gender, politeness, and stereotypes

Is woman’s language a distinct

style or register of a language?

Are woman more polite than woman?

Are there any differences in the

way woman and man interact?

How is language used to refer to

woman and man?

What message does the language used

about woman convey about their

status in the community?

Social dialect research focused on

differences between women’s

and men’s speech in the areas of

pronounciation.

- Uncertainty

- Lack of Convidence

- Close the door

- That’s an adorable dog

- Oh dear, the TV set’s broken

- I’ll be damned there’s a friend of mine!

- I was very tired

- I was so mad

- My goodness, there’s Pak Yanto Sudiman

• Lexical hedges or filler

- you know, sort of, well, you see

• Tag question

- she’s very nice, isn’t she?

• Rising intonation on declaratives

- it’s really good?

• Intensifiers such as just and so

- I love him so much

• Superpolite’ form

- indirect request

The speed at which an object falls

There are two language features used by

woman :

• Hedging devices

- signal lack of cinfidence

• Boosting devices

- signal persuade their addresee to take

them seriously

Features of “Woman Language”

USING TAG QUESTIONS

• EXPRESS

- Uncertainty

- Doubt

• FUCKTION

- Facilitative or positive politeness devices

- Soften directive or criticism

Lakoff’s Linguistic Features as Politeness

Devices

Function of Tag Question Women Men

Expressing uncertainty 35 % 61 %

Facilitative 59 % 26 %

Softening 6 % 13 %

TOTAL 100 % 100 %

Tag Question Function by Function and

Sex of Speakers

• Women use more politeness devices then

the men

- Men to men : fewer politeness

- Men to women : more politeness

• Social Role or Status

Different Pattern of Language

- Statusful women

- Title man

Politeness

• Interrupting Behavior

Based on research, women got

interrupted more than men

• Conversational Feedback

According to American studies,

women do the more positive

feedback to the convensational

partner better than men do.

INTERACTION

Women Gossiping:

- Usually consist of experiences, problems,

feeling

- Avoid criticizing people in order not to make

atmosphere becomes disconfort.

Men Gossiping:

- Tend to argue about certain topics, criticized

each other and sometimes make the

conversational partner feels down.

Gossip

Thank you..