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to a specific color term. She did not use precise color term because she knew it referred to social inequity for her position.
Social inequity could be seen in Hart’s statement when she had a conversation with her friend, Matthews.
[23] What could possibly motivate anybody to enter a beauty pageant? So join the Marines, its like feminism never even happened.
Here, Hart reveals the matter of social inequity between men and women. Her statement assumes about feminism which never happens. In her statement, she is
really aware of social inequity that exists. The society which Hart interacted with influences her opinion towards social inequity.
2. Women in the Profession
The next point to explain the factor of the changes of women’s language from femininity into masculinity in Hart’s speech is women in the profession. Generally,
different workplaces can be characterized as masculine and feminine in different respects. Women can interact at times and in ways that contribute to the perception of
a workplace as more masculine. According to Trudgill 1972, all languages change through time and it is a characteristic of all human languages. They also change in
different ways in different places. Based on McElhinny’s study of the interactional styles of male and female
police officers in Pittsburgh offer a particular striking example of such a setting. McElhinny 1995
notes that “in moving into a masculine workplace, female police officers do not adopt an empathetic and warm interactional style associated with
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many traditionally workplace e.g., nursing, secretarial work, social work, as might be expec
ted; rather they appropriate a masculine identity in dealing with the public” p.317. Moreover, McElhiny argues that women in the police force adopted a
“bureaucratic” interactional style, a rational, emotionless, and efficient interactional style associated with masculinity. The police women draws upon an emotionless and
hyper-rational interaction style associated with male and masculine workplace. Hart as an FBI agent tried not to show her feminine side. She always showed
her masculine side when she behaved and delivered a speech. According to Sankoff and Laberge 1978, the linguistic market refers to how a person’s job in the speech
community influences language use. Freed 1996 points o
ut “an experimental setting puts women and men in symmetrical social relations, performing identical tasks, elicited in the women and
men the same kind of talk” p.317. This shows that women who are being a part with men in the same social relations motivate women to show their same language. They
believe that they could face discrimination in the workplace. As shown in this example [24],
[24] Mr. Melling: Are you hungry? Hart: Yeah.
Based on this case, Hart responds to Mr. Melling’s question with yeah instead of yes.
For women, it would be always yes, never yeah. Tannen 1990 states that women are always well-spoken and polite. Yeah is a response that is usually used by
men but here Hart also adopts it.
