ABSTRACT
Pereira, Sonia Alexandra. 2015. Angelina Jolie’s Speech Style in Mr. and Mrs. Smith Movie. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.
This research analysed Angelina Jolie’s speech style in the movie entitled Mr. and Mrs. Smith. This movie was chosen because of two reasons. First, this movie provides some aspects and issues regarding gender and language. Second, Jane Smith, the main character, starred by Angelina Jolie has unique speech style that is worth researching in relation to language study. Mr. and Mrs. Smith movie provides the examples of women’s and men’s speech styles that are uttered by Angelina Jolie.
This research was addressed to answer to two research problems, namely (1) which features of women’s and men’s speech are found in Angelina Jolie’s utterances in Mr. and Mrs. Smith movie and (2) what factors affect Angelina
Jolie’s speech style in the movie. The objectives are to find out the features of
men’s and women’s speech in Angelina Jolie’s utterances and to identify the factors that affect Angelina’s speech style. The theoretical bases to answer the firs t problem was that of Wood’s (1993) about men’s and women’s speech and the second problem was that of Spolsky’s (1998) Schmidt’s (2002) about the causes of differences.
This research is in nature qualitative and categorized as the document analysis, the data source of which was movie’s transcript. Four instruments were used in this research, namely, cross tabulation, hardware that was consisted of laptop and speaker, and the windows media player as the software, to analyse the first research problem and checklist to answer the second question.
The results showed that Angelina demonstrated four out of the six features of women’s speech in her utterances, namely attention to the relationship level, conversational maintenance work, responsiveness, and tentativeness. The results also showed that Angelina demonstrated all features of men’s speech in her utterances, namely status and control, instrumentality, conversational dominance,
assertive, more abstract, and not highly responsive. The factors that affected
Angelina’s speech style in the movie were power relation and social situations. In
conclusion, Angelina Jolie’s speech style was considered as men’s speech because total expressions of men’s speech in her utterances were more dominant than the expressions of women’s speech. From the total 67chosen utterances, the most
expressions shown were men’s speech features with the total 53 utterances.
ABSTRAK
Pereira, Sonia Alexandra. 2015. Angelina Jolie’s Speech Style in Mr. and Mrs. Smith Movie. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Penelitian ini menganalisa gaya berbicara Angelina Jolie dalam film berjudul Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Film ini dipilih karena dua alasan. Pertama, film ini menyediakan beberapa aspek dan isu yang berhubungan dengan gender dan bahasa. Kedua, pemeran utama, Jane Smith yang dibintangi oleh Angelina Jolie
memiliki cara berbicara yang unik yang membuat peneliti tertarik untuk melakukan penelitian ini. Film Mr. and Mrs. Smith menyediakan beberapa contoh
ciri khas women’s dan men’s speech yang diucapkan oleh Angelina Jolie.
Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menjawab dua pertanyaan, yakni (1) apa saja ciri khas dari women’s speech dan men’s speech yang ditemukan dalam pengucapan Angelina Jolie dalam film Mr. and Mrs. Smith dan (2) apa saja faktor yang mempengaruhi gaya berbicara Angelina Jolie dalam film tersebut Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menemukan ciri khas dari women’s dan
men’s speech dalam pengucapan Angelina Jolie dan untuk mendidentifikasi faktor yang mempengaruhi pengucapan Angelina Jolie. Dasar teori untuk menemukan jawaban masalah pertama adalah teori Wood (1993) tentang Men’s dan Women’s Speech dan untuk menemukan jawaban masalah kedua peneliti menggunakan teori dari Spolsky (1998) dan Schmidt (2002) tentang The Causes of Differences.
Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, ditemukan bahwa Angelina Jolie menunjukan empat dari enam ciri khas women’s speech dalam pengucapannya, yakni, attention to the relationship level, conversational maintenance work, responsiveness dan tentativeness. Peneliti juga menemukan Angelina menunjukan seluruh ciri khas men’s speech dalam pengucapannya yakni status and control, instrumentality, conversational dominance, assertive, abstract dan not highly responsive. Faktor yang mempengaruhi gaya berbicara Angelina dalam film Mr. and Mrs. Smith adalah kekuatan relasi dan situasi sosial. Pada kesimpulannya, gaya berbicara Angelina termaksud dalam men’s speech karena total ekspresi dari men’s speech dalam ucapan Angelina lebih dominan dibandingkan ekspresi
women’s speech.
ANGELINA JOLIE’S SPEECH STYLE
IN
MR. AND MRS. SMITH
MOVIE
A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS
Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree
in English Language Education
By
Sonia Alexandra Pereira Students Number: 111214121
ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS AND TRAINING EDUCATION
SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA
ABSTRACT
Pereira, Sonia Alexandra. 2015. Angelina Jolie’s Speech Style in Mr. and Mrs. Smith Movie. Yogyakarta: English Language Education Study Program, Sanata Dharma University.
This research analysed Angelina Jolie‟s speech style in the movie entitled Mr. and Mrs. Smith. This movie was chosen because of two reasons. First, this movie provides some aspects and issues regarding gender and language. Second, Jane Smith, the main character, starred by Angelina Jolie has unique speech style that is worth researching in relation to language study. Mr. and Mrs. Smith movie provides the examples of women‟s and men‟s speech styles that are uttered by Angelina Jolie.
This research was addressed to answer to two research problems, namely (1) which features of women‟s and men‟s speech are found in Angelina Jolie‟s utterances in Mr. and Mrs. Smith movie and (2) what factors affect Angelina
Jolie‟s speech style in the movie. The objectives are to find out the features of
men‟s and women‟s speech in Angelina Jolie‟s utterances and to identify the factors that affect Angelina‟s speech style. The theoretical bases to answer the firs t problem was that of Wood‟s (1993) about men‟s and women‟s speech and the second problem was that of Spolsky‟s (1998) Schmidt‟s (2002) about the causes of differences.
This research is in nature qualitative and categorized as the document analysis, the data source of which was movie‟s transcript. Four instruments were used in this research, namely, cross tabulation, hardware that was consisted of laptop and speaker, and the windows media player as the software, to analyse the first research problem and checklist to answer the second question.
The results showed that Angelina demonstrated four out of the six features of women‟s speech in her utterances, namely attention to the relationship level, conversational maintenance work, responsiveness, and tentativeness. The results also showed that Angelina demonstrated all features of men‟s speech in her utterances, namely status and control, instrumentality, conversational dominance,
assertive, more abstract, and not highly responsive. The factors that affected
Angelina‟s speech style in the movie were power relation and social situations. In
conclusion, Angelina Jolie‟s speech style was considered as men‟s speech because
total expressions of men‟s speech in her utterances were more dominant than the expressions of women‟s speech. From the total 67chosen utterances, the most expressions shown were men‟s speech features with the total 53 utterances.
ABSTRAK
Pereira, Sonia Alexandra. 2015. Angelina Jolie’s Speech Style in Mr. and Mrs. Smith Movie. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Penelitian ini menganalisa gaya berbicara Angelina Jolie dalam film berjudul Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Film ini dipilih karena dua alasan. Pertama, film ini menyediakan beberapa aspek dan isu yang berhubungan dengan gender dan bahasa. Kedua, pemeran utama, Jane Smith yang dibintangi oleh Angelina Jolie
memiliki cara berbicara yang unik yang membuat peneliti tertarik untuk melakukan penelitian ini. Film Mr. and Mrs. Smith menyediakan beberapa contoh
ciri khas women‟sdan men‟s speechyang diucapkan oleh Angelina Jolie.
Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk menjawab dua pertanyaan, yakni (1) apa saja ciri khas dari women‟s speech dan men‟s speech yang ditemukan dalam pengucapan Angelina Jolie dalam film Mr. and Mrs. Smith dan (2) apa saja faktor yang mempengaruhi gaya berbicara Angelina Jolie dalam film tersebut Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk menemukan ciri khas dari women‟s dan
men‟s speech dalam pengucapan Angelina Jolie dan untuk mendidentifikasi faktor yang mempengaruhi pengucapan Angelina Jolie. Dasar teori untuk menemukan jawaban masalah pertama adalah teori Wood (1993) tentang Men‟s dan Women‟s Speech dan untuk menemukan jawaban masalah kedua peneliti menggunakan teori dari Spolsky (1998) dan Schmidt (2002) tentang The Causes of Differences.
Berdasarkan hasil penelitian, ditemukan bahwa Angelina Jolie menunjukan empat dari enam ciri khas women‟s speech dalam pengucapannya, yakni, attention to the relationship level, conversational maintenance work, responsiveness dan tentativeness. Peneliti juga menemukan Angelina menunjukan seluruh ciri khas men‟s speech dalam pengucapannya yakni status and control, instrumentality, conversational dominance, assertive, abstract dan not highly responsive. Faktor yang mempengaruhi gaya berbicara Angelina dalam film Mr. and Mrs. Smith adalah kekuatan relasi dan situasi sosial. Pada kesimpulannya, gaya berbicara Angelina termaksud dalam men‟s speech karena total ekspresi dari men‟s speech dalam ucapan Angelina lebih dominan dibandingkan ekspresi
women‟s speech.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my greatest gratitude to Almighty God for His
blessing so that I can finish this thesis successfully. I present this thesis for all my
beloved lecturers, family and friends, who help me through this difficult process.
Foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis advisor, Drs.
Barli Bram, M.Ed., Ph.D., who has become a great teacher and supporter as I
struggle with obstacles in the process of finishing this thesis. I really appreciate
his immerse knowledge, his advice, time and patience that become great help in
completing this thesis. I would also like to give my gratitude to all PBI lecturers,
who guide and help me during my study, especially my academic advisor, Yuseva
Ariyani Iswandari, S.Pd., M.Ed., who always helps me and guides me for these
past four years. I really appreciate her help and attention during the learning
process.
I would like to thank my family, especially my father, Fransiscus
Pareira, S. Sos., M. Man., and my mother, Teresa De Jesus, SE., who have
helped me a lot by financing my study, giving me advice and encouragement to
finish this thesis. I also thank my sisters and brothers, Margareth Stevany
Pereira, S. Kes, Carla Ivonia Pereira, João Antonio Meritu Pereira, and Jose
Ronaldo De Jesus Pereira, who always give me courage and accompany me
during the difficult process. I really appreciate all of it.
My special appreciation goes to all my friends, especially Emiliana Arut,
and advice in the process of writing this thesis. I also want to thank Rozalina,
Ana, Rita, Nadya, Arum, Tusita, Priska, Cici, and all my friends from PBI
Batch 2011, whose names I cannot mention one by one here, for all the
experiences and great moments we have had in the last four years.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ... i
APPROVAL PAGES ... ii
STATEMENT OF WORK‟S ORIGINALITY ... iv
PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI ... v
ABSTRACT ... vi
ABSTRAK ... vii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ... viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS ... x
CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION ... 1
A. Research Background ... 1
B. Research Problems ... 4
C. Problem Limitation ... 4
D. Research Objectives ... 5
E. Research Benefits ... 5
F. Definition of Terms ... 6
CHAPTER II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE ... 8
A. Theoretical Description... 8
1. Language and Gender ... 8
a. Women‟s Speech Style ... 12
b. Men‟s Speech Style ... 19
2. Theories and Causes of Differences ... 23
CHAPTER III. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ... 31
A. Research Method ... 31
B. Research Setting ... 32
C. Data Source ... 32
D. Research Instruments and Data Gathering Technique ... 33
E. Data Analyzing Technique ... 35
F. Research Procedure ... 36
CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISSCUSSION ... 38
A. Women‟sand Men‟s Speech Features ... 38
B. Factors That Affect Angelina Jolie‟s Speech Style ... 67
CHAPTER V. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ... 72
A. Conclusions ... 72
B. Recommendations ... 74
REFERENCES ... 75
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Features of Women‟s Speech ... 34
Table 2. Features of Men‟s Speech ... 35
Table 3. Features of Women‟s Speech ... 46
LIST OF FIGURE
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix A: Women‟s Speech Features Uttered by Angelina Jolie ... 78
Appendix B: Men‟s Speech Features Uttered by Angelina Jolie ... 79
Appendix C: The Categories of Power Relation Factor in Angelina Jolie‟s
Utterances ... 82
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
In chapter one, the researcher will present the introduction of the research.
This chapter is divided into six sections, namely the research background, the
research problems, the problem limitation, the research objectives, the research
benefits, and the definition of terms.
A. Research Background
In society, some parents who have a daughter may forbid their daughter
from talking or acting like a boy. They might say something like “that‟s very rude
of you” or “stop talking like that” or “stop it, you‟re talking like boys” to stop
their daughter doing that. The parents will tell their daughter some rules that they
think appropriate to make their daughter behave as a good girl because if they do
not do that, she will be labeled as a tomboy (Maltz & Broker, 1982). This happens
because society has different rules on how to treat men and women. Women are
always seen as people in the second level in society. Society treats men and
women differently. Further, the major difference in the treatment between men
and women can be seen in the working field, where men are always judged as the
capable ones and have more qualification than women. Although men and women
have the same job and same time for working, women always get the lower
payment than men. Women are always seen as someone weak and incapable of
Almost every country has their own language, but even though people live
in the same country, they use different kinds of languages that are divided by
gender. In the modern era, although women and men already have the same
treatment because of gender equality, there are still some differences that cannot
be omitted. In this case, the way men and women use language. There are some
differences in the way men and women talk. Without realizing it, people are
accustomed to use language automatically. That happens because society affects
the way people use language.
The differences of men‟s and women‟s speech are not only in the voice
pitch, lexical items, and grammatical sentences, but also in pragmatic way. This
kind of study is related to sociolinguistics study. Sociolinguistics is a study of
language in its social context. The study of social context in this research means
the study of linguistics variation. In different social contexts, an individual will
speak in different ways or stylistic variation. Moreover, the speaker who differs
from each other in terms of age, gender, social class, ethnic group, for example,
will differ from each other in their speech, even in the same context. The
difference in their speech are usually called social variation (Coates,1997b).
Hall (as cited in Holmes & Mayerhoff, 2003) states that the research about
the differences between men‟s and women‟s languages begins since 1922 by a
sociolinguist, Jespersen. She notes that Jespersen made the first research on language and gender in Caribbean of a small Atlantis. In that place, men and
women use different languages. Language that is used by men is forbidden for
that “Women‟s identity and woman‟s presence in the language are not shown. If
there is a word that is addressed to women, the word will show the low dignity of
women. In English, the word „Bachelor‟ means single male and has positive
connotation rather than „Spinster‟ that means old maid and has negative
connotation.” In society, there are also some social differences between men and
women. The most significant theories of social differences between men and women
are the difference theory and dominance theory. Based on the difference theory, “Men
and women, even those within the same group, live in different or separate cultural
worlds and, as a result, they promote different ways of speaking”(Uchida, 1992). The
theory shows that although men and women belong to the same group, they
experience different cultural worlds that make them speak differently.
There are two reasons why the researcher chooses this movie. First, this
movie provides some aspects and some related issues regarded to gender and
language. This movie provides a typical situation that happens in society
nowadays, where both men and women have the same position. Second, the main
character, Angelina Jolie‟s has a strong character and a unique speech style that
differentiates her with other common women.
People have different ways of speech because many factors, such as
culture, social situation and power relation. One of the factors is society where the
person socializes. Although it looks like speech style is a simple thing and rarely
realized by people, it is actually an interesting topic to be studied because it shows
This movie can be a good media for those who study in English education
and those who want to know more about sociolinguistics issues, language
variation and the influences of gender in the use of language. This thesis can help
English learners expand their knowledge on the linguistic variation between men
and women. This thesis can also be a good material for the lecturers in English
education to teach the issue related to gender and language. For the students that
major in English, this thesis provides some materials related to the sociolinguistics
subject, especially topics related to gender and language, men‟s and women‟s
speech features, and the factors that can affect someone‟s speech style.
B. Research Problems
Considering the points found in the focus of the study and the limitation of
the problem, the problems can be formulated as follows:
1. Which features of women‟s and men‟s speech styles are found in Angelina
Jolie‟s utterances in Mr. and Mrs. Smith Movie?
2. What factors affect Angelina Jolie‟s speech stylein the movie?
C. Problem Limitation
This research is limited to the use of women‟s and men‟s speech styles by
the main character in Mr. and Mrs. Smith movie. The main character in the movie is Mrs. Smith that is played by Angelina Jolie. The research will focus only on
Angelina Jolie‟s utterances because she is the main focus of this research. The
(1993b) about men‟s and women‟s speech. For the second research problem, the
researcher will use Spolsky‟s (1998) and Schmidt‟s (2002) theories. The
methodology used in this research is limited to document analysis. The research is
done by analyzing the movie and the movie‟s transcript.
D. Research Objectives
In accordance with the problems formulation, the objectives of this
research are stated as follows:
1. To find out the features of women‟s and men‟s speech from Angelina
Jolie‟s utterances in Mr. and Mrs. Smith movie.
2. To identify the factors that affect Angelina Jolie‟s speech style in the
movie.
E. Research Benefits
The researcher believes that this research will be useful and beneficial for
several parties as follows:
1. English Learners
Through this research, English learners can learn and be aware of the
differences between women‟s and men‟s speech styles. This research can also
expand English learners‟ knowledge about sociolinguistics issues and
2. English Teachers
The findings of this research can help English teachers, especially those
who teach sociolinguistics subject to provide good materials related to women‟s
and men‟s speech styles. This research is also expected to contribute in the
language study development as a media and additional source in teaching and
learning process in the classroom.
3. Readers
For the readers, this research aims to give a new perspective about the
influence of gender in language uses, especially for those who study in English
department. This research also provides some useful information related to men‟s
and women‟s speech for readers and hopefully it can expand the readers‟
knowledge about sociolinguistics issues.
4. Future Researchers
This research will be a good reference for the future researchers to
conduct a similar research on sociolinguistics area. This research will also give
valuable information related to men‟s and women‟s speech styles.
F. Definition of Terms
In this thesis, there are some terms that will be frequently used by the
researcher, and described as follows:
1. Character
The character is “the person represents in dramatic or narrative work who
qualities expressed in the dialogue and action” (Abrams, 1981). The character in
this research is the qualities and features that make someone different from others.
2. Gender
Femininity and masculinity or one‟s gender identity refers to the degree to
which persons see themselves as masculine or feminine given what it means to be
a man or woman in society (Stets & Burke, 1996). The concept of gender identity
is different from someone being male or female that already decided since
someone was born. There are some features that were made by people in society
to define whether someone is masculine or feminine. In this research, gender is a
term that the researcher uses to differentiate the way men and women act.
3. Speech Style
Speech styles are defined quantitatively with reference to the probability of
the occurrence of selected linguistic variables dependent upon extralinguistic
context and linguistic environment (Auer, 1986, p. 23). According to Auer,
extralinguistic context here is the parameter that can affect the change in the
speaker style, such as setting, region, social class, age, sex, and social networks.
In this research, speech style is one of the language terms that is used to show the
speaker‟s choices regarding to the linguistic features, such as vocabulary, pitch,
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, the researcher will present a discussion of theories in
which the study was developed. There will be two main areas of concern, namely
the theoretical description and the theoretical framework.
A. Theoretical Description
This part is divided into two main topics, namely language and gender and
the theories causes of differences. The first topic covers the men‟s and women‟s
speech features by Lakoff (1975) and Wood (1993b). The second topic covers
some theories related to language and gender and the causes of the differences
between men‟s and women‟s speech.
1. Language and Gender
Language is the system of communication in speech and writing that is
used by people in a particular country or area (Hornby, 2010). Language is
people‟s identity that differentiates one with the other because almost every
country and area has different languages. People are able to know someone‟s
status from the way the person speaks. The language style that is used by someone
can show which social group someone belongs. Some sociolinguists such as
Lakoff (1975), Spender (1985), Coates (1986), Cameron (1995), have made some
researches about the influence of gender and language in society. Most of them
men. According to Jong (1997) and Reik (1954), as cited in Haas (1979) “The
possible cause of that difficulty is that men and women in fact not really be
speaking in the same language.” Women and men actually do not speak in the
same language, therefore, they often have difficulty to understand each other and
sometimes they misunderstand each other. Wood (1993a) also explains that the
studies about gender and communication have been done by many researchers
since decades. In one of the studies that is done by Johnson (as cited in Verderber,
1995) shows that men and women actually have different assumptions in
communication. He states that both men and women live in two different worlds
and that becomes great evidence why both of them have different forms of
communication in the society, such as different strategies and communication
goals. In the other study, Wood (1993b) also considers that feminine‟s and
masculine‟s communicating styles show the clear evidence in the distinction of
the speech communities. The feminine style represents a woman‟s way of
speaking and the masculine style represents man‟s way of speaking.
Tannen (1994) believes that women and men are typically engaged in
distinctive styles of communication with different purposes, rules, and
understandings on how to interpret talk. It means that men and women learn the
language, the rule, and how to interpret language separately, therefore, they have
some difficulties to communicate with each other.
The differences between men and women are also found in the form of
discrimination in society. Women are always considered to be cornered in
gracefully and courteously. If they do not do so, they will be criticized to be a
not-feminine-woman. Although, when they talk gracefully and courteously, they will
also be judged as a weak person and cannot think clearly about serious problems.
Lakoff (as cited in Holmes & Mayerhoff, 2003) states that “Quite is a character
that is need by society from a woman. On the other side, it is normal for man to
angry and act aggressively.” On the contrary, men have never been criticized
when they talk rudely. People in society think that it is a common thing and it is
men‟s nature to be like that.
Adaptation is a hard process for women, because in some fields, they need
to talk like a man that has a lot of benefits than when they talk like a woman.
They will also encounter some risks such as they will be said as an aggressive
woman. “Tracing women‟s political communication from 1920, some have
adopted the masculine speech traditionally appropriate to politics, but have been
considered abrasive and asexual as a result” (Larner, 2009, p. 5). Politics is one of
the fields that acceptable for women, but it is very hard for them to use the
women‟s speech style because it holds no power. Lakoff (as cited in Holmes &
Mayerhoff, 2003) states that women‟s language is a language of powerlessness
because there are some expressions, such as fillers or hedge, super polite forms,
and question tag, that are considered irresolute and reflect women‟s position as
the subordinate in society.
In current situation, men and women have the same status in society.
Women can do the job that is only done by men before and men also can be a
feminine man. As cited in Holmes and Meyerhoff (2003), Cameron (1998) states
that “Men and women are now in competition of the same kind of power, status as
opposed to taking up complementary roles. Although, when they can adapt the
language successfully, they will be seen as arrogant women and unfeminine.”
Cameron‟s statement shows that although women can successfully use men‟s
language and adapt successfully, they will have some risks of being judged as
abrasive and asexual. “Women who successfully adapt to characteristically male
linguistic norms run the risk of being perceive as aggressive and confrontational,
as unfeminine – in other words, there is a class between what is expected of a
person in a high status in the public spheres” (Coates, 1998).
The study that is conducted by McElhinny (as cited in Larner, 2009)
reveals that the female police officer defeminize their language and behavior in
order to reconcile others and themselves to their presence in the police
department. Women need to change the way they speak because they want to
reconcile and they want to be recognized not as a weak woman, but as a partner
that can be relied on.
“Even in the politics, the difference in the way men and women talking not
bring any benefit for women in the politics life. Different from man‟s language,
women‟s language or feminine language are considered too passive in politics”
(Larner, 2009, p. 5). From Larner‟s statement, it can be seen that although women
work in politics field they are still considered to be unimportant just because of
In society, there are some women who prefer using masculine language
rather than feminine language and vice versa. The factor that affects the usage of
the language is the speech community where men and women belong. “What
follows describes gendered speech communities into which most women and men
are socialized” (Woods, 1993b). Wood notes that the way men and women speak
are the result of the community where they belong. In her article, Wood mentions
that there are two kinds of speech communities, namely feminine speech
community that used women‟s speech and masculine speech community that used
men‟s speech.
Larner (2009) states that men‟s speech is competitive, dominating, and
antagonist, on the contrary, women‟s speech is always confined to the private
domain as caregivers, hence, they have developed preferences for establishing
intimacy and maintain unity. In short, Larner emphasizes that woman‟s speech is
more supportive and inclusive. It is different with the masculine rhetoric in the
man‟s speech that reflects their behaviours and predominates. Based on Larner
(2009), masculine rhetoric is an assertive and informative way of speech. Larner
also states that feminine speech acts conversely, that reflects women‟s behaviour,
such as cooperative and sensitive.
a. Women’s Speech Style
The research about women and language has been done over the years.
Many researchers show the features of language which are uttered by women are
different from men. The most well-known research on women and language is the
contained of ten features. Lakoff believes that women frequently use these ten
features when they speak.
1. Women Language
Women language is a term that first mentioned by Lakoff to show the
features of women‟s speech pattern and vocabulary use. Lakoff (1975) argues that
women language reflects the powerless of women. Women tend to speak politely
since they are status-conscious. Standard speech is the common feature used since
they believe that the way they speak shows their social status in society. Lakoff
provides a list of ten linguistic features which characterize women‟s speech, as
follows:
The first feature is lexical hedges. This feature contains of some words
that can weaken the speaker‟s statement. The function of the hedge is to mitigate
the possible unfriendliness, unkindness, or uncertainty from the speaker‟s
statement. The examples of this feature are sort of, kind of, I guess, I wonder, you know, maybe, and probably.
The second feature is tag question or question tag. Tag question is a
grammatical in which a declarative statement or an imperative is turned into a
question by adding an interrogative fragment or the tag to request confirmation or
disconfirmation of the statement from the addressee. This feature is used to show
that they do not have confidence in their utterances and they want an approval.
The examples of this feature are, did I?, can’t you, and isn’t it?
The third feature is rising intonation on declarative. Lakoff states that
uncertainty. The purpose of the rising intonation at the end of the sentence is to
demand an answer. The example of rising intonation is Dinner’s in half an hour?
The fourth feature is empty adjective. The empty adjective is used to
express approbation in terms of one‟s own personal reaction. The function is to
show the speaker‟s approbation or admiration of something in her own way. The
examples of this feature are charming, sweet, and adorable.
The fifth feature is intensifiers. The intensifier is the expression that is
used to emphasize the words that are uttered by the speaker. The function is to
strengthen an assertion which shows women‟s feeling about something as they do
not know how strong the feeling is. For example: extremely and totally.
The sixth feature is hypercorrect grammar. Women tend to speak using
prestige grammar and clear articulation. The function is they are supposed to be
polite as they are considered having sub-ordinate status in society. For example,
women avoid using ‘ain’t’ or double negatives in their conversation.
The seventh feature is super polite forms. Women tend to use super polite
expression when asking someone to do something. The expressions that are
usually used in the dialogue, such as please, could you, and would you mind. The eighth feature is avoidance of strong swear words. Women tend to
avoid using strong swear words in their utterances and substitute the coarse
expression with more polite expression. The examples of this feature are Oh my
God, Jesus Christ, and Holy mother of God.
The ninth feature is emphatic stress. Women usually strengthen their
emphasize one‟s judgment on something. A woman who is concerned with other‟s
feelings usually uses the emphatic stress expression to show the positive
politeness to the addressee. For example: so, very, and quite.
The tenth feature is precise color terms. Women usually use some specific
color terms when they talk. They become more detailed when it comes to color.
They have their own vocabulary to clarify the color names. For example:
Magenta, Aquamarine, and Lavender.
According to Trudgill (as cited in Coates, 1998) “Women use prestige
variants more often than men because they are status conscious.” This happens
because once, they have lower status than men, therefore, to raise their class in
society they use some features of language which is known as women language.
While men, on the other hand, are judged by what they do, therefore, that they are
not under pressure to use the prestige variant.
2. Women’s Speech
The women‟s speech theory by Wood (1993b) has a different point of
view from Lakoff‟s theory. Wood studies at the way women speak, but not from
the choice of words or the typical words like Lakoff‟s theory, but more to
women‟s attitude and women‟s purpose when they talk. There are six features of
women‟s speech, based on Wood‟s theory, namely:
A. Equality
Aries (as cited in Wood, 1993b) believes that in women‟s communication,
equality between people is generally important. Women‟s speech is more flexible
sequence. Typical expression to communicate equality would be something, such
as “I‟ve done the same thing many times,” “I‟ve felt the same way,” and
“Something like that happened to me too and I felt like you do.” Based on Hall
and Langellier (as cited in Wood, 1993b), growing out of the quest for equality is
a participatory mode of interaction in which communicators respond to and build
on each other‟s ideas in the process of conversing. The speakers have the same
opportunity to give their opinion and share their feelings.
B. Showing Support
Women often express their understanding and sympathy with a friend‟s
feelings to demonstrate and show support to each other. There are some
communicative clues to show that women understand and support the speaker,
such as “Oh, you must feel terrible,” “I really hear what you are saying,” and “I
think you did the right thing.”
C. Attention to the Relationship Level
Beck and Tannen (as cited in Wood, 1993) believe that in conversations
between women, it is natural to hear a number of questions that probe for greater
understanding of feelings and perceptions surrounding the subject of talk. It can
be seen that the relationship level of the talk focuses on feelings and the
relationship between communicators rather than on the content of messages. The
content of the talk deals with some expressions to understand the speaker‟s
perspective, but usually not without serious attention to the feelings involved. The
probes that usually used by the listener are “Tell me more about what happened,”
D. Conversational Maintenance Work
This involves efforts to sustain conversation by inviting others to speak
and by prompting them to elaborate their experiences. Women, for instance, ask a
number of questions that initiate topics for others, such as “How was your day?”
“Tell me about your meeting,” and “Did anything interesting happen on your
trip?” Those kinds of utterances above open the door for others to speak and to
maintain interaction between the speakers.
E. Responsiveness
Women usually respond in some ways to what others say. A woman
might say “Tell me more,” “That‟s interesting,” sometimes, she will only nod and
use eye contact to signal the addressee that she is engaged in the conversation, or
perhaps she will ask a question. Responsiveness reflects the tendencies to care
about others and to make them feel valued and included (Lakoff, 1975). It also
affirms another person and encourages elaboration by showing interest in what
was said. This kind of responsiveness is shown by women in aim to keep the
speaker continue the story.
F. Tentativeness
This may be expressed in a number of forms. Sometimes, women use
verbal hedges such as “I kind of feel you may be overreacting.” In other
situations, they qualify statements by saying “I‟m probably not the best judge of
this, but…” Another way to keep talk provisional is to use a question tag
it?” “This necklace looks awesome, isn‟t it?” Tentative communication opens the
door for others to respond and to express their opinions.
There has been controversy about tentativeness in women‟s speech. Lakoff
(1975) is the first one to note that women use more hedges, qualifiers, and tag
questions than men, claims that these expressions represent lack of confidence and
uncertainty. Calling women language as powerless language, Lakoff also states
that the women language reflects women‟s socialization into subordinate roles and
low self-esteem. As cited in Wood (1995), since Lakoff‟s work, other scholars,
such as Bate (1988), Wood and Lenze (1991) have suggested different
explanations of women‟s tentative style of speaking. Spender (as cited in Wood,
1995), in particular, points out Lakoff‟s judgment of the inferiority of women
language is based on using men language as the standard, which does not
recognize the distinctive validity of different speech communities. Rather than
look at the powerlessness of women‟s speech, some features in women‟s speech,
such as the use of hedges, qualifiers, and tag question may express women‟s
desire to keep the conversation open and include others. It is much easier to jump
into a conversation that has not been sealed with absolute and firm statements. A
tentative style of speaking supports women‟s general desire to create equality and
include others. It is important that people outside of women‟s speech community
may have different interpretations of women‟s intentions in using tentative
communication.
Sociolinguists have characterized female‟s language as emotional,
inclusive pronouns, such as „we’ and ‘us’, to invite addressees into conversations.
Women tend to use minimal responses such as „mmhmm‟ and „uh-huh‟ to show
support and attentiveness, use suggestions such as „let’s‟, to maintain respect, to
weaken their statements and modal verbs such as „may’ and ‘could’ to maintain
equality and receive approval. From the features above, it can be seen that women
aim to understand other feelings when communicates. The objectives of
communicate for them are to share and to understand each other feeling.
b. Men’s Speech Style
The differences between women and men when interact with each other
may be the result of different socialization and acculturation patterns. Speech
pattern can be learned by analysing and researching on groups talk. The ways
people communicate are different to be sex-specific. The miscommunication
which occurs between women and men may well attributable to the different
expectations each sex has the function of the interaction, and the ways it is
appropriately conducted. Men have different features compare to women. “In
many ways, the masculine style of speech is directly opposite from the feminine
style. Men seem to avoid self-disclosure, and prefer to talk about more impersonal
topics such as current affairs, travel, or sport” (Coates, 1997, p. 119). Coates also
says that the topic when women and men talk is very different.
Women are usually better at expressing their feelings through words.
Klerk (as cited in Coates, 1987, p. 108) states that “Men are prone to use stronger
expletives, such as damn, shit, or worse, than women‟s oh dear, or goodness.”
prefer to use softer expletives, such as, „God,‟ „Goodness,‟ „dear,‟ and „Jesus.‟
However, nowadays these particular differences are rapidly disappearing. Coates
(1987) believes that the way women talk is starting to change.
Men‟s speech style is different from women‟s speech style. The men‟s
speech style tends to avoid self-disclosure. Men tend to avoid talking about
feeling or story that related to other feelings. They prefer to talk about an
impersonal topic such as sport, news, or something that based on the facts. There
are some features of men‟s speech according to Haas (1979), such as the frequent
use of slang, the use of profanity and obscenity, the use language are to lecture, to
argue, to debate, to assert and to command, the use of nonstandard form, directive,
and coarse.
1. Men’s Speech
Besides, women‟s speech, Wood (1993b) also gives some features of
men‟s speech which are spoken by the masculine speech communities. Based on
Wood (1993b), men‟s speech tends to regard talk as a way to exert control,
preserve, independence, entertain, and enhance status. There are some features of
men‟s speech style, such as:
A. Status and Control
Men often speak to exhibit knowledge, skill, or ability to establish their
own status and value. Equally is thetypical tendency to avoid disclosing personal
information that might make a man appears weak or vulnerable. Tannen believes
that the tendency to give advice is a common thing in men‟s speech. Men tend to
2009, p. 4). Men tend to use language to show their power. They usually talk
assertively to show their authoritative. Men are the one that usually control the
conversation. Therefore, they might interrupt if the conversation leads to the topic
that they do not like.
B. Instrumentality
Men socialize to do things and to achieve their goals (Bellinger &
Gleason, 1982). In conversation, this is often expressed through problem-solving
efforts that focus on getting information, discovering facts, and suggesting
solutions. Men tend to talk with some facts and do not include any feeling into it.
The communication‟s aims are limited to gain and to deliver information.
C. Conversational Dominance
In most circumstances, men tend to talk more and at greater length than
women. Men engaged in other verbal behaviors that sustain conversational
dominance. They may reroute the conversation by using what people said as a
jump-off point for their own topic or they may interrupt. Not only do men seem to
interrupt more than women, but they do so for different reasons. Stewart and her
colleagues (1990, p. 5I) suggest that men use interruptions to control the
conversation by challenging the other speakers. On the other hand, when women
interrupt, it shows that they interest and they want to respond. Men and women
have different aims when interrupting, such as men aim to control the
conversation and want the conversation to go as what they want. Therefore, it will
D. Direct and Assertive
As cited in Haas (1979), compared to women, man‟s language is typically
more forceful, direct, and authoritative (Beck, 1988; Eakins & Eakins, 1978;
Stewart et al., 1990; Tannen, 1990a, 1990b). Tentative speech, such as hedges and
disclaimers are used less frequently by men rather than by women. This is
consistent with gender socialization in which men use speech to assert themselves
and to take and hold positions.
E. More Abstract
Haas (1979) also agrees that men frequently speak in general terms that
are removed from concrete experiences and distanced from personal feeling
(Schaef, 1981; Treichler & Kramarae, 1983). The abstract style of men‟s speech
reflects the general and impersonal context in which they confront in their speech
community. Although, in more personal relationship, the abstract talk creates a
barrier that makes people encounter a difficulty to know other intimately.
F. Less Emotionally Responsive
Men rarely show their emotions when they are asked to. They will respond
as little as possible to hide their feelings. They usually think that showing their
emotions means they are weak and pathetic. Rather than feminine speech patterns,
men‟s speech tends not to be highly responsive or they usually use minimal
response cues. Men, more than women, give what are called “minimal response
cues”, which are verbalizations such as “yeah” or “umhmm”
It is characterized by a one-at-a-time structure. There is a little overlap in
those turns are seen as individually owned” (Coates 1997a, p. 124). Male
friendships do not seem to place a great value on talk. Men concentrate more on
doing things together, such as sports. On the other hand, men generally give
greater value in what is being said, on the exchange of information.
2. Theories and Causes of Differences
This section discusses the theories and the causes of the differences
between men‟s and women‟s speech styles. Besides the main theory that is used
about women who talk using men‟s speech style, the researcher also adds two
theories because they are the main theories in gender and language. There are
some causes of the differences that will be discussed briefly in this section.
a. Theory of Inter Group Relationship and Social Change
There are some theories about why women who talk using the men‟s
language. As cited in Coates (1997b), one of the theories is Henry Tajfel‟s theory,
namely inner-group relationship and social change (1974, 1978, 1981). Based on
this theory, people who accept the inferior status for a group will leave the group
individually and become accepted by the superior group. This occurs from time to
time in business circle or in politics. This theory corresponds with the power and
dominance theory that women are the inferior group in society and men are the
Figure 1. Tajfel’s Theory of Inter Group Relationship and Social Change (Coates, 1997b)
There are two possible strategies for the inferior social group. First, they
can measure themselves against members of their own group. Second, they can try
individually to join the superior group. On the other hand, women who refuse to
accept the inferior status in society will attempt as a group to change this. Tajfel
outlines three ways to do this. First, they will try to gain equality and will adopt
the values of the superior or majority group, this is called assimilation. Second,
they will try to redefine the features which have previously been defined in
negative terms by society. Third, they will try to create new dimensions in
comparison with the superior group, therefore they are defining for themselves
what has positive value. This strategy is done by women to gain equality in
working condition and in legal terms. These kinds of women adopt a strategy and
(lower pitch), use swears and taboo language, adopt a more assertive style in
group interaction, adopt prosodic features more typical of men (e.g. Falls rather
than rising intonation), and address themselves in public to the traditional male
topic, such as business, politics, and economics.
Although, this is a good strategy for women, Coates (1997b) finds out a
problem in this strategy. The problem is women redefine themselves in terms of
men‟s value. This is a flawed strategy because women are going for searching
their own satisfactory identity.
Besides this theory, some researchers agree that there are two main
theories of gender differences in language. Both of the theories reflect the two
views of women‟s status as a group. The first theory is the dominance theory. This
theory claims that the difference in language between men and women is a
consequence of male dominance and female subordination (Lakoff, 1975;
Fishman, 1983). Based on this theory, women are a suppressed minority group in
society which is shown by the way they use language. On the other hand, men are
the superior group and the way they use language shows their power in society.
The second theory is the difference theory (Coates, 1986; Tannen, 1990). This
theory believes that men and women belong to different subcultures and that any
linguistic differences can be attributed to cultural differences.
b. The Causes of Differences
The differences between men‟s and women‟s speech are not complete
cause of difference. There are five causes of the differences in men and women
speech that are taken from different articles and books.
1. Language Styles
Spolsky (1998, p. 31) states that “at the times, we are more careful, and at
times we are more relaxed in our speech or writing, just as at times we are more
careful and more relaxed in other kinds of behavior, like how we dress or eat.”
Spolsky‟s statement relates to the formality as one of the examples of the
language styles. A speaker is usually aware of the addressee‟s status. A person
can choose to speak formally or informally depends on the addressee. It is
important to represent the speaker‟s sense of identity of language style.
2. Register and Domains
Spolsky (1998, p. 33) states that the occupation may affect the speaker in
the term of the new concept. In example, people who work in a particular field,
can develop some terms such as “hacking” and “internet surfing”. The terms may
be difficult to be understood for some people who do not keep up with the internet
revolution. It is also the same with cricket, there are some words such as “sticky
wicket” and “hit for a six” that can only be understood by those who experience
cricket. Spolsky (1998, p. 34) states that there is a typical domain which define
the way people speak in terms of social situation. The two common domains
which are mentioned by Spolsky are work and home.
3. Slang and Solidarity
Spolsky (1998, p. 35) mentions that slang is used as intimacy in a group.
taboo expressions. Slang expressions widely used by young people and they
employ it as a sign of freedom. In speaking, the young people use slang to
emphasize their utterances. Slang‟s social function is as a sign of membership and
solidarity among people who use it. Spolsky (1998, p. 35) states that “by choosing
the form of language associated with a specific group, we are making a claim to
be counted as a member of a group.” From the statement, it can be seen that
solidarity and language are closely related. Group solidarity can be seen from the
way people use the language, such as accent and word choice.
4. Power Relation
Spolsky (1998, p. 39) states that the power relation happens when “a
person‟s speech carries a claim to be more or less powerful than the others.” The
power relation is one of the social factors that affect the way people talk. It is
differentiated into three categories. The categories are H (high) – L (low), L (low)
– H (high), and same or equal or same status. The power relation is determined by
some factors, such as age, gender, and position at work. Schmidt (2002, p. 26)
emphasizes that the differences in language and gender asymmetries with the
power relation.
5. Social Situation
Spolsky (1998, p.34) classifies social situation into three defining features,
namely, place, role-relation, and topic. Spolsky believes that those three social
situations affect the way people talk. The dialogue where the conversation takes
place can make a difference. In example, if the conversation takes place in the
happens in the house the topic must be related to daily experience, foods,
furniture, and family.
B. Theoretical Framework
The differences in women‟s and men‟s speech have been searching all
over the years. Many researchers believe that men and women actually do not
speak with the same language that make them cannot understand each other even
though they speak with the same language (Jong & Reik, 1954). The differences
in men‟s and women‟s speech sometimes create problems for women. Women‟s
speech is considered powerless that show subordinate position in society (Lakoff,
1975). Women have difficulties to find a suitable job for them in society because
of the language that is used. Men and women are said to be in the competition to
gain the same power, status as opposed to taking up complementary roles in the
society. Although, when women able to adapt the language successfully, they will
be seen as arrogant and unfeminine women (Cameron, 1998). In politics field,
women‟s speech is considered too passive and too weak for politics, even though
women who adopted the men‟s speech are considered abrasive and asexual
(Larner, 2009).
The differences in men‟s and women‟s speech have been searched by
many researchers over the years. Lakoff (1975) states that there are ten features of
the powerless language that is used by women, namely lexical hedges or fillers,
tag questions, rising intonation, empty adjective, intensifiers, hypercorrect
and precise color terms. Wood (1993b) also lists six features of women‟s speech,
but different from Lakoff (1975), who search for the features of the women‟s
language, Wood‟s theory explains more on the women‟s attitude and women‟s
aim when they talk. The six features of the women‟s speech are equality, showing
support, attention to the relationship level, conversational maintenance work,
responsiveness, and tentativeness. Besides women‟s speech, Wood (1993b) also
mentions six features of men‟s speech, namely status and control, instrumentally,
conversational dominance, direct and assertive, abstract, and less emotionally
responsive.
Henry Tajfel (as cited in Coates, 1997b) proposes a theory about the
reason why women talk uses the men‟s language, namely inner-group relationship
and social change. Based on the theory, there are two possible strategies for the
inferior social group, which are to accept or to reject the inferior status. This
theory is the theory that has been supported by the two main theory, namely
dominance theory (Lakoff, 1975, Fishman, 1983) and difference theory (Coates,
1986, Tannen, 1994). Both of the theories and Tajfel theory believe that men are
the superior one in the society and women are the inferior one, but Tajfel theory
explained women‟s status in the society further.
The last part covers the factors of the differences between men‟s and
women‟s speech. There are some causes of the differences in men‟s and women‟s
speech. The factors are language styles (Spolsky, 1998), register and domains
(Spolsky, 1998), slang and solidarity (Spolsky, 1998), power relation (Spolsky,
The theories are summarized and used to analyze the research problems.
For the first research question, “Which features of women‟s and men‟s speech
styles are found in Angelina Jolie‟s utterance?” The researcher uses Wood‟s
theory about men‟s and women‟s features rather than Lakoff‟s theory about
women language because Wood studies women‟s and men‟s speech more to the
purpose not only the features in speech style. Wood also provides both men‟s and
women‟s speech features, which is different with Lakoff that only provides the
features of women language.
For the second research question, “What factors affect Angelina Jolie‟s
speech style in Mr. and Mrs. Smith Movie?”, the researcher Spolsky‟s and Schmidt‟s theories to analyze the factors that affect Angelina‟s speech style in the
movie. Spolsky‟s and Schmidt‟s theories were chosen because their theories
explain the social aspects that affect the way someone speak rather than gender
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter is divided into six sections. The sections are the research
method, the research setting, the data source, the research instrument and data
gathering technique, the data analyzing technique, and the research procedure.
A. Research Method
This research is qualitative research in nature because of two reasons.
First, it is because this research focuses on understanding social phenomena.
Qualitative research is intended to approach the world out there and to understand,
describe and sometimes explain the social phenomena from inside a number of
different ways (Ripley & Uwe, 2007). The different ways mentioned in the
definition were related to the technique of analyzing. Second, it is because of the
use of the document or movie transcript that contained the conversation as data
analyzed. According to Ripley and Flick (2007), “analyzing conversation has a
long tradition in the history of qualitative research.” The data of this research were
found in the Mr. and Mrs. Smithmovie‟s script that contained the conversation of the characters. The data were analyzed based on woods (1993b) theories about
men and women‟s speech.
Ary, Jacobs, and Razavieh (2002, p. 442) define document analysis as “a
research method applied to written or visual material for the purpose of
form of scripts, textbooks, advertisement, and any other types of document. In the
same book, Ary, Jacobs, and Razavieh (2002, p. 22) state that document analysis
was applied as the methodology for it “provides narrative description and
interpretation.”
B. Research Setting
The analysis of Mr. and Mrs. Smith movie was started from September 9th, 2014 until April 10th, 2015. Therefore, the researcher spent half a year in
analyzing the script to gather the expressions of women‟s speech and men‟s
speech in the transcript.
C. Data Source
The data of this research was Angelina Jolie‟s utterances in English movie
entitled Mr. and Mrs. Smith that was in the form of movie transcription. The researcher chose the movie because it had two criteria, such as social interaction
between men and women and the supporting social environment that was needed
in analyzing the factors which affected the speech style.
The movie was a romantic-action American movie produced by 20th
Century Fox Production in 2005. The movie was written by Simon Kingberg and
directed by Dough Liman. It was a two-hour duration movie with Mrs. Jane Smith
that was played by Angelina Jolie as the main character.
The reason the researcher chose Jane‟s character was because she had
as an ordinary officer by people around her, including her husband, but actually
she worked as the head of the professional assassin enterprise. Jane‟s character
shows the men‟s speech style that was used by most of the opposite gender in the
society. She also performed a unique speech style that made the researcher
interested in doing the research.
D. Research Instruments and Data Gathering Technique
There were two instruments used in this research, namely human
instrument and document. The first instrument was the human instrument which
acted as the main instrument in obtaining the data. “The human instrument has the
unique capability of summarizing data on the spot and feeding it back to an
informant for clarification, correction, and amplification” (Lincoln & Guba, 1985,
p. 194). Lincoln and Guba state that human instrument is the main instrument in
gathering the data from the documents.
The second instrument was the document that can help the researcher in
doing the research, such as source books. In order to accomplish the research
questions, the researcher made an observation on the script. After that, the data
found would be presented in the analysis. Ary, Jacobs, and Razavieh (2002)
mention that the documents can be a personal document, such as diaries, files, or
books. The researcher employed the script to collect the data from the character‟s
utterances. The movie‟s transcript consisted of 121 pages and was taken from
http://awesomefilm.com/script/mr_and_mrs_smith. pdf. The script that was found
