42 [24] Alex : Look, I cant stop thinking about you. I drive by your place. I call
and hang up. Im turning into…. Gigi : ------overlap------Me.
In a different situation, Gigi also overlapped Alex, when she tried to explain his feeling to Gigi like in the example [24]. In this case, she guessed that Alex was
turning into her see Appendix H, p. 77, item 162.
11. Talk Domination
In line with Thorne‟s 1981 theory about a male speaker who tends to dominate the conversation in cross-sex conversation see Chapter II, p. 14, the
researcher identified the indication that the male speaker, Alex was an expert in the conversations. The conversations that represent talk domination by Alex are
explained as follows: [25] Gigi : You cannot tell from a cursory glance that hes not into her.
Alex : Actually, I can. I see this stuff going on every night. Now watch this,
she’s going on about her macrobiotic diet. The example above portrays Alex as the dominant speaker see Appendix D,
p. 66, items 89-90. He tried to make Gigi sure about his utterance when he said, “Actually, I can. I can see stuff…” Alex, in addition, dominated the conversation
when he talked about the girl they saw “Now watch this, she’s….” [26] Gigi : Really? Always?
Alex : Yeah. Always. I know what blowing off a woman looks like. I do it early and I do it often. Trust me, if a guy is treating you like he
doesnt give a shit. He genuinely doesn’t give a shit. No exceptions.
43 The example [26] shows that Alex explained to Gigi that a guy will never do
the same thing like a girl in terms of keeping the relationship , “trust me, if a guy is
treating you like….” He tended to dominate the conversation because he knew exactly the thing about the guy. Alex, in addition, acted as an expert because he used men‟s
perspective in giving an advice to Gigi “I know what blowing off a woman looks like.
” see Appendix A, p. 59, items 29-30.
12. Silence
The researcher identified 4 times of silence that occurred in the conversation was only done by Gigi. This case indicates that woman speaker was silent more than
man speaker. [27] Gigi : Im Gigi. Conor and I went out last week. And I just
… silence..I thought if I ran into him
…silence…I dont know. Im gonna go. Example [27] shows that Gigi was silent when she was unsure of
Alex‟s reaction to her comment see appendix A, p. 57, item 16. There was a long space
before she continued to share her personal problem. When she told her feeling about Conor, she was silent again then decided to not continue her problem when said
“…I don’t know. I’m gonna go.”
[28] Gigi : Like, it was good to hear from me. You talked to me even when you were with a girl and
…silence…I felt something. For the same purpose, Gigi was unsure about Alex‟s reaction when she
wanted to express her feeling see Appendix G, p. 74, item 144. She was silent before she said, “I felt something.”
