Women’s Language Used by Female Characters in the Movie How To Be Single

This undergraduate thesis entitled Women’s Language Used by Female Characters in The Movie How To Be Single. It is aimed at identifying the language features applied by female characters and finding out the functions of each type of women’s linguistic features. This paper used the theory of women’s linguistic features proposed by Robin Lakoff (1975). The data source in this study is the movie How To Be Single. The collected data were identified and selected, then the features of women’s language used by the female characters in the movie How To Be Single were analyzed based on Lakoff (1975). The method applied in collecting data was the documentation method. Afterwards, the method of analyzing data in this study was the descriptive qualitative method. This study applied informal method in presenting the data analysis. The findings of the analysis showed that there were nine kinds of women’s linguistic features found in the movie How To Be Single. There were also some functions of women’s linguistic features found in the data. The functions of each type of the features are closely related to the context in which it is used. Each type of women’s linguistic features found in the movie displays has different functions and reasons.


Background of the Study
Language is the most important means of communication for human beings. Many definitions of language have been proposed. According to Henry Sweet (1988), language is the expression of ideas by means of speech-sounds combined into words. The difference in language use between men and women brings influence on their language in use. Between men and women, both have their own typically style of speaking. Hornby (1995) claimed many societies have negative stereotypes related to women and language. Moreover, Oxford Advance Learner's Dictionary defines woman as adult female of human being. The term "woman" is usually for an adult female, whereas "man" is an adult male human being or male person with the qualities of strength, courage and others. Holmes (1992: 33) stated that female are more linguistically polite than male and both male and female emphasize different speech functions. She said that female used standard form of prestigious form, while male used vernacular form, which does not have social status and not citied as the correct form.
Many sociolinguists suggest that men and women speak differently in any community. Women have their own characteristics which men do not have. Physical appearances and voice qualities are the two things which differentiate men from women which can be seen clearly.Women language is very interesting subject to be studied as related to the variation of gender as the main parameter in the language use. This study analyzed the women's linguistic features and their functions as represented by women's characters in the movie How To Be Single. It is an interesting movie because it contains many teachable and valuable messages such as women's friendship and education.

Problem of the Study
According to the background above, the problems of this study are : a. What kinds of women's linguistic features are found in the movie How To Be Single ? b. What are the functions of those women's linguistic features found in How To Be Single movie?

Aims of the Study
The aims of the study are classified into two parts: a. To identify the kinds of women's linguistic features used in the movie How To Be Single . b. To find out the women's language functions in the movie How To Be Single.

Research Method
The data source in this study was taken from the movie How To Be Single . The main data of this study were the utterances of the female characters in the movie How To Be Single.
The method applied in collecting data was the documentation method. There were some steps to collect data in this study: first, watching and observing every utterance in the movie How To Be Single. Second, listening to and comparing between the subtitle and the conversations in the movie How To Be Single to make the data more effective. Lastly, twenty six data were selected from the utterances produced by female characters based on the theory of women's language proposed by Lakoff (1975).
The method of analyzing data in this study was the descriptive qualitative method. This study analyzed twenty six data of women's linguistic features and functions used in the conversations in the movie How To Be Single. The data were analyzed based on the theory of women's linguistic features proposed by Lakoff DOI: 10.24843/JH.2018.v22.i04.p17 ISSN: 2302-920X Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud Vol 22.4 Nopember 2018: 956-960 (1975. There were some techniques in analyzing the data in this study, first the data were identified and selected, the features of women's language spoken by the female characters in the movie How To Be Single movie were analyzed and the last step was analyzing the function of women's linguistic features proposed by Lakoff (1975). This study applied informal method in presenting the data, which presents the result of analysis using words and it is intended to make the readers more understand the topic.

Lexical Hedges or Fillers
Data ( The hedge well in Meg utterance is used to express her uncertainty that she is not sure how many babies have been delivered. The function of hedge well in Meg utterance is used to show her uncertainty or cannot vouch for the accuracy of the statement.

Tag Question
Data (7) Tom : What are you really doing online? I mean, you're a pretty girl. This is New The function of tag question in Lucy utterance is used to show uncertainty about her utterance as well as to seek for confirmation. This utterance is less assertive than a statement, but more confident than question, it can be categorized as a tag question. Robin used rising intonation really? in her utterance to show that she was surprised when she saw Meg set on the sofa with a cup of coffee. The function of rising intonation in Robin utterance is used to seek for confirmation. Alice used hypercorrect grammar really in her utterance when she talked with Josh. Alice spent so much time waiting for Josh, but suddenly Josh told her that he would get married with someone else. The function of hypercorrect grammar in Alice utterance was to show her politeness.

Super polite Form
Data (17) Meg : Who told you that? Alice: The slider guy. Please blink, so I know you're in there.

Meg : I'm sorry. I just have blood pumping through my body in an uncomfortable way and it feels like it's all accumulating right here.
Meg uttered I'm sorry in her utterance because she felt uncomfortable with her stomach. She uttered sorry to apologize in a polite way because she didn't give any response directly. The function of super polite form in data (17) above was to apologize in a polite way.

Intensive Adverbs
Data (21) Alice : Well, okay, technically, I'm not, like, single. We're just on a break. Robin: Uh, there's no such thing as a "break," Season-3 Ross. Alice : No, we really are on a break. We're just taking a little bit of time apart to make sure we really want to be together.
In that situation Alice gave the reason that she was not single and she just wanted a little time to take a break in her relationship with Josh. The function of the intensifier just in Alice's utterance was to strengthen her assertion in her statement so that she could be trusted by Robin.

Avoidance of Strong Swear
Words Data (24) Meg : I found a sperm donor. This guy. He's of Swedish descent. Alice : Oh, my God.

Meg
: He has no known cancers on either side of his family, no history of drug abuse, no history of any kind of mental illness, or...

Alice : Oh, my God.
Meg : I know.
Alice : Oh, my God.
Alice used avoidance of strong swear words oh my God in her utterance. It could be seen that her utterance functions to show how strongly they were allowed themselves to feel about something. Alice used the emphatic stress amazing in her utterance. She was surprised when David takes her to see the Rockefeller trees from the top of his apartment. Alice used the emphatic stress amazing in her utterance to make the word sound in a great extent that she was really surprised.

Conclusion
The discussion focuses on two problems mentioned in the previous chapter such as language features and DOI: 10.24843/JH.2018.v22.i04.p17 ISSN: 2302-920X Jurnal Humanis, Fakultas Ilmu Budaya Unud Vol 22.4 Nopember 2018 960 their functions applied by women. Based on the analysis and discussion, there are some points presented as the conclusions of the study. First, there are nine features of women's linguistic features found in the movie How To Be Single movie. Second, there are some functions of women's linguistic features found in the data. Functions of each type of the features are closely related to the context to which it is used. Each type of women's linguistic features found in the movie displays has different functions and reasons. In general, the finding of the analysis of functions is intended to be polite and avoid strong expressions. Among ten linguistic features proposed by Lakoff (1975), only one feature precious was not found in the data.