THE REALIZATION OF GENDER ARGUMENTS
IN TWITTER
A Thesis
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of
Magister Humaniora
By:
NAZRIANI LUBIS Registration Number : 8106111024
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
MEDAN
ABSTRACT
Nazriani Lubis, Regisration Number: 8106111024, The Realization of Gender Arguments in Twitter. English Applied Linguistics Study Program. Postgraduate School State University of Medan, 2015.
ABSTRAK
Nazriani Lubis, Nomor Registrasi: 8106111024. Realisasi Argumen Jender di Twitter. Program Studi Linguistik Terapan Bahasa Inggris, Pascasarjana Universitas Negeri Medan.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost, the writer would like to express her greatest gratitude to Allah SWT for blessing her to complete this thesis project. This study is concerned with The Realization of Gender Arguments in Twitter which is submitted to Post Graduate School of State University of Medan in partial of fulfillment of the final academic requirements to obtain the degree of Magister of Humaniora from English Applied Linguistics.
This thesis project would not have been possible without the incomparable people who have carried out this thesis to a close. Hence, the writer would like to express her deep gratitude to all people mentioned below.
The writer would like to express her deep gratitude to Prof. Dr.Busmin Gurning, M.Pd., as the Head of English Applied Linguistics for his support and kindness. The writer would like to exprees her sincere thanks and high appreciation to her first adviser, Prof. Dr. Berlin Sibarani, M.Pd., thanks for his assistance, brilliance, guidance, advise, encouragment and constructive criticism. His truly brilliance lighted up every single thought of the writer to accomplish this thesis project. Prof. Dr. Sumarsih, M.Pd., the second adviser, thanks for support and understanding throughout this thesis project so the writer can complete it.
The writer must acknowledge her enormous gratitude and special thanks to her beloved parents; Mr. Ir. H. Nazaruddin Lubis and Mrs. Nurhalwani Siregar, SmHk. The writer is extremely grateful for their prayers, unconditional love, caring, support, and endless patience during her academic year. The writer also thanks with love to her beloved sisters Asnarni Lubis, S.Pd, M.Pd and Rizki Amalia Lubis, S.Pd for their love, prayers and understanding. Members of family actually helped her more than they can know.
Finally, the writer extends her thanks to all amazing people who have supported and helped her to complete this thesis project in so many ways directly or indireclty. May Allah SWT bless them.
Medan, 29 Juli 2015 The writer,
Nazriani Lubis
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
ABSTRACT ... i
ABSTRAK ... ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ... iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... v
LIST OF MATRIXS ... vi
LIST OF FIGURE ... vii
LIST OF DIAGRAMS ... viii
LIST OF APPENDENCIES ... ix
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Background of Study ... 1
1.2 The Problems of the Study ... 7
1.3 The Objectives of the Study ... 8
1.4 The Scope of the Study ... 9
1.5 The Significance of the Study ... 9
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE 2.1 Ways of Gender Arguments ... 10
2.2.1 The Nature of Gender ... 10
2.1.2 The Nature of Gender Arguments ... 13
2.2 The Underlying Factors of Gender Arguments ... 20
2.3 Computer Mediated Communication ... 23
2.4 Twitter ... 24
2.5 The Previous Relevant Studies... 27
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHOD 3.1 The Design of the Research ... 29
CHAPTER IV DATA ANALYSIS, FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 4.1 Ways of Arguments Amonng Gender ... 35
4.2 Factors Underlying The Gender’s Making Arguments ... 45
4.2.1 Factors Underlying Male’s and Female’s Making of Arguments in Twitter ... 47
4.2.2 Factors Underlying Female’s and Female’s making of Arguments in Twitter ... 52
4.2.3 Factors Underlying the Making of Arguments by Participants Across Sex and Status ... 58
4.2.3.1 Factors Underlying Arguments Made by Participants of Different Sex with Higher Status and of the Same Sex with Different Status ... 59 4.2.3.2 Factors Underlying Arguments Made by
Status ... 60 4.2.3.3 Factors Underlying Arguments Made by
Participants of Different Sex with Equal Status and of the Same Sex with Equal
Status ... 61 4.3 Research Findings ... 61 4.4 Disucussion ... 63
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions ……… … 65
5.2 Suggestions ………... 66
REFERENCES ………... 67
LISTS OF TABLES
Table Page
2.1 Categorization of The Domain ... 12
2.2 The Preference Of Men and Women in Speech Activity ... 15
2.3 The Differences Among the Gossiping, Arguing and Quarelling ... 16
2.4 Types of Arguments ... 19
2.5 The Purpose of Types of Arguments ... 20
2.6 Factors of Gender Arguments ... 22
LIST OF FIGURE
Figures Page
LISTS OF DIAGRAMS
Diagrams Page
4.1 Negation ... 33
4.2 Conjunction ... 35
4.3 Disjunction ... 37
4.4 Conditional ... 39
LISTS OF MATRIXS
Matrixs Page
4.1 Males and Females Interaction in Twitter ... 42 4.2 Male’s Interaction in Twitter ... 44 4.3 The Result of Data Analysis in the Three Differents
Pairs of Interaction ... 47 4.4 Female’s Interaction in Twitter ... 49 4.5 The Result of Data Analysis in the Three Differents
LIST OF APPENDICES
4. Transcript of Female vs Female with Higher Status ... 75
5. Transcript of Female vs Female with Equal Status ... 78
6. Transcript of Female vs Female with Lower Status... 80
Topic 2: Law 1. Transcript of Female vs Male with Higher Status ... 83
2. Transcript of Female vs Male with Equal Status ... 85
3. Transcript of Female vs Male with Lower Status ... 87
4. Transcript of Female vs Female with Higher Status ... 89
5. Transcript of Female vs Female with Equal Status ... 91
6. Transcript of Female vs Female with Lower Status... 93
Topic 3: Education 1. Transcript of Female vs Male with Higher Status ... 96
2. Transcript of Female vs Male with Equal Status ... 98
3. Transcript of Female vs Male with Lower Status ... 99
4. Transcript of Female vs Female with Higher Status ... 101
5. Transcript of Female vs Female with Equal Status ... 103
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1The Background of Study
The rapid growing of technology makes the great changes the way of
communication recently. In this sophisticated information and technology age, the
term of communication does not always mean face to face communciation, but
also online communication provides the alternative for all people to communicate
with others. The online communication is being a popular altenative that can be
chosen as a medium of communication. People can keep in touch to others
without any limitation by using the internet as media of communication.
Discussing about the internet as media of communciation, The
development of information and technology has led people to use many internet’s
media in communcating to others. Internet’s media is one of the most popular
online communication which continually changes and moves on. A few years ago,
some people used internet just for sending and receiving email or searching an
important things, but nowdays, people feel free to surf anything from intrenet, suh
as; social media (facebook, twitter, path, instagram, you tube, skype, ec), online
shopping, blogging, campaign and online news.
Modern information and communications technologies such as the Internet
arguably have the potential to offer greater benefits to women than men (Carter &
in linguistics. There are some studies point out the differences language and
gender in language use. Tannen’s view in Goddard (2000 : 101) there are two
fundamental forces at work in social interaction, power and solidarity. She stated
that men and women are trained to pay more attention to one or other of these
dimension, men monitoring their interaction for aspect power, and women
monitoring theirs for signals of solidarity and intimacy.
This view means that male and female use the same language but they
interact to one or other differently. It is just because male and female have the
different purpose in communication. Male tends to show their status and power,
while female just want to seek the close relationship to another. Besides, Men's
goals in using language tend to be about getting things done, whereas women's
tend to be about making connections to other people. Men talk more about things
and facts, whereas womens’ talk more about people, relationships and feelings.
That’s why, the way of man in using language is competitive, reflecting their
general interest in acquiring and maintaining status; women's use of language is
cooperative, reflecting their preference for equality and harmony in interaction
and communication.
There are some studies had discussed about language and gender in online
communication. Huffaker (2004) found the significant differences gender and
language use in teenager bloggers, that is female do not use a more passive,
cooperative and accomodating in as Lakoff proposed. Hasan and Khammat (2011)
found that females use more simple sentence than males, whereas males tend to
use more compound, complex sentences than females in their study gender
gender’s language style in facebook status that the dominant style used by both
male and female in facebook status are consultative style, male used advice more
than female, and female use feeling more than male. While, Amir et al (2012)
found the gender differences in the language use of Malaysian teenager bloggers,
that male and female bloggers in the frequencies of five language features which
are ‘intensifiers’, ‘hedging’, ‘tag questions’, ‘empty adjectives’ and ‘adverbs’.
While, Jeong (2003) found the differences male and female in gender’s interaction
in online debate, he found that female were significantly less likely to engage in
argumentation with other female than with males, while males were equally like
to respond to females and males. He also found that women are more criticsm
than men. It is contrary to Eckert and Tanne’s theory; women more avoid conflict
than men.
From the previous studies above, the writer is interested in exploring
language and gender which is in the different context, that is in Twitter. Twitter is
one of the social networks with all over the world users. It has been a popular
social media around the world. According to Alexa.com which is California-based
subsidiary company of Amazon.com which provides commercial web traffic data,
twitter is in 8th ranks globally and in the 10th ranks as the popular social
networkings site in Indonesia.
Twitter is now well established as the world's second most important
social media platform, after Facebook. Its 140-character updates are designed for
brief messaging, and its network structures are kept relatively flat and simple. it
“tweet” with others with the system. The length of message or “tweet” makes
twitter is different with the others social media.
Twitter is different with another social networks because it only allows the
users to express their thought, idea and feeling. The users are free to tweet
whatever they feel and think and free to follow and stalk whoever they want to
see, and seek the information from over the world without confirmation the
friends’ invitation. In other words, there is no filter in searching the news, the
information and the hottest issues over the world. Twitter can be the media of
communication which encourages the users of twitter to argue directly.
Sometimes, the users of twitter do not have any consideration to argue.
This situation makes people argue as easy as they want. The users of
twitter in which men and women has the same oppurtunity to involve in arguing.
It is quite different with face to face communication, particularly women which
has many consideration to talk or argue just because feel afraid of being mistake
and conflict with others. Women always try to avoid conflict because they are not
strong enough to argue logically.
In this study, writer will focus on “argument” term. According to Eckert
(2003) argument involves giving reasons and evidences and using rational
principles of inference to support a position. Males are more argue in debating
while females are more quarell. Men do more argue than women (Eckert, 2003).
Men have the tendency to invlove in arguing in order to look more stronger than
women. Women have the tendency to avoid the arguments because women are
The circle of communication in twitter does not links to people whom you
know, but also it links to the official accounts of government, the official account
of national and international news, the offical account of politics, the official
account of celebrities, and . In this case, male and female feel free to participate in
discussing all the latest issue in internet. It allows people to argue and discuss the
issue directly. It means that men and women have the oppurtunity to express their
idea and feeling. For example, the users of twitter can communicate directly to
President of Indonesia by mentioning his official accounts (@SBY), or the users
of twitter can communicate directlt to President of America by mentioning his
menurutmu pidato prabowo vs jokowi, skornya brapa?
Male’s tweet :
(@RIA) : @pln_123 Setelah 8 jam mati di daerah Tebing Tinggi
(mulai jam 9), jam 22.52 mati lampu lagi disini. Benar-benar membiadapkan
peradaban.
In addition, According to Barwis (in Boole, 1999), there are five types of
arguments namely; negation, conjunction, disjunction, conditional and
biconditional. All of these theories lead to difference between male and female in
argument and how female respond male’s argument, female responds male’s
argument.
For example;
Female respond male’s argument:
@RiaisRia Banget RT @TimMarbun commercial break adalah saatnya
memantau komentar-komentar di twitter soal debat capres. Seru!
The example above shows that female to male interaction which is
rewritten in the logical argument should be categorized as conditional.
Theoritically conditional is defined as types of argument to combine two
sentences to form a new sentence by using the notion “if..then”;
“Jika commercial break maka kami saatnya kami memanatu komentar-komentar
soal debat capres di Twitter”
Female responds to male’s argument;
@RiaisRia apapun itu keduanya pasti akan jadi future President of Indonesia RT
@CherylTanzil Yang satu ngomong rencana, yang satu ngomong udah ngapain
aja.
The example above shows that female to male interaction which is
rewritten in the logical argument should be categorized as conjunction.
Theoritically conjunction is defined as type of arguments that is used to conjoin
two equal statement in the logical argument by using the notion “and, but”:
Theoritically, males and females are different in speech activity. Eckert
(2003 :98) states that the set of speech activity are: gossiping, quarelling and
arguing. The writer will focus on one of them, that is arguing.
From the tweet above, the writer believes that males and females have the
different way in arguing. Females like to support the another tweet by using
conjunction which is showing an optional event. While males like to talk about
the issue by showing their angers and reply another tweet by giving crtiqiues and
judgement through the conditioned event.
Based on the phenomenon of the language use in twitter, it is belived that
men and women are different in expressing their arguments in twitter. The writer
will see and analyze “The Realization of Gender Arguments in Twitter”. That is
the writer’s reason to choose gender differences in twitter. Relating to this fact,
the researcher focuses on two points; 1. The gender arguments are used by male
and female in expressing their idea in twitter, 3. The reason of male and female
choose use arguments in expressing their ideas in twitter.
1.2The Problem of the Study
Based on the background of the research, the problem of the research are
formulated as the following:
1. How do male and female argue in Twitter?
1.3The Objective of Research
In carrying out the research, it is necessary to state clearly the objectives of
study in the relation of the problem posed. The objectives are :
1. To find out what types of argument occur in Twitter
2. To describe the reasons of male and female in arguing in Twitter.
1.4The Scope of Study
In accordance with the research problem, this research is limited to find
out the data of male and female’s argument on twitter which use Bahasa
Indonesia. This study will focus on female to male’s interaction and female to
female’s interaction in expressing their arguments in twitter and the underlying
factors which male and female make argument. The researcher will directly
encourage the participants by posting some hot issues in Twitter. Due to the
limitation of the researcher, male to male interaction is not included. The type of
male and female argument consists of negation, conjucntion, disjunction,
conditional and biconditional. The underlying factors consist of social status. This
study will focus on two pairs interaction, namely; male to female interaction,
female to female interaction.
1.5Significance of Study
Findings of the study are expected to be significantly relevant theoritical
and practical aspects:
1. Theoretically, the findings of the study are expected to enrich language
lecturers and students who are interested in language and gender in
social media.
2. Practically, since the study focuses on gender arguments which shows
the way male and female argue in Twitter and the underlying factors.
Hopefully, the findings are expected in giving the information for the
students and lecturers of linguistics either male and female to be aware
their social status and interlocutor consideration in expressing their
CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONAND SUGGESTION
5.1 Conclusions
Based on the analysis, the conclusions were stated as the following:
1. Based on the data analysis, it was found that male argue by using only
three types of arguments, namely; conjunction, conditional and
biconditional, while female argued by using five types of arguments,
namely; negation, disjunction, conjunction, conditional and bicnoditional.
2. The different social status is the factor underlying male and female make
arguments. Male with higher status argued by biconditional and
conditional to female with lower status, female who has higher status
argued by negation, disjunction and biconditional to female with lower
status. Male with lower status argued by conjunction to female with higher
status, female who has lower status argued by conjunction and conditional
to female with higher status. Male with equal status argued by conjunction,
to female and female with equal status argued by negation and conditional
to female. It indicates that males are wiser and more aware with their
social status than females because females are likely more considerate with
5.2 Suggestions
In relation to the conclusions, suggestions are offered as the following:
1. Based on the finding that all not pair interactions are discussed in this
study, it is suggested to further researcher to conduct another pair of
interaction which is male to male interaction in expressing the arguments
to enrich the researchers and the readers’ knowledge in gender arguments.
2. Based on the finding, this study is focused on social status, it is suggested
to further reasercher to point out the other factors to get deeper findings,
REFERENCES
Bidgoli, Hossein. 2004a. The Internet Encyclopedia Volume 2 G-O. New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Bidgoli, Hossein. 2004b. The Internet Encyclopedia Volume 3 P-Z. New Jersey : John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Bogdan, R & Biklen, S. 1982. Qualitative Research for Education ( 2nd Ed). Boston: Allan and Bacon.
Boyd, Gelder, &Lotan. 2010. Tweet, Tweet, Retweet; Conversational Aspect of Retweet on Twitter. HICSS-43. IEEE: Kauai, HI, Jan 6 [Posted on 2 June 2014].
Bucholtz, Mary. 1999. Reinventing Identities; The Gendered Self in Discourse. Oxford University Press. New York
Burger, JD,. Henderson, J,. Kim. G,. Zarrella, G. Discriminating on Twitter. The Mitre Corporation USA 01730. [Posted on 26 June 2012].
Crystal, David. 2004. Language and Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Eckert, P & Sally MC. G,. 2003. Language and Gender. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Green, D, W, EdD,. The Summary Of “You Just Don’t Understand: Women And Men In Conversation by Deborah Tannen”. DrDougGreen.com.
[email protected]. [Posted on 3 Juy 2012[.
Goddard, A & Patterson, M, L,. 2000. Language and Gender. London and New York: Routledge.
Griffin, Em., McClash,. Langan, J, Emily,. 2006. A First Look At Communication
Hasan, M. J & Khammat, H. A. 2011. Gender Differences In The Use Of Sentences Type and Sentences Modifiers, An Analysis of Email by Iraqi Learners Of English. Journal Of The College of Arts. University Of Basrah No (17). [Posted on 4 April 2013].
Hellinger, M and Bubman, H. 2003. Gender Across Language. Amsterdam/Philadelpia. John Benjamins.
Herring, Susan C. 2001. Gender and Power in Online Communication. Indiana University
Huffaker,David. 2004. Gender Similarities and Differences in Online Identity And
Language Use Among Teenager Bloggers. Washignton DC [Posted on
3 July 2012].
Hurley, J Patrcik. 2012. A Concise Introduction to Logic. Wadsworth. Cengag Learnin.
Jeon, Allan. 2003. Gender Interaction in Online Debates: Look Who’s Arguing
With Whom. The Annual Meeting of The American Educational
Research Association, Chicago [Posted on 21 Jan 2014].
Johnson, L Steven. 2009. Winning Debates. International Deabate Education Association. New York.
Miles, Mattew B and A, Michael Huberman. 1984. Qualitative Data Analysis: An Expanded Sourcebook. Beverly Hills: Sage.
Pease, Allam & Barbara. 2001. Why Men Don’t Listen & Women Can’t Read Maps. Great Britain: Pease International Ply Ltd. [Posted on 19 March 2014].
Pines, Gat & Al. 2002. Gender Differences and Style of Argument Between Couple During Divorce Mediation. The Journal of Conflict Resolution Quarterly Vol.20 no.1. Willey Periodical Inc
Suciu, Giulia. Why Don’t You Understand? Male and Female Communication. University of Oradea [Posted on 3 July 2012].
Talbot, M,. Atkinson K,. & Atkinson, Daud. 2003. Language and Power in The Modern World. Cambridge: Edinburgh University Press.
Thompson, D. 2003. Commincation and Language. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
Wood, T, Julia. 2007. Gendered Lives; Communication, Gender, Culture. USA: Thomson Wadworth.
Yulie, George. 2006. The Study of Language 3rd Edition. Cambridge: Cambridge Universiy Press.
