4: 26 Serena
Let me guess: You told everyone Eric is just visiting grandpa in Rhode Island.
Lily Your aunt Carol in Miami.
Serena So, youre actually hiding him. He tries to take his own life.
Now, youre worried it will cost you Mom Of The Year
, aren’t you?
Lily Serena, youve been gone. Doing who knows what with god
knows who... Serena
I told you, boarding school was not like that. No. 4EP1S08P05-P06
Datum
4: 26 shows that the tag question appears in Serena’s line, youre worried it will cost you Mom Of The Year
, aren’t you? Serena was sure that
her mother wa s more worried about the title of ‘Mom of the Year’ than hiding
Serena’s brother from society. Although her mother tried to explain the true reason of hiding Serena’s brother from society, Serena did not believe it.
4: 27 Blair No, I wasnt. I hate shoots. You should have Alessandra
Ambrosio, Not an amateur. Eleanor
Youll have dinner with me, won’t you? Steak frites and
crepes at caf. I will see you later.
No. 42EP4S19P106 The tag question occurs in Eleanor’s line. The situation was she asked
about dinner to Blair, her daughter. She asked youll have dinner with me, won’t
you? She hoped that after a little problem with telling the replacement of model
for the photo shoot, Blair would agree with the dinner and would not get mad at her.
d. Requests
Requests rank fourth after tag questions. It occurs four times from 127 occurrences. It means that the percentage is 3.15 of 100. This category is in
the same sense as a polite command and suggests something to be done as a favor to the speaker. The four data of requests are presented and described as follows.
4: 28 Blair I dont even know why you went to boarding school to
begin with. Do you know how it felt, calling your house when you didnt show up at school and having your mom
say: Serena didnt tell you that she moved to Connetticut?
Serena I just... I needed to get away from everything.
Please just trust me.
No. 7EP1S18P12 The speech feature of gossip
in Serena’s line is a request, please just trust me
. Although Blair was very confused and did not know the reason of Serena’s
decision to get away from everything in Manhattan, she wanted Blair to trust her about the decision. Both of them were best friends for each other, so the decision
was very disadvantageous for them. 4: 29 Blair
I dont want to see Serena at school and she better not show up at brunch today.
Katy Youre really mad at Serena.
Isabel Please don’t get that mad at us.
No. 11EP2S06P35 The request form is in
Isabel’s line. It is written that please don’t get that mad at us.
The bold sentence shows that Isabel requests to Blair. The situation was that she hoped Blair would never be very mad at Isabel and Katy. In this
situation, Blair was very mad with Serena as she did not want to see Serena at school and at the brunch. Thus, Isabel had the request to Blair.
4: 30 Blair Well,
don’t ever try to do what Serena did, please Katy
No, never. Isabel
Course not. No. 12EP2S06P35
Datum 4: 30 shows a request form in Blair’s line. Blair says to Katy,
don’t ever try to do what Serena did, please She requests to her friend to never
do what Serena did. Blair means that she hoped her friend never cheated with her boyfriend like what Serena did.
4: 31 Lily Whats going on with you and Blair?
Serena Mom, please
All I wanna do is just finish high school in peace and go away to a state with people who dont know
who I am and just start over, okay? [Serena pick up her schoolbag and walks out the door. Lily walks to the
door.]
No. 27EP3S11P70
Datum 4: 31 contains a request form that starts with the word please in
Serena’s lines. Serena hoped that she could finish high school in peace and went away to a state with people who did not know who she was. Moreover, she
wanted to start over her life. She begged to be understood by her mother and not to say anything about Blair who was in a problem with Serena.
e. Requisite Information
This speech feature of gossip is a peculiar sentence intonation-pattern that has the form of a declarative answer to a question, but has the rising inflection
typical of yes-no question, as well as especially hesitant. By using requisite information, the speaker wants to give the listener the decision in the speech. As
clearly seen in Table 3, this speech feature
of gossip never appears since the
female characters do not show that they the speakers are the only one who has the requisite information when someone the listeners were seeing confirmation.
The condition in Gossip Girl Season 1 is that the one seeing confirmation the listener already has the information and the speaker does not want to give the
listener the desicion in the speech, so there is no data that shows this speech feature of gossip. Moreover, the female characters use tag questions instead of
requisite information when they feel hesitant.
3. Functions of Gossip among Female Characters in Gossip Girl Season 1
There are five functions of gossip among female characters in Gossip Girl Season 1. They are to provide information, to give entertainment, to enhance
friendship, to influence others and to make social comparison. Below are the detailed explanation of each category.
a. To provide information
To provide information as one of functions of gossip comes first in the rank. It occurs 20 times out of 45 data and its percentage is 44.44. This function
of gossip occurs as an information change. It makes the speaker and the listener of the gossip able to learn cultural and social world. Moreover, it is as a map of their
social environment. The example of this function of gossip is presented in the explanation below.
