Review on Related Theories
‘appropriate’ or ‘inappropriate’ for women and for men. Although the separation is not complete, in contemporary Britain as many other Western industrial
societies, paid work, jobs, levels of job hierarchies, payment, and the prospects for training and promotion are segregated by gender Pilcher 2004: 30-65. For the
example, while men have a primary responsibility as the financial provider for the household, women’s primary responsibility is as the one who should do the
housework and take care of the household. Ehrlich in Davies’s and Elder’s book The Handbook of Applied Linguistics added the examples by saying that women
and men involved in same-sex dyadic conversations with friends. They also concluded that it was the demands of a particular type of talk – friendly
conversations with same-sex individuals – and not gender that was responsible for the emerge of this speech style 2004: 307.
In the relation with sociolinguistics, the gender segregation is reflected through the use of language. It is proven by Verdonk’s statement in his book
Stylistics. According to Verdonk, girls and boys talk differently even if they are from the same family.
Girls and boys, even those who have been brought up in the same family, like sisters and brothers, grow up in different worlds with different
behaviors and different languages Verdonk 2002: 73.
It is proven that the boys do not use some words that the girls usually use and vice versa. The way parents talk to their children is also determined by the sex.
Usually, girls are being told to talk and act more polite and calm, while the boys usually use more dirty or impolite words in their communication. This also
happens to them when they grew up.
The differences between the way males and females speak can be seen by the use of grammatical features such as phonetics and grammar, choice of words,
vocabulary, adverbs, and periods Cameron 1990: 208-216. Some social dialectologist suggested that women were status conscious, and that this was
reflected in their use of standard speech forms. However, Lakoff argued that women were using language which reinforced their subordinate status; they were
‘concluding in their own subordination’ by the way they spoke Holmes 1992: 312-313.
Holmes argued that clearly, a community’s attitudes toward different speech styles reflect the status of those who use them. There are many sources of
insight into the attitudes and values of a community in books, in adverts, in TV soap operas and even in the terminology used to describe and refer to different
group. The range of labels and connotation of terms are used to refer the minority groups such as children and young people, or to refer to women. It also can reveal
a great deal about a culture’s view of the groups concerned 1992: 335.
3. Sexist Language According to Mary Vetterling-Braggin in Sarah Mills’ Feminist Stylistics,
sexist language is a language that is used to constitutes, promotes, or exploits an unfair or irrelevant or impertinent distinction between the sexes 1995: 83. In the
other words, by using sexist language, people can show an unfair treatment towards males and females.
In the daily conversation, some people even do not realize that they are using sexist language in their conversation and it causes they produce sexist
language unconsciously. As Mills mentioned that sexist language is the language- use, conscious or unconscious on the part of the speaker, which may differentiate
females and males. Mills also added that sexist language may also lead to be the establishment of an environment which is not conclusive to communication and
effective social interactions 1995: 86. According to Mills there is a way to analyze the PhrasesSentence. It is by
concerned with the way we can analyze language-use beyond the level of the word’s analysis 1995: 128. When concentrating on words in isolations,
sometimes it can show if we have a particular view of meaning. Some words do indeed have a history of usage which leads the listeners to interpret them in
particular ways. However, in order to make the words make sense, we have to pay intention to the relation of the words and the context. For example, the word ‘girl’
can have two possible meaning. It can be neutral when it is used in a specific context, such as ‘She goes to a girls’ school’, but may take on sexist connotations
the implication and association that might be carried by a word when it is used in another context; for example, when someone told a little boy who is crying to
stop crying by saying, ‘Don’t be such a girl’, or when someone states, ‘The school she goes to isn’t very good: it’s only a girls’ school.’ In these cases, the word
‘girl’ begins to bring negative connotations 1995: 128. In similar way, the words themselves make sense in the relation to the co-text
the words co-occur with the text and the context. In here, the theory will be
concerned on the way that phrases and sentences make sense in their relation with the co-text, context, history of the usage and also the background knowledge
which is needed in order to make them make sense. According to Sarah Mills in her book Feminist Stylistics, in order to get an
understanding about this level of analysis, we have to have known about a.
Ready-Made Phrases Mills stated that there are phrases which are preconstructed and which
convey sexist meanings 1995: 128. This case deals with proverbs which contains sexist messages underlying them. Proverb and set phrases are the main elements
because they are used as commonsense knowledge which is unbeatable. For example, ‘A woman’s work is never done’, there is a sense that the message
seems to be that this is a natural state of affairs 1995: 129. It is very difficult to counter when it is used, because it is presented in a form which is not personal
means that the person using the phrase does not claim responsibility for inventing it. However, it is simply calling upon pre-existing knowledge that it is to be
assumed as self-evidently true. If a particular woman complains that she has too much work to do, the phrase can be used to suggest that the specificity of the
difficulty of the conditions of her working life is not as important as the general ‘fact’ that women always have too much work to do.
b. Presupposition and Inference
Usually people in their everyday life use indirect speech in order to be more polite when they talk to the other but to understand about the indirect speech
is not easy. As Grice said in Wardhaugh’s An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, a
speaker “may implicate something rather different from what they actually say” 1992: 291. Therefore, in order to understand about the indirect speech, we
should know about ‘what is the speaker wants to say’ and ‘why it is said in that way’.
In the process of implicature, the speakers and the listeners are allowed to figure out relationships between the said and the unsaid. As what Wardhaugh said,
the theory of implicature explain how, when A says something to B, B will understand A’s remarks in certain ways because B will recognize that A said more
than was required, or gave a seemingly irrelevant reply, or deliberately hidden the issue. Then, B will interpret what A says as a cooperative act of a particular kind
in the ongoing exchange between A and B, but that cooperation may be shown somewhat indirectly. Therefore, B will have to figure out the way in which A’s
utterance is to be fitted into their ongoing exchange, and B’s operating assumption will be that the utterance is coherent, that sense can be made of it, and that the
principles necessary to do so are available 1986: 291. c.
Metaphor Figurative language usually deals with comparison in language. People
describe something with a new way. Metaphor is one of a figurative language which is more direct comparison than simile. Metaphor uses something to state
something else. Usually metaphor works at the level of the phrase rather than at the level of words in isolation. According to Lakoff and Johnson in Sarah Mill’s
Feminist Stylistics, metaphor is seen as one of the building blocks of our thinking rather as a deviation from some supposedly literal language, at both the level of
the language acquisition and use 1995: 136. In other hand, when a writer uses a metaphor, this writer is drawing on a body of thought or background knowledge
which might in fact affects hisher analysis or thinking of that particular object. For example, if someone uses the phrase ‘mutton dressed as lamb’ they cannot
claim to have invented the sentiments; this phrase is used only to refer to older women who are presumed to be dressing in a way which is more suitable for
younger women not used to refer to men who are behaving in a similar way. This following way are more complex phrases which work on a metaphorical
level 1995: 129. Mutton needs to be cooked in a way appropriate for older meat since it is
tougher. Mutton cannot be treated as lamb, since lamb is young, tender meat.
Mutton is older meat and therefore is a metaphor for older women Dress can relate the metaphor to its grounds because it can mean both ‘to be
clothed in’ and also ‘to be treated for meat’ As the conclusion, it would be absurd to cook old meat in the way you
would cook young meat, it is absurd for older women to behave in the same way as younger women 1995: 130.
4. Stereotype Holmes in her book An Introduction to Sociolinguistics said that language
conveys attitudes and sexist attitudes stereotype a person according to gender
rather than judging on individual merits. Holmes also added that sexist language encodes stereotyped attitudes to women and men 1992: 336.
There are so many ideas that come from different persons about stereotype. However, the theory of stereotype used in this research is about the
stereotypes toward women’s role and characteristic. According to Pilcher and Whelehan, a stereotype is “a method of understanding, which works through
classifying individual people into a group category” 2004: 166. One of stereotypes that can be seen in the society is gender stereotype. Gender
stereotypes in this research vary on four dimensions. The first one is the Stereotype on Traits which refers to the attitudes of men and women Arliss 1991:
19. The second one is the Stereotype on roles which refers to the role of men and women in their daily life Arliss 1991: 18. Next is the stereotype on behavior
which refers to how men and women act in their daily life Arliss 1991: 23. The last one is the stereotype on physical characteristics which differs men and women
by their nature anatomical characteristics Arliss 1991: 6. i
Stereotypes on Traits Deborah Tannen in her book You Just Don’t Understand also give an
examples of stereotype on women’s trait by saying that men stereotypes women as noisily clucking hens. It is because women are considered as the
one who is talkative Tannen 1990:208. Laurie P. Arliss in her book Gender Communication stated that men were still
perceived as more stubborn, reckless, and hard-headed. However, women were submissive, moody, and emotional Arliss 1991:18.
ii Stereotypes on Roles
Noted folklore author Alan Dundes in Naufela Nafisa Ahmad’s thesis states that women are expected to marry and the female path is that of love,
marriage, and childbearing Ahmad: 11. Jane Pilcher and Imelda Whelehan in their book Fifty Key Concepts in Gender
Studies said that men have primary responsibility for the necessary financial provision of their family household via laboringworking outside the home in
exchange for a wage, and women have primary responsibility for the management and performance of housework and caring work such as
cleaning, laundry, shopping, cooking, and caring for children 2004: 31. iii
Stereotype on Behavior Ronald Wardhaugh mentioned the stereotypes on women’s behavior by saying
that women are considered as the one which the speech is trivial, gossip-laden, corrupt, illogical, idle, euphemistic; or deficient is obviously false; not is it
necessarily more precise, cultivated, or stylish, or even less profane – than men’s speech Wardhaugh 1992: 313.
iv Stereotype on Physical Characteristics
Ronald Wardhaugh in his book An Introduction to Sociolinguistics gave examples of women’s and men’s physical characteristics by saying that
usually, women have more fat and less muscle than men, women are not as strong as men and they are weigh less, women mature more rapidly and live
longer than men, and women’s voice also have different characteristics from men’s voice” Wardhaugh 1992: 313.