Example: 48 Well, if one leaves ones tea on the wobbly tab.
2.3.2 Women‟s language
Lakoff 1975:53 proposed that female‟s speech characterized by the linguistic feature
which she sees as comprising “women‟s language”, such as the following:
1.3.2.1 The use of hedges of various kinds
Lakoff started that female‟s speech seems in general to contain more instance of well, y‟ know, and so forth ; words that convey the sense that the speaker is uncertain about what he or
she is saying, or cannot vouch for the accuracy of the statement. There words are fully legitimate when, in fact, this is the case for the example, if o
ne says, “Ethan is sorta tall,” meaning he‟s neither really impressively tall nor actually short, but rather middling, though
toward the tall side: 5 feet 9 rather than 6 feet 5, say. A hedge shows up anyway; the speaker is perfectly certain of the truth
of the assertion and there‟s no danger of offense. So, these hedges do have their uses when one really has legitimate need for protection, or for deference if we are
afraid that by making a certain statement we are overstepping our rights, but uses to excess, hedges, like question intonation, give the impression that the speaker lacks of authority or
doesn‟t know what he‟s talking about.
Example: 49 you know, sort of, well, you see.
1.3.2.2 The use of tag question
The tag question is a syntactic device listed by Lakoff which may express uncertainty. A tag, in its usage as well as its syntactic shape in English is midway between an outright
statement and a yes-no question. Female is uncertain about something, and indicates this with a tag which signals doubt about what she asserting. The tag appears anyway as an apology for
amking an assertion at all. Anyone may do this if she lacks self-confidence, as everyone does in some situations. It is also precisely because they are socialized to believe that asserting
themselves strongly isn‟t nice or ladylike, or even feminine. Lakoff in Holmes 1992: 318 said that tag question may be functioned to express affective maning as facilitate or positive
politeness device and to soften a directive or criticism and as confrontational and coercive devices.
Example: 50 she is very nice, is not she ?
1.3.2.3 The use of rising or question intonation on declaratives
Kategori