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into two functions. The f irst is facilitative that shows speaker’s solidarity or positive
attitude to the addressee. The second is softening that shows politeness or speaker’s concern for addressee’s feeling Holmes, 1986, p. 3. Tag questions are used by
women in many ways. For examples, She is really nice, isn’t she?, really?, See?, …, you know?, and many others.
c. Rising Intonation on Declaratives
Rising intonation on declaratives is one of women’s features according to Lakoff 1975. She defines raising intonation in declaratives as:
a peculiar sentence intonation pattern, found in English as far as I know only among women, which has the form of a declarative answer to a question,
and is used as such, but has the raising inflection typical of a yes-no question, as well as being especially hesitant Lakoff 1975, p. 17.
Women use this feature by raising the pitch of their voice in the end of statements when they express their uncertainty. For the example, It’s really good?,
Dinner’s in half an hour?.
d. Empty Adjectives
Lakoff 1975 defines empty adjectives as a group of vocabulary terms indicating speaker’s approbation or admiration for something. Some of these
adjectives are neutral as to sex of speaker; men or women may use them p.12. However, adjectives such as charming, cute, lovely, fabulous are largely confined
to women’s language. Women have a tendency in conveying their emotional reaction rather than giving specific information. Therefore, they use empty
adjectives more often than men. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
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e. Precise Color Terms
Men and women are different in using their verbal skills and controlling different aspects of English speech and vocabulary. Lakoff 1975 state:
Women make far more precise discriminations in naming colors than do men; words like beige, ecru, aquamarine, lavender, and so on are
remarkable in a woman’s active vocabulary, but absent from that of most men p. 8.
According to Lakoff 1975, the color discrimination happens since women are not expected to make decisions on important matters like men in society, they are
relegated the noncrucial decision as a sop. Deciding whether to name a color “lavender” or “mauve” is one such sop. Therefore, women have richer vocabulary
than men in areas that are their specialty.
f. Intensifiers
According to Lakoff 1975, wom en’s language is powerless; women’s
position that is inferior to men’s is reflected in heavy use of intensifying adverbs. Olson 2000 states that intensifiers act as a boosting device in language. The term
intensifier describes the linguistic expression of amplifying the meaning of a descriptive word, often an adjective or adverb, within an utterance. Intensifier is
used to emphasize another word that comes after it. The examples of intensifiers include: so, very, and totally.
g. Hypercorrect Grammar
Lakoff 1975 states that hypercorrect grammar is the consistent use of standard verb forms. Women are expected to be polite in society. They use standard
