Conversational styles and misunderstanding in cross-sex conversations in He`s Just Not That into You movie.

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vi ABSTRACT

Aryani, Ayu Nyoman. 2016. Conversational Styles and Misunderstanding in Cross-Sex Conversations in He’s Just Not That into You Movie. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.

Conversation is a social interaction among societies. At the same time, people interact with the same-sex or cross-sex members. In this case, gender differences in daily communication lead to men’s and women’s different point of views in performing styles of the conversations. Misunderstanding is likely to occur in cross-sex conversations when the idea or thought are understood differently by men and women. The researcher was interested in analyzing the use of conversational styles by men and women. Besides, the researcher was also interested to investigate the misunderstanding phenomena that happened in cross-sex conversations.

There were two formulated questions in this research. They were 1) Which conversational styles are used by Alex and Gigi in He’s Just Not That Into You movie? 2) What factors affect the misunderstanding in their conversations (cross-sex conversations)?

This research was qualitative research in which discourse analysis was employed to analyze the data. The researcher analyzed cross-sex conversations between Alex and Gigi, the central characters of He’s Just Not That Into You movie that used as the primary data. The spoken conversations were transcribed in a written form and it has been analyzed to answer the two research questions.

The researcher identified that the conversational style used by Alex as a male character in the cross-sex conversations were qualifiers, controlling the topics, verbal fillers, intensifiers, swear words, compound requests, tag questions, questions, interruptions, overlapping, and talk domination. Meanwhile, Gigi, as a female character used qualifiers, controlling the topics, verbal fillers, intensifiers, swear words, tag questions, questions, interruptions, overlapping, talk domination, and silence. In answering the second question, the researcher discovered factors that affected the misunderstanding in the cross-sex conversations between Alex and Gigi were involvement versus independence and message versus metamessage.

Keywords: conversational styles, cross-sex conversations, misunderstanding, He’s Just Not That into You movie

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vii ABSTRAK

Aryani, Ayu Nyoman. 2016. Conversational Styles and Misunderstanding in Cross-Sex Conversations in He’s Just Not That into You Movie. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.

Percakapan merupakan interaksi sosial antar masyarakat dalam kehidupan sehari-hari. Pada saat yang bersamaan, orang-orang berinteraksi dengan anggota lain yang sama atau berbeda gendernya. Dalam hal ini, perbedaan gender dalam komunikasi sehari-hari mengarah kepada perbedaan sudut pandang para pria maupun wanita ketika menunjukkan gaya dalam percakapan. Kesalahpahaman pun kemungkinan besar dapat terjadi dalam percakapan beda gender, dimana ide atau pemikiran dimengerti dengan cara yang berbeda oleh pria maupun wanita. Peneliti tertarik untuk menganalisa penggunaan gaya percakapan oleh pria dan wanita. Selain itu peneliti juga tertarik untuk menyelidiki fenomena kesalahpahaman yang terjadi di percakapan beda gender.

Terdapat dua rumusan masalah dalam penelitian ini: 1) Gaya percakapan apakah yang digunakan oleh Alex dan Gigi pada film He’s Just Not That Into You? 2) Faktor apakah yang mempengaruhi kesalahpahaman yang terjadi di percakapan mereka (percakapan beda gender)?

Penelitian ini merupakan penelitian kualitatif dimana analisis wacana digunakan untuk menganalisa data. Peneliti telah menganalisa percakapan beda gender yang dilakukan oleh Alex dan Gigi, pemeran utama dalam film He’s Just Not That Into You yang digunakan sebagai data utama. Hasil percakapan telah ditranskripsikan ke dalam bentuk tertulis dan telah dianalisa untuk menjawab kedua rumusan masalah penelitian.

Peneliti mengidentifikasi bahwa gaya percakapan yang digunakan oleh Alex, sebagai tokoh pria di percakapan beda gender adalah qualifiers, pengendalian topik, verbal fillers, intensifiers, perkataan tidak sopan, permintaan secara sopan, tag questions, pertanyaan, interupsi, overlapping dan dominasi berbicara. Sedangkan Gigi sebagai tokoh wanita menggunakan qualifiers, pengendalian topik, verbal fillers, intensifiers, perkataan tidak sopan, tag questions, pertanyaan, interupsi, overlapping, dominasi berbicara dan diam. Dalam menjawab pertanyaan kedua, peneliti menemukan bahwa faktor yang mempengaruhi kesalahpahaman antara Alex dan Gigi di percakapan beda gender adalah involvement versus independence dan message versus metamessage. Kata kunci: conversational styles, cross-sex conversations, misunderstanding, He’s Just Not That into You movie

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CONVERSATIONAL STYLES AND MISUNDERSTANDING

IN CROSS-SEX CONVERSATIONS

IN

HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU

MOVIE

A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

Ayu Nyoman Aryani Student Number : 121214095

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

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CONVERSATIONAL STYLES AND MISUNDERSTANDING

IN CROSS-SEX CONVERSATIONS

IN

HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU

MOVIE

A SARJANA PENDIDIKAN THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements to Obtain the Sarjana Pendidikan Degree

in English Language Education

Ayu Nyoman Aryani Student Number : 121214095

ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION STUDY PROGRAM DEPARTMENT OF LANGUAGE AND ARTS EDUCATION FACULTY OF TEACHERS TRAINING AND EDUCATION

SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA

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vi ABSTRACT

Aryani, Ayu Nyoman. 2016. Conversational Styles and Misunderstanding in Cross-Sex Conversations in He’s Just Not That into You Movie. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.

Keywords: conversational styles, cross-sex conversations, misunderstanding, He’s Just Not That into You movie

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vii ABSTRAK

Aryani, Ayu Nyoman. 2016. Conversational Styles and Misunderstanding in Cross-Sex Conversations in He’s Just Not That into You Movie. Yogyakarta: Sanata Dharma University.

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viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my deepest sense of gratitude to The Almighty God, for blessing and guiding me to finish my thesis. He always gives me chances to learn to be a better person.

My special thanks go to my thesis advisor, Drs. Barli Bram, M.Ed., Ph.D., for his guidance and valuable contribution to help me finish my thesis. He kindly encouraged me to give my best in my thesis. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to all my lecturers in ELESP for the valuable advice and knowledge that I have learned throughout my four-year study in Sanata Dharma University. They gave me much experience to be a great teacher in the future. Last but not least, I acknowledge my gratitude to my beloved family and friends who always give me love and continuous support even when I get difficulties in finishing my thesis.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

TITLE PAGE………... i

APPROVAL PAGES……….. ii

STATEMENT OF WORK’S ORIGINALITY……… iv

PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI……… v

ABSTRACT……… vi

ABSTRAK………. vii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……… viii

TABLE OF CONTENTS……… ix

LIST OF TABLES……….. xi

LIST OF APPENDICES………. xii

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION……….. 1

A. Research Background……….. 1

B. Research Problems………... 4

C. Problem Limitation………. 4

D. Research Objectives……… 4

E. Research Benefits……… 5

F. Definition of Terms………. 6

CHAPTER II REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE……… 8

A. Theoretical Description………... 8

1. Language and Gender……… 8

2. Conversational Styles……… 9

3. Misunderstanding in Cross Sex Conversations………. 15

4. Discourse Analysis……… 19

B. Review of Related Studies……….. 20

C. Theoretical Framework……… 22

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY……… 23

A. Research Method………. 23

B. Research Setting……….. 24

C. Data Source……….. 25

D. Data Gathering Technique………... 26

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F. Research Procedure………. 28

CHAPTER IV RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION………... 31

A. The Conversational Style Used by Alex and Gigi………... 31

1. Qualifiers………... 33

2. Controlling the Topics………... 33

3. Verbal Fillers………. 35

4. Intensifiers………. 36

5. Swear Words………. 36

6. Compound Requests………. 38

7. Tag Questions……… 38

8. Questions………... 39

9. Interruptions……….. 40

10.Overlapping………... 41

11.Talk Domination……… 42

12.Silence……… 43

B. The Factors of Misunderstanding in Alex’s and Gigi’s Conversations……….. 44

1. Involvement versus Independence……… 44

2. Message versus Metamessage………... 46

3. Cooperative versus Competitive……… 49

CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS………... 51

A. Conclusions……….. 51

B. Recommendations……… 52

REFERENCES……… 54

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LIST OF TABLES

Table Page

Table 3.1 Observation Checklist ...27 Table 3.2 Observation Checklist of Alex’s and Gigi’s

Conversational Styles ...₂₈ Table 4.1 List of Alex’s and Gigi’s Conversational Style ...32

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xii

LIST OF APPENDICES

Page

A. Scene 1………... 56

B. Scene 2………... 60

C. Scene 3………... 63

D. Scene 4………... 65

E. Scene 5………... 69

F. Scene 6………... 71

G. Scene 7………... 73

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1 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

This chapter consists of six sections that discuss an introduction to the research. The introduction covers the general information related to the topic, the reasons why the researcher chose the topic, the research problems which used as a guideline to hold this study, the benefits of conducting the research, and the main terms that used in the research.

A. Research Background

In general, language is used by the human being as a media to facilitate communication. By using language, people deliver ideas, information, and even knowledge to others. Eckert and Ginet (2003) mention “language is a highly structured system of signs, or combinations of form, and meaning”. At this point, gender has a deep relation with the use of language and it is considered as the system of a sign for making communicative practice in different ways. In other words, “Gender can be the actual content of a linguistic sign” (p. 60). Gender is something which cannot be avoided because as on his theory, Wardhaugh (2010) says, “gender is a key component of identity” where it becomes a part of the way in which societies are doing interaction (p. 334). Both men and women have different styles for friendly conversations. They have their own ways and perceptions when talking to each other.

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According to Tannen (1986), “conversation is a turn-taking game” which means we start to talk when our partner is finished to talk and vice versa (p. 47). Generally, misunderstanding is likely to occur in a cross-sex conversation since both men and women have different rules in their conversations.

Misunderstanding is a social phenomenon that we often experience in our social life. As we know that interactions may create different ways of using language by the speakers. Tsutsui (2008) argues that there will be a possibility to be understood differently by others when we express our thoughts or ideas. In this case, the researcher connects the misunderstanding phenomenon with the use of language in social life.

The researcher is interested in choosing He’s Just Not that into You movie because both men and women characters participate in conversations, which create cross-sex conversations in this movie. He’s Just Not that into You movie is the representation of social phenomena between men and women when they are building interactions in a relationship. The conflicts were happened to four different couples because of the different rules of conversations which used by men and women characters in the movie. The conflict happened between the central characters, Alex and Gigi, when they tried to figure out the real status of their relationship. The main cause of their conflict came from their different perceptions about their relationship. After observing this movie, the researcher is interested in analyzing the conflict made by Alex and Gigi in sociolinguistics perspective. Besides, the researcher also interested in exploring the conversational styles used by Alex and Gigi when they

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were talking to each other. In conducting the research, the researcher used discourse analysis as the data analysis technique.

The researcher chooses this topic because the researcher is curious about how gender influences people’s interaction, especially when men and women communicate to each other in society. The researcher is also curious about how misunderstanding can be created through men’sand women’s conversation (cross-sex conversation). In this case, the researcher explores the possible factors that trigger misunderstanding in cross-sex conversations.

Moreover, the researcher develops Gemilang’s (2014) study where it is also about conversational styles. The researcher is interested in exploring one of the main topics, cross-sex conversations. The researcher also develops Suciu’s (2015) journal which discussed the influence of communication in building a relationship in sociolinguistic perspectives. This study will be helpful for the society in learning the use of language in their social life. This research will also be beneficial for students of the English Language Education Study Program in enriching their knowledge about the influence of gender in performing conversational styles. Besides, they can learn about the social phenomenon that might happen in cross-sex conversations in sociolinguistic perspectives.

B. Research Problems

From the research background, there are two problems which are formulated into the following questions:

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1. Which conversational styles are used by Alex and Gigi in He’s Just Not That into You movie?

2. What factors affect the misunderstanding in their conversations (cross- sex conversations)?

C. Research Limitation

The focus of this research is on two points. First, the use of conversational styles by main characters in the He’s Just Not that into You movie, Gigi and Alex when they are talking to each other. In this case, the researcher analyzed the differences between men’s and women’s conversational style in their communication. Second, the factors that make Gigi and Alex get misunderstanding in their conversations. In this case, the researcher identified which part of their conversations which lead them to get misunderstanding. Besides, the researcher also related the obtained data with the theories that had been reviewed.

D. Research Objectives

This research is conducted to reach the following objectives:

1. To identify the use of conversational styles by Alex and Gigi in their conversations.

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E. Research Benefits

This research is for all the people who want to learn about men’s and women’s language. The researcher hopes that this research will be used as a reference for people who are conducting further research about it. This research hopefully can inform the readers who want to know about how men and women are talking in their own ways and how misunderstanding can be created through cross-sex conversations. 1. Society

It is hoped that this research will give information about the understanding of conversational styles in communication. How societies from different genders influence different characteristic in making conversation. It helps them to be more open-minded then accept those characteristics differences. Besides, the researcher hopes that both men and women in society will be more aware of understanding the differences of their conversational styles. The information in this research hopefully will be useful in their further conversations so that they can decrease the degree of creating misunderstanding in their conversations.

2. English Language Education Study Program (ELESP) Students

The researcher hopes that this research will also give a contribution to the college, especially ELESP students who are interested in learning more about different gender in communication. Besides, they can analyze this topic in a sociolinguistic perspective.

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3. Future Researchers

This research is expected to be an appropriate reference where it will inspire future researchers who are interested in conducting a research that concerns about the conversational styles of men and women. The researcher hopes that this research will help the future researcher to deepen one of the main points of the research topic.

F. Definition of Terms

In order to give a better understanding, this section defines some main terms which are frequently used in this research. There are three main terms namely conversational style, cross-sex conversation, and He’s Just Not That into You movie. 1. Conversational Styles

According to Tannen (1987), a conversational style is “a semantic process; it is the way meaning encoded in and derived from speech” (p. 251). In this research, conversational styles refer to how men and women speak through their conversation with their own ways.

2. Cross-Sex Conversations

Cross-sex conversations are the conversations which are done by different genders, between women and men. In a conversation, people show the way they communicate with their partner. Maltz and Broker (1982) state that women and men have different cultural rules when they are talking to each other (as cited in Coates & Pichler, 2011). In this research, the cross-sex conversation refers to the conversations between Alex and Gigi in He’s Just Not That into You movie.

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3. Discourse Analysis

According to Brown and Yule (1983), discourse analysis is an investigation of what that language is used for (p. 1). Discourse analysis concerns with the interpersonal use of language in everyday human interaction (p. 3). By conducting discourse analysis, questions about the language’s roles in social life can be answered.

4. He’s Just Not That into You Movie

He’s Just Not That into You movie is a Hollywood Movie which tells about the life of four different couples who have different perceptions about their own relationship. This thing leads them to the conflict in this movie. Alex and Gigi are the central characters in this romantic genre movie.

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8 CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter presents three sections which consist of review of related theories, review of related studies, and theoretical framework. The first section presents the relevant theories which related to the main topic. The second section explains the previous studies which are developed by the researcher. Meanwhile, the third section discusses the relation between the theories and the research itself.

A. Theoretical Description

There are four parts of the main theories that will be discussed in this section. Those parts describe language and gender, the conversational styles, misunderstanding in cross-sex conversation, and discourse analysis.

1. Language and Gender

In general, language is used by the human being as media to facilitate communication. By using language, people can deliver ideas, information and even knowledge to the others. Eckert and Ginet (2006), state that “language is a highly

structured system of signs or combinations of form and meaning”. In this case,

gender has a deep relation with the use of language where it is considered as the system of sign for making communicative practice in different ways. In the other words, “Gender can be the actual content of a linguistic sign” (p. 60).

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Gender is something which cannot be avoided in social life because

Wardhaugh (2010) argues, “Gender is a key component of identity” where it becomes

a part of the way in which societies are doing interaction (p. 334). It is supported by Holmes (2008) that men tend to keep their masculinity while women tend to keep their femininity in terms of using language. Both men and women have different purposes and also different ways in expressing their utterance through the use of language.

2. Conversational Styles

This section elaborates the definition and the types of conversational styles by reviewing some theories in order to support this research.

a. The Definition

When people interact, they create communication through conversation. In a conversation, someone will talk when his or her partner has finished talking and vice versa. According to Tannen (1986), the conversation is “a turn-taking game” (p. 47). Furthermore, style in a conversation is considered as a part of criteria which is used to judge the personality on each person itself. Sapir and Mandelbaum (1985) define

style as “an everyday facet of speech that characterizes both the social group and the

individual” (p. 542).

The conversational styles are the way of how people express their utterance. Every person, especially in different genders, has different characteristics in sharing what they really want to talk about. Tannen (1995) mentions that “aspects of

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conversational style are the basic tools of talk – the way we show what we mean

when we say (or don’t say) something.” Furthermore, she explains that the main

signals of conversational style are pacing and pausing, loudness, and pitch, where those are commonly thought of as intonation (p. 46)

b. Men’s and Women’s Conversational styles

Lakoff (1973) reveals that the way of men and women using grammatical

construction is clearly different. She states that men are more likely “straightforward”

rather than women when they express their utterance grammatically (as cited in Arliss, 1991). It is also supported by Pearson (1985), who mentions that there are several conversational styles differences between men and women. Those are qualifiers, controlling the topic, verbal fillers, intensifiers, profanity, compound requests, tag questions, questioning, interruption, overlaps, talk domination, silence (p. 181).

1) Qualifiers

Qualifiers or “hedges” is used to soften the strength of a statement. Pearson

(1985) defines that hedges “indicate some measure of uncertainty about the other

person’s response to it” (p. 186). For example, if a speaker clearly describes a best

friend as “pretty”, but adds “I think,” then the utterance is weakened by the

expression of uncertainty. Mostly women use more qualifiers rather than men when they construct their statements.

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2) Controlling the Topics

Pearson (1985) claims when the speakers can define reality, they have the power to control the topic in a conversation (p. 194). In this case, speakers who can explain topics which related to our real life, they will easily control the topic. Haas and Sherman (1982) report that women tend to talk about topics related to personal matters and the things about daily life. On the other hand, men tend to talk about money, news, and everything about sports (pp. 453-454).

Moreover, Dorval (1990) reveals the changing of topics is more frequently done by men rather than women (as cited in Gumperz, 1982). This concept is supported by Goodwin (1990) where women have a tendency to develop each other topics rather than introducing new topics like what men do.

3) Verbal Fillers

Pearson (1985) explains that verbal fillers are used when the speaker fills in a silence of their conversation. The words or phrases like right, okay, well, and you know are frequently used by women rather than men, especially in cross-sex conversations. Apparently, people tend to avoid silences when they are talking, that is why they use it (p. 186). Furthermore, Fishman (1980) suggests that when woman speaker uses verbal filler you know, it means that she tend to keep the conversation going especially in cross-sex conversation (as cited in Coates, 1993, p. 112).

4) Intensifiers

Arliss (1991) states the use of intensifier is concerning with attention to the emotional message. In other words, intensifiers are adverbs such as so, such, quite,

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really, and awfully that are used to exaggerate the strength of a statement. For example, by adding the word so, on the sentence “I am so proud of you”. The word so, that is used as an intensifier makes a speaker wants to emphasize his or her emotional message.

5) Swear Words

Swear words are commonly used by men and women in conversations. The speakers use them when they want to show their emotional expression to particular

conditions around them. Lakoff (1975) notes that “men use stronger expletives

(damn, shit) than women (oh dear, goodness). 6) Compound Requests

Generally, the speakers are using compound requests when they add words or phrases which soften the request. For example, when a speaker says Turn off the light, please rather than says Turn off the light! She or he tends to be more polite. In fact, Thorne and Henley (1975) mention that men are less frequently than women in using compound requests.

7) Tag Questions

Tag questions formulation is one of the grammatical constructions which are identified by Lakoff (1975), who mentions that tag question is used when the speaker

is feeling unsure such as “You have a morning class today, don’t you?” Moreover, Lakoff (1975) argues that women use tag question more often than men. They usually use it when addressing men.

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8) Questions

Men and women use questions for different goals. Maltz and Borker (1982) assert that in order to maintain the conversation women use the questions more than man. In this case, they use the questions as speech act which needs an answer. Moreover, they state that the way of using questions by women are “their general

strategy for conversational maintenance”. Men, on the other hand, use more questions as a signal of asking for information. The difference of interpretation in using the questions can be one of the potential reasons for causing misunderstanding.

Pearson (1985) argues that there is a relation between using questions and self-disclosure. When a speaker shares his or her personal information about themselves, it will trigger the questions from the other speaker. Generally, women tend to disclose their own personal information than men. Meanwhile, men are more likely respond to speaker’s self-disclosure with advice.

9) Interruptions

Zimmerman and West (1975) conclude that interruptions are considered as

“violation of the turn-taking rules of conversation”. Furthermore, they explain that an interruption will occur when a second speaker begins to speak while a first speaker is still speaking and has not finished yet his or her last word which can be defined as the last statement. Pearson (1985) also argues that people interrupt because they believe

that the message they want to offer is more important than the first speaker’s

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First speaker : I’m sorry to bug you, I just …

Second speaker : (---interruption---) it’s OK don’t worry. 10) Overlapping

Pearson (1985) defines an overlap happens if the second speaker begins to

speak at the ending point of the first speaker’s turn which means the first speaker’s

last word. In addition, she describe that overlaps occur for the same reason as interruption: the second person believes that she or he proposes more important message (p. 198). On the other hand, the second speaker is very excited about talking. The following is an example of an overlapping:

First speaker : I would like to buy a ticket to Coldplay’s live concert Second speaker: (---(overlap)---) Me too!

First speaker : next week. 11) Talk Domination

Basically, conversations are controlled by a speaker who is more powerful than the other. The powerful speaker means a speaker who is dominant in a conversation. Most of the popular opinions reveal that women are the one who talk more than men. Indeed, men talk more than women. This fact is asserted by Thorne

(1981) where men are treated as “experts” in conversation. They are involved in more

interactions than women (as cited in Pearson, 1985). In other words, Thorne’s theory breaks the common opinion that actually men are the most powerful speaker in cross-sex conversation and they powerfully dominate the conversations.

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Pellegrini (1980) also suggests that male and female speakers who are well-informed use different principles in interactional styles. Male speakers use a style of interaction based on power while female speakers use it based on solidarity and support (as cited in Coates, 1993, p. 113).

First Speaker : Okay. But what if I'm the exception?

Second Speaker : No, you're not. You're not at all. In fact, you’re the rule. And the rule is this: if a guy doesn't call you, he doesn't wanna call you.

The example above shows that the second speaker dominates the conversation when talking about the fact of guy rules. The second speaker acts like an expert by explaining more about the topic (see Appendix A, pp. 52-53).

12) Silence

Pearson (1985) states that women speakers tend to silence where they are not

sure of the other speaker’s reaction to their comment. More often, they explain that women speakers were silent more than men speakers in crossed-sex conversations (p. 198).

3. Misunderstanding in Cross-Sex Conversations

In this section, there are two main parts which explain deeper about the misunderstanding in cross-sex conversations. They are the definition of the misunderstanding itself and the factors that cause the misunderstanding.

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a. The Definition

In a cross-sex conversation, men and women tend to use their own rules to say what they mean. Conveying utterances in natural styles give something different to those whose styles differ. Tannen (1995) reveals that when styles differ, misunderstanding is likely to occur. She explains that men and women have different ways of going about talking things out, and different assumptions about the significance of going about it. Men and women in a conversation belong to cross-cultural communication. Here, gender is the main factor which affects the goal of communication itself. Men and women are different because they are facing a different process in their life. Tannen (1986) mentions that the environment treats them to have a different habit of life. They have different world since they were born. It takes them to have a different social background in dealing with society (p. 133). b. Factors of Misunderstanding in Cross-Sex Conversations

The different ways of using conversational styles lead men and women to have different perceptions in understanding the meaning of communication. Here, conflicts can be created when they communicate to each other. In her theory, Tannen (1986) promotes some women and men differences in conversational styles. There are three factors namely involvement versus independence, message versus metamessage, and cooperative versus competitive.

1) Involvement versus Independence

Men and women are the two different characters who also have different point of views when they talk about something. They stand to their own assumptions in

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solving the problem of communication. Tannen (1986) argues that involvement and independence are two different things which always arise in a conflict of communication itself.

What is more, she explains that women tend to stay for involvement where they can get a kind of intimacy in order to reach the goal of communication. For them, intimacy is about getting a connection where being understood without saying what they mean is the result on how they can get the involvement successfully. Alice Walker (1989) remarks on her novel titled The Temple of My Familiar that women are looking for someone who is able to hear them (as cited in Tannen, 1991). It is supported by Maltz and Borker (1982) where they reveal that women tend to see that

conversations can be a kind of “therapeutic” for them. This means that they see an

opportunity to share something like problems, experience, support, or even reassurance when they do the conversation.

According to Tannen (1986), men tend to stay for independence where they do not have to explain all of the things to their partner in communication, especially women. They think that get involved means no freedom at all in deciding something. Maltz and Borker (1982) also add that for men, sharing their personal problem is considered as not a normal conversation.

The problem appears when women are often unhappy with the reactions they get from men when they try to share their problem. On the other hand, men are often unhappy because they are accused of responding in the wrong way when they are

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trying to be helpful (Tannen, 1991, p. 28). In other words, when men and women talk to each other, the real problem is that each expects a different kind of response.

2) Message versus Metamessage

Both men and women have different perceptions in catching the meaning of what the speaker are talking about. It is also the same when they convey the meaning of what they want to talk about. Tannen (1986) states that women are more listening to metamessage where it is about getting the understanding of what they have said

explicitly in words. “Metamessages can be seen in what is not said as well as what is said” (p. 137). Here, metamessage lets the women speaker tend to interpret what someone is saying by identifying the activity that is going on. At the same time, metamessage lets the speakers know what position the speaker is assuming in the activity and what position we are being assigned (Tannen, 1991, p. 15). In other words, women's style is focused on the relationship or metamessage level.

In contrast, men's style is more literally focused on the message level of talk. Men are more interested in utterances which sound to the point. In addition, they do not really catch the real meaning behind the message and the attitude from who they are talking to, especially to women. As a result, men and women have different point of views on almost any comment when they are interpreting the meaning of their conversations. It will also cause a problem between men and women.

3) Cooperative versus Competitive

All of the men and women have experienced their childhood. In this case, they had faced the process where they learn to make communication. In general, all of the

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children in different gender have the chance on learning how to communicate with others in their surroundings. Tannen (1986) examines that “between the age of five and fifteen when children are learning to have conversations, they play mostly with

friends of their own sex” (p. 142).

Their surroundings especially the same sex playmates contribute big influence on the ways of talking when they grow up. Furthermore, Tannen (1991) identifies

that “girls like to play cooperatively” where they will establish and maintain the

relation they have built by involving their friends to know their secret. This means that the way of talking the secret is more important than the secret itself. That best friend is all about. Conversely, boys like to play competitively where they will

“maintain their own story and status” to be accepted as an equal for the others.

Mostly they are talking about who is the best at what and it belongs to competitive talk (p. 143).

4. Discourse Analysis

Johnstone (2008) mentions that discourse analysis is not centrally focused on language as an abstract system. It is more about analyzing what happens when people apply the knowledge they have about language through their memories of things they have said, heard, seen or written. It can be said that when people exchange information, express feelings or make things happen, they have applied the knowledge which can be stated as rules, about what words generally mean and what goes where in a sentence (p. 3). Concerning on how speakers indicate their semantic

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intentions and how hearers interpret what they hear, the discourse analysis will be useful in answering questions which focus on human life and communication (pp. 6-7). In short, discourse analysis considers how languages, spoken or written, enact social and cultural perspectives and identities (Gee, 2001, p. 1).

According to Brown and Yule (1983), there are two kinds of texts as the representation of the discourse namely written text and spoken text. The word of text is used as a technical term in order to refer to the verbal record of a communicative act (pp. 5-6). Moreover, they also describe that discourse analysis applied the two different functions of language namely transactional and interactional. The transactional function refers to the function which language serves in the expression of content while the interactional refers to the function that involves expressing social relations and personal attitudes (p. 1).

B. Review of Related Studies

The researcher reviews two different sociolinguistics studies on gender and communication before conducting this research. First, Gemilang (2014) conducted a study on the conversational styles of the same gender (woman-woman) and different gender (woman-man). This study aims to present the use of conversational style and its language contrasts on different types of conversations; single-sex conversations and cross-sex conversations. Moreover, the alumnus of the English Language Education Study Program in Sanata Dharma University used two different episodes of Oprah Winfrey Talk Show which represent the influence of different gender in

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communication. The first episode is the interview of Oprah Winfrey and Jane Fonda which represents single sex conversations. Meanwhile, the second episode is the interview of Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry which represents cross-sex conversations.

The researcher developed Gemilang’s study where she made this study more specific. The researcher only analyzed one type of conversations, mixed-sex conversation. The researcher, in addition, identified the conflict happened in the

conversations that considered as the result of men’s and women’s different point of

views in using conversational style.

Second, Suciu (2015) conducted a sociolinguistics study on the influence of communication in building relationships. She explained how communication itself can make or even break the relationships. Her study focused on factors that lead the speakers to get misunderstand. Moreover, she used Theory from Tannen (1986) as the

basic reference in his study. Suciu’s journal was published in the Journal of

Romanian Literary Studies.

Similarly, the researcher also conducted the same topic and then the researcher expanded the analysis by using conversations in the movie as the data resource. In addition, the researcher also combined the factors of misunderstanding with the use of conversational style by the characters in the movie.

C. Theoretical Framework

The difference of gender itself has affected the way of communicating in society. Both men and women cannot avoid the conflict which leads them to get

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misunderstanding in a conversation. Even though men and women are facing the same situation, they have different assumptions to understand the meaning or even solve the problem when they communicate.

In order to answer the first question where it is about the use of conversational styles by Gigi and Alex in their conversation, the researcher uses the theory which is suggested by Pearson (1985). The researcher uses her theory as the basic foundation to solve the first research question.

The second question is the factor that affects misunderstanding, exists in cross-sex conversations of He’s Just Not That into You movie. In order to answer the question, the researcher uses the theory from Tannen (1986). She claims that there are three main factors that can create misunderstanding between men and women in a conversation namely involvement versus independence, message versus metamessage, and cooperative versus competitive.

In conducting this research, the researcher combines some theories to answer and solve the two research questions. To solve the first research problem, the researcher analyzes the linguistic features of conversational styles. For the second research problem, the researcher analyzes the factors that affect the misunderstanding by conducting a discourse analysis. In this part, the researcher concerns with the context of the language used by Alex and Gigi.

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CHAPTER III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The researcher classifies this chapter into some different parts namely research method, research setting, research subject, data gathering technique, data analysis technique, and research procedure.

A. Research Method

This research was a sociolinguistic study that is concerning on language, and its society. According to Holmes (2008), sociolinguistics is “the study of the relationship between language and the context that is used” (p. 1). In this case, the study is conducted by using sociolinguistics as the main concept of the research because the researcher wanted to find the relationship between the use of conversational styles by men and women in cross-sex conversations. In other words, both men and women have different ways to communicate in society then the researcher wanted to find how the way of they communicate influence their relationship especially in cross-sex communication.

Furthermore, this research was also using qualitative research as the method to get the data. Ary et al. (2008) describe qualitative research as a philosophical approach that is concerning with social reality. This means that the researcher focuses on the understanding of human behavior where it covers how they do, how they think

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and how they feel. As a result, the participant’s experience will lead a qualitative researcher to get the understanding of social reality (p. 23). In this part, the researcher applied qualitative research as the method by identifying Alex’s and Gigi’s conversational styles and analyzing the misunderstanding phenomenon that appeared in their conversations.

In analyzing the data, the researcher used discourse analysis technique. In this case, the researcher concerned with the context of communication in cross-sex conversations by using spoken text. The spoken text dealt with He’s Just Not That into You movie that represented spoken language by Alex and Gigi. In this part, the researcher changed it into written transcription so that it would be easy to be analyzed.

B. Research Setting

The researcher conducted the research for four months, from February until June 2016. In February 2016, the researcher selected He’s Just Not That into You movie as the source of the data then chose the main characters in the movie, Alex and Gigi to be observed. The researcher transcribed their conversations which had been gathered from the whole of Just Not That into You movie transcript in April 2016. The next things were the researcher classified the conversations into some characteristics of conversational style then analyzed it in order to find out the factors of misunderstanding from May to June 2016.

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C. Data Source

The data source of this research was a movie titled He’s Just Not That into You where the story is about four different couples who had the different perception of their relationship. The Hollywood movie which was directed by Ken Kwapis was released in 2009. This American romantic comedy-drama movie was adapted from Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo's best-selling self-help book with the same title, He’s Just Not That into You.

The researcher chose one of the couples, Gigi (Ginnifer Goodwin) and Alex (Justin Long) who are the central characters of the movie. Gigi is the representation of a woman who has a feminine character while Alex is the representation of a man who has a masculine character. The researcher analyzed the way of how they communicate each to other in some scenes of the movie.

Here the researcher also realized one of the things that can create misunderstanding in direct communication which is the difference of characteristic from every gender. That is why the researcher analyzed which part of their conversational styles which lead Gigi and Alex to get misunderstanding. The researcher chose He’s Just Not That into You movie as the subject of this research because the story is representing the social phenomena which happened in our society, especially in the conversation that every couple has made.

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D. Data Gathering Technique

There are some steps in gathering the data of this research. First, the researcher downloaded He’s Just Not that into You movie in YouTube. Second, the researcher selected Alex’s and Gigi’s conversations in some scenes from the transcript version of this movie so that the researcher could classify Alex and Gigi’s conversations into some scenes easily. Third, the researcher made the observation checklist in the form of tables. By using the observation checklist, the researcher could identify Alex and Gigi’s conversations.

E. Data Analysis Technique

The technique of analyzing the data was done in some steps. Firstly, the researcher observed the videos of He’s Just Not That into You movie in some scenes. The scenes which have been chosen were representing how the characters, Alex and Gigi use conversational style. For the second step, the researcher analyzed the dialogue of the characters which has been selected previously in the form of a transcript. The two research questions which had been formulated would be connected to the researcher’s analysis. That had to be done in order to answer the research questions.

In this step, the researcher made an observation checklist in the form of a table (see Table 3.1). The researcher identified Alex’s and Gigi’s conversations in He’s Just Not That into You movie into certain conversational styles. After completing the observation checklist, the researcher classified which conversational styles that used

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or not used by Gigi and Alex by placing it on another table (see Table 3.2). The explanation related to the Table 3.1 and Table 3.2 will be elaborated further.

Table 3.1 Observation Checklist

Abbreviations

Q : Qualifiers SW : Swear Words

CT : Controlling the Topics CR : Compound Requests

VF : Verbal Fillers TQ : Tag Question s

Is : Intensifiers Qs : Questions

Ip : Interruptions TD : Talk Domination

O : Overlapping S : Silence

The table above shows the observation checklist that used by the researcher to analyze the conversational style of Alex and Gigi in He’s Just Not That into You movie. There are possible conversational styles that used by Alex and Gigi in their conversations, consist of qualifiers, controlling the topics, verbal fillers, intensifiers, interruptions, overlapping, swear words, compound requests, tag questions, questions, talk domination, and silence. The researcher identified Alex’s and Gigi’s utterances that represent those possible conversational styles.

No. Speaker Conversational Style Cases Conversational Style

Q CT VF Is SW CR TQ Qs Ip O TD S

1. A “I think, she is a good girl.” 

2. A “Nice day, isn’t it?” 

3. A “Well, I’m glad to see you

again.” 

4. A Could you please send me your letter?



5. A “Hey Stuart! Stop making an ass

out of yourself!” 

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Table 3.2 Observation Checklist of Alex’s and Gigi’s Conversational Styles

Table 3.2 represents the list of possible conversational styles used by Alex and Gigi in their conversations. After completing the table 3.1, the researcher identified the conversational styles that are used by placing a thick sign (√ ) and the conversational styles that are not used by placing a cross sign (X).

F. Research Procedure

This section summarizes the procedure of this research. There were four steps which are conducted by the researcher to accomplish this research namely selecting research problem, reviewing the theories, analyzing research data, and concluding research results.

1. Selecting research problem

The beginning process of this research was selecting the problem of the topic, conversational styles of men and women. By observing the source of this research,

No.

Conversational Styles

Characters

Alex Gigi

1. Qualifiers

2. Controlling the Topics 3. Verbal Fillers 4. Intensifiers 5. Swear Words 6. Compound Requests 7. Tag Questions 8. Questions 9. Interruptions 10. Overlapping 11. Talk Domination 12. Silence

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He's Just Not that into You movie, the researcher was curious to know the social phenomenon which appears through the use of conversational styles by men and women. Besides, the researcher was also curious to explore the factors that trigger misunderstanding in cross-sex conversations.

2. Reviewing the theories

In order to conduct this research successfully, the researcher reviewed some theories from the experts which are related to the research topic. In this step, the researcher reviewed some theories about men’s and women’s conversational styles and factors that affect misunderstanding in cross-sex conversations as the fundamental theories to answer the research questions. Besides, the researcher also used the theories from several experts in order to support the research analysis.

3. Analyzing research data

In this step, the researcher divided two ways of using the instrument. First, the researcher collected the data by downloading the movie, He’s Just Not That into You. Besides, the researcher also made the transcript of the dialogue so that it would be analyzed easily. Second, the researcher analyzed the data on the use of conversational style by Gigi and Alex on the movie. In this case, the researcher also identified misunderstanding which happened in their conversations.

4. Concluding research results

The result of data analysis would be concluded by the researcher in order to answer the formulated questions. The validity of the answer would be checked by the researcher to improve the research validity.

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5. Reporting the research

After the previous steps had been accomplished, the researcher was reporting the research result in an oral or a written form. The written report was conducted through the undergraduate thesis. Meanwhile the oral report was conducted through the thesis defense.

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31 CHAPTER IV

RESEARCH RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the combination of research results and discussion based on the two formulated questions which are mentioned in Chapter I. This chapter consists of two sections. First, are the conversational styles used by Alex and Gigi. Meanwhile, the second are factors that affect misunderstanding between Alex and Gigi.

A. The Conversational Style Used by Alex and Gigi

In this section, the researcher classified Alex‟s and Gigi‟s utterances into some particular conversational styles. In order to support the research, the researcher used theory from Pearson (1985) as the basic reference. She proposes that there are language usage differences of men and women that considered as conversational styles namely qualifiers, controlling the topic, verbal fillers, intensifiers, swear words, compound requests, tag questions, questions, interruptions, overlapping, talk domination, and silence. To present the findings, the researcher analyzed the conversational styles used by Alex and Gigi in He’s Just Not That into You movie as represented in Table 4.1.

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Table 4.1 List of Alex’s and Gigi’s Conversational Style

Table 4.1 presents the list of conversational styles used by Alex and Gigi in their conversations. From the obtained data, the researcher identified that Alex used qualifiers, controlling the topics, verbal fillers, intensifiers, swear words, compound requests, tag questions, questions, interruptions, overlapping, and talk domination. Meanwhile, Gigi used qualifiers, controlling the topics, verbal fillers, intensifiers, swear words, tag questions, questions, interruptions, overlapping, talk domination, and silence. 11 conversational styles out of 12 were used by Alex and Gigi in their conversations.

The use of conversational style by Alex and Gigi in He’s Just Not That Into You movie will be elaborated further.

No.

Conversational Style

Characters Alex Gigi

1. Qualifiers  

2. Controlling the Topics  

3. Verbal Fillers  

4. Intensifiers  

5. Swear Words  

6. Compound Requests  X

7. Tag Questions  

8. Questions  

9. Interruptions  

10. Overlapping  

11. Talk Domination  

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1. Qualifiers

The researcher discovered that qualifiers were more frequently used by Gigi rather than Alex in their conversations. Alex used qualifiers 12 times, while Gigi used qualifiers 25 times. Both of them used qualifiers or hedges in order to soften their statement.

Some examples of using the qualifiers by Alex and Gigi in their conversations are described as follows:

[1] Gigi : See when I said "meeting someone" I guess that was kind of a broad term, kind of a wide interpretation of the word meeting. In example [1], Gigi used qualifiers three times in her utterance (see Appendix A, p. 56, item 7). She used the words guess and kind of to soften her statement about meeting someone. In this case, she tried to explain to Alex that women have the different interpretations of the word “meeting”.

[2] Alex : Or maybe he just didn't call because he has no interest in seeing you again.

For the same purpose, Alex also used qualifiers as in example [2]. He used qualifiers twice by saying the words maybe and just in order to explain to Gigi that there was a possibility of the man whom they talked about, had a specific reason to not call Gigi (see Appendix A. p. 58, item 24).

2. Controlling the Topics

The speakers who are powerful in their conversations mean that the speakers have the ability in controlling the topics. The analysis data reveals that Alex tended to control the topic more than Gigi. He controlled the topic 12 times while Gigi only

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eight times. In this case, Alex was the powerful speaker who can switch more topics in their conversations.

[3] Gigi : I'm really sorry to bug you. I thought you had some really good insights and I wanted to ask you a question.

Alex : Okay, look, now I need to be harsh with you, Conor’s never gonna be interested in you, Gigi.

The situation of the conversation above was Alex thought that Gigi would talk about Conor on their beginning part of their conversation (see Appendix B, p. 60, items 38-39). Alex directly gave his opinion about Conor when he said “Conor’s never gonna be interested in you, Gigi” without asking Gigi what question she wanted to ask. In other words, Alex as a man speaker tended to switch the topic of their conversation.

[4] Gigi : You won't let me go out with guys who don't like me. It's kind of limiting.

Alex : I was just gonna leave a message, I'm having a party at my place next weekend. You should come.

On the other hand, Alex called Gigi and kept controlling the topic on their beginning part of the conversation as in example [4]. He directly asked Gigi to come

to his party when he said, “I was just gonna leave a message, I'm having a party at my place” (see Appendix E, p. 69, items 115-116).

[5] Alex : Yeah. He's a friend of my brother's. Bill. We'll all meet for a drink, it'll be good.

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When Gigi controlled the topic as in example [5], she switched the topic by

asking what she should do to Alex “So, I'm in his bathroom right now. What do I do? (see Appendix C, p. 64, items 76-77).

3. Verbal Fillers

In order to avoid silence, both Alex and Gigi used verbal fillers in their conversations. The following examples that portray the use of verbal fillers by Alex and Gigi are described as follows:

[6] Alex: Well, I‟m just trying to help.

In example [6], Alex used the word well as verbal fillers in the beginning part of his utterance (see Appendix B, p. 62, item 58). He just wanted to help Gigi when

said “…I’m just trying to help”. When he still thought about his statement, he used a verbal filler in order to fill the pause in front of his utterance.

[7] Gigi : Because there were, you know, signs.

Gigi used the words you know as verbal filler in the middle of her utterance as in example [7] (see Appendix G, p. 74, item 142). In other words, Gigi tried to keep the conversation with Alex by using verbal filler you know.

Based on the data, Pearson‟s (1985) theory which claims that women tend to use more verbal fillers in cross-sex conversations are not proved (see Chapter II, p. 11). Alex used verbal fillers 13 times while Gigi used verbal fillers eight times. In this case, the male character, Alex, was used more verbal fillers rather than Gigi in cross-sex conversations.

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4. Intensifiers

The researcher identified Alex and Gigi used intensifiers in order to exaggerate their emotional feeling. The result shows that Alex frequently used more intensifiers rather than Gigi. Alex used 12 intensifiers while Gigi used nine intensifiers.

[8] Alex : I had no idea it would be such a madhouse.

When Alex talked to Gigi about the situation of the party in his house, he used the intensifier such to describe the place in something specified as in example [8] (see Appendix F, p. 71, item 122). In this case, he described his house as a chaos place by using the word madhouse.

[9] Gigi : Is it your sensitivity that makes you so popular with women? The word so in example [9] was used by Gigi to exaggerate the description about Alex (see Appendix B, p. 62, item 55). She wanted to express her curiosity about Alex. She was concerning with the emotional feeling in expressing her opinion about Alex.

5. Swear Words

In their conversation, Alex used some swear words. The researcher identified that he used swear words four times. It was different from Gigi where she used swear words twice in her utterances. In this case, both of them did the swearing in order to show their emotional expression.

The examples of swear words in Alex and Gigi‟s conversations are explained further:

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[10] Alex : The "spark" thing is bullshit.

In example [10], Alex gave his statement to Gigi about the “spark” that they

talked about. Here, he tried to say that he did not believe about “the spark” (see Appendix D, p. 67, item 95).

[11] Alex : Why would you do this? Oh shit.

In a different situation, Alex did the swearing Oh shit to show his disappointment over what Gigi had done as in example [11] (see Appendix G, p. 74, item 147). His question “Why would you do this?” represented that he did not really understand why Gigi thought that Alex was run into him.

[12] Alex : Trust me, if a guy is treating you like he doesn't give a shit. He

genuinely doesn‟t give a shit. No exceptions.

When Alex wanted to explain to Gigi about guy rules as in example [12], he uttered the taboo words, doesn’t give a shit (see Appendix A, p. 59, item 30). In other words, he wanted to explain that if the man who treated Gigi were not interested in her, it means that he really was not interested in Gigi.

[13] Gigi : I may do a lot of stupid shit, but I know I'm a lot closer to finding someone than you are.

Example [13] shows that Gigi also did the swearing by using the words stupid shit to express her disappointment over Alex (see Appendix G, p. 75, item 154). Gigi recognized that she had done the stupid thing to Alex but she defended herself that what she had done was still right.

[14] Gigi : You think you've won because women are expendable to you? You may not get hurt or make an ass of yourself that way, but you don't fall in love that way, either.

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In example [14], Gigi also did the swearing when she wanted to express her

emotional feeling to Alex when she said “You may not get hurt or make an ass of yourself that way” (see Appendix G, p. 75, item 153). In this case, Gigi was angry to Alex and thought that Alex would not get hurt and even made himself as a foolish. 6. Compound Requests

The researcher identified Alex was the only one speaker who used compound requests in his utterance. He used it when he tried to ask Gigi to do some things in the party like in the example [15].

[15] Alex : Listen, I gotta go make a liquor run. But it looks like the food could use some refreshing. Would you mind helping and refilling the chips?

From the example above, it shows that Alex used the words would you mind to soften his request to Gigi (see Appendix F, p. 72, items 128-129). By using the words would you mind Alex seemed to show his politeness to Gigi.

7. Tag Questions

The conversations that represent the use of tag questions by Alex and Gigi are explained as follows:

[16] Alex : I thought I better come up with some really great excuse to get over here. That how it's done, isn’t it?

In example [16], Alex used formal tag question which seemed that he did not need a certain answer of his statement to Gigi (see Appendix H, p. 76, item 160).

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Example [17] indicates that Alex used informal tag question to show his

feeling of unsure to Gigi “Over a week went by, okay?” (see Appendix A, p. 58, item 22).

[18] Gigi : Aren't these man secrets like why men need to watch televised golf?

Gigi used tag question once when she wanted to ask about man secrets to Alex, as in the example [18] (see Appendix A, p. 59, item 31). The obtained data shows that Alex used tag questions three times while Gigi only used one tag question. The interesting part of this case is that the female character, Gigi, used fewer tag questions than the male character, Alex. In other words, Lakoff‟s (1975) theory that mentions women use more tag questions than man was not proved in this research (see Chapter II, p. 12). Both of them used tag questions in order to show their feeling of unsure about the things they talked about.

8. Questions

The researcher analyzed that Alex asked 22 questions to Gigi in the whole of conversations. Meanwhile, Gigi asked 19 questions less than Alex.

[19] Alex : Conor's not coming in tonight. Did he forget he was supposed to meet you?

Gigi : See when I said, "meeting someone" I guess that was kind of a broad term, kind of a wide interpretation of the word "meeting". Example [19] indicates that Alex tried to propose the possibility of Conor‟s forgetfulness by asking Gigi (see Appendix A, p. 56, items 6-7). In this point, he

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really wanted to find the information about Conor when he asked, “Did he forget he was supposed to meet you?”

[20] Gigi : So, what, now I'm just supposed to run from every guy who doesn't like me?

Alex : Yeah.

Gigi asked a question about herself when she faced a guy who did not like her as in example [20] (see Appendix C, p. 64, items 71-72). In this case, she did not really need specific information from Alex. She just wanted to make Alex responded her question in order to ensure that the conversation was still continuous.

Examples [19] and [20] clearly present that between Alex and Gigi asked questions for different goals of communication. Alex asked more questions rather

than Gigi because he totally requested the particular information from Gigi‟s problem

so that he could give advice to Gigi. 9. Interruptions

The researcher identified that Gigi only interrupted Alex once. Meanwhile, Alex was the only one speaker who performed the interruptions four times. The obtained data shows that men speaker used more interruptions than women do.

Here are the following examples of interruptions which had done by Alex when he spoke to Gigi:

[21] Gigi : He might have used some derivative of that. So, he says he's

going to call, but then gave me his card and he says….

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From example [21], interruptions happened when the second speaker, Alex, suggested an important message to the first speaker, Gigi (see Appendix B, p. 61, item 44). When Gigi was talking about Connor, Alex interrupted her and informed that what she thought about Connor was wrong. By using men‟s perspective, Alex

tried to explain that Conor actually did not like Gigi even they had a date “Oh, he's not interested.”

[22] Alex : Would you mind helping and refilling…. Gigi : (----interruption----)kind of like co-hosting?

In a different situation, Gigi also interrupted Alex when he tried to ask Gigi to help him as in example [22] (see Appendix F, p. 72, item 129). Gigi interrupted Alex

by asking him about Alex‟s request, “…kind of co-hosting?” She tried to interpret

Alex‟s request as a chance for her to get closer to Alex. 10. Overlapping

Overlapping occurs when the second speaker begins to speak when the first speaker still talks his or her last word. This case was happened in Alex and Gigi‟s conversations. The researcher analyzed that Alex overlapped 3 times while Gigi only once.

[23] Gigi : I don't know if you'd call it hot, I mean this guy Conor and I have

only been out the one time….

Alex : --- (overlap) ---Wait, wait, wait, Conor Barry?

In the example [23], Alex overlapped Gigi when she was talking about Conor (see Appendix A, p. 56, item 4). Alex tried to guess that Gigi was talking about Conor Barry by asking her before she completed her utterance.

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[24] Alex : Look, I can't stop thinking about you. I drive by your place. I call

and hang up. I'm 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 he's 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 doesn't give a shit. He genuinely doesn’t give a shit. No exceptions.

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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 : I'm Gigi. Conor and I went out last week. And I just… (silence)..I thought if I ran into him…(silence)…I don't know. I'm 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

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72

No. Speaker Conversational styles Case

Conversational styles

Q CT VF Is SW CR TQ Qs Ip O TD S 128. Alex “Listen I gotta go make a liquor run. But it looks

like the food could use some refreshing.”  129. Alex

Gigi

“Would you mind helping and refilling….” “---(interruption)---kind of like co-hosting?”

  

130. Alex “Uhh, OK. Just refilling the chips. They’re on the

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73 APPENDIX G

The Observation Checklist of Conversational styles in

He’s Just Not

That into You movie

Q

: Qualifiers

SW

: Swear Words

Ip

: Interruptions

CT

: Controlling the Topics

CR

: Compound Requests

O

: Overlapping

VF

: Verbal Fillers

TQ

: Tag Question s

TD

: Talk Domination

Is

: Intensifiers

Qs

: Questions

S

: Silence

7. Scene 7

No. Speaker Conversational styles Case

Conversational styles

Q CT VF Is SW CR TQ Qs Ip O TD S 131. Gigi “I think I've rounded up the last of the beer

bottles.” 

132. Gigi “So, umm - what game is this?” 

133. Gigi “Well, maybe I should just -- you know --I mean

it's past three and”  

134. Alex “Thanks for staying and helping clean up- but I really gotta get to bed though.”



135. Gigi “Is that an invitation?”  

(3)

74

No. Speaker Conversational styles Case

Conversational styles

Q CT VF Is SW CR TQ Qs Ip O TD S 137. Gigi “I'm sorry. That was cheesy. I'm not good at this.”

138. Gigi “Yes! I knew it. I knew it. The best relationships grow out of friendships.”

139. Alex “Wait - what? Now you and I are in a

relationship?” 

140. Gigi “Well, I'd say if we're not at relationship

station--ship, we're at least on the track.” 

141. Alex “And why exactly would you think that?”  

142. Gigi “Because there were, you know, signs.” 

143. Alex “Really? Like what?” 

144. 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.”

145. Alex “What are you talking about? What have I been saying since I met you? If a guy wants to date you he will make it happen. He will ask you out. Did I ask you out?”

 

146. Gigi “No.”

(4)

75

No. Speaker Conversational styles Case

Conversational styles

Q CT VF Is SW CR TQ Qs Ip O TD S 148. Gigi “I thought you were Watts.”

149. Alex “Why do women do this? Why do they build this stuff up in their minds, take each little thing a guy does and twist it into something else? It’s insane.”

 

150. Gigi “I’d rather be like that - than like you.”

151. Alex “Excuse me? What is that supposed to mean?” 

152. Gigi “Maybe I dissect each little thing, and put myself out there too much, and maybe I even thrive on the drama of it all--but at least that means I still care.”

 

153. Gigi “You think you've won because women are expendable to you? You may not get hurt or make an ass of yourself that way, but you don't fall in love that way, either. You haven't won, Alex. You're alone.”

 

154. Gigi “I may do a lot of stupid shit - but I know I'm a lot

(5)

76 APPENDIX H

The Observation Checklist of Conversational styles in

He’s Just Not into You

movie

Q

: Qualifiers

SW

: Swear Words

Ip

: Interruptions

CT

: Controlling the Topics

CR

: Compound Requests

O

: Overlapping

VF

: Verbal Fillers

TQ

: Tag Question s

TD

: Talk Domination

Is

: Intensifiers

Qs

: Questions

S

: Silence

8. Scene 8

No. Speaker Conversational styles Case

Conversational styles

Q CT VF Is SW CR TQ Qs Ip O TD S

155. Gigi Did you forget something? 

156. Alex Yeah. I did. 

157. Gigi Really? What did you forget? 

158. Alex This.

159. Gigi You came all the way here - at 11 at night - to bring me back a promotional pen?

 160. Alex I thought I better come up with some really great

excuse to get over here. That how it's done, isn’t it?

  

(6)

77

No. Speaker Conversational styles Case

Conversational styles

Q CT VF Is SW CR TQ Qs Ip O TD S 162. Alex

Gigi

“Look, I can't stop thinking about you. I drive by your place. I call and hang up. I'm turning into….” “---(overlap)---Me.”

 

163. Alex “Yeah.”

164. Gigi “Well, a wise person once told me that if a guy wants to be with a girl, he will make it happen. No matter what.”

 

165. Alex “That’s true.”

166. Gigi “But when I was hurling my body onto yours, you did not seem to want to make it happen.”

167. Alex “Here's the thing about that: you were right. I've gotten so used to keeping myself at a safe distance from all these women, and having the power - that I didn't know what it felt like when I actually -fell - for one of them.”

 

169. Alex “I could do that stuff too.”

170. Gigi “But you didn't. And that same wise person told me that I am the rule. That I have to stop thinking that every guy will change - stop thinking that I will be the exception.”



Conversational styles and misunderstanding in cross-sex conversations in He`s Just Not That into You movie.

CONVERSATIONAL STYLES AND MISUNDERSTANDING

IN CROSS-SEX CONVERSATIONS

IN

HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU

MOVIE

CONVERSATIONAL STYLES AND MISUNDERSTANDING

IN CROSS-SEX CONVERSATIONS

IN

HE’S JUST NOT THAT INTO YOU

MOVIE

72

73

APPENDIX G

The Observation Checklist of Conversational styles in

He’s Just Not

That into You movie

Q

: Qualifiers

SW

: Swear Words

Ip

: Interruptions

CT

: Controlling the Topics

CR

: Compound Requests

O

: Overlapping

VF

: Verbal Fillers

TQ

: Tag Question s

TD

: Talk Domination

Is

: Intensifiers

Qs

: Questions

S

: Silence

7.

Scene 7

74

75

76

APPENDIX H

The Observation Checklist of Conversational styles in

He’s Just Not into You

movie

Q

: Qualifiers

SW

: Swear Words

Ip

: Interruptions

CT

: Controlling the Topics

CR

: Compound Requests

O

: Overlapping

VF

: Verbal Fillers

TQ

: Tag Question s

TD

: Talk Domination

Is

: Intensifiers

Qs

: Questions

S

: Silence

8.

Scene 8

77

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