Alex Fletcher in this case had bigger necessity than Miss Fisher because really needed a lyricist. Therefore it could be said that Mr. Fletcher was in the subordinate position, so he had to be polite to Miss Fisher.
Mr. Fletcher occupation required him to use standard language. He had to watch over his language since he came from high class people. If he spoke roughly, it would fall his prestige. While Miss Fisher’s utterance was also not rough but less formal than Mr. Fletcher utterance.
Mr. Fletcher did not have opportunity to speak vernacular since his occupation and social background did not support it. So, he had tight-knit social network. Meanwhile Miss Fisher had close-knit social network because she was a common person which was close to each other.
Mr. Fletcher had entered broadcasting area since he was a child. It indicated that his childhood had been involved by his occupation where he had to manage his language whereas Miss Fisher also did not speak rough because as a woman she had to manage her language. In addition, she was also doing babysit that require her to use proper language.
From the analysis of the study, it can be concluded that there are nine women’s language features proposed by Lakoff (1975) spoken by the man and woman main characters in movie “Music and Lyric”. They are: lexical hedges or fillers, tag question, rising intonation on declaratives, ‘empty’ adjective, intensifiers, hypercorrect grammar, super polite forms, the avoidance of strong swear words and emphatic stress. The ‘precise color term’ is not found in this movie neither spoken by the woman main character nor the man main character.
The number of women’s language features spoken by the man and woman main characters were counted and compared. There is an interesting phenomena found that Mr. Alex Fletcher, the man main character in “Music and Lyric” movie use more women’s language features than the woman main character.
In addition, there are factors caused this phenomena happened according to Coates theory (1986). They are: social status, subordinate groups, prestige and stigma, social network and the acquisition of sex differential language.
Coates, Jenifer. 1896. Women, Men and Language. New York: Longman
Holmes, Janet. 2003. The Handbook of Language and gender. New York: Blackwell Publishing
Lakoff, Robin. 1975. Language and Women’s Place. New York: Cambridge University Press
O’Barr, W. and Atkins, B. (1980). ‘Women’s language’ or ‘powerless language’?, pp 93-110 in McConnell-Ginet et al. (eds) Women and Language in Literature and Society. New York: Praeger.
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