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the speaker and the message received by the listener are mixed up Searle, 1969. Also one of the factors which make the message received becomes blurred is the dilemma between the thought
of “did he say what heshe means?”
The variety of language chosen in a making a conversation also called as register. Thus, a register also used for a particular purpose or in a particular social setting. A study conducted by
Halliday 1989 divided three categories that determine a register, such as:
1. Field
This first category, according to Halliday 1989, is a category about what language is being used to talk about. The field includes two elements which are the topic and the interactants.
The topic of discourse can be specialized or technical topic, for example language used when talking about environment. Besides, it could also be everyday topic, for example when the
language is used to talk about shopping, or another daily life conversation. On the other hand, the affecting element in this first category which is the interectants, would determine a language
used when the interactants have specialized knowledge, for example when a scientist is writing for an article for an academic journal. Also, it might affect a register when the interactants have
common knowledge of the field, for example when the interactants is talking about an article in a newspaper.
Halliday 1989 further claimed that „the field‟ determines the use of specialized language, whether technical terms or everyday terms are used. Thus, it is important for a speaker
to think and consider about the listener, which may be specialized or common knowledge listener.
2. Tenor
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Tenor is the role of the relationship between interactants. Halliday 1989 stated that the relationship between the interactants varies according to status ranging from unequal as in the
case of a boss employee to equal as with friends, affective involvement ranging from high as with friendsfamily to low as with business clients, and contact ranging from frequent to
occasional. Hence, through this second category, the formality of language used is influenced by the relationship between interactants.
3. Mode
The third category that determines register is mode. Mode is the role that language is playing in the interaction. The role played by language can be written, spoken, or written to be
spoken e.g. a political speech. Halliday 1989 further claimed that language can be spontantenous e.g. conversation, or planned e.g. an article. Through the way language is
presented, Halliday 1989 also stated that the level of interactiveness of language can have immediate feedback e.g. conversation, rapid feedback e.g. e-mails, and delayed feedback e.g.
letters which can accompany an action e.g saying while pointing to something or describing an experience e.g. report.
Male Register
Based on a study conducted by Karlsson 2007, the instrument used in order to learn about male register in a conversation is by conducting a test. What she found in this study is
there are four characteristics which men usually use in making a conversation, such as: Strategy in order to control the conversation: No feedback on the female‟s comment.
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Minimal response in order to let the woman know he is not interested in what she has to say.
SwearingTaboo-words: The man uses taboo-words which are supposed to be more frequently used among males than females. The words are: Shit, God damn it
Commands: „Give me some paper‟, „Hand me the Sport Magazine by the sofa‟. Questions are frequently asked: in a conversation between male and female, men are
considered asking for questions in building and maintaining the flow of conversation Swann, Deumert, Lillis, Mesthrie; 2004.
Female Register
Based on Lakoff‟s 1973 hypotheses of Female Register as the fundamental theory, there are six characteristics under the name of „Talking like a lady‟. The further study conducted by
Karlsson 2007 about language used by both male and female in a conversation test is was associate
d with Lakoff‟s 1973 theory about female register in a conversation. In her study, Karlsson found out the characteristics of language used by female consisted of these following
features: •
Intensifiers: So, such, Lakoff 1973 stated that women used intensively the word so than men. The word so is
mainly used as a superlative word and to give emphasis on something. Example: 1.
I feel so unhappy 2.
That movie made me so sick
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• Hedges: I think, you know, I really, I mean, I‟m sure, I suppose
According to Lakoff 1973:54, to hedge is to avoid making any strong statement. To broaden our understanding of hedges, following are several meaning of hedges proposed by some
researchers. Varttala 2001 as finding of the term of hedges as linguistic item which use to exp
ress the speaker‟s certainty or uncertainty and to avoid misunderstanding or miscommunication between speaker and addressee. Hence, Karlsson 2007 stated that female
speaker uses hedges in order to explain what she means and invites the man to participate in the conversation
• Tag questions: You didn‟t- did you?
The use of the question intonation in conjunction with declarative, tag question, allows women to make statement without making assertion. Furthermore, Lakoff 1973 proposed several
functions of tag question as follows: a
A tag question used in the statement when the speaker is stating a claim, but not really sure of that claim e.g. John is here, isn‟t?. The function of tag question in this kind of statement
is for asking confirmation from the addressee. b
The situation where a tag is legitimate. For example, if the speaker saw something only indistinctly and have reason to believe the addressee had a better view, the speaker can say: I had
my glasses off. He was out at third, wasn‟t he?
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c A tag question used when the speaker and the addressee know what the answer must be,
and doesn‟t need confirmation. This kind of tag presents in the situation when the speaker is trying to elicit conversation from the addressee e.g. Sure is hot here, isn‟t?
d A tag used in discussing personal feelings or opinions and only the speaker normally has
any way of knowing the correct answer e.g. I have a headache, don‟t I?. This kind of sentence is usually ridiculous.
e A tag used in opinion statement seeking for supports, evidence, or confirmation from the
addressee e.g. The war in Vietnam is terrible, isn‟t it?. One possibility is that the speaker has a particular answer in mind
–„yes‟ or „no‟, but is reluctant to state it baldly.
Another point added by Lakoff in discussing tag question is a tag question is a kind of polite statement. By using tag question, speaker does not force agreement or belief on the
addressee, but giving them freedom to agree or disagree with the speakers views. In addition, another study of tag question has been done by Cameron, McAlinden and
O‟Leary 1988 entitled Lakoff in context: the social and linguistic functions of tag questions. In this study, the writers discuss about Lakoff‟s theory of question tags in FtF interaction.
• The use of “Empty Adjective” Lakoff 1973 defined empty adjective as an adjective which express the speaker‟s approbation
or admiration for something. Adjectives are applied to soften and add friendly elements to the sentence, although they do not add any particularly meaningful content. Lakoff also divided two
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types of adjectives which usually used by women and neutral categorization, though some words from neutral category might be used by women as well.
Neutral Woman only
great adorable
terrific charming
cool sweet
neat lovely
divine
• Polite language: Please; Formal language: I can not…
Females tend to obey the rules of politeness while males tend to obey the rules of direct discourse. Hence, female speech is typically indirect, repetitious, and unclear while male is
typically direct, clear, and precise.
Gender and CMC
Computer-mediated communication CMC is a way of exchanging messages one to another by using computers. Since the era of the internet, the rate of human interaction through
text-based form has increased. This interaction is supported by technological appliances, such as mobile phones and computers. Along with the development of technology, the existence of
social network as an alternative media for communication makes long-distance communication becomes easier. CMC is a form of communication by using internet as a media for
communication which combines text-based form communication and two-way communication.
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The existence of CMC also replaces the traditional way for long distance communication by using letters.
CMC concluded as an effective communication-alternative that can be used for complex communication, such as problem-solving and decision-making. However, according to
Hightower and Sayeed 1995 study found that: “CMC groups were less efficient at sharing
information and tended to focus only on a portion of the information available as compared to face to face groups.
Besides, Straus and McGrath 1994 study also found that: “by conducting a conversation through CMC, a negative impact of CMC compared to face to face discussions
when it comes to productivity, but few differences regarding qu ality” cited in Adrianson 2001
Furthermore, the most obvious feature of Face to face communication that is lacking in CMC is physical presence, which provides social context sign such as non-verbal signals such as
eye contact, facial expressions, and gestures. Also, another feature that is lacking are voice inflection, and volume. Furthermore, the last feature is such as age, sex, and physical appearance.
Besides, according to Adrianson Hjelmquist 1991, the difficulties that the person who chats faced in CMC is when discussing about complex and unstructured task. Also, there will be
difficulties if the conversation conducted is about persuading or arguing about something. Computer-mediated communication CMC system has become an important part to
establish, develop, and maintain interpersonal relationships nowadays. They are involved in the shaping of communication in almost every relational context. Furthermore, CMC becomes one
of the aspects which influence the relationship building between one people to another. According to Coates 1993, “social status differences in real life between men and women in
society, which women are lack of power in their language while men usually dominate in a
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conversation”. It is shown in group discussing consists of mixed-gender members, where men tend to interrupt more than women.
The differences between features included in FtF communication and CMC also influenced the output of language used by both male and female. Adrianson 2001 through his
study entitled Gender and CMC found out that that there were more “Opinions” given in FtF communication, especially by f
emales, than in CMC. There were also more “Disagreements” in FtF communication than in CMC. Moreover, Female communication stereotypes seem to be less
important in CMC. Furthermore, In general, females are perceived as owning a greater ability to send, and receive, non-verbal signals than males, and these factors shows up as a stereotype in
FtF communication. In CMC it could be seen as a disadvantage, not being able to use this ability, and in that matter, be more “like the way men talk”. This could be one of the reasons why
females show fewer stereotypes in CMC. Due to lack of features such as voice tone and expression, Adrianson and Hjelmquist
1985 suggested that misunderstanding changes in CMC is because of the effects of written communication, that is, the lack of feedback and loss of non-verbal signals. Furthermore,
Matheson and Zanna, 1988 claimed that when the social and non-social dimensions of the self, such as public self sensitive to attention and evaluation by others and a private self personal
feelings, attitudes, values, and beliefs occur, switching opinion during computer-mediated discussions may be more reflective of lower public self-awareness than lower private self-
awareness. The results of their study showed higher rate occurrence of private self-awareness than public self-awareness in CMC than in FtF communication.
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CMC is also affects the way men and women communicate, as males are believed to ignore greetings and goodbyes in their communication, while female are believed to start a
conversation with greetings, and end the conversation with goodbyes when they need to Lee, 2003. Besides, gender differences in CMC compare to FtF is the using of such as turn taking,
topic switching, and conversation dominance, are equalized. As claimed by Smith-Lovin and Robinson 1992, as cited in Lee, 2013, that in FtF communication men are tend to interrupt
more that women. However, in CMC there isn‟t such a clear division over which gender interrupts the other gender more. Because of this, interruption is commonly happening in CMC.
Another phenomenon proposed by Tannen 1994 about CMC is that women find no difficulty in finding something to talk about, and they talk about a small number of topics. Besides, men
exhibit great difficulty finding something to talk about, so they produce small amounts of talk
about each of a great number of topics.
THE STUDY
Context of Study
This study looked at the language use by the participants in a forum discussion website, DigitalSpy forums,
http:forums.digitalspy.co.ukforumdisplay
. The website was a general forum discussion. In this website the participants were discussing about their ideas, arguments,
and opinions related to the topic. Product-based observation, according to Kusek Rist 2004, which were used in this research an observation strategy focusing on performance and
achievement of outputs, outcomes and impacts. In this qualitative research, the conversations
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between males and females in general forum discussion website were copied after they finished the discussion.
Figure 1. DigitalSpy Forum Page
Participants
Thirty members of Forum discussion website who are native speakers participated in the study. The participants consisted of twenty males and ten females, which cannot be separated as they
were taking part as a whole in the discussion. Purposive sampling is used in this research because of the needs of the developing analysis. These participants were selected because they
were the representative of area which was researched in this study, which native speakers of English. Purposive , another type of non-probability sampling, which is characterized by the use
of judgment and a deliberate effort to obtain representative samples by including typical areas or groups in the sample Kerlinger, 1986.
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Research instrument
The instrument used in this study was observation. The observation was conducted while the participants were communicating in forum discussion website, forums.digitalspy.co.uk. To
gather the information needed for this study, the participants were taking part in several discussions and expected to give their opinions about the topic given. The conversations were
copied as the activities from the forum were saved as a webpage file and language used in the conversations were analyzed.
Data Analysis
After collecting the data needed, the language used by both male and female speakers was analyzed. At first the language was classified based on the gender of the speakers, males and
females. These two classifications were then analyzed based on Lakoff‟s 1975 theory on
female register and Karlsson‟s 2007 theory on males‟ language.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
Male Register
After collecting the data and through analyzing phase, not all characteristics from male register found in the conversations. While, on the other hand, the rest characteristics proposed by
Karlsson 2007 – as well supported by previous study by Lakoff 1973 – were found in the
conversations. Based on the findings, from the five characteristics proposed by Karlsson 2007, there were only four characteristics found in participants‟ use of language in CMC. The four
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characteristics found were Strategy in order to control the conversation, Minimal response, Commands, and Questions asked.
