CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A. Theoretical Framework

1. Sociolinguistics

The word sociolinguistics derivied from two basic elements, socio and

linguistics. It means that sociolinguistics Study the relationship between language and

society. There are two reason why we studying sociolinguistic; the first, explaining

why we speak differently in different social contexts. The second, identifying the

social functions of language and the ways it is used to convey social meaning. The

language used by the participants is influenced by a number of social factors.

Language and society → intertwined → impossible to understand one without the

other.

According to Romaine (2000) that sociolinguistic patterns established by

quantitative research on urban social dialects was that women, regardless of other

social characteristics such as class, or age, use more standard forms of language than

men. Although many reasons, such as women’s alleged greater status consciousness

and concern for politeness, have been put forward to try to explain these results, they

have never been satisfactorily accounted for. Sociolinguistics actually is not discussed

about structure of a language, but it focuses on how a language is used, so it could

play its function well. So from this statement we can get a description that people also

face language conflicts before sociolinguistics appears. So it is clear now that the role

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of sociolinguistics is to manage a language as its functions in society, or in other

words sociolinguistics deals with a language as a means of communication.

Sociolinguistics analyzes the language and language use and its relationship

toward social and cultural aspects. That is why we have to understand the role of a

language in social interaction. It is clear now that socioliguisticsis a branch of

linguistics that take language and the relationship with society as the object of study.

Romaine (2000) explained that sociolinguistics is a study of relationship

between language and society, it examines the way people use language in different

social context and people signal aspects of their social identity. Holmes (2001) added

that the way people talk is influenced by the social context in which they are talking.

It matters who can hear us and where we are talking, as well as how we are feeling.

The same message may be expressed very differently to different people. We use

different styles in different context. Sociolinguistic study concerns about language

and the context in which it is used, solidarity between speaker and hearer, and

people’s relative social status.

2. Conversational Style

Style is the result of automatic linguistic and paralinguistic cues that seem self

evident and natural, based on previous interaction in a speech community (Gum perz)

which has conventionalized their use. Although "style" is thus automatic, we may

nonetheless seek to understand the broad strategies motivating stylistic choice.

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Tannen (2005) who is mainly interested in how daily conversational styles

affect our relationships to the others. It has a value of taking interests of scholars,

students and anyone who is interested in how the microanalysis of a group of peoples

whose daily conversation may have a role in comprehending and analyzing cross-

cultural communication and discourse. By referring to the feeling of one’s having the

need to be independent and not to be isolated from people and the society as well. In

conversation include of dialogue between listener and speaker.

Tannen describes the notion of conversational style as “a semantic process”

and “the way meaning is encoded in and derived from speech”. According to Tannen,

some features of conversational style are topic (which includes type of topics and

how transitions occur), genre (storytelling style), pace (which includes rate of speech,

occurrence lack of pauses, and overlap), expressive paralinguistics (pitch and other

changes in voice quality).

Yule (1996) said that when a speaker who typically uses the first style gets

into a conversational with a speaker who normally uses the second style, the talk

tends to become one-sided. the active participant style will tend to overwhelm the

other style. Neither speaker will necessarily recognize that it is the conversational

style that is slightly different. There are two characteristics of conversational style,

first conversational style that focuses on users, second conversational style that

focuses in uses.
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3. Culture and Language

The instrinsic relationship of language and culture is widely recognized, but

the ways in which the pattering of communicative behavior and that of other cultural

systems interelate is of interest both to the development of general theories of

communication, and to the description and analysis of communication within specific

speech communities. Virtually any ethnographic model must take language into

account, although many relegate it to a separate section and do not adequately

consider its extensive role in society. The very concept of the evolution of culture is

dependent on the capacity of humans to use language for purposes of organizing

social cooperation.

There are still questions regarding the extent to which language is shaping and

controlling the thinking of its speakers by the perceptual requirements it makes of

them, or the extent to which it is merely reflecting their world view, and whether the

relationship (whatever it is) is universal or language-specific. There is no doubt,

however, that there is a correlation between the form and content of a language and

the beliefs, values, and needs present in the culture of its speakers. The vocabulary of

a language provides us with a catalogue of things of import to the society, an index to

the of past contacts and cultural borrowings; the grammar may reveal the way time

segmented and organized, beliefs about animacy and the relative power of beings,

and salient social categories in the culture.

Hymes suggest a second type of linguistic relativity which sees in grammar

evidance not only of static social categories, but also of the speakers’ social
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assumptions about the dynamics of role-relationships, and about what rights and

responsibilities are perceived in society. While the first type of linguistic relativity

claims that cultural reality in part results from linguistics factors. Hymes contends:

“ people who enact different cultures do to some extent experiences distinct

communicative systems, not merely the same natural communicative condition with

different customs affixed. Cultural values and beliefs are in part constitutive of

linguistic relativity.”

Although language is unquestinably an integral part of culture, to assume

specific cultural experiences and rules of behavior as invarible coordinates of specific

linguistic skills is a naive oversimplification of the relationship of language and

culture. The issue of their relationship is one which pervades the whole of the

ethnography of communication (Troike, 1986).

4. Gender

The differences about man and women always become an interesting topic for

people from many areas since long time ago until now. ‘The force of gender

categories in society makes it impossible for us to move through our lives in a no

gendered way and impossible not to behave in a way that brings out gendered

behavior in others.’ Gender is a key component of identity. According to the

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Gender is cultural

and is the term to use when referring to women and men as social groups. Sex is

biological; use it when the biological distinction is predominant.

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Gender is socially constructed definition of women and men. It is the social

design of a biological sex, determined by the conception of tasks, functions and roles

attributed to women and men in society and in public and private life. It is a culture-

specific definition of feminist and masculinity and therefore varies in time and space.

The construction and reproduction of gender takes place at the individual as well as at

the societal level. Both are equally important. Individual human beings shape gender

roles and norms through their activities and reproduce them by conforming to

expectations.

Gender is embedded of thoroughly in our institutions, actions, beliefs and our

desires, that is appears to us to be completely natural, Eckert (2003). Gender is a

social concept that distinguishes the roles of men and women in various activities of

life. Gender allows women or men to do something strongly. Unconsciously,

everything we act, believe, desire are the natural behaviour that appears as the

identity who we are (men or women).

It has been generally assumed that gender is the same with sex. Actually,

gender is different from sex. Sex is given since people were born, while gender is

something which is culturally constructed by society. Wood (2009:20) stated that

although, many people use the terms gender and sex interchangeably, they have

distinct meaning. Sex is designation based on biology, whereas gender is socially

constructed and expressed.

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In most cases, sex and gender go together; most men primarily show the

gendered characteristic of male in their communication, and most women do. In some

cases, however, a man expresses their idea in communication with gendered

characteristics of female, and vice versa. Wood (2009:23) said that biology influences

how we develop, but it doesn’t absolutely determine behavior, personality and so on.

Wood’s statements of sex and gender above are also supported by Holmes. In

accordance with Holmes (1992:150), Sex has come to refer to categories

distinguished by biological characteristics, while gender is more appropriate for

distinguishing people on the basis of their socio cultural behavior, including speech.

Further explanation both of sex and gender will be elaborated below:

Eckert and Ginet (2003:10) stated that sex is a biological categorization based

primarily on reproductive potential, whereas gender is the social elaboration of

biological sex. Sex is based in a combination of anatomical, endocrinal and

chromosomal features. The statement above means that sex is biological

characteristics which have given naturally since people were born. Sex is something

which differs male and female physically and biologically.

According to West and Zimmerman in Eckert (2003:10), gender is not

something inherent when someone was born with, and not something which someone

has, but something which someone does. It means that gender is behavioral

characteristics. People show their gendered characteristics through something which

they do or act, such as the way they interact or communicate with other people.
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Wood (2009:23) stated that gender is a considerably more complex concept

than sex. Gender is neither innate nor necessarily stable. It is defined by society and

expressed by individuals as they interact with others in their society. Gender is a

social, symbolic construct that varies across culture, over time within a given culture,

over the course of individual’s life spans, and in relation to the other gender. It is a

social construction as the means by which society jointly accomplishes the

differentiation that constitutes the gender order. Since gender is defined and

constructed by society, gender is learned. From infancy on, people are encouraged to

learn how to embody the gender that society prescribes for them. For examples: in

interaction with other people, women are more polite than men. Then, men are more

strictly to the point in delivering their idea while they interact with their

communication partner.

But, although individuals learn gender and embody it, gender is not strictly

personal. Eckert and Ginet (2003:10) said that gendered performances are available to

everyone. In Language and Gender, Eckert and Ginet (2003:30) have explained that

Gender development does not end with childhood or adolescence. Gender continues

to be transformed as we move into the market place, as we learn to act like

secretaries, lawyers, managers, janitors. And it continues to be transformed as our

family argument changes, as we learn to be wives and husbands, mothers and fathers,

aunts and uncles, sisters and brothers, grandmothers and grandfathers. As someone

ages, he / she continues to learn new ways of being men and women: what’s expected
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from the teenager is rather different from expectations for a woman in her mid-forties

and those expectations differ from those for a woman approaching eighty. From their

explanation, it can be concluded that gendered can be developed, it is developed since

someone was born and it will be transformed by following their development.

Eckert and Ginet (2003:30) stated that learning to be male or female involves

learning to look and act in particular ways, learning to participate in particular ways

in relationships and communities, learning to see the world from a particular

perspectives. Gender is by no means the only aspect of social identity that one learns

in this developmental story. Gender interacts with other hierarchies based in such

socially constructed categories as class, age, ethnicity, and race. From this statement,

it is clear that gender is learned. Because gender involves a restriction of choice,

severe constraints on behaviour for all, as well as asymmetric, it must be not just

learned but taught, and enforced.

Gender is not an individual matter at all, but collaborative affair that connects

the individual to the social order. As Eckert and Ginet (2003:31) have noted that

children learn gender initially by having other people do gender for them, and

eventually take over the responsibility for their own performances and supporting the

performances of others. Gender is not something which someone has, but something

that someone does. As they get older, they get better at masking the raw

performances they are engaging in, but more importantly, their gendered

performances also become second nature. The fact remains that gender requires work,
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and when aspects of gender are not consistently performed at levels of society they

can wither away. From the statements above, it is concluded that gender is influenced

by environment or society. Everyone has their own role to learn, teach and enforce

gender. Gender is not an individual matter but social matter. Based on those theories,

the researcher agrees that gender is different from sex. Gender is behavioral

characteristics, it is not biological characteristics. It can be developed and

transformed by following human development. It can also be learned, taught and

enforced, because gender interacts with other hierarchies in social life, such as: class,

age, ethnicity, and race.

According to Hearn and Kimmel (2006), masculinity or femininity is not

solely biological but it is constructed by the society and the surroundings we live in.

Masculinity is demonstrated and expressed in various ways such as voice, physical

appearance and behavior. It is also strongly associated with a deep voice, tall and

wide shoulders, and a muscular body; sometimes it is portrayed in the posture and

gait which require a bigger space than women. In today’s world, gender roles are fast

changing where stereotyping of men to masculine and women to feminine are no

longer prominent. Women are adapting to masculine roles and jobs while men seem

to be adopting feminine characteristics in their life. More and more language and

gender stereotypes are becoming inapplicable to today’s men and women.

In general, men and women are known to use language differently, but

sometimes they may unintentionally exhibit feminine or masculine speech

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characteristics respectively when they talk. Mills (2003) referred to male and

masculine are two different concepts: the first term refers to biology and the other

refers to identity. Being male is not complete without the existence of masculinity.

Even some features of masculinity are quickly recognized as being a biological part

of being male.

4.1 Gender Differences in Spoken Language

According to Lakoff quoted by Nazir (2012), women and men speak English

in different ways. They have been taught to speak differently since young: girls

should speak in a passive voice and boys should speak what is termed ‘rough talk’ or

active voice. In this regard, women frequently use women’s language such as empty

adjectives, intensifiers and qualifiers, tag questions, hedges and polite forms.

Sunderland (2006) said that women and men had their own languages which they

used and understood among themselves. Although in real life, both sides understood

each other’s language, they refused to use it because if they used the language of the

opposite sex, it would be viewed as inappropriate. For men especially, they would

become the laughing stock of others.

Furthermore, Olsson (2000) also supports the belief that “Women have

smaller vocabularies, show extensive use of certain adjectives and adverbs, ‘more

often than men break off without finishing their sentences, because they start talking

without having thought out what they are going to say’ and produce less complex

sentences.” In conversations involving both sexes, men could switch topics while
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women would take turns to speak, supporting others’ opinions, complementing them,

and trying to avoid interrupting others. When it is conversation among members of

the same sex, women prefer to discuss personal topics while men prefer public issues

and would avoid discussing private topics. The choices could be related to the nature

of both sexes where women are more ‘involved’ and use emotional language

pertaining to their feelings and thoughts. Men, on the other hand, are more into

seeking ‘information’ and speak in a more straightforward manner and use

authoritative language.

Olsson (2000) looked at on women’s and men’s language into her study and

used their characteristics to analyze her data. She found that even if there are

differences between the languages used by the respective gender, these differences

differ due to different types of discourse and other factors separating the persons

communicating with each other.

James (2003) studied gender differences, focusing on specific linguistic

characteristics such as usage of adverbials, repetition of the same words, especially

nouns, and the use of synonyms and hyponyms. The findings showed that there were

slightly noticeable differences in linguistic characteristics between the sexes. These

features are lexical hedges, tag questions, intensifiers, and avoidance of taboo

language.
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5. Feature of Conversational Style

Men almost effortlessly raise topics which women most often support.

Women’s topics were not only less actively supported, but were frequently and

actively discouraged. Women tend to give verbal responses to their interlocutor’s

statemens and give compliments. These cimbinations of these behaviors appear to

place men in the position of controlling conversation, while women do the

“interactional housework” to keep the conversation going. For example, when a

woman talked with a man, the woman usually would use the favorable languages in

order to gain better impressions from the man, while man would not avoid using the

disfavored languages.

When speaking, men often emphasize their masculinity and other forms

women use to symbolize femininity, and that this is more basic than social class.

Women ask more questions than men. It is a reflection of general insecurity resulting

from long-term oppression. There are some features which different between man and

women in communication based on Lakof’s theory, namely:

a. Women talk more/less than men

According to Lakof, the amount we talk is influenced by who we are with and

what we are doing. They also add that if we aggregate a large number of studies, it

will be observed that there is little difference between the amount men and women

talk. On the one hand, in a recent study, Dr. Brizendine (1998) states that women talk
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three times as much as men. On the other hand, Drass, in an experiment on gender

identity in conversation dyads found that men speak more than women.

b. Women break the ‘rules’ of turn-taking less than men

Studies in the area of language and gender often make use of two models or

paradigms that of dominance and that of difference. The first is associated with Dale

Spender, Pamela Fishman, Don Zimmerman and Candace West, while the second is

associated with Deborah Tannen. Dominance can be attributed to the fact that in

mixed-sex conversations, men are more likely to interrupt than women. It uses a

fairly old study of a small sample of conversations, recorded by Don Zimmerman and

Candace West at the Santa Barbara campus of the University of California in 1975.

The subjects of the recording were white, middle class and under 35. Zimmerman and

West produce in evidence 31 segments of conversation. They report that in 11

conversations between men and women, men used 46 interruptions, but women only

two.

c. Women use more standard forms than men

In the literature, Trudgill (1997) found a kind of sex differentiation for

speakers of urban British English. His study demonstrated that “women

informants”… use forms associated with the prestige standard more frequently than

men”. His study also discovered that male speakers place a high value on working

class nonstandard speech. He offers several possible reasons for the finding that
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women are more likely to use forms considered correct: (1) The subordinate position

of women in English and American societies makes it “more necessary for women to

secure their social status linguistically”; and (2) while men can be rated socially on

what they do, women may be rated primarily on how they appear, so their speech is

more important. As for American literature, research has not shown a noticeable

difference in terms of the usage of standard forms by men and women.

d. Women’s speech is less direct/assertive than men’s

Lakoff published an influential account of women’s language in her book

entitled Language and Woman’s Place. In another article she published a set of basic

assumptions about what marks the language of women. Among them she made some

claims that women:

1) Hedge: using phrases like “sort of”, “kind of”, “it seems like”, and so on.

2) Use (super)polite forms: “Would you mind...”,“I'd appreciate it if...”, “...if

you don't mind”.

3) Use tag questions: “You're going to dinner, aren't you?”

4) Speak in italics: intonational emphasis equal to underlining words - so, very,

quite.

5) Use empty adjectives: divine, lovely, adorable, and so on

6) Use hypercorrect grammar and pronunciation: English prestige grammar and

clear enunciation.

7) Use direct quotation: men paraphrase more often.

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8) Have a special lexicon: women use more words for things like colors, men

for sports.

9) Use question intonation in declarative statements: women make declarative

statements into questions by raising the pitch of their voice at the end of a

statement, expressing uncertainty. For example, “What school do you attend?

Eton College?”

10) Use “wh-” imperatives: (such as, “Why don't you open the door?”) Speak

less frequently

11) Overuse qualifiers: (for example, “I think that...”)

12) Apologize more: (for instance, “I'm sorry, but I think that...”)

13) Use modal constructions: (such as can, would, should, ought - “Should we

turn up the heat?”)

14) Avoid coarse language or expletives

15) Use indirect commands and requests: (for example, “My, isn't it cold in

here?” - really a request to turn the heat on or close a window)

16) Use more intensifiers: especially so and very (for instance, “I am so glad you

came!”)

17) Lack a sense of humor: women do not tell jokes well and often don't

understand the punch line of jokes.

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6. Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Department

The Faculty of Education of North Sumatra Muhammadiyah University was

established in 1968 which was originally called FIP (Faculty of Education). Onwards

operating license for six courses, namely: Indonesia Education Program, Pancasila

Education Program, English Education Program, Economic Education, Mathematics

Education, Program Guidance Study counselling followed by registered status,

followed by the given status recognized by minister of education and culture ri

education and culture minister of the republic of indonesia nomor.0316 / 0/1989

concerning the status of recognized to the Faculty / Department / Study / majoring in

Environmental Muhammadiyah University of North Sumatra in Medan. The Program

who obtained Recognized status, namely: Study Program Language and Literature

Indonesia, English Language Study Program, Moral Education Program on Pancasila

and citizenship Country, Accounting Education Program, Mathematics Education

Guidance, and Counseling Program.

In English Education Program have many classes included of morning,

afternoon, and evening. Related to the research, seventh semester (VII-A Evening) of

English Education Program at FKIP UMSU is chosen by researcher. In this class

consist of 4 boys and 26 girls. This class have different background, culture, and

unique in communication.
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B. Previous Related Study

Nazir (2012), Gender Patterns on Facebook: A Sociolinguistic Perspective.

The research aims at tracing differences and similarities among the way sexes use

internet particularly social networking site, Facebook. The differences exist on

multiple levels and research shows that even on internet one is not a human being

rather a ‘man’ or a ‘woman’. All these have been exhibited through language and the

choices they make. The findings show that women are into facebook for maintaining

existing relationships by being polite while men are more likely to go for new

relations and all.

Paul (2000), Gender Differences in Teaching Style. In this study, there are

other variables that come into play besides the gender of a teacher when considering

the most appropriate teaching style, including the gender balance, age range, and

cultural backgrounds of the students. But the above findings on teacher gender and

teaching style can be useful in at least two ways. First, teacher trainers should be

more aware of the possible correlation between a traineer gender and teaching style.

Second, experienced teachers need to be aware of any residual gender influence in

their teaching. In both cases, monitoring and adapting teaching styles can help.

Male and Female Differences in Communicating Conflict (2012) by Jessica

Cinardo.Research suggests that males and females communicate using different styles

of interaction. Men and women are biologically different, but evidence also

demonstrates a social difference. The patterns displayed in cross- sex communication

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often reveal how men and women interact interpersonally. In conflict situations the

contrasting behaviors between the sexes become more evident. This is a collection of

research defining and explaining the differences which exist between males and

females and how those differences develop within communication. Conflict is a

prevalent element of all relationships and the manner in which it is handled is crucial

to the survival of those relationships. This research can help those in troubled

relationships understand how the opposite sex communicates in conflict scenarios.

There is no study proving whether males or females are more effective in handling

conflict. Further research on the exact mannerisms of males and females in conflict

situations would improve current scholarship.

Gender Interaction in Online Debates: Look Who’s Arguing with Whom.This

study was conducted by Jeon (2003) who examined male and female’s interaction in

online debate, the results showed that female were significantly less likely to engage

in argumentation with other females than with males, providing one explanation for

why females might post fewer messages than males. Males were equally likely to

respond to females and males, with males showing a tendency to engage in more

argumentative exchanges with other males than with females. The interactions that

initiated the least to most discussion were female to female, male to male, female to

male, and male to male interactions, with male to male exchanges generating 36%

more messages in discussion threads than female to female exchanges.

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C. Conceptual Framework

Male and female have different way in communication, studies that male

tends to use his logic to tell something, whereas female tends to use her emotion and

feeling in conversation. Differences of communication between men and women,

such as; status versus support, independence versus intimacy, advice versus

understanding, information versus feeling, order versus proposal and conflict versus

comprise.

Males’ conversation is the way to negotiate your status in the group and keep

people from pushing you around; you use talk to preserve your independence,

whereas female’s conversation to negotiate closeness and intimacy; talk is the essence

of intimacy so being best friends. It is concluded that male and female exactly have

different cultural background.