LETS
Journal of Linguistics and English Teaching Studies
ISSN (print) : 2715-4408
ISSN (online) : 2715-4416
Homepage : stainmajene.id/index.php/lets
Gender and Language in Benteng Panynyua English Club
Masita1, Rabiatul Adawiah2, Devi Triani3
UIN Alauddin1, Sekolah Tinggi Agama Islam Negeri Majene2,3
[email protected], rabiatuladawiah@stainmajene2,
[email protected]
Abstract
Man and women are created with much different, especially using language in communication. They have
different features in using language although they use same language. It is influenced by differences in
gender, characteristic, and thought. In reality many people still do not understand that man and woman have
differences in speech. This motivates researchers to find out how the language used differently between
man and woman. This research used qualitative design as methodology. This study was conducted in BPEC
(Banteng Pannyua English Club), located in Rotterdam fort, South Sulawesi. The participants involved 8
women and 8 men with an intermediate level of English. This study also collected by using Lakoff’s theories
related to linguistics features of language based on the gender issue. The researcher found 50 data from the
analysis. The result of this study showed man and women have six different types of speech feature in
communication. They are Tag Question, Rising Intonation, Lexical Hedge, Intensifier, Emphatic Stress, and
Super Polite Form. From this data it can be concluded that man and women have different features in using
language.
Keywords : Male, Famele, Speech, Communication, Languange.
1. Introduction
God creates man and woman with different gender which mean having different
roles and characters in their social life including language use. Many studies about
language and gender emphasize reciting the effect of gender in the use of language. Most
researchers revealed the different characters between men and women in using language
portrayed in real life or literary works (Spiker, 2012). One of them is the difference in ability
in communication, such as the general features in using language. In sociolinguistic, the
discussion about the different speech between man and woman is still interesting to
discuss although, the works that make some kind of theory about the condition have
sprung.
Some specific terms and ways of speech from man and woman have been found
differently. Men and women do not all use different words. The difference is just in using
the reference of linguistics. The relation between language and gender which usually hear
right now, woman and man speech is used as a symbol generally about the behavior of
man and woman speech. In the different social context, an individual will speak in different
ways (Karlsson, 2017).
Moreover, Linguists claimed that females are more linguistically polite than males,
and females emphasize different speech functions. It is found that males and females
often use different linguistic forms and address terms in speaking English even in the
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93
same speech community. The use of the standard might be seen as yet another reflection
of women’s powerlessness in the public sphere (Holmes, 2013).
Many factors can influence the different styles of communication like what Coates
et all in Karlsson (2007) says: the factors that influence affect the differences such as
social factors, the situation of context, physiological factors, psychological factors and type
of discourse. Women tend to have unique features in their language compared to men.
Recently, many sociolinguistics found that men and women have different ways of
speaking. They have different features although they speak the same language. Women
as a social group have their language characteristics whether in spoken or written
language. It can be in the form of vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, etc(Karlsson 2007).
Labotka (2003) said that women are systematically taught to speak with specific
language features, and those language features are associated with a lack of power.
Language shows the social condition of being man and woman rather than their gender
identity. Lakoff (1975) stated that men and women are different in the speech function.
She maintains that woman is forced to learn a weak, trivial and differential style as a
reflection of their powerlessness and man's power of them. The researcher considers
following these theories because they can cover man's and woman's language
phenomena with the way women speak in their society completely and specifically.
Moreover, this theory is also used to investigate men and women in the community
(Holmes & Meyerhoff, 2003) .
This research aims at investigating how the language used differently between men
and women in BPEC at Fort Rotterdam and related to the types of features by Lakoff
theories. One way to see the differences between man and woman speech is to join in the
community which supports the researcher to do research based on what she has
mentioned above and the researcher thinks that BPEC at Fort Rotterdam is a great
medium to research because it is suitable with the participants of the research, where all
people come there to improve their ability in speaking English and sharing about their
ideas.
The researcher is interested in analyzing the speech features because many
people do not understand that men and women have differences in speech. They appear
different by their physical and gesture clearly but in speech, they have differences that
some people do not release so that the researcher wants to share and show to others that
men and women have many differences in the speech by doing this analysis in a
discussion. This research is provided to answer the following questions: 1) What are the
types of speech features found in “BPEC at Fort Rotterdam”? and 2) How do the men and
women use speech features in “BPEC at Fort Rotterdam”?
Theoretically, the research is expected to contribute to a Sociolinguistics lecturer as
a source and empirical data in teaching about men and women's language. They can use
this study as an example of how language is used in the community. Practically, It is
hoped that this research becomes a reference for linguistics students to learn more about
men's and women's language. This study also gives a contribution and foundation to the
next researchers who are interested in man and woman's language in various contexts.
Related researches have been conducted. Firstly, Wiprayanti (2013) in her
research about women's language used by male and female in film, music, and lyric used
theory by Coates and analyzed the film by descriptive quantitative. In her analysis, she
found nine women's speech that used the first female character and women but, the kinds
of women's speech most used by men, not women. It caused by some factors such as
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94
social status, subordinate groups, prestige and (...truncated)
