WOMEN’S SPEECH FEATURES USED BY MAIN FEMALE CHARACTER IN GARY WINICK MOVIE: “LETTERS TO JULIET”.

WOMEN’S SPEECH FEATURES USED BY MAIN FEMALE CHARACTER
IN GARY WINICK MOVIE: “LETTERS TO JULIET”

THESIS
Submitted as Partial Fulfllment of the Requirement for the Sarjana Degree
of the English Departement Faculty of Arts and Humanities State Islamic
University of Sunan Ampel Surabaya

By:
Istikomah
Reg. Number: A83212132

ENGLISH DEPARTEMENT
FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES
STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY OF SUNAN AMPEL SURABAYA
2016

ABSTRACT
Istikomah, 2016. Women’s Speech Features Used by main female Character in
Gary Winick
Movie : “ Letters to Juliet “, English Letters and Language

Department Faculty of Humanities and Culture, The State Islamic
University of Sunan Ampel of Surabaya.
Advisor
Key Words

: Endaratno pilih Swasono, M.Pd
: Women’s language, Women’s Speech Features and Movie

In this study, the writer focused on finding any linguistic category used by
Shopia in the movie "Letters to Juliet" and the category of what is the most widely
used and the purpose of using these categories in the sentence. This research is a
descriptivequalitative research is conducted which aims to learn more about
speaking styles of women in the movie "Letters to Juliet". The data taken from the
sentence pronounced by the main female character in this movie. These sentences
are classified and analyzed by 10 (ten) linguistic category by Lakoff (1975) then
calculated the numbers to determine the most categories and explain the
conclusion.
The analysis shows that there is a sentences uttered by Shopia and classified
into 10 categories of language women, but in this research found eight of
women’s speech. There are: 7 (seven) lexical hedges or fillers, 2 (two) tag

questions, 1 (one) rising intonations, 4 (four) intensifiers, 1 (one) hypercorrect
grammar, 5 (five) superpolite forms, 1 (one) avoidance of strong swear word, 1
(one) emphatic stress spoken by the main character in the film "Letters to Juliet".
The last time the writer hopes further research can combine more branches of
linguistics from several experts and be able to define some more about the
character of the language of women. It would be better if other researchers were
able to compare the linguistic branches of several scientists who suggest about the
theory of the language used by women.

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ABSTRAK
Istikomah, 2016. Women’s Speech Features Used by main female Character in
Gary Winick
Movie : “ Letters to Juliet “, English Letters and Language
Department Faculty of Letter Humanities, State Islamic University
of Sunan Ampel Surabaya.
Advisor

Key Words

: Endaratno pilih Swasono,M.Pd
: Women’s language, Women’s Speech Features and Movie

Pada penelitian ini, penulis fokus untuk menemukan apa saja kategori
linguistik yang digunakan oleh Shopia pada film “ Letters to Juliet “ dan kategori
apa yang paling banyak digunakan serta tujuan menggunakan kategori tersebut di
dalam kalimat. Penelitian ini merupakan penelitin diskriptif kualitatif yang
bertujuan untuk lebih mendalami tentang gaya bicara wanita pada film “ Letters to
Juliet “. Data diambil dari kalimat yang diucapkan oleh pemeran utama di film ini.
Kalimat-kalimat tersebut diklasifikasi dan dianalisis berdasarkan 10 (sepuluh)
kategori linguistik oleh Lakoff (1975) kemudian dihitung jumlahnya untuk
mengetahui kategori terbanyak dan menjelaskannya pada kesimpulan.
Hasil analisa menunjukkan bahwa ada beberapa kalimat yang diucapkan oleh
Shopia dan diklasifikasi ke dalam 10 kategori bahasa wanita. Terdapat 7 (enam)
lexical hedges dan fillers, 2 (dua) tag questions, 1 (satu) rising intonations, 4
(empat) intensifiers, 1 (satu) hyper correct gramer, 5 (lima) superpolite forms, 1
(satu) avoidance of strong swear word, ,1 (satu) emphatic stress yang diucapkan
oleh pemeran utama dalam film “ Letters to Juliet “.

Terakhir kali penulis berharap peneliti selanjutnya dapat mengkombinasi lebih
banyak lagi cabang linguistik dari beberapa ahli serta mampu mendefinisikan
lebih dalam lagi tentang karakter bahasa wanita. Akan lebih baik lagi jika peneliti
lainnya mampu membandingkan cabang linguistik dari beberapa ilmuan yang
mengemukakan mengenai teori tentang bahasa yang digunakan oleh wanita.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Inside Cover Page .................................................................................................ii
Declaration ............................................................................................................iii
Dedication .............................................................................................................iv
Motto .....................................................................................................................vi
Thesis Advisor’s Approval Page...........................................................................vii
Thesis Exemaniner’s Approval Page ..................................................................viii
Acknowledgement.................................................................................................ix
Table Of Content...................................................................................................x
Abstract Abstrak....................................................................................................xi

Abstrak ..................................................................................................................xii
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION .....................................................................1
1.1 Background of the Study......................................................1
1.2 Statement of the Problem ......................................................6
1.3 Objective of the Study...........................................................6
1.4 Significance of the Study ......................................................6
1.5 Scope and Limitation ............................................................6
1.6 Definition of Key Terms .......................................................7
CHAPTER II : REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE ...................8
2.1 Sociolinguistic.......................................................................8
2.1.1 Social Factor ............................................................9
2.2 Language and Gender ...........................................................10
2.3 Women’s Language ..............................................................12

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2.4 Women’s Speech Features ....................................................13
2.4.1 Lexical Hedges or Fillers .............................................13
2.4.2 Tag Question ................................................................14
2.4.3 Rising Intonation on Declaratives ................................15

2.4.4 Empty Adjectives .........................................................15
2.4.5 Specialized vocabularies (Precise Color Terms) .........16
2.4.6 Intensifier .....................................................................16
2.4.7 Hypercorrect Grammar ................................................17
2.4.8 Superpolite Forms ........................................................17
2.4.9 Avoidance of Strong Swear Words..............................18
2.4.10 Emphatic Stress..........................................................18
2.5 Previous Studies.................................................................19
CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHOD........................................................24
3.1 Research Design...................................................................24
3.2 Subject of the research .........................................................24
3.3 Research Instrument..............................................................25
3.4 Data and Data Source............................................................25
3.5 Data Collection......................................................................25
3.6 Data Analysis ........................................................................26
CHAPTER IV : FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ........................................27
4.1 Findings.................................................................................27
4.2 Discussions............................................................................46

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CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTION..................................51
5.1 Conclusion .............................................................................51
5.2 Suggestion ..............................................................................52
REFERENCES....................................................................................................53
APPENDICES ....................................................................................................54

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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
This chapter consists of several points. First, background of the problems
describes the reason of selecting the title. Second, statements of the problems,
express some questions. Third, in the objective of the problem, the writer presents
the aim of the study based on the problems. Then, significance of the study
explains the usefulness of the research for the writer and the readers. Meanwhile,
scope and limitation of study determines the fields of the analysis. Finally,
definition of key terms contains some definitions related to the research.

1.1 Background of the study

Language is very important in our lives. Language can provides a variety of
ways of saying the same thing like addresing and greeting others, describing
things and paying comments (Holmes, 1992:3-4). Even we know that the
statement “language shows that nation” means that language can give a message
to the other in our society actually, like Wardhaugh said that a language is what
the members of a particular society speak (Wardhaugh, 1986:1). In general,
Language also can be defined by people’s education, at least some of people who
has high education can produce polite language. Other hand, Nasr (1980: 140)
says “Language does not simply mean of communicating information. It is also
very important in maintaining relationship with other people”. So that, languages
is very important for all people to communicate and for interacting to each other
in social group.

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In sociolinguistics, “Language also varies according to sex and occupations

(Wardhaugh : 1977: 219). The language of men differs subtly from that of
women. Lately some sociolinguists have found other features which reflect the
differences between women and men. They found that men and women have
different ways of speaking. Men and women have different language features
although they speak the same language. Women and men are significantly not
same in using language; they still have to respond each other in communication.
Communication can be defined as a devise used by women or men for making
connection to each other. It is used for conveying or sharing information among
people. So, woman and men languages have created within different characteristic
and also their language. The diversity is not only because gender, but there are
other things which influence it like stated to Wardaugh (2006:329-330), that for
both men and women, power and influence are interrelated with education, social
class, regional origin, and so on.
Women language is language that used by women in which shows their status
in community; women preserve the features of women language in the speech
community (Holmes 2001: 305). Women’s language features are several aspects
of speech difference between women and men which indicate the characteristic of
women’s speech. Woman as described by Hornby (1989) in Oxford Advanced
Leaner’s Dictionary is an adult female human being or female sex. There are ten
elements of speech features that women use, as identified by Robin Lakoff such as

lexical hedges or filler, tag question, rising intonation on declaratives, empthy

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adjective, precise color term, intensifier, hypercorrect grammar, super polite form,
avoidance of strong swear words and emphatic stress.
One of the languages that studying about women’s speech features for the
main female character of Sophie in “Letters to Juliet” movie by Gary Winick.
Sophie and Sophia are the same person. The main female in this movie focus to
the character. According to the movie, it showed that main actor is female where
she is talking with woman speech as her character. So, the writer will be to
analysis what kind of women’s language features in “Letters to Juliet” movie and
what are most women’s speech features used by Sophie in “Letters to Juliet”
movie. After research data in every dialogue, the writer can find which woman
language in character and we know the characteristic about style in their spoken.
First, the nobility women are high level so she speaks more politely than men, and
she keeps the attitude to communicate.
“Letters to Juliet” is one of the titles of movie. This movie is directed by Gary

Winick from a script by Jose Rivera and Tim Sullivan and it was release
theatrically in North America and other countries on May 14, 2010. As a
reflection of the real situation in the society, the writer wants to analyze women’s
speech features which found in one Gary Winick’s movie entitled “Letters to
Juliet”. It tells about the ambitions of main character, Sophie with the same kind
of brisk efficiency that its heroine brings to her job of magazine fact- checking but
its goals are so modest, so tiny, so timid that fulfillment is exactly what it does not
provide. First, though Sophie happens upon group of Italian women known as
Juliet’s secretaries, who gather the letters that lovelorn ladies from around the

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world have tucked between the stones of a wall under the most famous balcony in
Verona, opening their hearts to love’s great matyrn. Each patitioner receives a
reply and Sophie decides to answer a melancholy note that has been launguishing
there for half a century. Its author was Claire, British exchange student who was
supposed to meet a local beau named Lorenzo, but then succumbed to cold feet
and went to England. Now, lured by the response that Sophie has written, Claire is
back in Verona, along with a handsome blond granson named Charlie, whose
istant detestation of Sophie is the first sign of impending love. Claire is
determined to find her Lorenzo, and she Charlie and Sophie set out on a
meandering and picturesque road trip, encountering a series of codgers named
Lorenzo, each of which would be happy to be the right one.
Studies about women’s language features have been conducted in different
focuses. As Futika Permatasari (2010) entitled Women’s speech features used by
the characters of “Sex and The City”Movie. She used Lakoff’s theory to find her
research problem. She used qualitative method taken the data. She found eight
type women’s speech features in the dialogues. As Khoirul Umami Mazidah
(2013) entitled Women speech features use by character Margaret in the Iron
Lady Movie. She used Lakoff’s theory to find her research problem. She usesd
qualitative method taken the data. She showed that not all types of women’s
speech features occurred in the dialogues. There are only nine types women’s
speech features occurred in the dialogues. Third, Siti Dara Nirmala Aulya (2014)
entitled Woman Linguistic Feature Performed By Margaret Thatcher In The Film

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Iron Lady. She used qualitative method tahen the data. She found eight types
women’s peech features in the dialogue.
And the last research conducted Isni Al Rofi’ (2014) entitled Women’s Speech
features used by the main characters in “the Chronicles of Narnia: the lion, the
witch and the Wardrobe” Movie. He used Lakoff’s theory to find his research
problem and also he used qualitative method taken the data. He found nine types
of women’s speech features used by the main character’s utterances of the movie.
From previous studies that the writer found, all of them focused on movie.
They analyzed the dialogues on the movie or film on Tv series. Furthemore, the
result of their studies, they showed not all types of women’s linguistic features as
Robin Lakoff (1975) listed. Meanwhile, the writer analyzes the utterance which
used by female character in the movie entitled “Letters to Juliet”. The similarity
of the previous study and this thesis is analyzing the women’s speech features.
The writer believes that the previous study can be as reference of the writer to find
the features of women’s speech features used by female character in the “Letters
to Juliet” movie by Gary Winick , which is used method by comparing the
previous study and the writer’s study.
The writer chooses a tittle because the writer want to show for women in Gary
Winick entitled ”Letters to Juliet”, contains many valuable and profound
messages. The main reason why the writer chooses this movie is because of its
language, such as diction and some sentences which give more data to be
analyzed. Moreover, the writer believes that there are many phenomena of

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women’sspeech features can be found in ”Letters to Juliet” where society
influences the choice of utterance.

1.2 Statement of the Problems
Based on the background of this study, the questions of this study are
formulated as follows:
1. What kinds of women’s speech feature of main female character in
“Letters to Juliet” movie?
2. What is the most women’s speech feature used by Sophie in “Letters to
Juliet” movie?
1.3 Objective of study
Based on the statement problems above, the purposes of the study are
below:
1. To explain what kinds of women’s speech feature use of main female
character in “ Letters to Juliet “ movie
2. To explain what are the most women’s speech feature use of main female
character “Letters to Juliet “in movie.
1.4 Significance of the Study
The writer hopes that the result of this study can become a reference for
students to learn more about women’s speech feature. The writer also expects
that this study is able to give English students to find some descriptions and
information to be analyzed more deeply which is related to the women’s
speech feature study.

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1.5 Scope and Limitation
The scope of the study focuses on Sociolinguistic study. To avoid
broadening the study, the writer limits the study that focuses on ten types of
women’s speech features of Robin Lakoff theory such as lexical hedges or
filler, tag question, rising intonation on declaratives, empthy adjective, precise
color term, intensifier, hypercorrect grammar, super polite form, avoidance of
strong swear words and emphatic stress. The writer also limits her study on the
women’s speech features which are used by female character in Sophie in
“Letters to Juliet” movie. Sophie and Sophia are the same person.
1.6 Definition of Key Term
In this point, the writer presents definition of key terms which is going to
be used in doing the analysis.
a. Women language is language that used by women in which shows their
status in community; women preserve the features of women language in
the speech community (Holmes 2001: 305).
b. Women speech features are the language form of elements used by Lakoff,
such as: lexical hedges or filler, tag question, rising intonation on
declaratives, empthy adjective, precise color term, intensifier, hypercorrect
grammar, super polite form, avoidance of strong swear words and
emphatic stress. (Holmes 2001:2).
c. Movie: a recording of moving images that tells a story and that people
watch on a screen or television.
d. Main character: the main role in story.

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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE
In this chapter, the writer presents the two parts of review of related literature:
review of related theories and review of previous study. In review of the related
theories, the writer explains the theories that are closely related to this study. In
the second part, the writer reviews one of the previous studies which inspires and
motivates her in studying the research.
2.1 Sociolinguistic
As we know, sociolinguistic concerned with the language and society.
Sociolinguistics also emphasizes the study of the use of language by social groups
and the way people use it in different social situation. As Holmes states that
(2001:1):
Sociolinguistics studies the relationship between languages on society.
They are interested in exploring why we speak differently in different
social context and they are concerned with identifying the social functions
of language and the way it is used to convey social meaning.
From the statement above, the writer conclude that language has an important
role in society. People speak different language depend on their society. People
use language to show their feelings, opinions, or idea.
As Wardhaugh (2005) There are several possible relationships between
language and society. One is that social structure may either influence or
determine linguistic structure and/or behavior. Second possible relationship is
directly opposed to the first: linguistic structure and/or behavior may either
influence or determine social structure. Third possible relationship is that the
influence is bi-directional: language and society may influence each other.

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Trudgill (1974: 32) states that sociolinguistics is a part of linguistics which is
concerned with language as a social and cultural phenomenon.

2.1.1 Social factor
Language is strongly influenced by social factors. They are the participants or
the users of language: who are speaking and who they are speaking to; the setting
or social context of the interaction, which is related to its users: where they are
speaking; the topic, which deals with what is being talked about; and the function
of the interaction, which deals with why they are speaking (Holmes, 2001: 8).
2.1.1.1 The participant
Holmes (2001: 8) declares that “The participant is who is speaking and who
are they speaking to.” Participants are people who participate in speak events. It is
including addressee and addresser, sender and receiver, speaker and hearer.
2.1.1.2 Setting
According to the Holmes (2001:8) states, “The setting or social context of the
interaction is where are they speaking”. It means that setting is a place or location
where the participants are speaking includes school, home, etc.
2.1.1.3 Topic
Holmes (2001: 8) says, “The topic is what is being talked about”. It can be
education, politics, terrorist, financial problem, etc. For example, two female
university students hang out in food court together and have a chat. Their topic
can be discussing a thesis examination, gossiping their male friends, or checking
timeline of the Korean-star.

2.1.1.4 Function

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Holmes (2001: 259-260) offers a number of ways of categorizing the function
of speech. They are: expressive (to express the speaker’s feelings), directive (an
attempt to get someone to do something), referential (to provide information),
metalinguistic (to comment on language itself), poetic (focused on aesthetic
features of a language), and phatic (to express solidarity and empathy with
others). Function or goal of the interaction is the language being used for. It is
molded by the force of a complex social and cultural system (Clark and Clark,
1977: 515).

2.2 Language and Gender
Language which is used by society consist of two main languages, they are
men and women languages. Though they both use the same language to
communicate with other, but still there are some differences if it looked more
deeply, Holmes (1995:6) states that women tend to be more polite rather than
men. In general, the language they use tends to show positive politeness and
hospitality, also women’s language is more corcern about for not offending to
whom they talk to.
Gender differences in language are often one aspect of linguistic differences in
the society reflecting social status or power differences. Gender also influences in
language use. Penelope Eckert (2003:10), in her book entitled Language and
Gender describes the definition of gender. According to her, gender is the social
elaboration of biological sex whereas sex is biological categorization between
men and women based primarily on their reproductive potential. Eckert (2003)
also says that biological differences between men and women can determine
gender which can cause the difference in their capabilities and disposition. For
example, men are considered have higher testosterone, it causes that they are said

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to be more aggressive than women. In addition, dominance of men’s left-brain
also leads them to be more rational than women. Those biological differences can
cause gender dichotomy between men and women. As Pynton (1989: 4) states
“Gender is identification a feminine or masculine (social)”. It means that gender
refers to the social and cultural dimensions of being male or female. Most of
society operates in terms of two genders; masculine and feminine, and it is
tempting to treat the category of gender as a simple binary opposition.
Holmes (2006 : 6, in her book entitled Gendered Talk and Work) classfied
features of interactional styles which may index femininity and masculinity in
different social contexts based on extensive research on language and gender over
the last 30 years as summarize in the table below:
Table Index femininity and masculinity in different social contexts :
Feminine

Masculine

1. Facilitative

1. Competitive

2. Supportive feedback

2. Aggressive interruptions

3. Conciliatory

3. Confrontational

4. Indirect

4. Direct

5. Collaborative

5. Autonomous

6. Minor contribution (in public)

6. Dominates (public) talking time

7. Person / process – oriented

7. Task / outcome – oriented

8. Affectively oriented

8. Referentially oriented

2.3 Women’s Language
Woman as defined by Hornby (1995:1372), in Oxford Advance Learner’s
Dictionary, is adult female human being. The term woman is usually reserved for

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adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent,
whereas man is adult male human being or male person with the qualities of
strength, courage, etc.
From the definition above, we can say that man and woman are two different
creatures. As human beings, women have their own characteristics which men do
not have. Man and woman have different features which make them different in
several aspects. Physical appearance and voice quality are two things of women
and men differences which can be seen clearly. Mills (1995:197) says that the
important difference between men and women speech lays in their vocal track
resonances. Since male’s vocal tract tend to be larger than female’s vocal tract.

2.4 Women’s speech features
In analyzing the kinds of women’s speech features, the writer uses theories of
Lakoff as fundamental in working the analysis. Meanwhile Lakoff in Holmes
(2001: 286) states that:
Women speech features are the language form or elements used by Lakoff,
such as: lexical hedges or filler, tag question, rising intonation on declaratives,
empthy adjective, precise colour term, intensifier, hypercorrect grammar, super
polite form, avoidance of strong swear words and emphatic stress.
The writer considers that Lakoff’s theory of women’s speech features is
appropriate to be used as the fundamental theory. Lakoff’s study of women’s
language is widely influential study of language-use features.
2.4.1 Lexical Hedges or Filler
Lakoff argued that in women’s speech features, there are Lexical Hedges or
Filler which are often used such as “well”, “you know”, “kind/kinda”, “sort of”,
“you see”,etc. Holmes said that “Like” is also classified into hedge. It fuctions to
mitigate the force of utterance. The word “sort of” classified as hedge, while

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“well” and “you see” are categoized as “ meaning less particles” and assumed as
“pause fillers” such as uh, um, and ah. The features used by speaker when she
uncertain about what she said. In other hedges features are use of “I guess” and “I
think “ which use as prefacing declaration, while another is “I wonder” which
used to preface question. In addition, Lakoff argued that when women used those
hedges like a question intonation, it gives the impression that the speaker lacks
authority or does not know exactly what they are talking about.
2.4.2 Tag Question
Taq Question is kind of feature which is use by women more rather than man.
According to Lakoff, women often add Taq Question to statement. They do this
because they are less sure about themselves and their opinion. The syntactic rule
in taq question it self is that settled by the social context (as it can be seen in
society when one speaker wish addressee give respect each other).
Lakoff (1975:15) said that a tag in its usage as well as its syntactic shape is
midway between an outright statement and a yes-no Question : it is less assertive
than the former, but more confident than the letter for example:
a. “You will go at nine o’clock won’t you?”
This question asks about certainty or uncertainty to others that she will go at
nine o’clock. Holmes (2001: 288) states that tag question is more relevant to be
used by women than by men instead of the speaker can avoid committing
himself/herself and avoid conflict with the participant. A tag gives the addressee
leeway that does not straightly drive the addressee to go along with the views of
the speaker. Therefore, a tag question is a kind of polite statements that does not
force the hearer in approving the statements of the speaker.

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2.4.3 Rising intonation on declaratives
In women speech, this fiture is usually used. Women use this kind of fiture
when they lack of certainity to ward something which have been said. The
declarative function also as a statement seeking for confirmation from the
addressee. For example :
a. When will dinner be ready?
b. oh… around six o’clock …?
From the sentences above we can say that what is meant by b statement is that
if six o’clock is ok with a. Sentence in a is put in the position of having to provide
confirmation, and b sounds unsure. Here we find unwillingness to assert an
opinion carried to an extreme. The consequence is that this kind of speech patterns
are used to reflect something real about character and play a part of not taking a
woman seriously or trust her with the real responsibilities, since she cannot make
up her mind and is not sure of herself. Those features are probably part of general
fact that women’s speech sounds much more polite than men’s. One aspect of
politeness here is leaving a decision open, not imposing mind, views, or claims on
anyone else.
2.4.4 Empthy adjective
Empty Adjective is a group of adjective which are only used by the women
within their speech. Empty adjective also have their specific and literal meaning
and indicate the speaker’s approbation or admiration for something.
2.4.5 Precise colour term
Lakoff claims that “Women make far more precise discriminations in naming
colors than do men. Men fund the discussions about precise color terms are
amusing because they consider such a question trivial and irrelevant to the real

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15

world” (cited in Cameron, 1990:223). Technically speaking, women are more
specific in choosing the term of colors such as beige, ecru, aquamarine, lavender,
and maroon are the example of unremarkable word in a woman’s active
vocabulary, but those are absent for most men. When men say something in
precise color terms, other people might conclude he is imitating a woman
sarcastically or homosexual because possess by women.
2.4.6 Intensifier
Women use more intensifiers such as ‘so’, ‘very’, ‘quite’, and ‘just’ than men.
For example, I love him so much is commonly uttered by women. Lakoff in
Coates (2004: 13) supported and has a section on the intensifiers so she asserts
that so is more frequent in women’s language. Look at the following sentence:
a. I feel so unhappy!
b. That movie made me so sick!
Men seem to have the difficulty to use this construction when the sentence is
in unemotional condition or non-subjective without reference to the speaker
himself. Lakoff (cited in Cameron, 1990: 223) said that “Substituting an equative
like so for absolute superlative (like very, really, utterly) seems to be a way of
backing out of committing oneself strongly to an opinion, rather like tag
questions”.

2.4.7 Hypercorrect grammar
Women tend to use more formal syntax than men do and the way they
pronounce something is always closer to prestige norm. They always try to have
correct pronunciations. Hypercorrect grammar involves avoidance of coarse
language as means of more frequent apologizing and the usage of superpolite

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forms are additional features. In this instance, women speak as close to the British
standard as possible. Lakoff connects these features with each other since they all
come down to the fact that women are not supposed to talk rough or less polite
than men. (Norman 2006:8). In other words, they generally show greater
preference to speak formally than men in the same situation do, for example
consistent use of standard verb form.
2.4.8 Super polite form
Women tend to use more polite form than men. Stockwell (2002: 50) says that
women are more likely to use polite forms of register and indirectness. The
following phrases are regularly inserted to the sentences, such as:
a. Would you please…
b. I’d really appreciate it if…
c. Would you mind…
d. If you don’t mind… etc.
These kinds of sentences reinforce the notion that it is a request rather than an
order. This feature, superpolite forms, is favorite used by women. They use this
word if they want to ask for help or express their feeling.

2.4.9 Avoidance of strong swear words
Swear word is a negative word and generally used by men to express anger
and disappointed. Hughes (1991: 3) states that swear words are the obscenity
words which are used to swear and viewed as indecent and taboo in society. Men
are allowed to express stronger means than women because men have strong
position in the real world. The more strong and forceful someone expresses
opinions, the much likely he/she to be taken seriously. Therefore, men usually

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also have the ability to use strong particles like ‘shit’. ‘hell’, ‘damn’, and etc. It
means that swear words are used to insult, curse, denote the speaker has strong
emotion. However, women avoid swear word. Women usually use softer forms
such as “Oh, dear” or “Darn”. For Example:
a. Oh, dear, you broke my bike again.
b. Shit, you broke my bike again.
Those pair of sentence is syntactically identical. The differences are only in
the choice of the “meaningless” particle. People would classify the first sentence
as part of “women’s language”, and the second as “men’s language”, even women
are also able to use sentence b. As said by Lakoff (cited in Cameron, 1990: 225),
the language of the favored group, the group that holds the power, along with its
non-linguistic behavior, is generally adopted by the other group, not vice versa.
2.4.10 Emphatic Stress
Emphatic stress is an expression to show the admiration of person. It is used
when people see something amazing. Lakoff identifies the use of a question
intonation on sentence that is not question as a central she characterized as
women’s and powerless or weak. This question intonation has a high rising tone at
the end of the sentence (Eckert, 2003:174). Women tend to use words which are
used to emphasize the utterance or strengthen the meaning of an utterance. Mostly
of women use this expression in showing their amazement of thing. Women use
the word ‘so’, ‘such’, ‘very’ when they speak about appearance or performance.
They use euphemism to avoid strong swear word. Women also use high
intonation when they want to express their feeling. For example, “It was so
brilliant”, it means that they want to emphasize the meaning of utterance or
strengthen what they want to say. Women emphasize their utterance because they

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18

think that they will not be heard or paid attention due to the women’s lack of
confidence (Lakoff cited in Holmes, 1992:316).

2.4 Previous Study
In this part, there are some researches about women’s language features that
already done, many of them only focused on several language features that Robin
Lakoff listed.
The first thesis was conducted by Futika Permatasari(2010) from State Islamic
University of Maulana Malik Ibrahim Malang. She analyzed about women’s
speech features used by the characters of “Sex and The City” movie. She used
Lakoff’s theory to find her research problem. She used qualitative method. The
finding of her research showed that the characters of “Sex and the City”movie
used women’s speech features which reflect uncertainty and lack of confidence.
There were only eight types of women's speech features used in the dialogues,
such as lexical hedges or fillers, tag question, rising intonation on declaratives,
empty adjectives, intensifiers, superpolite forms, avoidance of strong swear
words, and emphatic stress. Two kinds of features which were not used by the
characters were specialized vocabularies and hypercorrect grammar.
Second, Khoirul Umami Mazidah (2013) from State University of Surabaya.
She analyzed about women’s speech features used by character Margaret in “The
Iron Lady‟ movie. She used Lakoff’s theory. She used qualitative method and she
found nine types of women’s speech feature that used by Margaret, that are lexical
hedges or fillers, tag question, risingintonation on declaratives, empty adjectives,
intensifier, hypercorrect grammar, superpolite forms, avoidance of strong swear
words, and emphatic stress. She did not find specialized vocabularies (precise
colors item) in her research. Margaret still has feminity side as women in

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19

Common as The Iron Lady and Woman Prime Minister. It found based on her
utterances that she uses her sentences correctly and will not damage her reputation
as a woman and A Prime Minister.
Third, Siti Dara Nirmala Aulya (2014) from Brawijaya University. She
analyzed about Woman Linguistic Feature Performed By Margaret Thatcher In
The Film Iron Lady. She used Lakoff’s theory. The linguistics feature of women
speech is one of the topics discussed in Sociolinguistics. In this study, the writer
concerns to find out the linguistic features of woman found in the film Iron Lady,
the mostly used linguistic features in the utterances produced by Margaret
Thatcher of the film Iron Lady, and the purpose of using these linguistic features.
This research is a descriptive qualitative as it means to gain understanding
about woman speech style in the film Iron Lady. The data were taken from the
utterances of the main character of this movie. The utterances were classified and
analyzed into 10 (ten) linguistic features by Lakoff (1975) then calculated all to
find out the mostly linguistic features used by Margaret Thatcher and drew it in
conclusion.
The result of analysis revealed that there were 114 utterances spoken by
Margaret Thatcher which can be classified into 8 (eight) woman’s linguistic
features. There were 20 lexical hedges and fillers, only 2 (two) tag questions, 8
(eight) rising intonations, 30 empthy adjectives, 33 intensifiers, 14 superpolite
forms, 3 (three) expression expressed avoidance of strong swear words, 4 (four)
emphatic stress spoken by the main character in the film Iron Lady.
The last is Isni Al Rofi’ (2014) from State University Sunan Ampel Surabaya.
He analyzed about Women’s Speech features used by the main characters in “the
Chronicles of Narnia: the lion, the witch and the Wardrobe” Movie. He used

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Lakoff’s theory to find his research problem and also he used qualitative method.
He found nine types of women’s speech features used by the main characters’
utterances of the movie.They are lexical hedges or filler, tag question, rising
intonation, empty adjective, intensifier, hypercorrect grammar, superpolite form,
avoidance of strong swear words, and emphatic stress.
The writer found that the type of women’s speech features which occurs most
frequently by the main characters in “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The
Witch and The Wardrobe” movie are lexical hedges or fillers and intensifier. It
was used by all main character for 26 times each type from 261 utterances and the
percentage was 31,3%. As Lakoff (cited in Holmes, 1992:316) claimed that
hedging devices explicitly signal lack of confidence. She claimed women use
hedging devices to express uncertainty, and they use intensifying devices to
persuade their addressee to take them seriously. So, the writer concluded that the
main characters of the movie can be categorized as people who might have a
tendency to be lack of self-confidence and uncertainty. They also use intensifier to
express their strong feeling about something. Besides, the writer concluded that
the least of women’s speech features are rising intonation and avoidance of strong
swear word with the percentage 1,2%. It shows that as a woman, the main
characters of the movie should keep their 68 attitude especially in the way they
are speaking. So, they have to use some kind of women’s speech features which
show their femininity and avoid using swear words. As a women, they tend to use
the softer form of strong swear words to keep her attitude and show her politeness.
From previous studies that the writer found, all of them focused on movie.
They analyzed the dialogues on the movie or film on Tv series. Furthemore, the
result of their studies, they showed not all types of women’s linguistic features as

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21

Robin Lakoff ( 1975) listed. Meanwhile, the writer analyzes the utterance which
used by female character in the movie entitled “Letters to Juliet”. The similarity
of the previous study and this thesis is analyzing the women’s speech features.The
writer believes that the previous study can be as reference of the writer to find the
features of women’s speech features used by female character in the “Letters to
Juliet” movie by Gary Winick, which is used method by comparing the previous
study and the writer’s study.

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CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHOD
This chapter discusses how this research was conducted. It consists of research
design, subject of the research, research instrument, data and data source, data
collection and data analysis.

3.1 Research Design
In analyzing women’s speech features that used by character Sophie in the
“letters to juliet”, qualitative research was used by the writer because it analyzed
the data descriptively based on Robin Lakoff’s theory of women speech features.
Qualitative research is corcerned with structures, pattern and how something is. In
qualitative research, the data is gotten from the form of words or sentences then
describing the phenomenon that found in the data. The using of qualitative
research can be involved the study used in variety of material and case study in
people’s live such as their personal experiences.

3.2 Subject of the research
The subjects of this research used utterance of Sophie in “letters to juliet”
movie. This research was also be analyzed using women’s speech feature which
applied in the subject.
3.3 Research Instrument
The research instrument in collecting the data was the writer herself who
actived and directly as the participant since the data of the research are in from of
utterance. The writer became an active reader to collect the data and continue
watched the movie and the last ways was analyzing the script and identifying

✁
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✂✄

character Sophie’s conversation into ten types of women’s speech features based
on Lakoff’s theory.

3.4 Data and Data Source
This research focused on the analysis of women’s speech features used by
Sophie in “letters to Juliet” movie. The writer downloaded the movie from
YouTube. Meanwhile, the data were the words, phrases, clauses and sentences
spoken by main character movie. The female character used women’s speech
features in selected setting in this movie.

3.5 Data Collection
After obtaining the subjects of the study, the writer collected the data through
the process as follow:
First, the writer watched “letters to Juliet” Movie from beginning to the
ending and tried to understand the story and especially the characteristic of
character Sophie as the main character in this movie. Second, the writer looked for
the script and read it carefully to get a better comprehension of the dialogues
which were in the form sentence, clauses, or words that used by character Sophie.
Third, after founding the dialogues of character Sophie, the writer identified it into
ten types of women’s speech features such as tag question, lexical hedges or filler,
avoidance of strong swear words, hypercorrect grammar, super polite forms,
precise colour term, empty adjectives, intensifiers, rising intonation, and emphatic
stress. The last, after identifying the data, writer noted the utterances to find out
the reason of the using those types based on social factor.

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☎6

3.6 Data Analysis
The writer used some steps to analyze the data used Lakoff’s theory of ten
types of women’s speech features. First was understanding the script of the movie
to know the meaning of the utterances that used by character Sophie in some
settings in movie. Second was classifying the utterances into ten types of
women’s speech features which were lexical hedges or fillers, tag question, rising
intonation on declaratives, ‘emp