Theory of Language and Gender

14 emotion”. In other words, male tend to portray reasons in conveying their ideas rather than emotions to show their autonomy.

5. “Women’s” Language

For women, in order to achieve their goal of promoting intimacy and feelings in translating romantic elements, Talbot argues that there are several features that are employed by women, namely: a. Promotion of Weakness Talbot argues that “women use language in a distinctive way, notable for its uncertainty, powerlessness, and weakness” 2010: 36. In other words, it means that rather than showing independence or autonomy, women tend to show the sense of weakness or powerlessness represented through their distinctive way of using language.

b. Affective Adjectives

According to Talbot, women tend to use words to show “affective meaning to show expressive feelings, not referential meanings that refer to some objects” 2010: 36. Lakoff elaborates that such adjectives are used “in expressing approval or admiration, many are strongly marked as feminine, such as divine, adorable, charming, or other affective adjectives qtd. in Talbot, 2010: 36. In brief, another feature that is employed by women to represent intimacy or promote a certain feeling is through the affective adjectives. For instance, the promotion of feelings can be seen in admiring certain things or events using affective adjectives. 15

c. The Intensifier

Related to the intensifier, it is argued by Talbot that “women tend to use language in order to strengthen the force of what a person is saying or doing ” 2010: 37. Lakoff qtd. in Talbot 2010: 37 “It has subsequently been viewed as a boosting device like very”. She adds that there are many forms to intensify or strengthen the force of the utterance, including the usage of “so” and “very” 2010: 37. In different words, another feature is that women tend to emphasize or amplify certain words or phrases that lead to the promotion of feeling or intimacy in translating romantic elements.

6. “Men’s” Language

For men, it is stated by Eckert that “men usually speak directly to the point” 2003: 188. It is elaborated by Spender that “the structure of language is more concrete and more readily traced” 1980: 148. Based on Spender’s elaboration, it can be concluded that the structure of men’s language is more concrete to show that the way male expresses something is direct to the point. It means that men tend to show the sense of power. In order for male to maintain autonomy and independence reflected through their language use, including translating romantic elements, Spender argues the belief that “males „come first’ in the natural order, and this is one of the first examples of a male arguing for not just the superiority of males but that is the superiority should be reflected in the structure of the language” 1980: 149. Spender also elaborates that “as the dominant group, males were in the position to 16 encode forms which enhanced their status, to provide the justification for those forms, and to legitimate those forms” 1980: 152. In different words, males tend to maintain their superiority through their language use. It is justified due to their position in the society as a dominant group. Because of their dominance, it is justified that they maintain any possible means to enhance their dominance through language use.

C. Theoretical Framework

There are three theories that are contributive to this thesis. In terms of answering the formulated problems, the first one is equivalence. This theory is used to analyze the SL and TL in Nicholas Sparks’s A Walk to Remember . It is because the readers from the target language would get the message from the source language. If they do not get the message in the translation, it means that the translator’s goal to convey the same message to the readers fails. The result of the equivalence will be the data to be considered. The second one is readability. The translation should be easy for the readers to understand. The translator should choose the correct word so that the message of the ST can be delivered. The result of the readability will be the data to be considered. Nida ’s and Taber’s basic requirements for the readable translation also important for the respondents to determine whether the translated text of Nicholas Sparks’s A Walk to Remember is readable or not. The third one is the theory of language and gender. There are some theories saying that gender influences the language that people use. Women and